Created in 2017 and named for the revered community leader who used her influence to help government institutions better reflect the communities they serve, the Ruth Woo Emerging Leaders Fellowship turned another amazing group of individuals. The six fellows served in a variety of roles across King County branches and agencies, contributing to the success of each and learning as they went.
The King County Council celebrated the latest round of fellows with a recognition on July 25 during full council. The fellows joined the event and were also interviewed prior to the meeting for a video produced by KCTV.
Here’s more on each fellow and their work with King County:
Isaiah Artis: Isaiah was placed with the King County Council and the Prosecuting Attorney’s office, where he worked on intergovernmental relations, actively participated in live courtroom trials with the Most Dangerous Offenders program, and engaged in clemency trials and re-sentencing of incarcerated individuals with the Sentence Review Unit.
Tera Chea: Tera was placed with the King County Council and the Department of Human Resources, where she focused on furthering the County’s commitment to equity, race, and social justice (ERSJ) and helped facilitate ERSJ trainings for over 600 employees, developed new workshop curriculum, and spearheaded projects to improve language accessibility
Vanessa Lam: Vanessa was placed in the Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget, where she supported policy development for the Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan Refresh and conducted research that led to programmatic changes to the Jobs and Housing Program.
Timothy Randazzo: Timothy was placed with the Department of Natural Resources and Parks, where they were able to advance the Sustainable and Resilient Frontline Communities section of the Strategic Climate Action Plan; and they will continue implementing the Climate Action Plan through a career service position in Solid Waste as a Green Building Program Associate.
Alex Madrigal Ramirez: Alex was placed with King County Metro, where he led the creation of an immigrant affinity space, developed the General Manager’s report for Regional Transit Committee meetings, recorded on-board announcements on the Free Youth Transit Pass and fare free days, and helped develop a legislative package to make the $1 ORCA LIFT rate permanent.
Minh Nguyen: Minh was placed with the Facilities Management Division (FMD), where he worked to improve the division’s crucial mobile device management program, tackled challenging staff recruitment issues through the county’s equity and social justice Green Belt program, and actively contributed to policy development and analysis as an ESJ Change Team member.
