While we can feel benumbed by the climate and environmental challenges facing us, a local woman has assembled a toolbox that can help us connect and be part of the solution.
As Engagement Director of the Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN), Amanda Bullis sends out regular emails informing subscribers about ongoing climate/environmental news, and providing ways we can easily contact our elected representatives.
Amanda and WEAN Exec. Director Marnie Jackson host ‘Finding Your Civic Voice’ workshops, which emphasize sharing our personal story—an empowering technique that helps us address civic issues when speaking at public meetings.
What I like about Amanda and Marnie is that they speak like regular people who care deeply about stewarding Island County’s ecosystems and upholding the laws that protect them.
“I put a lot of effort into writing with clarity,” said Amanda. “I enjoy taking complex concepts and simplifying them. I know the audience who is receiving the emails. Most do not have a lot of time. I think the complexity of issues is the main barrier. I like to simplify things while maintaining the integrity of the concepts, not dumbing them down. I can discern what is most important that people need to know.”
A few months ago I found my eyes glazing over when reading Island County’s draft Comprehensive Plan elements, and mentioned that the plan was difficult to digest. How did I, as a regular person, find a way to understand the document’s government-speak, and then speak about my concerns publicly?
“Choose one point,” said Amanda at our January workshop. “What policy you like, how to improve it, and how it relates to you personally. The public comments we’ve helped people craft that are most successful are personal stories. None of us are experts.”
Faced with the question of how to engage our elected officials a few years ago, Amanda was approached by a woman who wanted to speak about issues but did not know where to start. This ignited the ‘Finding Your Civic Voice’ workshops.
“A woman came up to me and said she wished she could do what I was doing, but was afraid,” recalled Amanda. “She thought she didn’t have something valuable to say. That was the seed for me. It’s really hard to speak in public, which is often the barrier for people. It’s actually a skillset that we don’t teach, but expect people to innately understand. Because I was an actor in my earlier life, I was taught to do that in a little black box studio in New York. It took me years to learn how to be relaxed in my body, how to breathe.”
Amanda said she can feel scared, too, when speaking publicly, and admits she may not be as expert as those she is addressing. She learned from WEAN founders Marianne Edain and Steve Erickson, who have long worked from the trenches to protect and preserve Whidbey’s and Camano’s natural resources. Spending hours mind-melding with them, she found her civic voice.
Marianne Edain sent an email regarding her thoughts on working with Amanda:
“Amanda is exceedingly bright, a quick study in areas which present problems to most people,” said the WEAN co-founder. We’ve been coaching people for decades on the basics of environmental law. Amanda caught on immediately. She didn’t need to be told twice. She also has a background in public outreach, presentations and media.”
Among other hats she wears, Amanda hosts WEAN’s podcasts. Visit the Action Hour webpage and scroll through its various posts. Interviews with Marianne and Steve appear while scrolling down the page.
“I was a bit shy about the podcasts she did with us at first, but found there was no need,” added Marianne. “We conversed on subjects of mutual interest, which need to be in the public eye. I’m just really sorry to lose her because she is so good at what she does. And there’s so much left undone. Check out her StoryMap about The State of Our Shorelines. I’d never seen a story map before, and I think this one is super informative. In fact, I understand other organizations and even public agencies are making use of it. And then there’s Finding Your Civic Voice. I’ve always been bothered by the phenomenon of getting lots of people to a public hearing—and then having them all sit there. So Amanda created a workshop in which people learn to get up and present their opinions. Super helpful to all concerned.”
Amanda spoke to the power of teaching the public to engage their representatives.
“Civic processes are fascinating — and obscure. It’s not clear to the average person how the process works,” said Amanda. “People don’t know it’s their right to speak up. Marianne and Steve were the ones who taught me that I could speak directly to my elected leaders about this process. They love it. Something I appreciate about Marianne is her fundamental knowing that she deserves to take up space and speak. We can be loud and mad when necessary. And be kind and generous and speak our truth.”
Amanda spoke about the unique character of our island.
“Whidbey Islanders are very invested in the resilience of their communities. That’s what makes Whidbey so special. People are invested in so many community projects. If that level of civic commitment could be turned to the local and state level, there’s no limit to what can be achieved by this little island.”
There’s a resource waiting to be tapped among our citizens who can come forward and speak their truth.
“What feels true to me is the people who are the most disenfranchised are the voices we most need to hear,” said Amanda. “Something that I know to be true about the public comment process is that it is designed for the community to tell elected leaders what they care about. The community elects them, and it’s their job to listen. It’s not about becoming a sudden expert on a water system. It’s about people stepping up to the podium to express their own lived experience, their values, and their concerns. Saying, I live here, I matter. This is what I need.”
To fund the civic engagement classes, WEAN applied for and received funding with the WA Dept. of Commerce Community Engagement program.
“That powered the Finding Your Civic Voice workshop,” said Amanda.
“Civic engagement—one of my core responsibilities—when I started at WEAN was a knowledge transfer from our founders to the organization,” recalled Amanda. “I spent a lot of time with Marianne on Zoom. She and Steve taught me about the law and its processes. Something Marianne would say all of the time is that she wished more people would participate. Many people felt it was just these two people who ran WEAN. They were carrying the weight of the world. That’s how it operated for 40 years. There was a feeling in the community that no one had to worry about environmental destruction in Island County because Marianne was on it.”
It’s clear to Amanda that the way climate change and environmental issues are progressing, it’s going to take all of us to become involved. “Everyone has to become an activist and change the way we live,” she said.
With more than 10 years’ experience working in nonprofits, digital storytelling and business writing, Amanda thrives on engaging the public to educate them about Island County’s natural world.
She caught the spark people power can ignite while attending Rutgers University in New Jersey. She helped make a documentary using storytelling to connect science and public interest.
As part of the documentary team for Atlantic Crossing: A Robot’s Daring Mission, broadcast on PBS, Amanda learned tools that engage the public when explaining science.
“As a student storyteller, I helped record over 300 hours of footage,” she recalled. “Through that filming process, I saw firsthand how research oceanographers were tackling. They got to understand their project and the fundamental problems of climate change, and how rapidly it was occurring. We followed a robot across the Atlantic, which was a scientific first, and the robot was the narrative vehicle for talking about climate change with the public. Her name was Scarlet.”
Rutgers University’s storytelling lab website tells the story Amanda was a part of: “Atlantic Crossing is a feature length science-in-action film following oceanographer Scott Glenn and his scientific team as they navigate an eight-foot autonomous robot across the Atlantic Ocean. Robot Scarlet battles hurricanes, storms and ship traffic during her 9-month voyage, making science history while testing the next generation of ocean observation vehicles. Seven Rutgers undergraduates joined Dena Seidel filming and editing Scarlet’s mission over two years. This 72-minute-long film was produced by Rutgers University, and distributed by First Run Features.
“Atlantic Crossing premiered at Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium in 2010 and was centrally featured in the mission’s two-year exhibit in San Ocean Hall. Atlantic Crossing aired on PBS stations around the country and is the recipient of several film festival awards.”
Arriving on Whidbey Island in 2020, Amanda first worked at Hedgebrook, a non-profit literary women’s retreat—which has fostered a global community of women writers since its inception. The late philanthropist Nancy Nordhoff and friend Sheryl Feldman founded Hedgebrook in the 1980s. Nancy Nordhoff later invested in supporting WEAN, which included hiring Marnie and Amanda.
“I moved to the island in 2020 to be close to my family, and drove across the country in a minivan,” recalled Amanda. “I worked at Hedgebrook first. Before that I had worked in nonprofits in New York, mostly artist nonprofits. I learned a lot about women writers while working at Hedgebrook. There’s a certain through line of using your voice in the work that I have done. Hedgebrook writers use their voice through their authorship; WEAN uses its voice to protect ecosystems.”
While working at Hedgebrook an opportunity came up for the engagement director role at WEAN. Amanda felt her skills were a match when interviewing with Marnie, Marianne and Steve.
“I would say that Marianne and Steve have shown me that show the legal system can be an excellent lever for environmental protection,” said Amanda. “In my view, the law is also a creative, generative process. On the one hand, laws that have been made become the backstop for environmental harm, but in the legislature, laws are being made all the time. We elect officials to represent us, who then go on to make laws, which means we, as citizens, get to help shape the laws that govern our lives. My view is that law is a system, the way our society has been founded. It is a pillar. We get to change it. It can be a creative field.”
Ironically it was a conference suggested by Marianne and Steve, the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference held at the University of Oregon in Eugene, that prompted Amanda’s next career step—law school.
This year’s conference was held in March.
“Everyone should go—they had their 44th this year,” said Amanda. “Organized by volunteer Land, Air, Water law students, it is free and open to the public. Marianne and Steve used to go all the time. Last year Marnie and I went. It was the most inspiring weekend for me. I wrote my personal statement for law school about the conference and the Shoreline Management Act coalition I’m a member of. It was the Shoreline Management Act for me which solidified a growing inkling to attend law school.”
One of the conference speakers who impressed Amanda was the executive director of Our Children’s Trust, which represents children and their right to a stable climate.
“They are an organization that litigates on behalf of the youth of America,” noted Amanda. “Remember the youth in Montana who successfully litigated for climate protection? The ED gave an amazing presentation on a 50-state strategy to litigate for climate protection for future generations. It was a moment where I thought I wanted to be part of that movement.”
Rather than feeling overwhelmed at the scale of needs we’re facing nowadays, Amanda became even more inspired while attending the 2026 conference.
“I think a lot of people feel paralyzed. Living now is sifting through one disaster after another,” she noted. “Leaving the conference I came away feeling great because there are so many people everywhere defending the environment, which is not always seen in the big news. I feel heartened after attending a conference like that because we’re not the only ones in the fight. With the barrage of issues we’re faced with, mobilizing action is the way to avoid being paralyzed. Focusing on community is the way to be effective and not lose faith. I believe in a bottom up approach. We can develop the muscle confidence. The more the community invests in itself, the more it can help others.”
This being said, Amanda’s immersion into law and its power has prompted her to apply for and pursue a Juris Doctor degree at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law in Phoenix.
She plans to leave her post at WEAN at the end of July.
“I’m really excited to learn the foundations of our system,” said Amanda. “ASU has a great Law and Sustainability concentration program, and it’s well-known for its water law program. Water is a fundamental climate issue that is coming for all of us, in some shape or form. I learned that 70 percent of the students are first generation attorneys, like me. They gave me a scholarship.”
While it is our local loss, we cheer Amanda on her journey.
Noting Amanda’s transition from WEAN this summer, Marnie Jackson emailed with these words: “Amanda’s contributions to WEAN have been immeasurable and will leave a lasting impression. While we’re sad to see her go, we’re proud that her passion for public interest law was sparked through her work with us — and we’re excited about the next chapters in our growth into a fully staffed organization in our fourth decade. Thanks in large part to her, we’re ready for our next evolution.”
Marnie explained that WEAN is hiring two new staff this summer. “Our Engagement Manager position is open for applications now,” she said. “This person will manage the day-to-day communications, membership, and event hosting that have been central to Amanda’s work. We also expect to announce an opening for a new role, Program Director, later this summer. This will encompass the civic education and campaign-building portions of Amanda’s role, plus bring new strategic advocacy and enforcement capabilities to our team.”
On the question of continuity, Marnie pointed to one transition she’s handling personally. “I’ll be taking over hosting duties on the Action Hour Podcast,” Marnie added. “Amanda is coaching me through it now — we’re committed to a smooth handoff of the podcast Amanda created, and we’ll steward it as a continuing community resource.”
Meanwhile, Amanda looks forward to learning the legal tools we can use to care for our natural world and people’s well-being.
“Not every system is easy, but there’s a way to understand it,” said Amanda. “Communication. Everything I communicate for WEAN is with the intention of teaching people to fish. Once you do something once, you know how to do it. The first time you go through a process it’s hard. But then it gets easier. With Finding Your Civic Voice, we have taught community members who had never spoken in public before. They’ve gone on to give public comment about issues they are passionate about. I love it when people email me to say they’ve submitted their comments. I feel I’m doing my job.”
At the age of 37, Amanda aims to share her law school experience with the public: “The law, much like civic processes, is complicated. Unless you’re engaging directly with the law, do you really think about it on a daily basis? The current moment has many people questioning the integrity of our judicial system. I believe the law matters. It’s a social contract that we write with each other. When that is being violated it needs to be adjusted. That said, our social contract can be racist, harmful to the environment. When it violates the rights of others, it needs to be adjusted. I think we’ll engage in litigating, mitigating. One reason I chose ASU Law that is it was named for the first woman Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. She worked in every type of law. She was known for her belief in civic engagement which is in alignment with me from a value standpoint.”