The goal of YourCascadia is to build a Cascadian Economic Direct Democracy – a web-based marketplace that is under the complete direct democratic control of local community members. The interface will be intuitive enough for the most computer illiterate, and will include elements from games to motivate and reward members.

It aims to empower every person to sustainably exchange goods and services, drastically increase personal and public wealth, fund new jobs and needed causes, have an equal voice in their locality; and make educated decisions with a transparent, secure, and ever-improving open source platform. YourCascadia is for people who care about things like real democracy and transitioning to a system now to urgently address the many critical issues that our generation faces. People who already identify with Cascadia are likely to share these sorts of values, and so are the primary target audience to begin with. YourCascadia aims to gain support and help with platform adoption from tight-knit communities all across the bioregion to make it a fully-realized method of improving our world.

The YourCascadia Leadership Team

Elliott Karten

Elliott lives and breathes for this project, which he believes is the best option for Cascadians to take back control of the bioregion and radically improve everything around them in almost every way imaginable. He received his degree in Philosophy from the University of Arizona, and worked as the lead front-end web developer for Philips North America prior to finally getting to work on YourCascadia full time.

Noelle Schindele

Noelle has been a constant voice of support for this project, channeling her compassion into activism of various sorts throughout the years. She enjoys making music, traveling to distant lands, and her spirit animal is a ninja marmot.

Matthew Fisher

Matt received his Bachelor of Science in marketing, is a member of the American Marketing Association & Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity, and alumni of Portland State University. In addition to over a decade of work in consumer finance and market research he is also a local artist and musician. He has worked extensively with Portland State University including coursework at the Maseeh School of Engineering, the School of Music, and the School of Business. He is also a graduate Mount Hood Community College and a long-time Pacific Northwest-area resident.