Meet CLAUDIA ROBLEE

Meet CLAUDIA ROBLEE

BOOKKEEPER

claudia.roblee@groundworkcenter.org | (231) 941-6584 ext 711

In classic American small-business style, Claudia Roblee and her husband opened a custom picture framing shop in downtown Brighton, Michigan, and ran it there for 31 years. They lived upstairs, right downtown, and raised their children there. The couple became active in the community, volunteering with the Downtown Development Authority, and Claudia chaired the Mainstreet Association. Along the way, Claudia went to seminary and became an ordained multi-faith minister.

Claudia’s community development experience and seminary studies won’t figure directly in her day-to-day work as Groundwork’s bookkeeper, but her deep and up-close understanding of the processes and value of human connection and community will no doubt infuse our work. And of course, Claudia’s direct job responsibilities of tracking income and expenditures is the starting point and foundation for all financial management that follows.

After Claudia and her husband sold their business, they moved to northern Michigan’s Leelanau County, where Claudia’s grandparents had owned farms. “I’ve been coming here since I was born,” she says. “And I knew at a really young age that this is where I wanted to end up.”

Claudia also wanted to continue working part time in retirement, but she wanted work that aligned with her values. And in Groundwork she found so much of what she feels is important: local food, smart transportation, clean energy.

Good to know

Education

Associates degree in business. Experience in owning a business for 30 years. Extensive work in the city she lived in, including serving on the city council, and being active in civic institutions related to economic development and the downtown. Also ordained as an interfaith minister.

In her spare time ...

"I love making sourdough bread and other things with sourdough. I’m a sourdough junkie—desserts, breakfast items, cinnamon rolls, pretzels, cookies, lots and lots besides bread. And hiking—we really take advantage a lot of the trail systems here."

Favorite spots in northern Michigan

"There’s a kind of hidden trail in the Port Oneida district of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s very steep, and when you climb to the top, you have an unparalleled view of Lake Michigan, the Manitou Islands and the historic farming community inland."

What's always in your fridge?

"Sourdough starter!"

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