“I’m in this job because I love my community,” Knox says, “and I love creating celebration moments that bring the community together.”

Photo by Jordan Somers/Converge Media

“When (patients of color) go to the doctor’s office they are interacting with institutionalized issues, especially issues of race, ethnicity, and gender that impact their health care,” Bervell says. “A lot of the problems that are perpetuating bias are systems based. For me, empowering patients comes from education and awareness. That’s why I took to social media in the first place.”

Photo by Taylor Nicole

“It is very personal,” Phillips says of living and advocating for diversity in the Central District. “My parents migrated to Seattle from the South, like the story of so many Black people in Seattle. They came here in the early ‘50s. They lived in the Central District, which was the only place where they could live. Family and friends, we all lived within blocks of each other; 23rd and Union was my stomping ground. It is literally where I grew up.”

“I have such a connection to this city,” McLean says. “There’s so much happening and so many people doing cool things. I feel like once people get famous here, they move away to New York or LA, and they say, ‘Oh, there’s not enough here.’ I disagree. I don’t need to take my shows to New York. I want Seattle to be a stop during Fashion Week.”

For all of its culinary reputation, no Seattle restaurant has ever earned a Michelin star, regarded as the highest praise in the culinary world.
Brady Williams is changing that. In the last year he has brought notable and accomplished chefs and restaurateurs from out of town that have earned Michelin stars.

Matt Chan has been a provocateur much of his life, from his childhood in Portland, to his time as a student at the University of Oregon, and throughout a successful career in television production. “The main mistake people make about storytelling is to want to tell their story,” Chan says of his communications strategy. “A successful storyteller targets the audience.”

Sandy Gregory was an original Seahawk, hired six months before the team played its first game, and no one had a bigger role in weaving that franchise into the fabric of this region. She spent decades doing everything from arranging charity appearances to coordinating events to getting items signed for benefit auctions and people in need. As the team became an institution, she also kept the franchise connected to its former players.

Her familial dedication to service and passion for community followed her into her 20-year career working in the nonprofit, government, and community development field in roles across the U.S. and internationally. In September 2022, Shigaki took over as CEO of Friends of Waterfront Seattle, where she works to manage, program, and fundraise to revitalize the city’s Waterfront Park.

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…