Board of Directors
Josh Roberts, President
Growing up in the Upper Valley, Josh called Lebanon, NH his home. After graduating from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY in 2012, he worked for Mascoma Bank in the Upper Valley in several capacities. His years of experience in banking steered him towards his current career as a financial advisor. He subsequently moved to St Louis, Missouri to complete his training with Edward Jones. In 2016, he worked in a local Brattleboro Edward Jones office which provided him with an opportunity to continue to develop his skills while learning from one of the most experienced financial advisors in the area. In June of 2018, he opened his own branch office.
Josh participates in multiple community events including being a member of the board of directors of United Way of Windham County and the Southern Vermont Young Professionals Steering Committee. He was awarded the 40 under 40 Rising Star Award by the Vermont Business Magazine in 2019 and Emerging Leader of Southern Vermont in 2018.
Lisa Sieverts, Secretary
Lisa Sieverts owns Facilitated Change, an independent project management consulting company based in Harrisville, NH. She is credentialed as an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) and a Project Management Professional (PMP®) by the Project Management Institute, a global leader in the development of standards for the practice of project management. Before launching her own company in 2003, she worked for Hewlett-Packard in California and Idaho. She also serves on the board of the Monadnock Folklore Society.
Joanne Tuller, Treasurer
Joanne Tuller has lived her entire adult life in a variety of forms of shared housing, primarily in the Boston area. Currently, she lives with her life partner of 39 years, in a seven-person communal household occupying an 1885 Victorian house. Joanne is a clinical psychologist, who recently retired after 30 years at a community health center, which primarily serves economically marginalized people. She wrote her doctoral thesis on communal living, interviewing members of cooperative households to learn their views about factors that contribute to the success of these shared homes.
Joanne believes that shared housing, while certainly not for everyone, is greatly underutilized – largely due to stigma – and could improve the lives of many more people socially and financially, with the side benefit of reducing their environmental footprints. She has facilitated workshops and made presentations about shared housing options and the knowledge and skills needed to create and sustain them.
Karen Bush, Director
Karen Bush grew up in a small town just north of New York City. After graduating from St. Lawrence University, she worked as an attendant and then director of a project to test the use of positive reinforcement techniques. After graduate school, Karen taught behavior analysis and served as the academic dean for Washington and Jefferson College. Later she taught leaders of Fortune 100 companies to use behavioral principles to improve results.
For eleven years, Karen co-owned a lovely home in Pittsburgh, PA with friends Jean Enright and Louise Machinist. Their book, My House, Our House: Living Far Better for Far Less in a Cooperative Household, has become a classic starter story and “how to” book for anyone interested in shared housing. She has often participated in efforts to promote shared housing and is excited to join the Sharing Housing board with hopes of helping to expand the influence of what we do. In addition, Karen serves on the boards of her Unitarian Universalist center and her condo association.
Pamela Carr, Director
Pam Carr moved to Brattleboro, Vermont, from Dallas, Texas, in 2014 with her husband, David, and two Dachshunds, fulfilling a dream to move to Vermont at retirement. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas and earned her BA in Secondary Education from Wichita State University. She later earned her MA in Secondary Education from Texas A&M University. Pam taught high school in Texas for 23 years and retired in 2011.
Pam is a member of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and serves on the Schroeder Fund committee. As such, she serves as a representative to the Help Fund in Brattleboro. She served on the Windham Child Care Association when first arriving in town. Pam is a member of the St. Michael’s choir and has been a member of the Brattleboro Concert Choir since 2016.
Janet Cramer, Director
Janet F. Cramer MS, LICSW, is a board member of Sharing Housing. She is a thirty-year graduate in geriatric social work from the Columbia University of Social Work who began her studies at age 50. Jobs following graduation include: case manager supervisor, adult family care manager, geriatric evaluation, and unit management with the White River Junction, (Vermont) Veteran’s Administration Center and a social worker with the Visiting Nurses Association of Vermont and New Hampshire.
She was a long time member and chair of the Advisory Board to the Department of Aging, Disabilities and Independent Living of the state of Vermont (1997-2014). She served as Board Chair of The Council of Aging for Southeastern Vermont (1997-2004). She served as housing commissioner and chair of the Brattleboro Housing Partnership. She is currently retired from her private psychotherapy practice.
Louise Machinist, Director
In 2004, Louise and two friends, Karen Bush and Jean McQuillin, bought a house together, pioneering an economical yet enhanced lifestyle model: cooperative householding. Their book, My House Our House: Living Far Better for Far Less in a Cooperative Household (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013) details how to make shared living work. My House Our House has been profiled by AARP, Life Reimagined Today with Jane Pauley, PBS, Al Jazeera America and other media.
Louise was a licensed clinical psychologist for 43 years in Pittsburgh, PA before moving to Sarasota, FL in 2015, where she shared a cooperative condo with Karen Bush until 2019.
Leadership
Annamarie Pluhar, Executive Director & Founder
Annamarie Pluhar, M.Div., an award-winning speaker and trainer, is the force behind Sharing Housing. As the founder and current Executive Director, Ms. Pluhar has advocated for older adults, especially singles, to have a “home-mate,” someone with whom they can share a home with other(s) to reduce housing expenditures, enjoy the benefits of company, community, cooperation, and comfort.
She is the author of Sharing Housing, A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates based on her own personal experiences of living in shared housing for the past twenty years. Ms. Pluhar designs and delivers all Sharing Housing training. An instructional designer by profession, she excels in creating learning experiences for participants that are fun, engaging and provocative. She has been a guest blogger for SixtyandMe and is a contributing expert for the Silvernest newsletter.
Ms. Pluhar has more than thirty years of experience developing training, facilitating, and managing projects for government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)/U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), United States Agency of International Development (USAID), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), as well as commercial and nonprofit organizations.
She has served as a board member for the Windham Child Care Association, and serves as a Planning Commissioner for her town of Dummerston, Vermont. She is a founding member of BrattleMasters, a Toastmasters club and is currently on the Vestry of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Brattleboro, VT.
A graduate of Vassar College and The Episcopal Divinity School, Ms. Pluhar resides in Dummerston, VT.
