Mayor Kevin Schilling

Mayor of Burien, WA

Kevin Schilling is proud to be a fourth generation Washingtonian, third generation King County resident, second generation graduate of the Highline School District (Aviation High School) and St. Francis of Assisi.  

His grandfather and father both worked for Boeing as a machinist and engineer, respectively, for 35 years each. His mother balanced working and raising her twins.  

Schilling started working at 13 as a student employee of the Highline Performing Arts Center. He then bussed tables and washed dishes at 909 Coffee and Wine and Mick Kelley's Irish Pub.  

Schilling started higher education at South Seattle Community College full-time, where he also worked full-time as a grocery store clerk at PCC. He then took a year to teach English in far western rural Nepal, and backpack around India.  

Upon returning home after that year, he landed a job with State Representative Kathy Haigh, and then worked as a legislative aide to the Governor.  From there, he attended Washington State University, completing his bachelor's degree summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and as a Top Ten Senior. He worked three jobs and earned academic scholarships to pay for school.  

From there, Schilling attended a Dual Masters Program at Columbia University in New York City and the London School of Economics where he focused his studies on the history of economic policies and global implications of the U.S.   

He returned home in 2019 to work at his grade school alma mater, St. Francis of Assisi, and run for city council. He was elected in 2019 to his first term.  

During his first term, Schilling worked to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by getting programs passed to address internet access for low-income families, voting against tax increases during the pandemic, joining AmeriCorps to deliver meals to low-income families, push for the co-responder police model, and push for more housing and economic development.  During this time, Schilling completed the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive in State and Local Government Program.  

Schilling is excited to get to work in a second term after the voters returned him for four more years in the 2023 election. He will be focusing on commercial economic development to boost economic activity, increasing the housing supply, regional partnerships with the Port of Seattle, and overall government accountability for homelessness services, drug addiction, and mental health service access.