Chapter Board Members

Chapter board members are dedicated activists and champions of the environment. Board members meet regularly and help shape the vision for the chapter. These individuals are integral to the grassroots efforts of Washington Conservation Voters.

Board of Directors for the King County Chapter:

Rachel Smith - Chair

Rachel has been active in the environmental and transportation communities in the Puget Sound region since moving to Seattle in 2003.  She currently serves as a Government and Community Relations Specialist for Sound Transit, focused primarily on the South Corridor (South King County and Pierce County).  She also serves as the agency's liaison to the environmental community.

Before joining Sound Transit, Rachel was the coordinator for the City of Seattle's Climate Action Now program in Mayor Greg Nickels' office, working extensively on environmental and transportation issues.  She has also served in the environmental community as Field Director and later Development Director for Transportation Choices Coalition, after turns at the Northwest Environmental Education Council (now EOS Alliance) and WashPIRG. With a passion for transportation issues, Rachel is the former Board Chair of the Washington State Ridesharing Organization and has worked on over 10 transportation campaigns including the successful 2008 Sound Transit expansion, Mass Transit Now. Prior to finding her calling in transportation, Rachel was a shorebird and marine mammal biologist and holds a degree in Wildlife from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA.  She has extensively studied the nest site selection habits of the endangered Western Snowy Plover.  A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma (go Sooners!), Rachel can often be found walking in her Leschi neighborhood with her big white fuzzy dog, Ella.

Emelie East - Vice Chair

Emelie has over 16 years of federal and local experience in politics, public affairs and advocacy.  Most recently, Emelie has started the partnership of Ceis, Bayne & East Strategic, a Seattle-based government affairs and advocacy firm.  Immediately before starting the firm, Emelie served the City of Seattle as Director of Intergovernmental Relations where she managed the city’s relationships with regional partners, the state, the federal government, and with international governments. Prior to that, she served as Mayor Nickels’ Director of Council Relations.

Before returning to her hometown of Seattle in 2005, Emelie was a co-founder of McBee Strategic Consulting, a Washington, DC lobbying firm where she represented the interests of public and private Northwest entities with the federal government. Prior to her work in the private sector, Emelie served as professional staff for five years on the United States Senate Appropriations Committee, working for Senators Murray, Byrd, Inouye, Hollings, and Leahy on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies, Defense, Military Construction, and Foreign Operations. Before working as Committee staff, Emelie worked in the office of Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA). Emelie is a Seattle native, and has a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the Washington State bar.

Ezra Basom - Treasurer

Ezra has worked extensively in community and public affairs. His role in different campaigns, projects and with non profits has varied considerably.  His political consulting work has focused on strategic planning, messaging, base building and fundraising and has included working with candidates running for Seattle City Council, Seattle Port Commission, Seattle School Board and Washington State Legislature. As a Field Director he organized hundreds of volunteers and dozens of teams for the 2000 Seattle Parks Levy and the 2001 Seattle Schools Levy, and managed the 2002 Bellevue Parks Bond campaign. As a staffer, Ezra worked as the Legislative Assistant for State Representative Ed Murray. He has worked with several non profits, managing the fundraising and capacity building.  He has been the Interim Director of Fund Development for Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, Outreach and Development Director, and Executive Director for Allied Arts of Seattle, and the Development Coordinator for the Positive Futures Network, publishers of YES! Magazine.  For the Lake City and Rainier Chambers of Commerce Ezra produced several community festivals.

Ezra is a lifelong resident of Seattle, and currently lives next to the Link Light Rail in Rainier Vista with his two boys, ages 9 and 11.

James Allen

Bio coming soon.

Keri Andrews

Brendan Donckers

Brendan W. Donckers is an associate attorney with Gendler & Mann, LLP. Brendan has worked as a staff attorney with the Washington Supreme Court Commissioner’s Office and provided legislative counsel to the House Democratic Caucus on environmental issues. He has previously worked for the General Counsel to the Mayor of Seattle and consulted with the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development and the House Democratic Campaign Committee. He also authored a bench guide discussing the Hague Convention for the Washington Supreme Court’s Gender and Justice Commission. Brendan has performed extensive volunteer work with Seattle University’s Access to Justice Institute and the Ronald L. Peterson Legal Clinic. Prior to returning to Seattle, Brendan worked on an international global security initiative with the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C. and previously served as an aide to a U.S. Congressman. Brendan founded and continues to manage his own consulting firm and serves on the boards of the King County Conservation Voters, the Georgetown Community Council, and the Renton Skyway Boys and Girls Club. He received his J. D. with honors from Seattle University School of Law in 2007 and was the valedictorian of Santa Clara University in 2002.

Candida Lorenzana

Candida Lorenzana is a native of Southern California who moved to the Pacific Northwest to pursue graduate degree at the Evans School of Public Affairs, which she received in 2007.  Since moving to Seattle in 2005, Candida has worked primarily in public sector, at the Puget Sound Regional Council and as a budget analyst for King County.

Candida is currently a policy and planning analyst for King County Metro, where her focus in on managing long-term and special projects for the agency. Prior to finding her passion in transportation and public service, Candida worked in public relations and marketing in the Los Angeles area.

She also has experience working on campaigns at a local level including council races and transportation initiatives.  She is also very active in other organizations such as vice president of the board of directors at Feet First, an advocacy organization that promotes walkable communities. Outside of her volunteer and campaign work, Candida can be found enjoying a CrossFit workout,, occasionally playing ice hockey and spending time with her husband in the Ballard neighborhood.

Mo McBroom

Mo is the Policy Director for the Washington Environmental Council (WEC), an organization that is a leader in promoting the environmental community’s legislative priorities.  Mo oversees WEC's policy positions, campaign strategies and legal program, as well as spending significant time working with legislators to promote smart environmental policies.  Mo’s advocacy experience includes serving as the Staff Attorney for WashPIRG, and directing MoveOn PAC's North Carolina operation in the 2004 presidential election. Mo holds a law degree from the University of Chicago.  Before joining the non-profit community, she was an attorney with the law firm of Perkins Coie, and a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court.  She is a Seattle native and, when not chasing after legislators, spends her time in her garden chasing after her toddler.

Joel Merkel

Bio coming soon.

James Morrison

Bio coming soon.

Brett Phillips

Brett Phillips is the director of sustainability for Unico Properties’ real estate portfolio, managing energy and environmental conservation projects across Unico’s 15 million square foot portfolio of office, retail, and multifamily properties.  His responsibilities include reducing company-wide energy consumption, setting high performance maintenance and operations standards, instituting sustainable best practices, and promoting sustainability to industry and government leaders.  While with Unico, he’s led property teams to achieve ENERGY STAR® awards at 80 percent of the Class-A office properties in Unico’s portfolio and LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications for over 70 percent.

Brett is board chairman for the 2030 District, a group focused on advancing high performance building opportunities to businesses and government leaders, locally and nationally, and chairs the BOMA-Seattle/King County Sustainability Committee. 

Previously, Brett worked on the King County Executive’s Global Warming Task Force and procured the first county-owned Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) in the United States.

Brett earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and finance from The College of William & Mary in Virginia and is a LEED Accredited Professional with the U.S. Green Building Council.  He’s a Northwest native and lives in Seattle.  

April Putney

Bio coming soon.

Anna Rising

Anna has a diverse background that spans both the corporate and the nonprofit sectors. Her long history of local and national political involvement includes organizing, fundraising and strategizing at all levels, as well as congressional campaign management. Anna's nonprofit experience includes Executive Director of a nonprofit focused on educating individuals about climate change and participation on numerous boards and committees focused on environmental, political, community and animal welfare issues. She has often been elected to leadership roles through her management, organizational and fundraising skills. Her corporate experience includes executive recruiting, joint venture/partner development for international companies, as well as management and business development for environmental service companies.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations, from the University of Washington and a Certificate in Hazardous Materials Management from University of California Santa Cruz. She lives in Kirkland.

Bronwyn Scott

Bronwyn started her career in the computer software industry. She was one of the initial four programmers on MacWrite, the WYSIWYG word processor for Apple Computer. She later helped found the Seattle studio of Electronic Arts where she worked as a Senior Development Director running three software development teams.

After many successful years in the computer industry Bronwyn decided it was time to refocus her life.  She was concerned about the growing importance of environmental problems and began studying at the University of Washington (UW).  Her research into invasive species gave her the opportunity to teach, and exposure to local environmental organizations.  Bronwyn earned a masters degree from the UW in Ecosystem Sciences. She also holds two bachelor degrees, one in math and computer science, and the other in biology (conservation, evolution and ecology).

Bronwyn Scott is currently science faculty for Kaplan University, where she is Course Leader for an environmental science class. She was also a Senior Adjunct for Bellevue College and still occasionally teaches environmental science for University of Phoenix. She is a strong advocate for environmental science education at all levels.

She currently lives in Seattle, and has three children ages 13, 16 and 22.

Keith Scully

Keith grew up on a small organic hippie farm in the Santa Cruz mountains.  Keith came out of that experience with a deep commitment to protecting the environment, and a profound dislike of homemade goat’s milk yogurt.  Keith has been a board member since 2008, and serves as the co-chair of the political committee.  He is an attorney at Gendler & Mann, focusing on representing citizen’s groups and individuals in land use and environmental law cases.  He shares a houseboat on Lake Union with his two children, Katie and Finn, and spends what little spare time remains rock climbing and kayaking.

Jennifer Sutton

Jennifer has a diverse background including political and communications consulting, and currently works as a legal analyst in the telecommunications industry.  Her work as a public relations consultant has including collaboration with diverse community groups, small business owners, public housing tenants, and related officials on behalf of the Port of Los Angeles and State of California.  In the policy arena, Jennifer's experience includes serving as Legislative Director for the South Dakota House of Representatives and on behalf of the Mayor's office of Economic Development for the City of Los Angeles. Since moving to Washington State she has joined the boards of the Center for Women and Democracy and the Institute for a Democratic Future, and is Founder and Co-Chair of the Celebrating Women’s Voices Committee.

Thao Tran

Bio coming soon.

Greg Wingard

Greg Wingard is a Seattle native, and life long environmental advocate, having worked on issues such as uranium mining and milling, toxics, Clean Water Act litigation, environmental restoration, and purchase of lands for open space, habitat and passive recreation.  Current work includes restoration and protection of the Green/Duwamish River from the Cascades to the Puget Sound (with a focus on the Green River Gorge between Black Diamond and Enumclaw), Clean Water Act litigation, and assisting local communities deal with problems related to toxics and government bureaucracy.