Preston Anderson

Following graduation from Mount Tahoma High School, Preston joined the Army as a medic and served four years initially, to include one tour to Kuwait in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later got out in late 2003 and moved to Seattle to begin college, first attending North Seattle Community College and later UW Seattle in 2005. However, during his first quarter at the University of Washington he was called back to active duty and spent the next 20 months in the Army, with 11 of those months spent in Iraq as a medic. Upon completing his second term in the military, Preston returned to Seattle and completed college at UW and began working with Seattle’s most vulnerable population at the Downtown Emergency Service Center as a case manager. At DESC, Preston helped organize workers or higher wages and protections by becoming members of SEIU 1199. In 2012, Preston graduated from UW with his Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Administration from Evergreen State College, and subsequently began working at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. As a clinical social worker, Preston worked over 4 years in the homeless programs at the VA Medical Center and 3 years as a clinician in the Addictions Treatment Center at the Seattle VA Medical Center, working with those with severe substance use disorders. He has worked with our community’s most vulnerable as an inpatient clinical social worker at Western State Hospital and at Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital. In 2019, Preston moved to Columbia, South Carolina to fight rampant Gerrymandering in the South. Getting involved with a progressive non-profit in South Carolina—one of the very few—and working on voter education and challenging voter suppression was one of the most rewarding experiences in his adult life. Preston currently works at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System as a licensed clinical social worker. He is at the forefront of the homeless and behavioral health crisis in Seattle and works with a variety of stakeholders to integrate the most innovative clinical practices to solve the current crisis. Preston currently serves as the Membership Chair of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Chief Sealth High School, and has been instrumental in increasing PTSA membership. He is also a proud Democratic Precinct Committee Officer in the 34th Legislative District and has worked to ensure Democratic literature for the 34th LD incorporated other languages such as Vietnamese, Somali, Spanish, and Amharic. As a long time social worker Preston is dedicated to ensuring the principles of social justice and responsible public stewardship is incorporated at the highest level of the City of Seattle.