Our People

As with any Northern Virginia suburb, Blueberry Hill contains an eclectic group of residents, of all ages and varying ethnicities.

Don grew up in the DC area, spending time in New York City, and living for several years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There he raised his severely physically-impaired foster son and met his wife-to-be, Dee. Don is transitioning from government and computers to his own practice in bodywork with emphasis on aquatic forms.

Dee is an avid reader, sings and plays the guitar, and teaches first, second, and third graders at Northern Virginia Friends School. She sings in the chorale at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax and loves to hang out with her husband Don and Mosby the cat.

Cookie is a devoted mother and stepmother of five, spoiled wife, devout Southerner, agnostic Jew, and keeper of other contradictions.  Enjoys cooking, reading, lounging around with all three of her pets (husband and two dogs).  Drives constantly between home, work, two elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools.  Always up for a party! 

Paul is... exceptional

Victor was born in Ukraine, speaks 5 languages. once worked as advisor to Elmo Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations, and still consults on national security policy. He believes cohousing saves humanity from the stresses of the post-industrial society.

Jila is... a real-life princess

Anna works at Inova Fairfax Hospital as a trauma social worker running a program for trauma survivors and working in the Emergency Room. She also teaches at VCU School of Social Work.  Anna grew up on Potomac Vegetable Farms and lives with Jim and their three sons, 18, 16, and 12 at BBH. Hobbies include long distance running, dancing and biking to work.

Jim teaches 8^th grade physical science at Longfellow Middle School, and is husband to Anna/father of their three sons. He runs a Christmas tree business in December, and focuses on home improvements and training (running) in the summer. Hobbies include running, parenting (since Anna’s not home much), and beating Kenyon in the Homegrown Triathlon.

John is ... meticulous

Cathy is ... entertaining

Noel, husband of Rhonda and father of Adam, was born in Canada to an English mother and a Jamaican father. He grew up in New York City and despite living in the District of Columbia for 12 years still considers himself a New Yorker. His education is in mechanical and biomedical engineering. His career has primarily been in working with committees of experts to review existing or proposed scientific projects or programs for government agencies including NASA and the US Army.

Rhonda, wife of Noel and mother of Adam, was born and raised in a suburb of Flint, Michigan (please don't ask her about "Roger and Me"). She left Michigan at age 24 seeking new adventures and challenges in Washington DC. Her education is in electrical engineering, electromagnetics, and communications. Before leaving Michigan she was a third generation GM employee and in the last few years she has found her niche as a computer networking engineer and manager of engineers.

Adam is an almost phenomenonally happy little boy. He currently lives in Washington, DC with his parents, Rhonda and Noel. His favorite food is Enfamil with Iron, followed closely by pureed bananas. He likes almost all vegetables, but for some reason is not very keen on mixed vegetables (like his mother). Adam was born very large and heavy for his age, but is becoming more normal-sized as time goes by.  

Betsy, along with her husband and their three children, lived in Falls Church before moving to Blueberry Hill.  Betsy works as a lawyer for the Justice Department, but loves to cook, read, sing with Venus d Minor, watch movies, and run (not necessarily in that order).  She especially enjoys having a common house, where she frequently cooks community meals and throws great parties.

Kenyon attributes his interest in cohousing to his Scandinavian, Lake Wobegone-minded parents. Having spent his youth traipsing across the globe to India and Indonesia with his parents and four siblings, he eventually received degrees in music ed. (U. of Utah) and hotel admin. (Cornell). In Ithaca, he met Betsy, where they were both singers and squash players. He loves to teach technology, music, and sports, but has focused his career on the management of software documentation/testing/QA (in the end, it's all about communication!). Kenyon divides his time between his family, work, running, The Tone Rangers, and travel. He runs 5- to 10-mile races in the area, and has completed the Marine Corps and Boston Marathons, as well as the Homegrown Triathlon.

Dave Married to Bernice. Feels lucky to have three wonderful daughters: 8, 16, 24. He's an inventory manager for the federal government. Hobbies include: chats with people about things, reading factual and hypothetical things, walking, climbing, crawling, caving, cooking big weekend breakfasts, Star Trek, Sesame Street, fixing things, and good coffee.

Bernice has lived in Northern Virginia for most of her life. She is married to Dave and has three daughters: one in college, one in high school, and a second grader. Bernice lives in Vienna with her family and works as a hardware computer tech. Hobbies (who has time for hobbies?) include hikes along the river and movie dates with Dave when a sitter is available. She is looking forward to expanding this list once Blueberry Hill is built!

Maria

Bob and Janet are married with two young daughters.  Bob is a systems engineer currently consulting at HUD in DC and enjoys gardening, tai chi and tennis.  After twenty years in California, Bob is delighted to return to the DC area for cohousing and to be closer to family on the East Coast.

Janet is an interpretive ranger for the National Parks including Point Loma, Alcatraz
and Marin Headlands.  As a stay-at-home Mom she plans to be a DC Area park ranger when both girls are in grade school.  She enjoys pottery, yoga, qi gong, helping at the farmstand, and visiting family in MD and WV.

Judy is a 40-something high school teacher, wife of Jim, and mother of Nicholas and Emma.  She enjoys volleyball and other forms of exercise (except running!).  She hopes to have enough time someday to revisit her long-dormant hobbies of saxophone, flute and guitar playing. 

Jim is: a computer software engineer; father of Nick and Emma; husband of Judy; lover of small meetings; avid biker and runner; over-the-hill tennis player; enjoyed the Matrix very much.

Ilene is ... kind

Trevor is ... inquisitive

Vicki moved to Virginia from New York about a year before her house at Blueberry Hill was ready. She practices and teaches the Bowen Technique, a soft tissue relaxation technique that resets the body to heal itself. Traveling to visit her children and grandchildren (two kids and four grandkids on the West coast, two kids on the east coast, one grandkid in NYC), and to Australia for advanced Bowen studies, she hasn't had as much time for gardening, singing, folk dancing, and handcrafts as she expected.

Hana has spent the better part of her 40-something years working at Potomac Vegetable Farms. She is a farmer and mom during the growing/harvesting season and a full-time mom to her three kids during the off-season. She is married to Jon. Hobbies include volunteering at the kids' schools and at the synagogue, teaching Hebrew to fifth graders, preparing for the annual Homegrown Triathlon.

Jon is married to Hana and father of their three kids. He also works at Potomac Vegetable Farms (mornings, evenings, weekends) in a variety of capacities including, but not limited to, carpentry projects, plumbing, mechanical tasks, and taking care of the three kids ranging in age from 16 to 11 years old. Hobbies include participating at the farm, listening to books on tape, doing maintenance and construction projects for BBH and his own house.

John is outrageous: it's a choice of attitude sort-of-thing.  He enjoys the moment, organic food, the change of seasons, hugs, hanging out with his sweetheart, colonial history, family (including their first grandchild!), and the St. Louis Cardinals.  He is fascinated by and concerned with the environmental/social bottleneck we appear to be living in and enjoy
reading about the complex issues we face.  He works for the Environmental Protection Agency as a federal law enforcement investigator.

Rebecca is enthusiastic about the potential of human beings to learn from one another and from the non-human world.  She finds meaning and pleasure in being with her family and friends, playing with her sweetheart, working as a clinical psychologist, gardening, hiking and other forms of physical activity, attending musical and theatrical performances, enjoying great meals (especially those feasts prepared by neighbors in the BBH Common House), reading well-written books, and creating counted cross-stitch art.

Karen is ... happy

Brigitte grew up in France and has lived in the U.S. since 1978. She is a full-time mother of two children for the past 13 and 16 years with heavy doses of good foods & good health.  Part time volunteer in both their schools & local community. Any time clerk helper at husband's office. All time into being with family & friends. Some time watching romantic comedies & foreign movies.  Spending time at the gym & walking with girlfriends.

Jack was born circa 1959 in Coronado, California and grew up a military brat in San Diego with a stint in Japan. Went to high school at 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' - really. Attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with at least two celebrities - both in the architecture department - Weird Al Yankovic and Chuck Durrett. World fame never rubbed off so instead came halfway to France in order to meet Brigitte (beating out the intern doctor fiancee - ha!). Full time - and more - 12 person architectural practice in McLean keeps me busy but I don't work weekends! (Would rather be playing volleyball, frisbee and word games.) Consensus rocks !