Leadership
Antonia Jindrich | Co-Executive Director
Antonia grew up exploring the redwood forests and crawfish-filled creeks of an idyllic Northern California town. She was surprised to find herself passionate not just about protecting and restoring natural areas, but by the task of creating effective organization and fundraising solutions to support that work. She brings over a decade of non-profit administration and fundraising experience to Mid Sound, having previously worked for Washington Environmental Council and Snow Leopard Trust. Her diverse background includes helping coordinate the Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant process for the Stillaguamish and Snohomish watersheds. She also assisted Shared Strategy for Puget Sound in its work to develop the first Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration proposal to the legislature, when working as a consultant for Evergreen Funding Consultants. She joined Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group in 2014.
Tracy Banaszynski | Co-Executive Director
Tracy fell in love with salmon in 2015 while feeding the chum fry with her young son at the Carkeek Park Imprint Pond in Seattle and now cannot imagine that salmon have not always swum around in her heart. She engages in volunteer environmental advocacy and community habitat restoration in the North Lake Washington area and uses her seat on the City of Kenmore Planning Commission to advocate for salmon-friendly land use and transportation policy. She serves on the boards of Sno-King Watershed Council and People for an Environmentally Responsible Kenmore and on the King County Parks Levy Oversight Board. She holds a a B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale University. Tracy grew up in the Midwest and lived on the East Coast before moving to the Pacific Northwest—truly home—in 2001. She joined Mid Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group in 2021.
Program & Project Managers
Amani Moyer-Ali | Restoration Project Manager
Amani joined Mid Sound in 2021 to assist in implementing riparian restoration projects and to help conduct community outreach. A lifelong marine biology enthusiast, Amani learned the importance and beauty of freshwater ecosystems during her time studying environmental science in the UW Bothell wetlands and collecting benthic macroinvertebrate samples for King County. Amani also honed her communication and community engagement skills working for EnviroIssues. She is very excited to contribute to enhancing salmon habitat in the place she grew up and to hopefully inspire others to love and care for our local streams and native plants through volunteer events and educational materials. Amani is looking forward to seeing communities come together to pull blackberries, plant trees, and create a better future for the salmon and people who live here.
Erik Rigaux | Restoration Project Manager
Erik Rigaux grew up fascinated by the woods of his backyard in Maryland. He knew he wanted a career where he could create a tangible impact on local environments, so he went to UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources to study conservation and forestry. He has slowly been making his way north ever since. He spent six months living out of his tent as a timber marker in California, and spent some time in Oregon creating GIS maps to model inventory stands for 100-year land use plans. Wanting to connect more with local communities, Erik joined Mid Sound Fisheries in 2021 as a crew lead spearheading their Summer Opportunity Youth Initiative Program. While he believes that Blue Crab will always be superior to Dungeness, he’s willing to concede that the beauty of Washington State is unmatched, and he is so excited to be here.
Lisa Reynolds | West Sound Project Manager
A seed of the Santa Cruz mountains, Lisa breathes better on two wheels, amongst big trees & cold water. At home in the Puget Sound now for some 20 years - in North Kitsap for nearly a decade - Lisa’s made connecting people to place a way of life. Whether designing opportunities for connection where corners converge in an urban neighborhood, or where streams meet the meet Sound, it’s the critters and communities at the edge and intersection that inspire her work and her study. The salmon have long been both muse & mentor, so it was with great joy & purpose that Lisa joined Mid Sound in 2022. Lisa lives with her husband, her young shepherd Bean, their rescue pig Rooty, and 23 chickens on a small permaculture farm in Indianola.
Torren Valdez | Shore Friendly Program Manager
Torren gained a deep appreciation for nature while growing up in the deserts and pine forests of Arizona and the rivers of southeastern Oklahoma. He attended Arizona state University where he studied sustainable ecology and sustainable energy before working for the State of Arizona as a Water Resources Specialist. In 2017, he said goodbye to the sunny deserts of Arizona and moved to western Washington. Since then, Torren has worked as a Water Quality Grants Manager for the State of Washington and a Water Resources Planner for Thurston County. He is thrilled to be the new Shore Friendly Program Manager for Mid Sound and for the opportunity to work with landowners and our regional partners to improve and protect forage fish and salmon habitat in the Puget Sound.
Education & Outreach
Peggy Lee | Education and Outreach Coordinator
Peggy is passionate about the health of our rivers, salmon and killer whales that are vital to our culture and communities. Peggy has taught in the K-12+ system for over a decade, but has also worked for the Puyallup Tribe (5+ years as a Water Quality Technician, Biologist II counting juvenile salmon on our White River and Puyallup River smolt traps, and teaching at her tribal school, Chief Leschi). She also worked for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region (9 years) and the Pacific Islands Regional Office as an Education and Outreach Coordinator and Communications Specialist. She is excited to work with teachers and students with our Salmon in Schools Program for some of our elementary schools, help older students/teachers gain stream restoration experience, but more importantly be stewards of our lands and waters. Peggy looks forward to reaching out to our communities, stakeholders, and partners to inspire them to better understand our watershed issues and work towards a goal of protecting our resources.
Amy Cirio | Stewardship and Education Specialist
The path that has brought Amy to Mid Sound has been full of people who have helped her understand nature and how to better care for it. It began in St. Louis, Missouri playing among trees, creeks, and rivers with her family. Those fundamental experiences carried her to College where she studied biology at Lindenwood University and discovered ecological restoration. She then began volunteering on Saturdays to restore Missouri woodlands and prairies. Wanting deeper knowledge about restoration brought her to Washington in 2019 where she served 2 AmeriCorps terms with EarthCorps learning how to be a better steward of our land and community. After EarthCorps she discovered her love for environmental education and had the honor of working for 2 seasons with the Environmental Science Center. She couldn’t be happier to be at Mid Sound as the Stewardship and Education Specialist so she can continue inspiring young people to fall in love with nature and helping volunteer stewards have fun, meaningful events!
Molly Bidwell | Stewardship Coordinator
Molly became the Mid Sound Stewardship Coordinator in 2023 and she is excited to support the West Sammamish River Trail Revegetation Project and run restoration work party events for community volunteers. Originally from the Midwest, Molly has always been fascinated by the natural world and knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in protecting wildlife. She grew her interests in species conservation and habitat restoration while earning her Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Molly moved to Washington in 2021 to gain experience in marine ecosystems and has spent the last two years growing her skills in salmon restoration, pollution prevention, and community engagement with organizations including King Conservation District, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, and the Seattle Aquarium. She is a current graduate student in the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs where she will be studying the intersections of marine science and policy and conducting thesis research on juvenile Chinook salmon in the Stillaguamish River.
Operations
Piper Hanson | Operations & Projects Coordinator
Piper is a desert kid who grew up in the foothills of the rocky mountains, the salty shores of the east coast, the flavorful southern bayou, and the frigid northeastern winters. Equipped with a degree in Urban Sociology, she moved to the PNW where she found herself thrown into the beautiful chaos of local community events and festivals. After over a decade producing events, she wound up knee deep in urban streams, studying the impact of stormwater on Pacific salmon. She never would have guessed that a salmon would be the one to capture her heart so fully, and she began working with volunteer organizations in the Seattle-area focusing on salmon education and habitat restoration projects. A recent graduate with a MA in Conservation Biology, she has been dreaming of combining her love of people and cities with actionable steps for local conservation. After 14 years as a freelancer, Piper is over the moon to be on the Mid Sound team doing just that.