In this episode, we reflect on joy—not only as a feeling, but as a pathway to greater freedom and a deeper sense of possibility—and one that Alesha Washington, President and CEO of Seattle Foundation, has walked throughout her work transforming communities, from her hometown of Cleveland all the way to the Pacific Northwest.

Alesha speaks about joy in the context of community philanthropy, sharing that the breakthrough often comes when we move people out of diagnosing problems and into dreaming about what could be. Joy, she reminds us, is what primes us to imagine—to shift our gaze from what’s missing to what’s possible. It allows us to recognize the abundance already present in our communities and within ourselves, even when the world tells us otherwise.