Anne Marie Toccket holds a master's degree in international development from the University of Pittsburgh and bachelor's degrees in Spanish, international studies and journalism from Penn State University. She has worked extensively in Latin America, including contract, consulting and volunteer positions in Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and Peru. While completing her master's, Anne Marie was the two-time recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies award, which supported research on the Andes and in Quechua language study. She worked in Peru for Awamaki’s predecessor organization, helped found Awamaki, and returns regularly. Annemarie is a non-profit strategic consultant and fundraiser in Pittsburgh.

Originally from Seattle, Kramer Gillin is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduating from Macalester College, Kramer worked for a folk art importer and a foreign map distributor in Austin, TX. He then moved to Tajikistan, where he worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Now at UW-Madison, Kramer researches the social, political, and environmental dimensions of land reform, pasture management, and economic development projects in Central Asia and Afghanistan; teaches regional geography courses; and is currently editing a world regional geography textbook. His first trip to the Sacred Valley was in 2001.

Kristen lives in Seattle. She is a CPA and has over ten years of experience in tax accounting for large corporations. She has traveled extensively overseas and is currently expanding her career interests to graphic design. She has visited Ollantaytambo several times with her husband Jeff. They have two dogs and can be found cycling or canoeing in their spare time.

Ladd has practiced law since 1975. He spent five years as a public defender in Washington, D.C., and then practiced for the remainder of his career at Davis Wright Tremaine, a Seattle law firm with offices around the country. He is now retired and grows vegetables, berries, fruit and Christmas trees with his wife on Vashon Island, near Seattle. Ladd has travelled to Ollantaytambo five times since 2004. He is the father of Kennedy Leavens, one of the Awamaki founders. He has two other grown daughters.

A Seattle native, Quincy Anderson has been an exhibiting artist for over thirty years. Influenced by her travels all over the world, Quincy creates nature-inspired large scale abstract paintings. Since receiving her MFA from the University of Washington, Quincy has also been an art instructor at many different institutions throughout Washington State. Her work is represented by Howard/Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WA and Museo Gallery, Langley, WA. She lives on Whidbey Island in Washington. Quincy is passionate about women’s empowerment and textile design.

A Seattle native, Tom holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and served in the Peace Corps in Micronesia. A longtime public servant, he was an elected member of the Seattle City Council for two terms and was Executive Director of Human Resources for the Seattle Public Schools prior to Chairing the Board of the Seattle Monorail Project. He taught at the Evans School of Public Policy at the University of Washington and has consulted in public policy and negotiation. He has served on numerous boards. He and his wife have two grown children and close family ties to Peru. Currently he is the assistant coach of a high school girls’ basketball team.

Annie Millican is a weaver, designer, and international development consultant with 15 years experience working with global artisan communities and design brands to bring craftwork to new audiences. Annie strives to create meaningful human connections in the design process, across an otherwise knotty and inequitable supply chain. Annie was part of the founding team at Awamaki and she has since gone on to lead strategy at Nest, The Anou, VOZ, DARA Artisans and Kollabora, as well as teach at the Fashion Institute of Technology.  Annie has a degree in Art History and International Development Studies from McGill University.

Pamela Vanderlinde is an independent designer based in Chicago whose design practice, philosophy and teaching are grounded in her study of historical and contemporary bespoke fashion. For eleven years, she owned and operated a boutique named Zone which housed her bespoke designs. Pamela also teaches fashion design classes at the undergraduate level at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago. Her level of expertise is grounded in patternmaking and fashion design and has just written a book published by Bloomsbury Publishing titled Patternmaking for Jacket and Coat Design, which was released in January 2017. She also has expertise in fashion business and has taught classes in this discipline as well.