Jason is a Mississippi native who first discovered his passion for activism and community service while living in Memphis, Tennessee. He served as a board member for Mid-South Pride, the largest Pride festival in the Mid-South, and was an active volunteer for OUTMemphis and the Tennessee Equality Project. The drive and passion of his fellow queer Memphians as they continue to fight against harmful local and state government policies inspired Jason never to give up.

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He moved to Seattle in 2011 and found a large, vibrant LGBTQ+ community that welcomed him. Jason’s belief in the importance of service was only reinforced by his newfound love of Seattle; he recognized that there is much work to be done despite our increasing visibility and acceptance. Jason first volunteered for Peer Washington during the Seattle Area Support Groups days, and he firmly believes in the Peer mission and peer counseling as a vital tool. He is also a proud member of the Seattle leather community, serving as the Seattle Leather Service Corps president and vice president of the Washington State Leather Organization. He is a systems engineer for REI and lives in Columbia City with his fiancé.  

Carol Burton was a peer group facilitator at Peer Seattle for 5 years, running Daring Divorced Divas, a support group for women who had ended a same-sex relationship. The group ended its run in 2013. Her work facilitating that group led to her continued involvement and commitment to Peer Seattle, becoming a board member in May 2013. Carol graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 1993. She is employed by Premera Blue Cross doing insurance defense work. Carol is also active in the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA), Northwest Chapter. Her partner has HD. She is the proud parent of a daughter who attends college in Los Angeles. And she loves her dog, despite the fact that her dog sometimes eats the couch cushions. 

Mark is originally from Long Beach, California, and attended UC Irvine where he double-majored in biology and chemistry. After continuing studies at UC San Diego, and working as an enzyme biochemist in La Jolla, he moved to San Francisco where he attended dental school at UCSF. It was in school in 1982 that he first encountered AIDS, not yet even named: a patient brought in by his oral medicine instructor with a baffling and unexplainable case of KS. It was also in The City that he met his husband Charles and together they moved to Seattle in 1989. They live in the same little Ballard house they bought that year, complete with picket fence! Mark practices dentistry in downtown Seattle. A member of a peer-to-peer group himself, he has benefited from several activities at Peer Seattle and wants to ensure that others in our community can do likewise. He joined the board in December 2014. 

Jon is a Pacific Northwest native. He grew up in Bellingham and moved to Seattle for his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington. After graduation, Jon moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and stayed there for 14 years. While there, he returned to school and graduated with his MBA from San Francisco State University. Work, family, friends, and love of the PNW brought him back to Seattle in 2014. 

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Volunteer time and community service have always been important to Jon. While attending UW, he volunteered with Lambert House, and in San Francisco, he volunteered with several nonprofit organizations. He's humbled to be on the Board of Directors at Peer Washington and a steward of our peer emotional support and development services. In his free time, he balances activity through sports and exercise with regular visits to eat out at all the fantastic restaurants in Seattle. 

Michael has been a member of the Peer Seattle Board of Directors since January of 2016. He spent his formative years in West Saint Louis County, Missouri and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1989. He moved to Seattle in 2012 for a job at Amazon Web Services and is currently employed as a software engineer by a 20-year-old Seattle-based technology firm located in the International District. He has attended 12-step groups at Peer Seattle continuously since relocating to Seattle. His hobbies include building computers, fitness, hiking and listening to music. 

Roberta was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She moved to Seattle in 1992 for a reporting job at KING 5 (NBC) news. She spent the next two decades covering major news events in Washington state. While working as a full-time reporter and raising three kids with her partner, her alcoholism was activated.  She was lucky enough to find treatment and is now in long-term recovery.

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Roberta is passionate about helping disenfranchised people and others to get help and is especially focused on meeting people where they are at. She believes deeply in the peer-to-peer model and has seen its benefits work on many levels. She has a unique skill set to help tell stories and get messages across to a wide audience. She enjoys spending time with her son, twin daughters, and husband. (but secretly, her favorite is her dog, Abby.)

coming soon