Board and Staff
Claire Muller, Executive Director
Claire has a B.A. from UCLA, and a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Administration from the University of Montana.
Claire has served as Executive Director of the SLCF since May 2018, and was proud to contribute to the SLCF winning Outstanding Foundation in 2021.
“Hope is a muscle. I choose hope, and then I throw my body at living in a way that makes it more likely.” —Krista Tippet
“To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden eggs (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness. It balances short term with long term.” —Stephen Covey
“To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Melani Best, Office Manager and I Ride dispatcher
At the SLCF, Melani coordinates the I Ride program, West Wing rentals, and provides administrative support. She has two AAS degrees in Office Administration and Human Resource Management from The University of Montana College of Technology.
As a Seeley Lake native who has recently returned to the area, Melani is excited to help the SLCF enhance the quality of life in Seeley Lake and provide support for its programs.
Melani and her husband Jim have six kids and two grandkids. They are busy with sports and school activities and enjoy spending time in the outdoors. She is an avid scrapbooker and crafter. Melani was also a Cub Scout Leader for 21 years.
Tom Beers, President
Though I have had opportunities to go elsewhere, I have chosen to live my entire life in western Montana. I came from humble beginnings having grown up a block from the intersection of the Northern Pacific tracks running east/west and north/south in Missoula. A kind of no-man’s land, not being a northsider or a westsider. I am the second youngest of seven kids, raised by a single mom after our dad died when we were very young.
After high school, I initially went to Gonzaga University, then on to the University of Montana graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and on to law school graduating with a juris doctor degree in 1973. I was an assistant attorney general, a deputy county attorney and have spent the last forty years in private practice, retiring in 2020. The last 10 years of my legal career I specialized in brain injury cases together with researching and teaching how to create and enhance meaningful communication between disparate groups to reach common values.
I first came to the Clearwater valley in 1956-57 as a child. I have rarely missed a year of enjoying the beauty of this valley since that time. My wife and I bought an old cabin on Placid Lake in 1983, enjoying it with our children, knowing in our hearts this is where we wanted to ultimately retire. We built our home around that old cabin in 2016.
I hope to be a helpful addition to the Seeley Lake Community Foundation.
Jan Lombardi, Vice President
Jan Lombardi has extensive experience working in government, nonprofit, and business sectors.
As a third-generation Montanan, Jan launched her career on the East Coast and spent a decade in banking before returning to the Big Sky state in 1988 to care for her grandmother. That is when she began her work with nonprofit organizations and public-sector agencies to bring about lasting change in service delivery and policy for women, children, and families.
Lombardi served as Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s Education Policy Advisor, focusing on providing education from cradle to career, and as cabinet Director of the Governor’s Office of Community Service, where she oversaw Montana’s volunteer and national-service efforts.
Results-oriented, Lombardi was instrumental in getting the Montana Legislature to pass and implement full-time kindergarten in Montana, increasing access to and affordability of higher education with the College Affordability Plan (tuition freeze), and creating the Governor and First Lady’s Math and Science Initiative.
Lombardi believes in creating unique partnerships with government, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit networks to leverage resources and benefits for youth and community. She is passionate about the power of giving back to build the next generation of strong and innovative leaders.
Her service on boards includes Helena College Foundation, Montana Conservation Corps, Montana Afterschool Alliance, University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Children’s Trust Fund, Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Corporation for National and Community Service’s NCCC Advisory Board, and Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
Jan is delighted to join the Seeley Lake Community Foundation and enjoys getting to know the friendly people here as well as exploring the beautiful Seeley-Swan Valley.
Lombardi received her BS from Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is married to Bill Lombardi and has two grown children who live in Helena.
Carla Rae Zell Schade, Treasurer
Carla Schade is retired and living in Seeley Lake, Montana after many years of expat residency overseas. A Montana Hi -Line native and an Economics graduate of Montana State University, she spent most of the next few years in Montana and Colorado in the hospitality trade with gaps that were focused on alpine skiing. The next 10 years were wrapped up in both the insurance and real estate industries in Missouri, Arizona and Texas. Her husband’s career led to homes in London, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa and Qatar. In those exotic places, teaching English as a Second Language became her passion and led to many travel adventures and international friendships. Carla currently enjoys her mountain home in the Crown of the Continent, volunteering in her community and making valiant attempts at high altitude gardening. She is determined to grow tomatoes and currently working on an ever-changing deer resistant plant list.
Kevin Wetherell, Secretary
Kevin, a fifth-generation Montanan and real estate broker with an entrepreneurial spirit co-founded Clearwater Montana Properties in Seeley Lake in 1994. He now manages 31 real estate offices across Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming. He is proud to be a financial and volunteer supporter of organizations in Seeley Lake and across Montana. He has served on many boards and organizations in Seeley Lake and has served as President of the Seeley Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Seeley Lake YMCA, Seeley Lake Community Council, and currently serves as a board member of the Seeley Lake Community Foundation. Kevin enjoys the mountains, fly fishing, hiking, boating, elk hunting, and anything outdoors. His daughter Ashlee was raised in Seeley Lake and now lives in Troy, MT. Kevin is married to Emily Rindal, who owns an insurance agency in Seeley Lake and they reside at their home in the Double Arrow Ranch.
Mark Williams, Past President
Mark is a Montana native and a full-time resident of Seeley Lake since 1990, and part-time since 1957. The graduate of the University of Montana holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and minor in photography. As an active member of the community, Mark was a founding member of the Seeley Lake Community Foundation, chair of the local school board and has served on the Historical Society board and various homeowners associations. Mark is President of Lake Country Builders, Inc. and has been a builder in Seeley Lake since 1978. Prior to his full-time residency in Seeley Lake, Mark was in the ski business for 25 years, the last ten as the head of ski schools in Colorado and Montana. A single father of two girls, ages 21 and 27, Mark can be found chasing them down ski slopes, hiking, biking and playing bluegrass guitar.
Fern Glass Boyd
Fern has made her home in Western Montana since 1979, when she joined the music faculty as Professor of Cello at the University of Montana in Missoula. During her long career at UM, she taught various courses in music, as well as applied cello and chamber music instruction. She also served as Principal Cellist of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and performed as a member of the Montana Piano Trio, a UM faculty resident ensemble. In 1985, she co-founded the String Orchestra of the Rockies [SOR], the only professional conductor-less orchestra in the state of Montana, and continues to serve as its Principal Cellist. As the SOR’s Artistic Director for ten years, she managed and oversaw the orchestra’s many outreach activities and performances throughout Montana and the region. She has appeared across the US and Western Europe as a soloist, educator, and clinician, and been featured on two commercial albums with the SOR: Beneath a Northern Sky and We’ll Be Together Again.
Fern began her early music training at the Settlement Music School in her native Philadelphia and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and a Master’s degree from Yale University. Her lifelong passion for the arts continues to be a major focus since her retirement from UM in 2018. As residents of Seeley Lake, she and her husband, Lance Boyd, enjoy exploring the outdoors and staying connected to the community and its beautiful natural landscape.
Jenny Ellinghouse-Lindemer
Jenny has deep ties to the Seeley Lake area. She and her husband have owned and operated Lindey’s Prime Steak House in downtown Seeley Lake for several decades. Jenny has served on the Seeley Lake Elementary School Board, as well as several years serving as a director for the Seeley Lake Community Foundation.
Jim Strauss
Jim Strauss and his wife, Dee, fell in love with the Seeley Swan Valley when they first experienced it in the mid-1980s. After numerous visits, they bought a cabin here in 2005.
Jim worked as an editor and publisher in Montana for more than 30 years, serving at newspapers in Billings, Great Falls, Hamilton and Missoula.
Most of Strauss’ journalism career was with the Great Falls Tribune. Under Strauss’ leadership the Tribune was named best daily newspaper in the state eight times, best small daily newspaper in Gannett three times and received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism when it was honored for its yearlong series on alcohol abuse.
Strauss has received numerous industry honors, including the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership, the Montana Newspaper Association Master Editor/Publisher Award and the State of Montana Excellence in Leadership Award for a Person in the Private Sector.
Strauss has long believed in giving back to your community and has served on and led numerous industry, community and arts boards at local, state and national levels.
Twice, Strauss has failed at retirement, and he recently joined the Montana Newspaper Association as communications & development director.
Strauss has undergraduate degrees in economics and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, completed the Davenport Fellowship for business and economics reporting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. He got his start as a business reporter and, in addition to his Montana experience, worked for magazines, newspapers and websites in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana.
Jim and Dee have five children spread over four states and three grandchildren.
Scott grew up with rockets and surfing where he was rated in the Top Ten on the east coast. In the early years, Scott worked at NASA, at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This encompassed duties on the Space Shuttle Processing Team in design engineering, which obtained numerous achievement awards. Later Scott moved to Tennessee and pursued life as a successful Real Estate Broker and subsequently building his own resort. In 1995, Scott moved to Seeley Lake where he works as a Real Estate Broker. Scott has volunteered his time and has contributed financially to many local organizations. He has served over 30 years as Chief Officer in Fire, Rescue, and as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) or EMS provider. Scott first graduated and obtained his EMT licensure in 1980 and subsequently obtaining a level 3 State Firefighter designation. In addition Scott has been President, Chief, Deputy Chief, Assistant Chief and Director of various fire departments. In addition Scott serves on the Board of Trustees for the Seeley Lake Rural Fire District, either as Chairman or Vice Chairman for almost 10 years. Scott currently serves on the Seeley Lake Community Foundation as a Director. Scott also has served for about 12 years on the ACC committee for the Double Arrow Ranch and is a Life Member of the Masonic Lodge and a Gold Level Habitat Partner with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. In his leisure time, you will find Scott yachting in the Pacific Northwest, snowmobiling or fly fishing.
