Community As Collaborators: Empowering Community Voices in Public Processes

Session 4A | Thursday | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM (PT)

The best solutions come from the community.  Community voices from trusted community leaders, particularly those with lived experience and those who are low-income, are crucial when making important policy and programmatic decisions that impact their daily lives. Not only do community leaders share information, but they also are trusted members of their communities and leaders who are catalysts for changing inequitable systems. Frequently, these community members are not compensated for the time spent in meetings, for bringing their expertise into decision-making processes, and for translating critical messages to their communities.

Ishmael Nuñez

Ishmael Nuñez leads BDS Planning & Urban Design’s work on Racial Equity and Culturally Responsive Placemaking. He is a national leader focused on the intersection of race and place. His work on Black-affirming and Culturally Responsive Placemaking has been featured nationwide in workshops, panel discussions, and trainings for Place Management organizations. Ishmael is leading several engagement projects nationwide, including in Austin, TX, Washington DC, and Indianapolis, IN. With an applied social and racial equity lens, he seeks to cultivate physical, professional, and interpersonal environments for stakeholders with diverse backgrounds to connect and learn from one another. Ishmael enjoys supporting large and intimate-scale community planning efforts that require strategic development, consensus facilitation, placemaking, economic development, and citizen advocacy. Ishmael holds a Master’s of Urban Planning from the University of Washington.

Natalia Koss Vallejo

BDS Planning & Urban Design

Natalia Koss Vallejo is a Project Manager at BDS Planning & Urban Design and has worked directly with individuals with lived experience serving in an advisory capacity to her several projects with the Washington State Department of Commerce related to housing with intersections with behavioral health: Permanent Supportive Housing Advisory Committee and three interrelated projects focused on Homeless Service Providers: Trauma Study, Workforce Study and Stipends. She has four years of experience working within state government, and with a vast knowledge of state and local government systems, agencies, and budgets. She earned her dual major and dual minor bachelor's degree with concentrations in Latin American Studies and Women's/Gender Studies from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.

Kyle Gitchell

Washington Department of Commerce

Managing Director of the Department of Commerce Office of Equity and Belonging. I am currently in the process of building a centralized equity team to support our agency’s mission to strengthen all communities in Washington. Our team’s goal is to have equitable distribution of funds; equitable program outcomes; and a diverse, equitable, and inclusive working environment where everyone experiences belonging. I have been with Commerce since 2019 where I started as a data analyst in our Homelessness Assistance Unit and have held a few roles since then. Prior to state service I worked at a small non-profit serving the single adult homeless population in Thurston County, did a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA, and had two tours with the Army conducting intelligence work. Outside of work I am a husband and father of two little ones and have an array of nerdy hobbies.

Megan Matthews

Washington Office of Equity

Megan Matthews is the Acting Director for the Office of Equity, pursuing equity and justice for all Washingtonians. She is committed to a lifelong journey of pursuing and living the values of equity and justice. Megan earned her master’s degree in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College. She is certified as a Prosci® Change Management Practitioner, a Diversity Professional (CDP) and a Diversity Executive (CDE). Megan co-taught a Masters’ Program at The Evergreen State College, emphasizing democratic governance and social change for current and future public administrators. She is passionate about social justice and ensuring fairness for everyone, especially the next generation which includes her daughters, nieces, and nephews.

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