Bill Dunbar
Government Relations Director
At Pyramid:
With 20 years of politics, environmental work and media relations under his belt, Bill helps clients such as Preserve Our Islands, Sealaska Corporation and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project navigate the world of government and the media.
Bill is particularly proud of the work he's done over the years protecting the environment for public health. His work with reporters, members of Congress, federal agencies, and victims and their families helped shine light and get corrective action on lethal nationwide asbestos contamination borne from a mine in Montana. A long-time clean energy advocate, Bill has also been involved in some of the region's most important clean-energy efforts.
After Hours:
Bill and his wife have three athletic kids—so if he's not working, he's usually coaching someone in baseball, basketball, golf, tennis or fly-fishing. Occasionally, spasms of nostalgia suck Bill back into politics (he and his wife met as national staffers for Dukakis' `88 presidential run), but he swears he will never again earn a paycheck from a campaign or elected official. "Politics makes me fat," he says.
Background:
Prior to coming to Pyramid, Bill served as state director for U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). He also spent six years as an award-winning media and government relations specialist at the Northwest office of the U.S. EPA, and four years as the Washington public affairs director for the Northwest Power Planning Council. He was also communications director for former U.S. Rep. Jolene Unsoeld (D-WA-3) and is a veteran of a number of successful campaigns, including Mike Kreidler’s 1992 race for Congress, Gary Locke’s winning 1993 campaign for King County Executive and two presidential campaigns.
Bill's wild career began when he was a freshman at UC Berkeley where, rather than doing chemistry and economics homework, he distracted himself with the 1984 presidential race. (He liked Gary Hart.) A few years later Bill found himself at the University of Washington simultaneously finishing his bachelor's degree in political science and working as the first male counselor on staff at Planned Parenthood of Western Washington.
