Each year, Open House is run by a team of volunteer board members and group leaders.
Contact us if you’d like to join the board or start a group!
2021-2022 Board
Carl Lucas, President
Carl was born and bred in the Welsh coastal town of Llanelli and moved to Grenoble in August 2016 with his wife Ellen. Formerly a Regional Officer specializing in Employment Law for Unite, and a qualified Engineer, he has taken early retirement and now enjoys life golfing and socializing. Carl and Ellen joined Open House shortly after moving to Grenoble with the aim of playing an active part in its activities and has served on the Board as both a member and Vice President before taking on the role of President.
Philip Collier, Vice-President
Philip was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in the town of Natick. He lived in Denver, Colorado for the 20 years prior to 2014, when he moved to Grenoble with his French wife Michele to retire. Philip went to Wentworth Institute of Technology and majored in computer electronics. He worked as a Field Service Engineer and Manager of Facilities and Equipment, for companies that specialized in large scale digital presses. He enjoys hiking, photography, cooking and traveling. He and Michele joined Open House in 2018, after living in Grenoble for 4 years, and he instantly realized what an asset being part of this community of Open House is!
Jenna Wong Logan, Secretary
Jenna Wong Logan was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She studied dance in her youth and went on to perform professionally (for a “minute”!) and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. She was active in theatre and films and was last doing voice-overs for various projects. She moved to La Buisse, just outside Grenoble in August 2015 to be closer to her daughter and granddaughters but has been a member of Open House since 2009.
Marina Basko, Treasurer
Marina Basko was born in the old town of Vyatka, Russia, then moved to Moscow after graduating from university to start a career in mass-media and marketing. She has worked as a radio presenter and journalist. For the last 9 years she worked in PR and marketing at one of the national TV Networks. She is married and has a son.
Nichol Cunningham, Membership Secretary
Nichol was born and bred in the coastal town of South Shields, in the North East of England. After finishing her PhD in Astronomy at Leeds University, she moved to rural West Virginia in the US to start a 2 year postdoctoral position at the Green Bank Observatory. After this position finished, she moved to Grenoble in 2017 to take up a position at IRAM working in support of their observatory, NOEMA (which hosts an impressive array of twelve 15m radio telescopes on the plateau de Bure) around 2 hours south of Grenoble. She is now starting a new 2 year research position at IPAG in Grenoble. After spending 2 years living in a very small town of 300 people in West Virginia, with no immediate access to wifi, restaurants or bars, Nichol has enjoyed sampling the local restaurants and bars of Grenoble. She enjoys running and hiking in the surrounding trails in and around Grenoble. Open house is a wonderful community and a great way of meeting new people, especially for new arrivals who don’t speak the language yet.
Tegan Hanna, Board Member
Tegan was born and raised in Indiana. She moved to Grenoble with her husband in August 2015 after spending 5 years in the Dubai desert. She has fully embraced the expat lifestyle and loves being able to help build community. Open House is the perfect association to meet people from all over the world and enjoy doing life in France together. She has served on the Open House board since October 2015 in different positions and looks forward to serving this year as President.
Jon Coles, Board Member
Jon was born and brought up in the Surrey Hills area of Southern England. After graduating, he worked in Information Service Implementation for, amongst others, BT, Philips and Lombard. He first moved to Grenoble in 2006, joining Open House, but went back to the UK to work in 2007 and spent the next decade traveling back to Grenoble a couple of times each month. At the start of 2018, sick of spending so much time at airports, and with Brexit fast approaching, Jon decided relocate to Grenoble for good, re-joining Open House. With his wife Alison he enjoys walking and running in the mountains, traveling, wine and live music.
Sally Spencer, Board Member
Sally was born in Melbourne – Australia, albeit not a true blue “Aussie” with her parents being Londoners;-). She has two grown children living in England. Loving to travel & explore, Sally has spent over 32 years living as an expat in some incredible countries – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Thailand. Having found love with a wonderful French man she followed her heart to Grenoble and commenced living here on a more permanent basis in the beginning of 2017. Sally joined Open House fairly immediately, on arrival, to find her tribe. She enjoys being involved in the social aspect of this group and meeting new people. Sally continues to run her global Jewelry Company from France as well as taking time out to for mountain walks and discovering this amazing region and all it has to offer.