Advisory Council

What We Do | Advocacy | Members | Committees | Meetings and Meeting Materials | Join Us

Sariga Santhosh, Joe Hailey, Vera Foxall, Lorna Stone, Diana Thompson, Alex O'Reilly, Barb Williams, Larry Low, and Mary MitchellThe Seattle-King County Advisory Council for Aging and Disability Services advocates for local, state, and national programs that promote quality of life for older people and adults with disabilities.

Brochure: Seattle-King County Advisory Council on Aging and Disability Services

Work of the Council: Advisory Council Bylaws

Click on the headings below for more information. 

What We Do

What Do Advisory Council Members Do?

Advisory Council member Zelda Foxall with microphone - Advisory Council member Lorna Stone to her sideAdvise: We bring our knowledge of local issues to Aging and Disability Services.

Advocate: We advocate at the federal, state, county, and city levels.

Connect: We connect with other organizations that provide for the older adults and individuals with disabilities, as well as with the general public.

Collaborate: We collaborate with local and statewide advocacy organizations to achieve mutual goals, including senior centers, disability organizations, and human services providers.

Advocating for Age-Friendly Communities

The Seattle-King County Advisory Council for Aging and Disability Services takes part in the annual Washington State Senior Lobby Conference and discuss priorities with our legislative delegation during Senior Lobby Day in Olympia. The Advisory Council also hosts and co-sponsors forums on issues such as ageism, aging in place, Alzheimer’s, behavioral health, end-of-life planning, food access, health care reform, housing, LGBTQ elders, Medicare, rural aging, transportation, the “Village Model,” and Washington’s aging readiness. See Advocacy section for more information.

Key Link Between the Community and the Area Agency on Aging

Advisory Council member Barb Williams with Maria Langlais in backgroundAging and Disability Services—the Area Agency on Aging for King County—is funded by federal, state, and city sources to provide an extensive range of programs and services, including adult day services, caregiver support, case management, Community Living Connections, elder abuse prevention, health maintenance, health promotion, legal services, nutrition services, senior centers, and transportation. For services, contact Community Living Connections at 1-844-348-5464.

Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Advisory Councils are mandated by the Older Americans Act of 1965 as part of the Aging Network.

Age-Wise King County

The Seattle King-County Advisory Council publishes AgeWise, an e-zine on Aging and Disability Services, which is designated by the State of Washington as the Area Agency on Aging for Seattle and King County. Our free of charge, “front door” to professional, confidential services is Community Living Connections which we promote in each issue of AgeWise. Subscribe to our mailing list if you would like to receive a free copy of AgeWise King County via e-mail each month. All AgeWise articles are amplified in social media and are also posted in the News section of this site.

To submit an article for inclusion in an AgeWise newsletter:

Advocacy

Legislative Priorities

ADS Advisory Council member Larry LowAging and Disability Services (ADS) and its Advisory Council advocate on behalf of older adults, family caregivers and people with disabilities for local, state and national programs that promote quality of life for these populations.

ADS Advisory Council members participate in other local and regional advocacy coalitions to ensure that our communities are aging friendly—great places for people of all ages to grow up and grow old.

By 2035, nearly 25 percent of King County’s residents will be age 60 or older. Local government and Aging and Disability Services—your local Area Agency on Aging—can work together to make a difference for community elders.

Advocacy Partners

The Age Wave in Washington State is illustrated by four maps--2016, 2020, 2030, and 2040.

Click Image to Open

Fall Senior Lobby Conference (Tacoma)

The Washington State Senior Citizens’ Lobby coordinates an annual conference in Tacoma each October that provides Advisory Council members and other Aging Network advocates an opportunity to learn about issues that deserve attention during the next legislative session. Pre-registration and payment is required. For more information, e-mail info@waseniorlobby.org.

Senior Lobby Day (Olympia)

The Washington State Senior Lobby schedules an annual statewide event that provides opportunity for Advisory Council members from each of Washington State’s Area Agencies on Aging and other advocates to meet with legislators. Read more about Senior Lobby Day in “A Day in the Life of a Senior Advocate” (AgeWise King County, March 2016).

Senior Lobby Meetings (Lacey)

The Washington State Senior Lobby holds monthly meetings on the third Monday of the month. For more information, email info@waseniorlobby.org.

Legislative Candidate Forums

In partnership with W4A, AARP, and other local advocacy organizations, the ADS Advisory Council convenes forums that focus on federal, state, and local issues important to older adults and people with disabilities.

Advocacy Links and Tips

flyer image

Click Image to Open

  • Directory of elected officials published by the League of Women Voters: Who Represents You
  • Biographies and photos for Washington State Legislature elected officials: Pictorial Guide 
  • Washington State Legislative Information Center and Hotline: Information Center
  • Tips for effective advocacy and navigating the system from the Washington Association of Counties: Engaging with Legislature

Ways to Get Involved

Make Connections

Attend our Advocacy Committee Meetings

The Advocacy Committee meets monthly, just before the full council’s regular meeting. Be sure to check the calendar to confirm time and location. For more information, e-mail aginginfo@seattle.gov.

Participate in Regional Coalitions and Advocacy Organizations

See a partial list or Advocacy organizations under Join Us.

Join the Mayor’s Council on African American Elders

The Mayor’s Council on African American Elders (MCAAE) is a 12-member council appointed to serve in an advisory capacity to the Mayor, City Council, and the Seattle Human Services Department in matters affecting older African Americans. Brochure

Members

Our Council volunteers are appointed by the City of Seattle and King County and members serve (for up to three) two-year terms.

 

2024 Executive Committee

 

Chair: Alex O’Reilly

Alex started her professional career as a case manager for adults receiving public assistance on the south side of Chicago. She saw how the cycle of poverty was often passed down through generations and decided to get training in early childhood education to work more upstream with families and their young children to provide support that could change that trajectory.  She worked in early learning environments in Chicago and later in Seattle when she moved here in 1985 and where she currently resides.

In 1988 Alex received her MSW from the University of Washington and worked as the program director for a child and family non-profit in Everett WA, and later as a planner for United Way of Snohomish County.  Alex retired in 2021 as the Human Services Manager for the City of Bellevue after having worked there since 1997 initially as a human services planner.  Alex’s work included funding human services for all people along the age continuum, but she was especially interested in older adult issues and worked closely with the Bellevue Network on Aging on many of their projects.

Alex’s special areas of interest include social support and other services that prevent more serious and costly problems later, legislative advocacy on local, state and federal levels, and transportation systems that provide access to all community members no matter what their mobility needs are.  She currently volunteers with the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Village Program, the Seattle Animal Shelter, and the Montlake Rowing Club where she rows as a master rower.

Vice Chair: Cynthia Snyder

Cynthia Snyder’s early career focused on children where she worked for 30 years with children and adults with disabilities for the State of Pennsylvania. Then served Penncrest School District as a Board Member for 17 years. In addition, she participated in the Head Start Advisory Board and the Child Death Review Board. Later she turned her attention to senior issues. She is currently an active member of the Mount Si Senior Center board in North Bend, WA and she is comfortable advocating with legislators and local politicians on human service-related issues.

Secretary:  Pending

Planning & Allocations Chair: Lorna StoneLorna Stone

Lorna Stone received a Masters degree in social work from the University of Chicago. She has served as the Senior Officer for Grant Making and the Director of Rural Health at the Washington Health Foundation and volunteered as a trainer with the Rainbow Train, a cultural competency training program for health and social service workers on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender elder issues. Her experience includes hospice social work, health promotion training, counseling, and work with chronically ill populations. The interactive relationships of institutional change, cross-cultural partnerships, and social justice remain an abiding interest.

At-Large:  Dr. Joel Domingo

Dr. Joel Domingo is Dean of the Research Institute and an Associate Professor at City University of Seattle, where he leads the university’s overall scholarship and research objectives. His work focuses on leadership development and civic capacity building for creating social transformation in the public and community nonprofit spheres. In addition to serving on multiple nonprofit boards and commissions, he has served as a fellow at the University of Washington’s Center on Human Development and Disability and in the Washington State Governor’s Office, helping develop community leadership skills in diverse communities across the state. Read more about Joel in the October 2024 edition of AgeWise King County.

Advocacy Committee Chair: Diana Thompson photo of Aging and Disability Services Advisory Council member Diana Thompson

Diana Thompson serves on the Bellevue Network on Aging, which supports aging services in Bellevue through outreach, regional collaboration, and community involvement. She serves as legislative liaison for the Hearing Loss Association of America, Washington State Chapter. Diana also volunteers through AARP, advocating for the interests of older adults at the local, state, and federal level. She has written numerous articles and opinion editorials about aging issues for local newspapers.

 

2024 Council Members

Joe Hailey Joe Hailey

Joe Hailey was most recently Director of Development for Congregations for the Homeless, a Bellevue, Washington-based non-profit focused on ending homelessness on King County’s east side. Prior to that assignment he served as Corporate Relations Officer for United Way of King County in Seattle, Washington.

Joe joined the nonprofit sector in 2011 after a decades-long career in the high tech sector during which he held positions of increasing responsibility with industry leaders such as IBM Corporation and Cisco Systems. He served as Director of Development for Evergreen Software Tools in Redmond, Washington, and held the same position at Sterling Software in San Bernardino, California. He was Senior Director, Product Development, at Solucient, LLC located in Bellevue Washington. As Senior Programmer-Manager, his last position at IBM, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of a 55-person software engineering team with a multi-million dollar departmental budget. While still at IBM, Joe also found time to co-own and operate a gourmet cookware store in Gilroy, California, and in later years owned and operated a full-service insurance and financial services agency located in Kirkland, Washington.

Joe holds a BA in Applied Mathematics with departmental honors from the University of Laverne, located in Laverne, California; an MS in Applied Mathematics from Santa Clara University, located in Santa Clara, California; and is a graduate of United Way’s highly-coveted Project Lead program, an initiative designed to prepare people of color for non-profit board service and other positions of leadership within the community.

Hon. Marli Larimer (Kent)

Kent City Councilmember Marli Larimer is the newest addition to the Advisory Council. Born and raised in Portland, Marli’s family lived in Arizona and California during her teens, before settling in Kent when she was a junior in high school. Marli graduated from Kentwood in 1992, left for college, and lived in Seattle where she met her husband Terry.

Wanting to move to the suburbs to raise their family, the couple returned to Kent 10 years ago. They have two children in Kent schools, who are active in soccer, tennis, ballet and scouts. Like many Kent residents, Marli balances work, family and community life. With a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and an associate’s degree in non-profit management, Marli works for Amazon, providing marketing support and guidance to small- and medium-sized businesses to help them be successful.

When not at work, Marli is an active community volunteer, working with Evergreen City Ballet, Girl Scouts of Western Washington, her kids’ schools and the school district. She was recently appointed to serve on the Seattle-King County Advisory Council for Aging & Disability Services. Every year, Marli and Terry take their kids, who are avid Harry Potter fans, to Emerald City Comic Con. The family also enjoys camping, gaming, board games, and exploring Kent parks and green spaces.

Tom Minty

Tom Minty is actively involved in activities that promote an awareness of the unique housing needs of people with disabilities and our aging population. According to Tom, a friend of his with multiple sclerosis raised his awareness of the obstacles people with disabilities face. As a realtor, he recognized there was a lack of awareness in his field of the challenges people with physical limitations confront.  He sought specialized training to understand the housing needs and choices available to people with disabilities and people who wish to age in place.  He gained the designation as a Seniors Real Estate Specialist through the National Association of Realtors.  Tom promotes a broader awareness of these needs by speaking at professional conferences and other events including the Master Builders Association, the Seattle Home Show and local real-estate association events.  He has been an active participant in the Northwest Universal Design Council.  Most recently he served on the NWUDC Housing Task Force to create a document targeted to builders and remodelers which defines specific residential universal design features.  Tom is committed to educating builders as well as consumers about forward-thinking, sustainable home design and construction.

Hon. Cathy Moore (Seattle)

Cathy Moore grew up in Seattle, in the Lake City and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

Following in her mother’s public service footsteps, Cathy fought for Seattle residents as a public defender with the Seattle Defender Association immediately after law school, later fighting for children and families as a family law attorney. As Chair of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, Cathy advocated for constitutional policing and accountability for the Seattle Police Department, before acting as Interim City Clerk, overseeing the legislative department of the Seattle City Council.

Cathy was elected a King County Superior Court Judge in 2016. In addition to ruling in criminal, family law, and civil commitment trials, Cathy upheld Attorney General Ferguson’s lawsuit against Pharma Purdue, a case that eventually resulted in a landmark settlement to fund opioid treatment. In her commitment to racial justice, Cathy also worked on criminal legal system reform.

Throughout the years Cathy and her husband raised a family – her three sons all attending Seattle Public Schools. Cathy’s mission is to create a city where all Seattleites can have the privileges and good fortune that she and her family have enjoyed.

 

Hon. Kim-Khánh Văn (Renton)

Councilmember Kim-Khánh Văn is a lifelong optimist and believer in people. She learned at an early age that by working hard, being humble and thrifty, and trying to make a difference, you can affect someone else’s life. She is willing to dig in and be a part of the solution.

Kim-Khánh was born in Vietnam, raised by a mother who took her four children and left a dangerous country when Kim-Khánh was six years old and fled to a refugee camp in the Philippines. Eventually her family received sponsorship from a wonderful church, and civic and charitable organizations in the Seattle area.  When she was able, she took advantage of leadership and tutoring programs made possible by non-profit organizations and worked throughout high school and college.

As the primary translator for her family, Councilmember Văn learned how the human services system was designed to help families and this led to her interest in law. After attending the University of Washington, she became the first in her family to graduate from a four-year-university.  She then attended and graduated from the University of Dayton, School of Law.  Her upbringing, combined with the kindness and generosity of charitable organizations has developed in her a passion for justice and “paying-it-forward”.

Since moving to Renton with her husband and their two children, Kim-Khánh has been an active member of the Mayor’s Inclusion Task Force, Renton Rotary, Northwest Immigrant’s Rights Project, Seattle Stand Down veteran’s group, Asian Pacific Islander Americans for Civic Empowerment, Washington State Association for Justice and the American Immigration Lawyers Association among others.

Councilmember Văn’s priorities include working hard to keep Renton’s neighborhoods safe for all, efforts to lessen the burden for small businesses, as she sees them as the driving force of our local economy, and she would like to ensure that city policies and ordinances reflect Renton’s diverse population.

She states, “We are ‘Becoming Renton’ but we are not done. Even though you may see prosperity around you, all of us have a civic duty to bring out the best in our neighbors to continue to make Renton a great place to live, work, play and learn.”

 

Committees

Advocacy Committee

Advocates for the health and welfare needs of older persons and adults with disabilities and monitors legislation and policy measures on their behalf.

Chair: Diana Thompson

Meeting time: 2nd Friday, 10:00–11:30 a.m.

Planning and Allocations Committee

Studies in detail programs and projects receiving funding from Aging and Disability Services and makes recommendations regarding their support.

Chair: Lorna Stone

Meeting time: 1st Monday, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Executive Committee

Comprises Advisory Council Chair and other officers, standing committee chairs, and task force chairs.

Chair: Alex O’Reilly

Meeting time: As needed

Members: Officers and Committee Chairs

Nominating Committee

Elected by majority vote, the Committee is composed of three members (one from each sponsoring body). This Committee presents a slate of officers at a regular Council meeting two months prior to the Annual meeting.

Members: To be determined

Meeting time: As needed

Northwest Universal Design Council Committee

Advocates for the inclusion of Universal Design principles, products, and processes that enable everyone, regardless of age or ability to age in place. For more information, visit the NWUDC website or the Facebook page.

Liaison: Tom Minty

Members: Universal Design Advocates from the community

Meeting time: Quarterly Programs

State Council on Aging Committee

The Washington State Council on Aging serves as the State Unit on Aging with respect to federally funded programs as required by federal regulation. The Council advises the Governor and DSHS secretary on policies, programs, and services affecting older adults, promotes opportunities and challenges faced by older adults, and promotes self-advocacy through workshops, conferences, and other trainings.

King County representative: N/A

 

For information about any Advisory Council Committee, meetings, or activities, e-mail aginginfo@seattle.gov or use the Contact form.

Meetings and Meeting Materials

The Advisory Council meets monthly on the 2nd Friday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m.  All meetings are open to the public.

If you would like to be notified of monthly meeting agendas and announcements, email Michael.Adusah@seattle.gov.

To confirm specific meeting times and locations, e-mail aginginfo@seattle.gov.

2025 Meetings

May 16, 2025 – Joint Meeting with Mayor’s Council on African American Elders

April 11, 2025

March 14, 2025

February 14, 2025

January 10, 2025

2024 Meetings

December 13, 2024

November 8, 2024

October 11, 2024

  • No public meeting

September 13, 2024

  • Council Retreat; no public meeting

August 9, 2024

July 12, 2024

June 14, 2024

May 10, 2024

April 12, 2024

March 8, 2024

February 9, 2024

January 12, 2024

Past Meeting Minutes and Materials are Available Here.

Join Us

Join us in Promoting an Age-Friendly Community

The Advisory Council is currently seeking new members who are interested in issues and services affecting older people and adults with disabilities.

Advisory Council members have opportunities to hear and discuss cutting-edge information about issues facing older adults in our community, meet with legislators, and make a difference by advocating for age-friendly communities.

Each Advisory Council member is sponsored by the City of Seattle or King County. The terms are two years with a limit of three terms for King County and the City of Seattle.

Prospective members can expect a time commitment of four to six hours per month, which includes one monthly meeting (2nd Friday of each month), committee work, training and travel time. Upon appointment, Advisory Council members will be provided with a virtual orientation manual to help them understand their roles, responsibilities, and available resources.

Interested in Joining the Advisory Council?

Other Ways to Get Involved

The Advisory Council welcomes anyone who is interested in the work of the Council to attend their monthly meetings. You do not need to be a member to attend and contribute. Other ways to get involved include:

Note: The above is a parcel list of our partners.

 

For free, confidential access to aging network services in Seattle-King County, contact Community Living Connections.