This is one of 12 finalists for The Herald Business Journal’s annual Emerging Leaders awards for 2022. The winner will be named at an event on April 13.

Hayley Statema, 28

Washington State University Everett, Director of Development

After a drag show scheduled to play Salty Sea Days was canceled last summer because performers didn’t feel safe, Haley Statema took steps to ensure their voices and concerns would be heard.

“After seeing that kind of violence come up, it was important we use whatever we can to talk about it more,” Statema said.

Through Engage Everett, a nonprofit networking group, Statema plans to invite the local LGBQT+ community to talk about themselves and their concerns, she said.

“Listening sessions are super valuable because it gives people the opportunity to feel like they’re heard, and it allows those in attendance to hear a different perspective,” said Statema, a volunteer for the group.

Besides Engage Everett, her volunteer activities support the Downtown Everett Association, Domestic Violence Services Snohomish County and the Providence Hospice Foundation.

Statema attended Cascade High School and Everett Community College through the Running Start program. A first-generation college student, she graduated from Washington State University in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.

Earlier this year, Statema joined Washington State University Everett as director of development. Before that she was the donor development manager at the March of Dimes and communications specialist at ChildStrive in Everett.

She is president of WSU Everett’s alumni association and also sits on the university’s advisory council where her focus is reaching students who are not typically-college bound.

“Whether it is access to affordable education and healthcare or a place to gather with friends that feels safe, there is so much we can do through volunteer or our life work to make our community stronger,” Statema said.

Having “a sibling who has different abilities” shaped her perspective growing up, she said.

“My younger sister has autism,” Statema said. It’s not always an obvious visible disability, she explained.

In high school, Statema and her sister were members of the marching band’s color guard.

“The team didn’t really get why she was different,” she said.

And so, she confronted the team, asking them what questions they had about autism.

“Here I was, like 17, giving them a lecture about a complex diagnosis,” she recalled. ”I realized that given the right tools, people will usually make good decisions, and they will try to be kind. If we would just break down some of those barriers and communicate a little bit more, more people would have access to the tools they need to succeed.”

“Everyone has someone in their life that they care about. Everyone has a little sister or a brother or a mom,” Statema said. “You have to step up for people who might not have a voice.”

Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @JanicePods.