Biruk Belay

“As a landscape designer at Site Workshop, I am passionate about creating holistic and thoughtful places that serve communities and make a lasting impact on future generations. I currently manage several public and private projects including Yesler Terrace Apartments, Be’er Sheva Park, Africatown Plaza and RAVE soccer field in the New Holly neighborhood.

At Jazz House on Beacon Hill, we are collaborating with SPU to understand how we can decrease the impact of polluted street runoff which will eventually enter the Duwamish River. I am interested in how future green infrastructure strategies can be established to help build community wealth and benefit those who have been disproportionately impacted by environmental injustice.”

Michelle Benetua

“As the Senior Manager for Community Partnership and Planning at the Seattle Parks Foundation, I work with community groups, championing public space projects and making sure those spaces are designed by, for, and with the communities most impacted by social and environmental inequities.

I take refuge in natural spaces outside of the city and here in town, spend time with my teens, grow vegetables and walk my dog through our local parks.

Water is life, a living force that brings us joy, recreation, adventure, tranquility, and prosperity. We live in an area with an abundance of rain and I am drawn to this project to preserve, celebrate and protect this important resource.”

Nancy Huizar

“I am a south Seattle native with leadership experience in environmental justice. I hold a degree in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. I have experience in research, policy, community organizing, and education and outreach.

I am excited to join the Shape Our Water project because I would like to bridge my work as a community organizer and my experience in science to support bettering our community.

In my free time, I like to hang out with my dog and go for walks around Seattle.”

Jescelle Major

Jescelle Major is an Associate at an interdisciplinary firm BERK Consulting leading in community engagement and qualitative analysis. She holds degrees in Sustainability and the Built Environment from the University of Florida and Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University. She is also a graduate of The Cushman School as well as Design and Architecture Senior High— each integral to her process and practice.

Her research and current professional design centers on urban scale change driven by environmentalism, historic fabric and social justice. Jescelle worked alongside teams within City of Miami Beach Parks and Recreation and the design firm Mithun. She’s a mayoral appointee on the Arts Commission and co-chairs the Public Art Advisory Committee. Jescelle is on the Board of Directors for Sawhorse Revolution and supports Trust for Public Land’s NextGen Council.

Recently, by founding Well Outside, she pursues justice-based projects and collaborations. Well Outside considers crafts, making and experimenting under its creative arm MajorBloom. Her background and research into design, environment and infrastructure align well with Shape Our Water investigations.

Ishmael Nuñez

“My name is Ishmael Nuñez, I am trained as an urban planner and have centered my career within the intersection of race and placemaking. Born in Colombia, raised in Canada, and now living in the U.S., place and my environment has been incredibly important in understanding my own identity and the communities I belong to. I identify as Afro-Latinx and grew up in a household that always encouraged me to love my Blackness. As an adult and professional, it is critically important to me that I engage myself and support efforts which seeks to affirm the experiences of diverse and traditionally marginalized communities.

In my pursuit of building community and affirming diverse lived experiences, I have had the opportunity to lead workshops on Black-affirming placemaking, participate in panel discussions, and contribute to the development of a visual art exhibit entitled “The Art of Black Urbanism”. As a result of these efforts I continue to be intrigued by the different mediums in which we can tell stories, impact others, and start conversations.

I look forward to the creative collaboration with other folks who are tapped into their respective communities and support the development of a Speaker Series which sparks collective action, creative solutions, and community wealth building.”

Matt Remle

Matt Remle (Hunkpapa Lakota) lives in Duwamish Territory – Seattle, WA with his family. He is the editor and writer for Last Real Indians and works for the Office of Native Education for the Marysville School District.

Matt is the author of Seattle’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day resolution, calling on Congress to engage in reconciliation with Tribes over the Boarding School Era policies, as well as Seattle’s resolution to oppose the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline and ordinance to divest from Wells Fargo. He served on the City of Seattle’s stakeholders committee to establish a public bank and on Seattle’s Green New Deal Steering Committee that drafted the resolution and ordinance that was passed in 2019.

In 2016, he was the co-founder of the group Mazaska Talks which focuses on global divestment from banks and corporations that negatively impact social welfare and the environment. In 2020, he was named by The Seattle Times as one of the most influential people to watch for in the next decade. His passions include spending time with his family and friends, hiking, being outdoors, going to powwows, tribal gatherings, ceremony, and reading comic books.