She’s also announcing new department heads at a rapid clip, replacing a dozen Harrell appointees in her first few weeks.

By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Katie Wilson continues to fill out a cabinet made up almost entirely of women—a casual first for a city whose last mayor, Bruce Harrell,  was accused by his own niece (and former deputy mayor) of running the office as a toxic boys’ club.

A list circulating at the city this week, which included details about the subject areas each new staffer will be involved in overseeing, included the following names. These are in addition to several PubliCola previously reported, including City Operations Director Jen Chan, Chan’s deputy, Mark Ellerbrook, and Executive Operations Managers Alison Holcomb and Esther Handy.

Holcomb’s overseeing all the public safety departments, while Handy will oversee small departments like the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and the Office for Civil Rights as well as Finance and Administrative Services, a catchall department that includes everything from managing city buildings to issuing pet licenses.

OCR’s former policy director, Caedmon Cahill—who left in the last year of Harrell’s term—is Wilson’s new general counsel.

Except where noted, everyone on Wilson’s office staff has the title Executive Operations Manager—another departure from Harrell’s office, which eventually had all manner of special advisors, directors, and people with corporate-sounding titles like “Chief People Officer.”

Kristina Pham, Director of the Cabinet & Sub Cabinet. Pham comes from City Light, where she was an organizational change manager in charge of a small team; in addition to heading up the cabinet, she’ll oversee the city’s IT department.

Lindsay Garrity, who’s worked on homelessness under former mayors Durkan and Harrell,  will oversee homelessness, HSD, the King County Regional Homelessness Authoirity, and the Unified Care Team. The choice of Garrity is somewhat surprising, given her extensive ties to previous administrations and their approach to homelessness, which focused largely on encampment removals and dashboard-level demonstrations of positive progress. Garrity worked under Harrell’s deputy mayor overseeing homelessness, Tiffany Washington, for years, both in the mayor’s office and when Washington was in leadership positions at the Human Services Department.

Lynda Peterson, who’s currently the managing director of Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington, will oversee the Department of Education and Early Learning as well as the Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Economic Development, and Public Health.

Hannah McIntosh, a former Seattle Department of Transportation chief of staff who went on to work at King County Metro and the Port of Seattle, will oversee three of the biggest departments—SDOT, City Light, and Seattle Public Utilities.

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Rachel Schulkin, the longtime communications director for the Parks Department, will oversee parks, libraries, Seattle Center, and the waterfront.

Sunaree Marshall, who’s currently director of housing and community development for King County’s Department of Community and Human Services, will oversee housing, the planning and construction departments, and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment.

PubliCola has also learned that Adrienne Thompson, announced internally as the city’s new Labor Relations director, will not be taking the job. In an internal email, the city’s HR director, Kimberly Loving, wrote that Thompson’s appointment “will not move forward. In the near term, the Labor Relations team will report to me. This approach best supports continuity and stability while broader alignment work is underway.” We’ve reached out to Wilson’s office and will update if we hear back.

On Wednesday, Wilson announced she’s replacing five department heads and keeping several others.

The highest-profile of these—and the subject of the most speculation among the housing advocates and developers PubliCola’s been talking to—is the Office of Housing, where Harrell appointee Maiko Winkler-Chin will be replaced on an interim basis by current deputy director Andréa Akita.

A.P. Diaz, Harrell’s parks superintendent, is also out; he’ll be replaced by deputy director Michele Finnegan, also on an interim basis.

Beto Yarce, the former CEO of a nonprofit that helps women and people of color access small business capital (and a onetime City Council candidate) will head up the Office of Economic Development, replacing Harrell appointee Markham McIntyre.

Just over a week ago, the state Department of Commerce announced that Yarce would be their new assistant director of community engagement and outreach. The announcement is no longer on the department’s website but is currently still up on their Facebook page.

Lylianna Allala, the current interim deputy director of the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, will take over as director; the interim director, Michelle Caulfield, will go back to being deputy. According to Wilson’s announcement, Allala headed up the city’s implementation of the Green New Deal and was a climate policy staffer for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

Quyhn Pham, the head of Friends of Little Saigon—a community group that created the Phố Đẹp (Beautiful Neighborhood) plan for the neighborhood, which emphasizes community building and safety over police enforcement—will head up the Department of Neighborhoods, replacing Harrell appointee Jenifer Chao.

Amy Nguyen, the former public art director and interim deputy director for the Office of Arts and Culture, will replace Harrell appointee Gülgün Kayim.

The department heads Wilson’s office announced she’s retaining include Rico Quirondongo from the Office of Planning and Community Development, Office of Intergovernmental Relations director Mina Hashemi, and Office of the Ombud director Amarah Khan. That’s in addition to Police Chief Shon Barnes and Human Services Department director Tanya Kim.

Wilson is replacing Harrell’s appointees at a rapid clip. At this point in his term, Wilson’s predecessor Harrell had replaced just five of Durkan’s department directors; Wilson has replaced almost a dozen.