From the White House to the World Cup

This alumna is shaping Seattle’s World Cup story after saying yes to early-career opportunities.

Since graduating in 2018, Hana Tadesse has built a career many would envy. She has worked on the front lines of COVID-19 communications for King County, led communications for Washington state Representative Kim Schrier and served in the President Joe Biden administration.

Now, for the Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026™ Local Organizing Committee, she serves as a communications strategist and official spokesperson. She is tasked with preparing the city of Seattle for FIFA World Cup games by hosting international media and managing the messaging around the event. 

The Puget Sound Business Journal recently recognized Tadesse as one of its 40 Under 40 for her career — which she built challenge after challenge by stepping outside her comfort zone and embracing new responsibilities.

Her journey began at UW Bothell, where she double majored in Culture, Literature & the Arts and in Media & Communication Studies.

From Ballard to UW Bothell

Tadesse was born and raised in Ballard, Washington, the child of Ethiopian immigrants. She chose UW Bothell because she wanted a degree in Media & Communication Studies, which wasn’t offered at the UW campus in Seattle.

She said UW Bothell also gave her the support and flexibility she needed to succeed, noting that she could not have imagined finishing a degree anywhere else.

“I think I came to UW Bothell very anxious and worried about the future,” Tadesse said. “I left with a double major, feeling very confident about what I could accomplish with my degree.”

Along the way, she said, she learned a lot about a wide variety of subjects — and ways to connect and communicate.

“My favorite class by far was about the death penalty, where we read Foucault’s ‘Discipline and Punish.’ But what I really appreciated about my program was participating in seminar-style classes. That’s where I learned to challenge other people’s ideas and navigate gray areas in discourse — skills that are immensely helpful in my career.”

Jumping on early-career opportunities

While still at UW Bothell, Tadesse worked unpaid internships to improve her résumé, eventually leading to a job for the City of Seattle. Within her first six months, changes in personnel left Tadesse without both of her managers, forcing her to take on responsibilities well beyond her experience level.

When COVID emerged soon afterward, she was able to step into a communications role in public health with King County.

“King County was the first place to get COVID, so we really got to decide what the national communications strategy was going to be,” Tadesse said. “The whole job was to calm people’s nerves about a disease that we knew nothing about. Then get them comfortable with the idea of taking a vaccine they’d never heard of before. It was difficult work but truly a once-in-a-lifetime project.”

As the pandemic began to wane, Tadesse then joined the office of King County Executive Dow Constantine. A colleague there encouraged her to explore political campaign work, next leading her to a communications role with Rep. Kim Schrier.

After the campaign’s success, Tadesse took on the challenge of a position with the Biden administration.

Working for the White House

Although she worked for the White House for two years, Tadesse said she only went to the building a handful of times. Most of her job was spent on the road, traveling ahead of the president or vice president to prepare the press for their trips.

“I would manage all the press logistics on the ground,” she said. “I’d craft media advisories, manage press coming off Air Force One and make sure the on-the-ground relationship between both countries stayed on track.”

The role took Tadesse around the world to Poland when Biden visited Ukraine via train, to Belfast as part of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and to Tanzania when Vice President Kamala Harris went on her first trip to Africa. “It taught me a lot about how to work with other people in different countries,” Tadesse said. “You need to be very diplomatic and very agreeable.”

The White House position came with little onboarding and a steep learning curve, but Tadesse said it was an honor of a lifetime. “Getting to bring the president to places where he normally wouldn’t go and introducing him to communities where the meeting would change someone’s life — it was the most fulfilling thing I’ve done.”

A proud moment for family

One memorable highlight of that time was taking her mother to a Christmas party at the White House. “She was cutting up around the White House like it was a friend’s house,” Tadesse said.

As they left the party, Tadesse’s mother told her that the moon landing was the first thing she had seen on TV as a child. She always dreamed of living in the United States and had never imagined she would ever even see the White House let alone attend a party there.

Tadesse said she felt she had made her mother proud, although her mother quickly responded by suggesting that, one day, Tadesse would be living there as president.

“That’s the expectation of immigrant parents,” Tadesse said. “They want The White House or the moon.” 

Preparing Seattle for the World Cup

Tadesse returned to Rep. Kim Schrier’s office as the director of communications, a move that allowed her to spend more time in Seattle. From there, she began consulting for Seattle’s World Cup efforts. As preparation for the tournament ramped up, she joined SeattleFWC26 as the senior vice president of communications.

“It feels like working at a startup,” she said, “because we’re building this all up but also breaking it down at the same time.”

To get ready for a large international audience, Tadesse stood up the Seattle International Media Center for approximately 1,200 members of the press working in Seattle for World Cup matches. Her day-to-day responsibilities involve serving as official spokesperson for SeattleFWC26, leading the communications strategy and setting up media interviews and press conferences.

More than anything, Tadesse is excited to use the skills she developed at UW Bothell and throughout her career to introduce Seattle to a global audience.

“I was born and raised in Ballard, and I like to call myself Ballard’s greatest export,” Tadesse said. “I’m just the biggest Seattle girl. I love the water. I love our ferry system. I love our public transit system. I love our public school system.

“I’ve worked for the city, I’ve worked for the county, and I’ve worked at the federal level,” she said. “But no matter how far the work took me, I always found my way back. Seattle is home and getting to do this work for my own city — for the people and the community that raised me — is everything.”