Cooper Kleven

Cooper Kleven is a woodworker, educator, and nonprofit professional who has lived in Port Townsend since 2019. She graduated from Seattle Wood Technology Center’s Boatbuilding Program and has taught woodworking, boatbuilding, and shop skills to youth and adults through organizations including Seattle Central College, Gig Harbor BoatShop, and the Northwest Maritime Center. She has served on the Gig Harbor BoatShop Board, and completed the University of Washington’s Nonprofit Management program. She is also a member of Teaching With Small Boats Alliance, a network of educators and programs using small boat building to teach math, science, and life skills. Cooper is passionate about supporting organizations that connect woodworking, education, and community.

For Cooper, making with your hands is about more than the finished object but about building confidence, curiosity, patience, and building community. She enjoys the practical, problem solving nature of woodworking and transforming raw materials into something useful, lasting, and meaningful. Outside the shop, she enjoys sailing and spending time on the water, continuing the maritime connections that first drew her and her partner to Port Townsend.

Today, Cooper serves on the Port Townsend School of Woodworking Board as well as the PTSW Programs Committee. She believes woodworking can connect people across generations and backgrounds while teaching skills that last a lifetime.