Kari Bray: Leadership is a collaborative process

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 1, 2026

This is one of 12 finalists for The Herald Business Journal’s annual Emerging Leaders awards for 2026. The winner will be announced on April 7.

Kari Bray, 35

Communications Director, Snohomish County Executive Office

If you ask Kari Bray, leadership is a collaborative process.

In her role at the Snohomish County Executive Office, Bray works with people throughout the county to improve accessibility to public information.

“I had a boss once tell me, government isn’t a sailboat, it’s a barge. It takes a while to turn because there’s just so much going on,” Bray recalled. “So, you really have to pull the whole crew together when you’re trying to make the turn.”

A lot of Bray’s job is coordinating and bringing people together, she said. That can mean anything from organizing disaster response to keeping the public informed on the county’s budget.

“I think government is connected with the community, and it’s building the story of ‘who are we,’” she said. “Who is Snohomish County, and how do we make this the best place it can be?”

Bray is a Snohomish County native who grew up in Granite Falls. Before she was a communications director, she worked in The Daily Herald newsroom as a reporter.

“I think that really helped build my leadership skills without even thinking of them as leadership skills because it was that connections piece,” she said. “Can you go to a new place, a new person, and sit down and find something to talk about?”

In 2018, Bray worked at what is now known as the Snohomish County Health Department, in the county with the first recorded COVID-19 case in the United States. She served as the lead public information officer in the Joint Information Center and for the Snohomish County Vaccine Taskforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, Bray joined the executive office team. There, she helped continue her predecessor’s Snohomish County Television project, which officially launched in 2025. The government television station broadcasts county council meetings, among other public information.

She is also an active member of the county’s public information officer network and has guest taught FEMA-certified public information officer classes.

“It’s hugely helpful, because if you do have an emergency, everyone speaks the same language,” she said.

Bray coordinated a grant-funded project to create community-informed guidance on better communicating public health information to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For more than three years, she has been the co-lead of the county’s Multi-Agency Coordination Group’s Communications Committee for drug crisis response, although she has been involved with the group since 2018.

“Kari works tirelessly in her personal and professional life to make our community a wonderful, inclusive place,” a nominator wrote. “She often does so quietly and without fanfare. She leads with compassion while forging deep connections.”

Outside of work, you can find Bray getting involved in her Stanwood community, walking in her neighborhood and going on adventures with her husband and two kids.

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com. X: @JennaMillikan