Northern Express Fascinating People of 2025

20 amazing folks making their mark Up North

By Northern Express Staff & Contributors | March 1, 2025

This is one of our favorite issues of the year, when we get to know the wonderful, weird, and wildly adventurous people of northern Michigan. This year’s crop of 20 Fascinating People includes artists and animal activists, filmmakers and foreign language learners, marathoners and martial arts instructors. Get to know them with the help of writers Kierstin Gunsberg, Ross Boissoneau, Geri Dietze, Ellen Miller, and Jillian Manning.

Sara Leffingwell - The Animal Hero

At only 23, Sara Leffingwell has achieved her dream: In 2018, she founded Peace Gate Sanctuary, creating a safe space for animals with rough histories like abuse and neglect to live and thrive in peace. “All animals deserve to be here and be on this planet and live the best that they can. We really provide that opportunity,” Leffingwell says.

Leffingwell works as an emergency vet tech for her “day” job, but actually works nights at the clinic so that she can run Peace Gate during the day. She also runs Peaches Candle Company, with proceeds supporting the sanctuary’s operations.

It’s not enough to be an animal lover, Leffingwell cautions; the work is all consuming, and it’s rare that she and her husband have time to get out for a hike or leave the farm. But it’s worth it.

“Every night around dinnertime the goats get zoomies. Seeing them run around, jump, play, be super happy-go-lucky and free to be themselves, is something that is really an incredible sight knowing where they have all come from. Every night when I see that, it makes me smile, and I know I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.”

Sam LaSusa - The Community Builder

Originally from Traverse City, Sam LaSusa returned home during the pandemic with their architecture degree and started building community. After leaving a remote work job, LaSusa began the architectural design company Untethered Enterprises, then was selected as a fellow for the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan.

Along the way, they also managed to help in the SEEDS woodshop at Historic Barns Park and assist in forming Evergreen Community Group, a nonprofit social club.

“My brain, when I look at the world, is always trying to figure out a solution to the problem that I see in front of me,” LaSusa says. “I do really well … being able to visualize and futurize and figure out what something could be or how things can fit together.”

Locally, it’s a toss-up for LaSusa’s best known project. One contender is the rainbow fence that reads “Love Thy Neighbor” on the corner of Cass and Fourteenth streets. The other is the new East Bay Corners Farmers Market, which LaSusa headed up through their new role with East Bay Township in 2024. In their spare time, LaSusa is either working on home renovations, enjoying a sauna and cold plunge, or hoping to get more friends dancing at a silent disco.

Barbara Thierwechter - The Go Getter

During the Space Race, with Elvis crooning from every jukebox, Barbara Thierwechter was working her afterschool job when she stumbled upon a Junior Flight Stewardess pin that had popped off someone’s lapel. The find inspired her to become an aviation teletypist in bustling NYC.

It was, as Thierwechter puts it, “a most unusual” start to her career, and she hasn’t slowed down since.

Now retired from roles as a reporter, switchboard operator, billing specialist, and even an Olympic torchbearer, she isn’t settling into a quiet retirement. She’s running (and sometimes walking) through it as a marathoner. “I enjoy the challenge, the group atmosphere,” says the Manistee resident, who recently completed her hometown’s “Jingle Bell Jog” on Christmas Eve. Over the years, she’s earned nearly 30 marathon medals, plus a collection of plaques and T-shirts. Her favorite race-day reward? “The after-race snacks, like watermelon in the summer and hot chocolate with cookies in the winter.”

Still, every race begins with a moment of contemplation. “Most times, as I start out, I ask myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’” she admits. “But once I’ve gone about a mile, it gets easier. Then the goal is to finish. And what a great feeling it is when I see the finish line and pass over it.”

Aurélien Bouché-Pillon - The Accidental Local

Aurélien Bouché-Pillon felt deflated. It was November 2021, and he’d traveled from upstate New York to Traverse City, chasing a predicted giant wave on Lake Michigan. But the wave never came.

Wandering Front Street in search of an espresso, a kind stranger pointed him toward (the former) Brew, where he spotted a woman through the window. “All I could see was beautiful blue eyes,” he recalls. As fate would have it, the only open seat was next to her. That meet-cute led him to stay in Traverse City, build a life with the woman from the coffee shop (now his fiancée), and start a family—and a business—Up North.

A surfer and outdoorsman, Bouché-Pillon had already developed his sustainable outdoor clothing line, Aull-Dry, but life on the Great Lakes inspired him to adapt his designs for weathering the everyday in northern Michigan. “I realized that a lot more people are out walking their dogs, cross-country skiing, and shoveling snow,” he says.

Born and raised in southern France, Bouché-Pillon admits he’s still adjusting to the Michigan climate. But, he says, something he learned from moving to America two decades ago is that “there’s nothing good in life without struggle.” Besides, he adds, “The surfing is great here when we get waves.”

Josey Ballenger - The Curious Leader

TCAPS board member. Parent advisor for West Middle School’s Environmental Club. Analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Reporter in South Africa shortly after the end of apartheid.

Josey Ballenger has worn (and still wears) many hats. After stepping down from her role at GAO in January—where she worked in the environmental division on an array of projects like food safety regulations, nuclear power, and harmful algal blooms—Ballenger plans to dedicate more time to her teen kids and her TCAPS work.

Now in her second TCAPS term, Ballenger serves as the board secretary and says she’s especially proud of the changes she’s helped make for school safety and cell phone policies at TCAPS. “It’s just been such a resounding success,” she says of the latter, “and that is going to lead to higher student achievement and student engagement.”

And as for her time in South Africa? “Those three years in South Africa during Nelson Mandela’s presidency were just incredible. That was a new, fledgling democracy, and with our own race issues in America, it was interesting to be in a minority myself over there, just see what that felt like and the challenges that that country faced trying to radically change overnight.”

Brody Warren - The Great Lakes Globe Trotter

“I’m very wanderlust,” says TC West sophomore Brody Warren, who has spent the last three years chasing paperwork, getting international travel checkups, and learning Nepali—all in preparation for this summer. That’s when he’ll board a series of flights to South Asia for a year-long adventure as America’s first Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) student to Nepal.

While this won’t be Warren’s first trip away from home, or even his first time abroad, it’ll certainly be his longest. Topping his list of hurdles will be missing his family and friends and risking altitude sickness, especially if he ventures into Nepal’s mountainous terrain which is home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, including Mount Everest.

“I’ll just have to remind myself that this is something I’ve worked toward for years,” Warren says, adding that greater than his nerves is the excitement of immersing himself in Nepali culture. He’s also looking forward to gaining a new perspective beyond his Up North upbringing and learning from his host families. “This is a big spiritual mission for me.”

As he prepares for his exchange, Warren says he’s soaking in the Great Lakes while he can, noting, “I’m going to be in a landlocked country for a year.”

TaShena Sams - The Culture Keeper

TaShena Sams has been working for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) since she was 14 years old. Her 20+ year career began in youth services, helping connect young tribal members with Anishinaabe culture.

Today, she serves as the cultural assistant/program director for the GTB, which on any given day could mean organizing a workshop on corn ashing, bringing together birch bark basket weavers, or facilitating an Anishinaabemowin class. For Sams, the best part of her job is “when the community is coming and thanking us and saying… ‘Our community needs this. You’re healing us, and we’re glad that these programs are starting to happen.’”

Sams says she is “constantly learning” along the way. This year she’s excited to dive deeper into her ancestral language and reconnect with quillwork, a skill prized in her family. She also wants to further instill the love for culture in her kids, the way her parents did for her, raising the next generation of teachers. “I’m excited to pass on every [teaching and] project that we’re doing,” Sams says. “Everything that we do, there is a need for it.”

Taylor Dueweke - The Hometown Filmmaker

Taylor Dueweke always knew he wanted to be a documentarian. Growing up he heard his friends’ parents tell stories about the prestigious music lineup at Club Ponytail in Harbor Springs. There were also other stories, of Club Ponytail being a teen nightclub or a speakeasy. “Something didn’t add up,” he says.

Dueweke’s dream took him first to film school and then to Boston, where he became known for his work on the Boston Strangler. “I got really lucky; documentary film was my dream and I was able to do it right out of school. I learned a lot there,” he reflects.

Dueweke moved home to Harbor Springs during the pandemic. When he’s not passing on his knowledge as a substitute teacher, he has returned to the lore of Club Ponytail—developing a documentary full of “pony tales” that he hopes will be ready to release next year—and founding a nonprofit, Spirit of the Manitou, to preserve its history.

“When I was in Boston I was doing this cool stuff on their gangsters, murderers, and it kind of kept echoing to me that I should be doing this about our stuff [in northern Michigan]. I’m so happy to bring it home to Harbor Springs.”

Lisa Maxbauer Price - The Wordsmith

Nearly every hour of Lisa Maxbauer Price’s workday revolves around reading and writing. As senior editor for the magazines First for Women and Woman’s World, she’s a pro at both.
But that wasn’t always the case.

“I was one of those people you wouldn’t expect to become a writer,” she admits. As a child, she struggled to read. But with years of tutoring and hard work, she not only found joy in words but excelled.

Now, based out of her home office in Traverse City, Price writes health and nutrition-focused cover stories that can be spotted on newsstands all over town (and the rest of the country!). But her work hasn’t kept her glued to her laptop; she’s played the court with tennis legend Billie Jean King, raced cars with Hollywood stunt drivers, and interviewed everyone from celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis to lifestyle icon Martha Stewart.

And if it weren’t for those early reading struggles? She might not be the successful writer she is today. “The fact that I had to be a very slow and careful reader helps me catch mistakes that maybe some of the more brilliant speed readers weren’t catching,” says Price. “Sometimes our perceived weaknesses become hidden superpowers.”

Scott Gillespie - The Role Model

Scott Gillespie loves kids. “I’m doing what God wants me to do,” says the outreach director for The Depot Jordan Valley Teen Center in East Jordan, a community asset serving teens since 2017. It’s a faith-based center, but it’s “not a church,” he says. There’s a mixed bag of denominations, including a Buddhist, and there is no pressure to have any kind of religion at all. “We love on everybody,” Gillespie adds.

The Depot serves grades 6-12, with most students between sixth and ninth grade, averaging about 25-30 students daily. There are trips to the pool, arts and crafts, bowling, class presentations, club collabs, and initiatives including Operation: Winter Gear, providing winter clothes for students and the Back to School Bash, providing free haircuts, backpacks, school supplies and in-school mentoring. And, because kids are always hungry, The Depot serves healthy meals three days per week.

Gillespie believes the biggest societal challenge right now is the lack of a male role model in the home, and student situations run the spectrum from “solid family to everything in-between.” For him, mentoring and daily affirmations are critical. “The two most powerful words in the English language are ‘I am,’” he says.

Katie Asher - The Vintage Queen

Vintage runs in Katie Asher’s family; she grew up around grandparents who would collect and buy storage units before Storage Wars was a thing, and her mom was a collector.

“My original dream was owning a store and clothing line, but there’s so much stuff out in the world right now I don’t think we need any more clothes,” she explains. She started slip.vintage online in 2018, opening up a brick and mortar store in 2021.

Asher also offered community events, things like yoga and figure drawing, but every time she hosted, she had to move all the furniture. When her neighbors downtown moved out, she broke down a wall and opened Secondhand Social Club, offering community events, drop-in art-making, and nonalcoholic beverages.

“It’s kind of a little cafe,” she says. “Come sit and have a drink and hang out and do art.”

Asher has been listening to feedback and plans to host fewer events, allowing for more drop-in art time. “I’m constantly trying to encourage people that it doesn’t matter what it looks like, just come and do it. Everyone needs to do art. Art is therapy and community.”

Juan Pineda - The Renaissance Man

When Juan Pineda tells you that he has a lot of different interests, he isn’t kidding. Horizon Books’ chief operating officer loves reading, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Pineda spent the first 10 years of his life in Mexico City, where both parents were professors, fostering a love of learning. His passion for reading is part of the reason he was able to become a translator, just one of his many careers throughout his lifetime. He has a background in publishing translations and worked for 15 years as a freelance interpreter.

Over the years Pineda played in a few local bands, and he still enjoys making music. He also got really into chess during the pandemic. He is currently learning Nahuatl, the language that gave us words like “tortilla” and “coyote.” He coaches wrestling. And somehow, he also finds time to compete in ultramarathons.

“I love to learn with the mind of a little kid. The way kids approach stuff is experimental: what’s working, what doesn’t work, and try again. It requires a lot of time… maybe it’s not a practical way to learn things, but it’s the way I like to learn things,” he says.

Kim Richelle - The Joyful Spirit

“People who are joyful are the hardest to control,” says Charlevoix’s Kim Richelle, and it is her joyfulness which landed this multifaceted creator on our list.

An artist since childhood, her work is autobiographical “in a symbolic sense,” she says. “Life can be a meaningful, magical exploration if we possess the courage—or the foolishness—to delve…into our subconscious…to imagine and experience the otherwise improbable.”

Her own journey includes a very high IQ; siblings who work as a physicist, a zoologist, and a rhetorician; a diagnosis of childhood PTSD; and a frame of reference that is both in the world and out. Her inspiration comes from Carl Jung, Celtic symbols, ancient Egypt, Hebrew texts, Sacred Geometry, and artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, “a huge influence,” who conveyed the human condition with dignity and understanding.

Richelle’s art comes in many forms, from books to painting to tarot readings. In story form, see her Books of Ruevelation, an in-progress series distributed through her own indie publishing arm (​Psykhe Press) that examines the collective psyche through the experiences of Rue, a monarch butterfly faerie. Richelle also paints custom portraits and offers dream interpretation services. Her work is varied, but if it all comes together to help navigate this crazy world, she says she might as well make it a joyful ride.

Miles Prendergast - The Real Estate Disrupter

Maybe you’ve seen him perform with local rock band Jack Pine. Maybe he sold you a house. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, Miles Prendergast is always seeking the “zest for life” he felt as a kid.

His latest venture? After becoming disillusioned with the transactional nature of real estate and hoping to build more personal connections, Prendergast is pursuing his inspector’s certificate and diving back into the construction experience he gained in his youth. “I have home subscription services where I’m really focusing on relationships,” he says. “My relationships are long term, because that’s fulfilling to me. I’ve got three tiers of packages, everything from safety checks to full home concierge service.”

And the model for his new venture is deep rooted. “My business philosophy is that of a fruit tree. A fruit tree doesn't grow fruit for itself. A fruit tree grows fruits for the people that are passing by, for the farm. And much like a fruit tree, my gifts, my skills, they’re not for me, and that’s what being a community member really means to me.”

Grace Blackmer - The Taekwandancer

Perhaps Grace Blackmer was destined to find a home in the martial arts. After all, it’s a direct progression from dance.

Wait, what? “I danced my whole life,” Blackmer says. While she calls her experience fulfilling and fantastic, as she hit her mid-20s she decided it was time for a change. “In my 20s I was in New York, performing there and in Chicago. At 25 I hit a tipping point,” she says, and decided to return home to work with her dad, filmmaker Rich Brauer. She fell in love and stuck around to teach dance, but after unexpectedly finding herself pregnant, she took a hiatus.

Then she discovered taekwondo, which she says was really a better fit in some ways. “I was told, ‘Grace, you don’t speak in ballet.’ But I’ve got so much to say!” she says with a laugh. “In martial arts there’s a lot of yelling.” She purchased ATA Martial Arts on Centre Street in 2020, just prior to the pandemic, and has been rebuilding the business since the shutdown.

Blackmer has one more claim to fame: She’s the namesake for Gracie L, the first vessel built by Maritime Heritage Alliance. (Blackmer’s father was one of the organization’s co-founders.)

Blake Vidor - The Man of Stone

Blake Vidor of Vidor Masonry is one of the most sought-after stonemasons in the area. But it’s what’s underneath that really makes a difference.

Not the dirt or subsoil, but his role in founding Recovery Road Riders, a riding club whose members have dealt with addiction and recovery. “It was originally just fellowship with guys trying to get clean and keep their life on track,” says Vidor. It turned into something more. “When we got clean, we wanted to give back to the community we took from for so long,” Vidor says.

So the group put together a poker run to raise money for scholarships for students who had lost a parent, “whether that meant death, prison, or absence.” Recovery Road Riders is now a nonprofit and works with the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation to distribute scholarship funds to students in the five-county area. The group raises money through donations, raffles, auctions, and that poker run.

Vidor says the group will be awarding $30,000 in scholarships this spring, bringing the grand total of the scholarship funds it has raised over the past seven years to just over $130,000. Vidor also recently became a firefighter and EMT, to put those hands to yet more good work.

Ella Skrocki - The Surfing Village Councilor

Can you make a living as a surfer in northern Michigan? Ella Skrocki of Sleeping Bear Surf in downtown Empire says yes.

“My parents made a big, bold move here in the early 2000s and opened a surf shop,” Skrocki says. With a stock of surfboards, stand-up paddle boards, foils and wings, kayaks, apparel, and more, Sleeping Bear Surf offers enthusiasts multiple ways to enjoy the waters of Lake Michigan and beyond.

Skrocki’s late mother Beryl’s parents had enjoyed an “Up North” cottage on Lake Michigan, and Beryl convinced her husband to move the family north permanently—and open a surf shop. “It all happened so fast,” Skrocki muses. Today, she is the manager (and actually the only full-time employee).

As northern Michigan’s only dedicated surf shop, the question wasn’t one of business competition but of viability. Some 20 years in, that question has been answered, and for the first time ever, the shop is remaining open year round.

Just as things slowed down in the offseason in 2024, Skrocki ran for and won a seat on the village council. “Growing up in Empire was such a treat,” she says. “I want to be part of it going forward.”

Pictured; photo by Beth Price Photography

Harold Baker III - The Lucky Driver

UPS driver Harold Baker has a Facebook fan club along his Charlevoix/East Jordan route that lights up with warm wishes and accolades. “UPS is a premium…service, so I feel an obligation [to] tailor each delivery for each particular customer,” Baker tells us.

Baker rolls an owner’s waste tote back up the driveway; leaves dog treats on top of packages; attaches sticky bows to holiday deliveries. He breaks up his lunch hour for more time to interact with customers along his route. And kids? He can make their day. A teenager on his Ellsworth route needed shoes—Baker is a self-described sneakerhead, with 300 pairs—and he worked with a buddy to get the boy two pairs of Air Jordans and one pair of Nike Air Max. That’s one lucky kid.

Baker has had some good luck, too. In January 2021, squamous cell cancer almost went undiagnosed, but one medical professional decided to run some extra tests, saving Baker’s life. In 2022, the first winter after his successful treatment, Baker took up skiing. In 2024, he took his second trip to Deer Valley in Utah with daughter Lilly. “I never thought I’d be skiing,” he says, amazed and grateful to be here today.

Pam Bijansky - The Veterans’ Advocate

Pam and Andy Bijansky of Pellston’s Brave Heart Estate know a thing or two about giving back to those who have given everything. The Bijanskys are caretakers for the 8,400-square-foot country retreat, which provides B&B-style accommodations and free activities for veterans and their families. Hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, and outdoor games and other recreational therapies are available on the 238-acre property, and additional activities in the beautiful surrounding communities are mostly donated or discounted.

In 2005, the Bijanskys helped found Operation Injured Soldier, a nonprofit based in South Lyon that offers recreational activities, mostly free of charge, for disabled veterans. When a Detroit businessman offered to donate his Pellston retirement home to one of three veterans’ groups with the best business plan, Operation Injured Soldier was chosen. The secret? “We were…not [going to] charge,” says Pam, and 93 cents of every dollar goes directly to Brave Heart Estate.

The first guests arrived in 2015, and to date, they have hosted over 4,000 veterans and families. Plans for 2025 include putting mental health front and center with four PTSD Caregiver Retreats. The couple will continue to grow the services of Brave Heart Estate and to expand its impact. “I can tell you we have saved lives,” Pam says.

Joann Condino - The Academic Artist

It’s a long way from Detroit to Cross Village, literally and metaphorically. It’s also quite a distance from academia to art. But for Joann Condino, the journey all makes perfect sense.

The owner of Three Pines Gallery and Studio in the tiny enclave north of Harbor Springs enjoyed her time as an instructor and in marketing at Wayne State University, but it wasn’t her only calling. “I’ve always been an artist,” she says.

Her late husband Gene Reck was familiar with northern Michigan, and when he and Condino married, he told her he wanted a place up this way. After they both went on a sabbatical, they decided they’d had enough of Detroit and made Cross Village their permanent home.

Reck was a scientist and researcher into glass coatings who turned to pottery, while Condino specializes in fiber arts and boasts an ever-growing collection of wood blocks. The gallery is home to a stunning variety of works by numerous artists, from glass to oils, watercolors, sculpture, and more. “We knew the only way to get people to come as a studio, gallery, and business was for it to be a destination, create events and workshops,” she says. Mission accomplished.