Skip to content

Seattle’s Most Influential People 2018: Transit Riders Union General Secretary, Katie Wilson

Katie Wilson cofounded the Transit Riders Union in 2011

By Erica C. Barnett October 18, 2018

katiewilson

This article originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the November 2018 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.

Don’t be fooled by the name of the organization Katie Wilson cofounded in 2011: the Transit Riders Union. The group, and Wilson, are about much more than advocating for better transit. Their goal is to improve the conditions of low-income transit riders in Seattle, a mission that encompasses everything from bus fares to affordable housing to preventing sweeps of homeless encampments. This year, Wilson served as an informed and effective advocate for a progressive tax to fund housing and assistance programs for Seattle’s growing homeless population.

 

Follow Us

From the Archives: Most Influential—Before That Was a Thing

From the Archives: Most Influential—Before That Was a Thing

Remembering the kind of leadership that built Washington—and still echoes today.

Washington state once had Dan Evans, a leader whose impact still endures, and who governed with a sort of principled presence that helped shape the soul of our region. A three-term governor and later U.S. senator, Evans embodied a kind of civic leadership that feels both mythic and arguably elusive now. He was pragmatic, optimistic,…

The Coach: Sonia Raman

The Coach: Sonia Raman

The history-making coach leading the Seattle Storm into the future.

In the early 2000s, Sonia Raman was on the traditional track to a successful career in law, but coaching basketball kept bouncing back to her. A lifelong fan of the sport, Raman—who played at Tufts University and coached throughout her collegiate and post-grad career—eventually heeded the call, making a pivot that would change her life….

The Civic Spacemaker: Tommy Gregory

The Civic Spacemaker: Tommy Gregory

A next-gen curator improving your airport experience.

“I love the saying, ‘sleep when you are dead.’” Few embody it like Tommy Gregory—tireless artist, curator, and connector who seems to be everywhere at once, installing work, throwing receptions, or plotting the next show. Gregory joined the Port of Seattle as senior project manager in 2019, just as airport art collections were gaining global…

The Piano Teacher: Payam Khastkhodaei

The Piano Teacher: Payam Khastkhodaei

The instructor rethinking the approach to music lessons.

When Payam Khastkhodaei began teaching piano to a family friend’s daughter in his Bothell home at 16, he relied on the same method he had been taught as a kid—classical songbooks, rigid practice, and pieces he never connected with. It didn’t take long to see she was losing interest. “I had learned from the Alfred…