Volunteer Center Staff

Commitment to quality: Providing and promoting service to the community with more than five decades of volunteer management experience.

Sara Ballard, Executive Director

360-741-2625
sara@volunteer.ws

Sara Ballard joined the Volunteer Center as executive director in March of 2008. Before moving to Olympia she was the senior manager at the Volunteer Center at United Way of Snohomish County in Everett, Wash. and before that she was associate director of the Volunteer Centers of Michigan in Lansing, Mich. Her other state and national level work includes positions as program manager for the Michigan Health Council, special projects and event coordinator for the Michigan House of Representatives and donor recruitment representative for the American Red Cross. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Economics form Alma College in Alma, Mich. She is a certified Volunteer Administrator and a graduate of the 2005 Michigan Nonprofit Association Emerging Leader course. She also is president of the Volunteer Centers of Washington, a state association of the 16 Volunteer Centers serving the residents of Washington State.

Susan Lamoreaux, Volunteer Services Coordinator

360-748-2500
susan@volunteer.ws

Susan Lamoreaux, a native Washingtonian, worked as an Educator for the first 12 years following her graduation from Central Washington State University. The last 22 years she's worked in Volunteer Management for the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason, and Thurston Counties. She has also served on the Lewis County Literacy Council Board for the last 10+ years and more recently joined the board of the Lewis County Long Term Recovery Organization.

Shana Hines, Office Manager

360-741-2626
shana@volunteer.ws

Shana Hines our Office Manager, has been with the Volunteer Center since May 2006. Shana attended Centralia College. She worked at National Frozen Food Co. in their Quality Assurance department for 11 years prior to her current position at the Volunteer Center. As a volunteer 4-H group leader for her daughter’s 4-H club and a co-chair to the Horse Department Renovation Project her time away from work is pretty full. She also delivers holiday meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Shirley Boyer, Medical Transportation Team Coordinator

360-741-2620
shirley@volunteer.ws

Shirley Boyer has been with the Volunteer Center since March of 2003 and is the Medical Transportation Team Coordinator for Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties and supervises 30 volunteer drivers. Shirley attended school in Oregon and college in Idaho and Minnesota. She worked for the State of Washington for 13 years in the Human Resource field and then worked as Personnel Manager/co-owner of a manufacturing company for 10 years. Before coming to the Volunteer Center, Shirley had been in Austin, TX for six years and worked with her spouse in the country western field. Shirley is very proud of the great group of volunteer drivers we have in each county.

Blake Marzloff, AmeriCorps/VISTA and LEAD Program Manager

360-741-2610
blake@volunteer.ws

Blake began working in the community service field in Alabama were he participated in a low income youth literacy campaign for three years. Following Alabama, Blake moved to Texas to work for Habitat for Humanity. Most recently, Blake worked for the Tacoma Housing Authority, and ran the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. At the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason, and Thurston Counties, he supervises two VISTA teams consisting of 30 available positions throughout the state of Washington, working with Generation X and Y’s to become more active in their community and help to match volunteer interests and skills with non-profit organizational needs.

Sherri Martel, Medical Transportation Assistant

360-741-2609
sherri@volunteer.ws

Sherri Martel began to work at the Volunteer Center in September 2007. She has lived in the Pacific Northwest for 14 years. With both education and work experience in a variety of fields; she is able to contribute to a broad number of projects including the Med Trans Program. When asked what her favorite aspect of her job is, she responded, “I really like the idea that I can make a difference in my community. I enjoy helping people.”

Emma Margraf, Director of Special Projects

360-741-2608
emma@volunteer.ws

Emma Margraf directs special projects and supervises volunteer services staff and volunteers. She can also sometimes be found dancing in the street to support volunteerism for the arts. She has worked in non-profits and in politics for more than a decade, including three years at Washington Conservation Voters and three state primaries for now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign for President of the United States. She is a lifelong volunteer; starting as a child with cleaning the cafe for homeless people in her native Oakland, she's done countless volunteer projects and volunteer jobs in multiple cities, She is now a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in Thurston County and a foster parent to a fourteen year old girl.

Linda Crerar, Program Director Next Chapter
360-455-0220
linda@volunteer.ws

Linda Crerar is an experienced non-profit, business and government executive with more then 30 years of experience. Linda has a Masters in Applied Behavioral Science from Whitworth College in Spokane. She spent 17 years as a health service provider and social service agency director in organizations that relied heavily on volunteers to provide direct service and administrative support to sustain the organization. She is currently working to help the region and state address emergency preparedness for vulnerable populations. She has 25 years experience engaging citizens to help guide statewide initiatives addressing environmental, public health and economic viability issues. She and her husband Rick have lived in Olympia for over 25 years and enjoy spending time traveling and discovering new corners of the state, region, country and world. Ask her about backpacking around the world for a year for her 40th birthday.