The RCRC staff is a small and collaborative team working under the guidance of 12 diverse, committed board members. Our year-round staff includes an executive director, administrative coordinator, program manager, Summer Camp director, and adult programs director. We also have an incredibly dedicated part-time program staff of workshop instructors, band coaches, guest performers, and instrument instructors.
Approximately 250 volunteers take part in our programming annually. RCRC recently won BECU’s Member Volunteer of the Year Award, and we are proud of our loyal and engaged community of volunteers! We couldn’t do it without them!
Staff
Carly Toyer (they/them), Co-Program Manager
As a young San Diegan, Carly practiced vocal scales while boogie boarding, spent summers being a musical theatre camp counselor, and brought home plastic clamshell CD discographies from their job at the city library. After their college days investigating Gender Studies and touring in a DIY band, Carly settled into Seattle to spend nearly 10 years as an all-ages music educator and a youth summer camp director. A passionate advocate for self-love, community-care, and self-expression, Carly is proud to co-manage the many programs at Rain City Rock Camp that bridge the gap between making music and liberating your heart. You can catch them shredding guitar and keys in KaraoShe, or in their kitchen listening to comedy podcasts and making onigiri.
Catherine Nueva España (she/her/siya), Interim Executive Director
Catherine played piano and sang in the choir when she was younger and today continues to enjoy playing for herself and hearing live music of all kinds! She enjoys working with creative, joyful teams who are passionate about collaborating with community. She is very pleased to be invited to work with Rain City Rock Camp to bridge a key leadership transition and to support Carly and Gracie’s amazing work with rockers of all stripes. She was formerly the Interim Executive Director at On The Boards and EarthCorps and Executive Director at Velocity Dance Center. She currently serves as a board member on the WA State Arts Commission and 4Culture.
Gracie Bucklew (they/them), Co-Program Manager
Born and raised in South Seattle, Gracie attended the first ever Rain City Rock Camp as a camper in 2009. After several years at Summer Camp and AMP, they volunteered as an Intern and were a member of Amplified Teen Voices as a teenager. Gracie then served as one of Summer Camp’s Roadie Co-Managers for five summers. In Olympia, they earned their Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Teaching from The Evergreen State College. Their education, time with RCRC and lived experience instilled in Gracie a commitment to abolitionist education, transformative justice work, and living in right relations within community and with the world. Their passions also include eating ice cream, getting a good night’s sleep, and reading magical realism and science fiction.
Jenn Johnson (she/her), Technology Advisor
Jenn Johnson has worn a number of hats for Rain City Rock Camp. She was a founding board member, worked on numerous board committees such as community outreach and strategic planning, spent three years as a volunteer coordinator, and is now RCRC’s technology advisor, working primarily to support the website, CRM, and digital donation tools. Most of her work life has been in nonprofits, education, and technology, and she is now a Managing Director for a digital consulting agency that focuses on those sectors. Jenn has played bass since high school, been in bunches of bands, toured the country with one of them, and now plays with Karaoshe, a live band karaoke band that she started with other RCRCers.
Board Members
Beth O’Connor (she/her), Co-Chair & Treasurer
In her heart, Beth says she’s coach/teacher/mentor. After 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, primarily in Regulatory Affairs, she followed her passion and became a certified professional coach. She founded Wholebeing Athlete to support professional women and female student athletes make sustainable change to achieve professional, personal, and/or athletic success. Working with RCRC has helped Beth identify as a musician and conquer her fear of singing for a crowd, and one of her favorite experiences is to witness young people’s aha-moments—what she calls Rock Camp Miracles.
Coral Nafziger (she/her), Secretary
Coral was born and raised in Seattle. She fell in love with camp when she attended Camp Waskowitz’s outdoor education program as a 5th grader with Adams Elementary. She started volunteering as a camp counselor in high school and never stopped. She felt right at home when she was introduced to RCRC in 2016, where she has since volunteered, attended Adult Rock Camp, and formed a band that has been writing songs about a surf fox and an adventure pony.
Coral loves fall for boots and soup, winter for crafting and warm beverages, spring for flowers and birds and summer for Book Bingo (from Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts and Lectures) and RCRC summer camp. In her professional life she is a designer.
Le-Vy Nguyen Craig (she/her)
Michelle Morado (they/she)
Miche Morado (they/she) was born in California, but has lived in the PNW since 2011. They grew up listening to gospel and classics from country & western’s golden age. Miche received their first guitar as a gift from their grandfather at the age of thirteen and they fell in love. Miche understands how music and creative expression can be a lifeline through the tumult of adolescence which led them to seek out RCRC. Miche joined RCRC as a camper in Adult Rock Camp in 2019 and they’ve been involved ever since. RCRC has cultivated tremendous appreciation for the process of nurturing and claiming one’s creative voice.
Miche grew up in a skipped-generation grandfamily comprised of social kin. Miche is currently writing their dissertation to complete their PhD in Feminist Studies from the University of Washington.
Sieglinde Levery-Nicholas (she/her) )
Sieglinde Levery-Nicholas (she/her) is in her 11th year at Puget Sound Community School (PSCS), where she works with their fully collaborative staff as Director of Community Engagement. She grew up in the Central District, attended Franklin High School (and then Cornish College for a bit), before heading to New England, where she lived for almost a decade.
She taught theater, worked in restaurants and spent several years moonlighting as a music promoter and band manager in the north shore of Boston. She co-founded an independent music agency and even co-wrote some songs. She lives in Rainier Beach with her spouse, Drew, and her 5-year old kid, Oliver. She is passionate about equity, accountability, and tearing down the patriarchy. She keeps finding new passions and interests but is always excited about great books, graphic design, painting, and band names.
