Howard Behar

Howard has been a director of Starbucks since January 1996. Mr. Behar served as the Starbuck’s president, North America from September 2001 through December 2002. Prior to serving in that capacity, Mr. Behar served as president of Starbucks Coffee International, Inc. from June 1994 until his retirement in late 1999. Mr. Behar also serves on the board of directors of The Gap, Inc., Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc, Anna's Linens and Jewish Family Service of Seattle.

Erica Benson-Hallock

Erica serves as the President and CEO for the United Ways of Washington. She also is a Public Member on the Washington State Nursing Commission, appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire in 2006. Erica sits on the board of the Children's Campaign Fund, a political action committee formed to support state legislative candidates who will further children's issues. Previously she worked at the California State Association of Counties, focusing on health and human services. She has a BA in Political Science from the University of California at Riverside and a Master of Public Policy and Administration from California State University Sacramento. 

Rachel Berkson

Rachel is the Executive Director of the SEIU Washington State Council where her primary focus is on coordinating the union’s political and legislative programs. Prior to joining SEIU, Rachel spent six years as lead organizer with the Working Families Party, a labor and community-based grassroots political party in New York State. In addition, she was sent to the Northwest Region by the Working Families Party to explore the possibility of establishing chapters in Washington and Oregon. She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Connecticut College. 

Michael Brown

Michael Brown is the Director of Community Projects at The Seattle Foundation. His main responsibilities are developing and implementing initiatives and research for the Foundation, working with King County non-profit organizations, reviewing funding proposals and making funding recommendations to The Seattle Foundation Board. Prior to joining the Foundation, Michael served as a legislative aide to City of Seattle Councilmember Richard McIver from 1997-2000. Michael received his Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington. Michael is an American Marshall Memorial Fellow, a graduate of Leadership Tomorrow, is past Chair of the Board of the Crisis Clinic and currently serves on the boards of AIDS Housing of Washington, Impact Capital and the Advisory Board for United Way's Seattle Community Council.

Greg Devereux

Greg Devereux 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 Gould joined the staff of the Children's Alliance in 1997. As Deputy Director, he coordinates the organization's public policy, mobilization, lobbying, communications, and outreach activities. Jon was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1989, he graduated from Cornell University with a BA in history. Shortly after, he moved to Seattle, where he began working as a community organizer with the Seattle Tenants Union. After an experience as a guest trainer at the Children's Alliance's first Advocacy Camp, Jon accepted a staff position. 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's and other issues. He has held board leadership positions in several housing, human service, and political action organizations in Washington. In 2003, he earned a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington's Evans School.

Lily Kahng

Lily is an associate professor at Seattle University Law School and served as a member of the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee. Prior to joining the SU faculty, Professor Kahng was an associate professor of law at Cornell Law School and an attorney advisor in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

David Kaplan

David is a Seattle-based technologist with over 25 years of experience in database management systems, web services software, and other fields such as radio-frequency identification (RFID). Kaplan worked at Microsoft Corp. from 1987-99, where he helped to create Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft's internet services software. He has also been Visiting Scholar in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Washington (2000-2002).

Aaron Katz

Aaron is a senior lecturer in the Department of Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and director of the Packard-Gates Population Leadership Program. He was director of the UW Health Policy Analysis Program from 1988 until 2003. Aaron teaches several graduate level courses in health policy, and edits the School's biannual journal, Northwest Public Health.

Tony Lee

Tony has been an advocate for low-income Washingtonians for over 20 years. For the last ten years, Tony has served as the Advocacy Director, Fremont Public Association; he also is Policy Director for the Statewide Poverty Action Network (SPAN). Tony has a BA from Harvard University and a J.D. from University of Washington Law School.

Len McComb

Len is the former Director of the Washington State Department of Revenue, the former Director of the Washington State Office of Financial Management, and has worked for the Washington State House of Representatives. He currently has a public policy consulting business, Two Medicine Communications. He has a BA from Montana State University, an MA from York University, and has completed PhD coursework at York University.

Patrick McIntyre

Patrick McIntyre is a graduate of California State University and the Northwestern University School of Law. Prior to entering semi-retired status in early 2007, he was employed on a full-time basis by the Northwest Justice Project, where he had served as the Executive Director since its inception in 1995. He previously served as Deputy Director of Evergreen Legal Services, where his responsibilities included personnel policy development and labor-management relations and, prior to that, as a statewide litigation coordinator. His background also includes five years of private practice during which he emphasized state and federal administrative law, including employment-related issues. An eager and active volunteer, Mr. McIntyre now provides pro bono counsel and representation to clients on behalf of the Northwest Justice Project and has accepted committee chair appointments at the request of the Washington State Access to Justice Board. He currently serves in addition as the Board Chair of the Management Information Exchange, a national organization dedicated to promoting the advanced supervision, management, administrative and leadership skills essential to the provision of the highest quality legal services. He has made numerous contributions to the Journal of the Management Information Exchange, participated in a wide variety of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) presentations, and has authored or co-authored several Op-Ed articles focusing on legal rights and poverty law.

Mike Ragan

Mike is the vice president of the Washington Education Association. Mike says he would not have considered college if not for a high school counselor in suburban Philadelphia.  Mike graduated with a degree in engineering and physics then worked all over the country as an engineer. While accompanying his wife who was teaching overseas, Mike studied psychology and education. He received his teaching certificate at Heritage College in Toppenish then completed his student teaching while earning his Masters in Counseling Psychology from Washington State University. Mike became active in his association soon after he began as a science teacher in Kennewick 13 years ago.

Liz Schott

Liz is a Senior Fellow with the Welfare Reform and Income Support Division of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. 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

Hugh Spitzer is a public finance lawyer at Foster Pepper PLLC and is an Affiliate Professor of Law at the University of Washington, where he teaches local government law and state constitutional law. He 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.

Mark Usdane

Mark is a consultant to philanthropic foundations. Beforehand, he was the Executive Director of the League of Education Voters. He also previously managed at Washington’s Children’s Alliance, the WA State DSHS, and was for over a decade COO of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. Born in Seattle, Mark has a BA from Brown University and an MPH from Columbia University.

Organizational affilliations are for identification purposes only.