Values

• We prioritize relationships and building community. 

• We value collective leadership based in trust and humility. 

• We honor histories by: 

  • Consistently applying structural antiracist analysis 

  • Pursuing a feminist approach that centers women, queer and trans BIPOC ways of working and being. 

• We strive to be bold in the face of power by communicating directly and honestly. 

• We champion creativity. 

• We invite love through accountability. We adhere to James Baldwin’s understanding of love: “as a state of being, or a state of grace… in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” 

*Sage does our work in a Just Transition framework. We define a Living Economy as an environment where natural resources are renewable and people’s labor is cooperative and all of the things a community needs are controlled and governed by everyday people: like housing, schools, farms and food production, local governance structures, art and culture, healthcare and healing, and transportation.

- Thank you and credit to the New Economy Coalition for their definition of a solidarity economic ecological systems that informs our definitions.

Our Racial Equity Definitions and Commitments:

Puget Sound Sage and Sage Leaders understand that the liberation of all people is inextricably tied to the liberation of Black and Indigenous peoples.

Black Liberation is the restoration of the health, economic, social, spiritual wellbeing, and dignity of Black people as fully human. Achieving such liberation of Black people demands addressing both systemic and non-systemic barriers that continuously impede the wellbeing of Black people within and outside of Sage.

Indigenous Solidarity: Here on Turtle Island (North America), our society is built upon a foundation of settler colonialism that causes ongoing harm. Sage commits to the struggle against settler-colonialism by supporting Indigenous self-determination nationally and locally.

As a multiracial organization currently led by non-Indigenous people, we position ourselves in solidarity with Indigenous communities. We commit to supporting Indigenous leadership and organizations, and continuing our own education to be responsible partners and community members with Indigenous peoples, especially those whose land we occupy and organize in: the Duwamish and other Coast Salish Tribes, and urban Indian communities.

Our Team

Staff

Alisa Lee (She/Her)

Electoral Programs Manager

Aretha Basu (sHe/Her)

Political Director

Christina Shimizu (SHE/HER)

Executive Director

Eric Opoku Agyemang (HE/HIM)

Leadership Program Director

Francis Abugbilla (HE/HIM)

Community Leadership Institute Program Manager

Khristine Cancio (She/her)

Communications Manager

Kristen Wendt (She/her)

Development and Communications Director

Miya Forrest (She/her)

Finance Operations Director

Mohamed Abdi

Local Elected Leadership Institute Program Manager

Philip Pantaleo (He/Him)

Technology and Database Manager