Current Board Members

img6786Leeanne was born in the UK  and grew up in the US. She studied English and Psychology at Oakwood University, in Alabama USA. After university she moved back to the UK were she worked in the arts sector. While working as Marketing & Press Officer at The Drum Arts Centre, she fell in love with a Norwegian theatre director. Once she visited Oslo it was easy to convince her to move. They’ve been married since 2015. Leeanne splits her time between freelance writing and sitting on the board for Oslo International Rumi Festival.

Leeanne has lived in two cities both named Birmingham, but she never pronounces them the same way.


Samantha was born in Pennsylvania but considers herself a native Floridian. She attended the University at Buffalo in New York and graduated with a B.A. in Social Sciences Interdisciplinary and a B.A. in Spanish Language. She has a long line of experience in the nonprofit sector having served with City Year in Columbia, South Carolina; with AmeriCorps NCCC in Sacramento, California; and with Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia. She has taught English in Spain, Chile, and Myanmar while completing two Master´s degrees in Nonprofit Management and Hospitality and Tourism Management from the University of Central Florida. She is currently in the service industry in Oslo, Norway.

Samantha has visited both the world´s northernmost city (Longyearbyen) and southernmost city (Ushuaia).


Nikki grew up on Texel, the most beautiful island of the Netherlands (her words). As a child Nikki was always outside, on the trampoline, swimming or building fires in the garden. After high school it was time to leave the island, so she went backpacking for 7 months in Australia and New Zealand. The exploring did not stop when she started studying, an internship in Malaysia followed by a semester in Prague (where she met her Norwegian boyfriend).

After finishing her master’s in Strategic Management she moved to Oslo and became an oslo soup volunteer within the first two weeks. Nikki officially joined the board in January of 2019.

You can wake Nikki up anytime for noodles.


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Tara was born in the United States and grew up outside of Washington, DC in the state of Maryland.  She studied Sociology and French at Mount Saint Mary’s University and received a Masters degree in Public Anthropology at American University.  Tara started her career as a juvenile residential counselor.  For the past ten years, she worked for the US Federal Government supporting disaster relief efforts and small business development.  She relocated to Norway to experience a different culture with her family and now works in the public health sector.

Tara attended L’Academie de Cuisine and loves to cook.


Read about the previous board member line up of oslo soup here.