About

Our Purpose

The Queen Anne Community Council is a 501(c)(4) organization whose membership includes all residents and business and property owners, as well as people who work and attend school in Queen Anne. Since the 1940's, the Council has advocated on behalf of the community on issues of interest and concern to our neighborhood. The council is governed by a board of trustees, who are elected by the community at an annual meeting. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend our monthly council meetings, committee, and project meetings to have your voice heard.

A neighborhood advocacy group, providing a connection point for information to and from our community.

Members of the Board of Trustees

Ben Bennett

Board member since 2019

Ben has been a home owner on Queen Anne for the past 17yrs. His wife is a born and raised Seattle native. Their two boys are attending St. Anne and Bishop Blanchet High School. Ben is a born and raised army brat, starting kindergarten in Fort Lewis, Washington and finishing high school at Timberline (where he was student body treasurer) in Lacey and did his graduate school at the University of Washington. He is a proud owner of technology consulting business after many years as Program Manager and Product Planner at Microsoft. He is currently working on a startup focused on Outdoor recreation. He is an avid backcountry skier, trail runner, swimmer and home owner in the scenic Alpental valley outside of Seattle. He sits on the board of directors for the Goldener Condos which is situated across the parking lot of the Alpental ski area at Snoqualmie Pass.

Between his military upbringing and the legacy of his 6th great-grandfather who was a personal body guard to George Washington, he feels a responsibility to ensure a secure and working civic body.

Denny Bird

Board member since 2014

Denny spent 25 years working as a project manager for capital projects at Verizon (and its predecessor GTE).

He’s been living on QA since 1994, and since retiring from his professional career in 2003, he's enjoyed going to the dog park nearly every morning, remodeling projects, gardening and traveling.

Denny is involved with not only the QACC, but also Picture Perfect Queen Anne and the Port of Seattle Neighbors Advisory Committee (NAC) as a representative of Queen Anne.

Beth Bunnell

Board member since 2015

Beth is the Council's Secretary and is deeply committed to community volunteer work, including thru Seattle's Union Gospel Mission Open Door Legal Clinic and the Queen Anne Food Bank. She is the managing director of a consulting company that specializes in cross-border Asia-related transactions. She worked as a lawyer in Greater China for 20 years, serving both in private practice and as Asia Pacific general counsel for a Fortune 100 company. Now happily living on the south side of Queen Anne, she and her family enjoy hiking, skiing, cooking and travelling.

Creighton Carroll

Board member since 2020

Creighton Carroll serves as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations at CNSI and has been with CNSI since 2006. Creighton has worked in state sales and government relations for over 15 years. Prior to joining CNSI, he worked in the United States Senate as a Senior Aide to U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell.

Creighton played NAIA Division 1 football at Carroll College in Helena, MT and studied History at Seattle University. He and his wife Shelly and their two children live on East Queen Anne and Creighton has been a resident of the Queen Anne neighborhood for 30 years.

Creighton also serves on the nonprofit board of Camp Gallagher and is an active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Conference of St. Anne.

Sean Champagne

Board member since 2016

Sean works at Amazon Business as sales team lead. Previously, he worked at Ekata (formerly Whitepages) and Avvo and spent several years working as a personal banker at various credit unions in the area.

Raised in Tri-Cities, Washington, he moved to Queen Anne Hill in 2011 at Queen Anne High School, the historic sandstone building between the two radio towers, with his two dachshunds Hansel & Wimbledon.

Sean is a graduate of Seattle Central College and Western Governors University with a B.Sc. in Marketing Management. He is a proud member of the queer community. He likes listening to podcasts about global news, culture, economics, running, and technology and going to the gym.

Laura Corvi

Board member since 2017

Having lived in Seattle all her life, Laura moved to Queen Anne in 2016.

She's currently retired, but having worked for The Boeing Company, she still uses that experience for aerospace consulting opportunities.

Her hobbies range from tap dance to knitting.

Caroline Davis

Board member since 2021

Caroline has lived on Queen Anne over 40 years. She moved to Seattle after graduating from law school and was raised in the Mid-West. She currently works part-time as a family law mediator and is an attorney licensed in Washington. Previously, Caroline served as the Executive Director for the Family Law CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of King County for 10 years when it was founded as a non-profit program. She is a past President of the King County Bar Association and remains an active member.

Caroline has volunteered with the Seattle Public Library system as a tutor for both children and adults. She is a block watch co-captain. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and learning how to paint in water colors.


Josh Daniel

Board member since 2020


Josh moved to Seattle in 1999 and has been a homeowner in Queen Anne since 2017. He has spent his career in communications—first as a journalist, now as a speechwriter. He currently works on the creative team at Gates Ventures, and he previously worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and at the U.S. State Department, where he served as the director of speechwriting for Secretary Hillary Clinton.


Josh and his wife, Kristin, have one young son. In his spare time, Josh loves playing guitar, cooking, and walking or biking around Queen Anne.

Ben Friedman

Board member since 2020

Ben Friedman is the World Wide Head of Prime Video Direct at Amazon Studios. Prime Video Direct helps studios, distributors, and independent filmmakers reach audiences worldwide through Prime Video. Ben is a homeowner in Queen Anne and also owns rental properties in the neighborhood. Having originally moved to Seattle in 2019, Ben and his wife have enjoyed becoming part of the community in Queen Anne. In their spare time, Ben and his wife enjoy walking the neighborhood, camping, and exploring everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Don Harper

Board member since 2001

Don was a stage manger and road manger for punk rock bands before he became a master electrician, building Harper Electric Inc. into a successful company and running it for 30 years. In retirement, he teaches electricians part-time at CITC. He lives on Queen Anne with his wife, a musician, where they raised their son and love volunteering in the community.

Jessica Jezik

Board member since 2020

Bio pending.

Robert Kettle

Board member since 2014

Robert is a retired naval officer with over 20 years of service at-sea and ashore involving naval, joint, interagency and multi-national duty in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He was stationed in the region twice at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and Naval Station Kitsap – Bremerton that included overseas deployments respectively onboard the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga and USS John C. Stennis.

He attended Boston University, Georgetown University, the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College which included studies in France, the UK and Belgium (twice) and the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.

Robert moved back to the Pacific Northwest in 2012 after completing his naval career to join his wife Sarah. They have a daughter and live in northwest Queen Anne.

Marina Lamps Alvarez

Board member since 2020


Marina is a stay at home parent, formerly a civil litigator, who spends a lot of time driving, walking and running on Queen Anne. She has three children who attend school on the hill. Marina is interested in ensuring Queen Anne continues to embrace all types, including homeowners, renters, working, retired, disabled, families and minorities. She believes change is more welcome when everyone has a chance for input. She hopes to see Seattle invest in infrastructure and green space to serve the long-term good of the community. She also believes fostering positive relationships between neighbors creates a safer, stronger community.


Marina lives in northwest Queen Anne with her husband and children. She has made Queen Anne her home since 2006. She has a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame (Program of Liberal Studies, minors in Spanish and Theology) and received a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She sings alto in the Cathedral Choir of St. James and has a passion for bilingual early education.

Sharon Levine

Board member since 1994

Sharon has lived and volunteered in Queen Anne for 30 years. She started with the QACC while working in sales for Time Warner, and continues in her retirement.

An active member of the Parks and Transportation committees, Sharon has been a vocal advocate for off-leash dog parks throughout Seattle and within Queen Anne. She has a particular interest in land-use issues and attends many meetings on that topic so she can report her findings to the QACC Board.

Paula Mueller, Executive Chair

Board member since 2020

Paula hails originally from Bloomington, Indiana and has been a Washington resident since 1968. She has lived on Queen Anne since 1977, with her husband, Alan, daughter, Angela, and son, Simon. She holds degrees in business, sociology, and paralegal studies from Indiana University, University of Washington, Edmonds College, and Seattle Central College. In addition, she holds a professional designation as an Associate in Risk Management.

Since retiring, Paula has been able to focus her energies on community activities, including the formation of the Queen Anne Block Captains Network, becoming engaged in emergency preparedness culminating in the organization of the Urban Survival Skills Fair for the Queen Anne community, and partnering with the Queen Anne Community Council in the creation of the Initiative on Community Engagement program.

Paula believes strongly that as residents we deserve to be better informed about what is happening in our local, city, county, and state governments, and that organizing programs and events to support better community education and information is critically important. In addition, she is a strong proponent of creating ways that local residents can be more engaged in creating and supporting programs and solutions to the problems that impact our immediate community. These are the core elements of the community work on which she has been and will continue to be focused.

Margaret Okamoto

Board member since 2000

Margaret is the council's treasurer. Margaret has lived on Queen Anne for 43 years, 39 more than she originally planned to even stay in Seattle. Being on the Council has provided her a unique window onto our community and its relation to the government entities that impact us. She loves to be with family, to travel both domestically and internationally, to explore Seattle's neighborhoods (eating along the way), to attend theatre, opera, concerts, and to garden — especially with Picture Perfect Queen Anne and the Queen Anne Avenue gardens the community created and supports.

Debra Santos

Board member since 2021

Bio pending.

Jazmine Smith

Board member since 2019

Jazmine is an activist, advocate and educator who is currently working with Seattle Public Schools at an elementary school in Special Education.

She’s been committed to public service and community building engagement from a young age, serving in the Lynnwood Teen Advisory Group through high school and volunteering for the Center for Human Services after interning there with Teens in Public Service. Jazmine attended Western Washington University and earned a BA in Human Services and went on to serve in the Peace Corps as a Community Economic Development volunteer in Timor-Leste. After returning to Seattle, she’s been serving on the TIPS Alumni Association Board and volunteering with RESULTS.

She is very excited to get involved on the local, neighborhood level and work on building a Queen Anne for all. Her favorite things to do in her free time include reading at our P-Patches, walking around the neighborhood, sipping coffee at our cafes, and traveling.

She’s previously lived in North Queen Anne and now lives in Lower Queen Anne, and is excited to continue renting in this neighborhood for years to come.

Hannah Spring

Board member since 2021

Bio pending.

Nicole Sweeney, Vice Chair

Board member since 2020

Nicole has been in Queen Anne for 2 years and is Vice Chair of the Council and also serves as Vice Chair of the Land Use Review Committee. She has spent the past 12 years of her career in public policy and works at a health technology startup leading Medicare policy to improve patient access to diagnostic testing. She enjoys bringing people with diverse perspectives and opinions together to try to reach solutions to complex problems. She lives with her husband in Lower Queen Anne and looks forward to a long residence in our beautiful neighborhood.


Laurel Thacker

Board member since 2020

Laurel is a recent transplant to Queen Anne and is raising her family on the hill. She’s served on the QACC since 2020 and has worked on the Election Committee as well as and Community Engagement Committee. She has ties to local and national politics and holds a JD from the University of Oregon. She believes in working hard to make a better community for all of Queen Anne.

Joe Woods

Board member since 2021

Joe has lived in Seattle since 2015 and became a homeowner in Northeast Queen Anne in 2020. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, Joe proudly brings an "East Coast flavor" to his interactions in the Pacific Northwest.


Joe currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Lane Powell PC, a law firm, where he oversees lawyers and professional staff working in the Seattle, Portland, and Anchorage regions. Joe holds business degrees from The George Washington University and from Temple University, where he received his MBA.


Joe enjoys long walks around Queen Anne with his wife and two dogs. He is passionate about building and supporting his local community and is eager to find new ways to engage with his neighbors. On rainy days, you can find Joe enjoying pinot noir and playing video games.