“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.