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I am a community member, public servant, and theatre artist deeply invested in the South Sound and building dialogue that sparks equitable social change. My family moved to southern Washington from New Jersey when I was very young, and I grew up as a queer, non-binary, white, middle-class, half-Jewish person, the youngest of two, who felt both connected to and separate from my community. My passion for storytelling and theatre emerged at a very young age from this desire to find belonging. Throughout middle and high school, I attended Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, a public magnet arts school for interdisciplinary arts-based learning, and focused on theatre arts. I moved to Michigan to attend Kalamazoo College in 2009 and graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts, Anthropology/Sociology, and French, focusing on adaptation/translation for the stage and cultural studies. In 2014, I moved back to Washington to work in higher education at The Evergreen State College, and while working, completed my Master of Public and Nonprofit Administration in 2018. My professional work moved to education policy at the Professional Educator Standards Board until 2021, focusing on strategic and organizational development, diversity, equity, inclusion, and educator workforce development. I've practiced Playback Theatre with the Heartsparkle Players since 2016, and act, direct, and teach theatre locally.

When the pandemic hit, I became involved in Window Seat, first as a featured narrator for a play I wrote interviewing my grandmother, and then as a facilitator for our story circle series. When I heard we were hiring, I jumped at the chance to collaborate with Elaine. Oral history is such a powerful framework for the community-building work we do. I can bring my whole self to this job, including launching our own theatre company, Brave Practice Playback Theatre Collective, as a community engagement program. As an extrovert, I love creating spaces of active play, conversation, and shared learning. It is a blessing to be building this life, here, and now. Thanks to my beautiful, smart, and supportive life partner, Chaney, and our adorable menagerie of pets.

To read more about my professional and educational background, feel free to download my CV.

Meg's CV

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I spent the first 20 years of my life in a small town about an hour outside of New York City. I grew up in a working-class family among very affluent white families, many of whom came from generations of wealth and privilege. My experience growing up feeling both a part of and apart from my community led to a deep interest in understanding the nuances and complexities of human experience. When I moved west in 1998 to attend The Evergreen State College, I began to grow my interest into a vocation as an oral historian, multimedia storyteller, and community-based educator. I have since carried out my work in a variety of ways: as a community-based learning coordinator at high schools in Albuquerque, NM and Portland, OR; a development director in arts and social service nonprofits in the South Sound; and an adjunct faculty teaching in the Evening and Weekend Studies and Masters in Public Administration programs at The Evergreen State College. In 2016, I founded Window Seat with a group of supportive community members who believed in its vision.

I am an introvert who is fed by conversation and human connection. I feel most at home as an interviewer, editor, and curator, and I love facilitating learning communities. Window Seat offers me an opportunity to connect deeply with people in my community. It is an honor and a gift to have the opportunity to sit with others, to listen deeply to their stories, and create opportunities for community members to come together to learn from each other.

I've called Olympia home since 2008. I live here with my two children and two kitties.

To read more about my professional and educational background, you can download my CV.

Elaine's CV

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I am a Chicano advocate who was raised by two strong women who have contributed to my advocacy, my mother Miriam, and my grandmother Maria. While growing up in a Mexican community in Southern California, there were stories of my family overcoming issues and barriers when they first moved to the United States. Overcoming those experiences have not only fueled my passion to listen to others but to help provide a platform for our community to be heard.

As a Community Navigator and Education Advocate at CIELO, I have been able to help community members access resources. With that outreach, I’ve built many relationships and with those connections come stories of peoples past. Stories that tell me of an experience and path they took to be where they are today. I believe it is important to have places such as Window Seat Media in our community to document our diverse stories that inspire others.  

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I am the oldest daughter of two Salvadoran immigrants, a first generation college graduate and a community-based worker. Growing up in Thurston County, my family and I utilized many of the resources I now collaborate with. It is an honor to repay and continue the efforts of those resources that provide connection, stability and equitable opportunities so that our community continues to thrive.

I am a Community Schools Manager at TOGETHER! who works closely with the Tumwater students and families. Through this position, I have been able to connect and support folks with their individual needs. As relationships and trust grow, we learn that our needs are much more common and with communication and storytelling, we are able to connect and support one another at a micro and macro level. Window Seat Media is unique in their way of connection and support, and I am grateful to be a part of their efforts to create social change through community storytelling.

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I’ve been retired for the past five years.  For the twenty-five years before that, I was very fortunate to lead the Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County. I currently do activities that help me be mindful in the moment, that keep my body strong and flexible, that promote peace and justice in the wider world, and that feed my soul with all the beauty and pleasure of being alive.

I want to promote any activity that encourages human connection and empathy.  Telling and listening to each others' stories is such a powerful way to promote connection. Window Seat Media offers so many creative and varied ways to connect with each other.  If our species is going to survive, we have to transcend our fears and hatreds of the ‘other’.    

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I recently retired after 24 years of teaching labor studies at The Evergreen State College in the Evening and Weekend program. Before my teaching career, I ran printing presses and sorted mail, delivered it, and did customer service for the post office. I was a steward and newspaper editor for the American Postal Workers Union and consider myself a lifelong labor and social justice worker. I’m fortunate to share my home in Olympia with my wonderful husband and sweet dog. You might see me running local streets or flailing away out on tennis courts.

It was the power of ordinary people’s stories that sparked my interest in labor history and helped me understand that history is something that we do to make meaning, not a litany of dates and names. Documentary films, oral histories, and student projects have always been at the center of the learning communities I have tried to create as a college or union-based educator.

I’m excited to join Window Seat Media’s board because I have been so impressed with the work that Elaine and others have done in building community and telling unheard truths.