Karen Marshall International Trade Alliance Director Takes A Global View Of Spokanes’s Potential

Spokane almost disappeared from the map last year.

When budget constraints forced the city to close its international affairs office, the area lost the focal point for its international trade activity.

The U.S. Department of Commerce had already folded up its Spokane shop, instead making the city just one stop on a circuit based in the Tri-Cities.

Karen Marshall, an assistant in the city office, recalled the British consul from Seattle saying “You guys don’t care about international activities, do you?”

She has worked hard for the last year to prove that’s not true.

Now the interim director of the Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance, Marshall has been at the core of a group of business and government leaders who are rebuilding the city’s image in the close-knit community of world traders in the Northwest.

Last month, the group scored a coup with the visit of Kuh Wo Park, South Korea’s ambassador to the United States. It was the first visit to Spokane by a foreign dignitary of that rank in at least a decade.

Marshall said the alliance, formally launched in March, has already hosted other delegations from foreign countries, assisted area companies weighing export opportunities, and restored and expanded ties with other government and business groups fostering international trade.

The Department of Commerce, at the direction of Regional Director Lisa Kjaer, soon will move its Eastern Washington office back to Spokane.

“She believes in our program,” Marshall said.

Marshall wandered into international affairs almost as haphazardly as Columbus happened upon the New World.

The 1982 graduate of Washington State University had taken a degree in criminal justice and, after an internship in the office of Spokane County Superior Court, started work in District Court handling criminal case files.

“I loved the law. I loved the criminal aspect of it,” she said.

Marshall said she also met her future husband at the county Courthouse. The Spokane County Sheriff’s detective was waiting to testify.

She thought he was a defendant.

Marshall, meanwhile, took night courses in paralegal work for a few years, then moved to City Hall in 1985 to take a job as legal secretary.

For two years, she assisted two city attorneys and acted as a collections officer who took city damage claims to Small Claims Court.

A shift to paralegal work in the private sector lasted only seven months, after which, Marshall said, “I stayed home and played mommy” to the couple’s 3-year-old daughter.

By August 1990, she was back in City Hall, this time as a half-time worker in the international affairs office. For a year, the mayor’s office took the rest of her time.

Marshall said she enjoyed representing the city and getting the feel for the value of following protocols.

She ended up working in the international affairs office for five years, mostly full time. She praises former director Bob Scott for including her in all aspects of the office’s operations and giving her wide latitude.

But the budget pressures were constant.

“We never knew if we were going to be around,” Marshall said.

Anticipating the department’s demise, business leaders led by John Wagner at Seafirst Bank and Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce President Rich Hadley put together plans for the alliance and put Marshall under contract for three months to handle the transition from City Hall to the chamber’s building on West Riverside.

Funding has come from the city, the Momentum business-promotion group, and major area employers. The start was bare-bones.

“I didn’t have a desk. I didn’t have a phone. I had nothing,” she recalled.

But, helped by interns, Marshall said phone lines were transferred to the chamber office, and the alliance struggled to its feet.

“It’s turned out quite well,” said Marshall, who had her contract extended while the alliance board ponders the hiring of a permanent director.

Marshall said she is not sure that she wants a job with such a high profile.

“I am happy doing what I am doing now,” she said, noting that she works off office stress by running and doing woodworking.

Marshall said she has concentrated on building the alliance’s credibility with other trade agencies by following through on every commitment she makes.

One breakdown, she said, and a reputation is undone.

“If I say I’m going to do something, I do my best to get it done,” Marshall said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo