Emily Parkhurst

Emily Parkhurst is the founder and CEO of Formidable, a media and membership company aimed at high-level women leaders. She has 20 years of media experience including time as the head of content for national media startup 6AM City where she launched 20 daily news publications, hired more than 100 journalists, and tripled the business in three years. She also spent a decade at the Puget Sound Business Journal, where she served as a reporter, managing editor, editor in chief and then publisher and president. Under her editorial leadership, the PSBJ won multiple national awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and SABEW, and during her time as publisher she grew the business to become one of the largest business journals in the country. Before that, Emily was a reporter in her home state of Maine, where she covered education and government and won the SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Reporting for her series on the therapeutic restraint of Maine's public school children. Emily also served as the interim president of Cornish College of the Arts in 2024 and 2025, negotiating the deal to merge the college with Seattle University, and currently serves as the special advisor to the president of Seattle University. In her spare time, she plays with several local orchestras and serves on the board of the Northwest Mahler Festival.