most influential
Most Influential People of 2018 Nominations Now Open!
Nominate someone you think is making a positive impact in our city today.
Our city is undergoing tremendous challenges, many of them related to growing pains, even as the city—and country—continues to grapple with ongoing issues of race, inclusion, gender equity, gun violence, immigration and environmental concerns. In our annual Most Influential People story in our November issue this year, we want to celebrate the people who are…
Seattle’s Most Influential People of 2014
51 people (plus a machine, an ordinance and screaming fans) are making Seattle what it is in 2014
It’s been a year of superlatives–highest minimum wage! First Super Bowl championship! Biggest transportation boondoggle!–and behind each high point (and low ebb) are people turning the wheels of power or agitating at the grassroots. Ten years into Seattle magazine’s Most Influential list, we present our picks for the movers and shakers of the year. Love ’em…
Most Influential: Mike McGinn and Dow Constantine
Mayor McGinn and Executive Constantine made their mark
One sports a revolutionary’s beard, a feisty personality and a bike habit. The other evidences a Boy Scout mien, a let’s-get-along approach and a well-exercised iPod. Both have nearly one year in office, Mike McGinn as mayor of Seattle and Dow Constantine as King County executive. Each has made his mark—by notably different methods. First-time…
Most Influential: King-5 News Susannah Frame
King-5 News Investigative Reporter Susannah Frame
When Susannah Frame launched her “Waste on the Water” series in March, detailing a state ferry system financially running amok, she unleashed a wave of citizen ire seldom seen in Seattle. Among her revelations: a decades-long tradition of reimbursing some ferry employees—mostly relief and so-called “special project” workers—for their time and mileage to and from…
Most Influential: Partners on the Cascadia Center
Partners Miller Hull Partnership, Point 32, Schuchart, and The Bullitt Foundation collaborate to dev
The adage “If you build it, they will come” is in full experimental application at the corner of 15th Avenue and E Madison Street on Capitol Hill, where the city’s largest Living Building project is beginning to show signs of life. A collaboration among the Miller Hull Partnership (architect), Point32 (developer), Schuchart (general contractor) and…
Most Influential: Consultant Mike Donlin
Program consultant for Seattle Public Schools' prevention-intervention services, Mike Donlin spearhe
The Pew Research Center reports that 30 percent of U.S. teens say they have been affected by hurtful text messages, Facebook posts and the like. Mike Donlin wants to cut that number to zero. A program consultant for Seattle Public Schools’ prevention-intervention services, Donlin spearheaded creation of a new cyberbullying curriculum this year for Seattle…
Person of the Year: The Police Officer
We are not accustomed to seeing police officers as victims
We are not accustomed to seeing police officers as victims. Or as villains. But the past year in the Puget Sound region has focused our attention on law enforcement personnel so relentlessly, so vividly, that no year in recent memory can compare. Between October 31 and December 28, 2009, six officers—one from the Seattle Police…
Most Influential 2010: Dave Ross and Tom Douglas
Radio host Dave Ross and Restaurateur Tom Douglas show their patriotism and democracy
On April 1, Dave Ross, host of The Dave Ross Show on KIRO-FM, opened his morning broadcast with the news that One Reel, the nonprofit organization that runs the Fourth of July festivities at Lake Union, had failed to secure a corporate sponsor and was canceling the event. It was no April Fool’s joke. “It…
Most Influential: Seattle Storm Lauren Jackson
Forward Lauren Jackson help lead Seattle Storm to victory
Possibly the finest player in the Women’s National Basketball Association this decade, Lauren Jackson reminded basketball fans in 2010 that experience, maturity and talent are an awesome combo platter on the menu of leadership skills. At 29, Jackson’s body has experienced enough bruises and breaks to qualify her for a lifetime of guest appearances on…
Most Influential: Ones to Watch
Seattleites whose actions are soon likely to affect our city and our daily lives
Common SenseShe had been in office only a few months when Seattle City Council member Sally Bagshaw earned a citywide high-five for seeking to delay a proposed (and controversial) Dale Chihuly museum project at the Seattle Center. Convincing the center that it should at least entertain other proposals for how to use the former Fun…
Most Influential: Sandra Jackson-Dumont
Deputy Director of Education and Public Programs/Adjunct Curator, Seattle Art Museum
Four years ago, when Sandra Jackson-Dumont was working at the Studio Museum in Harlem, she received a call from then-director Mimi Gates at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Gates was looking to fill a deputy director position for community outreach at SAM. “I recommended several people,” Jackson-Dumont recalls. “Then she called back for me.” Just…
Most Influential: Founder Kim O’Donnel
Kim O'Donnel is not only a writer, but the founder of Canning Across America
“It was like spontaneous combustion.” That’s how Kim O’Donnel describes the response to her off-the-cuff Twitter suggestion that maybe there should be a national day dedicated to canning. O’Donnel, a former Washington Post food writer who moved to Seattle two years ago (and who at the time of her Twitter post had canned only once…
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