Sameth M.

Background

About Sameth M.

Sameth Mell is a champion for race & social justice for more than a decade. Chairman for the Coalition of Immigrants, Refugees and Communities of Color; Co-Founder of Spean Rajana *bridging Khmer diaspora to Cambodia to immerse in policy, arts & culture. Passionate about the intersectionality of language, arts & culture and leads cultural immersion trips abroad, focusing on building conversational infrastructure with civic society, government, arts sectors & community leaders. Chairman of the Cambodian American Council of Washington state from 2018 - 2021, focusing on building visibility for community concerns & issues, established small business outreach & education throughout the state of WA in partnership with WA State Dept of Commerce, building capacity and strengthening the education committee and the annual Khmer Student Scholarships for higher education.Mell has also served as Chair to the Financial Education Network of Seattle/King County, and Chair of the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle/King County’s Resident Services Affinity Group. As Chair of the Racial Diversity Task Force, he led and implemented the internship pipeline for People of Color in the housing industry and developed POC caucusing to influence space for POC employees in the housing industry. In 2015, Mell was appointed as the youngest serving member on the King County Immigrant & Refugee task force and chaired the Alignment committee. He offered recommendations to the full county council which led to the historic development of the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs at King County. Mell has advocated and lobbied for city, county & state funding to increase housing trust fund, education equity, digital equity, immigration reform and capacity building. In addition he served on the City of Seattle Mayor's Census Task force for Census 2020. He continues to serve on AAPI Heritage PNW Task Force and King County's Climate & Equity Task Force to ensure climate change resiliency, and to help advance race and social justice. Mell is active with the King County International Airport Community coalition, a member of WA State's Digital Equity Forum, an organizing committee member of the People of Color Legislative Summit, and works as the Director of Partners in Change with Equity in Education Coalition, where he coalesces community based organizations and public entities, convenes meetings with Governor’s Office Senior Staff, convenes Chief of Staff meetings & strategizes to create impact on many critical issues that face the BIPOC communities.