Chambers Coalition Delegates

Brittany Caldwell currently serves as the Executive Director of the Bothell Kenmore Chamber of Commerce which proudly supports two cities, in two counties (King and Snohomish), and represents nearly 400 members. Brittany has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington Bothell and has been an integral part of the growth and development of the Chamber since 2007, becoming Executive Director in 2015.

Doug Davis is President and Designated Broker of Hallmark Realty Corp located in Kirkland WA. He has been in the Real Estate industry for over 40 years. Doug is a veteran and served in the US Navy Submarine Service. He has served on the following boards in various positions of leadership. The Northwest MLS Past Chair, The Independent Brokers Association a past President, The Kirkland Chamber of Commerce and is a Past President and various other committees with the Chamber. The Kirkland Downtown Association a Past President, The Kirkland Business round table. The Sustainability Foundation. The Lake Washington Youth Soccer Association as a Coach, board member and facilities director. Doug has 5 Children, 7 Grand Children, and 5 Grand Dogs. 3 Grand Cats. Loves white water rafting, flying, dancing, reading and spending time with his Kids and Grand Kids.

Erica Dial is the CEO of the Maple Valley Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce, a small but mighty 225-member organization dedicated to growing business and building community. Ms. Dial has held this this position since November 2015 after moving to the Seattle area from Wisconsin. She also serves on many local legislative coalitions and organizations including the East King County Chambers of Commerce Coalition and the Southeast Area Legislative Transportation Coalition (SEAL TC). She also serves as a board member of WCCE (Washington Chamber of Commerce Executives) and AWB (Association of Washington Business).

Prior to joining the Maple Valley Black Diamond Chamber, Ms. Dial was Executive Director of the Stoughton, WI Chamber of Commerce for two years. She was promoted to that position after serving as the Chamber’s Visitor Services Coordinator for four years. Before she found her passion in the chamber industry, Ms. Dial worked in a variety of marketing positions at National Guardian Life, PDI Ninth House and Honeywell.

Ms. Dial earned a B.S. (Marketing) and MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She is also a graduate of the Leadership Institute of South Puget Sound.

She currently resides in Ravensdale with her husband Adam, a VP at Providence Health & Services and their two children, Lindsey and Tyler.

Kimberly Ellertson is the Executive Director of the Woodinville Chamber. Prior to her current role at the Chamber, Ellertson handled membership, marketing and development, joining the team in September 2013. Ellertson is responsible for leading the Chamber’s Strategic Plan, promoting local business in the region, creating partnerships that further the mission of the Chamber and oversight of operations. Preceding her time at the Woodinville Chamber, Ellertson spent 15+ years in the tourism and hospitality industries through her roles at Visit Seattle and Seattle Hospitality (now SH Worldwide). Kimberly is a graduate of the University of Washington. In her volunteer roles, she is on the Community Advisory Board for EvergreenHealth, an Ambassador for the Northshore Schools Foundation, and has previously volunteered with the American Cancer Society, the Northshore YMCA, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Kimberly lives in Woodinville, WA with her husband and two children.

As the Executive Director of the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce, Laurie Givan is a champion for Mercer Island businesses. She is a supportive leader who values all businesses on Mercer Island and strives to keep Mercer Island’s business ecosystem strong and thriving. She has led the organization since 2017 and prides herself on collaboration, advocacy, education, and the promotion of businesses on the island.

Laurie’s leadership at the Chamber is evident by her strong relationship with all the members, her partnership with the City of Mercer Island and her passionate advocacy for Mercer Island business to her regional partners. Laurie is engaged in the Mercer Island community and sits on the Mercer Island Schools Foundation Board, the National League of Young Men Mercer Island Chapter Board, as well as various business and community committees on Mercer Island. Laurie’s experience includes over 15 years as a retail account executive for a packaging distributor and before that, corporate licensing at Eddie Bauer.

As the Executive Director of OneRedmond, Kristina Hudson is a hands-on leader with over 20 years of experience in economic development. She is committed to growing the regional economy by working with businesses, educational institutions, local government, and surrounding communities to ensure that Redmond and East King County remains a leader in innovation and technology. Hudson artfully connects people and companies with the right resources at the right time. Her expertise is making sure businesses have what they need to grow and to expand. Hudson has received two International Economic Development Council awards, and her work is used a model for establishing technology hubs and industry clusters around the world.

Hudson’s unique economic development programs have received significant grant funding over the years. During her tenure at enterpriseSeattle, Hudson was awarded over $1.2 Million in federal grants for the Interactive Media Accelerator Project. Ms. Hudson’s application was one of 20 grants in the United States to be awarded funding by the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, as well as the Department of Labor. While at OneRedmond, Hudson created one of seven programs that was awarded grant funding from JPMorgan Chase Global Philanthropy’s Small Business Forward Initiative. These programs worked to assist women and minority-owned companies to increase the diversity of small business owners in the region.

Hudson also helms the Washington Interactive Network (WIN) which is under the umbrella of OneRedmond. As the visionary founder of WIN, she’s helped make the region a global center for interactive media development and intellectual property creation. Crowned “Queen of Interactive Media” from the Puget Sound Business Journal, Hudson works tirelessly to promote the local industry because she wants to ensure the region holds its place as a global leader of interactive entertainment.

David joined Eastside Health Network (EHN) in May 2017. He is an experienced health care professional, with over 23 years of experience in managed care contracting, business development, finance and clinical operations. He is responsible for leadership aspects of EHN, including strategy, contacting, network development, quality and oversight of operations. EHN has approximately 1,450 network providers that provide care for 60,000 patients.

Prior to his time at EHN, David spend nearly 20 years at Virginia Mason, working in payor contracting, finance and spent 7 years as the Director of the Heart Institute.

David earned an MBA from Anaheim University’s Akio Morita School of Business and a B.A. in Business Administration from Washington State University. In his free time, David enjoys reading, cycling and spending time with his five children. He is also on the board of the Woodinville Chamber of Commerce.

Tom Markl is the CEO of the Nelson Legacy Group, LLC (NLG) a business owned by the Nelsons, a long-time Redmond family. NLG owns and operates a significant amount of retail and office commercial real estate in Redmond, Kirkland, and eastern Washington State. Among the NLG properties in Redmond are the Redmond Center Shopping Center, the East Redmond Plaza, Red Way Self Storage, the Opportunity Building, and the Redmond Mall.

Prior to joining NLG, Tom was a member of the turnaround team at Cutter & Buck, a Seattle producer of leisure and golf apparel; the Senior Vice President and COO of UTILX, a publicly-traded company which provided specialized underground construction services; and, Senior Vice President and COO of North American Energy Services, a privately held provider of services to the electric utility and private power industries. In addition, Tom has held positions in the corporate offices of the Weyerhaeuser Company and the Ford Motor Company.

Tom is a former director of several non-public companies and new ventures. He is currently an Honorary Trustee and serves on the Facilities Committee of Seattle Academy, an independent school with 890 students in grades 6 through 12 located on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

Tom received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

As a seven year Seattle Magazine Five Star Realtor, Top Agent Magazine
Featured Agent, Managing Broker, Past President of Washington State CRS
(Certified Residential Specialists), A GREEN Designee, SRES (Seniors Real
Estate Specialist), Graduate Nouveau Riche Real Estate Investment College, a
Certified Distressed Property Expert, and Named one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Real Estate” by the National Relocation Association, Karen
McKnight has built a noteworthy career in the real estate industry.
Karen offers extensive experience with First Time Home Buyers, Investors,
Move Up Buyers, Empty Nesters, Seniors, Estate Personal Representatives,
Financially Distressed Homeowners, and even High Public Profile People.
Through her expertise and dedication, she guarantees: Impeccable Service;
the Clout of her Golden Reputation in the industry; Astute Knowledge of Legal and Agency Issues; Smart, “Trend Aware” Marketing; Negotiating Finesse; Conflict Resolution; Problem Solving Adroitness; Technology Solutions to Market Properties and Keep You Informed; and Realistic Counsel to
help you achieve Your Lifestyle Visions.

Joan is a community volunteer, activist and business owner who has spent many years working with city, state and federal officials to promote the interests of the business community. As President of the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce, she worked with community and business leaders to foster a relationship with the city to strengthen the economic vitality of the community.

For her work on many projects she was recognized as Issaquah’s Business Person of the Year.

She presently serves as the Chair of the city’s Planning Policy Commission and, until recently, Chair of the Arts Commission. As a member of the City’s Sister Cities Commission, Joan joined the city’s delegations to Morocco and to Norway which sought to build business and educational opportunities between the countries. Across Cultures is an organization which seeks to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of reciprocal cultural, professional, and educational exchanges. Joan was honored to be among the delegations to the Baltics and to Egypt to foster relationships and to provide guidance to women in the beginning stages of creating women owned businesses.

Joan has been a Realtor for 25 years and was honored to serve as President of the 6000 member Seattle King County Association of Realtors. Serving on the Realtor Legislative Steering Committee has opened opportunities to take business concerns directly to state legislators as well as directly to our representative in Washington DC.

As a Board member of the Downtown Issaquah Association, Joan is working to find creative ways to stimulate business in the core of the city while providing guidance to ensure the safety of the community.

Rob started out with American Family as an agent in Faribault, MN in 1988. He transferred to the national headquarters in 1991 as a sales training specialist. Three years later, he was appointed district sales manager to D-63 in New Ulm, MN. Under his management, D-63 received numerous awards. In 2000, Rob was appointed field training manager and later that same year accepted a position as field special projects manager.

In December 2001 Rob was named the sales director for the state of Oregon. In July of 2002 Rob also opened the state of Idaho. Rob has guided both states and was involved in the opening of the state of Washington as the sales director overseeing the southwestern Washington area.

In January of 2015 Rob relocated back to Madison and was named the Life Sales and Support Director. In this role Rob directed the internal and external Life sales support functions at American Family Life Insurance Company in Madison Wisconsin. Life Sales Support provides consultative services, marketing support, awareness of tools, resources and products, as well as partner with the field to drive life sales and protect the dreams of our customers.

In July of 2016 Rob became the Talent Development Sales and Product Director. This team is responsible for the design, development and delivery of the training and development needs for the all agents, agency staff as well as product and system training for internal employees.

In June of 2017 Rob was selected as Marketing Vice President. Rob’s areas of responsibility include our American Family brand strategy utilizing all marketing mediums including broadcast media, digital, social as well as our product and field marketing programs.

Rob relocated back to the Pacific Northwest and currently leads a team of agency owners in the greater Seattle area. He and his currently lead the organization in productivity.

Rob belongs to a venture capital firm and is a past president of the Board of Directors for The Raphael House of Portland. Rob has also been involved in the Oregon and Washington wine industry’s supporting several local and statewide wine growers associations. Rob is also on the Greater Issaquah Chamber Board and the East King County Chambers Coalition.

Rob received his LUTCF (Life Underwriting Training Council Fellows) in 1994 and his CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) in 2001.

Rob and his wife Lynn have two grown and married children, Robyne (Taylor) and Boone (Brooke) as well as Four grandchildren Parker, Zoey, Gemma and Banks all of whom reside in the Seattle area. Rob is a wine enthusiast, outdoor enthusiast, an avid golfer and hunter.

Patti has over 40 years experience in the insurance industry and is an Employee Benefit Specialist working with private companies as well as individual clients for medical, dental, Medicare and life insurance. She is an expert C.O.B.R.A., Section 125 Cafeteria Plan and Health Savings Account.

Patti Smith of P Smith Insurance Services is an active member serving the Kirkland community:

Greater Kirkland Chamber of Commerce – Director 2001-2003; President 2004

Public Policy Chair, 2003; committee member – ongoing

Events Chair – 2005

EKCCCLC Delegate – 2000 to present

Peter Kirk Golf Classic Co-Chair – 1996 to 2003

Gala Auction Co-Chair – 1999 & 2000

Committee Chair – 1997 & 1998

Volunteer – 1995 & 1996

Awards Banquet Committee 2002

Ambassador for 5 years

Taste Kirkland Volunteer since 1996

Friend of Kirkland Recognition 2001

Kirkland Rotary – Director 1999 to present

Golf Tournament Chair – 6 years

Program Chair – 10 years

Community Volunteer

Rotarian of the Year – 2001

International Chair – 2004 to 2007

Duck Dash Chair – 3 years

President – 2012-2013

Washington Association of Health Underwriters/National Association of Health Underwriters – member since 1985

President – 1999-2000

State Legislative Chair – 2001

Treasurer – 5 years

Symposium Chair – 7 years

Awards chair

Strategic Planning Conference Chair – 3 years

Day on the Hill Chair – 3 years

Region 6 Education Chair – 2 years

Member of the Year 1996

Distinguished Services Award – 2001

Agent Advisory Committee to the State Insurance Commissioner

PacifiCare of Washington Women’s Leadership Council

Worked with legislators, insurance companies, agents and consumers to write and pass the Individual Health Insurance Market Reform bill

K.I.T.H Advisory Committee

Evergreen Cancer Care Volunteer – 11 years

Past Community Service

Kirkland Police Department Special Olympics Golf Tournament Volunteer

Kirkland Performance Center Volunteer

Women for Women’s Breast Cancer Awareness Table Captain – 2 years

Standing Ovation Gala Auction Chair – 2 years

Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association Board of Directors – 4 years

Madison House Retirement Center Reno Night – 3 years

Political Campaign Fund Raiser; doorbelling

Samantha St John has been the CEO of the Kirkland Chamber since January 2017. Prior to this, Samantha held the position of Director of Marketing and Communications with the Kirkland Chamber for four years. Samantha also leads the newly formed Kirkland Chamber Foundation, which focuses on lifespan education programming and scholarships, as well as small business disaster relief (in response to the COVID-19 pandemic). Prior to joining the Kirkland Chamber staff, she served as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Viridian Data Corporation, a Bothell-based startup that offered lead generation and supplemental marketing services to companies all around the globe, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Samantha is a Kirkland native, and lives in the South Rose Hill neighborhood with her partner, Greg and their dog, Milo. She loves Kirkland and volunteers as often as possible with organizations helping to improve the livability and quality of life for all residents, including serving as President of the board of Attain Housing, a Kirkland nonprofit organization providing affordable housing and case management for homeless and at-risk families with children.

Dallas Stewart owns and operates a technology business which he started in the summer of 2009. The business focus is as a managed service provider that enables small business to use technology just as large corporations do but at an affordable price-point. Prior to starting the business, he served as CIO/CTO for a software company based in Bellevue, WA. His career spans 40 years of technology having started with mainframes back in the 1970s. He experienced the birth of PCs, email and various other technologies that have transformed the way everyone conducts business. He’s won awards that are too numerous to count with the most notables being Franchise of the Year North America in 2017, the President’s Award and the Community Humanitarian Service award.

During his career, he has served as CIO/CTO, Sr. Vice President of Product Marketing & Management, Divisional Quality Manager, and National Accounts Sr. Solutions Engineer. Leading high profile efforts in environments where change is constant and deadlines are a priority has characterized his success.

Dallas began his career in upstate New York working for Corning Glass Works during the time when they invented Fiber Optics. He moved back to his home town of Columbus Ohio in 1987 to work for Nationwide Insurance. During that time his efforts were directed towards managing the storage networks for the largest data center in Ohio. Several of his internal innovations gained him notoriety amongst his peers as well as vendors he regularly worked alongside like IBM, Amdahl, Storagetek and Sun.

In 1995, he left Nationwide as a Technical Manager to move into a Sales Engineer role with Sterling Software. He quickly migrated to handling the technology relationships for critical worldwide accounts for Sterling. In 2001, Computer Associates acquired Sterling Software. During that transition, he was recruited by several organizations within Computer Associates and he eventually took the role of Director of Customer Relationship Management for the state of Ohio with 7 CRMs reporting to him that managed the top 300 accounts within the state.

Dallas spent 14 years serving on international committees both in the states and in Europe where his expertise for technology and how it can advance business acumen were put to use in shaping convention content, drawing and organizing key note speakers and generally directing the operations of those conventions. He spent 3 years as conference chair and another 4 years as chairmen emeritus.

Dallas has owned the CMIT Solutions of Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond franchises since 2009. The focus is in working with business owners who feel angered, frustrated or hand-cuffed about what technology is doing to their business instead of for their business. Through partnering with the business owner, he enables them to gain control of their IT budgets, and shows how technology can help the business get to more clients while retaining more of their hard earned dollars.

Carol is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in marketing and government relations. She has a diverse background in telecommunications. She has over 20 years of experience with the AT&T External Affairs organization leading numerous successful campaigns to gain government support for wireline and wireless network programs. Over the life of her career at AT&T, she has experienced tremendous industry evolution.

Carol has held many leadership roles with Community Based Organizations. She has worked with civic business groups and philanthropic organizations in the Greater Seattle area. She currently serves on the boards of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, USO Northwest, the Washington E911 Advisory Council, and on the national board of InspirASIAN, one of AT&T’s twelve Employee Resource Groups.

Born in Key West, Florida Carol grew up in Southern California, graduated from Santa Ana High School and the University of Redlands. Carol lives in Woodinville, Washington where she enjoys gardening, golf, travel and spending time with friends and family.