Thurston Environmental Voters

Renata Rollins for Olympia City Council, Position 6

Renata is an advocate, social worker, writer, cyclist, and catalytic community leader who has spearheaded and organized numerous local projects and initiatives in Olympia. She has strong ties to social and environmental justice movements. Renata was one of the first Olympia Downtown Ambassadors, is vice chair and past president of Partners in Prevention Education, served on the city’s Artesian Commons Leadership Committee, and is a co-founder of the grassroots homeless rights advocacy group, Just Housing. She is running on a platform of a Totally Livable Olympia.

Environmental preservation is a primary pillar of Renata’s holistic vision. Her first campaign experience (as a teenager) was fighting to preserve state dollars for public transportation, and she remains passionate about expanding mass transit and bicycling infrastructure to this day. She sees transportation as a bridge issue in Olympia that not only protects the environment and raises our quality of life, but also strengthens the economy through improved workforce mobility and provides social equity for people with low incomes or disabilities.

When it comes to community planning, Renata favors addressing our rental housing inventory shortage through smart development in the infill (tiny homes, ADUs) in order to protect our vital natural areas and reduce or reverse harms to our waterways.

While we work to aggressively cut our carbon emissions, Olympia must also adapt to new realities brought on by climate change. This includes encouraging development in higher elevation areas as sea levels rise, and promoting urban farms and community gardens to bolster the resilience of our food supply chain.

Renata worked in a variety of fields, including journalism, public relations, and management, before becoming a social worker in Olympia. If elected, Renata will use her experience in outreach and communications to engage the public in solutions, bridge diverse communities, and serve as a much-needed community ambassador for all Olympians.