Policy & Advocacy Deputy Director Stasha Espinosa
Stasha Espinosa joins Inatai Foundation as a Policy & Advocacy Deputy Director. We asked Stasha ten questions to learn more about her background, community, and how she connects to our work at Inatai.
Name: Stasha Espinosa
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Role: Policy & Advocacy Deputy Director
Home County: South Tacoma, Pierce County
1. What are three words that describe you?
Focused, kind, direct.
2. What is the “long story short” of how you landed at Inatai?
I’ve spent nearly 20 years in Washington helping elected leaders at every level of government make community-informed decisions. Often, I’ve been the squeaky bridge bringing rural and BIPOC communities into rooms where they were not initially centered. This work is important to me because I grew up in extreme poverty and I know policy is not abstract. It decides whether families can stay housed, eat, heal, and plan for the future. I started paying close attention to Inatai after hearing President & CEO Nichole June Maher speak at a conference. Learning about Inatai’s 50-Year Vision stuck with me. When this role opened, I applied.
3. What excites you most about being part of Team Inatai?
Inatai plans in 50-year increments in a world of 24-hour news cycles. That’s my kind of math. We’re watching the rapid growth of seeds of inequity and the destruction of democracy. This was always the plan and it’s starting to show up louder in Washington. I’m laser focused on contributing to Inatai’s work as a political organization that unapologetically uses its resources and influence to build lasting community power and dismantle racist systems.
4. Tell us about the community or communities you belong to.
I am a proud mama raising a family in South Tacoma. I was raised in both Catholic and Muslim faiths, which taught me how to listen across difference and that we have more in common than we think. My maternal grandparents are Aeta, a marginalized Indigenous people of the Philippines, and my paternal grandparents include African American civil rights activists. I am grateful for their strength and wisdom, and for the reflections of them in my children.
5. Inatai’s strategies are underlined by a 50-Year Vision informed by communities. What is it about your community that keeps you hopeful for the future?
I’m hopeful because I see parents in Tacoma raising children like the future is a shared responsibility. Despite everything that has happened to separate people from each other, I see examples at the parks, libraries, and other community spaces that show life and joy—especially at our brand-new Asia Pacific Cultural Center.
6. Finish this sentence: The Inatai value the most resonates with me is…
Joy.
7. What is your favorite fact about Washington?
Washington is one of just about half of states allow citizens to put initiatives or referendums on the ballot. Key components of who we are as a state have been decided by these citizen-validated efforts, including: marriage equality, paid sick leave, abortion protections, and recreational cannabis.
8. Where is your favorite place in Washington?
I love to catch the sunset at Scenic Beach in Seabeck. Bearing witness to how the mountains cradle the earth and water is an easy reminder that there is life in all things and a beginning after each ending.
9. What is the last thing you read, watched, or listened to that you would recommend? Why?
Always: Dr. Tema Okun’s book, “White Supremacy Culture: Characteristics and Antidotes.” Read it, reread it, forward it, and send it out with your holiday card.
10. What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
Love up my family, read, and garden.
