A Seattle native and a graduate of Rainier Beach High School, Arlesia started as a food service handler at Children’s Hospital some 25 years ago.  She worked her way up through numerous positions and getting an MBA, to become the Administrative Director in 2013, overseeing the direction of both the clinical and the programmatic components of the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic.

 

Located on Yesler in the Central District, it is the only regular primary care clinic that is part of Children’s Hospital (Children’s being more of a regional hospital).  The clinic provides medical, mental health, dentistry, and nutritional treatment.  In addition, it operates in six public schools in Seattle as well as Wellspring’s Early Learning Center.

 

Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic has a longstanding social justice and equity focus, a cause that is near and dear to Arlesia’s heart.  Founded during President Johnson’s War on Poverty, it focuses on the underserved and kids of color.  It is named for Odessa Brown, who, as a poor black woman in Chicago, was turned away from a clinic and denied health care.   Years later as a civil rights leader in Seattle, Odessa Brown fought to bring quality healthcare to the Central District.  Of note, the clinic was first run by Blanche Lavizza, the first black pediatrician in Washington State. 

 

Earlier this year Arlesia was tapped to lead a $100M expansion with a new clinic in the Rainier Valley slated to break ground in 2021 and serve an additional 50,000 children annually. Arlesia has her hands full as she spearheads their philanthropic goals.

 

As a child, Arlesia played basketball and danced at the Seattle Rotary Boys and Girls Club.  Now she is on the Wellspring Family Services board and is involved in leading conversations in the community on issues of equity and social justice. She’s even doing competitive bodybuilding.  She has two adult daughters, a 26-year-old, who is pursuing her MBA, and a 19-year-old who she describes as her “creative child.”   She is proposed by Doug Picha and Kari Rallo.

 

If you were to sit with Arlesia in her office, you’d notice an indoor plant sitting on her desk; it’s a gift from her proud grandmother, who has lived her life in the Central District, and has gotten to see her granddaughter grow up to run the clinic, just a few blocks from her own home.  That plant, lovingly tended by the newest member to Seattle Rotary, symbolizes a leader that, with her head and her heart continues to give back to our community in so many important ways.