Staff profiles

Jan happily resides in Maine less than a quarter mile from the tourmaline mine her husband, Jeff, owns and operates.  Jan loves humor, especially that which is understated or ironic. When it comes down to business, she is all business, having been tagged by a friend as “the Janinator” by the way she clerked the course at local and state track & field meets, yet she readily deflects that serious demeanor with outlandish humor at the least provocation. In 1978 she earned a B.S. in Business Administration, having taken “every science class Oregon State University offered to undergrads” and was finally personally asked by university President Robert McVicar to graduate when he stated she had “way too many credits” and it was time to matriculate.  Jan’s aim for the past 35 years has been to ignite the spark in others to learn and pursue their passions, particularly in the realms of geology, mineralogy, and gemology. She enjoys coming alongside people to support and encourage them to succeed in their work and their lives. Jan’s formal career began on a fast-track in retail management, then shot an erratic trajectory through accounting, foreign export of metals, engineering & quality control for furnishing warships, politics, directing non-profits, business and engineering writing and editing, philanthropy, and operations/office management. She has served on many boards including the Seattle School Board, the Seattle Art Museum Board of Directors, the West Seattle Arts Commission Board of Directors, the KCTS Seattle Ch9 Public Broadcasting Advisory Board, and the Religious Broadcasting Commission. In addition to her career, she has also served as a volunteer in leadership and administrative positions in numerous organizations such as the Naval Academy Parent’s Club-Maine, various Parent/Teacher organizations, BSF International, and Young Life of Casco Bay. Her side interests include reading, traveling, sewing and fiber arts of most any kind, gardening, writing, painting, and cooking.  As empty nesters of four adult children (and five grandkids), Jan and Jeff are now allowed time for travel and their continued mutual pursuit of rocks, generally not as collectors, but as observers and learners.  Born in Oklahoma, she has lived in Texas, Oregon, and Washington before making the trek to Maine to marry Jeff. Along the way she’s collected things that interest her: beach sand, leaf and shell fossils, obsidian, lava, striped stones, a growing collection of metallics, and quirky as well as phenomenally beautiful things from the Havey Quarry.  Whenever traveling, she and Jeff not only take in the cultural aspects of an area (like museums), but hunt for rock and land formations that help tell the story of the areas they are visiting. As she clambered all over the Cascades and Willamette and Hood River Valleys while living in Oregon for 20 years Jan is glad to be on the Board of the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals and to be able to serve and give back to the state that has given her such a great zest for life and its opportunities.

Kyle Kevorkian grew up in Los Angeles, California and graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy. Following his graduation, Kyle worked for several years as a financial advisor with 49 Financial, based in Austin, Texas. At 49 Financial, Kyle advised a variety of families and businesses in wealth management, life insurance, estate planning, and charitable giving strategies, In 2023, Kyle moved back home to Los Angeles to assume the role of General Manager at Tama Trading Company, a 104 year old wholesale food distribution company that was started by his great grandfather.  Kyle has been a collector of fine minerals and gemstones since 2016, building his collection with a focus on aesthetic presentation and perfection in smaller-sized specimens. Kyle has contributed extensively to the mineral collection community by loaning specimens to museum exhibits, displaying his collection at major shows, and contributing to several podcasts, interviews, and articles.

Board Member since 2022 Julia moved to Hillsboro, Oregon in December 2020. Currently, she works as a Network Performance Engineer. Prior to her engineering career, she worked in the non-profit sector for eight years in varying development and program management capacities. Later she transitioned into account management and device support roles in the technology field. Most recently, she graduated from Strayer University with a master’s degree in Business Administration. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and reading.

Board Member since 2022 Conan has over 30 years of experience in corporate strategy, private equity, banking/finance, and management of large corporate enterprises. Since 1998 he has served as Co-President and 25% owner of Velocity Vehicle Group, a privately owned group of companies that serve the truck, bus, and capital equipment finance markets with almost 100 locations in the Southwestern and Southeastern US markets, in Mexico, and throughout Australia. Barker is also a board member and 50% owner of Velocity SBA, one of 14 non-bank small business lending companies in the United States licensed to originate loans under the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) program. He has collected fine minerals since 2006, with nearly 1,000 specimens in his private collection, focused on display-sized worldwide aesthetic and historical specimens.

Board member since June 2010 Margaret’s parents are Dennis and Mary Murphy whose petrified wood collection is displayed in the Murphy Petrified Wood Gallery. She has been around rocks and minerals all her life where she learned to appreciate their origin and beauty. Even though petrified wood as well as fossils, gems and minerals, were always around she still is amazed by the perfect skin on a palm or the fiery color of an Arizona. It is a wonderful gift from her parents to their children and grandchildren.

Board Member since 2014 Judith McGee is frequently recognized as one of the nation’s top wealth managers by leading industry publications. Among them, Barron’s magazine has named McGee to its list of Top 1,000 Wealth Advisors in the U.S. every year since 2009 and has ranked her as one of Oregon’s top ten. In 2013, Judith was once again named on Barron’s Top 1002 national list of women advisors. In 1979, Judith became one of the first women in the western United States to receive the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™1 certification. In November 1989, Judith joined Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC (“RJFS”). McGee has been on RJFS Chairman’s Council as a top ranked advisor since 1992 and was honored as their top woman advisor3 in 2012. She is Co-Branch Manager of McGee Wealth Management, Inc., and independent firm, one of RJFS’ premier branches. Throughout her career, Judith’s passion has been to share her years of experience and financial insight with her clients, with whom she builds strong, lasting relationships based on mutual trust As an ardent consumer finance advocate, her approach has always been consumer oriented and global in focus, specializing in investment management, retirement and estate planning, succession planning, and strategic philanthropy. Judith is a respected national speaker and writer, and is a member of Great Women Speakers, Portland, Oregon, “where great women speak their minds.” Her topics include personal economics, leadership, and “The Great Wake-Up Call: Shifting Economic Paradigms for Each Generation.” Judith has been a regular columnist and a guest columnist for the Portland Business Journal. She has authored several consumer resource books printed by Simon and Schuster and Random House, includ-ing J.K. Lasser Personal Investment Planner and the Random House Personal Investment Management Guide. Judith is a financial columnist for Boom Magazine and a frequent guest on ABC Affiliate KATU’s AM Northwest. She contributed to Chuck Whitlock’s CRIMELINE Law Enforcement Training Program sponsored by Experian, Financial Exploitation of Seniors and Investment Fraud. The project became an extended learning program, which won the Platinum Award for Excellence in online learning at Bellevue University in New York in 2007. In her commitment to the McGee philosophy of giving back to the community, Judith was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Town Center Bank, which was purchased by Columbia Bank of Tacoma, Washington in 2007. She has served on their Oregon Advisory Board. She has also served on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for Metropolitan Family Service and is a Past President of the Board of Directors of William Temple House. In 2009, The Oregon Community Foundation selected her to serve on their Professional Board of Advisors. Judith is a board member of Rice Museum, Multnomah County Library Association, on the Social Entrepreneur Curriculum Committee and President’s Advancement Council for Warner Pacific College. Judith received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) from Warner Pacific College in 1993 for her life achievements, published works and service.

Board Member since Spring 2013 Member, Geological Society of America Member, Directors Guild of America Bruce is a life-long mineral collector. Growing up in Connecticut, he scoured the local pegmatites and garnet-rich metamorphic rocks for crystals. He did his undergraduate work in geology at Earlham College then earned his Masters degree from the University of Montana, where he mapped volcanic rocks in the mountains of the northern Rockies. After college Bruce worked for years in minerals exploration in the Western USA and Mexico, as well as mapping coal reserves in the Illinois Basin. His final 3 years of exploration were in helicopter-supported remote camps in the Alaska Range. In 1986 he was accepted into an apprentice program at the Directors Guild of America, in Los Angeles. After graduation from the program he worked for many years in Film & TV production. He is currently the Producer of the NBC series “Grimm”, filming here in Portland, and maintains an avid interest in rocks, minerals, and all things geologic. In 2010, his collection was exhibited at the world-renowned Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. Bruce is proud to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Rice Mineral Museum.  

Board member since 2011Gene, an Intel Senior Fellow (retired) received his Doctor’s degree in Materials Science from MIT in 1963; he chose this field as his profession directly as a result of starting to collect natural crystals as early as 1948! His undergraduate work at Purdue as well as his Master’s degree and ScD at MIT were on analyzing and characterizing the properties of single and polycrystalline materials. After receiving his degree Gene went to work for Fairchild Semiconductor in 1963, and then for Intel in 1973, where he became Intel’s second Fellow in 1984; he retired from Intel in 2009. Gene is well known in the mineral field for his contributions to many mineral museums (Harvard, Rice NW Museum, A.E. Seaman Museum, University of Arizona, Gemological Institute of America, Tellus Science Museum) as well as for his many fascinating mineral displays (often with Bill Larson) at Tucson and Munich shows. He served as Chairman of the Board for the University of Arizona Mineral Museum, and President of the Board of Rice NW Museum, as well as on various university boards in his technical profession. He currently resides with his wife Rosalind, a ceramic artist, in Lake Oswego. His son Andrew lives in Los Angeles, and is planning to open a mineral museum (with many donations from Gene’s collection) at the renovated Clifton’s Cafeteria and Natural History Museum of L.A. County in downtown Los Angeles. Gene is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has an honorary doctorate from Purdue University.

Board Member since 2018 Gail Copus Spann, along with her husband Jim, is an avid collector of fine minerals and gemstones. Her mission is to educate people, especially young people and women, about the importance of minerals and to encourage them to begin collecting fascinating examples of “Nature’s” art. She is a regular visitor at major gem and mineral shows around the United States and Europe. The Spanns also have more than 12,000 pieces in their personal collection that are on display in their home, as well as on loan to several museums. Gail also serves as an associate photographer and Chair of the board of Directors of the Mineralogical Record Magazine.  Gail and Jim are on the Mineral Hall committee for the Peabody Museum at Yale University in New Haven.  Gail also serves on the board of Dallas’s Perot Museum of Nature and Science and is a Docent there.  The Spann’s also serve on the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy board, which oversees Mindat.org.  Gail is also newly elected onto the Society of Mineral Museum Professionals board. Gail resides in Rockwall, Texas with their various rescue animals including 8 pot belly pigs, 3 goats, 3 parrots, 4 dogs and 2 cats. She is also a League of American Bicyclists Cycling instructor and past Chair of that organization.