2023 – 2023 Executive Board
Chair – Della Graham
Della Graham is a Pacific Northwest native and newcomer to the political scene. Her professional background includes over 15 years of experience as a geologist and project manager specializing in environmental and disaster resilience.
Della’s start with Clark County politics began in March 2021 when she became the campaign coordinator for the Kim Harless for Vancouver City Council campaign. She was able to utilize her years of project management expertise to coordinate all aspects of what became a successful campaign. Della currently serves as the Secretary for Clark County Democratic Women.
Della is passionate about making politics more accessible, especially to marginalized populations that have historically been pushed out of politics. Her goals are to see a more diverse pool of political candidates running successful campaigns, and to disrupt the standard of career politicians who vote with political parties and have no regard for the community they represent. She believes a fresh perspective is imperative for the success of society and that the perspective most needed in our community is that of the socioeconomically disadvantaged, racial and ethnic minorities, and women.
Della is a registered geologist with extensive experience performing and managing environmental and resilience projects. Within the last five years, she has been working on whole-community resilience efforts related to small- and large-scale disasters in the Pacific Northwest. This work has included developing and implementing strategic plans that facilitated community resilience through partnerships with community stakeholders, local leaders, and private citizens. While working for Haley & Aldrich and its trademark, Salus Resilience, she also worked as the resilience and community preparedness coordinator for Columbia County Department of Emergency Management in Oregon where she led community outreach and education efforts for 4 years. Della later became the recovery coordinator, leading the recovery efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic in Columbia County before leaving her role in late 2020.
Della provides technical expertise related to a wide variety of resilience projects, most notably the expected effects of a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake on infrastructure. Recent work has included resiliency projects with Multnomah County on the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub and the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization Emergency Transportation Route Update and Provision for Emergency Drinking Water. Della’s multiple years of experience as a project manager allow her to manage all aspects of resilience projects from the initial proposal efforts, contracting, project work and management planning, subcontract management, financial management, and project closeout. In addition to her resilience work, she has over 15 years of environmental experience throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her environmental experience includes managing projects involving environmental investigation and remediation, hazardous materials such as asbestos, stormwater, air emissions, and environmental due diligence.
Della is currently part of the education committee for the Leadership Clark County program and is a certified Project Management Professional.
Vice Chair 1 – Wendy Bukoski
Wendy Bukoski was born and raised in Honolulu, HI. Her professional background includes over a decade of nonprofit executive management experience in operations, development, and community relations. As a founding member of a local & nationwide grassroots group, her passion for serving marginalized populations inspired her to lead and train teams of volunteers to conduct emergency search and rescue for those experiencing houselessness in both Oregon and Washington during severe weather systems.
After moving to Vancouver, WA, she made KATU news headlines as an Everyday Hero for her impact with low-income families and others experiencing homelessness while managing operations at FISH of Vancouver, a local food bank and pantry. During her tenure at FISH, she spearheaded the COVID emergency response protocol in early March of 2020 with a select panel of medical professionals and administration, which was eventually duplicated in most pantries and food banks in the state of Washington.
Shortly after, she was asked to join the executive management team at Friends of the Children – SW Washington in operations and development to help launch the chapter. There, she helped build a successful fundraising event that generated over $500,000 in revenue.
Wendy currently serves as a director for Rotary Club of Three Creeks Foundation, a thrilling role-reversal from being on the other side of the table in the nonprofit world. Her goal is to provide a platform with less barriers for local nonprofits to apply for funding.
As a newcomer to the political arena, Wendy hopes to learn about opportunities to bring more diversity, equity and inclusion to the playing field with a fresh lens, in order to co-create an active and vibrant Clark County that reflects the true interests of its constituents.
Besides going on adventures with her friends and family, she is an enthusiastic, yet vertically challenged snowboarder and enjoys kickboxing, wild mushroom hunting and watching the sun set back home on the islands of Hawai’i. She and her husband of 16 years have two beautiful children who attend the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics.
Vice Chair 2 – Katie Davidson
Katie Davidson was born in Bellevue, Washington. Her grandmother and parents were teachers. Katie knew from a very early age she wanted to be a teacher. Another passion of Katie’s was spring board diving. She began competitive diving at the age of seven and went on to place 9th at the WIAA State Competition her sophomore year and senior year of high school. She was captain of her swim and dive team and her gymnastics team.
Upon graduating high school, Katie attended Bellevue Community College and coached diving for the Hazen High School Girls Swim and Dive team. After graduating with her AA, Katie attended Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, where she met her soon to be husband Zach. Zach was raised here in Vancouver. After Zach graduated, he asked Katie if she would be interested in finishing her education at Washington State University in Vancouver and she said yes. Katie graduated the following year with a degree in Humanities. A year later Zach and Katie got married and Katie graduated with her Masters in Teaching from WSU Vancouver. Katie accepted a job teaching Humanities at Pacific
Middle School in Evergreen Public Schools. Katie taught seven years at Pacific Middle school and loved it. Katie’s family instilled in her the importance of education, helping the community, and those ideals are what inspire her to want to keep learning, improving, and seeking ways to
help.
Katie and Zach have two children, a daughter age nine and a son age five. Katie decided to
take some time off from teaching after the birth of their second child. During her time as a stay
at home mom she was able to teach Art Discovery in her daughter’s classroom, and teach
Vacation Bible School during the summer. Katie has long been interested in politics. Katie’s
friend and colleague, Monica, was aware of Katie’s desire to learn more about local politics and
offered her the opportunity to be her Campaign Manager. In fact, Katie managed two of
Monica’s races for the 49th Legislative District. Katie loved the work and getting to know people
in the community who were passionate about similar issues. With Katie’s years of teaching, her
experience campaign managing, and her kids heading to school in the fall, Katie decided it was
time to get back to work. Katie is excited about her LCC journey and is excited be inspired to
make this community for kids and working families an even better place, and to continue to build
on what is already happening here, that makes our community a wonderful place to live! When
Katie has free time, you will most likely find her outdoors. She loves skiing, hiking, swimming,
playing ball with her children, and a cup of coffee and a good book!
Treasurer – Kate Fernald
Kate Fernald is a third generation Vancouverite who is passionate about revolutionizing systemic policies to create a more equitable world for all. Favorite topics include: equitable homeownership opportunities, increasing survivors’ access to SANE exams, public education reform, and public safety.
Kate uses numbers to tell stories as a Research and Fiscal Analyst for the Washington State Department of Commerce. During the legislative session, Kate writes local government fiscal notes where she analyzes the proposed bill’s impacts on cities’ or counties’ expenditures or revenues. Essentially, her job is to identify unfunded legislation. She is the lead analyst in the following policy subjects: homelessness, elections, domestic violence and juvenile justice.
When the Legislature is not in session, Kate is the project manager for assigned legislative reports where she’s worked on how to increase survivors’ access to forensic exams by increasing statewide training for forensic nurse examiners, and how to bring school board members’ compensation into equitable parity with other elected officials that share similar duties and responsibilities.
Outside of work, Kate is deeply involved in the Vancouver community. She currently participates on the Dubois Park Neighborhood Association Board, the 49th District Democrats’ Executive Board, the NAACP Economic Empowerment Committee, the NAACP Political Affairs Committee, the League of Women Voters, Leadership Clark County’s education, government and DEI committees, and is a former YWCA Clark County Volunteer Sexual Assault Advocate.
Kate has been married to the love of her life, Joe Fernald, for more than a decade. They have
two wonderful boys, ages six and eight, who are experts in roasting marshmallows, climbing trees, and crafting epic puns.
Secretary – Celeste Dimichina
With a gift for gab, a love of writing and the ability to connect with people, Celeste Dimichina is a public servant who works as a Communications & Media Relations professional for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). As an accomplished communications professional, she supports both internal and external customers throughout the lower seven counties of Washington State. Celeste started her career with WSDOT in March 2014 as a Public Disclosure Coordinator where she put her impeccable organization skills to good use by being solely responsible for handling requests for public records while also supporting the communications department.
Over the course of her tenure with WSDOT both Celeste and her manager discovered that her skills and interests were more suited towards the role of a communicator, and she has spent the last several years working closely with a number of highly respected communication professionals and emergency responders, both within the agency and externally. Working in a collaborative environment, Celeste shines – she has an uncanny ability to make everyone feel welcome and valued while also keeping the environment fun, upbeat, positive and productive. More importantly, working with such an extensive group of diverse professionals in an inclusive and respectful environment provided Celeste with the catalyst she needed to help create WSDOT’s statewide “Diversity Advisory Group.” As one of 13 founding members, Celeste works to ensure that WSDOT’s commitment to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace is always at the forefront. She also sits on several employee lead committees: The Peer Support Team, The Green Team, The Employee Appreciation Team and the Mentoring Team.
Raised by a single mother, she is the oldest of four children and is the first member of her family to graduate high school and attend college. Her time in college was well-spent as she studied to become an elementary school teacher. Having experienced food and housing insecurities as a child, she realized her passion lay with supporting students and teachers rather than teaching. Celeste has spent the last 12-years volunteering in Evergreen Public Schools. She served as a PTA board member at Hearthwood Elementary School for six-years: Vice President for two-years, and Secretary for four-years. She also served as the PTO President for Cascade Middle School for three years.
Married to her high school sweetheart for 28-years, Celeste has two daughters who currently attend Evergreen High School. Her interests include jewelry making, crafting, painting, gardening, home improvements, hiking, kayaking, volunteering, working out, writing and spending time with her family and their three cute, but crazy Chihuahua’s.