WSRA Leadership

Megan Smothers, Executive Director

Megan joined the staff of WSRA in March 2019 as the Program Director. Megan has worked in customer service and non-profits her entire career. She has experience in event planning and management. Megan has been a volunteer, team captain, and staff for nonprofit associations. She has helped recruit volunteers and has been accountable for significant income goals, volunteer committee development, mission delivery, and advocacy.

Megan is a born and raised Washingtonian. In her free time, Megan is an avid animal lover who enjoys supporting local rescues, listening to country music, going to baseball games, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.

Contact Megan Smothers

Ron Jones, President | City of Olympia

Ron is a Senior Program Specialist with the City of Olympia’s Waste ReSources Utility where he’s worked since 1998. He manages the City’s residential and multi-family recycling education and outreach programs, and works on utility planning and site plan review. Ron has been actively involved with initiatives to improve recycling, both internally and externally. He led the City’s change to automated collection and single-stream (2003), adding food scraps to curbside yard waste (2008), and designing an award-winning grass-cycling campaign (2014). He was also part of SW Washington’s Commingled Recycling Improvement Project Team (2009-2012) and the Washington Multi-family Recycling Study Group (2012-2013). Ron has a BA with an emphasis is sustainable business and organizational leadership from The Evergreen State College. He balances his passion for waste and recycling with time spent cycling, kayaking, running, hiking and improving his photography.

Alli Kingfisher, Vice President | WA State Dept. of Ecology 

Alli Kingfisher is a Materials Management and Sustainability Specialist with the Washington Department of Ecology where she has worked since 2002. She primarily works on sustainability issues related to our waste stream. She has a MS in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. She is a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor, a LEED AP and a skilled facilitator and graphic recorder. Alli also currently serves on the board of the Building Material Reuse Association. In 2010, she was recognized by Building Design + Construction Magazine as a recipient of their Top 40 Under 40 Award as a leader in the construction industry. In 2009, Alli worked on earthquake resistant sustainable demonstration homes in the earthquake-devastated region surrounding Chengdu, China.

Tanya Gray, Treasurer | City of Vancouver

Tanya is a Solid Waste Supervisor with the City of Vancouver Solid Waste Services and started her career with the city 17 years ago. Tanya has previously been involved with AOR, EmpowerUp, and the Magenta Theater Company. She looks forward to getting more involved with the Membership and finance committees as well as helping to organize the annual WSRA conference.

Melanie Case, Assistant Treasurer | Lewis County, Solid Waste

Melanie has been a member of WSRA since she started her career in solid was in 1994, attending her first conference the following year. Melanie is excited to be joining the Board, and has served on the fun committee as well as helping organize the live and silent auction items, ice-breaker activities, and so much more. Melanie has attended over 20 WSRA conferences and attended coutless WRED events.

Elizabeth Szorad, Secretary | Recology

Elizabeth has been a WSRA member since 2014. She has attended several WRED events and has had an active role within the conference planning committee for the last few years. She has been a speaker at the WSRA conference for the last three years. Elizabeth brings over 7 years of industry experience, where she specialized in public education/outreach, communication, project/program management, contact management, and community and government affairs.

Jenna McInnis |  City of Kirkland

Jenna is the Recycling Coordinator for the City of Kirkland. Jenna previously worked with the King County Housing Authority. She has been in WSRA for the past 3 or 4 years including championing two WRED events, Public Space Recycling in 2014 and LightRecycle in 2015. Jenna greatly values the networking and resources that WSRA has been able to offer and looks forward to serving the association through its leadership team. Jenna is chairing the Programs committee.

Heather Church | WA Dept. of Ecology

Heather joined the Washington State Department of Ecology in 2018 as the Eastern Washington Recycling Specialist. She works with municipal partners throughout Central and Eastern Washington to address current issues, seek out opportunities, build relationships, and develop outreach and education materials to enhance Washington’s recycling programs. Heather has been involved with WSRA since she started in the solid waste management field and is excited to be a part of an organization that so actively works to advance waste reduction practices and policies around the state. She looks forward to working on the WRED Committee and Conference Committee where she can lend her strengths in networking and building relationships. When she’s not working on Recycling, she’s a lover of the sun, gardening, general outdoor activity, cooking, and an avid animal lover with a bad habit of bringing home the blind, three legged, and/or toothless critters.

Cyndi Holloway | 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 | 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.

Pete Moe | Orcas Recycling Services

Pete has been the director of a rural non-profit solid waste management company for five years, with five years before that as a board member. They  currently operate a transfer station and a 5,000 square foot reuse store. Pete has extensive experience working with County government, boards and committees. Pete also brings over a decade of experience in non-profit management.

Joel Kohlstedt | 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.

Steve Wulf | Sunshine Disposal and Recycling

Steve has over twenty seven years of professional experience in the Solid Waste Industry. He has developed, designed, managed, operated and constructed municipal solid waste landfills, transfer stations, recycling systems and hauling companies throughout Montana, North Idaho and Eastern Washington. Steve has a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Montana State University. Associates of Science degree from Montana School of Mineral Science and Technology. Steve has been working with Sunshine Disposal and Recycling, as a Region Manager since 2011.

Carla Johnson | 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.