A Day in the Life - Behind the Scenes as a Lawmaker

Jake Fey was born and raised in Port Angeles, and his  experience in the YMCA Youth and Government program pointed him early on toward a life of public service. He was the first in his family to attend college, earning a BA in political science from the University of Washington and then an MPA from the University of Puget Sound.

His leadership skills have been established in managing an alternative-energy and energy-efficiency program with Washington State University, coordinating community-volunteer efforts on the Sound Transit and Pierce Transit Boards, and working on the Pierce County Public Health Board. He has also served as vice chair of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and as Tacoma’s deputy mayor.

Laurie Jinkins represents the 27th Legislative District in Pierce County, which includes East, Downtown, Hilltop, North, Northeast, West, and part of South Tacoma as well as Ruston and Fife Heights.

She is a native Midwesterner who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later a Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law (then the University of Puget Sound School Of Law). Jinkins also completed executive studies at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Jinkins started her career litigating child abuse and neglect cases for the state Attorney General’s Office. She then shifted her career toward public health, eventually serving as an assistant secretary of health at the state Department of Health before taking the position of Director of Organizational Initiatives at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, where she continues to serve.

Jinkins serves on the Appropriations and Health Care and Wellness committees, and chairs the Judiciary Committee. Her legislative priorities include improving our schools and health care, helping working families and transforming Washington’s revenue structure.

Jinkins lives in Tacoma with her wife, Laura Wulf, and their 16-year-old son.

You will hear from Jake and Laurie about the life of a legislator; the good, the bad the ugly; the highs and the lows and how our state is doing.