Joy Hollingsworth (born March 15, 1984) is an American politician, businessperson, and former basketball player. She is a member of the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-lar ...

from the 3rd district, having been elected in 2023. She played basketball at the college level for the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

and later the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. She served as an assistant coach at

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate prog ...

. Hollingsworth is now part of her family's local

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

business, The Hollingsworth Cannabis Company (THC Co.), which is based in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Early life and basketball career

Hollingsworth's paternal grandmother, Dorothy Hollingsworth, was a prominent educator and civil rights activist in Seattle. Her uncle is former

Sonics Sonic or Sonics may refer to: Companies *Sonic Drive-In, an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain *Sonic (ISP), an Internet provider and CLEC, serving more than 100 California communities *Sonic Foundry, a computer software company whic ...

player,

Bruce Seals Bruce A. Seals (June 18, 1953 – December 15, 2020) was an American basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Seals was drafted in the first round by the Utah Stars, playing t ...

. Hollingsworth's mother, Rhonda, moved from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

to be closer to her brother, Bruce. Joy Hollingsworth was born in Seattle on March 15, 1984. Hollingsworth played for

Seattle Prep Seattle Preparatory School, popularly known as Seattle Prep, is a private, Jesuit high school located on Capitol Hill (Seattle), Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Curriculum Students generally pursue a traditional four-yea ...

and led the basketball team to their first girls state title in 2002. She started playing

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at the

and then later transferred to the

after two years. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2007 from the University of Arizona and in 2009, earned a Masters in Education in Intercollegiate Athletics Leadership from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Before the 2009–2010 basketball season, she was hired as the assistant women's basketball coach at

. Hollingsworth also played basketball in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, and has written for ''

ESPN The Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998. Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year i ...

''.

San Francisco and Arizona statistics

Source

Post-basketball

Hollingsworth left coaching in 2012. In 2013, Hollingsworth and her family went into the

business, growing plants for their own business, the Hollingsworth Cannabis Company (THC Co.), located in

Shelton Shelton may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire *Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire *Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfor ...

. Hollingsworth's job in the family business is to oversee processing. Their marijuana farm has around 9,000 plants.

Political career

In January 2023, Hollingsworth announced that she would be running for

representing the District 3 in a seat being vacated by

Kshama Sawant Kshama Sawant (; born October 17, 1973) is an Indian-American politician and economist who has served on the Seattle City Council since 2014. She is a member of Socialist Alternative (United States), Socialist Alternative, the first and only mem ...

. She earned the most votes in the primary election and advanced alongside Alex Hudson, who Hollingsworth defeated in the general election. Hollingsworth took office on January 2, 2024.

References

External links

Joy Hollingsworth on KCRW

Joy for Seattle, District 3 City Council campaign site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollingsworth, Joy 1984 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Seattle Businesspeople in the cannabis industry Seattle University faculty Businesspeople from Seattle University of Arizona alumni University of San Francisco alumni American women academics 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women Seattle City Council members Women city councillors in Washington (state) 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians African-American women in politics