Realtors from four industry organizations combined celebrations this year as they installed their 2012 leadership teams and presented awards for special achievements.
The joint event, held Dec. 2 at the Museum of Flight, drew 165 members, affiliates and guests from Seattle KingCounty REALTORS (SKCR), Snohomish County-Camano Association of REALTORS, Women’s Council of REALTORS – Seattle Metro Chapter, and Young Professionals Network.
Sixteen individuals and one corporation received awards from SKCR, for outstanding achievements during 2011.
The recipients included:
• Realtor of the Year, Kristen Greenlaw, Windermere Real Estate Northeast, Kirkland
In receiving the highest award from one’s peers, Greenlaw was recognized for her leadership and outstanding contributions to the local, state and national associations. In 2011, her activities included serving as president of SKCR and as an active member of the association’s Government Affairs Committee.
Greenlaw, a resident of Ames Lake in east King County, also continued being a dedicated volunteer for The Realtors Environmental Council (TREC), which promotes environmental stewardship.
At the state level, she has held leadership positions with WR PAC (Washington Realtors Political Action Committee) and as a state legislative key contact to the 45th District. She also volunteers with the National Association of REALTORS, as a 2011 RPAC trustee and incoming NAR director from the State of Washington.
The 2010 graduate of NAR’s prestigious Leadership Academy has been named to the 2012 Federal Taxation and Housing Opportunities committees.
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Beverly Read, Windermere R.E.-Northlake, Lake Forest Park
Read has a distinguished record of service to her profession, her clients and her community. Shortly after becoming a realtor more than 30 years ago, she joined SKCR’s Governmental Affairs Committee and has since conducted hundreds of candidate interviews.
Her unwavering commitment to political affairs extends to the state and national associations. She has been a state legislative key contact to the 32nd District for more than two decades.
Among her leadership roles, Read has served as a vice president on SKCR’s board of directors, chair of both local and state Realtor Political Action Committees and as Federal Political Coordinator for the First Congressional District.
Earlier this year, she was honored by Windermere for 30-plus years of loyal service.
• Instructor Lifetime Achievement Award, Claudia Wicks, Real Estate Base Camp
Having instructed more than 50,000 industry professionals in the U.S. and Canada, Claudia Wicks is known for delivering actionable training in an engaging style.
This award follows recognition in 2008 as a “Top 100 Most Influential Women in Real Estate” and as SKCR’s 2008 Instructor of the Year.
As founder and CEO of Real Estate Base Camp, she has partnered with SKCR to provide training and coaching on the use of technology and online marketing tools. This successful agent, broker, manager, trainer, speaker, writer and marketing innovator has developed and delivered nationally acclaimed programs and presentations for market leading brokers and companies.
• Affiliate of the Year, Jeff Van Nostran, Salal Credit Union
To recognize the value of non-realtors who support the real estate industry, SKCR singles out an affiliate member to honor. Nostran is a senior residential loan specialist at Salal Credit Union.
This UW graduate and Pacific Northwest native has been active with SKCR’s Young Professionals Network, where he has demonstrated a commitment to understanding Realtor needs, providing practical, personalized advice, and finding the best mortgage options for clients.
• Government Affairs Volunteer of the Year, Dennis Brown, Windermere Seattle-West Seattle/Fauntleroy
Brown, whose involvement in governmental affairs at the local, state and national levels spans more than two decades, is the 2011 recipient of the Government Affairs Volunteer of the Year Award.
This longtime major investor in RPAC has an impressive history of participation with fundraising and candidate endorsement interview panels. He has worked at every Realtor Environmental Council (TREC) restoration project.
His service also includes being a well-respected legislative key contact to two state senators and three state representatives, along with being on the Realtor contact team for U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott and U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
• Affiliate Community Service, Karen Buckley, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Buckley, this year’s affiliate liaison on SKCR’s board of directors and a 30-year veteran of the title, escrow and lending professions, serves on the association’s First Citizen Committee, the First Citizen Scholarship Board and the Governmental Affairs Committee.
Her long list of civic endeavors includes being 2011 and 2012 president of Federal Way Sunrise Rotary, serving on the Rotary First Harvest board and managing a shift at Northwest Harvest. She is on the steering committee for Partners for Work, a Rotary project that assists developmentally disabled individuals obtain employment.
Public sector positions include being a planning commissioner and serving on the Lake Tapps Task Force. Other beneficiaries of her community service include the Auburn Symphony and the YMCA.
• Realtor Community Service: three recipients
• Mary Ann Vandergriff, Windermere Seattle-West Seattle/Fauntleroy
An active member for 23 years, Realtor Mary Ann Vandergriff chose to affiliate with Windermere because of its commitment to the community. She subsequently became her branch’s representative on The Windermere Foundation Board.
Among her contributions, she has helped raise more than $40,000 at the Foundation’s auction, and she has co-chaired Windermere’s Annual Community Service Day, working to beautify and clean up local parks.
Her commitment to the Salvation Army’s Hickman House, the state’s first transitional housing program for survivors of domestic violence, spans 15 years, and was singled out for a “Take Action Award” from King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Vandergriff has also devoted countless house to Fairmont Elementary School, “Project Cool for Back to School,” (a city based program to provide supply apparel and school supplies to low income and homeless children), and the YMCA.
• Colleen Fischesser, RE/MAX Select Real Estate, Maple Valley
A licensee since 1990, Colleen Fischesser purchased the Maple Valley RE/MAX Select office in 2005 and has earned “best in client satisfaction” awards in each subsequent year.
She and her team are devoted supporters of Seattle Children’s Hospital and pediatric brain tumor research. As a Children’s Hospital “Miracle Office,” they pledge a portion of every sales commission to Children’s Miracle Network and the hospital.
Her office hosts an annual dinner auction which has raised more than $300,000 since the event’s inception to support local children and their families.
• Lynn Sanborn, Windermere Real Estate/SCA, Redmond
Lynn Sanborn’s community service and philanthropic focus for more than a dozen years have been charities that assist families facing homelessness and in financial crisis. Her devotion to raising money for Uncompensated Care at Children’s Hospital stems from first-hand experience when her newborn twin nieces underwent more than 15 serious surgeries.
This Community Service award recipient is a guild member with Eastside Friends of Children’s and board member of Kirkland Interfaith Transitional Housing, which helps Eastside families facing homelessness.
Sanborn is a founding member of the Giving Chicks, a charity that benefits women and children. Additionally, this 20-year industry professional has served five-plus years an Eastside representative on the Windermere Foundation.
• Instructor of the Year, Joe Still, Still Training/The Core Course
Still, a real estate licensee since 1987, became an industry trainer in 1991. Since then, he has incorporated skills used in his brokerage and consulting practices to train more than 16,000 industry colleagues.
In addition to being an instructor for certification courses, he has been a featured speaker at NAR national conventions, numerous state conventions and at various regional and local real estate association meetings and conferences.
His presentations earn consistent praise for providing practical, “how to” advice that can be used immediately.
• Cultural Awareness Award, Oscar Diaz, Windermere Real Estate/East, Bellevue South
In recognition of outstanding contributions in promoting diversity in the Realtor workplace and in promoting homeownership among the county’s diverse population, Oscar Diaz is the 2011 honoree for the Cultural Awareness Award.
This long-time advocate for homeownership in the Hispanic/Latino community emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba and subsequently served in the U.S. Air Force. Among his credentials, he is fluent in Spanish and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration.
Diaz is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and sits on the Homeownership Center Advisory Committee on Homebuyer Education at El Centro de La Raza.
• *(star) TREC Award, Autumn Turner, Windermere Real Estate/Northwest, Ballard
Since volunteering on The Realtor Environmental Council’s (TREC) annual restoration project in 2008, Autumn Turner has made this “on the ground” undertaking an annual commitment. Turner, a Seattle native, studied biology and environmental sciences at the University of Washington and became our state’s first Certified EcoBroker in 2005, the same year she became a realtor.
She strives to incorporate environmental ethics in her work, advising her clients on the merits of green features. She shares her knowledge by serving as an instructor on Green Home Buying and Selling at various local colleges.
• Pacesetter Award, Randy Bannecker, Bannecker & Associates
Bannecker, a housing specialist with the SEATTLE KingCounty REALTORS and member of its Governmental Affairs team, helped create GreenHomeAdvisor.org, a SKCR-sponsored website designed to promote voluntary consumer measures to increase home energy efficiency.
Since 1997, when he established Bannecker Public Affairs, he has worked with SKCR leadership and staff to promote housing opportunities and adequate housing supply. This leader in the region’s business community has engaged in our area’s critical issues for more than 20 years.
He has cultivated strong relationships with opinion leaders and elected officials while helping Realtors articulate a vision for the region that is built on a robust housing market.
• Media of the Year, Cheri Brennan, Alliance Communications
For her role in communicating information on real estate matters, overall support of realtors, and community service, Cheri Brennan received “Media of the Year” honors. Her involvement in the profession dates to the late ‘70s.
She has served as PR Specialist at SKCR since the early ‘90s, shortly after establishing her own business. In this position she provides an array of communications services for the association’s internal and external audiences.
She works closely with the Governmental Affairs and First Citizens Award committees and also helps develop content for Northwest Reporter, a joint publication of SKCR and Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
In addition to working with a wide array of clients, Brennan provides pro bono services to several nonprofit organizations and causes.
• Game Changer Award, Zillow (Spencer Rascoff)
The Game Changer Award recognizes an individual or company at the forefront of economic, community, lifestyle, and technological changes, and whose dynamic vision and leadership “shakes up our every day routines.”
This year’s recipient, Zillow, launched a website in February 2006 as “a marketplace for finding and sharing vital information about homes, real estate and mortgages.” Since then, Zillow has enjoyed extraordinary growth, attracting 24.6 million unique users in October 2011.
As part of its mission to empower consumers with information and tools to make smart decisions about homes, real estate and mortgages, Zillow has added Mortgage Marketplace to connect home shoppers and lenders, and a mobile app for iPhone users. It became a publicly-traded company in mid-July, selling 3.46 million shares in its IPO.
• “One to Watch,” Georgia Wall-Schoonover, John L. Scott Real Estate
This award recognizes members under age 35 who demonstrate ingenuity and creativity in their careers. Recipients are honored for adapting to changing markets, assuming leadership and/or mentoring roles to colleagues, and for community service.
Wall-Schoonover served as vice chair of SKCR’s Young Professionals Network in 2011, and will chair that organization in 2012. This active YPN and SKCR director takes part in the annual TREC project and volunteers with the “lunch buddy” program at Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School in Kirkland.
A graduate of Seattle Pacific University, she launched her career as a realtor in 1999 and currently works with her mother, forming a top-producing duo. In 2007 she was Seattle Seahawks Sea Gal of the Year.
She is a regular guest on “Brashenomics” business talk show on 1150 AM KKNW.
• REALTOR Achievement, Rich Menti, Windermere Real Estate/South, Federal Way
For outstanding contributions to both the local and state Realtor associations, Rich Menti is the 2011 Realtor Achievement award winner. He is broker/owner of five South King County Windermere offices.
His realtor career spans 17 years, including service as a director for the local and state associations, a member of SKCR’s Governmental Affairs Committee, and participant on the candidate interview panels.
His industry support encompasses legislative advocacy, RPAC, presidential advisory groups, TREC and other realtor events and fundraisers.
In addition to being a member of the Windermere Foundation, he volunteers as a coach for youth sports teams, and has chaired numerous events and fund-raisers for the homeless.
