The changing face of Capital Project Management
Crossposted from Clean Water Stories King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) is facing the same workforce challenges that confront many clean water utilities across the United States. Hard working senior employees throughout our organization are retiring. We need to recruit new employees and help them onboard to a career protecting public health and our environment. The passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 sparked the beginning of many wastewater careers. A costly and damaging fire on the Cuyahoga River in Ohio triggered an amendment of the 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control… Read More
Profiling amazing women working throughout King County: Eden Rogland Peak, KCIT IT Senior Applications Developer
This article is featured courtesy of Jamie Holter, Communications Manager, Department of Information Technology Eden Rogland Peak, KCIT IT Senior Applications Developer How did you get your start in IT? I spent a year after getting my Humanities B.A. working for AmeriCorps and at the end of my service I chose to use the education stipend I earned on computer classes at South Seattle College. At first it was just for fun but I was inspired by some great teachers and decided to go ahead and finish the Software Engineering program. That… Read More
Texas-bound employee volunteers with refugees and immigrants
Megan Holmes, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, has roots in public service. Growing up, her parents worked with children who experienced trauma in Belfast, Northern Ireland and her mother traveled to the Soviet Union to work with teachers. Megan herself spent six months as a volunteer in Guatemala in 2005. In her work with King County she pursues this passion every day as a senior social worker with the Child Care Health Program. Here she helps children develop the social and emotional skills needed to build positive relationships. Her role also takes… Read More
Women’s History Month Celebration March 24
Please bring your lunch and join us in E-942 for our second annual “Women’s History Month Celebration.” This event is part of the Legislative Branch Equity and Social Justice Committee’s Lunch and Learn series, co-hosted by the King County Women’s Advisory Board. Friday, March 24 from noon to 1:30 p.m. King County Courthouse Room E-942 The event will feature a panel discussion moderated by Councilmember Kohl-Welles. More details and announcement of the guest speakers coming soon. If you would like more information about this event, contact Lauren Vlas at 206-477-0943 or lauren.vlas@kingcounty.gov. Additionally, the… Read More
Celebrating International Women’s Day: A look back at the King County Women’s Program
Crossposted from Bytes and Boxes Archives staff recently completed processing a collection of records documenting the establishment and evolution of the King County Women’s Program. A new online exhibit, The King County Women’s Program: The First Years (1978-1985) highlights these records. The exhibit begins with a timeline that places the Women’s Program in the context of the national and international women’s movement and second-wave feminism. In the program records, we see both local support and local objection to the women’s movement. Yet the services provided by the program were more practical than political, and they met real… Read More
Profiling amazing women working throughout King County: Gabriela Aranda, KCIT IT Systems Specialist Entry
This article is featured courtesy of Jamie Holter, Communications Manager, Department of Information Technology Gabriela Aranda, KCIT IT Systems Specialist Entry How did you get your start in IT? Growing up I have always enjoyed working with computers and learning about them from a user standpoint. I always had the feeling that’s what I would do for a living and it wasn’t official until I decided to pursue IT while attending community college. I had no previous experience in IT as far as building computers or knowing how to code. I am very… Read More
From the Hip: Martha Cohen, Manager, Office of Interpreter Services
A voice for all King County ranks nationally as a top county in numbers for refugee and immigrant resettlement. Indeed, 98198 is one of the most ethnically diverse zip codes in the U.S. It can be said that what New York City was to cultural diversity in 1905, Seattle/King County is today. Since 1992, this office has provided interpreters in 161 different languages including ASL for all Superior Court departments: civil and criminal cases, deaf jurors and court related programs at the KCCH (Seattle), MRJC (Kent) and Youth Services Center (12th and… Read More
National Women’s History Month profiles trailblazing women in King County labor and business
This article is featured courtesy of Jamie Holter, Communications Manager, Department of Information Technology Profiling amazing women working throughout King County: Tamara Davis, KCIT IT Project Management How did you get your start in IT? I started in GIS as an analyst and quickly realized I had two choices: one, pursue GIS as an IT career developing databases and applications, or two, pursue using GIS as a helpful tool in support of a particular line of business most likely transportation planning. I picked number one. Do you bring a different perspective to IT? Female employees bring different… Read More
Deepening the dialogue and hoping for a better tomorrow
by Kirsten Garcia, Wastewater Treatment Division This is the start of a poem by Quenton Baker that he shared at one of last year’s Reflecting on Race and Racism events organized by an employee ESJ team. The poem, which is titled “Drip” and is dedicated to George Stinney, Jr., begins with a genial image – ice cream on a sunny day. But the story of George Stinney, Jr. is anything but genial. Stinney was a fourteen-year-old African-American boy wrongly accused of murdering two white girls in Alcolu, South Carolina in 1944. He… Read More
Reflecting on Race and Racism: Deepening the Dialogue, March 21
King County employees are invited to participate in a candid conversation on race and racism with a panel of literary artists of color and a skilled facilitator. The event will provide attendees the opportunity to listen to and exchange ideas and confront discomfort on issues of race and racism. Deepening the dialogue through story sharing can elicit new ways of thinking, bring self-awareness to unconscious biases, foster understanding and compassion, and guide us in cultivating a workplace culture of equity and social justice. Tuesday, March 21 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. King… Read More
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