Leadership
Staff
Miriam Anderson (they/she)
Artistic Director
Miriam Anderson has been involved in music her whole life and started studying voice and percussion at the age of 10. She began her studies in both choral and orchestral conducting during her undergraduate years at UC Berkeley. After earning a bachelor’s degree in music and peace and conflict studies, she was hired to assistant direct the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, and to play principal timpani and run the percussion section for the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. In June 2017 she completed a master’s of music degree in choral conducting from the University of Washington.
Miriam is passionate about using choral music to build community and connection, and as a form of outreach, integrating her backgrounds in music and peace studies. Outside of Puget Soundworks, Miriam currently directs the Seattle Labor Chorus and the Piccolini and Entrata ensembles of Seattle Girls Choir. She is also a private voice teacher, a teaching artist at Seattle Opera, and is the Chorus Manager and a singing member of Choral Arts Northwest. Miriam also frequently gigs in the Seattle area as a percussionist, vocalist, and conductor.
When she is not making music, Miriam enjoys dance, yoga, knitting, cooking, and playing with her cat, Echo, and dog, Juno.
Abigail Habegger (she/her)
Pianist
Born and raised in Chicago, IL, Abigail is enjoying the Seattle area. She is known for her teaching, solo work as well as her collaborative work, including opera, chamber music, juries, and competitions.
Abigail has accompanied rehearsals for La Traviata in Urbania, Italy, Broadway shows such as Cabaret, touring children’s choirs, and members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. She holds a Bachelor in Music from DePaul University and a Master’s in Music from Northern Illinois University. Abi has been an accompanist for Colombia Choirs and The Seattle Girls Choir. She is currently a piano accompanist for the Northshore School District.
Abigail also loves hiking, running, baking, and keeping up with her 3 children Alyse, Arakel, and Anya, as well as her husband Steve.
Diana Gard (she/her)
Technical Director
Diana realized she was going to have to plan a career around computer technology in the 80s, when she had to spend most of her days trying to make her computer do the things she needed it to do. With a music and theatre background, she spent the next 40 years as a software developer and then added video editing to her skills shortly thereafter. She joined Puget Soundworks at its onset and has since offered all her skills to the organization in whatever way they were needed eventually honing that down to singing tenor and handling the video editing and audio/visual needs. Diana lives in Seattle with her wife, Sylvia and their dog Max. She has now switched her career focus to energy healing and is glad to have an ongoing outlet for her technical skills!
Board of Directors
Jina Jansson (she/her)
Vice President
Proudly raised here in the Pacific Northwest, Jina has almost 30 years of experience in visual & project management. Working with Sur La Table for the past 20 years, she currently manages the Visual Merchandising department. Additionally, Jina enjoys working as a figure model for Seattle-area art studios and schools.
Jina was instrumental in getting Puget Soundworks off the ground and in keeping the organization running through the initial years of operation. For our first show, Snowflakes, Jina acted as Production & Rehearsal Manager, running everything behind the scenes and making the artistic vision come to life. She continued in this role through the following two shows, Home Is… and Feast. When Puget Soundworks moved to virtual operations during COVID, Jina made sure that we continued to create content for our audiences, but more importantly, maintained a community for our singers and volunteers. When we returned to in-person rehearsals, Jina expanded her role to become Director of Operations, including venue contracts, COVID protocols, logistics management, and other duties. In January 2024, Jina retired from the position for a well-needed break. She joined the board in August 2024, and was elected Vice President in May 2025.
Musical since birth, Jina has shared her talent with various organizations including Puget Soundworks, the Seattle Women’s Chorus, Sensible Shoes, and the Sing The World Chorus. Jina lives at home with her husband, Brian, and their four beloved cats.
Julie Tarr-Stoverink (she/her)
Treasurer
Julie first joined Puget Soundworks as a singer for the summer 2024 “Queer Icons” concert and immediately felt like she’d found her home amidst this eclectic, beautiful, talented group of LGBTQ+ and Allied singers & volunteers. A recent transplant from Atlanta, GA, this was the community and creative outlet she’d been looking for in Seattle. Julie feels extremely passionate about Puget Soundworks’ mission to make the world a kinder, more inclusive place, one song at a time, and is drawn to embody and help sustain this work as best she can.
Julie holds a bachelor’s degree in Musical Theatre from Southeast Missouri State University and has partially completed coursework toward a Master’s in Public Administration through Georgia State University. She is a Certified Research Administrator and has spent most of the past 15 years working in grants administration and finance for higher education. Julie currently works as Administrator for the Simpson Center of Humanities at the University of Washington. She is happy to bring her grants and finance experience to the Puget Soundworks Board of Directors and Development Committee, as well as serving in the choir as Alto Section Co-Leader.
Julie has performed off-and-on throughout the years, most recently (prior to PSW) as a singer with the Atlanta Resistance Revival Chorus and as a collaborator on performance projects with Callous Physical Theatre. Julie is an avid reader, poet, activist, collage artist, nature enthusiast, and loud laugher. Her favorite quote is one from poet Toi Derricotte: “Joy is an act of resistance.” Julie currently resides in Seattle, WA, with her wife Lauren and their 2 cats.
Frances Mihulec (they/them)
Secretary
Frances first discovered Puget Soundworks shortly after moving to Seattle from Kansas in 2019 attending a concert where a friend was performing. Prior to joining the board in 2023, they were (and still are) a regular attendee at Puget Soundworks’ shows. While Frances isn’t a singer themselves, they greatly appreciate music and all expressions of art. They also greatly believe in saving everyone’s ears by not trying to sing along even if they know the words.
Professionally, Frances has a background in finance, administration, and insurance in the health and wellness sector. They use their knowledge of record keeping laws and writing policy to assist the Governance committee in revamping policy and researching/writing new policy. They also recently stepped into the Secretary role for the Board, as of 2025.
When not assisting Puget Soundworks and the Board, Frances is an avid gamer, writer, and reader. They also enjoy urban hikes through the city or around the Sound. Currently, they live in Seattle with their spouse, John, and their two senior cats, Mokona and Grell.
RK Popkin (they/them)
Board Member
RK was a founding singer with Puget Soundworks from its first rehearsal in 2018, and joined the board in 2025. They were previously a Director of Product Management at Google, where they spent 11 years living through and leading Chrome’s transition from nerdy alternative to critical app used by billions. As a queer youth, RK led a non-profit that used the tools of the early internet to create safe spaces for other LGBTQ youth. They later returned to these roots when they led a Google.org collaboration with The Trevor Project to build an ethical use of AI that Time Magazine named a Top Innovation of 2021. They have a BA in Psychology with a minor in CS from Harvard University. When not on the internet, you can find them trying out all the outdoorsy things people do in Vancouver, performing with The Broadway Chorus, and hanging out with their tiny dog.
Ash Nickol (they/them)
Board Member
Ash has been part of Puget Soundworks since 2022 and delights in the quiet alchemy of making art while building community. What began as joining a choir gently unfurled into a found family, becoming a steady, life‑giving thread in their years in Seattle. Over time, Ash has served as Alto Section Leader and now as Section Leader Coordinator. They joined the Puget Soundworks Board in April 2026, drawn by a desire to tend, protect, and nourish the space that welcomed them so fully.
Originally from Reno, Nevada, Ash arrived in Seattle in 2012. In their professional life, they bring more than twenty years of experience in IT support, systems administration, and process improvement, balanced by a deep grounding in fine art, art history, and painting—living comfortably at the intersection of logic and intuition, structure and imagination.
When not working or singing, Ash can be found lingering over good coffee, sharing quiet moments with their partner, spending time with their two cats, Moonchild and Bastian, or drifting into the gentle focus of a word puzzle. After years of searching for a place to belong, they were surprised—almost reverently—to discover one within Puget Soundworks. Their deepest hope now is to help hold and grow this community, knowing how powerful such a refuge can be for those still finding their way home.
Milena Sherman (she/her)
Board Member
Milena joined Puget Soundworks in early 2026 after collaborating with the organization in 2025 through her professional work in progressive causes and LGBTQ+ advocacy. Born and raised to working-class immigrant parents from Ukraine and Uzbekistan, Milena grew up singing and has had a strong love for all things musical from a young age, and wanted a way to be apart of a community that not only holds these values deeply, but wants to expand this joy to as many people as possible.
Milena holds a BA in Global/International Studies from the University of Washington Bothell, and has served in various advocacy roles, both in serving as a Congressional aide for U.S. Senator Patty Murray, and currently as Organizing Manager for No Hate in WA State. She currently resides in Bellevue, WA with her cat (and in her words, daughter) Mocha.
Founder
Vanessa Grose (she/her)
Founder
Vanessa founded Puget Soundworks in 2018 and served as the volunteer Executive Director (ED) through late 2022, and again during ED hiring in late 2025. Vanessa has a lifelong love of choral music and believes in the power of music to change hearts and lives. She started Puget Soundworks to serve as an inclusive singing community — tearing down gender boundaries in traditional choral music, lifting up marginalized voices, and spreading love and kindness. Vanessa also sings soprano in Puget Soundworks’ main chorus and the small ensemble – Pitch, Please.
Vanessa has worked in the technology industry for over 20 years, including roles in software development, customer engineering, go-to-market strategy, and global sales. In 2019, she received her MBA from the University of Washington Foster School of Business. Vanessa has spent her career in large organizations, including IBM and Google, and now works at Kyndryl as a global cloud consulting executive. She enjoys helping organizations apply technology to solve business problems and has a passion for building inclusive organizations. She believes it is her responsibility as a leader to empower people to do great things, coach them to continuously grow, and support them in achieving their dreams.