Editor & Board
Western Friend is published by the Friends Bulletin Corporation, an independent 501 (c)(3) non-profit established jointly by Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain Yearly Meetings. While Western Friend is the official publication of these three Yearly Meetings, the opinions expressed within the magazine or on this website are those of the authors, not of the Meetings.
Friends Bulletin Corporation’s Board of Directors is comprised of three members each from the three Yearly Meetings. The board meets three times a year, rotating between the regions of the Yearly Meetings. Meetings are typically hosted by a local Friends Meeting, and local Friends are more than encouraged to spend time with the board and staff!
Western Friend Board, May 2011
Western Friend Staff
Kathy Hyzy is the editor and sole staff for Western Friend magazine. A Quaker for more than half her life, she has an abiding interest in sustaining and increasing the connections among Friends everywhere. She is a member of Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and has long been an active participant in North Pacific Yearly Meeting.
Building cross-generational bridges among Friends is also a longstanding interest for Kathy. She has worked with the middle school group at Multnomah, served as an advisor and Friendly Adult Presence (FAP) for Junior Friends (high school), and led efforts to create opportunities for youth and adults to get to know one another through NPYM’s ad-hoc Committee on Intergenerational Communication.
Prior to beginning her service as editor in June of 2008, Kathy spent nearly a decade working for various environmental non-profit organizations, often in communications. She holds an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and remains passionate about bringing people in step with the planet. As a volunteer naturalist with Metro, she delights in showing elementary school kids the wild wonders of the world.
In 2005, Kathy attended the World Gathering of Young Friends as a representative from North Pacific Yearly Meeting. She has also participated in the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women’s Theological Conference and a number of other gatherings that seek to encompass the theological diversity found in the Religious Society of Friends.
Kathy also enjoys gardening, hiking, photography, reading, singing, and spending time with her friends.
Meet the Board
Pacific Yearly Meeting (California, Nevada, Hawai’i, Guatemala, Mexico City)
SANDY FARLEY is a member of Palo Alto Meeting in Pacific YM. As an ESL teacher, she is intimately acquainted with and amused by the quirks of the English language. She has served as recording clerk for several Friends organizations including her monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting. She has served on the board of Quaker Earthcare Witness [when it was FCUN] She is the principal author and illustrator of Earthcare for Children. She is a storyteller and essayist whose writings have appeared in Friends Journal and Friends Bulletin.
JIM MANGIS
MARY ANN PERCY began attending Matinecock Monthly Meeting (NYYM) in 1986 and became a member of Lloyd Harbor MM in 1991, moving to Westbury MM when Lloyd Harbor MM was laid down. Since moving to Southern California in 1999, she has been a member of La Jolla MM. Mary Ann has served on the board of Friends Committee on Unity With Nature (now Quaker Earthcare Witness), as Clerk of Southern California Quarterly Meeting, as recording clerk for that body as well as her MM, and on many committees of her Yearly, Quarterly and Monthly Meetings. After a number of other varied and interesting careers, she currently works as a hospice chaplain; In addition to the intensity of the 1:1 encounter, Mary Ann loves the “soapbox” and giving presentations on Advance Care Planning (aka “Death Panels”!), Elder – and End of Life – Care, or whatever anyone wishes to listen to! Mary Ann has 2 wonderful daughters, now 15 and 18, and enjoys many outdoor activities including backpacking, rowing, birding, tennis, gardening, as well as listening to music and playing classical piano.
North Pacific Yearly Meeting (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana)
JONATHAN BROWN is a member of University Friends Meeting and an attender at South Seattle Preparative Meeting. In addition to the board of Western Friend, he was recently appointed to the NPYM Steering Committee; this reflects his interest in increasing his meeting’s exposure to and involvement in the wider world of Western unprogrammed Friends. He has served on various committees of his meeting, as well as on the boards of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the Friends Committee on Washington (State) Public Policy. He works as a computer programmer. He is married (spiritually, but not yet legally) and has two young sons.
JESSICA MANLY BUCCIARELLI is a member of Bridge City Friends Meeting in her hometown, Portland, Oregon. She is a past member of Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting (Berkeley, California) and Orange Grove Monthly Meeting (Pasadena, California). Her current or past associations with Friends organizations include Earlham School of Religion, Quaker Lesbian Conference, Pastoral Care Newsletter and Ben Lomond Quaker Center. Currently employed by Portland’s transit agency, Jessica has in the past worked for herself, for small nonprofits and for a university. Her career involves publications, communication and organization development.
PAUL CHRISTIANSEN attended his first Friends meeting at age two weeks and reportedly slept through it. Raised in and still attending Eastside Friends Meeting outside Seattle, he’s also attended Earlham College (Class of ’06), was part of NPYM’s Youth Committee for two years, and served as Recording Clerk of the NPYM Young Adult Friends for three years. He writes when the madness strikes him and has had work in several Quaker publications.
Intermountain Yearly Meeting (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, bits of Texas)
JERRY PETERSON
SOLOMON SMILACK has transcribed spiritual stories for publication in Western Friend and supported Kathy Hyzy during her Spiritual Storytelling workshop at Multnomah Meeting in November of 2009. His prior service included serving a two-year term as Clerk of Senior Young Friends at IMYM, from 1998-2001;- these two years marked IMYM’s transition back to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM, from Durango, CO. Solomon currently works with Denver Asset Building Coalition, a non-profit organization providing free financial services to low-income families in Denver. He attends Mountain View Meeting.
CINDY YURTH is a member of Logan Monthly Meeting in northern Utah. She currently lives in Chinle, Arizona but finds herself most commonly worshiping in Durango, Colorado. Such is life in the Four Corners. She has been a professional journalist for 31 years, with brief stints in VISTA, the Peace Corps, a Catholic mission and driving a shuttle bus in Antarctica. She currently mans the Tséyi’ (Canyon de Chelly) Bureau for the Navajo Times. She and her husband, high school music teacher Eric Swanson, live in teacher housing with their four permo-pets and generally one or two rescued strays they’re trying to find homes for. In her spare time she is president of the Blackhat Humane Society (www.rezdog.petfinder.org) and plays fiddle in her folk/bluegrass band, The Chainsaw Bears.
Our History
Friends Bulletin Corporation’s Board of Directors is comprised of three members each from the three Yearly Meetings. The board meets three times a year, rotating between the regions of the Yearly Meetings. Meetings are typically hosted by a local Friends Meeting, and local Friends are more than encouraged to spend time with the board and staff!
Our Mission
Western Friend is published by the Friends Bulletin Corporation, an independent 501 (c)(3) non-profit established jointly by Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain Yearly Meetings. While Western Friend is the official publication of these three Yearly Meetings, the opinions expressed within the magazine or on this website are those of the authors, not of the Meetings.
Friends Bulletin Corporation’s Board of Directors is comprised of three members each from the three Yearly Meetings. The board meets three times a year, rotating between the regions of the Yearly Meetings. Meetings are typically hosted by a local Friends Meeting, and local Friends are more than encouraged to spend time with the board and staff!