Our Team

KINDNESS People Power

The KINDNESS Team includes:

• Executive Director (Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant)
• Services Coordinator (Speech Language Pathologist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant eligible)
• Peer Counselors (trained using the USDA “Loving Support through Peer Counseling” Training Program)
• Multi-lingual Volunteers and Staff (Tagalog, Spanish, French, Vietnamese)
• Multi-talented Volunteer Board Members
• Expert In-house IT Support

Executive Director

Heather Preece

MHSc, RDN, IBCLC, RLC

Heather is the founder and executive director of the KINDNESS Project. Raised and schooled in Ontario, Canada, her career in public health nutrition and lactation support has taken her from the Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic to Mali, Malawi, Tanzania, Vancouver, British Columbia, and, finally, to Kodiak Island in 1997. She and her husband raised two Kodiak-born girls who have grown into strong Alaskan women. Heather is passionately committed to her most satisfying work of helping Kodiak families nourish their infants’ bodies and souls, and was recognized by the United States Lactation Consultant Association with the 2023 National Changemaker Award for her work with KINDNESS. 

Peer Counselor

Sara Brubaker 

Sara is lover of her husband Jeff, mother to their sons Jeremiah and Baer, daughters Wren and Hazel, and a transplanted Oregonian. Sara has been a part of the KINDNESS team since 2013.  First moving to Kodiak to coordinate the WIC program, Sara immediately heard of the beloved KINDNESS Project and was excited to be able to join the team shortly after her arrival.  She is passionate about all things to do with food, and loves being able to encourage fellow mommas as they offer first tastes and bites to their own “littles”! Sara teaches our monthly infant nutrition class, manages our inventory and is the lead KINDNESS coach for older babies (6 months +).  If she’s not in the kitchen creating, she is in mountains, in the pool, or on her bike. 

Peer Counselor

Kerissa Barrey

Originally from South Africa, Kerissa moved to the USA in 2016. She lives in Kodiak with her husband, Jacob, their daughter Lauren, and their 2 guinea pigs, Lulu and Moose. She enjoys learning new things and has studied to be a reiki master, biologist, teacher, phlebotomist and now a KINDNESS Peer Counselor. She is very excited to join the Kodiak KINDNESS team (summer of 2022), as she is eager to help families the way Kodiak KINDNESS  helped her when she had her daughter. Keri tag-teams with Sara teaching our monthly infant nutrition classes, supports older babies, stocks supplies and applies her sharp eye for details to catch all the loose ends that that slip past the rest of us!

Peer Counselor

Bethany Rauwolf

Bethany traveled to Kodiak from Florida in 2014 to attend a friend’s wedding. She fell in love with the island and moved to Kodiak a month later! Bethany loves the community that encompasses everyone here in Kodiak and she and her husband, Joey, feel grateful to be able to raise their little ones where they can run wild and free. She fell in love with the generosity of KINDNESS and compassion of the Peer Counselors during her two breastfeeding journeys. Joining our team in early 2022, she helps bring that light to other families who need special support and guidance at a vulnerable time of life. Bethany is shouldering quiet but essential work in the background for KINDNESS until her family grows to be independent enough for her to step into an active role serving families; her dream job!