Community Organizing Program Citizen Advisory Board

The King County Community Organizing Program Citizen Advisory Board is a volunteer board that advises on the programming and direction of the Community Organizing Program. The board's authority is established through the State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development and RCW 43.270.

The board is made of a maximum of 12 citizen members. The RCW requires that the members represent areas concerned about substance abuse and violence prevention such as education, law enforcement, local government, treatment, and parents.

Meeting Details

Advisory Board meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 10 a.m. - noon at:

WSU King County Extension
200 Mill Avenue South
Renton, WA 98057

Recruitment

For information about becoming a board member, please contact Community Organizing Program Coordinator Laura Edwards.

Advisory Board Members

• Celia Arriaga, representing K-12 education. Celia works for the Seattle Public School District in the Prevention and Intervention Department. She works on issues related to substance abuse and violence prevention with students, staff and parents. Celia has assisted K-12 schools implement best practice violence and drug prevention programs throughout the Seattle School District and abroad. She has been a board member since 1989.
  
  
• Deanna Briese, representing children and family services. Deanna has been the Executive Director of ACAP Child and Family Services since 2004, which serves the day care and parenting needs of low-income people in the greater Auburn area. She also served as a Policy Analyst for the Washington State House of Representatives specializing in children and family issues. She spent 12 years managing the drug elimination grant for the King County Housing Authority. Deanna holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Masters of Public Administration.
  
  
• Mark Howard, Vice Chair, representing law enforcement. Mark is a civilian employee of the Seattle Police Department where he has worked in Community Crime Prevention and currently works in Emergency Management. Mark has been on the board since 1989.
  
  
• Kimberly Noel, representing student assistance programs. Kimberly Noel is currently the director for the Prevention Center at the Puget Sound School District Educational Service District's Learning and Teaching Department. She manages grants at the Prevention Center involving school safety, substance abuse prevention and intervention, as well as comprehensive health and equity in K-12 education.
  
  
• Helena Stephens, representing local government and youth services. Helena has been the Family, Youth and Teen Services Manager for the City of Bellevue for the past 13 years. Helena has also worked on youth development, community building and juvenile justice initiatives. She works with numerous non-profit organizations that focus on advancing the issues of youth, low-income communities, and communities of color. She continues to work tirelessly to look for opportunities to reduce the impact of poverty, drug, alcohol and violence affecting the families of King County.
  
  
• Kim Walker, representing youth services and the faith community. Kim began as a youth leader in one of our youth leadership programs. She is a Washington State University graduate in Communications. She currently works as the Healthy Youth Project Coordinator for the Maple Valley Communities That Care project. She is also a leader for the youth in Greater Mt. Moriah M.B. church. She is a passionate advocate for healthy youth and healthy families.
  
  
• Liz Wilhelm, Chair, representing prevention programming and curriculum. Liz has been a Certified Alcohol and Other Drug Preventionist for fourteen years. She received a Masters of Science in Community Wellness and Prevention at National-Louis University. After coming to Seattle, she developed the Washington State prevention curriculum to train and teach leaders in the prevention field. After managing the Alcohol /Drug Clearing House for over five years, she became the funding and policy analyst for the Committee for Children. She is also the Chair for Washington Association of Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention, a group that works to advocate for prevention.