Member Profiles

Kathleen, Mark, Denali (8), and Lochlan (5)
The Owkes have lived in Bozeman since 2015. Mark is an assistant professor at MSU; Kathleen stays home with the kids and homeschools.  They are outdoor enthusiasts who are passionate about sustainability and environmental conservation.  The Owkes are founding members of Bozeman Cohousing, which they started, “….because we wanted an old-fashioned neighborhood where kids are outside playing, you don’t have to cross a street or drive across town to visit friends, and we can enjoy social interaction with other adults.”  They are most looking forward to having a diverse multi-generational community.  “We think the biggest perk of cohousing will be the community dinners.”

Katherine
Katherine first moved to Bozeman in her late 20s to work for a startup tech firm. She had previously spent several seasons working overseas for VISIONS Service Adventures, an international teen community service program. After a few years in tech, she did contract work for conservation nonprofits and earned an MBA from the University of Montana. Katherine later became director/owner of VISIONS and moved the headquarters to Bozeman in 2010. She is a native of Montana (Billings) and feels deeply rooted to the communities and landscape here. She’s drawn to Bozeman Cohousing concept because it sounds fun, supportive and environmentally aligned with her values.

Joi, Erik, and Leif
We love that in Bozeman we have access to the diverse Montana wilds, while also being able to live a walking/biking lifestyle in town.” You might find the family at a local playground, or backcountry skiing, climbing and biking. Joi recently completed her elementary education degree. Erik is an architect at Studio Co+Hab and has designed cohousing communities and other sustainability-focused projects across the US and abroad. He also lived in two intentional communities during his 20s. Erik and Joi look forward to raising Leif in an environment full of friends and neighbors of diverse ages and species. “We can’t wait to live in Bozeman Cohousing!” 

Chad, Megan, and Annaliese (5)
Chad and Megan both moved to Bozeman in 2003 for college.  Chad is an engineer for Montana Department of Transportation and he works closely with MSU interns designing highways. He also teaches a civil engineering course at MSU as an adjunct instructor.  Megan is a stay at home parent to their daughter. The family enjoys being outside hiking, biking, gardening and camping. “We are attracted to cohousing because we want to live in a connected, supportive and safe neighborhood. We feel that cohousing will provide rich social connections through regular community dinners, celebrations and spontaneous interactions.  We are excited to live in our dream neighborhood!”

Garl, Owen (9), and Mirabella (4)
Garl was raised on a cattle ranch in the Madison Valley, attended Montana State, and has lived in Bozeman since 2012. He has a background in agriculture and appreciates the concept of “agrihood,” where a community works together to grow food for their families and others. Raised in rural Montana, Garl recalls how his grandpa shared haying equipment with neighbors and how everyone helped out large functions such as brandings and cattle drives. “Now everyone has their own swather, baler, bale feeder, etc. Nobody has to rely on their neighbors anymore.” Being your average Bozemanite, Garl loves to go on mountain adventures and looks forward to having a closer-knit group of “adventure buddies” who come with cohousing.

Susanne
Susanne Cowan is an assistant professor at MSU who has lived in Bozeman for six years. She teaches architecture history and urban planning and is passionate about building inclusive and environmentally responsible neighborhoods. In her spare time, Susanne likes to hike, bike, cross country ski, and visit hot springs. She also loves to travel to new cities and countries, visiting art museums and historic buildings. As a single person without family living nearby, Susanne is excited that cohousing will create an extended family for socializing and support.

Karen
Karen has lived in Bozeman for 15 years. She works at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center and previously spent several years with the US Forest Service. Her daughters Rose (15) and Zemma (18) attend Bozeman High, and Corrina (20) is studying economics at MSU. Bozeman Cohousing came along at just the right time when Karen was considering downsizing as her daughters start to leave the nest. The transition into cohousing will make it easier to move from their long-time home, as Karen and her daughters already enjoy sharing meals and activities with their future neighbors. Karen cares deeply about the earth and Gallatin Valley, and is excited to be joining a group of individuals, couples, and families who want to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Lynn, Gary, Alex (19), and Braeden (16)
Lynn and Gary both earned their Bachelor’s degrees at MSU in the mid-1980s, but they didn’t meet until 1997 in Colorado. After Braeden was born, in 2003, they moved back to Bozeman to make it their home. Lynn and Gary are now retired; Alex is working for an Internet company and planning to start college soon; and Braeden will be a high school senior during the 2020/21 school year.  “We love to travel and have spent considerable time overseas.  I think that travel and visiting less car-centric cultures, such as in Europe, has given us an appreciation of the ‘village’ type of community that cohousing embodies; we are interested in living in such an ‘intentional’ social community, where we know and interact with our neighbors.”  

Marci
Marci grew up in Vermont as a 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) kid milking Holsteins, raising poultry, and even living on Christmas tree farm. She remembers her family’s party line (land line telephones!), the original sharing economy. Later, Marci’s business degree prepared her to co-own Vermont’s second largest recycling company. Three years ago, Marci was visiting Glacier National Park when she met up with a cousin in Bozeman who offered his home for a house-sitting stint. Marci inadvertently found a new home here in Montana, and made the move thereafter. She picked up where she left off in Vermont with a focus on service work, including being part of the Pilgrim Volunteer Team at Fork & Spoon, an usher at the Ellen, sorter at Sack’s, nordic and alpine ski volunteer with Eagle Mount, and is also active with Gallatin Valley Newcomers. Marci is owned by her dog, Gaby.

Annie
Curiosity might best describe one of Annie’s traits.  Reading, being outdoors, food, good conversation, music, road trips… she enjoys many things.  Hanging out with her adult kids and young grand-girls tops the list. Activism has driven most of Annie’s work and volunteer life, including a decade or so at a couple of non-profit environmental conservation/health organizations, and 12 years as HR Manager at the Bozeman’s Community Food Co-op. She grew up in a small Montana town where people looked out for each other, and kids played mostly unsupervised (“have fun and be back for dinner”). Annie’s really excited to be part of a community committed to intentionally creating exactly that, with environmental consciousness.

Ida May
Ida May is an incredibly social person, who thrives in community. She has spent a lot of time participating in almost every activity offered by Eagle Mount. Ida will graduate from Bozeman High School in 2023!  She enjoys participating in Special Olympics, Nordic skiing and hiking with her family, hanging out with friends, dancing, yoga, riding her bike around town, anything octopus-related, arts and crafts, and connecting with others. She has a way of bringing people together, and her exuberance at seeing someone she knows is contagious. Ida delights in being with young children and animals, and she would enjoy reading books to kids while their parents prepare meals in the common house, helping neighbors plant flowers, delivering mail to a neighbor who is home-bound, and many other helpful gestures. Ida loves to help, and to be of use! She is an engaging teenager who wants to be as independent as possible, and is excited to move into cohousing when she is ready to leave home.  Ida lives with her family on Wagon Wheel Road, just 1/2 mile away from Bozeman Cohousing, with her mom (Marni) dad (Jed) and younger brother (Sorin).

Patty
Patty was born & raised in Louisiana – Geaux Tigas! She moved west after college, spending several years in Colorado, before moving to Montana in 1981 to be with her future husband. Their first home was a 2nd floor condo on the north side of the Cohousing property. After the birth of their first child, they built a home on the south side of the property because she wasn’t going to carry a baby up & down the stairs.  Thus she has lived next door to our CoHo property for over 40 years! Their two children went away for college and careers, but both have returned to Bozeman to build their own futures and families. Patty is now retired and planning for her future, which includes wanting to remain in this neighborhood. Her husband is currently building his dream home out in the country which they will share initially. Cohousing appeals to her because of a smaller home footprint with a sharing and an intergenerational community. Patty has been involved early on in this development because of the future it offers. Although she will have to rent her unit initially she will have her forever home waiting for when the time is ready and will continue to be an active member.

Jodi, Steve, Camas (19), and Cedar (10)
Steve, Jodi and family came to Bozeman in the summer of 2020 after spending 23 years in Missoula. There they were deeply involved in the local food movement through Garden City Harvest and sustainable living through the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project and Home ReSource. They prefer biking and walking to driving, and making art and music over watching television. Jodi is the department head of Archives and Special Collections at the Renne Library at MSU. As a violist, she hopes to play music again with other people again once it is safe to do so! Living in cohousing has been a dream of Jodi’s ever since she heard about it when she was a college student in Denmark. Steve is reactivating his digital media and science education consultancy. He is a student of the martial art of Aikido and an artist, photographer, and DIY-er. Cedar attends the Bozeman Online Charter School and spends every available moment making something on the computer or at the workbench. Camas attends the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque who pursues history, violin, and ceramics with equal passion. They serve as staff to two unique cats, Princess Grace and Oscar Wild. In spite of being cat people, we increasingly enjoy meeting the friendly, enthusiastic dogs in our new neighborhood.

Joanne and Roy
Roy and Joanne both grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. The two met in a Latin class, dated through college, and married after both receiving their degrees. They are a retired couple that has lived in the tri-cities of Southeastern Washington for 55 years. Joanne, a clothing tailor and interior designer, now serves on a neighborhood Women’s Club of 40 women that has built a neighborhood park for children. Roy spent thirty years working as a Materials Engineer for Battelle, before developing and teaching a high school Materials Science class. Both are avid DIYers, using Joanne’s design talents and Roy’s wood construction skills to remodel their home into one the nicest places in the neighborhood, and they look forward to bringing those skills to Bozeman. “We are ready to help establish that kind of neighborhood, where it is well cared for, interactive, and safe.”

Linda and John
Linda and John are scientists who grew up in Michigan and met the first week of freshman year at college there. After graduating and a year spent working in the Netherlands and backpacking through Europe they moved west for graduate school and then stayed for jobs at Stanford and in biotech; they have lived in California all but one of the last 36 years. Linda and John have two sons whom Linda home schooled: Quinn a game designer working in Prague and Clark a dancer working on his MFA in London. The Griffins live in a neighborhood where neighbors share tools and produce from their gardens, socialize while kids play out front, and are generally there to support each other in times of need. This positive experience attracts Linda and John to the idea of cohousing and they are very excited to be part of designing and building a new community in beautiful Bozeman where living sustainably is a shared vision of its members. They also love to travel and are planning a lot of post-Covid/pre-Bozeman adventures. For now, most mornings at 6AM you will find Linda in the pool swimming with her Masters teammates and John getting in an 8-10 mile hike before a day of Zoom meetings (this also means that by 10PM they will be asleep!).

Ruthi, Soren, Sage (6), and Rayven (3)
Ruthi and Soren’s love of nature and adventure are what drew them to return to Ruthi’s home state of Montana from California. Former outdoor guides, they enjoy teaching their kids to ski, rock climb, hike and kayak. Professionally, Ruthi works in philanthropy, mobilizing resources to support innovative solutions to complex social and environmental challenges. Soren completed a PhD in integrative neuroscience. An innovator at heart, he is currently working on a start up creating technology for personalized health. The family is most excited about cohousing for the values of cultivating fun, healthy relationships with people and the land. Sage looks forward to living in close proximity with other kids to have adventure buddies and Rayven is excited about gardening and the goats! Ruthi’s parents are also Bozeman Cohousing members and we all look forward to multi-generational living together within this community

Denny and Barbara
Barbara and Denny have had a family home here in Montana since Barbara’s parents first bought a place in Big Sky in 1970. Barbara grew up in Montana and Alberta, attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon and then law school at the University of Oregon. During college, she came out and worked at Big Sky in 1972 and 73 for the first years that it existed. The couple moved to Northern California for Denny‘s job, where Barbara opened her own law firm. She retired in 2015, and now has more time to enjoy her favorite interests: fly fishing, hiking, cross country skiing, and hiking. Denny attended Earlham College, a small, Quaker, liberal arts school in Richmond, Indiana, where seminar and consensus were a way of campus life. He has been teaching at Sonoma State Univ. since 1990 in a variety of subjects: English, Philosophy (Critical Thinking), Humanities, War and Peace Lecture Series, Great Books, Public Speaking, ILE and the Genocide/Holocaust Studies. He is proud to have been chosen an SSU “Outstanding Faculty Member” for promoting “academic excellence, supporting students outside of class and encouraging student achievement.” Denny loves teaching at SSU, and can’t believe he gets paid to do something he enjoys so much. Having the opportunity to continue living with daughter Ruthi and family at Bozeman Cohousing is a great source of joy for them. 

Nancy and Peter
For the last 40 years, Nancy and Peter have lived sustainably on their land in rural western New York, where they raise vegetables and tend expansive lawn and flower gardens.  Solar panels provide all electricity. They are an active couple who enjoy camping, hiking, skiing, playing games, eating with friends, traveling, and pursuing hobbies in pottery & woodworking (Peter), and gardening (Nancy). Both are retired science teachers since 2015: Peter taught high school earth science & biology, Nancy taught community college chemistry. They would like to continue being active in the same sort of activities in CoHousing. They have some family in Bozeman:  (1) daughter, Annie, who lives in Bozeman with her husband and two children and (2) Nancy’s brother, Rich.

Jeff and Michele
Jeff and Michele work and play together, best friends and deeply in love, twenty-eight years and counting. They’ve been business executives, Realtors (how they met), substitute teachers… Michele became an escrow officer. While Jeff went into law enforcement, including being a DARE officer for elementary kids. Entrepreneurs at heart, they established in 2000 (and still run) a successful real estate document preparation business. They also publish fiction, first in romance and now in a growing variety of genres, with sixteen novels and six short stories thus far. Michele, a multiple award-winning author under a pen name, now writes full time. Jeff plans to narrate their stories once they move up to Bozeman. Blissfully happy minimalists, they’ve also gone carless, turning 100% pedestrian. They love hiking, gentle mountain biking, and being out in nature. They are students of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga. Optimists who adventure through life with childlike wonder and joy, they look forward to bringing smiles to others while forging lifelong friendships and a high-functioning community in Bozeman Cohousing.

Judy
In her early twenties, Judy headed west from Minnesota for adventure and fell in love with Montana: the land and especially the light, the kayaking and skiing, and the delightful people. She departed to Spokane (kicking and screaming) more than twenty years ago where she had a very good chapter of career and family. She’s long been interested in cohousing, informed by her work as an architectural educator at Washington State University, and idyllic Spokane neighborhood which is isolated on a river bench and surrounded by nature. “We watch out for each other, help raise the children, tend to the dogs, and share fabulous food. I want more of that, but am looking to spend my next chapter in Bozeman.” She is the “uber proud mom” of 20 year old triplet sons — Alec, Jack, and Cole, with whom she has made yearly trips to Bozeman to visit family and friends and go padding or skiing. They too are in love with Montana and thrilled at the prospect of having a home there. Judy’s current projects are ski patrol, tending to a 10 year old golden retriever who is in her final sprint, and planning mad travel for post-Covid!

Jane Lee, Brendan, Barret (3), Louie Gail (<1)
Jane Lee and Brendan and family currently live in Hawai’i. Originally from Whitefish, MT, Brendan graduated from Bozeman and was hired on with a large national General Contractor focusing on large scale commercial projects. Jane Lee grew up in Golden, CO, attended college in Michigan, and also went to work with the same company. After working in several states on different projects, they met on a project in Oklahoma (the official state of love). Barret was born at home in Colorado, and they settled in Oahu when he was 3 months old. 15 years after first hiring on, Jane Lee still works as a Project Manager, and Brendan as a Superintendent. They recently welcomed their daughter Louie Gail to the family in Hawai’i, also at home. This time the midwife didn’t make it in time, and Brendan (aka Dr. Banning) successfully delivered Louie Gail! Looking forward to coming back to the mainland, they are most excited to raise their children in an environment surrounded by a community of other children, aunties, and uncles. Their passions include construction, hunting, fishing, backpacking, traveling, and natural birth / midwifery. They dream of one day circumnavigating the world as a family in a catamaran.

Marianne
Marianne grew up in La Jolla, California, in a family of four kids and two adventurous french parents. Favorite childhood memories involve bumping along in the family’s lumbering Travelall on dirt roads deep in the Baja desert, searching for camping spots. Her love of the natural world, exploration, and art ultimately took her to Bozeman in 1991 to pursue an MFA in painting and printmaking at MSU. When not teaching art to K-4th grade students at Monforton School in Bozeman, Marianne spends her time with friends and family traveling in the mountains by ski, foot and canoe. Marianne has one lovely daughter, Margo (20) who is currently in her first year at Lewis and Clark (after spending a gap-year in Americorps.) Marianne has always dreamed of living in a community that can share resources, support and aspirations. In cohousing she looks forward to the sounds of kids playing, serendipitous gatherings, and lending a hand.

Daniel and Sonja
Daniel and Sonja finally met in NYC—after much needed to happen! Daniel grew up in upstate New York and went to school in Boston for sound engineering. He plays guitar and drums and has built, worked, lived, and played at several recording studios and music venues in Brooklyn and Boston. He spent the last years of his life on the west coast in Los Angeles and Ashland, OR. He is now back at Northeastern to get a degree in Accounting and Financial Management (yes, quite a change, but he likes it!). He’s also super into eating organic, “high vibe” food and has a bookkeeping job at the Park Slope Food Coop. Sonja moved to the US more than five years ago after she was ordained as a rabbi in Berlin, Germany. She has taught, written, edited, and published for the last years in NYC, and is now so very excited to become the next rabbi at Bozeman’s Beth Shalom (hopefully signing soon!) and to live again in a small town and within reach of the smell of earth and trees. Sonja sings. “We love food, cooking in and for larger groups, our local coop, eating with friends, and whenever we have a free day, we can be found hiking the next mountain.”

Erika and George
Erika and George came to Bozeman for the niche film community and access to the outdoors. George is from Sydney, Australia, and attended the MFA Film Program at MSU in 2005, after a career as a zoologist. Erika moved to Bozeman in 2015 from Chicago, where she spent the first 8 years of her film career. They enjoy their work, sometimes together, and often away and immersed in different projects for long periods of time. They pride themselves in being very good at not working, and spend much of their time recreating in the backcountry on bikes, skis, two old-fashioned feet, or whatever way the weather permits. They forage (mostly unsuccessfully) for food or elk antlers and log many miles moving outside without any lofty goals. Admittedly, they each spend just as much time with their heads in books, napping, watching movies and cooking. They are social creatures with a loving network of friends and colleagues in the Gallatin Valley. “We are owned by a geriatric tabby cat named Dar and are very very excited to be around all dogs, goats, chickens, cats, and any other animal that could find their way onto the 5.3 acres that is Bozeman Cohousing.”

Mark, Christine, Zach (14) and Hannah (8)
Mark has a company that supports local architects and engineers. He has worked on many residential and commercial historical renovation projects throughout the Bozeman core and surrounding area. He is a true inventor who loves tinkering in the garage in spare time, specifically around renewable energy. Christine’s focus is on another kind of energy. She is a Reiki Master Teacher with an online school, ReikiCafe University. She loves being in the kitchen and cooking up yummy local foods. They have 2 kids and 1 dog. Hannah is homeschooled in Waldorf education and loves sewing, felting, and playing in nature! Zach takes after his parents as a young entrepreneur with his own YouTube channel based on Minecraft. Jake the dog homeschools and takes us for walks and occasionally cleans dishes. “We look forward to multigenerational living, collaborative cooking and sharing meals, tending the goats and are excited to get our hands dirty in the garden!”

Courtney and Dan
Courtney is a physician assistant working in urgent care and hospital medicine. She loves the balance her job provides her; working long shifts allows for many days off in a row to go on adventures and work on projects! Dan works for MSU’s outdoor recreation program and is passionate about outdoor education and connecting young folks to meaningful experiences. He has lived in the Bozeman area for 4 years after working a wide array of seasonal jobs in the outdoor industry all over the country. 
Dan and Courtney are both constantly awed by the fact that they get to live and work in this incredibly beautiful corner of the world. “The only thing that could make life here any better is the community and sustainability that Bozeman Cohousing will provide!”

Carol
Carol enjoys community gardens, sharing decisions and labor, but remains a beginning farmer, as her experience as a political economist (retired professor from grading papers! not research/writing) is more grounded in the political economy of food policies. Working extensively in Southern Africa for over three decades (various periods of a few months to 2 years), she learned from smallholder farmers’ organizing to promote crop biodiversity and returned to home base to work for change in USA policies toward food production. Passions that may be useful to the cohousing community include her love of dogs, expressed by caring for foster dogs, all of whom have been happily placed with forever families. As a gardener, she is also a cook, including diverse menus for larger groups. She enthusiastically will join swimming, biking, hiking, X-country ski escapades. Her goals in joining intentional community include learning from others’ diverse perspectives and expertise, while sharing to create bases of support for members to reach out to larger communities, local to global.

Jame, Todd and Maren (18 months)
Todd is from Colorado and is nearly done with school to Todd is from Colorado and working as a Physical Therapist in Bozeman. Jame is from Utah and has done behavioral therapy with children who have autism or ODD.  Maren has lived in four states already and is ready to claim one as home. Jame and Todd love the outdoors, enjoying rock climbing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, rafting, and snowboarding. Finding a place that allows them to enjoy the outdoors, keep a simple life, and learn some vital skills like gardening and raising animals drew them to the cohousing concept.  “We love having a group of people we can trust and enjoy our time with which is why we are eager to join Bozeman Cohousing.”

Rebecca
Rebecca has lived in Bozeman since 2011. She grew up in Massachusetts, and has worked on wildlife conservation projects in the greater Yellowstone region and internationally. She has a background in both anthropology and ecology, and is particularly interested in human-wildlife and human-landscape relationships. She founded a research program on climate-sensitive wildlife in Mongolia, where she has spent much of her time over the past twenty years. Mongolia spurred an interest in questions of managing common resources, which is one of many reasons she’s drawn to Bozeman Cohousing. She enjoys reading, writing, skiing, backpacking, learning new languages, gardening, and doing creative things.

Randall
Randall grew up in upstate New York prior to moving to Colorado, where he lived for 10 years. “I lived in a resort Randall grew up in upstate New York prior to moving to Colorado, where he lived for 10 years. After living in New Zealand for 4 years, a 2011 earthquake changed his life. He randomly picked Bozeman and moved here that same year. In summer, you’ll find him out mountain biking and hiking, in winter, skiing Bridger Bowl and in the backcountry. “Knowing your neighbors and working together makes it much easier to get things done.”

Linden and Kim
Linden and Kim are empty nesters, having raised 4 children who now range in age between 20 and 30. They met in Vancouver, BC 35 years ago, and have lived in a number of communities over the years. The last 12 have been in Montana, where Kim is a nephrologist at the Billings Clinic and Linden has been a stay at home mom and creative soul. Their lives have been full of family and work and playing in the mountains. They cross-country ski, hike, trail run and bike, often accompanied by their giant schnoodle and one or more of the grand-dogs. “Skijoring is probably our favorite outdoor activity, as who doesn’t get joy from a manic, then tired, dog!” Kim does a bit of traipsing around the state taking care of kidney patients, from Poplar to Miles City to Bozeman. Now that things are quieter at home, Linden often goes along and has become an expert in the attractions of Miles City. She has also reveled in her artistic side, finding more time to paint and weave. “Our kids used to tease us that each time one of them left they were replaced by an animal, but now there is evidence that each has been replaced by a loom.”