Jenny Durkan
Jenny A. Durkan is the 56th mayor of Seattle and the first woman to lead the city in nearly a century.
She entered office on November 28, 2017, and is focused on the housing affordability crisis, helping those experiencing homelessness, providing free college tuition to Seattle’s high school graduates, and pushing reforms and restoring trust in the police department – while also delivering on basic city services. She also is committed to ensuring Seattle continues to lead the innovative economy and create new models for ensuring more security for workers.
Prior to becoming Mayor, Durkan was a civic leader and nationally-recognized attorney. From 2009 to 2014, she served as the US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, becoming the first openly gay US Attorney in our country’s history.
As a civic leader and advocate, she chaired a statewide task force on consumer privacy, which led to innovative protections for identity theft. She served a three-year term on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors and for over twenty years served on the Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court, helping select the candidates for appointment to seven vacancies in the federal judiciary. She was a founding board member of the Center for Women and Democracy and trained women running for office in Morocco. She was the first citizen observer on Seattle Police Department's Firearms Review Board and served on two blue-ribbon committees pushing for reforms at SPD. She helped establish drug and mental health courts in King County and create a specialized federal program to provide treatment alternatives to incarceration.
Durkan, one of eight children, was raised in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame, taught school and coached girls basketball in a Yupik fishing village in Alaska, and then earned her J.D. at the University of Washington School of Law. She and her partner, Dana, have two sons.
Current position:
Mayor
Location:
Seattle, WA
Previous Office(s) Held: US Attorney, Western District of Washington