Phone
206-651-5493
Email
info@dionnefoster.com
YouTube Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7GOrLi2Vxo
Town where you live
Seattle
Experience (300 characters max)
Former Progress Alliance Director; Seattle Foundation Officer, Seattle Policy Advisor
Across every role I've held, I have focused on improving people’s lives through collaboration and innovation with a focus on results and equity. Seattle is home to many diverse constituencies, and I believe we all share a common cause to build a city that is more affordable and works for all of our residents.
On Council, I will work to ensure my office proactively reaches out to community members and leaders, businesses, nonprofits and other constituency groups to engage on policy questions and to ask for input and guidance on issues that directly affect your issue priorities and your communities. I will make it a priority to meet people where they are - at community events and convenings. I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of a broad range of groups representing my commitment to the multitude of communities across our city including Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of WA, King County Democrats, and MLK Labor that demonstrate my commitment to representing our residents.
I currently serve as a board member of Climate Solutions Action Fund and I’m proud of the role I’ve played in helping craft some of Seattle’s climate policies and defending our State’s Climate Commitment Act. I’ll bring both experience and urgency to this work to ensure that we lead on our climate and the environment.
On the City Council, I will:
- Ensure equitable energy access by partnering at the state level to maintain affordable energy prices, promote the equitable distribution of solar infrastructure, and hold utilities accountable for fair pricing and clean energy transitions.
- Strengthen climate resilience by preparing our communities for extreme weather events, improving infrastructure to prevent flooding, and ensuring frontline communities have the resources they need to stay safe.
- Promote sustainable transportation by reducing car emissions, improving public transit, expanding bike lanes, and making it easier for people to choose greener ways to get around.
As a Senior Policy Advisor at the City of Seattle, I worked to improve community health and safety, create more opportunities for Seattle youth, and meet our climate goals. At the University of Washington in the School of Social Work, I trained social workers as an adjunct faculty member.
As the Executive Director at the WA Progress Alliance, I worked to empower community organizations and local leaders to ensure our communities are more equitable, liveable, and safe for everyone. That included helping to pass and protect historic investments in childcare, early education and school construction funded by a statewide capital gains tax.
At the Seattle Foundation, I managed public-private partnerships investing in organizations that are creating new housing strategies to stop displacement and driving community led services to address homelessness.
On the Board of Directors for Pro-Choice Washington, I supported comprehensive reproductive rights and equitable access to abortion care.
Finding an affordable home in Seattle is challenging—I know because I’ve lived it. As a renter, I struggled to secure housing. Later, I was able to buy my first home thanks to Seattle Downpayment Assistance. My co-parent was able to stay in the city and contribute to our vibrant arts scene thanks to subsidized artist housing. Everyone in Seattle deserves the same opportunities for affordable, stable housing at every stage of life. On Council, I will:
- Prioritize getting people indoors by working with regional agencies to invest in treatment on demand, permanent supportive housing, and emergency shelter solutions like tiny homes.
- Collaborate with partners to help increase our shelter capacity so that we can make referrals to unhoused neighbors and increase our success at bringing people inside.
- Support statewide rent stabilization and tenant protections to ensure a level playing field and provide safe, affordable housing for all renters in Seattle to help prevent homelessness.
We deserve safe streets, affordable housing, and a Seattle that protects our rights and respects our voices. I want a city where my son can grow up and afford to stay, a city where we bring our neighbors inside and where we protect all residents from the threats we face from the federal government.
I’m running for City Council to refocus on our shared priorities and bring needed change to how our Council works. With your vote, I’ll ensure we come together to tackle national challenges and drive local progress.
True leadership starts with listening. I believe in honest conversations, intellectual integrity, and a fresh, pragmatic approach to tackling Seattle’s challenges. We need leaders who are ready to engage, collaborate, and take action for a stronger, more unified Seattle.
Together, we can build a city that is safe, affordable, and thriving for everyone.
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Phone
(206) 910-8762
Email
sara@saraforcitycouncil.com
Town where you live
Seattle
Experience (300 characters max)
I’m Seattle City Council President, a small business owner, and former Council aide with over 15 years of experience in public service. With a PhD in anthropology and deep roots in Seattle, I bring a results-driven approach to public safety, housing, and addiction treatment.
As often and as openly as I can – because transparency, responsiveness, and curiosity are essential qualities in an effective and responsible public servant. I have a record of proactively communicating with my constituents through multiple channels and stakeholders.
If I do not know the answer to questions raised or have a solution to concerns expressed, I lead with humility instead of faking my way through the response and then I work hard to get back to them with an honest, informed response as soon as possible.
Public service is a two-way street. Responding to questions and concerns broadens my mind and expands my understanding of my constituents’ needs and perspectives which in turn informs the solutions I put forward and shapes my legislative agenda.
Simply put, the legitimacy of my actions rests on representing my constituents’ interests. The challenge is to discern those interests and balance them when they are diverse and multiple.
As a lifelong environmentalist, I’ve led efforts toward meeting Seattle’s Climate Action Plan goals. As Chair of the City Light Committee, I championed the electrification of our transportation network, including expanding EV charger infrastructure and supported the Building Emissions Performance Standard which requires converting buildings from natural gas to electricity.
I’m fighting to increase density and building height to reduce transportation emissions and I generally support the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan proposal. I’m also a strong supporter of public transit and proud to be endorsed by the transit workers union, ATU 587.
Another major environmental concern is the impact of surface water run-off. I have long advocated for clean-up of the Duwamish River, dating back to my time as Legislative Aide for Richard Conlin. Restoring these ecosystems from more than a century of pollution continues to be a top priority for the recovery of our city.
After earning my doctorate in anthropology at UW and teaching courses in Anthropology, Women’s Studies, and the Jackson School, I joined Councilmember Richard Conlin’s office as a Legislative Aide where I helped pass landmark legislation to increase affordable housing, transit service, recycling/composting mandates, and climate protections. I took a two-year hiatus from Conlin’s office to launch my family business, Fremont Brewing, earning awards for sustainable operations and leading our community giving programs and partnerships. I ran for office first in 2017 and again in 2021. I saw that the city was headed in the wrong direction and needed the experience of someone who is both a Seattle policy wonk and small business owner. I won my election in 2021, serving as City Councilmember for District 9. In 2024, I was unanimously elected as Council President by my colleagues on the Council where I also serve as Chair for the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee.
Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to live. That means more affordable homes and a city that actually moves people inside.
We need to aggressively expand housing availability. I helped pass a budget with $342 million for affordable housing, five times more than before. I also passed legislation to allow up to 990 units of housing in downtown’s Stadium District, half of which must be affordable.
I recently announced legislation (Res. 32174) that would dedicate 25% of potential new public safety revenue for addiction treatment and recovery services because addiction is inextricably linked with our homelessness crisis.
I serve on the KCRHA Governing Board overseeing the regional budget for emergency shelter and transitional housing, so I am advancing accountability reforms.
By increasing affordable housing, treating addiction, and restoring effective services, we can begin meeting the needs of people who are living unhoused in our streets, providing safety, stability, and recovery.
I’m working to reverse the failed policies of the past and make Seattle a safer, more livable, equitable, and prosperous city – for everyone. To move forward we must deliver on the city’s promises of basic services and take care of those who have been neglected for years as city leaders looked away. Seattle has turned a corner on public safety and we’re moving our unhoused neighbors inside faster. We can’t go backwards.
I will continue fighting for bold solutions that keep us moving forward: improving public safety, moving the unhoused inside, expanding addiction treatment, and addressing housing affordability. I bring creative solutions to these problems, including plans to increase addiction treatment funding and allowing the creation of workforce housing in the Stadium District. We are making real, measurable progress, but this progress is fragile. As your Councilmember, I fight for a future of opportunity. That begins by delivering results on our greatest needs today.
