Brown never expected the enormous success of The Boys in the Boat, but believes his book has fostered deserved recognition for the sport of rowing, the Husky crew team, and the Seattle area. Already, Boys in the Boat fans journey to the Montlake Cut from across the world to see the spot a group of scrappy, unlikely athletes trained and rose to Olympic gold.

“This nation was founded on the idea that we’re all entitled to equal rights, even if we didn’t have it at the time,” Gonzalez says. “And I think our job is to reinterpret those fundamental principles in a way that gives meaning to those principles to all of us.”

They are storytellers. They are Asian American women. And they want to give their community a voice. They banded together several years ago to create Our Stories are Your Stories, or OSAYS, to feature two-to-five-minute videos of local Asian American individuals talking about their lives and experiences. The idea was to bring positive attention to a community that had been embattled by rising hate crimes.

Tariqa Waters is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Most people in Seattle know Tariqa Waters as the owner and curator of two art spaces in Pioneer Square: Martyr Sauce gallery, a creative hub she opened in 2012, and its little sister space, Martyr Sauce Pop Art Museum (MS PAM),…

Tom Mara is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Media and entertainment executive Tom Mara vowed to retire when he left Seattle-based nonprofit radio station KEXP last June 30 after two stints, a name change and 34 years altogether. Retirement didn’t last long.  After months serving as a consultant to…

Donna Moodie is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   “If music be the food of love, play on,” wrote William Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night.” At Donna Moodie’s intimate Capitol Hill restaurant, Marjorie, music, food and love collide to create an alchemy of community as organic as the ingredients Chef Cheyenne…

David Nichols is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Chef and restaurateur David Nichols would like to share about the time he hit rock bottom. But he can’t remember it. He was blackout drunk, driving home after another arduous day and night of work and talking on the phone with…

Elsa Sjunneson is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Deafblind author and activist Elsa Sjunneson always knew she would be a writer. As a child growing up in Belltown, she spent hours of free time crafting stories and making “books” from stapled-together pieces of loose-leaf paper.  “Growing up, I knew…

Marc Dones is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   No task is too massive for King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) CEO Marc Dones.  The consummate consensus builder, the diplomatic Dones has worked toward finding a solution to Seattle’s homelessness problem with the difficult task of intergovernmental communication, coordinating federal,…

T’wina Nobles is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Growing up in and out of foster care and homelessness with a drug-addicted mother, T’wina Nobles became familiar with social services and community needs. Now, 41, the wife, mother of four, state senator and leader of two influential organizations — the…

Michael McPhearson is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   The South Seattle Emerald  born in 2014, founded in a basement and funded by the savings account of Marcus Harrison Green. The online publication has come an awful long way since then, growing to fill Green’s ambition of providing a platform…

Kate Becker is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   Kate Becker is equally at ease analyzing spreadsheets as she is reading sheet music. The King County Creative Economy and Recovery director has combined her passion for music and film with her business acumen to build a stronger cultural and financial…

Julio Rodriguez is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   At age 21, he was the youngest player at last year’s MLB All-Star Game and the runner-up in the Home Run Derby. He is strong and fast and plays baseball with an unmistakable enthusiasm. He is Julio Rodriguez, the latest phenom…