Martha Kongsgaard was born and raised in Napa, Calif., to a family of jurists, grape growers and cattle ranchers. Kongsgaard met Peter Goldman in law school, married him in 1988 when they founded the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation. Her community activities currently include participation on the Washington Women’s Foundation, the national board and the executive committees of Earthjustice and IslandWood, where she is a founding board member. She recently chaired several major capital campaigns, including the Cascade Agenda, the expansion of IslandWood and the building of the LEED-certified Community Center at the New High Point. Kongsgaard has served as the president of Philanthropy Northwest and has spoken broadly about philanthropy and the environmental movement to wide and diverse audiences for the past 20 years. She is currently serving as Chair of the Leadership Council of the Puget Sound Partnership. She has three sons and lives in West Seattle with her husband, an environmental public interest lawyer, Peter Goldman.
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1. What are your favorite local news outlets? Why?
West Seattle Blog to tell me why the ambulance just drove down my street;
West Seattle Herald to tell me about local schools – their administrators, school board members, and their students’ triumphs and challenges, for Its Police blotter, and to know who Ms. Hi-Yu will be this summer;
The Seattle Times, because it is there;
The Puget Sound Partnership’s press clippings;
Sightline’s aggregation of all things enviro;
PI on line, because i miss the old guard;
Publicola, because they are in the minute, young and opinionated (plus i can hear them on the other side of my wall at work);
The Stranger + Weekly when I can;
Eastside Business Journal if i were awake more hours;
Seattle Magazine, because it comes to me online which tells me who is wearing what (but not why).
Grist, but it’s not really local.
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2. What do you consider “must reads” every day? Must watch? Must hear?
The New York Times,
The Seattle Times,
(crossword puzzles in both)
Morning Edition and All things Considered.
CSPAN
Mike Allen’s Playlist
I’ve been known to watch FOX news;
[also read The New Yorker, The New York Times Review of Books;
The New Republic, now and again]
Bill Stafford, founder and president of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, has a job that many people envy. He organizes trade missions and informational trips all over the world, taking groups of Seattle business, government, civic and media leaders to other countries and cities to learn lessons, forge alliances, make contacts — and have fun to boot! Some people have called these trips boondoggles, but they are more boon than doggle. (Full disclosure: When I was at The Seattle Times in the 1980s, I went on two “inter-city visits” organized by the TDA, to Atlanta and Tampa-St. Petersburg, and was on the first international trip in 1990, to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Stuttgart. I wrote articles about these trips, noting that participants got to know each other better by traveling together and were thus able to work together more effectively when they returned to Seattle. I stand by that position.) The TDA is now a model and has been replicated by other cities around the U.S. and the world, who recognize the value of its efforts. Friends often say that Stafford picks places in the world where he has never been and wants to visit, then proposes a trip there — a charge he doesn’t deny. Stafford was once nicknamed (by Joni Balter of The Seattle Times) as the “Sultan of Schmooze” — a moniker he wears proudly. Stafford has worked for several Seattle Mayors, including Wes Uhlman, Charles Royer and Norm Rice. The Trade Alliance will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.
Nancy Leson is one serious reader.
Tom Douglas is a busy man. The Seattle celebrity chef runs seven restaurants, including the recently opened Seatown Snackbar near Pike Place Market. Douglas’ team is also building out new bread and pastry bakeries in South Lake Union.
When I arranged an afternoon coffee session with actor, screenwriter, and TheFilmSchool teacher and founder Tom Skerritt, my main objective was finding out about progress and growth at the school. I realized, though, that I could also tap Skerritt for our weekly “What I Read” column. I wondered if Skerritt, who is part of the older generation yet remains in contact with young Hollywood, had embraced social media or any of the newer sources of information.
