Born in Texas and raised in rural Georgia, Amy’s parents instilled in her a love for growing things both indoors and out. Her father tended to vegetable gardens, her mother tended to flower gardens and houseplants, and Amy learned the importance of nature, growing things, and the relationship between humanity and Earth. She earned her associate’s degree in computer science and her Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art; a common theme in her work has been the push/pull relationship between human progress and nature. 

 

In 2020, she made the cross country drive to Seattle with her partner, her four cats, and her dog. Amy quickly found herself in the healthy pet food industry working at Mud Bay. There she was introduced to the values of responsible sourcing, transparency in business practices, and good faith leadership. 

 

She is thrilled to join the Yin Yang Naturals team and continue what she started when she first moved to Seattle: working for a company that supports its employees, its customers, and the planet. 

 

When she’s not working, Amy can be found playing fetch with her dog, painting Warhammer 40k miniatures, and tending to her various gardens. 

Chloe got her start in Natural Foods at the age of 21 stocking shelves at Good Earth Natural Foods and has been hooked ever since. She has worked in every capacity from retailer to buyer, broker to merchandiser and beyond. Having grown up in Fairfax, CA she has always been surrounded by and drawn to all things natural, from the food she loves to cook to the trails she loves to hike.

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Chloe strives to do mission-based work, and is proud to represent what Yin Yang Naturals and the brands they work with stand for. Along with her passion for food and hiking, she also loves reading, playing guitar, swimming and listening to true crime podcasts.

Clancy grew up in Long Beach, CA and moved to Seattle in 2007 after attending UCLA. Following many years working within the 3rd Wave coffee industry, where he both ran his own café and those of a local coffee wholesaler, he made the pivot into the natural foods channel.

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In 2019, as the US Territory Sales Manager of a Canadian-based plant-foods company, he successfully helped launch a line of oat milks within the US. Clancy is very excited to join YYN and continue endorsing nutritional and environmentally conscious brands.

 

Some of Clancy’s interests include supporting the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation, Seattle’s professional sports teams, golfing, camping, and most of all spending time with his cat named Fern.

Courtney grew up in a military family but spent the majority of her upbringing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The mountains called her out west in 2017, and she has been living in Tacoma, Washington ever since.  She is new to the natural foods industry, having worked mostly in the nonprofit education sphere for the last 7 years.  Most of her previous experience has been in administrative support and she is excited to bring that same support to the Yin Yang Naturals Team! She believes that it is important to know how your food is made and is excited to join a team that supports those who are responsibly caring for our food and our planet.  Her work with Yin Yang Naturals started in 2018 as a Key Account Coordinator and she is now excited to be able to serve the team as the Human Resources Manager.  

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In her free time, she enjoys bouldering, hiking, and exploring new places with her partner and two kids.  She is also an amateur photographer, a lover of adventure, and a planter of trees whenever she can.

Debbie has strong roots in the Pacific Northwest, living in the Portland area her entire life. She has loved being involved in the natural foods industry for over twenty years and enjoys the products and the people!

 

In her free time, Debbie enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and four-legged critters. She also enjoys traveling, hiking, and an occasional glass of pinot noir. 

Emily credits her maternal grandfather for her lifelong love of organic, natural and ‘just really good’ food and cooking. She has strong memories of him taking her sisters and her to the local farmers’ market and teaching them to find the freshest food. Emily and her husband, Michael founded and ran a farmers’ market in Bridgehampton, NY, where they were also Slow Food leaders. 

Emily’s varied experience includes a stint as a professional organizer helping people clear clutter from their home, work as an advertising proofreader and running the children’s department of a public library. She’s also a yoga teacher and wedding officiant. 

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She and her husband made a huge leap of faith in 2014 when they discovered and moved to Vashon Island, WA from the East End of Long Island (based on reading a book written by a dairy farmer from Vashon) and had a home built.

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She loves great food, interior design, nature, travel, dogs and spending time with family and friends.

Gena Nasset joined Yin Yang Naturals in 2015 as Key Account Coordinator adding Reporting Specialist to the title in 2020.  Her professional history comprises small business administration and management roles, emphasizing start-up, marketing, and brand development.  Great instincts and a problem-solving nature lead Gena in her enthusiasm to serve and support others.

 

Raised supported by alternative wellness, natural remedies, and a holistic approach to health inspired Gena's lifelong interest in wellness practices.  Her strong desire to share the benefits of whole-body wellness led her to gain more profound knowledge and education to use food and bodywork as medicine to support a long life of health and happiness.  In 2004/ 2005, Gena received certifications in therapeutic yoga instruction and Thai massage.   With those achievements, in 2007, Gena’s entrepreneurial spirit inspired her to combine knowledge, skills, and experience to open a community wellness and education center with a focus on serving growing families and offering tailored services for women during pregnancy.

 

Gena's interests include permaculture farming and wild, medicinal, and edible plant identification.  Gardening, camping, and hiking are activities Gena enjoys in her free time.  In pursuit of creative outlets,  she enjoys all aspects of building, remodeling, and design.  Above all, Gena loves spending time with her family, playing, planting, and raising food and fowl on their backyard farm in beautiful Missoula, MT.

A West Coast native, Gina Renee hails from a family with deep roots in small scale agriculture of fruit and nut trees, beekeeping, and practicing preservation of the garden harvest. The granddaughter of a farmer and an arborist, she was graciously raised with respect for our earth and the recognition of where food comes from - from farm to table and honor for the people that are a part of that process. 

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Gina Renee has worked in the natural foods industry since 1998 and has seen the market grow and evolve. She has a strong understanding of the business as both a buyer and vendor and absolutely loves working with the folks in this industry.

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She spends her free time exploring, making food, getting dirty in the garden, throwing clay, hanging out with her four legged critters, and laughing with her son, husband, family, and friends.

Jamie has 15+ years experience building brands and relationships here in the PNW. She started climbing the corporate ladder at Target in 2003, eventually promoting to Market Department Team Lead, where she gained her experience with vendors, ordering, and food. She then dove into the Natural Foods industry in 2008 at Food Front Coop as the Dairy/Perishable Grocery/Frozen buyer for 6 years. Here, her natural foods knowledge excelled and she built strong relationships with local, regional, and national food vendors. She loves helping get small businesses off the ground. She also loves visiting the production kitchen, slapping on an apron, getting dirty and helping her vendors produce! 

 

Jamie has been with Yin Yang Naturals in the PNW region since 2014, and is now proudly overseeing this beautiful region as the lead. 

 

Jamie was born and raised in Portland, Oregon & loves calling the PNW her home. She and her husband love to play cribbage, watch terrible horror movies with their cats, and explore the world! 

Kelly grew up in the Midwest, but always dreamed of distant horizons.  Her interest in ecology and organic foods started as a middle schooler, when she became a vegetarian and learned about our industrial food system.  As a college student, she traveled with the Audubon Expedition institute and studied various bioregions and cultures in the US.  Most of Kelly’s professional life has been in the natural foods industry, starting with a job at Early Street Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to her last position in the Health and Body Care department at The Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  She and her husband relocated to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and she shifted her focus to being a musician, taking a position with online music distributor CD Baby.  Since 2010, Kelly has been a stay-at-home mom with her daughter, but somehow managed to finish her college degree and release several albums since then.  

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In her free time, Kelly plays music as a solo artist and as part of a duo.  She and her family maintain an unruly organic garden and an irrepressible Goldendoodle.  They love science fiction movie marathons, spicy foods and her daughter’s home baked treats. 

McKenzie began her career in the natural channel two years ago with Oregon’s Wild Harvest, after almost nine years in food and beverage. She grew up in Bend, Oregon and attended college in Flagstaff, Arizona for Business Marketing until 2018. After college, she spent some time back in Bend working at Crux Fermentation Project, enjoying the sun before moving to Portland. Having family in the industry, alternative medicine, health and wellness have alway been central in her personal life and now professional career. 

 

She believes making healthy and sustainable options more accessible is paramount and in her spare time she enjoys cooking, travelling and hanging out with her cat Chip and family dog Ted (pictured). 

After completing her Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of South Florida, Nicole headed out on a summer-long road trip, exploring and camping across the country to eventually land in the Pacific Northwest to attend East West College’s massage therapy program.

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While attending school, Nicole connected her passion for wellness and healthy living to a position at the Whole Foods Market in Portland, Oregon: from cashier to Whole Body Team Member to Body Care buyer. Nicole completed her 801 hours of massage school in 2007 and relocated to Santa Fe, NM to start a family.  After four years in the desert, Nicole and her family happily moved back to the place that has always been home, the Pacific Northwest, to join the Yin Yang Naturals family. Her favorite place to be is anywhere, doing most anything, with her favorite people: her husband and their two young daughters. She prefers non-fiction, coffee over tea and running in the winter. Obsessed with details, Nicole could while away a day studying mid-century architecture and design.  And if she could have her way, every Sunday would start in the wee hours of the morning in her studio with 25 pounds of clay and nowhere else to be.

Soon after his move from Flint, Michigan to Portland, Oregon, Paul began his career in natural foods with Nature’s Fresh Northwest/Wild Oats in 1996. He quickly worked his way up to grocery manager and held this position until October 2000 when he accepted an opportunity with Mountain Peoples/ UNFI.

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During his time with UNFI Paul worked with a wide variety of accounts including Wholefoods, NCGA, INFRA, supermarket and hundreds of independent retailers and vendors. He also developed his skills in sales, the development of Field Day and Blue Marble Brands, category management, store setting and layout. 

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In 2014 Paul moved to Yin Yang Naturals where he works with Market of Choice, ION, and numerous independent retailers continuing to increase his skills in sales and merchandising. He has also been a member of the Provender Alliance since 2000.

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Paul enjoys travel, the outdoors, organic gardening, good food and music.

Born in Oregon and raised in Montana, Sam spent 11 years at Good Food Store, Montana’s largest independent natural foods retailer, working in several departments along the way, and finally landing as chill/frozen buyer. He jumped on the Yin Yang bus in the spring of 2014. His experiences as a buyer, hard work ethic, and attention to detail have earned him respect among his colleagues in the industry. He covers the wide open territory of Montana, Eastern Washington, and Northern/Eastern Idaho.

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Sam enjoys hunting for food, playing guitar, gardening, cycling, and spending time with his wife Gena and two kids.

Shannon was born and raised in Southern California and has been in Los Angeles for the past 21 years. Growing up in Riverside, California, she remembers going to the local health food store (which is still there - Clark’s Nutrition) with her mom to buy fresh organic produce, niche health products and probiotics. 

 

After college, on a lark, she ventured into sales and marketing, first in real estate and then to the natural foods industry. She has worked in the natural foods brokerage realm for the past 10 years and is experienced in all things “behind the scenes,” from promotional planning to key account support to creating and maintaining sales tools. Working at Yin Yang Naturals is a great source of pride for Shannon - playing a functional part in the big picture: getting quality products in the hands and mouths of consumers. 

 

When not working, Shannon loves to spend time with her husband, young daughter and yappy chihuahua. She hosts her close friends for cooking and movie nights on a regular basis and loves to get out and enjoy all L.A. has to offer. 

Shelby joined Yin Yang Naturals as Merchandiser with the PNW team before being promoted to Wellness Territory Manager. Her background includes farming in the Skagit Valley, operational and inventory management in the PNW horticulture industry and developing the produce department at Central Co-op Tacoma that remains deeply connected to local farmers and producers. Contributing to the success story of a brand while creating an unmatched customer experience is what drives her. Shelby’s hallmarks include communication, organization, determination and finding fun in the details. 

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Shelby is particularly devoted to gardening, home renovations, her Nashville family and roots and, most of all, to her husband and energetic heeler puppy.

Stephanie grew up in the foothills of the Northern Cascades in a small farming town situated along the Stillaguamish River. Summers were spent hiking hidden trails and night swimming with the bats. Those quiet hours instilled in her a deep respect for the natural world and a profound sense of responsibility to be a good steward of the land. Understanding that an individual's professional commitment is among the greatest opportunities a person has to drive positive social impact, the decision to build a career in the natural food channel was a simple one. 

 

Stephanie is proud to work in support of mission driven brands and organizations that share the vision of advancing sustainability, accessibility, and equality. Having nearly 10 years of experience working in natural food retail, Stephanie is excited to bring her passion for good food and good business practices to Yin Yang Naturals. 

 

In her free time, Stephanie enjoys gardening, cooking, spending time on her yoga mat, introducing her two young children to the many wonders of the world, and dancing at live rock shows.