SEATTLE — Seattle’s First Lady is taking on her new role with eyes wide-open about the problems the city is facing.
For decades, Joanne Harrell has had a seat at the table – of Microsoft, the University of Washington and some of our state’s largest non-profits.
In a rare one-on-one interview, she told KING 5’s Joyce Taylor about the events that shaped her life and what she hopes to bring to the mayor’s office.
On election night, November 2021, voters elected Bruce Harrell the 57th mayor of Seattle by a 17-point margin. It marked a new beginning and for his wife, Microsoft executive Joanne Harrell, put a punctuation mark at the end of a stellar career. Twenty years at Microsoft was over.
“I felt like I accomplished the things I wanted to. It was just the right time,” Joanne Harrell said.
As a senior director at Microsoft, Harrell was often the only African American and only woman in the room in an industry that's still mostly white and male.
How did she not only survive but thrive in that space?
“Well, the truth is”, she said, “it really comes down to what we have in common. It’s not my color that matters or my gender. It’s ‘what do I bring to the table?’ What do I contribute? How do make sure that I have the confidence to really lean in and bring my best?”
That's been her motto in nearly everything she's done. She helped to facilitate a 100-million-dollar endowment while serving as president and CEO of the United Way. She also chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee she helped to create as Regent at the University of Washington, a position she has held since 2009.
“It’s important to be visible and to show up,” Harrel said. “We never know when we can make a difference just by being present.”
Harrell believes each of us has the power of changing lives if we lean in.
“Through compassion and through empathy and connection, and the power of being a role model, seeing that and taking that on seriously as a responsibility can change lives."
It was her father who taught her the importance of helping others, encouraging her to become a candy-striper for the Red Cross at the age of 16.
“My personal mission,” said Harrell,” is to leave the world better through the love I give and the example I set and by consistently giving my best. If I can do that in every venue that I’m in, whether sitting at the table or whether as First Lady, then I will have done my job.”
That inner focus and clarity she says comes from being surrounded by love and feeling affirmed as a child.
“I always knew that I was loved,” she said.
The love of family, she says, is how she survived profound loss at an early age. Her mother died suddenly when she was just 11 years old and she lost both of her brothers in a very short span of each other. She says family is everything.
The Harrell’s will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary this year. They have three children and two grandchildren.
When it comes to the city she loves, she said “family” will be her focus: women and children, health equity and homelessness.
“It’s not about me. It’s about what can I be?” Harrell says. “What can I give? How can I help? How can I serve? How can I connect as part of a larger ecosystem?
Another priority is a reduction in gun violence -- after a year in which more than 370 people were wounded and 88 killed by gunfire in Seattle.
“This can touch any of our children, irrespective of race – even gender,” said Harrell. “It’s senseless. Lives lost that don’t need to be lost. We need to see progress there.”
Harrell said she hopes to be the best partner and advocate she can be alongside her husband.
“He’s the mayor,” she said. ”I’m the First Lady. We’re a team.”
“He looks to me to bring a perspective that will be constructive and helpful and insightful,” said Harrell, “And I do think the perspective of women, the perspective of a mother is critical. It’s critical that that voice is heard.”