Meet the Board
Meet the Board
The NMCDC Board is composed of a variety of community members from throughout Missoula. Many of our board members live in NMCDC-developed housing and in the Northside and Westside neighborhoods. Each board member contributes their board hours as a volunteer, and all are involved in various NMCDC programs, events, fundraising, and strategic planning. We could not do what we do for the community without this amazing group of dedicated and talented Missoulians.
As a community land trust, at least 1/3 of our Board of Directors is made up of CLT homeowners.
Cortney Perreten
Board President
Cortney found her way to NMCDC through her involvement in the housing market and her community engagement as a Northside resident. She is a licensed real estate Broker and Owner at Topo Real Estate, which is also located within the Northside neighborhood. Cortney’s experience provides a unique lens through which to view housing challenges within a dynamic and evolving market. She recognizes the inherent value in cultivating a diverse and equitable community, and strives to help Missoulians find housing within our Mountain town.
Cortney can often be found walking Henry (pictured on the left), along the Northside bike path or out rafting the local rivers.
Pam Walzer
Vice President
Pam chose Missoula over any other place in the country to settle when she ended a career in hazardous waste management to start a new chapter in her life. She earned a teaching certification in secondary science at UM but found that the best of the best in the country want to be high school science teachers in Missoula, MT. Rather than leave her newly beloved city for a teaching job somewhere else, Pam, like so many other Missoulians, cobbled together a series of part-time jobs to keep the lights on and mortgage paid on her Westside home.
She has been active in her Westside neighborhood, served one term on the Missoula City Council representing Ward 2, and six years on the Missoula Cultural Council’s Board of Directors. Pam is a member/owner of the Missoula Community Food Co-op and traded in her free-standing home for one of the condos in Burns St. Commons. Now-a-days, Pam makes her living as a jewelry artisan and by baking gluten-free goodies to sell at Missoula’s Farmers’ Markets.
Jessy Lee
Secretary
Jessy grew up in eastern Montana and has been in Missoula for nearly twenty years. She pursued both and undergraduate (Social Work) and graduate (Master of Public Administration) degrees at University of Montana. She left her role as Executive Director of North Valley Food Bank in Whitefish in 2021 to stay home with her new daughter, Finley.
She and her husband and daughter love to travel and explore new places, but their favorite place to be is home in the mountains of Montana.
Bergan Strand
Board Member
Raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Bergan spend a majority of her life living in cities along the east coast. She studied fine arts in Boston and Savannah and obtained degrees in Sociology and Anthropology. Bergan has done extensive work with women in early recovery, working to secure housing, meet transportation needs, connect with legal resources and explore employment opportunities. She has also mentored elementary aged girls experiencing unstable family issues.
Bergan came to Montana, where her husband grew up, in late 2021 after losing housing in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, she faced similar setbacks after finding housing here. Quickly after moving in, Brittany knocked on her door letting her know that her new community was up for sale. Bergan and her neighbors began to organize and formed the River Rocks Cooperative – Missoula’s second limited-equity housing cooperative!
She is excited to get involved with the community and loves traveling, reading, painting, gardening and spending time with her husband and three cats in her free time!
Ashley Clark
Board Member
Ashley made her way to Missoula for a summer of adventure after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2019. She quickly fell in love with the city, and knew she needed more than just one lovely summer immersed in this amazing community. She feels a strong connection to her work at Missoula Food Bank & Community Center where she does Child Nutrition Programming.
She was incredibly lucky to be introduced to CLT homeownership in 2022, eventually leading her to NMCDC. You can also find Ashley reading, playing board games, dancing with friends, traveling, doing yoga, or playing at the climbing gym.
Maggie Brown
Board Member
Maggie is a homeowner at Clark For Commons who has been concerned with affordable and sustainable housing for many years. A native of Missoula, descended from two generations of lumbermen, she has also lived in Nevada, California, England, and for many years in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. She returned to Montana once again in 2015.
Maggie attended the University of Montana, majoring in creative writing. Her fiction and poetry, as well as book and movie reviews, have appeared in literary journals, McCall’s magazine, and the Seattle Times, and two of her plays were produced in small Washington theaters. To support herself and her three children she also worked as a secretary, bartender, realtor, part-owner of a co-op restaurant, graphic designer, and grant writer. After retiring from a non-profit arts organization, she started an eco-friendly housekeeping business which she ran for ten years. These days she is concentrating on writing fiction.
Alice Boyer
Board Member
Alice was born and raised in Missoula and has always had a strong affinity for the things that make Missoula great. She remembers going to the Missoula Outdoor Cinema showings as a kid and riding her bike with her dad over the Northside Pedestrian Bridge to get to the Farmer’s Market on summer Saturdays.
As an adult, she has worked in the Montana political space since 2019 and has recently started work as the Deputy Director at Montana Women Vote. You can catch Alice walking her dog, sitting in the sunshine with friends and online where she enjoys playing video games in her free time!
Jon Clarenbach
Treasurer
Photo and bio coming soon!
Are you interested in joining the board?
