About

Emily Mannetti is the Global Community Affairs Strategy Director within Microsoft’s Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) organization. She directs community affairs, communications, and policy strategy for large infrastructure planning and design projects. Locally, she has supported some of the Puget Sound’s largest transportation programs, including the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, East Link Light Rail, the Seattle Streetcar, and the Puget Sound Gateway Program. Emily lives in northeast Seattle with her family and enjoys getting just about everywhere she needs to go on foot or by transit.

Sam Zimbabwe is a Practice Builder at Kimley-Horn where he advances and supports local transportation planning and strategic investment across the United States. He has over twenty years of experience in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors designing, building, and operating transit and communities where transit is the first and best transportation option. Formerly the Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, Sam believes that only communities that are transit-focused can truly be just, equitable places and that high-quality transit that recognizes riders’ dignity is something every Washingtonian deserves. Sam is a daily King County Metro rider and he and his wife force their children on various transit adventures every time they take a vacation.

Les is currently the General Manager of the Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) in Bellingham, Washington. WTA provides transportation services designed to connect people to opportunities such as employment, medical care, education, social services, and recreation. As part of connecting people to opportunities, WTA is also working to use transportation to enable community efforts tackle complex problems like workforce housing, climate change, and better mobility for underrepresented communities.

Prior to joining WTA in 2021, Les worked for the Port of Everett, Washington for ten years as both its Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officer. Les’ other leadership roles have included the City of Bellingham’s waterfront redevelopment manager, the interim director of the Whatcom Museum, and as a retired Navy Reserve Rear Admiral.

Les is an attorney by training and focused his practice on municipal law before moving into executive leadership roles.

Caleb Weaver has led efforts to develop forward-looking public policy on a variety of issues, including ridesharing and shared new mobility options, state and local transportation planning, and the availability of a social safety net for the modern workforce. An attorney by training, Caleb previously spent many years managing policy and communication issues for corporate clients and senior government officials at the state and federal levels.

Richard de Sam Lazaro manages state and local government affairs for Expedia Group, a family of travel and technology brands including Expedia.com, Travelocity, Hotwire, Orbitz, and Vrbo. In this capacity, Richard oversees Expedia Group’s regulatory and public policy efforts in municipalities, counties, and 17 states/provinces across the Western United States and Canada.

Prior to joining Expedia Group in 2017, Richard served for several years on the staff of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). As Senator Murray’s coordinator on Health and Education, Richard developed the Senator’s relationships with stakeholders in Washington State while she chaired the Senate Budget Committee. Through the Senator’s 2016 election, Richard took over all of the office’s outreach efforts in Seattle.

Richard moved to Seattle from Olympia in 2011 to assist then-candidate Jay Inslee develop an economic development policy platform that aimed to foster growth in the life science, clean energy, technology, military, agriculture, maritime, and aviation sectors.

Richard lives in Seattle’s Central District with his wife, Madeline, and their dog Dan. In his free time he enjoys traveling and serves on the boards of Child Care Resources and YouthCare.

Debbie Driver has a deep background in working with elected officials on developing and implementing transportation policy and budgets, including serving as Governor Inslee’s Transportation Policy Advisor, the WSDOT Legislative Relations Director, and Policy Analyst to the House Transportation Committee. She is passionate about supporting policies and programs that improve accessibility and safety for all users of the transportation system. Debbie is currently the NW Division Government Relations Director at HNTB. She earned her Masters of Public Administration from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, where she taught a Government Relations course. Debbie lives in Olympia, where she enjoys reading, traveling, mountain biking, and taking advantage of free transit rides to enjoy the city.

Jacob Gonzalez is a practicing urban planner with a focus on strategies to increase access to housing and transportation. He has worked for over ten years in the Puget Sound and Tri-Cities (Pasco) leading several planning initiatives and plans on metropolitan and regional transportation planning, land-use, affordable housing, downtowns, and, public engagement.

He has served on the Board of United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties, the Census Transportation Planning Committee and as Chair of the Downtown Pasco Development Authority.

Jacob earned his Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Washington and is currently pursuing his Master of Public Administration from Claremont Lincoln University. He enjoys traveling across the United States and internationally documenting his travels with his camera.

Katie Garrow was elected to serve as Executive Secretary-Treasurer of MLK Labor in September 2021. Garrow previously served as Deputy Executive Secretary.

Garrow brings years of political, union and community organizing to the position, including five years of executive experience at MLK Labor. Katie got her start in the labor movement organizing domestic workers and day laborers through a hiring hall in the San Francisco Bay Area. She went on to represent public sector workers at the City of Seattle at PROTEC17, before joining the staff at MLK Labor.

At the Labor Council, Katie’s focus has included a very successful push to grow labor’s political power beyond Seattle and into South King County where union members make up as much as 40% of the electorate. She worked to elect more than 50 union members as mayors, city council members, and school board directors in Seattle and South King County. She has also led the Labor Council’s work around anti-racism, climate change, and young worker organizing.

Garrow was born into a working-class family in Grays Harbor County in WA, where her father was a union boilermaker and her mother worked in rural economic development. She witnessed firsthand the decline of such logging towns like hers in the area. Consequently, she is rooted in the plight of the rural working class, but is also passionately devoted to making the labor movement relevant and representative of women, people of color, and LGBTQ workers who have been left out and at times excluded from our unions and American prosperity. Katie earned a BA in Spanish from Pacific Lutheran University. She is currently engaged to be married to a public school teacher. They have two daughters.

Kylie Rolf is Downtown Seattle Association’s Vice President of Advocacy & Economic Development. Prior to joining DSA, Kylie most recently served in Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office as Director of Legislative Affairs and Major Initiatives.

Kylie brings rich experience on numerous urban issues critical to DSA members and ratepayers. In her time at the Mayor’s Office, she helped lead and oversee a variety of priority projects for the administration on policies ranging from housing and homelessness to worker protections to funding initiatives for education and public facilities.

In her free time Kylie enjoys reading novels with a focus on mystery, crime, or interesting character studies, is an avid crossword puzzler, enthusiastic exerciser, and an even more enthusiastic eater. She lives downtown with her husband and small dog.

Kelly Rula is the Director of the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington, a research lab that focuses on addressing urban freight challenges amidst explosive e-commerce growth, surging transportation emissions, and the pressing demand for improved equity and safety outcomes in communities across the country.

Before joining the UW, Kelly managed the New Mobility team at the Seattle Department of Transportation. Her team oversaw shared mobility programs, led policy and strategic direction for new mobility services like scooters and autonomous vehicles, and advised on data and technology innovations to help prepare for the future of transportation in Seattle.

Kelly previously worked for Amazon Prime Now, the ultra-fast 1- and 2- hour delivery service, and for Cascadia Consulting Group, an environmental consulting firm in downtown Seattle. She lives in NE Seattle and enjoys e-cargo bike rides with her son and husband, and trying out public transit systems around the world.

Osman Salahuddin is a lifelong resident of Redmond and has grown up with the Redmond community! After graduating from local public schools, Osman attended the University of Washington, where he graduated with a bachelor’s in neurobiology and a minor in English while also serving as Student Body President, representing more than 45,000 students at the administrative, local, and state levels. Osman has brought his healthcare and community service background into his previous roles, including working as a manager at a medical device research consulting firm, conducting research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the UW Medicine’s Emergency Department, and helping found the BIPOC Health Careers Ecosystem, a non-profit to help underrepresented students find a pathway in the healthcare field. Currently, Osman works as the Communications and Community Engagement Manager for King County Councilmember Sarah Perry, and as of this year, he expanded his service to the community by being elected as a Councilmember in the City of Redmond! He applies his experience in communication, community organizing, healthcare policy, and social impact initiatives to serve residents across his community.

Charla Skaggs has been assisting public agencies and other organizations with effective communication for more than 20 years, primarily focusing her time on port and transportation issues. She counts herself lucky to have been part of most of the major transportation initiatives in the Puget Sound region in recent years, ensuring that people can get to home, work, and play, and goods move from ship to shelf in time for your next shopping trip. She lives in Tacoma with her husband Eric and their dog Max the Wonder Mutt.