Shanna Crutchfield

Shanna was born in a small, segregated town in Louisiana in the mid-1960’s. She lived in a Black community that was built on the principles of family, the Black church and hard work. At an early age, she learned the meaning of entrepreneurship by witnessing her father and mother start their own landscaping business.  She would later come to understand the realities of the economic inequities experienced by minority and women-owned businesses. 

After high school, Shanna would follow in the footsteps of her older siblings who migrated to Seattle, Washington to pursue better opportunities. In Seattle, she was welcomed to experience the richness of a racially diverse city, yet a city experiencing the remnants of redlining and like the South, Jim Crow segregation. As she took root in Seattle, she would begin a commitment to public service by becoming an employee of the City of Seattle. It was during her work with the City, as a human resource professional that she would see firsthand the impact of policies and practices that lead to the inequalities experienced by people of color in the workplace. It was her sitting in the courtroom in the early nineties observing a discrimination case filed by a Black employee against the City of Seattle that she would come to understand institutional and structural racism. Through her lived and professional experiences, Shanna has observed those who have experienced systemic injustices which makes her a tireless advocate for racial equity. She brings her authenticity and heart into every interaction. It is her over 30 years of public service, community building, mediation skills, and her ability to engage others through her native roots in storytelling that ignites her commitment to work collaboratively with others on the continuum towards racial justice.