Board of Directors
Rachel Berkson, President
Rachel is the Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. Prior to joining NARAL, she was the Associate Director of Washington Community Action Network. Rachel has also worked as the Executive Director of the SEIU Washington State Council where her primary focus was coordinating the union’s joint political and legislative programs. From 2000 - 2006 Rachel was a lead organizer with the Working Families Party, a labor and community-based grassroots political party in New York State.
Michael Brown
Michael is the Vice-President of Community Leadership at The Seattle Foundation. Michael oversees the Foundation’s community impact efforts, strategic grantmaking initiatives, and convening activities. He also leads the Foundation’s economic opportunity agenda. From 1997 to 2000, Michael served as a legislative aide to City of Seattle Councilmember Richard McIver. Michael also served as Deputy Director for the Washington Association for Community Economic Development, a non-profit organization that provided training and technical assistance to statewide community-based development organizations. A native of New Orleans, Michael received his Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Loyola University (New Orleans). Michael is board member of Building Changes, Impact Capital, the King County Housing Authority, and the Washington State Budget and Policy Center. Michael is also an American Marshall Memorial Fellow and a graduate of Leadership Tomorrow.
Janeen Comenote
Janeen lives in Seattle WA. She is Hesquiaht and Kwakuitl First Nation from her mother’s side and Oglala Lakota and enrolled Quinault from her father’s side. Comenote is the Executive Director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC) headquartered in Seattle, WA. The NUIFC is a growing national coalition representing 24 urban Indian centers in 19 cities, several Native American organizations and more than a million Native Americans living away from their traditional land base. Janeen presented urban Indian issues at the 2006, 2010 and 2012 United Nation’s Habitat World Urban Forum. Additionally, she has been a Human Rights Commissioner for the City of Seattle, worked on several documentary films and written a screenplay. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Washington State Children’s Alliance, Washington Indian Civil Rights Commission and the Chief Seattle Club. She worked for 15 years at the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation in child welfare, juvenile justice, poverty reduction and as a development officer.
Greg Devereux
Greg is Executive Director of the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28, and International Vice President of AFSCME, He began his labor relations career as a Labor Relations Field Examiner with the State of Illinois Office of Collective Bargaining, and later joined AFSCME's Public Policy Department as Coordinator of Health Policy. Greg became Deputy Director of WFSE in 1993, and Executive Director in 1994.
Jon Gould
Jon is the Deputy Director of the Children's Alliance. Prior to becoming Deputy Director, Jon served as the organization's Community Action Director. Jon has a long history of community involvement in housing, human service, children and other issues. He has held board leadership positions in several housing, human service, and political action organizations in Washington. Jon has a bachelor degree from Cornell University and earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Washington's Evans School. He is also a part-time faculty member at Seattle University, teaching public policy advocacy.
Nathan James
Nathan is a vice president at GMMB where he works to advance education initiatives with clients including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. For the last decade, Nathan has served as a communications consultant and spokesperson for nonprofits, political candidates, and issue advocacy campaigns. At the political consulting firm SCN Public Relations in San Francisco and as an independent consultant, Nathan has advised statewide, congressional, and local campaigns on earned media and research. Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Brown University.
Aaron Katz, Secretary
Aaron is a principal lecturer of Health Services and Global Health, University of Washington School of Public Health where he teaches several graduate level courses in health policy. He has held numerous academic leadership positions, including his current roles as director of the Leadership, Policy, and Management track of the Global Health Master of Public Health (MPH) program and faculty coordinator of the Health Systems and Policy Concentration of the Health Services MPH program. He was director of the UW Health Policy Analysis Program from 1988 until 2003 and editor-in-chief of the School’s biannual journal, Northwest Public Health, from 1999 to 2008.
Aaron has developed a deep understanding of the U.S. health care system and its strengths and weaknesses during a career that has spanned 35 years. Since 1978, he has served as a health planner, policy and planning consultant, lobbyist, and political adviser and has directed numerous policy analysis and policy development projects for legislative bodies, state and local public agencies, and private sector clients Aaron received the American Public Health Association’s Award for Excellence in November 2006 and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the UW School of Public Health in 2004. At the 2011 “State of Reform” Washington Health Policy Conference, Aaron received the Health Reform Leadership Award.
Treasure Mackley
Treasure is the Political and Organizing Director for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest in Washington, Alaska and Idaho. Prior to joining Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, she was the Executive Director for SEIU Washington State Council, the Oregon State Director for Organizing for America and led several successful statewide campaigns. Raised in Salt Lake City Utah, Treasure spent 11 years in Portland, Oregon after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Portland. Treasure has lived in Seattle since 2010.
Liz Schott
Liz is a Senior Fellow with the Family Income Support Division of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC. She has also worked as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Seattle University Law School, a public policy consultant focusing on policies affecting low-income persons, and a staff attorney and statewide coordinator for Columbia Legal Services and its predecessor organization, Evergreen Legal Services. She received her law degree from Boston University School of Law.
Hugh Spitzer, Treasurer
Hugh is a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Washington, where he teaches local government law, federal and state constitutional law, and professional responsibility. He is also a public finance lawyer at Foster Pepper PLLC, Hugh has published widely on public finance, taxation, public contracting and related topics. He served as vice-chair of the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee (the "Gates Commission") in 2001-2002, and since 2000 has chaired the Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board. He received his BA from Yale University in 1970, his JD from the University of Washington Law School in 1974, and an LLM from the University of California Law School at Berkeley in 1982.
Rich Stolz
Rich is the Executive Director of OneAmerica, Washington State’s largest immigrant organizing and advocacy organization. OneAmerica’s mission is to build the power of immigrant communities with key allies. He has led national and state advocacy efforts around transportation justice, public benefits programs, and immigration reform. Prior to OneAmerica, Rich was at the Center for Community Change, a DC-based advocacy organization, where he worked on a range of issues important to low-income and minority communities. Rich also served as the Campaign Manager for Reform Immigration FOR America, a multi-sector effort to enact comprehensive immigration in President Obama’s first term. Rich has organized in communities as diverse as Montgomery, AL and Tucson, AZ, and moved to Seattle in 2010.
Tiffany Turner (Vice President)
Tiffany is a Washington native. She and her husband Brady own and operate Inn at Discovery Coast and Adrift Hotel in Long Beach Washington. Before her career as an entrepreneur, Tiffany was an elementary school teacher. She has a passion for people and has been active in politics at the local and state level. Currently Tiffany serves on the steering committee for Main Street Alliance of Washington. She is also a founding and active board member for the Boys and Girls Club of the Long Beach Peninsula. Tiffany is a Seattle Pacific University graduate.
Mark Usdane
Mark is an Advocacy Representative for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He previously was the Executive Director of the League of Education Voters, and also worked at the Children’s Alliance, the Department of Social and Health Services, and for over a decade was the Chief Operating Officer of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. Mark is a native of Seattle. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University.
Organizational affiliations are for identification purposes only.
