About Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth

Council district: 3
In office since: 2024 
Current term: January 2024 - December 2027

Joy Hollingsworth is a fourth-generation Seattleite, who was born and raised in Seattle’s historic Central District. She attended Seattle Public Schools from Stevens Elementary, TOPS at Seward and Meany Middle School while spending her summers at Garfield Community Center.

She is the product of lifelong educators, civil rights leaders, and small business owners. Joy’s mother Rhonda spent her career connecting families to housing, her father Raft, worked over 30 years for the Parks Department and grandmother, Dorothy Hollingsworth, a towering spirit was a fierce advocate for children and families.

After a stellar high-school basketball career at Seattle Preparatory School, she went on to play for the University of Arizona and later professionally in Athen’s Greece. Joy returned to Seattle to earn a Master’s in Education from the University of Washington, and spent three seasons at Seattle University as an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach.

In 2014, Joy’s brother Raft started Hollingsworth Farms, a family-owned and operated cannabis and hemp company located on the Olympic Peninsula. She joined the family business serving in operations growing one of few Black-owned independent farms in the state of Washington. Transiting from the family business, she served as a program coordinator at Northwest Harvest dedicated to proving food access and promoting food security across the state.

In November of 2023, Hollingsworth was elected to Seattle City Council representing District 3. As small business owner, non-profit leader and community connector, Joy prides herself on outcomes by focusing on the fundamentals and bold basics for our neighborhoods while serving in her legislative role.