PSARA BOARD
Kristen Beifus
Kristen has been involved in worker justice all along the supply chain in the US and abroad, including founding a women’s collective on the Thailand-Burma border, advocating across the US for fair trade policies and campaigning for Sweat Free purchasing in WA state. She is currently a Community Organizer with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 21, building a powerful union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
Tim Burns
Retired from Northwest Airlines after 39+ years.Served as Grievance Committee rep 26 years (12+ years as Chair), also as auditor and trustee (IAM LL 1040) and IAM DL 143 Vice President and contract negotiator. Currently on LL 2202 Legislative Committee and retiree rep and delegate to the State Machininsts Council, MLKCLC and WSLC. Former(6 years) Chair of the 30th Legislative District Democrats. With PSARA: 11 year Executive Board Member, former co-chair of the Government Relations Committee. Elected in December 2017 as Co-President of PSARA and now, in 2020, is the Chair of Government Relations Committee again.
Carlos de la Tore
Originally from Southern California, Carlos has been a member of the Teamsters, Meat Cutters and United Cement, Gypsum & Lime Workers unions. After leaving the blue-collar world, Carlos returned to school and earned an accounting degree from California State University, San Bernardino. Upon graduation and relocation to the beautiful Pacific
Northwest, Carlos worked in the private-sector financial arena spending more than 20 years in the chemical distribution industry. Evolving motivations and changing life perspectives have led Carlos to the non-profit world, where he has worked for an organization that addresses homelessness and now the accounting manager for WSLC. He is proud to be part of an organization that supports the struggle for fair wages and social justice.
Barbara Barron Flye
Barb is a successful mosaic artist. Her art focuses on the beauty of the pacific northwest, and the issues facing our country and world. Prior to becoming a full time artist, Barb’s professional experience included over 30 years of community and coalition organizing on social, racial and economic justice. She is also the cartoonist for The Advocate.
France Giddings
France was born in Canada and attended Reed College in Oregon where she lived for
many years. She was on the board of Portland NOW and helped organize a large
International Women's Day celebration and was a resource for women in
crisis.
She moved to Seattle in 1985 and joined the board of Seattle NOW until she
adopted her daughter as a single parent. While her daughter was growing
up she became active in the local Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) as the
legislative liaison. She also worked with a coalition for years to get single payer health
care in Washington. She also joined the Block Bork coalition and worked to protect the Supreme Court.
France worked as an investigator for public defense. She spent time lobbying in
Olympia for NOW, for the PTSA, for public defense, and more recently for the
Washington Farms to Food Coalition.
She currently serves on the Seattle NOW board and volunteers with Moms Demand Action and Save Shoreline Trees.
Rhonda Oden Gossett
Rhonda is a homemaker, caregiver, artist and a grandmother. She is blessed to be a cancer survivor and she researches cancer fighting foods, diabetic and kidney health nutrition to share useful information with family and friends to encourage good health and wellness. She serves as a medical advocate. For many years she volunteered to help with the local Food Bank and she continues to support the Food Bank.
Frank Irigon
Frank Irigon, born 1947 in the Philippines, emigrated to the U.S. in 1950. Has been continuously active in Asian Pacific American causes since his student years at the U.W. Editor of Asian Family Affairs; a founder of the International District Community Health Center; and a member of the Asian Pacific Directors Coalition, and other groups committed to social change, justice and peace.
Susan Levy
Susan came to Seattle in 1970 and taught Economics and Labor relations at Shoreline CC for 30 years. She was an Activist and leader in American Federation of Teachers and the Washington State Labor Movement for20 years. Susan retired in 2000 and has continued her involvement with senior, labor, and other progressive issues.
David Loud
David Loud has been a peace and social justice activist since his first Ban the Bomb vigil in 1960 at age 15. After graduating from Harvard in 1968, he fell quite by accident into a 46-year career in health care in Seattle: Swedish Hospital laundry (1969-71), Yesler Terrace Free Clinic (1971-72), Veterans Administration Hospital ward clerk (1972-77), US Public Health Service Hospital/Pacific Medical Center Patient Advocate (1978-98), SEIU 1199NW organizer (1998-2005), Congressman McDermott’s Community Liaison for health care and Veterans (2005-2015). Since retiring I 2015, David has continued his activism for universal health care and social justice, currently serving as a Co-Chair of Health Care Is a Human Right WA. He is married to Thu-Van Nguyen, 1975 refugee from Vietnam, and has four grown sons.
Bobby Righi
Bobby is a retired community college instructor and is a co-chair of the PSARA Climate and Environmental Justice Committee. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mid 1960's and worked as a teacher and an organizer in the south of the U.S. in the 1970's. She is a member of AFT retiree chapter in Washington.
Linda Peterson
Linda is a retired public employee who worked for many years in the fields of housing, community development, and human services in King County. She chairs PSARA’s Education Committee, and is deeply concerned about the future of our country. Most particularly, she wants to help ensure that the younger generations—our children and grandchildren—will have a secure future.
Ronnie Shure
Ronnie Shure has been an active member of PSARA since 2012; and he has been
involved in the grassroots movement for universal health care since 1972. He
worked as a pharmacist providing care to underserved populations in public
health, behavioral health, and substance abuse programs for 42 years. Instead
of retirement, he has transitioned to become an advocate for social justice in
health care. He is President of Health Care for All - Washington, one of the Co-
Chairs of the Steering Committee of the Health Care is a Human Right coalition,
and participates in the work of many healthcare advocacy groups across the
state and nation. Most importantly, his retirement transition allows him the joy
of spending time with his wife and daughters and grandchildren.
Sarajane Siegfriedt
Sarajane Siegfriedt is the former King County Democrats Platform Committee Chair. She worked in human services and became a committed low-income housing advocate. As a member of the Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance Public Policy Committee, she shares their legislative priorities with PSARA and helps us advocate in Olympia.
Robby Stern
Robby retired from the staff of the WA State Labor Council in 2008. He has been an active member of PSARA serving as president for nine years. He presently serves as the president of the PSARA Education Fund, Chairs the Social Security Works WA coalition, and is active in PSARA's Fund Raising, RAGE, and Climate Justice Committees.
Tim Wheeler
Tim Wheeler served as a reporter and editor for the Worker in New York and later in Washington D.C. He has written more than 10,000 news reports, exposés, and commentaries. He is also an activist and an organizer. He grew up on a dairy farm in Sequim and lives on the family farm near Sequim. His books News from Rain Shadow Country and News for the 99% are selections of his writings over the last 50 years.
Katie Wilson
Katie Wilson is a co-founder and the general secretary of the Transit Riders Union, a grassroots democratic membership organization that fights for transit and economic justice in King County. She has been involved in leading local fights for progressive taxation, affordable housing, renter protections, and affordable and accessible public transit.