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GOVERNING COUNCIL

Our Guidance and Governance

The Governing Council is composed of nine (9) voting community members who serve three (3) year terms for up to three (3) terms. Each member appointment is confirmed by the City of Seattle.

The Council meets in monthly open public meetings to oversee operations and requirements of the PHPDA. They are instrumental in developing PHPDA’s long-term Strategic Plan, creating a roadmap to guide the PHPDA’s programmatic and financial processes. By reviewing the activities of the two standing Committees, the Program Committee and the Finance Committee, the Council integrates committee and staff work plans, in efforts to increase community connections, consult staff, and bring deeper awareness into our community health landscape. 

The meetings of the Governing Council and Committees are open to the public. 


Upcoming Meeting:
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 5:30 PM | Agenda TBD

2024 Past Meetings

March 12, 2024

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

February 13, 2024

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

January 9, 2024

Note: Adjourned to be continued at the next Governing Council meeting on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 5:30 PM.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

2023

December 12, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

November 14, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

October 10, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

September 12, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

August 8, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

July 11, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

June 13, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

May 9, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

April 17, 2023

Note: Special Meeting of the Governing Council. Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Monday, 3:30 PM

April 11, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

March 30, 2023

Note: Special Meeting of the Governing Council. Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Thursday, 9:00 AM

March 14, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

February 14, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

January 10, 2023

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

2022

December 13, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

November 8, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

October 11, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

September 15, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

August 9, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

July 12, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

June 14, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

May 10, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

April 12, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

March 8, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

February 8, 2022

Note: Special Meeting of the Governing Council. Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 8:00 AM

February 8, 2022

Note: Adjourned to be continued at the next Special Governing Council meeting on the same day, Tuesday, February 8, 2022, starting at 8:00 AM instead. See Special Meeting above for the Special Meeting agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

January 11, 2022

Note: Remote. Meeting link in agenda.

Tuesday, 5:30 PM

Headshot of Doris Koo

Doris Koo (She/Her)

Governing Council Chair & Program Committee Member
Strategic Advisor, Crescent Collaborative

Doris W. Koo is a nationally respected leader and seasoned executive in the community development sector. Her current consulting practice highlights community-led efforts around equitable development and place-based collaboration. From 2001 to 2013, Koo served in a variety of executive roles including that of president and CEO with Enterprise Community Partners, a leading national nonprofit specializing in affordable housing finance, advocacy, and community development. 

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Prior to her work with Enterprise, Koo spent seven years with the Seattle Housing Authority as Deputy Executive Director, leading efforts to build and preserve affordable housing, including the redevelopment of NewHolly, Rainier Vista and High Point. In New York City, Doris led Asian Americans for Equality from an all-volunteer organization to the biggest owner and developer of low-income housing in New York City’s Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods.

Ms. Koo is a member of the Seattle Parks Foundation board of directors. She served on the national board of AARP from 2014-2016, and the board of the AARP Foundation from 2012-2014. She has served on numerous advisory bodies including: Seattle Mayor’s Affordable Middle Income Advisory Council; Washington State Department of Commerce Interbay Public Development Advisory Committee; the Investment Committee of The Russell Family Foundation; Washington State Infrastructure Task Force, and on boards of the National Housing Trust and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. She has a B.A. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in social service administration from the University of Chicago.

Doris served on the Board from 2015-2017 as a mayoral appointee and as a King County Executive appointee since 2019. She served as Treasurer in 2020-2021, as Chair in 2022, and  Vice-Chair in 2023, and currently serving as Governing Council Chair as of 2024.

Douglass Jackson, DMD, MS, PhD (He/Him)

Governing Council Vice-Chair & Program Committee Chair
Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Clinical Professor, University of Washington Dept. of Oral Health Sciences

Understanding and eliminating health disparities has been an unwavering focus of Dr. Douglass Jackson’s work for well close to 20 years. Before his current leadership position at the University of Washington School of Dentistry, he served as the Director of the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and before that as the School of Dentistry’s Associate Dean for Educational Partnerships and Diversity. Dr. Jackson’s work focuses on applying quality improvement strategies to identify and address factors that contribute to health disparities. In addition to focusing on disparities in healthcare quality, he is also involved in work aimed at increasing the diversity of the health profession’s workforce and advocating for workplace climates in healthcare organizations that value inclusion and cultural humility. This work earned him the Arcora Foundation’s inaugural Endowed Professorship of Educational Partnerships and Diversity and the directorship of multiple groundbreaking programs sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) and the Josiah Macy Foundation.

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Dr. Jackson earned his dental degree and specialty training in anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh, his master’s degree in clinical research design and statistical analysis at the University of Michigan and his doctoral degree in oral biology with an emphasis in pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of Minnesota.

Mr. Jackson has served as a Strategic Advisor to the Program Committee since 2015 and a Governing Council appointee since 2022. He currently serves as Vice-Chair as of 2024.

Robert Cook, MBA (He/Him)

Governing Council Treasurer & Finance Committee Chair
Former Senior Director of the Finance and IT Services Division, Washington State Housing Finance Commission

Robert Cook was the Senior Director of the Finance and IT Services Division of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Cook served as Controller in nonprofit and cooperative organizations. He continues to serve nonprofits through board participation including current memberships on the Plymouth Housing Group, as Treasurer, and Open Door Ventures, as President of the Board.

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He previously served as Treasurer on the Cascadia Revolving Fund Board and as President and Treasurer at Flying House Productions/Seattle Men’s Chorus.

Mr. Cook graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelors’ degree in Business Administration and Accounting and has a Master’s in Business Administration from Northern Illinois University.

Mr. Cook has served as a Strategic Advisor to the Finance Committee since 2013. He is a Governing Council appointee since 2019 and serving as Treasurer since 2022.

Paul Feldman (He/They)

Governing Council Secretary, Program Committee Member & Finance Committee Member
Community Volunteer

Paul Feldman is a community leader in HIV/AIDS advocacy and policy and a nonprofit finance, policy, and operations professional. He project managed The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway; directed policy, organizing, and communications for NAPWA, the former National Association of People with AIDS, in Washington, D.C.; served as founding co-chair of the federal Ryan White CARE Act’s Seattle/King County HIV/AIDS Planning Council; directed finance, public funding, and policy for Chicken Soup Brigade; served as press secretary for the direct action activist group ACT UP/Seattle; and produced HIV-focused grassroots and grasstops training, advocacy, and lobbying events in Olympia, Washington and Washington, D.C. Paul has served on the boards of directors of Lifelong, Building Changes, and Country Doctor Community Health Clinic. He has volunteered as a reading tutor with Reading Partners and as a tax preparer with United Way of King County.

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Paul graduated cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Paul is a Governing Council appointee since 2022 and has been Strategic Advisor to the Finance Committee since 2015 and to the Program Committee since 2020. Paul is currently serving as Governing Council Secretary as of 2023.

AyeNay Abye (They/Them)

Governing Council Member & Finance Committee Member
Chief Executive Officer, Tubman Center for Freedom and Health

AyeNay Abye is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom. AyeNay has led community organizing efforts for the past seventeen years. In their previous role as Deputy Director, for Seattle University’s Center for Community Engagement, AyeNay led external partnerships and strategy. This includes the Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI), a place-based community engagement model in partnership with the surrounding neighborhoods.

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Prior to that, AyeNay was the National Field Director for The Praxis Project, a movement building intermediary that supports organizing and changing work by people of color at local, regional and national levels. In this role, AyeNay worked to advance Communities Creating Healthy Environments (CCHE), a national capacity building initiative to support diverse, community-based organizations and indigenous groups in developing effective, cutting-edge and culturally competent policy initiatives in over 22 cities in the United States.

AyeNay is a Governing Council appointee since 2021.

Martine Pierre-Louis, MPH (She/Her)

Governing Council Member & Program Committee Member
Director of Interpreter Services, Harborview Medical Center

Martine Pierre-Louis is Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Harborview Medical Center. A leader in language access for three decades, she was a founding member and board member for both the Society of Medical Interpreters and the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care. She has collaborated on multiple community-based public health efforts focusing on health care access and quality outcomes for refugee and immigrant families. She has partnered with the Medical Center’s Quality Improvement department to track and measure disparities by race, ethnicity and language and has collaborated with health care teams and community partners to develop innovative programs to decrease disparities in vulnerable communities.

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Programs under Ms. Pierre-Louis’ leadership have garnered many accolades over the years: America’s Essential Hospitals 2022 Gage Award for Innovation in COVID Response, Washington State’s 2017 Qualis Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality, and American Hospital Association’s 2007 Foster G. McGaw Award for Excellence in Community Service.

Pierre-Louis earned a BA from Fordham University and an MPH from the University of Washington. She is fluent in Haitian Creole and French as well as English.

Martine Pierre-Louis is a Governing Council appointee since 2023, and has served as a Strategic Advisor to the Program Committee since 2022. 

PHPDA logo

Nicholas Ramirez (He/Him)

Governing Council Member & Finance Committee Member
Senior Vice President, Sea Mar

Nicholas Ramirez, Senior Vice President, joined Sea Mar in 2013 as a clinic manager at Kent Medical, where he was able to assist in developing Sea Mar’s South King County presence. As Senior Vice President, he is responsible for the oversight of Sea Mar’s Women, Infant, and Children’s program, Maternity Support Services, Preventative Health Services, Child Development, the Promotores Program, the Call Center, Seattle Medical, Seattle Dental, and has a large part in Epic development, systems and integration as well as direct oversite of several other programs throughout the organization.

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While in graduate school at Seattle University, Nick served as the graduate student council president and was a graduate student representative on the University’s Board of Regents and Board of Trustees. He completed his coursework with honors and is a member of the National Criminal Justice Honors Society. Prior to joining Sea Mar, he served as a research assistant at the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative, where he was able to assist in voter disenfranchisement cases across the country. He worked under the direction of one of the country’s most prominent voting rights advocates and attorneys, the late Professor Joaquin G. Avila. Most notably, he contributed to the first-ever successful federal voting rights challenge in Washington state.

Mr. Ramirez is a Mayoral appointee since 2024.

Sue Taoka (She/Her)

Governing Council Member & Finance Committee Member
Community Volunteer

Ms. Sue Taoka was Executive Vice President at Craft3. She is developing the urban market focusing on distressed and immigrant communities. Ms. Taoka is currently focused on developing and implementing an energy efficiency loan product for residential and small business retrofits.

Prior to her position at Craft3, Ms. Taoka served as Executive Director of the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda), the major property management and community development organization in the Chinatown International District.

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Before that she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Norm Rice for housing, economic and community development, neighborhoods, parks, and libraries. Ms. Taoka is the immediate past co-president of the National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community and a member of the Washington State Bar Association.

Ms. Taoka earned her B.S. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a J.D from Seattle University School of Law.

Sue is a mayoral appointee since 2017, served as Treasurer in 2019, and as Governing Council Chair in 2020-2021.