A Career Spent Shaping the Puget Sound

The University of Washington has always been a part of Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine’s life. His grandfather and great uncle were recruited to play Husky football. His parents met as UW undergrads and married at the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority house before graduating. Constantine was eight years old when he started attending Husky football games with his father. So when it was time to apply to colleges, the choice was clear.

“I applied only to the UW,” he says.

Constantine went on to earn three UW degrees: a BA in political science (1985), a law degree (JD, 1989), and a master’s in urban planning ( MUP, 1992). And, like his parents, he met his future wife, Shirley, while both were undergraduates working at KCMU (now KEXP), the UW radio station. (Shirley topped Dow’s three UW degrees with four of her own.)

In the years since graduating, Constantine has worked as an attorney, a Washington state representative and senator, a King County Council member, and four terms as King County Executive before becoming CEO of Sound Transit last year. He’s also bringing his deep knowledge of the region back to the University as a UW Regent, with a six-year appointment that began in October 2025.

“I like to think that my grandfather, who started school at the UW more than a century ago now, would be proud,” he says.

Constantine’s long political career began with a stint as student body president at Seattle’s West Seattle High School. When he arrived at the UW, he had the option to choose a major immediately, so he checked the box for political science. “I didn’t exactly know what it was, but it sounded right,” he says.

A Department of Political Science internship in Olympia, working with State Senator Phil Talmadge, provided more clarity. Constantine first connected with Senator Talmadge in a most unorthodox way.

“I was driving home from my bartending job downtown and saw this guy in front me at a red light who I recognized as being our state senator,” Constantine says. “He also had been student body president at my high school 11 years before me. So I knocked on his car window in the middle of the night, which was probably not well-advised, and shook his hand and said hi. He was enthusiastic to meet someone who actually recognized him and suggested that I sign up for an internship. That internship was probably the single experience that contributed the most to me eventually going into politics.”

During the internship, Talmadge encouraged Constantine to meet people in various roles around the legislature and learn about their work. That networking proved invaluable in the years that followed. “I met folks whose campaigns I later worked on, folks who were able to help me when I decided to run for office, and folks working on issues that I cared about,” says Constantine.

Despite that deep dive into politics, Constantine was not single-minded as a UW undergraduate. He took courses in everything from comparative literature to philosophy to speech communication, eager to learn about society from multiple perspectives. He followed his BA with a law degree as another opportunity to “peel back the layers of our society and understand how the mechanics underneath everything work.” At the same time, he began working toward an urban planning degree to complement his law studies.  All of Constantine’s degrees have informed his work.

After law school, Constantine opened a private law practice but never strayed far from politics. He served as chair of the 34^th District Democrats and worked as an aide for King County Council member Greg Nickels before running for office himself. He was elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1996, serving two terms before moving briefly to the Washington Senate and then the King County Council. After nearly eight years on the Council, he was elected King County Executive in 2009. He would become the longest-serving executive in King County history, serving four terms.

“The world is constantly handing us new challenges, whether it’s a financial meltdown or global warming or a global pandemic, and as county executive, you’re right in the middle of these things,” he says. “It’s a fascinating job.”

The projects Constantine led as King County Executive were wide-ranging, from public health to environmental protection to public safety. They included partnering with the federal government on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, working with the Sammamish tribe to save kokanee salmon from extinction, championing humane animal care, and launching a major initiative to clean up the waterways of King County. And, from the start, there have been public transportation projects.

Constantine’s interest in transportation dates back to his time in the Washington House of Representatives, where he served on the transportation committee. Later, as King County Executive, he twice chaired the Sound Transit board and oversaw the building and expansion of a high-capacity transit system that includes buses, the Sounder commuter train, and the Puget Sound region’s light rail system. Transportation, he says, impacts society in so many ways.  

“The transportation you choose to build defines the land use you will live with. It dramatically impacts the quality of life around here,” Constantine explains. In planning regional transit systems, “we are actually laying down the blueprint for what this place will be 50 and 100 years from now.”

Constantine resigned as King County Executive in 2025 to become CEO of Sound Transit, with a singular focus on transportation. The agency’s light rail system has seen many changes in the past two years, including an expansion north to Lynnwood, south to Federal Way, east to Redmond, and most recently across Lake Washington.

The next phase of the expansion, Sound Transit 3, will bring light rail to many more communities, including West Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett. An expansion to Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood is also planned, with an extended design phase due to the complexity and cost of the project, which involves extensive tunneling under downtown Seattle. The plan also includes a new all-electric bus rapid transit system. It’s a big project, but Constantine is excited for the challenges ahead.

“As a policymaker and former board member of Sound Transit and chair of the board, I thought I would’ve known most everything [about transit], but it turns out there’s a lot more to know,” he says. “It is enjoyable to dig deeper into capital expansion and operations and finance and customer experience and be able to affect those things more directly as the CEO.”

Constantine anticipates a similar learning curve as a new UW Regent. He’s been involved with the University since childhood — as a sports fan, student, alumnus, and community partner on regional projects — but he knows there’s more to learn.  

“I am so impressed with my fellow regents and I’m really looking forward to learning more, digging in deeper, becoming an expert in a few areas so that I can contribute in my time on the board,” he says. “This university is the single most important institution in our community. It is at the heart of our economic life and our cultural life. To be entrusted with the stewardship of the institution is the honor of a lifetime.”

Whether Constantine’s 12-year-old daughter will continue the family tradition as a fourth-generation Husky remains to be seen. But, Constantine says, “she has taken to dyeing her hair interesting colors, and I believe I have prevailed upon her to choose purple for autumn.”  He quickly adds, “As long as she’s not a Duck, I’m fine with whatever she decides.”