Michelle Kenny
Executive Director
Owner Goose Hollow Flowers
Originally from upstate New York, Michelle lived in Sweden and Florida before landing in Portland to take a job with Marriott hotels in 1996. With a life long passion of dabbling in floral design, gardening and events, Michelle took the plunge and bought Goose Hollow Gardens in 2007 all while on maternity leave. The first year as an owner, Michelle trained extensively with her mentor Florist designer and Artist Jeanie Gray. Michelle’s past experience in the Hotel industry as an Event planner, Wedding coordinator and Convention Sales manager, gives her an expert edge on what it takes to make each event spectacular. 2013 brought the year of re-branding and in order to better reflect the primary vision of the shop, the name was changed to Goose Hollow Flowers. One of Downtown Portland’s best hidden gems, Goose Hollow Flowers continues to grow and thrive.
As a small floral shop owner, Michelle saw the need to bring back a new and improved floral association to help support, benefit and showcase the local floral talent in the area. Most importantly, she is excited to connect like-minded professionals to be part of a rich and vibrant community. In 2022 Michelle started the process and is excited to watch the Pacific Northwest Florist Association Bloom.
Sarah Helmstetter
Past-President
Co-Owner Solabee Flowers
Sarah came by her career in floral design over 20 years ago naturally, raised between the wild Ozarks and the hillsides of rural Oregon, her parents demonstrated a love of gardening and spending time outdoors. She currently lives in Sandy, Oregon on a split forest/farm homestead with her partner Chad and children Gus and Willa, as well as a bevy of chickens, ducks, cats and wild country dogs. She co-owns Solabee Flowers with her long time business partner Alea Joy, giving her experience in events, retail, buying floral as well as growing, greenhouse management and responsible wildcrafting.
You can see her work @solabeeflowers on instagram or www.solabeeflowers.com online.
Josef Reiter
President
Botanica
Josef Reiter has worked in many different areas of the floral & nursery industry including florist shops, a catering & event company, a greenhouse, a garden center, as well designing gardens for private clients before venturing out on his own with Botanica Floral Design & Botanica Floral + Home.
Prior to living in Portland, he spent 21 years in New York City as a professional actor/singer/dancer.
Jeremi Carroll
Vice President
Pollinate Flowers
Jeremi and his husband owned and operated Pollinate Flowers, a regenerative flower farm in Dundee, Oregon, for a decade where Jeremi discovered his love of flowers and floral design. Starting his design journey in 2018 the abundant gardens at the farm inspired Jeremi’s aesthetic and are reflected in his work. Selling their farm in 2023 they moved to Milwaukie to a smaller property where Jeremi creates his designs out of his home studio, and are transforming their new space into a lush cutting garden which will continue to inspire Jeremi’s designs.
Jayme Rabenberg
Treasurer
Jayme is a multidisciplinary artist and bench-trained floral designer. She is the owner of Bloommonger, a floral design and creative studio in Portland, Oregon.
Jayme began her flower journey over 25 years ago in Brussels. Growing up in NW Oregon and attending college in the Garden State, she was used to finding nature close by. Living in a proper city for the first time, she saved her tip money each week to buy flowers for her apartment, sparking a love of floral design that she has been practicing ever since.
In 2022, after more than two decades working in tech and politics, she became a full-time entrepreneur, founding Bloommonger and pivoting her business consulting practice, Corvus Advising, to work exclusively with small business owners.
With Bloommonger, Jayme curates occasion, event, and editorial florals with a focus on sustainable practices and sourcing from local growers. She grows zinnia and marigold in her own garden, along with a variety of dye plants, and has been learning more about sustainable foraging.
In addition to private event work, Jayme’s floral installations have been part of the 2024 and 2025 Portland Bloom Tour, the 2024 and 2025 Lan Su Chrysanthemum Festival, and the 2026 Portland Spring Home & Garden Show.
As a small business coach, Jayme supports other entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and creative businesses. She regularly teaches workshops on business fundamentals and works one-on-one with clients to help them pivot, sustain, and grow their products.
You can see Jayme’s work on instagram @bloommonger or on her website bloommonger.com.
Isabelle Koban Batayola
Director of Sustainability
Isabelle Batayola is the Owner and Principal Designer of Isaflora Design Co. a floral design & workshop company serving Portland, Oregon and beyond. Specializing in modern and romantic Weddings and Events, Isaflora Design Co designs striking works of floral art that emanate personality and joy. Their mission is to source the freshest local ingredients available, lessening the wedding industry’s global footprint one stem at a time. They are invested in using compostable or reusable mechanics, supporting local and chemical-free flower farmers as much as possible, and are always looking for new and innovative ways to be more sustainable.
Amanda Bayha
Director of Membership
Amanda has been a botanical taxidermist and sculptor since 2019, initially making wreaths from yard cuttings like rosemary, mint, and hops. She enjoys experimenting with unconventional dried elements. As her creativity grew, she began asking others for their “leftovers”, leading to large-scale installations at places like Chehalem Cultural Center, Providence, and Al’s Garden Center. Amanda now sources all materials from her community and even rescues flowers from the Rose Festival floats.
Amanda’s art celebrates the cycles of life and death, highlighting the beauty in breakdown. Sometimes mature seed pods are even more spectacular than fresh petals. Her “Big Mama” heart sculptures are dedicated to Mother nature’s magic, beauty and wisdom.
Her sculptures are now displayed throughout wine country at locations including Brooks Wine, Durant, Argyle, Social Goods, Los Kopitos Cochina and the Winecrush Podcast office in McMinnville. She continually refreshes these sculptures by shedding the old and adding what’s new. We, just like everything else in Nature, evolve and age over time. Amanda’s creations remind us to slow down and celebrate all of life’s phases.
Michelle Dummer (AKA Chelle)
Director of Education
Chelle Floral Design/Freelancer
First and foremost, devoted wife of a UPS man and mother of two beautiful humans and three fur babies. Chelle has just about run the gamut in the floral world. Beginning her career in 1996, Chelle started at the bottom of the totem pole on the production line prepping teacups with oasis for the designers on the line. She gradually moved up into a designing role. From there she has worked with many talented designers in shops in and around the Portland metro area, taught at the Floral Design Institute (FDI), along with running her own design studio, Chelle Floral Design in Tualatin, OR. She has experience in everyday floral design, sympathy, large scale, bridal, production, artistic, parade floats and floral couture. Chelle is also a student, achieving her CFD (certified floral designer) and accreditations with the American Institute of Floral Design (AIFD) and strives to learn and grow as a floral designer with continued education.
“I am blessed to be able to say that I love my job, which fuels me to continue learning”
Chelle
Eryn Johnson
Director of Central Oregon
Bio coming soon.
Françoise Weeks
Director of Mentorship
Françoise Weeks, born in Belgium, has infused her work with a quintessential European reverence for flowers and nature. Combined with creativity and mechanical ingenuity, she has crystalized her singular style of Textural Woodlands and Botanical Haute Couture pieces, garnering a global following.
Her generosity of knowledge and perspective in use of floral materials, structure and techniques, create rigorous and exciting learning opportunities for her students to explore all that nature has to offer.
Françoise’s studio is located in Portland, OR. She teaches workshops in her studio and offers online courses as well. She has taught in many cities in the US as well as in Canada, Mexico, England, Sweden, Iceland, France, China and Australia.
Her dynamic work has been published in national and international magazines, as well as an Emmy- winning TV feature.
In 2019 she was invited to participate in the renowned flower shows Fleuramour and FlowerTime in Belgium.
In December 2018 her book “The Herbal Recipe Keeper” was published by Timber Press. She currently is working on a new book “The Wonder of Woodlands”, which will be published in the spring of 2024.
Heidi Berkman
Association Advisor
Heidi found her love of flowers early in her career as an event planner. She gathered knowledge and experience by
working beside others in the floral industry for several decades, complimenting the roles she held in project management, event planning, marketing campaigns, retail ownership and nonprofit and board service.
In the fall of 2007, Heidi founded “The Bloom Project” – a nonprofit that provided fresh bouquets of flowers to
hospice and palliative care patients and their caregivers during end-of-life care. Flowers and greens were donated
by wholesale floral companies, grocery stores and florists. Volunteers created bouquets that were then delivered to patients by nurses, chaplains and social workers in their home or care facility.
Over thirteen years, the project grew expanded from Bend to Portland, Oregon adding new volunteers, floral and hospice partnerships to the project (as well as an affiliate project in San Francisco), gifting 300,000+ bouquets with
over 136,000 volunteer hours during its history. In December of 2020, the organization dissolved due to Covid with no clear way to return back to operation.
Heidi has continued to organize pop-up flower events to bring encouragement individuals in our community as well as support industry events such as “Petal it Forward”. In addition, she provides consulting support to business owners and their teams through networking and identifying resources as needed.
