Meet Joy
Joy was born and raised in the Central District, a neighborhood her family has called home since the 1940’s. A product of the neighborhood, she went to Stevens Elementary, TOPS at Seward and Meany Middle School while always spending her summers at Garfield Community Center youth camps.
The product of a long line of educators and civil rights leaders, Joy works to build community by establishing relationships based on trust and commitment. She learned these values from her mom who spent her career connecting vulnerable neighbors with housing at King County Housing, her father who fought for equity in South Seattle parks as a longtime employee at Seattle Parks, and her grandmother, Dorothy Hollingsworth, who was a fierce advocate for families and opportunity.
Joy played basketball in high school at Seattle Preparatory School and in college at the University of Arizona. After playing professionally in Athens, Greece she returned to Seattle and earned a Masters in Education from the University of Washington. Joy later spent three seasons at Seattle University as Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach.
From 2012-2014, following her time at SU, Joy worked as Girls Program Director at Seattle’s A PLUS Youth Program where she helped create access to sports for girls in underserved communities.
In 2014, Joy’s brother Raft started Hollingsworth Farms, a family-owned and operated cannabis company located on the Olympic Peninsula. The farm focuses on sustainability and responsible practices, including the use of solar power, sustainable growing methods and local resources for plant production. She joined the family business serving in operations, helping grow and manage one of Washington’s few independent, Black-owned cannabis operations.
Building on her lifelong commitment to policies that support community solutions, Joy currently serves as part of the Food Access Network team at Northwest Harvest. In this capacity, Joy and her team connect community organizations to resources by growing food justice through collective action.
Joy lives in the Central District with her wife Iesha, who is the Senior Diversity and Equity Officer at a local community college. For fun, Joy and Iesha enjoy walking their dog “Santana”, exploring new vegetarian eateries, YouTube surfing, making candles, and zipping around Seattle on their bicycles.
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