Blue Sky Minds
Meet The Team
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Maria Hines
Founder/Director
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Carolyn Marquart
BSM President
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Beth Mondzac
BSM Secretary
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Jess Kuzma
BSM Treasurer
Maria Hines | Founder/Director
Chef Maria Hines is a resident of Okanogan. In the state of Washington, she has over 20 years of successful partnerships with multiple local farmers, ranchers, chefs, restaurateurs, fishers, food distribution companies, academia, government, and nonprofits. These are all beginning-to-end users who are engaged with the food ecosystem.
Maria has been a chef/entrepreneur for 20 years. She was the chef/owner of Tilth, a certified organic restaurant, in Seattle from 2006-2020.
She won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest in 2009, won on Iron Chef in 2010, was chosen for the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 under 40 award: making an impact on business and community, as well as the Women of Influence award from Puget Sound Business Journal. Check out her YouTube channel for native recipes.
Maria is on the advisory team for L.I.G.H.T. Foundation, was a long-time board member of the Washington Farmland Trust, was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a member of the American Chef Corps, represented the US at the World Expo that focused on United to Feed the Planet, a chef advisor to the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Action Network advocacy program, held sustainable food system salons with the assistance of the James Beard Foundation to educate local chefs on current food system landscapes, works on food security issues, nutrition education, and more.
Beth Mondzac | BSM Secretary
Beth Mondzac grew up in Wisconsin eating food from local farms and her family's garden. Beth appreciates the role food plays in health and wellbeing. Beth believes everyone should have the opportunity to eat locally grown and raised nutritious food. Beth is grateful to farmers who are integral to our food system and believes farmers are the ones planting the seeds of change for our food, our health and our environment.
Beth served on the board of Washington Farmland Trust (WFT) from 2012-2023. WFT is a non-profit that protects and stewards threatened farmland across Washington State and works to keep land in production by making it accessible to a new generation of farmers. Beth served as both Vice- President and President of the Board during her tenure with WFT. In addition to serving on the WFT board Beth supports our local food system through community-supported agriculture programs, volunteering with food banks and shopping at the local farmers market.
Carolyn Marquart | BSM President
Carolyn started coming to the Methow Valley in the 1990s and is happy to be a full time resident of Winthrop. She has immersed herself in the community, enjoying the great outdoors as well as becoming involved in several other nonprofit organizations involving conservation, wildlife and outdoor recreation. She values the ideals of Blue Sky Minds in promoting community through sustainable agriculture and access to healthy food in Okanogan county and is excited to be a part of the organization.
Carolyn began her hands-on conservation work as a volunteer in Papua New Guinea for the Woodland Park Zoo Tree Kangaroo Conservation Project which works on integrating conservation with the communities to promote health, agriculture and education. She is a mostly-retired sports medicine physician and was a sports fellowship director for more than 10 years. She has a BA in Neuroscience from Oberlin College and an MD from the University of Michigan.
Jess Kuzma | BSM Treasurer
One of the many things Jessica Kuzma appreciates about living in the Methow is the opportunity to eat "close to home."
The diversity of plant and animal foods produced in Okanogan county make it possible to get almost everything local. As a BSM board member, Jessica is excited to learn more about the economic, cultural, and historic significance of foods native to this region, and to support the growing network of residents and local food producers.
What Jessica brings to BSM is a graduate degree in nutrition sciences, her many years as a dietitian and research scientist, and she approaches health and chronic disease prevention with a dietary pattern centered around fresh, minimally processed foods.
Jessica Kuzma lives in Twisp, WA.
Elk Steaks with Foraged Elderberry Sauce!
Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines
Make a delicious meal of grilled game and wild berry sauce! In this video, Chef Maria Hines visits her friend Bobbie Mollenberg to learn about indigenous foods from the lands where she lives and cooks an incredible meal that has been hunted and foraged locally. Maria is joined by Bobbi and her family, as well as other members of the Colville Confederated Tribes of the Pacific Northwest, to share stories, time on the water in a dug-out canoe, and of course, COOKING and good food. Food is Fuel. Food is medicine. Food is our connection to each other and the land.