Board of Directors
Katy Reed Preston, Executive Director
Katy has spent the past two decades working with struggling readers. She attended Ithaca College in New York, earning a degree in Speech and Language Disorders. Having grown up in Oregon, she returned to her hometown to acquire a Masters in Education degree at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
She worked for ten years as a Teacher of the Deaf for Northwest Regional Education Service District. The majority of her work was focused on deaf and hard-of-hearing children between the ages of 3-5. She is the author of Metaphor Magic, written to help children understand and analyze metaphors, and is the co-author for a very popular storybook-based curriculum, Happily Ever After: Using Storybooks in Preschool Settings.
After leaving the workforce to raise her family, she began volunteering in the public school her two daughters attended. Working on a daily basis with struggling readers, she volunteered hundreds of hours to help these children achieve literacy skills. This experience led her to the development of The Clackamas Bookshelf, with the hope of bridging the learning gap she saw between children who had access to books at home, and those who did not. Her goal is to increase book ownership throughout the entire county.
One of her favorite books is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, because it illustrates how each person has a gift to offer the world, and that one just needs figure out what the gift is.
Amanda Adams
Amanda, the Board Secretary, has worked in education for over 15 years, first as a preschool director, and now as the Program Coordinator for afterschool programs in the North Clackamas School District. She holds a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Concordia University. She learned about The Clackamas Bookshelf through her work at Wichita Center.
Family is a big focus of her life. She has fun watching her son’s basketball games and her partner’s soccer games on weekends, and they all love playing Monopoly on game night.
An avid book lover since childhood, Amanda grew up reading the Goosebumps series, and now enjoys reading books that are being turned into movies. She finds herself drawn to the kids section at bookstores and loves leading children’s activities that connect to a story.
Beth Kersens
Beth, the Board Early Childhood Liaison, has worked as an early childhood professional for over 20 years. For most of her career she has served the Healthy Families Program, a home-visiting, parent education program focused on early childhood relational health.
Currently she works as an Early Childhood Intervention Specialist for the Clackamas Education Service District, supporting families with children from birth to age three who experience developmental delays and disabilities. She coaches parents as their children's first and best teachers, helping them develop daily routines that su
As a child she enjoyed Robert McCloskey's books. She fondly remembers sitting on the floor of the Hollywood Library flipping through Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, and One Morning in Maine.
Brandy Reid
Brandy, the Board Volunteer Coordinator, has been a flight attendant for 25 years. She has a degree in Business from Seattle Pacific University. She has been a long time school volunteer and a Girl Scout troop leader. She was introduced to The Clackamas Bookshelf by volunteering with another nonprofit.
She has been an avid reader her whole life. Her childhood favorites were Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. As an adult, she enjoys reading classics, new fiction and cozy mysteries. As the mom of three college-age daughters, a fond memory is when the girls were old enough to read aloud to her at bed time.
Leslie Robinette
Leslie, the Board President, has been a communications professional for more than 23 years, serving the Gladstone, North Clackamas, and Oregon City school districts and the Bureau of Land Management. She holds a degree in English from the University of Oregon.
As a volunteer, she has served the Gladstone Food Pantry, Rotary, and the Gladstone Community Festival. Besides The Clackamas Bookshelf, Leslie now volunteers with Friends of Wichita Center, Indivisible, and the Gladstone Kids Clothes Closet. She has two grown sons.
Leslie’s love of books began early, and childhood favorites included Harriet the Spy, Little Women, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins. A former employee of Powell’s Books, she is the founding mother of a Book Group that met for 25 years.
Nohemi Saldaña
Nohemi, the Board's Latino Family Liaison, has worked in education for many years. Currently she serves as the Administrative Assistant at Kraxberger Middle School, where The Clackamas Bookshelf is located.
She is an experienced leader, having served on both her church Board and as Middle School Track Coach.
"Growing up I wasn't a good reader, and always felt embarrassed to read out loud," she says. "Our work giving books to children gives them the resources to practice at their level and improve, so they don't have to go through what I did."
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Erika Spooner
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Erika, the Board Treasurer, has been a partner and graphic designer at Creative Abandon for over 20 years. She has worked with clients in many industries including high tech, food manufacturing, employee benefits, and financial services.
Before having a family, Erika spent several years volunteering for non-profits in the local sailing community. When her children started elementary school, she focused her efforts on supporting their education by helping in the classroom, chairing fundraising events, and serving on the parent organization board in a variety of capacities.
She loves books and was thrilled when her boys started reading on their own for pleasure for the first time. When they were small, one of her favorites to read aloud was Are You My Mother?.
