A Grateful Goodbye Reflections on Nearly Four Years at RHAWA.
When I first walked through RHAWA's doors, I was 22 years old and only a few months out of college. I arrived with a fresh degree, a lot of energy, and the faintest idea of what running a trade association actually involved. What carried me through those early days was not anything I brought with me. It was the people who were already here.
From my very first week, Sean, our executive director, and Melissa, our deputy director, made it their mission to set me up to succeed. They handed me real responsibility before I had any right to expect it, trusted me to find my footing, and stayed patient every time I got something wrong. The whole staff was the same way. This is a team that answers questions without ever making you feel small for asking, that celebrates each other's wins, and that shows up for one another and for our members day after day. I could not have asked for a better group of people to start my career beside. Thank you, all of you. You taught me more than you know.
Over the past few years, I have had the rare privilege of watching two things grow side by side: this Association and me. RHAWA today looks different from the one I joined. Our membership has grown and now stands at more than 6,000 housing providers across Washington. We built new programs and services from the ground up, launched our flagship ENGAGE conference, and refined the way we reach our members and vendors. I got to be in the room for all of it and often helped build it.
I am not the same person who walked in at 22, either. I came in green, and I leave having learned how to build something real, how to earn trust, and how much careful, unglamorous work sits behind anything worth doing. I am deeply grateful that RHAWA gave me the room to grow into the professional I am today.
The part I will miss most is the people I came to know along the way. Our members are some of the most resilient, resourceful, and good-humored people I have ever met, and the vendors I worked with brought that very same dedication to serving this community. Getting to know you, hearing your stories, and helping however I could has been the great pleasure of this job.
Nowhere did that come to life more than at ENGAGE. Watching this community gather in one place, trading advice, making introductions, and catching up like old friends, reminded me every single year why this work matters. RHAWA is, at its core, a community, and there is nothing quite like seeing it all together under one roof.
So what comes next? This fall, I am heading to California to pursue my MBA. It is a bittersweet decision, because leaving a place and people you love is never easy. But RHAWA taught me exactly what I needed to learn to take this next step with confidence. I feel ready, and that readiness is one of the greatest gifts this organization has given me.
To Sean, Melissa, the entire staff, our members, and our vendors: thank you. Thank you for the trust, the lessons, the laughs, and the memories. I will be cheering RHAWA on from afar, and I do not doubt that the best is yet to come.
With gratitude, Luke Brown