Human Services Commission

Gildas Cheung is a Product Manager at Amazon and has worked in the technology industry for over 10 years. In addition to serving on Kirkland’s Human Services Commission, he is the Board Chair of International Community Health Services, a local nonprofit community health center providing culturally and linguistically appropriate health services to improve wellness of King County’s diverse people and communities.

When not working or volunteering in the community, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, cooking, playing soccer, and eating at nondescript places.

Jory Hamilton considers his role to serve along with his fellow Kirkland Human Services Commissioners, Human Services Staff, and City Council Members one of his greatest honors and privileges of his life.  He appreciates the opportunities the people of Kirkland afforded him since he was born in Evergreen Hospital.  

As someone with learning disabilities, a first-generation immigrant, and growing up in a poor single-parent household on Finn Hill, he believes the City of Kirkland's efforts to help those in need are life-saving.   

Jory studies business administration with Washington State University's online master's program after quad majoring in STEM at the University of Washington.  Jory volunteers with the LWSD and BSA Troop 565 at St. John Vianney Church.  He serves as the Bellevue wrestling head coach, his fraternity's domain director, founded and leads local small businesses Suplex City Wrestling, Hamilton Analytics, and the Juanita Class of 2009 Foundation.

Michelle Alten-Kaehler is a college planning consultant advising students of diverse socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds on the Eastside. Through her work, she has seen the need for making social services, higher education, housing, and career opportunities more available for our youth and young adults.

She is also the founder and president of Threads for Tomorrow, a non-profit that works to empower village women in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. As a community volunteer, Michelle has worked on issues including educational equity, gun safety, and environmental protection. She has volunteered for local schools, Youth Eastside Services, Sophia Way, the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and Global Washington.

During her time off, Michelle is often traveling with her husband, assisting with his international photography tours. She enjoys reading, learning languages, hiking, skiing, and cycling with her family in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

MJ Carlson moved to Kirkland to work at Google in 2016, shortly after completing her master’s degree in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. She also has a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She has worked as a newspaper editor, a case manager, a therapist, a writing tutor, a programmer and a computer science teacher.

These days, she volunteers with Hopelink, OneAmerica and local schools. She is on the steering committee of Indivisible Kirkland and has served on both the Kirkland/LWSD SRO Task Force and the Welcoming Kirkland working group. MJ has been involved in racial justice and immigrant rights work for years, and as the daughter of a formerly undocumented immigrant she has a particular interest in ensuring that ALL Kirklanders can access the services they need to thrive.

Gabriela Lopez Vazquez.  Born and raised in Mexico City she moved to Kirkland in 2015.  She has a Master’s in Logistics and International trade and has 15 yeas experience as a former Supply Chain Supervisor.    As an immigrant Gabriela decided to get involved with her community and started volunteering at the Bellevue Library as a tutor for adults at Plaza Comunitaria Program that helps Spanish speakers to obtain elementary and high school certificates. 

Later Gabriela became a Promotora at King County Promotores Network and started collaborating with other nonprofit organizations like Eastside Refugee and Immigrant Coalition and Eastside for All in multiple projects mainly doing community outreach to promote for example people’s participation in the Census 2020 and providing information about public programs and resources specially for people impacted by Covid19 on the Eastside. At the end of 2020 she participated with the City of Kirkland to do a survey with the Latino community to learn about their thoughts about living in Kirkland and their needs.

Gabriela loves animals and volunteers at Regional Animal Services of King County as customer service for the adoption of cats at the adoption Center in Kirkland.  She is happily married and still discovering the wonders of the Northwest. 

Jonathan Stutz is the President and Chief Diversity Officer at Global Diversity Partners Previously, he was Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for several global businesses at Amazon and Microsoft. Jonathan has served on the Kirkland Human Services Commission since 2017 and has served as Chair and Vice-Chair over that time. He previously served four years on the City of Bellevue Human Services Commission. Jonathan serves on the Board of Trustees for Youth Eastside Services (YES), is a Supplier Diversity Fellow at Seattle University, and is on the City of Palm Desert (CA) Civic Engagement Committee. Jonathan holds an M.A. in Organizational Leadership and B.A. in Political Science. He is a graduate of Advance Bellevue (now Leadership Eastside), a community leadership training organization. He co-founded the Eastside Diversity Task Force, the Eastside Latino Leadership Forum, and the Professional Technical Diversity Network in the Puget Sound and Bay Areas. All these organizations have the goal of connecting historically marginalized and oppressed people with access to opportunities to better their lives. Jonathan can often be found running or walking on the Kirkland Waterfront and Cross Kirkland Corridor. Born in Toronto, Canada, he has lived in the Seattle area most of his life. He is married to Stacie for 30+ years, they have two adult children and a Golden Retriever.

Melantha Jenkins is honored to serve the Kirkland community as a member of the Human Service Commission. She will strive to be a voice for people of color in our culturally rich community. As a Kirkland born native who is now raising twin daughters and two young boys in this city, she feels that it is her civic duty to protect and even enhance our community’s cultural prosperity. Melantha Jenkins will not only use her own personal experiences, including but not limited to, her tenure as the Student Body President of Bellevue College, the time studying as a non-traditional student at Howard University-a historical black college in Washington D.C., the time spent working as a Sports Medicine Medical Assistant in Kirkland, WA for Dr. Lee Kilburn, Dr. Lawrence Maurer, Dr. Peter Vincent and Dr. Mimi Johnson, and the four years she served as the girls Head Track and Cross Country coach at Bellevue High School; but also gains present day knowledge of current day crisis, situation and issues regarding people of color, low income families, and families experiencing unforeseen crisis by interacting daily with individuals who identify as such and listening to their experiences. Melantha Jenkins is a lover of sports, especially track and football. She often states she was “born a Seahawks fan” because her father played for the Seattle Seahawks at the time of her birth. Additionally, growing up chasing after two older brothers helped her have her own outstanding youth track and field career. She still holds a youth USA Track and Field Regional record for the fastest 400m dash for girls aged 13-14 (55.88 seconds, set in 2002). All-in-all, Melantha Jenkins is focused on being the next link in the ladder of life, helping to ease the journey of those coming behind her, just as those did who came before her.

Chloe Sow is a current student at The Downtown School who moved to Kirkland in 2021. As a previous beneficiary of human services and a youth member of the commission, she hopes to bring a unique perspective to the table and is committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable community for all. She has also been involved in other organizations like TeenTix, the Technology Access Foundation, and the Participatory Budgeting Project.

While not studying, working, or volunteering, Chloe enjoys playing badminton, watching documentaries, reading translated novels, and discussing history or philosophy.