Art Pope, Executive Director - During his college years, Art Pope worked as a kayaking instructor for Minnesota for Outward Bound and spent a summer as a Wilderness Ranger on Idaho's Selway River. He worked at a logging camp in Alaska and ran a Youth Conservation Corps program for the Forest Service. Finally, graduating from the University of Oregon, he spent four months canoing through Alaska, worked with six grade students as Director of an Outdoor School program and otherwise supported a compulsion to raft, kayak, climb, and ski through freelance writing and photography. Art Pope has been the Executive Director of Northwest Youth Corps since 1984.

Keith Brown, Deputy Director - Keith has just become NYC's first Deputy Director. Previously, he was the Program Director of YouthCorps. He has also been Operations Director and head of the Recruitment Department. He began his career with Northwest Youth Corps in the 1992 Summer Program as a Crew Leader and spent his first few winters supervising the original NYC Building program. When Keith is not working he enjoys spending time exploring the northwest forests and coastal areas with his best friend, and wife Ann.

Liz Karas, Director - Marketing & Community Relations - Liz is a wandering redhead. She grew up in Los Angeles, California, moved with her family to Houston, Texas, graduated with honors in Cognitive Psychology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and accepted a position with a political public interest organization, becoming the University of Oregon campus organizer for the last two years. In that capacity, Liz worked on political campaigns in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Virginia, District of Columbia, Massachusetts and New Jersey. When not traveling, Liz taught a course in environmental/social political campaign and event planning at the University of Oregon. Now Liz happily resides at NYC. When Liz is not trying to organize the masses, she enjoys riding her bike, hiking, camping, gardening, drawing, and is now attempting to throw a pot from time to time. Let Liz know if you want to go on a bike ride!

Natalie Whitson, Development Officer - Natalie Whitson has been NYC's Development Officer since 1998. Natalie works with staff to design, fund, implement, track and evaluate new programs. Her other responsibilities include donor development and public relations. Prior to NYC, Natalie lived in The Hague, The Netherlands, where she operated a small business. She has also worked at a foundation supporting public schools, and as a VISTA developing youth activities. Natalie has a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon, and is a credentialed fencing instructor.

Larry Dompierre, Youth Services - Larry Dompierre joined Northwest Youth Corps early in 2007 to provide direct service with youth, parents, counselors, teachers, case workers, and everyone related to spreading the word to youth about our program. He enjoys disc golf, rock climbing, developing new relationships with people, and the love of life. Larry is a native Oregonian and appreciates the work the NYC accomplishes each year. He is highly interested in the cognitive process of how destructive behavior works in people- why people do what they do, even if they know the outcome.

Brandon Blackwell, IT Admin - After high school, Brandon felt he had little direction in life. Without much interest in anything that made sense as a career, he worked as a welder for a company in Tukwila, Washington. A year of night shift with interesting personalities from El Salvador seemed to spark dome motivation to try out college. School was never his strong suit in his early years but all that changed when he discovered programming at Aiken Technical College in South Carolina. For the first time in his life, he was good at something and he was ready to grab that bull known as life by the horns.

Unfortunately, he earned his two year degree in early 2001 when the technical economy was not so hot. Six months of temp jobs later, he ended his job hunt at the local Army recruiter’s office where he was promised a job writing software. Little did he know that recruiters have a knack for telling people what they want to hear.

Brandon spent six years in the US Army attached to an airborne artillery unit where only about half of his time was dealing with technical issues and the other half was playing soldier. Jumping out of planes got old after 10 or so episodes of waiting an hour for roll call, waiting another hour to get a parachute issued, waiting another hour to board the plane, waiting another hour for the plane to take off, and yet another hour while the pilots accumulate flight time circling the drop zone. Needless to say, when his term of service was up, Brandon was a civilian.

Civilian life got much better after many months of unemployment and a year at Symantec when he finally found a match with Northwest Youth Corps.