Our region is thrilled to announce our closing 2025 Tribute Grant Honorees: Nan Williams and Jennifer Snoek-Brown!

In  2024, our membership voted to close out the Tribute Grant in 2025 in celebration of Jane Austen's  250th Birthday with two honorees.

In 2025, our Tribute Grant Creator, Kim Higgins and our Regional Coordinator, Vonnie Alto nominated Nan and Jennifer for the closing Honoree Award which was then voted on by the membership. The following criteria served as a guide. The nominees must have been long time JASNA members prior to 2010 (and the Portland AGM) and the nominees must have contributed enormously to our region. 

Both Nan Williams and Jennifer Snoek-Brown with their spouses embody the attributes of a Tribute Grant Honoree. They both are longtime members of JASNA prior to 2010 and have volunteered above and beyond!

Congratulations to Nan Williams and Jennifer Snoek-Brown! We appreciate your many years of service to the Oregon-SW Washington Region.
  
Meet Nan Williams and her husband David: 
Nan joined JASNA in 2002. Throughout the years, Nan volunteered in a myriad of ways at Spring Teas and Jane Austen December Birthday Celebrations. She also served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Portland 2010 AGM. From 2017 - 2023, Nan and David volunteered their  community ballroom and hosted our annual Spring Teas at the beautiful Fairway Village Clubhouse. David graciously assisted Nan in making tea, moving tables, and cleaning up the event room. A perfect pair providing wonderful Spring Teas for our region!  
 
To read more about Nan and David, please follow this link: meet-nan-williams-our-2025-tribute-grant-honoree.html 

Meet Jennifer Snoek-Brown and her husband Sam: 
Jennifer joined JASNA in 2005. Jennifer created our website in 2013 and managed it. She also gave in depth presentations with her husband Samuel Snoek-Brown and hosted the New Members Meeting in 2013. In 2017, our region awarded Jennifer a Tribute Grant to attend the 2017 AGM in Huntington Beach, California where she co-presented with Pauline Beard, Professor Emerita at the Huntington AGM. 

 To read more about Jennifer and Sam, please follow this link:  meet-jennifer-snoek-brown-our-2025-tribute-grant-honoree.html

Nan Williams joined JASNA in 2002. Throughout the years, Nan volunteered in a myriad of ways at our  events while her husband, David helped with set up and clean up.

In 2010, Nan served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Portland JASNA AGM conference and was a hit at the Hospitality Desk. She is long remembered for her welcoming manner and for providing superb red apples which initially were for decoration. The attendees enjoyed the apples so much that Nan and David brought more and more to the conference. Nan also assisted with the AGM meals, centerpieces, raffle baskets, and filling hundreds of swag bags. 

In 2014 for our December Jane Austen Birthday Luncheon at the Holy Names Heritage Center, Nan provided a display table featuring memorable items from the 2010 Portland AGM. She also collected photos taken during the AGM for this showing.

From 2016 - 2017, Nan took over the tremendous work and artistry in creating raffle baskets for our Spring Teas and selling raffle tickets.

We are also deeply grateful to Nan for volunteering the beautiful Fairway Village Ballroom and then hosting our Spring Teas there from 2017 – 2023 in Vancouver, WA. Altogether, Nan and David hosted 4 Spring Teas there: 2017 - 2019 and 2023.

At the Fairway Village Clubhouse, Nan set lovely tea tables. Nan also collected raffle items and created beautiful raffle baskets through 2017 with leftover books sold individually. She collected payments for them and sold raffle tickets.

Once our attendance and donations grew, Nan streamlined the donations by suggesting having "a proper book sale" at our annual Spring Tea. This was first implemented at out 2018 Spring Tea with a book and tag sale which we continue to hold today.

After we reconvened after the pandemic, Nan and David hosted their final Spring Tea in 2023. Each Spring Tea included a presentation or performance:

• 2017:  Jane Austen and the Master Spy presented by Sheryl Craig.  
• 2018:  Austen in Battle: How the ‘Long War’ Affected Jane’s Family and Novels presented by Collins Hemingway. 
• 2019:  Jane Austen and The Theater presented by Kimberly Brangwin Milham.
• 2023: The Battle of Prague Interactive Performance presented by Nancy Gallagher (JASNA Wisconsin) with Janet Johnson (JASNA Southwest) on piano.

As always, David helped with setting up the Spring Tea and graciously assisted Nan in making tea, moving tables, and providing cleanup.

A perfect pair providing wonderful teas! 

Thank you to Nan and David Williams for their many years of service to the Oregon-SW Washington Region! We appreciate their most gracious and attentive hosting!

Jennifer Snoek-Brown joined the JASNA Wisconsin Region in 2005 with her husband Sam. In 2011, they moved to Oregon and joined our region. In 2014, they became life members of JASNA.

In 2011, Jennifer created our Weebly website which debuted on  January 1, 2012. From the beginning, it contained a blog format with easy to add updates. This was so forward thinking that it remains relevant today--15 years later! Our region is deeply grateful for Jennifer's technical expertise in setting it up and managing our website until 2016.

In 2013, the Snoek-Browns hosted the 2nd Annual New Members Meeting at their home for a lively discussion of Persuasion. Thirteen of us attended who were new or who joined within the last year or two, also members who were less familiar with Austen's works, as well as those who wanted to welcome new members in a more personal way.

Jennifer and Sam also gave other depth presentations about Jane Austen's writings (see attachments):

•  2015:  "Sanditon" presented by Jennifer and Sam.
• 2016:  "Lady Susan" presented by Jennifer and Pauline Beard, Emerita.  
• 2017:  "Rescues in Jane Austen Novels" presented by Sam.
• 2018:  "Tale of Two Janes: A Gossip Story and Sense and Sensibility" presented by Jennifer and Sam.

 
In 2016, the Snoek-Browns moved to Tacoma, WA.

In 2017, our region awarded Jennifer a Tribute Grant to attend the Huntington Beach AGM! There, Jennifer co-presented a breakout session with Pauline titled, “The Talk: Lady Susan the Novella and Love & Friendship the Film.” This was especially exciting because for the first and only time, we had a Tribute Grant Recipient (Jennifer) with an Honoree (Pauline) co-presenting an AGM breakout session. That's never been done before! 

Jennifer is also the only member in our region to receive the double award of a Tribute Grant Recipient (2017) and a Tribute Grant Honoree (2025)! 

After Jennifer returned from the 2017 AGM, in the spirit of the "reel librarians" that she blogs about, she thanked our region with an insightful video about her Tribute Grant experience. Here's the link:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MBro9ZmCHQ

Jennifer is an academic librarian and the OER Librarian for Tacoma Community Library. Previously, she was a faculty librarian at Mt Hood Community College in Gresham, OR. She also has a website blog titled "Reel Librarians" about librarians in film <reel-librarians.com/>. Jennifer grew up in libraries and wrote her undergraduate honors thesis titled, "A Glimpse Through the Glasses: Portrayals of Librarians in Film.” Jennifer continued her interest in analyzing the image of librarians in movies during her MLIS studies, and throughout her career as a librarian.

Sam teaches college writing and literature at Pierce College. He serves as Production Editor for Jersey Devil Press and has served as the fiction judge for local literary contests in Oregon and Indiana. Sam is the recipient of a  2013 Oregon Literary Fellowship. for his novel, Hagridden. He has also have been shortlisted in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition, twice for short fiction and once for a novella. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist in the 2013 Story South Million Writers Award. In 2015, he also was a contributor to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Sam is also the author of 5 books!

Jennifer and Sam are photographed each holding their favorite Jane Austen novel: Jennifer is holding her mother's copy of Persuasion that she gave to her. Interestingly, Jennifer's mother is also a lifetime JASNA member who introduced Jennifer to Jane Austen's writing. Sam's favorite Jane Austen novel is Northanger Abbey. The book he's holding is the copy he purchased during his graduate studies when he took a Gothic Romance fiction class (which was his first introduction to Jane Austen!). Between them is a hand-made pillow that reads Pride and Prejudice because "they both agree (as English majors!) that Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's best-written and best-plotted work." 

Thank you to Jennifer and Sam for their many years of service to the Oregon-SW Washington Region! We appreciate the timeless and relevant website created by Jennifer, the new members meeting that they hosted, and the many erudite presentations that they gave to our region!