Associates

Heather Swift
Principal, Founder & Consultant

Heather has worked extensively in the green building industry for the past seven years. Currently, she is creating a plan for wildlife and habitat restoration for GreenWorks Development Group’s green cottage-housing project in Newcastle. She is also conducting pre-development research and planning for a 200 acre project on the Olympic Peninsula. Recently, she assisted the Pearl River County Office of Planning and Development create an educational program for developers to plan for conservation and open space within development projects.

Heather founded Cohabitats after completing a nine-month, wilderness immersion course at Wilderness Awareness School. She learned about Washington flora and fauna, animal tracking, animal habitat and behavior, ethnobotany, bird language, wilderness survival skills and nature skills mentoring. She continues her naturalist training at Wilderness Awareness School in the advanced animal tracking intensive program where she is studying ecological tracking, trailing, track aging and interpretation. She recently completed the WSU Extension Forest Stewardship program. Heather holds an M.S. in Management from Antioch University Seattle and B.A. from Scripps College (a member of The Claremont Colleges). She has also studied at Rhode Island School of Design and University of Zimbabwe.

Heather is on the faculty at Antioch University Seattle and Cascadia Community College. Prior to starting Cohabitats, she founded marketing services company Swift Impressions in 2001, which provided marketing and creative services to more than fifty organizations. She was a feature writer and columnist for Conscious Choice Magazine for four years. She also held lead marketing roles at consulting firm The Genesis Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Pitzer College and Claremont McKenna College. Heather is an artist and avid nature enthusiast.