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• About : Cheryl Ann Barnes is a Seattle community builder and event strategist with a master in public health and hundreds of events designed to foster belonging.
• Featured : Cheryl Ann Barnes hosts Community Design, Unfiltered, an in-person panel at The SOMM Hotel on the honest, behind-the-scenes work of building belonging.
• Keynote : Seattle keynote speaker on community and experience design. Has coordinated hundreds of events, helping organizations design gatherings people return to.
• Press : Press features for Cheryl Ann Barnes, including a Run Tri Mag podcast on running and mental health and her work leading the StrongHer Run Club.
• Events : Browse hosted and co-hosted events by Cheryl Ann Barnes, community builder and event strategist in Seattle. Find upcoming gatherings on Luma.
• Now : What Cheryl Ann Barnes is focused on in 2026: Coworking Tuesdays, food access advocacy at Third Place Commons, and writing from the Pacific Northwest.

Best Posts

The articles Cheryl Ann would hand you first. Start here to understand who she is, how she thinks, and why bringing people together is at the center of everything she does.

• Our Relationships Weren't Built For Storms : Cheryl Ann Barnes writes about how follower-based connections replaced deep village bonds requiring vulnerability, patience, and genuine forgiveness.
• The Quiet Collapse of a Safe Path : Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on finishing a public health master's during COVID, believing the formula would protect her, and what happened when it did not.
• Run the Extra Mile : Cheryl Ann Barnes joins a near-stranger for the Ragnar Northwest Passage 200-mile relay and finds a teammate who feels like a sister from a previous life.

Community

Community building, belonging, and the work that happens when you actually show up for the places and people around you. Coworking sessions, food access advocacy, and the roles I've taken on to make this stuff happen. "Launch of Coworking Tuesdays" is about the program I co-hosted with the Bothell/Kenmore Chamber of Commerce. Belonging shapes how we show up. That idea drove the whole thing.

• Mud, Mayhem, and Meaning : Cheryl Ann on what Loop the 'Lupe reveals about community: a West Seattle obstacle 5K up 52% in four years, where running is optional but mud is mandatory.
• Woodinville: A Crack in the Seattle Freeze : After a year near Seattle, Cheryl Ann Barnes finds Woodinville is a rare exception to the city culture of keeping people at arm length.
• The Stillness Wine Has Been Waiting For : At Sparkman Cellars, Cheryl Ann Barnes experienced a sound bath before a wine tasting and found that stillness reshaped how she experienced the wine.
• Intentional Connection Should Be Part of Your Business Plan : Cheryl Ann Barnes writes about how a genuine question, a follow-up note, or a shared article can transform transactional business ties into lasting ones.
• Your Problem Might Not Be Strategy. It Might Be the Room You’re In. : Cheryl Ann Barnes draws on coworking research to show that skilled people sharing space generates ideas and momentum that working alone cannot replicate.
• Our Relationships Weren't Built For Storms : Cheryl Ann Barnes writes about how follower-based connections replaced deep village bonds requiring vulnerability, patience, and genuine forgiveness.
• Launch of Coworking Tuesdays with the Bothell/Kenmore Chamber of Commerce : Cheryl Ann Barnes co-launched Coworking Tuesdays with the Bothell/Kenmore Chamber, rotating local venues to build real relationships among business owners.
• New Role: Director of Public Relations for CEO Society Seattle/Tacoma : Cheryl Ann Barnes is Director of Public Relations for CEO Society Seattle/Tacoma, a membership community empowering female founders across greater Seattle.
• Raising Food Access Awareness: Featured in the Community Action Fair : Cheryl Ann Barnes was featured in the Lake Forest Park Town Crier for her role in the Community Action Fair at Third Place Commons on food access.
• Utilizing Third Places to Raise Awareness : Cheryl Ann Barnes recaps the Community Action Fair at Third Place Commons, where residents found practical ways to support local food access organizations.
• We Are Socially Hungover... : Cheryl Ann Barnes names the drained, off feeling after a gathering you genuinely anticipated, and asks what it reveals about how we have been connecting.
• Be a Catalyst! : Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on leaving a government career and why many women feel held back inside large institutions before stepping into their own work.

General

The broadest category here, covering everything from technology and wellness to community events and the occasional headshot page. If it doesn't fit neatly elsewhere, it lives here. "Life. Sold Back To Us." is the one that started a series. I've wanted more of the technology, the data points, the information to improve my wellbeing. Part 1 digs into what that actually means.

• The Big Joke Was Thinking the Government Was My Future. It Was Actually My Ceiling. : Seven years of school, a dream job, and one layoff later, Cheryl Ann Barnes realized she was meant to build something the system could never contain.

Outdoor Adventures

Hikes, trails, and the outdoors that pulled me west and changed my life. I grew up in the Ozark Mountains, and the first time I saw what mountains really look like out here, everything shifted. Rainbows have always inspired me. "Disappearing Rainbows" is about that, and about the bigger question of what happens when the things that bring us joy start to fade.

• Loop the 'Lupe: When Obstacles Become Community Connections : Rain, mud, and five laps with the elite group in West Seattle. Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on how shared obstacles create bonds that last.
• Back in Nature: A Work Retreat About Expansion and Letting Go : Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on a work retreat where the group coworked, had honest conversations, and practiced releasing what no longer served them.
• Disappearing Rainbows : Cheryl Ann Barnes writes about noticing four rainbows while training for a triathlon, and how her father phrase became a reminder to stay present.
• My Top 3 Favorite Hikes (Thus Far!) : Cheryl Ann Barnes shares three favorite hikes: Snake River Trail in Hells Canyon, Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park, and Colchuck Lake in the Cascades.
• The World I Never Knew – Exploring the Enchantments : Cheryl Ann Barnes recounts her 2022 trip to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington, a landscape she never imagined existing hours from her Idaho home.
• When You’re Captured By The West, You’re Finally Free : During the pandemic, Cheryl Ann Barnes gave up drinking, started training daily, and chose North Idaho for a fresh start near mountains and trails.
• Run the Extra Mile : Cheryl Ann Barnes joins a near-stranger for the Ragnar Northwest Passage 200-mile relay and finds a teammate who feels like a sister from a previous life.

Reflections

Personal essays on leaving a safe path and rebuilding — the public-health layoff that became a beginning, and a series on what our technology and data are quietly selling back to us.

• From Layoff to Leap: How Losing My Job 3 Days After Turning 30 Changed Everything : Three days after my 30th birthday, I was laid off. And now, 31 is coming around the corner. When I turned 30, I still had a government job. I continued…
• Nine Months After My Public Health Layoff, I Finally Understand What Went Wrong : Nine months after leaving government, Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on diluted collaboration and what she wishes she had done differently inside the system.
• Getting Laid Off Was the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me : Cheryl Ann Barnes shares how a sudden layoff with no send-off forced her to stop giving energy to institutions and start building something she owns.
• The Quiet Collapse of a Safe Path : Cheryl Ann Barnes reflects on finishing a public health master's during COVID, believing the formula would protect her, and what happened when it did not.
• Life. Sold Back To Us. : Cheryl Ann Barnes questions growing reliance on wearables and smart devices to manage health, asking what we trade when we outsource our intuition.
• The Monster We Let In : Cheryl Ann Barnes traces how technological convenience quietly eroded connection until isolation was built by our own hands under the illusion of freedom.