Dean of the Creatives Academy

As Creative Economy Sector Lead for the Department of Commerce, Shannon cultivates partnerships and policy to grow creative businesses and jobs in Washington State. Shannon brings decades of experience supporting Washington State’s creative workers and creative businesses, including leadership roles with Artist Trust, Spokane Arts, The Recording Academy (GRAMMYs), and The Vera Project. She’s sat on numerous Boards and Commissions such as Whipsmart!, Inspire Washington, Seattle Music Commission, and Seattle Center Advisory Commission. When she’s not at work, you’ll likely find Shannon traveling, swimming, hiking, hunting down the best restaurants, or enjoying live music and cultural events.

Jacquie offers experiences that include award-winning market launches and reputation management programs during periods of growth, acquisition or major organizational transitions in small to mid-size towns across Washington and Oregon. Most notably, she led advertising and marketing campaigns, as well as website redevelopment and new website launches spanning several industries, including health care, utilities, fiction publishing, and nonprofit financial management. Jacquie earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and her master’s degree in Public Communication from the American University in the District of Columbia.

Faculty Advisor

Born and raised in rural Washington State, Lynn’s introduction to economic development was in family-owned and operated businesses such as logging, road construction, tree farming and shellfish farming. Lynn brings 20 years of economic development experience to our team. After working for the Department of Commerce in the Economic Development Division for 16 years, she accepted the role of Executive Director of the Economic Development Council in Mason County. Returning to Commerce, Lynn serves as the agency expert responsible for setting the agenda for the state’s economic development strategies for rural and underserved communities. She is responsible for developing and overseeing entrepreneurship programs such as ScaleUp, Thrive!, Global Entrepreneurship Month and other technical assistance, education and training programs and services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, particularly those in rural and underserved communities

Instructional Designer

Alex directs all the digital communications for the Choose Washington brand, including serving as webmaster for several Commerce websites. Before joining our team, Alex served as Advertising Creative Manager for McClatchy Company, overseeing creative and branding standards, managing the creative team and working with internal and external clients on an array of award-winning projects. He has extensive experience managing complex campaigns as well as maximizing the effectiveness of digital assets, including website design, construction and management, information design and analytics. Alex is also a whiz in the graphics department, serving as the go-to guy for ongoing design projects related to the brand. In his spare time, he likes to have his four dogs take him for a walk and engage in amazing creative pursuits that dazzle and mystify his coworkers.

Instructor Emeritus

A Washington native, Robb was a communications, marketing and business consultant starting in 1981, working with a prestigious roster of national and international clients around the world. Before joining the state in 2012, Robb was Mister Know-It-All at CommuniCreations, Inc. and CEO of Storylaureate.com, working closely with entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses and mega-corps all over the world. During that time, he designed more than 200 websites for a roster of high profile clients. In his spare time, Robb was a tortured novelist, professional entertainer. He was also a wishful world traveler, visiting (almost) an entire alphabet of islands (having made it to A, B, C, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, V and W). At one point, he thought he was an amazing cook. Then, his wife graduated from a culinary program. Robb, himself, graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in journalism and earned his second degree in Communications with an undeclared minor in Sociology.

The light in the world dimmed a bit when we lost Robb in the winter of 2025. We will always remember Robb’s contributions and the indelible legacy he established in the Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness at the Department of Commerce