Who We Are: Commissioners
Composition and Terms
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Recruitment Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council. Terms are two years and may be renewed once. To apply to serve, send a letter and resume to Valerie Kinast (valerie.kinast@seattle.gov). See a list of former commissioners. Commissioners Julie Bassuk | ||
 |  | Julie Bassuk, AICP is a partner at MAKERS architecture & urban design. She specializes in land use, neighborhood and facility planning for Port Districts, Cities and Federal Agencies. Julie enjoys helping organizations and communities envision and realize their goals. Whether it's accommodating growth, transforming neighborhoods or getting the most out of our waterfronts, she believes in creating quality environments that enhance communities. Julie is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and University of Washington's Real Estate Certificate program. |
Julie Parrett | ||
 | | Julie Parrett is a registered Landscape Architect with over 15 years of experience designing, planning and developing urban parks and open spaces. Recently, as Design Director for the People's Waterfront Coalition, an organization she helped co-found, Julie’s work focused on re-envisioning Seattle's downtown waterfront without the Viaduct. Julie has worked on both regionally significant and local neighborhood projects within Seattle including the Olympic Sculpture Park and Mineral Springs Park, while employed as a Principal with Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture. In addition to professional practice, Julie teaches design studios at the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Washington in Seattle and previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Julie graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Architecture and earned a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. |
Tom Nelson | ||
 | | Thomas Nelson AIA, LEED® BD+C is a principal at Mithun. With over 25 years of experience as an architect designing major commercial and institutional projects his focus is on civic and higher education. He led the design of the recently completed Puyallup City Hall which has received LEED® Gold Certification. He’s a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and has completed numerous LEED® Certified projects. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science from Kent State University. |
Mary Fialko | ||
 | | Mary Fialko is a Masters candidate for Architecture and Real Estate Development degrees from the University of Washington. She has a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from University of Cincinnati, and has practiced in New York, Berlin, and at Gehl Architects in Copenhagen. In her two years in Seattle, she has lead a community-based mosaic project for students at Bailey Gatzert Elementary through the Denice Johnson Hunt Award, co-wrote the Seattle Integrated Alley Handbook which received a WASLA award, and currently works for Alloy Design Group, a Design/Build firm in the Central District. |
Laurel Kunkler | ||
 | | Lolly Kunkler is a licensed civil engineer who focuses on low impact development and sustainable infrastructure. She has been involved in the planning, design, and construction administration of sustainable and low impact development projects on a variety of scales, including the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel, the High Point Redevelopment, and The Neighborhood House Community Center. Lolly pursued engineering because she wanted to have a positive influence on the built environment. She currently works at SvR Design, an integrated services firm focused on low impact development, parks, housing, site development, and pedestrian, street, and trail projects. |
Don Vehige | ||
 | | Don Vehige AIA is an urban designer and associate at GGLO. His work is focused on urban redevelopment for communities throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Don has specific expertise in mixed use and transit oriented development, streetscapes and low-income housing. Skilled at synthesizing and communicating complex design issues to a wide range of audiences, he has also facilitated many charrettes and public design workshops. Don is passionate about urban design excellence. For him, this begins with a deep understanding of a site’s physical, ecological and cultural contexts. Using this knowledge to explore projects at multiple scales and from different perspectives reveals unexpected and inspired results, whether the final product is a neighborhood plan, public space or building. Don graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Architecture and the University of California - Berkeley with a Master of Landscape Architecture. |
Shannon Loew | ||
 | | Shannon Loew is the founder of Form In Context (a.k.a. FIX), a small real estate development company focused on urban infill projects that stimulate community through shared values of innovation and creativity. FIX is the culmination of Shannon's on-going pursuit to create great places with inspiring, relevant design. Shannon is an associate member of the AIA, LEED certified and holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental architecture from Vassar College. He has worked with some of the largest real estate developers in the country, prize winning architects in the US and Europe and at IDEO where he designed on a range of issues from apparel retail to sustainable mineral resource extraction. Clients have included Marriott, Nike, Rio Tinto, and Forest City. Prior to his career in architecture, Shannon worked in marketing and business consulting for seven years in New York and South Africa on a diverse set of industries. |
Norie Sato | ||
 | | Norie Sato is an artist who has worked in public art for over 30 years, as an artist, an arts planner, arts commissioner, and teacher. She has experience in transit, educational facilities, civic structures, libraries, convention centers, laboratories, streetscapes, parks and infrastructure projects. She is a member of the national Public Art Network Council, a part of Americans for the Arts. She was a member of the Seattle Planning Commission and the Seattle Arts Commission, and is currently a Board member of Seattle's premier avant-garde performing arts presenter, On the Boards. She has worked on projects throughout the US including projects in Miami, Scottsdale, Salt Lake City, Ames (IA), Madison (WI), Dallas, as well as Federal Way, Seattle, Bothell and Bellevue in our area. |
Osama Quotah | ||
 | | Osama is a registered architect and LEED TM accredited professional with a diverse background and a strong commitment to connect architecture and landscape design to culture and place. His professional career has included a wide range of projects in Seattle and throughout the U.S. that have focused on sustainability, cultural sensitivity and community-based design solutions. Osama works at LMN Architects. Previoulsy he was at Jones & Jones Architects & Landscape Architects. He has led teams on a number of multi-disciplinary projects that have ranged from large master plans, and civic spaces to intimate museums, interpretive centers and cultural facilities. In all of these projects Osama has strived to honor diversity and cultural expression, invite community involvement and spark curiosity while always moving people to work together, learn together and develop an ever-evolving commitment to environmental stewardship. Osama holds a Bachelors of Art in Architecture from the University of Washington and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts. |
Debbie Wick-Harris | ||
 | | Debbie Wick-Harris, PE, PTOE, LEED® AP is a Civil Department Manager at DCI Engineers and Vice-Chair of the Institute of Transportation’s (ITE) Parking Council Executive Committee. She has more than 20 years of roadway, traffic, site development and construction engineering experience, and has worked on projects in six states and three countries serving developers, local municipalities, county and state departments of transportation. Debbie’s extensive experience gives her a unique background and design perspective. She encourages multi-modal design on her projects and looks for ways to reduce parking and ease congestion. Debbie focuses on the constructability and safety of projects, as well as, the “less is more” design philosophy. Debbie obtained a B.S. in Civil Engineers from the University of Illinois in 1990 and a Certificate of Project Management from the University of Washington in 2001. |
Last Updated: December 8, 2011
