The USAJPA Volunteers

Valerie is a lifelong puzzler and began competing in the year 2000 after moving to Duluth, Minnesota. She and her teammates were featured in the jigsaw documentary Wicker Kittens, produced by Valerie’s significant other Mike Scholtz. In 2023, she hosted the English livestream for WJPC and is excited to be more involved with that event going forward.

Aly grew up puzzling with her family every Iowa winter. However, she only puzzled for fun until 2017, when a friend suggested a competition. After a few events with friends, they expanded to host events in bars as the Pacific Puzzlers. Her team (including Tammy McLeod) placed sixth at the 2022 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.

Faith has been doing jigsaw puzzles for more than 40 years. Her fondest and oldest jigsaw puzzle memories are of doing old wooden jigsaws with her godmother and her family. She wants to share her love of puzzles and the positive attributes it brings to others. She currently lives in Decatur, GA with her husband and two daughters.

Heather has always loved puzzles but really started doing them regularly in 2018 when she and fellow Puzzle Moms started meeting once a month to puzzle while their children were at school. Team competitions soon followed and her involvement in the puzzle community continued to grow. She currently lives in Plymouth, MN with her husband and two boys.

Becca has loved getting lost in jigsaw puzzles since early childhood. She discovered speed puzzling right after the first USA Jigsaw Nationals event and has found so much joy in the puzzling community. Becca has been a steadfast USAJPA volunteer. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and helps lead several local & state puzzling events, too.

Traveling Puzzle Shipment Lead

Yvonne is a fierce competitor and a very prominent member in the speed puzzling community - she was the 2022 USA Jigsaw Nationals champion! She is always sharing puzzles with others, by participating in her local Burbank puzzle swaps, hosting a wooden puzzle library at her house, and through her volunteer work with USAJPA. As the Traveling Puzzles Shipment Lead, she spends many hours each month dealing with all shipping logistics of the ever-growing pile of Traveling Puzzles.

Member Highlights Lead

William is co-founder of the Orange County Speed Puzzlers Group. After meeting so many wonderful folks in the larger puzzling community at the 2022 USA Jigsaw Nationals, he sought a way to continue interacting with more puzzlers across the country. In addition to bringing together the OC community, he is bringing together the larger puzzling community by highlighting members from across the US each month.

Event Results Lead

Michele is an active member in the Pacific Puzzlers group in San Diego and enjoys competing and casually puzzling with friends, like the Puzzle Gals, every month. She was actually part of the OG Pacific Puzzlers competitions with board member, Aly Krasny. She also loves organizing data and does so for multiple hours every month, logging the finishing times for participants of USAJPA Puzzle Club, Speed Run, and Sanctioned Events throughout the year.