Collective Leadership Powers GSP Working Circles

Working Circle members assemble for a group picture outside with Lake Washington in the background.  

As the Green Seattle Partnership moves from the big picture strategic planning work we did together in 2025 to the next three years of deeper implementation efforts, we wanted to share more detail about our approach. We are moving forward with a new model for collaboration across the partnership that builds on the energy and input generated last year. The Working Circles are small groups of people with expertise in a topic related to GSP’s Strategic Action Plan who are getting together every month to lead analyses and evaluation, inform programming direction, and expand relationships. It’s an exciting development in the planning that goes into this partnership, where the partners themselves have a hands-on role in collectively shaping our future. 

On April 30th the Green Seattle Partnership got together with partner organizations, volunteers, consultants, and staff from other public agencies for our Working Circle Kickoff. The kickoff event itself was a celebration. We piled together into the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center on a beautiful, sunny spring day overlooking Lake Washington. We got to know each other, played some games, did some brain-storming, and ate some excellent food. It was an important first step in a process that largely revolves around community building. This event was just the beginning of a journey to reform our planning process in a way that lifts up the voices of the people who are doing on-the-ground work so they can guide us on a more successful, creative, and equitable path of serving our environment and our community.

https://greenseattle.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IMG_1104.mp4

Working Circle members gather on the deck to participate in an ice-breaker activity.

GSP’s Seven Working Circles

The Working Circles are comprised of seven groups each focused on a different topic that is vital to moving the GSP Strategic Action Plan forward. The seven circles include:  

In the last month, these Working Circles had their first monthly meetings and dove into their subject matter. Here are a few discussion topics that start to highlight a small portion of what these groups are working on: 

• The New Relationships Working Circle is discussing how to build safe, lasting, and non-transactional relationships with frontline communities.  

• The Fiscal Resilience Working Circle is trying to unpack current corporate engagement and identify funding gaps and future needs.  

• The Student Engagement Working Circle is addressing barriers between our programs and youth participation.  

• The Career Pathways Working Circle is brainstorming how to support program participants through their full career ladder, linking them with next-step opportunities.  

• The Restoration Assessment Working Circle is exploring how we set goals for ecological restoration and how that will guide what we measure at each site and how we prioritize our efforts. 

• The Knowledge Sharing Working Circle is considering storytelling, workshops, and case studies that help share our work to a broader audience.  

• The Cooperative Partnership Structure Working Circle is exploring methods for feedback and accountability within the partnership.  

Thank you, Working Circle Members

This space for partners to participate in analysis at a structural level has already proven to be a valuable opportunity. Here is what some of our Working Circle members are saying about their experience so far: 

“Rather than working solo, I really value everyone working together to combine our resources, skills, and knowledge to solve challenges. Career Pathways is such important work for me because the goal is to have more meaningful and accessible opportunities for the communities we serve. Being part of the working circle, I am excited to see how we can get to that goal!” – Emilene Castillo, Environmental Program Manager at Partner in Employment 

“The GSP Working Circles are an exciting example of distributed leadership, allowing land management decisions to be shared by a diverse range of volunteers and partner organizations that represent our community. In the Restoration Assessment Working Circle, we will be reimagining the fundamental objectives of land stewardship, developing new frameworks for how we prioritize resources, and creating new approaches for evaluating progress over time.” – Dylan Mendenhall, Founder of Haven Ecology and Research

Currently, Working Circle members have committed to participating in these monthly meetings for the remainder of the year, but we are planning on continuing this program into 2027 and 2028 with the hope that partners will continue to participate for the length of the three-year Strategic Action Plan. It is exciting to see how this collective structure of insight, expertise, and creativity will form the future of the partnership and explore how we can all become better stewards from participating in it. 

We’d like to shout out all of our 2026 working circle participants. Thanks so much for you hard work and valuable contributions to GSP!

New Relationships Working Circle

• Armaye Eshete, Serve Ethiopians Washington

• Dulce Gomez, ECOSS

• Ephraim Peniston, Forest Steward

• Erika Warren, Cattail Rising

• Michael Helms, Seattle Parks and Recreation (GSP)

Fiscal Resilience Working Circle

• Celeste Staples, Seattle Parks Foundation

• Lindsay Malone, Forest Steward – Discovery Park

• Michelle Benetua, Seattle Parks Foundation

• Mo Hesche, Seattle Parks and Recreation (PCD)

• Girma Gizaw, Serve Ethiopians Washington

Student Engagement Working Circle

• Ben Antonius, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association

• Morgan Brown, Cattail Rising

• Gaby Rivarde, Seward Park Audubon Center

• Lindsay Spangler, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust

• Nicole Parish-Andrews, Seattle Parks and Recreation (Environmental Ed)

Career Pathways Working Circle

• Andrew Schiffer, Dirt Corps LLC

• Becca Kedenburg, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust

• Cameryn Tam, Tilth Alliance

• Elizabeth White, EarthCorps

• Emilene Castillo, Partner in Employment

Restoration Assessment Working Circle

• Dylan Mendenhall, Haven Ecology and Research

• Maha Guiliani, City of Portland 

• Matthew Hilliard, Seattle Parks and Recreation

• Rowan Braybrook, Northwest Natural Resource Group

• Whit Bouton, Seattle City Light

Knowledge Sharing Working Circle

• Brianna Klein, Seward Park Audubon Center

• Chris Hoffer, Tilth Alliance

• Eric Sterner, Seattle Parks and Recreation (GSP)

• Joselynn Tokashiki Engstrom, Duwamish Tribal Services / Heron’s Nest

• Maddie Price, Queer the Land / Forest Steward

• Tareq Fayyad, Trillium Sustainability

Cooperative Partnership Structure Working Circle

• Caroline Borsenik, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association

• Christine Tang, EarthCorps

• Shameka Gagnier, Futures Rising / United Indians of All Tribes

• Swan Phongwarinr, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust

• Weston Brinkley, City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment

Facilitators

• Danielle Devier, Seattle Parks and Recreation

• Jessica Werner, Moon Snail Consulting

• Laura Johnson, Laura Renee Consulting

• Lisa Ciecko, Seattle Parks and Recreation

• Sully Moreno, Culture Shift Consulting