Board Members

Isis Initiative, Inc. board members are volunteers who donate their time and talents.

Cheryl Hatch, Founder and President

Cheryl is a photographer, writer and educator. As a photojournalist, she covered conflict in the Middle East and Africa for nearly a decade.

Cheryl has Master of Arts in Communication with an emphasis in photojournalism from the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. She also has a Bachelor of Arts in French and a Bachelor of Arts in Technical Journalism with a business minor from Oregon State University.

You may view her work at www.isisphotos.com.

Melanthia M. Peterman, Secretary

Melanthia is a Seattle writer and mother of one. She was a military reporter with The Associated Press from 2001 until 2008, when she resigned to stay home with her young son. During her free time, she maintains several blogs and writes for Seattle’s Child magazine, focusing on organic gardening and environmental topics.

Melanthia created Little Sprouts Gardening, a program where children are introduced to nature through stories, songs, art projects and gardening. Throughout the seasons, little ones and their parents learn about flowers, food, animals and insects as they explore the garden from top to bottom.

Melanthia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a minor in Communications from the University of Montana in Missoula.

Born in California, she and her family later moved to a small farming town in northeast Montana. She is married to Michael Peterman, a software engineer with Disney Internet Group.

Web site: www.gardeness.com

Samanda Dorger, Treasurer

Samanda Dorger has been documenting people and places with her camera since 1991 and has worked as a staff photographer, editor, and photo editor for newspapers and journals in various parts of the United States.

She has a Master of Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from San Jose State University.

Based in Napa, California, she continues working on new photography projects. She teaches photography and photojournalism at Napa Valley College and Solano Community College, and offers pro bono photography to a variety of nonprofit agencies.

Visit her website at www.samandadorger.com.

Alice Anderson

Alice Anderson is a sophomore at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she’s studying arts and marine science. She is a co-editor of Off The Wall, the college newspaper. A PADI-certified scuba diver, she’s an ocean enthusiast and an aspiring underwater cinematographer. Alice is a resident of Corvallis, Oregon.