BOARD CHAIR, Position 5

Camp Sherman native Marie Sheahan “Bear” Brown joined the Black Butte School Board in 2013. She has loved BBS ever since she and her identical twin attended the early grades here. Their mom was principal and upper-grades teacher. The family moved when her parents bought a weekly newspaper in Central Washington, where Bear worked in various capacities. Writing and editing are in her genes, although she didn’t pursue a journalism career. She now serves as editor of ALERT Camp Sherman, started by seven local women during the January 2017 blizzard. She earned a BA in French at the University of Washington and an accounting certificate at Heald Business College in Sacramento. She carries a little toolbox of handy gifts and skills, applied as needed. While working in Catholic hospitals, she felt drawn to religious life. She embarked upon an intense many-years formation process, including courses at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and an 18-month novitiate in Laredo, Texas. In July 2010, she professed religious vows as a Sister of the Metolius at the Camp Sherman Community Hall. Bear loves to serve in her beloved home community. A member of the Chinook Indian Nation, she also serves her ancestral community.

BOARD VICE CHAIR, Position 2

School Board member, Karen Lajoy, is a native Oregonian. She was born in Portland, raised in Salem and received her BS degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from the University of Oregon in Eugene. Karen moved to Seattle, Washington after college to pursue a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology at the University of Washington. She worked two years after finishing her Master’s degree in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the UW. She continued working part time at UW while pursuing and completing her PhD in Rehabilitation Medicine from the UW. Karen helped develop three rehabilitation programs in the Seattle area for traumatically brain injured individuals during her 20 years there. She returned to Portland to be closer to family in 1996 and worked remotely for a company that managed patient care for catastrophically injured individuals. Shortly after returning to Portland, Karen started dating a family friend from her childhood, Tim Bickler, whom she married in 1998. Karen had loved the outdoors since her college years. Her love for the Camp Sherman area developed from her relationship with Tim. Together they spent time camping, hiking and enjoying the area; an area Tim had spent his entire life enjoying. They decided to make Camp Sherman their retirement destination. They have owned a home here since 2013 and became full time residents in 2019 after Karen’s retirement. It is an honor to be part of the Black Butte school which she has admired since starting to come to the area in the late 1990s.

DIRECTOR, Position 3

Siobhan Gray moved to Camp Sherman in 2018 and has found home after many years of searching. Together with her husband Gary Gray they are raising their girls in this amazing forest by the river. She is dedicated to the school and building a strong interconnected community. Her passion is raising her three girls who attend Black Butte School to be the best version of themselves. In her free time she enjoys spending daily time in nature mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, hiking or just being. She enjoys literature and is an avid reader and aspiring writer. She has a guitar that she will sometime learn to play and a blank canvas on her easel that she will someday paint. Her day job is an Emergency Physician.

DIRECTOR, Position 1

Jenni moved to Camp Sherman from the Portland metro area in 2020, and her grandchildren attend BBS. As a coach helping smart, successful women stop overthinking and rebuild self-confidence, she’s particularly interested in social and emotional learning as an integral part of education. A former educator at OHSU and University of Portland, she enjoys the benefits of the forest every day on foot, a bike, or snowshoes. 

Please contact Principal Sharp if you are interested in joining the Black Butte School District Board of Directors!