Director Fong establishes the Office of Tribal Relations as a standalone unit in the Director’s Office
The Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) was created June 2023 and consists of Michelle Gladstone-Wade (Suquamish), Tribal Liaison and Alden (AL) Andy (Yakama), Deputy Tribal Liaison.
To demonstrate our agency’s dedication to tribal relations, Director Fong has separated the Tribal Liaison from the Government Affairs and Policy team and created the Office of Tribal Relations. The first addition to the Office of Tribal Relation is a Deputy Tribal Liaison who is stationed in Eastern Washington. Additionally, the Growth Management team has added a Tribal Coordination Manager.
Since becoming our own unit, the Office of Tribal Relations focused on updating our Tribal Relations policy and developing a robust internal education campaign, launching our first agency-wide learning space this month. The Righting our Relations: Tribal resource group is hosting monthly Live and Learn sessions where agency staff can log in to a comfortable space to ask questions and learn more about working alongside tribal partners.