Meet Phoebe Reid

In June of this year, Phoebe Reid, who was born and raised in Port Townsend, moved back home to head up Community Workforce Development efforts in Jefferson County. Kim Carver interviewed Phoebe in hopes of helping more county residents get to know her. 

KC: Tell me a little about yourself...

Phoebe: I was born at Jefferson General Hospital and raised in Port Townsend. My parents met over wooden boats, my mom was a public school teacher. Growing up, I was very involved in the local community - swim team, 4H, Centrum. My vision was always to come back here when I was ready to start putting down roots, but that’s challenging with housing the way it is here, and the limited job market. It felt like a real gift to find this opportunity at the Economic Development Council.

KC: You’ve lived all over the world? Where? 

Phoebe: I left Port Townsend at 17 to go to a program called United World Colleges in southern Africa, in the country that’s now called Eswatini. It was a two year program focused on bringing together students from all over the world–over 60 countries–to do the International Baccalaureate diploma, all with a vision of “peace and a sustainable future.” From there I went to college in New Hampshire for two years at Dartmouth before transferring to the University of Washington. I got my degree in Environmental Studies and I feel really passionate about ecological and community sustainability. I also lived in various states while working as a backpacking guide in my 20s, but ultimately I got interested in marketing and worked at Amazon for a year, then at a startup in LA, and more recently as a Program Manager at a school in King County that focuses on leadership and community-building through the lens of wilderness and survival skills.

KC: Similar to NOLS? 

Phoebe: Similar, but full-time. People attend three days per week from September through June, learning about wildlife tracking, edible plants, and survival skills. It’s called the Wilderness Awareness School, in Duvall, Washington. My classes had up to 40 students, ages 18-70, with people in all eras of their life. I taught community leadership, plant medicine, wildlife tracking, stealthcraft and survival skills, and also managed the program as a whole. I grew up going to Cedar Root Folk School, so that’s how I got into this. I have a lot of ways I’d love to get more involved in that work locally, but currently I’m midway through getting my MBA at the UW Foster School of Business, so it’ll be a while before I can pursue those things. 

I was really ready to come back home and put down roots. This job felt exciting to me because I’m naturally very collaborative; I love being the interstitial space between people and helping make connections. The fact that this job was new, innovative, and supporting businesses, training, jobs, people…and now I’m able to bring so many skills from my last role, plus what I’m learning in business school, to a place that I really care about, is exciting. 

KC: You have an opportunity to do so much here...

Phoebe: That’s the hope. Workforce Development is both a very broad subject, and also specific. My role is funded by the Recompete grant, which requires looking at specific metrics. Jefferson County itself has never had a backbone of Workforce Development, so the objective is to plug in and connect with the important initiatives that are already happening, making sure employers understand all of these connections, helping grants get developed, and helping make sure we have comprehensive data. As a small county, our existing data doesn’t help us attract all of the grants, training, and apprenticeships that we could be getting. 

KC: Will you be able to serve people further afield, like in Brinnon and Quilcene? 

Phoebe: My initial focus is to talk to some of our larger employers to understand their workforce needs, challenges, and the ways they need support. Then, as I expand more in my role, extending that further. 

There’s an organization called WorkSource which provides a lot of access to services like resume writing, interview prep, job seeking, job finding, or helping employers find quality applicants and there hasn’t been much physical presence for WorkSource in Jefferson County since COVID. We’re working with them to bring back some presence, but making a strategic decision to support them by finding a location in Hadlock or Chimacum and making it accessible to more people. 

KC: WorkSource appears to be a resource for job seekers the way that EDC is a resource for business owners. 

Phoebe: That’s a good analogy. There are employer-based services through WorkSource–things WorkSource can provide employers that EDC cannot, but EDC having a partnership with them is a natural fit. For example, there’s federal funding that WorkSource has access to that EDC does not. Last week I was able to plug in an employer who didn’t know about that funding, and I hope it will significantly support their business. 

KC: Did you know much about WorkSources before you took on this role? 

Phoebe: I heard about them a year ago from a friend who received support from them while attending the Boat School. The Boat School (Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding) is very plugged into WorkSource. 

KC: Besides WorkSource, what are a few other things you’ve learned about since joining the EDC? 

Phoebe: So many things. When I first started this job, it was a brand new position and sort of like being given a jigsaw puzzle but not the box that shows what it’s supposed to look like. Now I’m seeing more of the landscape. I’m understanding more about living wage jobs, and the ecosystem of our workforce– like, how does childcare impact our local workforce? How does housing impact our local workforce? Where are our living wage jobs? Where are the areas for growing industry? Where are we investing a lot of attention that doesn’t actually support living wage jobs? Seeing how everything connects is something I’m passionate about. 

Touring the mill was a big highlight after growing up here. Having seen, heard and smelled the mill my whole life, I had never seen inside. As someone who has a background in environmental science, it’s really easy to fall into the wagon of environmental concerns, and that’s valid, but at times the way it's talked about is far too simple. Understanding the interconnectedness of having this major employer, and their impact on jobs, industry, the economy, the hospital, the water system… they are a core element of our current ecosystem. Seeing the inside of their process, the product they’re creating, how much recycling they’re doing for this entire state…I left more intrigued about the work they’re doing and curious to understand and support the complexity of how they support our local economy.

A big thing we are working on is a collaboration with the Port of Port Townsend to convene Jefferson County manufacturers for the first time in early October to talk about successes in business, plus challenges and barriers to growth. I’m interested in this being the first of several examples of gathering people in a single industry in order to find collaborative solutions for training, and for overcoming common barriers. 

KC: That all sounds incredible. To wrap this up, can you share a little more about you? What’s the best thing about being back home and what do you love to do here? 

Phoebe: There’s something about a place that really calls you…I’ve always known that this is my home…

KC: You’re like a salmon...

Phoebe: I have a tattoo of a salmon for that reason! When I left home at 17 my mom gifted me a quilt. All of the squares were done by important women in my life. I believe it was Crystie Kisler and Janet Aubin who made a square with a salmon and blueberries on it and they said “Like a salmon, you’ll always have to come back to the river where you were born.” And here I am. I see the Peninsula as a model of the kind of resilience the world needs—built on strong community and real collaboration. That resilience comes from our people, our unique geography, and the ecological abundance we have here. Honestly, if I had to choose anywhere to be if the world turns upside down, it's here. When I think about raising a family, this is exactly the kind of place and the kind of people I want around me. 

KC: Thank you, Phoebe. It’s been great getting to know you better today, and I look forward to seeing how your hard work here benefits county workers and business owners. 

Everyone is invited to come and meet Phoebe Reid and new Executive Director David Ballif from 5-7PM upstairs at NW Maritime on Thursday, September 11, 2025. See you there!