Board Members
Eric Johnson
Board President
Eric Johnson has served communities in the State of Washington for over 40 years as both an appointed and elected official. In 2024, Eric stepped down after 17 years as Executive Director for the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC). Prior to joining the WSAC staff, he served as a Lewis County Commissioner, being first elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. As a county commissioner, he primarily focused on transportation and public works, land use and natural resources, and improving health and human services in distressed rural communities. Eric is currently a partner at Columbia Policy Advisors.
Eric started his professional career in parks, recreation and natural resource management, serving in administrative positions with Lewis County and the cities of Chehalis and Bellingham. He also served for nine years as assistant director for the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.
Eric is passionate about effective and efficient delivery of public services, improving public policy and transparent processes, strategic organizational improvement and ensuring prioritization and accountability for public expenditures.
Throughout his career, Eric has been active in serving on local, state and national boards and committees.
Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts from Western Washington University and a Certificate in Executive Management from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.
Helen Price Johnson
Vice President
Helen Price Johnson is a respected leader and lifelong advocate for rural communities. A third-generation small business owner, she brings decades of experience in public service, economic development, and education.
Helen was President Biden’s Washington State Director for USDA Rural Development, working to expand opportunity and strengthen communities across rural Washington.
She previously served 12 years as an Island County Commissioner, was president of the Washington State Association of Counties, and led the South Whidbey School Board for two terms. Rooted in community values and driven by a spirit of service, Helen continues to champion rural voices across the state.
She and her husband grew up on Whidbey Island and raised their family there. They now enjoy spending time with five amazing grandchildren.
Craig Muska
Treasurer
Craig Muska founded and served as president of Canopy, a new model for strengthening local communities and promoting economic development by developing a pipeline of scalable, regionally-focused investment opportunities. Canopy was created to develop a place where community leaders, regional stakeholders and investors all have a seat at the table and to connect its members to new opportunities that would be otherwise possible. As president, Craig played a key role in the development and launch of Canopy and collaborated with a diverse group of community-focused leaders, public sector stakeholders, universities, and place-based foundations to craft Canopy into an innovative model for regional investment capital formation and rural economic development.
Craig brings more than 20 years of investment expertise and is a nationally recognized expert in the field of impact investing. Prior to founding Canopy, he served as director of investments for Threshold Group’s Foundation Services where he launched and developed the firm’s impact investing strategy across their client base. He has worked with leading private foundations, institutional investors and asset managers to develop impact aligned investment strategies and collaborations. Craig was also managing director at IW Financial, an investment research and consulting firm that integrates environmental, social and governance data into institutional investment frameworks. He brings a diverse background from his strategy and investment roles at Envestnet Asset Management, Credit Suite HOLT and Nuveen Investments.
Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northern Illinois University and a master’s in public administration from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Gabe Spencer
Secretary
Gabe Spencer Is an elected official for tax assessment in Skamania County, since January of 2007. Skamania County is over one million acres that spans from the Columbia River to the northern flanks of Mt. St. Helens. As the Assessor, he believes in transparency and treating taxpayers with kindness and fairness. Gabe has over 1200 hours of continuing education credits in appraisal and tax policy and responsibly manages over 10,000 parcels with a total assessed value of $2.9 billion.
Early on as Assessor, he spearheaded the creation of Skamania’s first GIS department now considered one of the top rural County programs in the State.
Gabe’s current or past professional associations include the Washington State Housing Finance Commission; the Columbia Gorge Housing Authority; the Washington State Assessor’s Association; the National Association of County Officials, CEWD board; the Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation; The Skamania County homeless housing board; the IAAO, International Assessment Administration Organization; and the Washington Association of County officials.
Gabe graduated with a degree from Northern Arizona University and has an extended major in Social Anthropology.
Jon DeVaney
Jon DeVaney has served as president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association since September 2014 when the association was established through the merger of four existing tree fruit industry organizations. In this capacity, he oversees the association’s industry education, data collection and reporting and state and local government relations activities on behalf of the growers, packers and shippers of the state’s apple, pear and cherry growers.
Prior to the merger, he was the executive director of the Yakima Valley Growers Shippers Association from November 2009. He has an extensive background in agricultural policy and politics, having previously served as a long-time staff member of U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, as Washington State Director of USDA Rural Development and on the staff of the Northwest Horticultural Council.
Jon also serves on the boards of the Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing, the National Council of Agricultural Employers and the Association of Washington Business.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He resides in Yakima with his wife and two sons.
Micki Harnois
Micki Harnois has used her work experience and skills to assist small communities with economic development and sustainability. She began her career in 1999 as an associate planner in Chelan County where she processed land use actions, variances and rezones. In 2000, she became an associate planner in Spokane County where she dealt with sign permits, review of commercial building projects and served as the short plat administrator. In 2003, she became the planner for the City of Spokane Valley, processing all types of land use actions, doing commercial building reviews, comprehensive plan updates and municipal code updates and customer service. She retired from that position in 2019. In 2020, she opened her own business – Mighty Small Planning Services – dealing with land use and policy administration. In 2021, she became the clerk/treasurer for the town of Malden, Wash.
In 2002, Micki was elected to the Town Council of Rockford, Wash., a position she still holds. Her professional associations include the Association of Washington Cities Board and the AWCS Small Cities Committee; the Spokane Regional Transportation Council; the Rockford Tree City USA organization; the Spokane County Steering Committee of Elected Officials GMA; and the North Palouse Chamber of Commerce. She has received awards from the AWC and the Infrastructure Assistance Coordinating Council and is a certified Tourism Ambassador for the Spokane Region.
Micki has a bachelor’s degree in social science from Washington State University ad completed course work for a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Eastern Washington University.
Michael Gaffney
Michael J. Gaffney, J.D., is the associate director of Extension at Washington State University. Mike has served in a number of overlapping leadership positions for WSU Extension since November, 2015. These include assistant director, acting director, and for seven years as director of the Extension Community and Economic Development Program Unit (CED). Prior to those appointments, Mike served at WSU as the director of the Division of Governmental Studies and Services, and simultaneously as the director of Emergency Management.
With a background in political science, public safety, law and public policy, Mike has been associated with WSU Extension for 24 years and has long participated in community engagement and projects that provide applied research, technical assistance and training services for, governmental agencies, nonprofits and communities throughout the Northwest. These activities have included projects related to resilience, community-oriented policing, collaborative natural resource management, ethics in public service, emergency management and disaster response, social capital/ community capitals, and broadband equity and expansion.
Mike has served in a number of regional and national organizations, including the Extension Disaster Education Network; the Western Extension Directors Association; the APLU Commission on Economic and Community Engagement; the Western Rural Development Center; and the Western Program and Organizational Leaders Committee.
Roni Holder-Diefenbach
Roni Holder-Diefenbach is the executive director of the Economic Alliance, the designated Economic Development Council/ADO for Okanogan County since 2007. Roni grew up in Omak and left to attend college in Spokane shortly after graduating from high school. She returned to Okanogan County in 1998 as she felt that coming home would be the best place to work and to raise her family. Roni went to work immediately for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation as the lead job development specialist when they first obtained the Workfirst contracts from the State of Washington. She then went to work as the branch manager of Career Path Services, a workforce development organization in Okanogan County for 7 years.
Roni is a Colville Tribal Member, and together with her husband Kevin, has two adult children and one grandson, Riot Lee! They bought their first business in April 2002 and now own several small businesses in Okanogan County. She currently sits on the executive committees of the NCW Workforce Development Council and NCW Economic Development District Board. She also serves on the Washington Economic Development Association Board and was appointed to the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board, representing small businesses east of the Cascades. Roni also facilitates the Okanogan County and Colville Confederated Tribes Broadband Action Team and has done so since 2019.
Sharon Miracle
Retired president and CEO of Yakima Valley Community Foundation, Sharon Miracle has more than 30 years of leadership experience in non-profit, healthcare and corporate sectors. She leads efforts to address socioeconomic disparity and environmental concerns through strategic grant making and programs focused on education, health and civic engagement, and community vitality, and works to convene people and agencies to address community issues.
Before joining the Foundation in 2018, Sharon served as corporate communications director for Tree Top, Inc., a $450 million global fruit-processing cooperative, where she led communications and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Her earlier career included senior leadership roles in higher education, healthcare, and both private and public foundations.
Sharon holds a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing Management from
Central Washington University and completed extensive graduate work in
communication and leadership at Gonzaga University.
Currently serving as the first Board Chair for the Washington Green Bank, Sharon is
also an active Rotarian and has served as a volunteer leader on numerous boards
throughout her career. She serves as co-chair of Partners for Rural Washington’s
PRISTINE Water Initiative. She is a founder and co-chairs the Press Forward
Washington Chapter and serves on the nationwide Press Forward Communications
Committee and the movement’s Infrastructure Committee.
Tim O’Connell
Tim O’Connell has more than 40 years of experience advancing affordable housing,
rural economic development, community infrastructure and strategic partnerships
throughout the western United States and Pacific region. His career spans leadership positions with the Washington State Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, where he has successfully connected communities with the resources needed to create lasting economic opportunities. He currently serves as a contract specialist with the Washington State Department of Commerce Housing Division.
As deputy state director for USDA Rural Development in Washington, Tim oversaw the delivery of approximately $180 million annually in federal investments through 56 housing, business, and infrastructure programs. Previously, as USDA Rural
Development’s West Region community economic development coordinator, Tim
provided leadership across 13 western states, helping communities develop innovative solutions for broadband expansion, disaster resilience, outdoor recreation economies and regional economic development.
Tim has been a national leader in recreation economy development, creating
partnerships among federal land management agencies, local governments and rural communities. Throughout his career, Tim also has built strong working relationships with tribal governments and indigenous organizations, supporting projects ranging from broadband deployment and housing to economic development and infrastructure planning.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from Washington State
University and remains active in public service through board leadership with Habitat for Humanity of Washington State and Rural Development Initiatives, as well as service on the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program State Lands Development Advisory Committee.