WA Institute for a Democratic Future – January 9, 2025

Upcoming Events

Join the Class of 2025 in D.C. in May

Did you miss your class’ DC trip? Or interested in learning what is happening with Washington’s Congressional delegation in DC this year? We are offering limited spots on this year’s DC trip for the first time. There are many options for joining. 

If you’d like to join the Class of 2025 on their trip to D.C. for extended learning, please sign up by completing the application and initial monetary commitment below. Applications to join this year’s class are due by February 15, with a nonrefundable deposit due by March 7. Additional details, including the options to join the fellows for programming days and costs (which cover hotel lodging), are available in the link below.

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Join AI in Deepfake Salon on Tuesday, Jan. 14

One of our very own alum who works at Microsoft will host a webinar to prepare us all for what’s ahead. This workshop has been given to the Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee, and governments around the globe and helps everyone navigate their daily lives. Attendees will understand how to train their eyes for deepfakes. 

This is our first of a salon series, all on different topics aimed to help us understand what’s going on around us.

Discover how Artificial Intelligence innovation can empower campaigns and engage voters while understanding the risks of deepfakes and misinformation. Learn about the ongoing efforts to mitigate the risks of deepfakes in politics, and the role we all have to play in creating a positive information environment. This workshop is helpful outside of politics as well and everyday when viewing online sources. Workshop is aimed at being valuable for both non-technical and technical audiences.

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The latest from the Class of 2025

Two members of the cohort, Logan Noel-Endres and Nadia Goforth, volunteered to write up their experiences after each class trip. Their reflections are below:

Hello WAIDF Alumni —
It’s Class of 2025 Fellows Logan Noel-Endres and Nadia Goforth here to share a brief overview of our first weekend in the program! For those of you that attended and/or donated at the kickoff event last Friday, we want to express our immense gratitude. We deeply enjoyed the opportunity to connect with you over our shared passions — and know each of our colleagues did too!
Day 1:
Saturday marked our first official day of programming! We spent the morning getting to know WAIDF, each other, and crafting a Spotify playlist to get us through the coming months! Fellows were joined by board members including Kelsey Hamlin (‘24), Francis Choe (‘24), and Vice Chair Meadow Johnson (‘09). Eric Liu, Co-Founder of Citizen University, then shared some amazing perspective about the importance of forming community, noting that “citizenship” (power+character) is an art. One important takeaway that he left us with is his reminder that “every opportunity is a chance to make a difference.” This is something we hope to keep top of mind as we navigate the WAIDF program! We then settled in for a Racial Equity Training in the afternoon with ChrisTiana ObeySumner (‘18), alumni and owner of Epiphanies in Equity, who engaged us in a discussion surrounding social constructs and change management. They/them stated, “Thinking about doing racial equity is not doing racial equity,” challenging us to consider what actions we could take in our personal and professional lives to break down social constructs and commit ourselves to racial equity work. 
Day 2:
We began our second full day of programming finishing up our work with ChrisTiana. After watching the Parable of the Cave video, we spoke about the importance and impact of centering equity in policy conversations, and how words really matter — especially when it comes to holding people/agencies accountable for implementation. Our biggest takeaway from this lesson focused on the importance of the following questions when evaluating policy:

• How is it being implemented?
• How is it being interpreted?
• Who designed it?
• How is it being enforced?
• How are people who deviate being held accountable?

Following this session and some logistical conversations about the program, we spent the rest of the day with a number of excellent guest speakers!
We were honored to spend an hour with the City of Seattle’s newest councilmember, Alexis Mercedes Rinck. We were excited to hear that she is the youngest councilmember in Seattle’s history AND that she received the most votes ever in a Seattle council election. She shared her story, experience, and messaging power tips and tricks.
State Senator and Department of Commerce Director-Designate Joe Nguyen (34th LD) later candidly shared about his experience about getting to and navigating the Legislature. Many were inspired by his ability to be bold and innovative while in the Senate, like when he made a podcast about how he used Artificial Intelligence to help him navigate complicated state budget conversations. Senator Nguyen left us some high-level talking points about passing legislation:

1. Talk to someone who disagrees with you.
2. Talk to someone who would have to implement your idea.
3. Talk to someone impacted by the issue you’re trying to solve.

We rounded out the day with Ken Workman, a Councilmember of the Duwamish Tribe who also serves as the President of the non-profit organization, Duwamish Tribal Services. Ken is the great (x4) grandson of Chief Seattle, and he shared about his experience as a Native person and the many benefits that come with the work he’s doing to get the Duwamish Tribe federally recognized. Before he left, he shared some phrases from the Lushootseed language.
Overall, the Class of 2025 felt very grateful for such a great start to the program and all that’s to come.

– Logan Noel-Endres and Nadia Goforth

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