Emily Tomita began her involvement at the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition as an Advocacy and Policy Cohort (APC) member in 2017 when she first arrived in the Seattle area.
At the time, she was working at the Refugee Women’s Alliance as the Youth Program Manager, supporting immigrant students, especially those in the Southend.
“I remember how I felt being in those cohort spaces and being in this group of people going on, both a professional and personal journey at the same time, learning how to leverage our own personal identities and experiences in the service of advocating for the young people in Southeast Seattle,” Tomita said.
In 2019, she was invited to serve on the SESEC board of directors by then Executive Director Erin Okuno. She helped lead SESEC throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and was a part of the hiring process for current Executive Director, Liz Huizar. After 7 years of service, Emily completes her board service this March 2026.
Today, Emily is the Executive Director of City Fruit, a nonprofit organization that harvests fruit from urban trees to support sustainable, equitable access to fruit.
Last summer she partnered with SESEC in her role at City Fruit to donate over 370 pounds of fresh fruit to be distributed at the annual Back2School Bash organized by the Rainier Beach Action Coalition. This is a core part of City Fruit’s programming, which harvests and distributes fruit to over 30 Seattle community partners, which include food banks, meals programs, and schools.
“75% of our fruit deliveries are going to partners that are going to actually help address food in equity and get fruit into the hands of people who experience food insecurity or live in areas where there aren’t any grocery stores that have access to fresh fruit regularly,” Emily said.
According to the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, Southeast Seattle households have some of the highest rates of food insecurity, with the average rate between 2018-2020 was 26.5%. This, coupled with the educational inequities faced by students in the area, makes it even more crucial for continued partnerships in the future. In the 2023-24 academic year, 74% of Southeast Seattle students are BIPOC, 55% are low income and 28% are English Language Learners. They attend 22 Seattle Public Schools in Southeast Seattle.
Caption: Emily harvests fruits from trees in Seattle in the summer of 2025!
She has reflected on the changes in the education landscape over a decade and on SESEC’s foundational role in advocacy.
“I think SESEC at its core hasn’t changed over the past seven years. We’re still very clear-eyed on our mission. I feel like we’re very solidly embedded in the Southeast Seattle education community and have continued to bring value specifically to a lot of folks who live in this region who otherwise wouldn’t necessarily have the same avenues towards affecting change at the local level for schooling,” Emily said.
Besides Advocacy and Policy Cohorts, she emphasized the commitment SESEC has had with connecting community members with elected officials and candidates to facilitate direct discussions.
“The only time I could think of where I was able to have face-to-face conversations with candidates in my local election was probably the 2019 candidate forum and just being like a little bit starstruck. It just felt like such a flipping of this script from what typical power dynamics are in spaces like that,” she said, “I’m really, really proud of how SESEC has continued to play that role, as a convener and connector that I don’t really think is being filled by other organizations.”
SESEC continued to hold town halls, with its most recent being the October 2025 Seattle Education Forum. This event, which was held in partnership with the Alliance for Education, League of Education Voters, and many more coalition members, had over 150 people in attendance at Rainier Beach High School. Over a dozen candidates ranging from the Seattle mayoral, school board, council member and King County executives came to speak with the community.
With the release of our 2026 Advocacy Priorities, holding policymakers accountable remains a top goal for SESEC as we head into the new year.
We want to thank Emily for her incredible commitment to SESEC and our mission to convene and resource communities of color to advocate for an equitable education system! We are excited to continue working with her in the future in her role at City Fruit to advocate for our Southeast Seattle community!
