Funding victory gets staff back to doing what they do best
When funding for a major five-year study of Public Health’s pioneering FLASH sexual health education program was restored last week, employees who work on the program took a collective sigh of relief. “We were starting our third year of the project when we received notification that our study, which is funded by the Office of Adolescent Health’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program, was going to be terminated two years early, so we weren’t going to have the final two years of our funding to complete the study,” Andrea Gerber, Health Educator and… Read More
Employee Spotlight: Governor Inslee appoints Maureen McKee to King County Superior Court
In a July 20 news release, Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Maureen McKee to the King County Superior Court bench. McKee has been serving with King County Department of Public Defense as the Managing Attorney of The Defender Association Division, and has served with the division for 12 years. “Throughout her career, Maureen has developed a strong understanding of the inequities existing within our justice system,” Inslee said. “King County Superior Court will benefit greatly from having someone with her experience and perspective on the bench.” During her time with The Defender Association… Read More
King County Parks: An opportunity to serve
King County’s Park and Trail Ambassadors Program – and the Adopt-a-Park or -Trail Programs – allow the local community to enjoy the outdoors while serving, maintaining and stewarding their own Big Backyard. Maintaining a network of 200 parks, 175 miles of regional trails, 215 miles of backcountry trails, and 28,000 acres of open space is a big challenge, and community volunteers help King County preserve these lands for visitors today and into the future. King County Parks receives on average 8,000 volunteers per year and, together, they donate more than 55,000 volunteer… Read More
Get to know Whitney Abrams, Chief People Officer
Executive Constantine recently launched a Get to know the Senior Leadership Team video series with a video featuring Chief Performance Officer Gary Kurihara. In this second video, we spotlight Chief People Officer Whitney Abrams, what she is working on, and what brought her to King County. Click the image above to watch the video. If you missed Gary’s video you can catch it here, and look for the full series of videos over the next couple of months as we feature Budget Director Dwight Dively, Chief of Staff Rachel Smith and Chief… Read More
Celebrating summer learning
Crossposted from Best Starts for Kids Blog Robots whizzing across the floor while kids learn coding languages to control them. Creative writing exercises that become movement-based art about what it’s like to be a young person today. A youth-led book club discussing The Hate U Give, a young adult novel about the aftermath of racist police murder. These are just a few examples of the incredible summer learning opportunities we saw while celebrating Summer Learning Day last week with our partner School’s Out Washington. As part of hundreds of Summer Learning Day celebrations across… Read More
With investments by Amazon and City of Seattle, King County Metro will offer more frequent, reliable service on some of its most popular routes
King County Metro will offer more frequent and reliable bus service on some of its most popular routes beginning this fall thanks to significant investments by Amazon and the City of Seattle. Amazon’s investment will provide 22 additional weekday trips for two years across some of Metro’s busiest routes serving West Seattle, Shoreline, Ballard, and Capitol Hill. The additional service provides room for roughly 1,700 weekday boardings, and includes the RapidRide E Line and C Line, and Routes 8, 40, 62, and 63. The additional service hours will be part of Metro’s… Read More
Kudos! to Public Health’s King County Vital Statistics team at Harborview Medical Center
Catherine Hinrichsen reached out to Executive Constantine and King County on Twitter after having had a great customer experience with the Vital Stats team at Harborview Medical Center. “Wish all interactions with local govt agencies were like this. Thanks to you & staff!” Kudos, Vital Stats!
King County Community Court grand opening in Redmond
The King County Community Court in Redmond will be holding its grand opening celebration Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. Visit the new site and click on the infographic sample below for more information.
Proudly in defense of breastfeeding, in King County and everywhere
Crossposted from Public Health Insider Statement from Patty Hayes, Director of Public Health—Seattle & King County, responding to news that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services aggressively attempted to water down international support for breastfeeding through the World Health Organization. “The notion that any national or international health agency would not completely support breastfeeding is truly shocking. Breastfeeding is broadly endorsed by both the medical community and nutrition community – and for very good reasons. Decades of research have demonstrated benefits such as: Breast milk supplies antibodies, which lowers the… Read More
Purple Loosestrife – July’s Weed of the Month
Crossposted from Noxious Weeds Blog Although it is perhaps one of the prettiest noxious weeds, purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is widely recognized throughout North America as a highly invasive and damaging weed in wetlands and along shorelines. Vigorous perennial roots and rhizomes, combined with incredibly prolific seed production, result in one of the most successful invasive plants we have on this continent. Unfortunately, dense populations of purple loosestrife significantly reduce the habitat quality of wetlands and shorelines for waterfowl, amphibians, fish and other critters. Purple loosestrife does not play well with other plants and… Read More
Employee News 