Valerie Segrest’s elders and her community are the reason she dedicated her life to food systems. Segrest grew up a part of the Muckleshoot Tribe, located just south of Auburn, in a community where the closest grocery store was nearly 10 miles away in an area considered “food insecure.” Her elders often told her, “If…

When Girmay Zahilay arrived in Seattle as a 2-year-old refugee, his family lived in public housing and homeless shelters. He was born in a Sudanese refugee camp to Ethiopian parents fleeing civil war. Now, 35 years later, Zahilay is leading the charge to fund affordable housing in King County for working class families to the…

David Bateman, a lawyer at K&L Gates who spent his time “finding people who were doing bad things on the internet,” didn’t fully know the concept of revenge porn until he met Holly Jacobs. Jacobs sought help from K&L Gates after explicit photos of her were nonconsensually shared on the internet. Jacobs’ case, Bateman says,…

Chef Ethan Stowell knows good food can change lives. You probably recognize him as the force behind more than 20 Seattle-area restaurants and cafes. Now, he’s taking on a new challenge: transforming what kids eat in public schools as a member of Eat Real’s chefs council. America’s school cafeterias serve 7 billion meals a year…

When Spice Waala opened in 2019, husband and wife team Uttam Mukherjee and Dr. Aakanksha Sinha had two goals: bring authentic Indian street food to Seattle and give back to the community. Now, with three locations, Spice Waala is known for its flavorful chaats, kathi rolls — and its impact. Recently named King County Small…

Hamdi Mohamed arrived 30 years ago with her family, refugees fleeing war-torn Somalia. In 2024, the 34-year-old port commissioner became the first Black woman to chair the Seattle Port Commission, the public authority that manages Sea-Tac Airport and the Port of Seattle. Mohamed was not quite a year old when she fled Somalia with her…

Delaney Ruston made her first film when she was a resident at UC San Francisco. While the rest of her medical school classmates delivered their final presentations in typical PowerPoint fashion, Ruston was inspired by the “video camera revolution” and the capability of film to portray people’s stories, she said. In the film, she told…

Last spring, after publishing her first book, Vietnamese American author, playwright, and performer Susan Lieu went on a 30-stop national tour culminating in an event with the Vietnam Society at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Along the way, Lieu garnered reviews and praise from media outlets including the New York Times, NPR, Kirkus…

In a system where rehabilitation often takes a back seat to punishment, Faraji Blakeney has carved out a space for healing. As co-executive director of Yoga Behind Bars (YBB), he’s working to disrupt the cycle of trauma and stress that many incarcerated individuals face daily. In 2007, Blakeney was sentenced to 20 years for drug-related…

When Tidelands Gallery opened last September along Seattle’s rapidly evolving waterfront, it was, in a sense, a full-circle moment for photographer Matika Wilbur. The 6,000-square foot Indigenous-owned creative space, comprising an art gallery, production studio, rental space, and boutique, is just steps away from the Pike Place Hill Climb, where Wilbur had her first studio….

David Baker grew up on Capitol Hill with scientist parents. His father, Marshall Baker, was a physicist. His mother, Marcia Bourgin Baker, was a geophysicist. Both were faculty at the University of Washington. But as an undergraduate at Harvard, the younger Baker initially eschewed his famous parents’ paths and focused on the humanities, majoring in…

For dancer and choreographer Nia-Amina Minor — a cofounder of Black Collectivity with David Rue, marco farroni leonardo, and Akoiya Harris — collaboration is at the core of her practice. A longtime dancer (Minor moved to Seattle to join Spectrum Dance Theater), it wasn’t until attending grad school at UC Irvine that she seriously dove…

With a background in government relations, legislative advocacy, and business strategy — including stints at the U.S. Department of Commerce and Microsoft — Nick Ferderer admits that he isn’t the first person to come to mind as an art gallery owner. And yet, in just three short years, Ferderer has opened two of the city’s…