We are excited to share that Michelle Caulfield and Lylianna Allala are now serving as the interim Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Sustainability & Environment. In February, former Director Jessyn Farrell was promoted to Deputy Mayor and now oversees transportation, parks, and the Seattle Waterfront. Although we will miss Jessyn, we are incredibly thankful for her contributions, and we know Michelle and Lylianna will bring incredible leadership and vision to OSE.
Please join us in celebrating these leadership changes, and learn more about Michelle and Lylianna’s accomplishments below.
Meet Interim Director, Michelle Caulfield
Michelle has served as Deputy Director for Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment since 2016. She is passionate about working at the intersection of government and community and brings more than a decade of public sector management and leadership to advance climate action, urban greening, healthy and local food, and environmental justice. At OSE, Michelle has contributed to officewide success through the strategic integration of policy, planning, and communications. Michelle represents Seattle on several regional, national, and international networks and serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Prior to the City of Seattle, Michelle worked as an environmental consultant, providing policy, planning, program design, implementation, and evaluation services in the areas of resource conservation, waste, sustainability, climate, and clean energy to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in History and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Meet Interim Deputy Director, Lylianna Allala
Lylianna Allala most recently served as the City of Seattle’s first Climate Justice Director. With expertise in organizational development, change management, race and social equity, systems thinking, and fostering high functioning teams, Lylianna brings a talent for designing and launching new strategies, programs, and policies to co-develop solutions that will lead us to a more equitable and just world. As the Climate Justice Director, Lylianna developed strategies to address the root causes and impacts of climate change and oversaw citywide implementation of Seattle’s Equity & Environment Initiative and Seattle’s Green New Deal. Prior to OSE, Lylianna led climate & environmental policy & outreach for U.S Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Lylianna began her career in habitat restoration and ecology focusing on upland and urban forests, and wetlands.
Lylianna has a B.A in English from Winona State University, a certificate in Climate Change and Public Health from Yale University, a certificate in Non-Profit Management from Georgetown University and a certificate in Wetland Science and Management from the University of Washington. Lylianna is on the board of Seattle’s Short Run Comix & Arts Festival, and The Nature Conservancy, Washington. She is a co-creator of Growing Old, a podcast that explores what it would look like within the next 50 years for Seattle to become a place where both trees and humans grow old. In 2023, Lylianna was listed on the Grist 50 list as a climate and justice policy leader to watch. She is a 2019 Henry M. Jackson Foundation Leadership Fellow and a current participant of the 2024 Obama Foundation Leaders USA program.