WSRA Leadership

Interested in joining our board? Learn more here.

Executive Officers

Joel Kohlstedt, President | Waste Management

Joel is a Recycling Education Project Manager for Waste Management. He manages recycling education campaigns throughout Washington State focused on increasing recycling and decreasing contamination through innovative programs and projects. He is passionate about conducting research and creating data-driven campaigns, producing out-of-the-box strategies to engage residents, and optimizing program performance. Joel has worked in the recycling industry for over six years, supporting cities throughout the Puget Sound and Oregon in increasing recycling through business and multifamily outreach, community presentations and local recycling campaigns. Joel is a graduate of the University of Washington with a major in Environmental Studies. He combines his passion for education and sustainability by creating educational programming that will ultimately help to reduce our environmental impact. Joel enjoys the outdoors, biking, snowboarding and camping.

Hannah Scholes, Vice President | King County, Solid Waste Division

Hannah is a Policy Analyst for the King County Solid Waste Division. She supports policy and projects related to product stewardship, recycling, and circular economy. She is passionate about environmental justice and ensuring programs and policies benefit all community members. Prior to her work at King County she managed education and outreach for Waste Management and served as an environmental technician for Peace Corps Paraguay. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Systems from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington. In her free time, you’ll find Hannah outside hiking, biking, skiing or just goofing off at the park with her dog.

Kris Major, Secretary | City of Spokane, Solid Waste Department

Kris Major is the Education Coordinator for the City of Spokane’s Solid Waste Department.  She has worked over 25 years as an informal educator for both public and non-profit organizations in Idaho and Washington states.  As an Education Coordinator for Spokane, she works with all ages and audiences teaching about waste reduction, recycling, re-use, and composting. She coordinates the Master Composter/Recycler program and its volunteers who conduct community outreach on waste reduction throughout the county. In 2016, The Washington State Recycling Association honored Kris by naming her its Individual Recycler of the Year. She has been a WSRA member since 2010 and has not missed a conference since starting her job with the city that year.

Carla Johnson, Assist. Secretary | Municipal Contract Administrator Republic Services

Carla Johnson is the Municipal Contract Administrator with Republic Services where she has worked since 2014. In her role, she works closely with city and county staff on waste diversion programs and provides community recycling outreach to a variety of audiences.  With a background in marketing and communication, Carla has helped design outreach campaigns and recycling education.  She has completed the Master Recyclers and Composting program and Certificates for public speaking thru Toastmasters.  Her previous experience was with One Redmond (the Redmond Chamber of Commerce) and international relocation real estate services.  In her free time, Carla stays active teaching skiing, snowmobiling, and camping with her family and two dogs.

Rick Vahl, Treasurer| LeMay, Inc / Waste Connections

Rick Vahl has worked alongside great teams at Waste Connections since 2012. His experience started in Alaska but then opportunities in California took him back to the “lower 48”. With a variety of Hauling and Transfer Station experience he was able to join the management team of LeMay, Pierce County Refuse in 2019. Working as a team to provide the safest and most customer focused services possible is what drives him to continuously improve. While balancing his career, he spends time with his lovely wife Melody and their 2 daughters Emerald (8) and Eden (5). Born and raised in Portland, OR makes the PNW feel like home where one of their family mottos comes to life – “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear”.

Cyndi Holloway, Assist. Treasurer | Waste Connections

Cyndi has lived in Vancouver, WA for the past 28 years. She is married to Marty, a retired Commander for the Vancouver City Police Department. They have three children, Chad (27), Taylor (22) and Hayden (21). Cyndi holds a Bachelor of Science in Business degree from the University of Washington. Her background is in event planning and hospitality sales, before joining Waste Connections she was the Executive Director for the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver and prior to the Heathman, she sold Las Vegas experience for Caesars Entertainment for over 8 years. Cyndi’s passions include Community, Friends/Family and Travel, but she is also very committed to improving her golf game.

Kris Major is the Education Coordinator for the City of Spokane’s Solid Waste Department.  She has worked over 25 years as an informal educator for both public and non-profit organizations in Idaho and Washington states.  As an Education Coordinator for Spokane, she works with all ages and audiences teaching about waste reduction, recycling, re-use, and composting. She coordinates the Master Composter/Recycler program and its volunteers who conduct community outreach on waste reduction throughout the county. In 2016, The Washington State Recycling Association honored Kris by naming her its Individual Recycler of the Year. She has been a WSRA member since 2010 and has not missed a conference since starting her job with the city that year.

Board Members

Michelle Mulrony | Klickitat County Solid Waste

Michelle Mulrony joined the Klickitat County Solid Waste Department as the Recycling Coordinator in March of 2020. She had spent the previous 10 years in the Outdoor Recreation field and received her Bachelor of Science in Recreation Management from Northern Arizona University. Her passion for the outdoors led her into the field of recycling and waste reduction which contribute to a cleaner and long-lasting environment that all citizens can enjoy. At Klickitat County Solid Waste, Michelle coordinates programs that focus on the 5-R’s, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, and Recycle. Outside of work, Michelle enjoys spending time on her hobby farm with all of her animals, kayaking, fishing, and camping.

Preston Peck | City of Tacoma, Solid Waste Division

Preston Peck is the Recycle Reset Project Lead at City of Tacoma’s Solid Waste Management Division and was responsible for conducting citywide community engagement to determine the future of the residential curbside recycling program in the wake of China’s National Sword Policy. Preston also leads the division’s policy efforts by identifying local, state, and federal policies’ impacts on municipal haulers and through representing the City of Tacoma on the Northwest Product Stewardship Council’s Steering Committee and in the U.S. Plastics Pact. Originally from Alabama, Preston has called Washington his home since 2018 and loves the numerous outdoor activities the state has to offer like skiing, backpacking, and swimming. When not at work, he can usually be found cooking, attempting to garden or play guitar, or literally herding he and his wife’s two cats, Franky and Daisy.

Ryan Jackman | DTG Recycle

Ryan Jackman was born in Bellevue, WA, and grew up on Bainbridge Island. He has had a long career in sales and marketing, including retail and business to business. He has worked in the furniture industry, sales of hardware and software, the automotive finance industry, and most recently was an account manager for Sonsray Machinery, selling CASE Construction equipment and heavy machinery to construction companies in the Puget Sound before being recruited to work as the business development manager at DTG Recycle.

Shortly thereafter he was promoted to Director of Marketing, before being asked to start two new divisions from the ground up, portable restrooms, and sweeper trucks.

Ryan was promoted to Chief Growth Officer (CGO) at DTG Recycle, and has an excellent working knowledge of many aspects of the recycling business, including customer needs and challenges, end markets, processing capabilities, trucking and transportation, and employee and customer engagement. He is very excited to be a part of the great work that the WSRA is doing, and is looking forward to doing his best to make a meaningful contribution to the organization however he can.

Karen Hultgren | Pierce County Planning & Public Works

Karen is a Solid Waste Recycling Analyst in the Sustainable Resources Division of Pierce County Planning and Public Works. She has worked in the recycling industry for over 10 years on residential, municipal and school-based recycling, waste reduction and composting programs in both Colorado and Washington, including the past 5 years with Pierce County. Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts from American University and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado Boulder – Leeds School of Business. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and daughter (11) and their two rescue dogs. Originally from New Mexico, Karen is continuously amazed by the verdancy of the PNW and is often found outside on adventures with her family enjoying the spectacular combination of mountains and water. In the past few years Karen has also developed a bit of an obsession with spotting orcas in the waters around Tacoma.

Brianna Treat | Climate Pledge Arena

Brianna Treat is a life-long sustainability advocate with a decades spanning career focusing on large scale waste reduction projects, corporate ESG reporting (Environmental, Social, Governance), green building certifications/sustainability implementations and carbon accounting.

Upon graduating with a degree in Sustainability from the University of Oklahoma, Brianna started her career in Baltimore, MD where she got her hands dirty as a waste reduction specialist (or as she likes to joke: ‘professional trash talker’) for Johns Hopkins University, as well as a few notable sports venues in the area.

After a few years of her direct impact work with materials and waste management in Baltimore, Brianna found a new challenge as the lead Sustainability Consultant for JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM). Here she developed key sustainability/Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting skills that assisted in providing JPMAM with their annual GRI reporting and GRESB submissions.

Through this, and through championing sustainability reporting on a building level, Brianna became interested in Green Building Certifications such as LEED, WELL, and TRUE. She took another leap to work for a tight-knit consulting firm out of Atlanta that was at the forefront of green building certifications, and it was here that her love for sustainability and sports aligned. Brianna was the lead consultant on certifying the first zero waste NBA game in the world. This achievement brought her previous work full circle to her waste management roots and began to highlight the concept that sports, and venues are pillars of strength and change in communities; a concept that Brianna wanted to keep pursuing.

It was through all her past experiences that have now led her to her dream job at the Climate Pledge Arena and with the Seattle Kraken. As Manager of Sustainability for the Climate Pledge Arena & the Seattle Kraken, Brianna Treat has embedded environmental sustainability across both organizations. She has developed and implemented a multitude of sustainability initiatives onsite, tracking all operational carbon at the Arena and assisting in achieving the Arenas 95% waste diversion goal. Each piece of her past has built her skillset to now ensure that the Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken maintain their commitments to the Climate Pledge.

Carolyn Bowie | Washington State Department of Ecology

Bio coming soon!

Logan Harvey | Recology

Logan Harvey is a long term environmental activist and avid promoter of waste diversion and at home sustainable practices. Prior to a move up to the Pacific North West where he serves as Recology King County’s Government Relations Manager, Logan worked for Recology Sonoma Marin as a Waste Zero specialist and served 2 terms as Mayor of the City of Sonoma where he used is position to raise the local minimum wage, develop and affordable housing trust fund, and ban the sale of Styrofoam in the city.

Interested in Joining Our Board?

A packet of information about serving on the WSRA board is HERE. Please reach out to WSRA Staff at recycle@wsra.net if you have questions or want more information.