Board Members

Michelle Gonzalez was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee in 2020 to serve on the Pollution Control and Shorelines Hearings Boards. She was reappointed by Governor Inslee in 2022. Before joining the boards, Ms. Gonzalez directed the Women’s Commission, an agency in the Governor’s Office. She also served as assistant dean at the University of Washington School of Law and as a senior lecturer in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, where she has taught courses on administrative law and mediation and negotiation. Ms. Gonzalez has worked in the private and public sectors as an attorney and clerked for a federal magistrate judge in the Western District of Washington.

Ms. Gonzalez earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She is a volunteer board member of Heritage University in the Yakima Valley, which serves students from the local area. She enjoys mentoring students, and she started an externship program for law students with the agency. She speaks conversational Spanish and enjoys opportunities to practice.

Christopher Swanson was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee in 2023 to serve on the Pollution Control and Shorelines Hearings Boards. Before his appointment, he served as assistant chief industrial appeals judge with the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (BIIA) and worked as a mediation and review judge and a hearings judge with the BIIA, a health law judge with the Washington state Department of Health, and an assistant attorney general serving in the Utilities and Transportation and Agriculture and Health divisions. In all, he has worked in administrative law for twenty-three years and served as an administrative adjudicator for fifteen years.

Mr. Swanson graduated magna cum laude from California State University, Chico, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and received his law degree from Willamette University College of Law.

In his spare time, Mr. Swanson enjoys hiking and cycling especially in the Mount Rainier area as well as international travel.

RJ Lott is the Community Development Director of the City of Pullman, with all of his 21-year career in eastern Washington.   Mr. Lott has experience in a wide range of planning fields including both short- and long-range planning, project management, grant writing, environmental review, and working with consultants, among others.  
Mr. Lott has two bachelor’s degrees, one in Urban Planning, from the University of Utah and another in Business Management.  He also has a master’s degree in public administration, and designation as a Certified Public Manager both from Arizona State University.  He is a certified planner (AICP) and a professional in human resources (PHR). Mr. Lott is also active in the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and has certificates in Leading on Purpose and High-Performance Leadership through the Professional Development Academy.  
In his free time, Mr. Lott enjoys travel, comedy, distance running, golf, college football and following commercial aircraft and airports.   Six years ago, Mr. Lott was married in Bali, Indonesia, and gained two wonderful stepdaughters, Charli and Randi, and has a fantastic German Shepherd/Lab mix dog, named Molly.  

Keith is an attorney and his current practice at a Seattle firm focuses on intellectual property. Before that, Keith spent several years in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office before joining the United Nations. There, he prosecuted war criminals in The Hague for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Keith is a former board member for the King County Conservation Voters, the environmental community’s political arm, and was the legal director of Futurewise, a nonprofit organization dedicated to responsible land use.
Keith served on the City of Shoreline Planning Commission from 2012 to 2015 and was elected as the Commission Chair in 2014. Keith has lived in the Puget Sound region since 1998.
He lives in Shoreline with his wife, four children, and their assorted pets.
Keith holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master's from Tufts University, and a law degree from New York University of Law. 

Elected to the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners in 2020, Heidi Eisenhour is an experienced nonprofit executive having served locally as chief operating officer at the Northwest Maritime Center, most recently, and executive director at Jefferson Land Trust previously. She served on the Jefferson County Planning Commission when the first comprehensive plan was adopted in compliance with the Growth Management Act. Her family has lived in Jefferson County since 1981. Ms. Eisenhour graduated from The Evergreen State College with a degree in environmental science in 1994.

No bio at this time.

Dennis P. Weber represents the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) Board of Directors on the Shorelines Hearings Board. First elected to the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) in 2012, he brings nearly fifty years of public service experience, beginning with his appointment to the county’s planning commission in 1977. He also represents WSAC on the Criminal Justice Treatment Act Panel and the State Interoperability Executive Committee. He has also represented the county on the Great Rivers Behavioral Health Organization, Cowlitz County Law and Justice Council, and Lower Columbia CAP.

Dennis also served on the Longview City Council from 1980 to 1992, including 6 years as mayor. He served on a local hospital and medical center board from 1990 to 2001, before returning to the city council from 2002 to 2012, including another three years as mayor. In addition, he has served on the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board since 2007, first representing southwest Washington cities and then as the county’s representative. He will be completing his 12^th year on the BOCC this year.

Dennis belongs to many civic organizations including the Cowlitz County Historical Society, including as a frequent writer for its Quarterly. He also belongs to Longview Rotary Club and Longview Community Church. He has been a violinist with the Southwest Washington Symphony Orchestra since 1967. And his work with Friends of Longview helped secure a state historical capital grant for a permanent railroad history exhibit in there.

In 1974 Dennis graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Political Science and teaching minors in history and journalism. In 1995 he earned a master’s in education from the University of Portland. He taught high school social studies for Longview Public Schools from 1975 to 2010.

Dennis was born and raised in Longview, WA.  He continues to live there with his wife, retired biology teacher Kris McElroy. Together they raised three daughters: Kathyn who works in the US Foreign Service currently in Sri Lanka and the Maldives; Sarah who works in global health currently in Nairobi, Kenya; and Juliana who works for the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Dennis and Kris also enjoy time with their four grandchildren.

Jamie Stephens served on the San Juan County Council for twelve years and as its chair four times. During his tenure he oversaw major updates and approval of their Shoreline Management Plan, Critical Areas Ordinances, and Comprehensive Plan. He worked to develop a policy of “managed retreat” to move infrastructure away from the shoreline to protect it from storms. As a Council Member he served on the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council, Governor Inslee’s Orcas Task Force, and Puget Sound Partnership Ecosystem Coordination Board. As chair of the Ecosystem Coordination Board, he established a land use subcommittee to develop policies that reconcile environmental protections with the policies of the Growth Management Act.

Jamie was appointed to the Shorelines Hearings Board in 2016 by the Washington State Association of Counties where he also served as its President. He was part of a volunteer group that lobbied for the establishment of the San Juan Islands National Monument established in 2013. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and executive business classes at the Wharton School. He lives on Lopez Island where he owns a property management business with his wife.

Appointed by the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, Allen Estep has been a member of the Shorelines Hearings Board since 2017. He started his career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, where he worked for three years before joining the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. His career with that state agency has spanned nearly thirty years and included positions as a forester and biologist and now an assistant division manager in the State Uplands program. He leads the Habitat Conservation Plan and Scientific Consultation Section. He works closely with the planning team on programmatic State Environmental Policy Act and the National Environmental Policy Act projects. Mr. Estep holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Lawrence University.

Ms. Ehrlichman joined ELUHO in May of 2024.  Prior to joining the office, she was a municipal lawyer in local government, with an emphasis in land use and environmental law.  Ms. Ehrlichman was lead of the land use division in the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and was later appointed chief civil deputy (1996-2007).  She was a full-time quasi-judicial hearing examiner for Snohomish County (2007-2010) and later for the City of Seattle (2018-2000); she has served as a part-time hearing examiner for the City of Bellevue since 2017.  During the period 2010 – 2018, Ms. Ehrlichman was an attorney in private practice representing a wide variety of clients, including municipalities, federally recognized Indian Tribes, landowners, farmers, business owners, and citizen groups, with an emphasis in land use and environmental law.  More recently, Ms. Ehrlichman served as chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney for Island County and as civil deputy prosecutor for Jefferson County (2019 – 2024). 

Ms. Ehrlichman graduated cum laude from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, and received her undergraduate degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.   After law school, she clerked in the Alaska state courts in Anchorage, Alaska and the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division One in Seattle.

Before joining the office, Mr. Verdugo was in private practice litigating consumer class actions and insurance cases. He also previously served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Rosanna M. Peterson at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington and for Justice Steven C. González at the Washington Supreme Court. Mr. Verdugo graduated from the University of Washington with bachelor's degrees in plant biology and German language and literature. He earned his law degree from the University of Washington School of Law.

Neil graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor’s in Wildlife Science and then was employed by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife for nine years before entering law school at University of Oregon.  After law school, Neil spent some time in the Republic of Palau, drafting environmental statutes and regulations, and then worked 26 years for the Washington Attorney General’s office, representing the Washington Departments of Fish & Wildlife and Natural Resources and the Forest Practices Board.  In 2018, Neil was appointed to a PCHB/SHB Board member position in the Environmental and Land Use Hearings Office (ELUHO).  Neil retired in 2023, but returned to ELUHO as an Administrative Appeals Judge in June of 2024.

Neil has been married since 1976. Neil and his wife enjoy hiking, horseback riding, traveling, and reading fantasy/science fiction and spy thriller novels.