FMS Global Strategies, LLC

10/13/2026

The value of a relationship is revealed in what it makes possible.

September’s work at FMS Global Strategies reflects the discipline behind effective advocacy: listening closely, understanding who has authority to act, and keeping community priorities visible as decisions take shape.

For a small business, timely payment can determine whether it can cover payroll and take on its next contract. For a family, housing costs affect what remains for food, transportation, and childcare. For a community organization, public investment can strengthen its ability to serve. These are the practical stakes behind the policy conversations.

Our role is to connect those realities with the people shaping legislation, budgets, and funding priorities. That requires preparation, trusted relationships, and consistent follow-through. Access creates an opening. What we do with it determines its value.

As the firm grows, we carry that standard into every engagement. We build relationships with purpose, advocate with accurate information, and keep the needs of our clients and communities at the center of our strategy.

We bring people together to advance decisions that support stronger businesses, more stable households, and communities with greater opportunity to thrive.

10/13/2026

Your hair should never stand between you and opportunity.

Representative Melanie Morgan sponsored Washington’s CROWN Act, signed into law in March 2020. It strengthened protections against racial discrimination involving hair texture and protective hairstyles, including braids, locs, twists, and afros.

For Black women, men, and children, these protections carry a clear message: how we wear our hair does not diminish our ability, professionalism, or worth.

At FMS Global Strategies, we recognize the importance of turning dignity into enforceable protections. Representative Morgan helped move that principle into law.

This week, we celebrate her leadership in protecting the freedom to show up as ourselves.

10/12/2026

ROOTED, RISING, REVOLUTION
BYRD BARR PLACE’S LEGACY IN MOTION GALA

Saturday evening, Byrd Barr Place brought us together to celebrate more than 60 years of service, honor Black leadership, and invest in our community’s future.

Rooted in Seattle’s Central District, Byrd Barr Place has helped generations of families access food, energy assistance, housing stability, and financial empowerment. Its legacy lives in the people it serves.

Rising requires leadership, and Dr. Angela Griffin deserves her flowers. Thank you for honoring this institution’s history while carrying its mission forward with purpose. Your leadership deserves our recognition, investment, and support.

Watching Loria come down from the YMCA to pause and applaud Dr. Griffin captured everything I want to see from Black leadership. We show up for one another. We celebrate one another. We recognize that our community rises when we rise together. That is unity in action.

Revolution grows through that unity—and through our commitment to sustain the institutions that sustain us.

Congratulations to the Gala’s distinguished honorees:

Deaunte Damper — Community in Motion Award

Representative Kristine Reeves — Roberta Byrd Barr Award

Jazmyn Scott of ARTE NOIR — Organizational Excellence Award

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s fireside conversation offered powerful reflection on race, history, justice, and our responsibility to future generations.

FMS Global Strategies was honored to sponsor the Gala and host a table with Delta Dental of Washington.

To Dr. Griffin, the board, staff, volunteers, and supporters: thank you for a beautiful celebration and your continued service to our community.

Rooted, Rising, Revolution. This is how we keep legacy in motion—together.

Paula Fillmore-Sardinas
President & CEO | FMS Global Strategies

10/12/2026

At FMS Global Strategies, Indigenous Peoples’ Day calls us to hold honor and grief together. We celebrate Indigenous cultures and leadership while confronting the taking of land, broken treaties, and decisions that continue to affect Native people and Tribal Nations.

As a Black-owned public affairs firm, we know the distance between being acknowledged and having power. Black communities have seen institutions praise our contributions while leaving us out of decisions about funding, development, and our future. That experience informs our solidarity, but our histories and rights are distinct. Tribal Nations are sovereign governments. Their authority predates the United States, and treaty rights are obligations that public institutions must honor.

That distinction matters in our work. A Tribal government must have a voice before a policy is written, a budget is settled, or a project affecting its people or lands moves forward. Its priorities must shape the outcome, with commitments carried through to funding and implementation.

Our advocacy for Black communities is grounded in the belief that public systems must answer to the people they affect. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we bring that same insistence on accountability to our support for Tribal sovereignty, while respecting Tribal Nations' authority to speak and decide for themselves.

Recognition has meaning when it changes decisions.

10/10/2026

Mental health systems cannot serve our communities when the people most affected are discussed but not heard.

The data tells us we have work to do. About 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression, yet too many women still lack access to timely, culturally responsive care. For Black, Brown, immigrant, and historically underserved communities, barriers including cost, stigma, access, and a shortage of culturally responsive providers continue to shape outcomes.

This is why being data-driven matters.

Data shows us where the gaps are. Lived experience helps us understand why they exist. And community voices help us create solutions that work.

At FMS Global Strategies, we believe meaningful mental health equity requires accessible care, culturally responsive support, sustained investment, and accountability.

This World Mental Health Day, let's listen to women, follow the data, and turn what we learn into action.

Real voices deserve real influence.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Su***de & Crisis Lifeline.

10/09/2026

In America, we all get due process. ICE cannot just hold court on the streets. The NY Mayor is taking a stand.

10/09/2026

Oh, how I grew up loving this MAN! 🧡💙

I lived in Chicago, had a child born there, and have visited five times in 2026 alone. That city holds a special place in my heart, and Coach Mike Ditka will always be part of its magic.

His fire, his grit, his unmistakable presence—you could feel his passion for the game. He gave generations of Bears fans something to celebrate and memories we will carry for a lifetime. Mike was a LEGEND, and remembering him brings back a piece of my childhood.

My heart is with his family, his loved ones, and the city that loved him so deeply.

Rest peacefully, Coach. Thank you for the memories and the joy. You will always be “Da Coach.” 🐻🧡💙

10/08/2026

Today is Latina Equal Pay Day.

It marks how far into 2026 a Latina working full-time, year-round has had to work to earn what a White, non-Hispanic man was paid by the end of 2025. Nine months and eight days.

I do not write about this as an observer. I am a woman of Black and Latina heritage. I built a firm from the ground up. I am a CEO who sets salaries and signs paychecks, and I have spent more than thirty years in the rooms where wage policy gets written – across fifteen states and four Presidential Administrations. I know exactly how these numbers are made, and I know exactly who is in the room when they are.

Here is where we stand. For every dollar paid to a White, non-Hispanic man working full-time, year-round:

White, non-Hispanic women – 79 cents.
Black women – 65 cents.
Latinas – 58 cents.
As a Black woman and a Latina, both of those last two numbers are mine. And I reject the premise behind them. Fifty-eight cents is not a measure of our ambition, our education, our talent, or our work ethic. It is a measure of what the systems we work inside have decided our labor is worth – and that is a policy choice, made by people, that can be unmade by people.

That gap does not stay on a paycheck. It follows a Latina into her mortgage, her children’s education, her retirement, and the capital she would otherwise invest in her own business. Over a career it compounds into hundreds of thousands of dollars that never reach her family or her community. Our economy pays for that loss too.

So I did what I tell my clients to do. I went through U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell’s constituent process and put my support for the Paycheck Fairness Act on the record. Her office responded, and I intend to keep that conversation going. The Paycheck Fairness Act closes the loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, restricts reliance on salary history, and protects workers who discuss their pay. Those are the provisions that move a number like 58 cents – not statements of principle.

This is the work of FMS Global Strategies: sound policy, disciplined advocacy, and relationships with elected leaders on both sides of the aisle that are built to last longer than one bill. Fair pay is good for women, good for families, and good for business – and I say that as a woman who runs one.

Latinas deserve to be recognized, respected, and paid the full value of our work. Not a portion of it. All of it.

Equal work deserves equal pay.

Paula Fillmore-Sardinas
President & CEO
FMS Global Strategies, LLC

10/07/2026

We are so honored..🔥🔥🔥🔥

At this year's 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, PSBJ is proud to welcome Emmanuel (Manny) Bautista, P.E., President & CEO of Blue Trident, LLC; Jason Childs, President & CEO of Saltchuk Marine; and Paula Fillmore-Sardinas, President & CEO of FMS Global Strategies, to the stage for our exclusive CEO panel. Hear from these trailblazing executives in a discussion about what's been driving their company's explosive growth and how they have managed to soar to the top.

Learn more about what to expect during this action-packed afternoon—including the live ranking reveal—here: https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/event/172276/2026/100-fastestgrowing-private-companies!

Thank you to our event sponsors:
• Research Partner - Premera Blue Cross
• Silver Sponsor - Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson P.S.
• Bronze Sponsor - PwC

10/07/2026

Ballots are arriving in your mailbox next week! We've endorsed three new candidates to join the state legislature:
✅ David Berg
✅ Jenn Marie Strickling
✅ Patrick Stickney

Vote to re-elect:
✅ Mari Leavitt
✅Laurie Jinkins