In 2026, People’s Economy Lab turns 10! We’re marking our anniversary by catching up with some of the original founders of and participants in People’s Economy Lab.
Our second interview is with Christine Hanna. Read our first interview with Shevanthi Daniel here.
Q: What were you doing 10 years ago in 2016?
A: Ten years ago, I was co-directing Seattle Good Business Network, an organization I founded in 2010. We wanted to create a support network for people, local independent businesses, and organizations focused on building a sustainable and equitable local economy in Seattle. At first, after the 2008 financial crisis, businesses were most concerned about just keeping their doors open, so we led a “Think Local First” campaign to encourage spending at local businesses. We then took on Dine Around Seattle and Seattle Restaurant Week, and launched Seattle Made to support local producers and manufacturers. After a while, our programming became more and more about connecting business owners to each other and the resources they needed to thrive.
I also had a three-year-old and an eight-year-old.
Q: What motivated you to start People’s Economy Lab?
A: In 2013-14, I was part of a national cohort as a local economy fellow with an organization now known as Common Future. We had the opportunity to travel to different cities around the U.S. for three-day intensives to learn about the incredible work happening there. I also knew that there was a lot of cool stuff happening on this front in Seattle, people and organizations striving to create a more humane and ecologically sound economy. So I wanted to try to bring these people together to learn from each other and create a shared framework and specific initiatives that could move the needle in Seattle. I also knew that the connections and relationships built could have a really lasting impact.
We received funding from the Seattle Foundation. And we started with about twelve people initially, coming from real estate, finance, food systems, cooperative business development–all different sectors. We met approximately monthly for about fifteen months, held some events, invited people to share what they were working on, and came up with a list of proposed solutions for moving the needle forward on a more equitable, locally rooted, sustainable economy.
In early 2017, I became the executive director at YES! Media, but continued to participate in the cohort sessions. Deric [Gruen], bless him, continued to carry the work forward, evolving it to meet the needs in the community.
Q: What are you doing now?
A: I left YES! about two years ago, took some time off to regroup and get myself centered and aligned toward the things that I really care about. I ultimately decided that I wanted to focus my work on building a regenerative economy and place-based work in Cascadia. I wanted to work on getting more money into very promising solutions that are not about generating excessive financial returns, but about generating returns to people and place and tomorrow, generations from now.
Now I support promising projects and organizations with strategic and organizational development, helping them move to higher levels of stability and impact. I currently spend most of my time on a project called Rooted Northwest–240 acres of farmland and open space up in Snohomish County where we’re building two co-housing communities and preserving 90+% of the land for regenerative farming. It checks a lot of important boxes for me; it’s about healthy food, making sure we have places to grow that food, resilience, climate, community, reciprocity, stewardship. Farming is hard, lonely, and risky for independent farmers. Rooted Northwest creates a support system for farmers and the residents who live on the property and enables farmers to share equipment, resources, and learning. You can learn more about it here: https://rootednw.org/.
Q: How has the movement for an economy that serves people and planet changed over the last ten years?
A: This is a huge question, and it depends a lot on where you are.
People in my generation grew up with the idea that communism was an existential threat. The idea of attacking capitalism, that narrative was not something that was out there when I was a teenager. Now younger generations are actively asking why everyone is attached to this system that’s clearly so flawed. There’s more creative and open-minded thinking in general.
When I was at YES!, we were doing everything we could to lift up new generations of thought leaders who were working with these ideas, applying them to their communities. That felt really refreshing. That journalism archive is still available through TruthOut.
But when discussions about economic solutions get entangled with political fights about “socialism” that really thwarts productive conversations about what actually works for communities. The other thing is, we live in such a racist society, that when people of color propose solutions for communities that have been extracted from, exploited, toxified–solutions that actually work better for everybody–far too many white people think they’re coming for my stuff, they’re coming for my position. So that’s been really frustrating.
Q: What are your dreams for the next ten years?
A: I know a lot of people who are building what’s next. They’re practicing it in some form or fashion, getting ready for when there’s an opening, a time to shift people’s thinking about what is possible. They might be laying low, but the roots are going deeper. Take Soul Fire Farm as a powerful, real-life example. It’s not just a good idea on paper. It’s not a meme. In the end, we’re going to need examples of solutions that actually work.
My dream is that more people take steps to participate in those things, that they get out of feeling helpless and immobilized. Yes, we need people who are defenders, who are protectors, who are fighting against existing systems, but we also need to be building what’s next. And we need to get connected. The power of connection allows us to seed, grow, and expand. If those two things happen, that gives me hope.
