On December 9, I took my oath of office for a third term as a Port of Seattle commissioner and continue to bring the values of our region to the work of economic development as a public port. Looking back on my second term, I am proud of the work that I championed and supported that meets the Port’s mission of economic opportunity and enhancing the quality of life for our region and residents.
Being a port commissioner, to me, means using my position and power to think about the status quo and how to challenge it towards climate action and shared prosperity. Because ports are economic development agencies, it means that what we do at the Port of Seattle has reach beyond the voters of King County; what we do has impact across Washington State and the world.
In the last four years, I have championed and supported:
Growing the workforce through:
- Continued support for Maritime High School and spoke at MHS’s first commencement in 2025
- Supporting budgets to increase access to child care for SEA workers
- Championing resources to strengthen workforce pipelines for immigrant and refugee communities
Protecting our natural and built environment by:
- Protecting maritime industrial lands
- Creating the Environmental Legacy Fund to address historic industrial pollution in Port-adjacent communities
Advancing decarbonization strategies and a climate-resilient economy through:
- Engaging state and local leaders on advanced manufacturing opportunities for emerging energy innovation like offshore wind which resulted in efforts like Blue Wind, led by Maritime Blue
- Joining invite-only conversations to advance sustainable fuels like the Sustainable Freight Workshop at the Biden administration White House and joined work groups like the United Nations Global Compact. These collaboration spaces are critical to advancing a climate economy and the energy transition because it really will require research, innovation, industry, and government partners to all work together
- Championing Port resources to grow the green economy via strategies like advancing clean energy, full funding for the Port’s Green Corridor initiative through multiple Port budgets
Supporting Port of Seattle milestones such as:
- Breaching $1 billion in annual revenue
- SEA earning a four-star Skytrax rating
- Launching 13 long-haul direct routes from SEA to Asia and Europe: Chongquing, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Istanbul, Manila, Munich, Seoul, Tahiti, Taipei, Tokyo, and Zurich
- Signing MOAs with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and the Suquamish Indian Tribe, establishing government-to-government relationships
- Breaking ground on the Maritime Innovation Center, transforming our oldest Port facility into a modern, Living Building Challenge that will be a hub for, you guessed it, maritime innovation
- Supporting a Port milestone: becoming 100% shore power-capable at all of our cruise berths. The Port of Seattle was the second port in the world to adopt shore power in 2004 and as of 2024, our cruise berths are completely shore power capable, as well as a few of our cargo terminals like Terminal 5
And we continue to see year-over-year record breaking passenger numbers at SEA which will, undoubtedly, be broken again next year as Seattle welcomes the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It has been a tremendous honor to serve these last four years, and I look forward to the next four.
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