Councilmember Mosqueda's Staff
Sejal Parikh
Bio + -
Sejal Parikh serves as the Chief of Staff to Councilmember Mosqueda. Parikh most recently worked as the Executive Director of Working Washington, which has played a central role in several groundbreaking campaigns to advance workers' rights. Parikh led the strategy, policy, and mobilization effort which won Seattle’s landmark secure scheduling law for baristas, food service, and retail workers.
Previously, Parikh served as Working Washington’s fast food campaign director, in which role she was responsible for coordinating strategic mobilization, policy, and communications efforts from the first Seattle fast food strikes through the historic vote to pass the nation’s first citywide $15 minimum wage law. She has also led corporate accountability campaigns which helped close a state tax loophole benefitting JP Morgan Chase, and led efforts to ensure Amazon dropped out of ALEC and improved working conditions at its warehouses. Parikh was also closely involved with Working Washington’s landmark effort to organize workers and raise standards at Sea-Tac Airport.
Before joining Working Washington, Parikh developed policy that expanded health care access for homecare workers in Montana, and provided volunteer legislative support for a national cancer advocacy group. Parikh has a J.D. and an M.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and, although she has lived in Seattle for several years, still cheers for her Wolverines.
Issue Areas
- Press/Media Inquiries
- Workers’ Rights/Labor
- Economic Development
- Education and Early Learning
- Gender Equity
- Transportation
- Budget
- Intergovernmental Relations & Governance
Erin House
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Erin serves as legislative assistant and policy manager to Councilmember Mosqueda, with a focus on policy in the areas of housing, land use, zoning, transportation, energy, and environment. House comes to Team Teresa from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, where she served as a Strategic Initiatives Advisor on major citywide and long-range initiatives, including Link light rail expansion and community planning projects. House worked alongside agency partners and within Seattle communities to develop and implement inclusive outreach and engagement strategies, advance racial equity, and bring community voice to the planning and policy development tables.
Before joining the City of Seattle, House served as Coalition and Outreach Manager for Seattle for Everyone, where she worked with a broad coalition of affordable housing developers and advocates, for-profit developers and businesses, labor organizations, environmentalists, and urbanists to advance the first-ever comprehensive package of affordable housing policies in Seattle, known as the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA).
Prior to her role with Seattle for Everyone, House worked with Futurewise, a statewide growth management and civic planning organization, on projects promoting equitable and environmentally sound housing, transportation, land use, and environmental policies, including leading the organization’s advocacy around the Seattle 2035 Comprehensive Plan, with a focus on health equity, housing affordability, and climate resilience.
House has a Masters in Geography and Environmental Studies from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She has worked on various environmental and social justice initiatives in Chicago, including habitat restoration with the Audubon Chicago Region and community organizing with the Illinois Hunger Coalition.
Issue Areas
- Housing
- Land Use
- Zoning
- Transportation
- Energy
- Environment
- Civic Development
Faride Cuevas
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Faride Cuevas serves as Legislative Assistant and lead office manager in Councilmember Mosqueda's office. Her scope of work includes clerk lead to the Housing, Health, Energy and Workers' Rights Committee policy related to early learning, long-term care, and immigrant rights.
Cuevas was born in Mexico, and grew up in the Skagit Valley. She began her career in public policy in the Washington State Legislature as a student intern while attending the University of Washington-Bothell. After her internship she was immediately hired as a Legislative Aide to State Representative Ortiz-Self. During this time, Cuevas worked on issues related to education, early learning, and human services.
Most recently, Cuevas worked as a Legislative Aide to King County Councilmember Kohl-Welles. Cuevas is an active member of the community, she is an alumni of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, a graduate of the Alene Moris National Education for Women's Leadership Institute, and an immigrant rights advocate.
Cuevas' passion for public policy has been shaped by her commitment to social justice and her experience working across different levels of government in Washington to make policymaking more responsive to community needs.
Issue Areas
- Constituent Response
- Health
- Immigrant & Refugee Affairs
- Human Services
- Education and Early Learning
Melanie Kray
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Melanie Kray is a recent graduate from the University of Washington School of Law, originally from the suburbs of Chicago. Prior to starting work for Councilmember Mosqueda, since graduating in June, she has served as the sole Rule 9 legal intern for UW Law's Race and Justice Clinic, helping to manage cases in various stages of post-conviction proceedings -- an extension of her work as a student in the clinic this past school year. Melanie joins Councilmember Mosqueda's staff with a passion for dismantling systems of oppression and investing in life-affirming solutions whereby every person can thrive and have their basic needs met. She has experience researching a diverse array of policies/precedents and their impacts, including adolescent dating violence in schools, extrajudicial immigration deportations, racial trauma, and criminal legal system reform. Melanie is looking forward to learning, growing, and serving as a member of Councilmember Mosqueda's team and the legislative department.