Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington | Fall 2017
Conservation Scholars Diversifying the environmental workforce
v
FALL 2017
FOUNDED 2004
Published by the UW Alumni Association
P U B LI S HE D B Y T HE U W AL U MNI A S S O C IA T ION IN PAR T NER S HI P W I T H T HE U W O F F I C E O F MINORI T Y A F FAIR S & D IVER S I T Y
viewpoint
:: Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington
in partnership with
point of v ie w
the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
Nurturing environment
4311 11th Ave. NE, Suite 220 Box 354989 Phone: 206-543-0540 Fax: 206-685-0611 Email: vwpoint@uw.edu Viewpoint on the Web: UWalum.com/viewpoint
viewpoint STA F F Paul Rucker P U BLIS HER
Andrea Otanez GU EST EDIT OR
Hannelore Sudermann M A N A GING EDIT OR
Carol Nakagawa A R T D IRECT OR
viewpoint A D VI S ORY C OMMI T T EE Paul Rucker, ’95, ’02 Associate Vice President Alumni and Constituent Relations, Chair
Rickey Hall Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity Chief Diversity Officer
Eleanor J. Lee, ’00, ’05 Communications Specialist UW Graduate School
Tamara Leonard Associate Director Center for Global Studies Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
Erin Rowley Director for Communications Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
Rhonda Smith, ’02 Associate Director for Major Gifts Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
E
nvironmental justice issues throughout the country should concern everyone, including those of us in higher education. From the water crisis in Flint, Mich., to the Dakota Access Pipeline, these issues are especially devastating to low-income communities and communities of color. As a public institution with a mission of service to all, the University of Washington has a responsibility to make an impact. Equipping the next generation of environmental leaders Rickey Hall visits with high school seniors at a Shades of Purple with the skills to recognize and comconference on the UW campus in July. bat these areas of injustice is critical. Encouraging and supporting students from diverse backgrounds to pursue environmental careers is just as In This Issue critical. We will find the best solutions to these problems only 3 Guest editor when we engage a broad range of perspectives and insight. 4 Painter Arely Morales This begins with the efforts to attract a talented and di6 Cover story verse student population to the UW. Through our programs §§ Conservation Scholars and outreach activities, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diver10 Viewpoint Q&A sity (OMA&D) works tirelessly to expand pathways to the UW §§ Jessica Hernandez for students from underrepresented minority, first-generation and low-income backgrounds. Just one example is the annual 11 Book Ends §§ LeiLani Nishime Shades of Purple summer conferences held on campus and throughout the state for rising high school seniors. We show 12 Race & Equity update them what is possible to achieve when they attend the UW 12 Viewpoint Interview and how they, too, can come here and make a difference. §§ Polly Olsen It is incredible to consider how long our work has been 14 Artist Zhi Lin taking place: In 2018 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of 14 Viewpoint memorials OMA&D. This is an important milestone not just for our office, 15 Donor profile but the entire University. We hope to see many of you on campus as we commemorate this extraordinary occasion.
matt h a g en
Seattle, WA 98195-4989
On the Cover
Rickey Hall Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity Chief Diversity Officer
A UW/Doris Duke Conservation Scholar holds a camas bulb unearthed from a conservation nursery prairie. See the story on Page 6. —Photo by Betty Udesen
2
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
Guest editor Andrea Otanez
I
t has been a summer to remember, or forget. Deadly racial violence met with equivocation. Communities in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean were devastated after monster hurricanes. Days of burning forests drifted into days of urban skies clogged with ash and smoke, again reminding us of our intertwined fates. Some of our most talented students, staff and alumni have been threatened with deportation. We can fold or we can confront. And of course we will do the latter across University of Washington campuses, as evidenced by the stories featured within this edition of Viewpoint, focused this time on the environment. Because of my interests, I quickly agreed when Managing Editor Hannelore Sudermann proposed the topic last spring. I come from a family of immigrant railroad workers who toiled on desert salt flats. I grew up on the trails of national parks and forests, and I have taught students about Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. As an environment editor at The Seattle Times, I led a team that covered the Makah whale hunt of 1999, salmon recovery, an energy crisis or two, deadly wildfires. But with this topic I was particularly eager as a UW faculty member to learn more about how and where students of color are being ushered into environmental fields. And also how and where the University might be elevating faculty and staff of color working at the intersections of difference, equity, ecology, conservation and natural resources. Far more examples emerged than we could fit into multiple issues of the magazine, let alone one features section. At the Burke Museum, Polly Olsen is that institution’s first tribal liaison. Her education at the UW in the early 1990s showed her where Native voices were missing, but also led her to other tribal-advocacy roles at the University since graduating with a degree in cultural anthropology in 1994. At the Burke she will strengthen bonds between the museum and tribes, whose artifacts the museum houses, studies and shares
for educational purposes. Jessica Hernandez, a doctoral student in environmental and forest sciences, likewise identified a lack and stepped up to create and teach a class on environmental injustice from the points of view of people of color. MFA painter Arely Morales explains the artistic awakening she experienced at the UW—an awakening that resulted in departmental awards and three stunning portraits of Latino laborers in their work environments. Morales is a DACA recipient who, like the subjects of her paintings, will not be consigned to invisibility. LeiLani Nishime, assistant professor of communication, is co-editing a collection of interdisciplinary essays on race and ecology. The essays, and a conference last spring built around the collection, draw from critical ethnic-studies theory and other fields in an effort to break down barriers between disciplines and populations working on environmental representations and concerns. In our Conservation Scholars cover story, readers will learn about a national program housed at the UW that leads undergraduates through two years of environmental field studies. The goal? To help bring along a generation of scholars to address environmental issues and injustices. The program shares pathways so the young scholars can blaze new ones wherever they choose. As in so many aspects of U.S. society, people of color are seemingly absent from leadership and rank-and-file positions in environmental work. But communities of color are not absent, either on the ground or in high-rises. Communities and individuals of color have long been the monitors of natural resources, sustainable practices and neighborhoods, where groups are working legislative and political avenues to keep their families safe and the public educated. It is absolutely true that the state—in all its manifestations—has failed environmental tests again and again, as Nishime says. But it is also true that leaders and scholars are doing the work for their communities and beyond. These stories bring a few of those efforts into focus. Andrea Otanez is a lecturer and the journalism-program coordinator in the Communication Department. A former assistant metro editor at The Seattle Times, she is also an associate director at the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity.
OMA&D turning 50 By Erin Rowley On May 20, 1968, members of the University of Washington Black Student Union and their supporters occupied the office of UW President Charles E. Odegaard. The student activists demanded an increase in minority student enrollment, an increase in minority faculty and administrators, and the establishment of a program in Black studies. The UW’s administration responded by appointing Charles Evans special assistant to the president. He established the Special Education Program, the forerunner of what became the Office of Minority Affairs in 1970. The new office had dedicated funds, a clear mandate and a visionary leader in Samuel E. Kelly, who assumed the role of vice president of minority affairs, also in 1970. It was the university’s first step toward establishing diversity as an institutional priority. The efforts to create what is now known as the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) provided students from underrepresented minority, first-generation and low-income backgrounds an infrastructure of support that included academic advising, instructional services, spaces for community building and recruiting activities. In subsequent years, those founding efforts inspired the creation of ethnic studies, gender studies and other academic programs focused on aspects of diversity. A great number of dedicated students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members have also worked alongside OMA&D to advance diversity, equity and inclusion at the UW since 1968. In 2018, OMA&D will recognize this legacy when it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Together, we will look back to honor our rich history and celebrate our impact. And together, we will look ahead—to imagine the possibilities for the next 50 years. From January through June, OMA&D will commemorate this milestone with a series of events. There will be several opportunities to engage with this special occasion, whether by attending events or sharing your own stories. Viewpoint Magazine’s spring 2018 issue will also feature an in-depth look at the anniversary. Learn more about how to get involved at uw.edu/omad/50th. the story of diversity at the UW
3
ARELY morales
MFA painter brings laborers into the limelight
By And re a Ota ne z
• p h o t o s b y b e tty ud e se n
I
n a white-walled studio lit by an opaque skylight, UW graduate student Arely Morales rendered her MFA education into three imposing, radiant por-
traits of Latino laborers whose humanity will not be overlooked.
In “Juan Jose, 2017” a man smudged with dirt and fatigue fixes a long stare as he balances a heaping tub of tomatoes on his shoulder. In “Guadalupe, 2017” a sweating woman with a solemn gaze stands against a background of orange and yellow Huichol designs, her dress echoing the patterns and colors. In “Arely, 2017” an apple picker standing between a basket of apples and a line of trees holds up her wrapped and bloodied hand, either covering or uncovering her face with a protective kerchief. A Mexican-sky blue and each subject’s unapologetic gaze tie the 5-foot-by-5-foot paintings together. They are stunning statements about Mexican and Central American people who migrate north to work in grueling environments. Especially enveloping is the apple picker, for whom the artist used her own likeness. She has never been a farmworker but she is a Mexican immigrant—a DACA student in the era of Trump—who honed her artistic voice at the UW by telling the stories of people from Latino cultures. “With all of them I wanted them to stare right at the viewer,” Morales said in an interview at the Henry Art Gallery, where her paintings hung during the MFA exhibit last spring. “My intent was for them to confront whoever was going to see them. To become more visible and not shy away.” Whether the stare is wanted or not, she said, “I feel like something begins to happen when someone is looking at someone. I want these workers to be more visible. I want people to know them.” The striking portraits represent two years of transformation for the 27-year-old artist whose work moved from literal to symbolic, dark to bright (think Caravaggio to Kehinde Wiley) and from culturally nostalgic to socially pointed. UW Professor Zhi Lin, whose own recent artwork cen-
4
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
Arely Morales, a fine arts graduate student shown in her UW studio, took inspiration from Latino artists and a poet in developing her style. Three of her paintings, including the one behind her, hung in the MFA exhibit at the Henry Art Gallery last spring.
ters on reinserting Chinese railroad workers into the U.S. historical narrative, said Morales’ work is not politically militant, “because ‘militant’ becomes a poster.” But she came to the UW with something to say and left saying more, more clearly. “It’s not that she became politicized,” Lin said. “Society turned so political and really ugly. It wasn’t her choice. We must face it.” Morales graduated with honors from the School of Art + Art History + Design in spring, earning the department’s de Cillia Graduating with Excellence in Research award. She is now in Nacogdoches, Texas, teaching drawing at her undergraduate alma mater Stephen F. Austin State University. The paintings evoke the same emotions that compelled Morales to elevate her subjects in the first place, emotions fed especially by the work of Los Angeles-based artist Ramiro Gomez and the poetry of former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. Gomez uses life-size cutouts and stark paintings on cardboard to humanize specific laborers in specific locations. “He is so passionate about making these workers visible—I want to be like that. I want to add to that,” Morales said. “His work totally touches me. And in my work, I hope that feeling happens, too.” Lin turned Morales onto Herrera. The poem “Mexican Differences Mexican Similarities” moved the painter to tears: “You eat grapes we pick grapes You decorate Xmas trees we farm Xmas trees You eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day we raise the turkeys for Thanksgiving Day You sit at the table we serve the table” “Oh my gosh, it’s one of the best things that has happened to me in grad school,” she said of discovering the poems. “When I am reading them, I completely have a vision. I see the people he is talking about. I imagine what he’s talking about. He has that power. Not just knowledge—you can see it. “ Morales immigrated to Texas from Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, Mexico, when she
Morales used her own likeness in this painting of an orchard worker. Blue is a culturally significant color in her three paintings on display in the Henry Art Gallery last spring.
was 14. “Tlajomulco” is translated from the Nahuatl as “town in the corner,” but Morales said everyone there translates it as “town surrounded by mountains.” Seattle—distantly ringed by the Cascade Mountains to the east and the Olympics to the west—reminds her of her birthplace. The mountains and the rain. But she wasn’t always comfortable in Seattle, artistically or personally. “There were times when I was a little depressed and guess it reflected in what I was doing—my paintings were really dark and gray and I felt like I didn’t know who I was at some point,” she said. But then a trip to Texas during summer break helped lift the blinds. “It was a moment I needed to reconnect with who I am, and then these happened,” she said, pointing to the portraits. “That trip back home really helped me remember who I am.” From Lin’s perspective, frustration and discomfort are part of the process. In undergraduate art studies, students often gravitate to one or two people and hew closely to their teachings. “But here, coming to our campus, she learned this is a total open process,” Lin said. “It was kind of frustrating— she heard one thing, and then another and then another and another—six, seven or eight different directions—and then had to figure out how to put them together.” All faculty members teach the MFA students equally, according to Lin, and graduate-com-
mittee chairs rotate throughout the students’ two years. This has a pedagogical purpose: “Once they get out of school the world is so diverse, and how will they synthesize different points of view, how will they take punches and analyze praise?” Back home in Texas, Morales intends to continue her research in the fields and with workers in their environments. She’s also interested in exploring her own experiences with subtle and overt racism, perhaps a perilous endeavor in conservative Texas, especially compared to liberal Seattle. Here she found a receptive public for her work. “I am a little worried about how things will go in Texas,” she said as she was about to roll up her canvases for the journey back to Nacogdoches. Yet, as she summed up the key points that will propel her to the next phase of her life, she focused on what she has to offer her students, especially how to turn challenges into artistic, personal and professional growth. “I know more who I am today because I had to explain myself so many times to my professors,” Morales said. “I used to feel insecure about speaking English, but here I overcame the fear of being different. I am not a citizen, but I still can feel things and say things. “Knowing who you are helps you know what you are trying to do; it helps you defend yourself in the world.” the story of diversity at the UW
5
The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars program brings students of color to Washington to learn about natural resource conservation. Students collect seeds at a habitat restoration site in the south Puget Sound area.
Students of
nature
Changing the faces and future of conservation • B y HANNELORE S U D ERMANN
O
A western meadowlark perches in the prairie. Conservation Scholars are exploring its habitat.
6
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
ph otos by be tty ud e se n
ne morning in July, Sierra Campbell awoke in a tent and unzipped the flap to a view of mountain prairie bathed in sunlight. Though she’d been exploring Washington for weeks, the scene touched the UW sophomore from Fife in a way that reinforced her desire to make a difference in the environment. It was one of many impressions Campbell collected through the summer as she and a diverse group of undergraduates took a crash course in the region’s natural resources. At the start of the season, Campbell and UW classmate Hannah Wilson packed their backpacks and laced up their boots to join about 20 students from around the country for an eight-week intensive survey of the state, seeing industrial sites and wilderness ecosystems and meeting a range of people from park rangers to urban activists. They toured a Superfund site with the Du-
wamish River Cleanup Coalition and learned about grassroots efforts there to protect fish, wildlife and human health. They studied salmon and dams on the Skagit River, wandered through a landscape managed for thousands of years by the Quinault people, and visited exposed areas of the Elwha River that had been underwater behind a dam for more than a century. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funds the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars program at the UW and four other universities around the country with the goal of helping diversify the conservation workforce. The program, which is also supported by Wilberforce and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, was started in 2014 when it became clear that the environmental movement had made no strides in decades to address its lack of racial and gender diversity, a problem commonly known as the Green Ceiling. Simply Ü
UW students (from left) Sierra Campbell, Hannah Wilson and their fellow Conservation Scholars Auriane Benabou and BelĂŠn Rodriguez tour Violet Prairie Seed Farm.
Ăœ
the story of diversity at the UW
7
After spending eight weeks this summer exploring Washington’s landscapes and communities, UW student Campbell has a clearer idea of how she can pursue a career in she visits a site where fire was used to control invasive plant species.
A group of conservation scholars share a moment of bonding (left) before setting out to explore the prairie (above).
8
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
Ü
conservation. Here,
nature
put, no more than 12 percent of all employees in non-governmental organizations and foundations that work with natural resources could be described as ethnic minority or multiracial. While more than 35 percent of the U.S. population is people of color, the mainstream environmental movement—from individual volunteers to billion-dollar foundations—is predominantly white. At the same time, when it comes to natural resource and environmental problems, people of color are disproportionately affected. From what he’s seen, most conservation projects have been led by white professionals, says José Ochoa, a UW Ph.D. student in political science and one of the graduate teaching assistants with the program. With white faces and values in the forefront, people of color are pushed to the fringes, he says. “They are not apathetic when it comes to conservation. It’s just that it has been defined as a white issue.” Why? A recent Harvard University report surveyed nearly 200 nonprofits as well as governmental and major grantmaking organizations. It found that these groups claim to want to be more diverse, but have done little to remove the race and gender ceilings. The report cited unconscious bias, discrimination and insular recruiting as the key reasons organizations have failed to change. To counter this, the Doris Duke Conser-
José Ochoa, a UW Ph.D. student in political science, was a graduate teaching assistant with the conservation scholars. His doctoral research looks at power, privilege, identity and agency, and how people of color conceptualize the environment. vation Scholars Program works with students, charitable foundations, volunteer organizations and many other entities to foreground more voices and cultures. The student participants receive a $4,000 stipend each summer, room (sometimes in a tent) and board, and new natural and social science skills that will serve them in their careers to come. Professor Martha Groom (Ecology and Environmental Studies) is a cofounder and the principal investigator of the program, which is housed in the College of the Environment. “This year of the program really changed how I see myself in the environmental field,” says Campbell (Crow Nation), who grew up on the Puyallup Reservation. “I realized that as much as I enjoy doing research and being outside in that way, I really don’t want to do it for any long period of time.” Instead, she
Susan Waters, ’13, a rare species ecologist at the Center for Natural Lands Management, tells the scholars about the recovery of native butterflies and pollinators on a tour through the prairie habitat.
sees herself working more closely with communities addressing issues that directly affect them. “The students have a opportunities to engage with different landscapes, organizations and even different knowledge systems,” says Brett Ramey (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska), director of the UW’s Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program. “In all that diversity of experiences and perspectives the strongest solution-based action will come.” These students are the next generation of conservation leaders and the UW-based program is designed to help them develop perspectives and skill sets using what they learned about community identities, biodiversity and environmental justice here in the state of Washington. Next summer, in the second year of the program, Wilson, Campbell and their fellow scholars will return to work directly with environmental groups, tribes and communities. Their projects include studying the impacts of climate change on Mount Rainier’s ecosystems, performing stream monitoring on the Quinault Indian Nation, restoring native plants to the Elwha basin, and working on water quality in King County lakes. Wilson, a Bay Area resident, enrolled at the UW already knowing she wanted to study environmental science. “I grew up learning a lot about climate change, but it wasn’t really in terms of environmental justice,” she says. “I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to address.” Now, at the end of her first summer as a conservation scholar, she sees a much bigger picture. Hearing directly from communities about how climate change is affecting them honed her understanding. “I realized I want to do Superfund cleanup or work with a community through a problem they’re having,” she says. “I want to do both ecological restoration and community outreach.” And she will be able to do it with a knowledge of the region and a network of people that will serve her in ways she has yet to imagine. “I have never been to most places that we visited,” says Wilson. “But a few really resonated with me: the Quinault reservation, Mount St. Helens, Seattle’s South Park community. Seeing these places and being with the other students, you really feel like you’re not alone in this environmental movement.” the story of diversity at the UW
9
viewpoint
Q&A J essica H ernande z , ’ 1 7
Decolonizing the Environmental Discourse
J
the other classes in the school. But we were taking courses from Dr. Gino Aisenberg on oppression, transgression and microagression. We brought this idea to him. He helped get the graduate school to fund half of this course and talked to the College of the Environment about the other half.
essica Hernandez, ’17, a doctoral student in environmental and forest sciences, broke tradition in her department by creating a new course to teach her classmates about environmental injustice from the points of view of people of color. She titled
it “Decolonizing the Environmental Discourse.” Her experience with environmental injustice started in her childhood in her low-income Los Angeles neighborhood, where the air pollution was so bad, it exacerbated her asthma.
How do you decolonize the discourse of a subject like the environment?
Of the Ch’orti’ Nation of El Salvador and the Zapotec Nation and Yucateco Tribe in Mexico, her Indigenous background led to her master’s project researching how Indigenous peo-
The way I view decolonization is to give the voice to the voiceless, to the people who are doing the grassroots work out in their communities. My main goal was to bring those people to campus to speak on behalf of an issue. One week we focused on the rights of African Americans in Hurricane Katrina and Flint, Mich. I brought in a panel of black scholars. Every week, different people were invited to come in and tell their stories.
ple are addressing recent regional environmental-justice cases. She recently spoke with Hannelore Sudermann.
Why did you decide to study environmental science? I come from water nations, and I’ve learned a lot about the ocean from my family. I’ve always been interested in seeing how oceanography was taught in the Western academic sense. But I was also like any other undergraduate. I wanted to try out different things. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school. My immersion in the STEM programs at Berkeley was pushing me towards it.
How was the class received? In the first quarter, I taught the class in the School of the Environment and Forest Sciences, and there were a lot of graduate students. At first I was intimidated, but they wanted to hear the voices of the community members themselves. I think through the class we were able to explore how environmental justice is a term that means different things to different people. They gave me great reviews afterward.
What prompted you to create this class? In graduate school I listen to a lot of research projects involving Indigenous people but in most of the projects the voices of indigenous people are missing. One example is a talk I attended by someone who had done work in the Yucatán. They were talking about Indigenous people, and that was my tribe. But their information wasn’t correct. At the time I didn’t know how to call them out or call them in.
Since arriving at the UW in 2015, Hernandez has completed two master’s degrees. This year, as a doctoral student, she has a research fellowship for environmental justice from the National Science Foundation. Learn more at washington.edu/raceequity.
It was hard to get the class approved. Another student and I were told that there wasn’t funding for it and that it didn’t fit in with
10
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
CO URT ES Y O F JE SS ICA HERNAND EZ
What was the process of creating the class like?
book
ends
LeiLani Nishime: ‘Racial Ecologies’ B y Qu inn Russe l l B r o w n
B
y the time construction began on the Dakota Access Pipeline in summer 2016, the resistance had been organized for years. As early as 2014, Native American tribes concerned with the pipeline’s proximity to burial grounds and water sources had found allies in climate activists opposed to fossil-fuel infrastructure. The two groups converged on the contested land last year, and the tension reached a chaotic crescendo when security personnel attacked a group of Native demonstrators with guard dogs and pepper spray. Bulldozers eventually dug up the burial grounds, and soldiers cleared the encampments. Oil now flows beneath the land, but the implications of that standoff far exceed a single pipeline. The frontand-center struggle of Native tribes reinforced the fact that racial identity is at the heart of many of America’s most pressing environmental issues. “We can’t separate race from the environment, and in particular, from environmental degradation,” says LeiLani Nishime, an associate professor in the Department of Communication. Nishime is editing a book called “Racial Ecologies” that looks at environmental issues through the lenses of ethnic studies and the social sciences. “Racial Ecologies,” due out in 2018, is coedited by Kim D. Hester Williams, a professor in the English Department at Sonoma State University. The collection provides a counternarrative to common thinking about advocating for the earth. “One of the issues I have with the environmental movement right now is that it tends to be very universalizing,” Nishime says. “Problems with the environment are differentially distributed according to race, so our solutions have to account for race.” In other
words: The “we're all in this together” attitude can gloss over the reality that we don’t all share equal blame and face equal pain. In the past, Nishime has researched racial identity in the context of pop culture and contemporary art (a recent paper is titled “What Emma Stone and Bruno Mars can tell us about the future of Asian American media”). Now she joins a growing number of academics at the intersection of race and ecology. “It’s becoming almost impossible not to consider the environment,” she says, “because it’s such a pressing issue for a lot of people of color.” The reason Nishime is editing a collection, rather than writing her own book, is to build a community around the issue. Her first edited book, about Asian-American identity, forged a group of scholars that met up at conferences, shared papers and hosted panels. A major takeaway from “Racial Ecologies” is about our tendency to view environmental solutions as sweeping and grand, like the world coming together for the Paris Agreement. But Nishime says action has to happen at multiple levels—especially at the grassroots level, like
the pipeline resistance. Waiting on action from above takes the power out of your hands, she says, “and it also relies on the idea that the state is going to take care of things, and the state really hasn’t done such a good job at that so far.” The water crisis in Flint, Mich., a majority black city, provides a clear example of the state failing. A chapter in “Racial Ecologies” shares a story from elsewhere in Michigan, where urban farmers in Detroit bypassed the government and worked directly with local populations to address food deserts. Another chapter is about the Māori people of New Zealand and their fight against offshore drilling. Rather than swooping in from outside to save the day, big organizations like Greenpeace went directly to Māori leaders and asked what they could do to help. In the past, these two groups often organized separately—despite wanting the same thing. Dian Million, a UW associate professor of American Indian Studies, wrote a chapter in which she calls the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline a “heretofore-unimagined assemblage in solidarity.” Still, when asked about the environmental movement, she says it’s primarily white and too focused on nature in isolation, not in relation to people. “Their ideas about the environment portray a pristine landscape—out there, sans people,” Million says. “It doesn’t include the neighborhoods in which the oil refineries have been built, endangering people of color and their communities, people who weren’t able to defend themselves economically, or don’t have enough access to voice it.” With support from the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, Nishime hosted a “Racial Ecologies” conference at the UW in June. In addition to seminars and roundtable discussions, the conference featured an arts program. Million recited a poem, and undergrad Jasmmine Kaur Ramgotra performed a dance inspired by research about race and organizing. Likewise, the book ends on a creative note: with a chapter about sci-fi. “The argument,” says Nishime, “is that we can’t have a different type of future unless we can imagine it.”
the story of diversity at the UW
11
P oll y O lsen , ’ 9 4
Students leading for equity and inclusion
The Burke’s New Tribal Liaison Strengthens Ties For Museum
By Lei la ni L e w is • UW Diversity Communications
Race & Equity Initiative update
E
very spring, the UW School of Law’s Minority Law Students Association (MLSA) invites young people of color from area high schools, firstgeneration college students and transfer students to a dinner where they can explore whether law school is for them. The attendees meet students, faculty and other professionals from traditionally underrepresented communities to learn about applying to law school and what they might experience there. “This community dinner is designed for students who may not have parents or mentors to help them understand the application process or share experiences,” says Darius Izad, a third-year law student and the president of the MLSA. “This event introduces those students to different aspects of law practice, gives insights into resources they might not have known about, and shows them the potential for a future career.” This dinner is one of many student-led efforts at the University now supported in part by the UW’s Race & Equity Initiative (R&EI). A group of student advisers selects events designed to foster equity and inclusion in the student experience. In the 2016-2017 academic year, the group distributed funds for a variety of events including the Native Organization of Indigenous Scholars’ Symposium of Native Scholarship, the Evans School Student Interest Group’s POC Voices and Visions Awards Breakfast, and the Polynesian Student Alliance’s Poly Day. The community dinner performs important outreach work for the law school and the UW, helping draw students of color to a field that currently lacks racial diversity. “I’ve received emails from students who attended two years ago to say that the event inspired them to apply,” says Izad. After earning his own law degree in 2018, and with equity-minded leadership roles like leading the MLSA under his belt, Izad would like to become a career litigator in the criminal division of the Department of Justice or an attorney-adviser in the Department of State while simultaneously serving as a Judge Advocate General reserve in the Air Force. Whatever the future holds, his community work with the MLSA, as well as the work of similar student groups who received R&EI funding, will undoubtedly inspire the next generation of student leaders. Learn more about the Race & Equity Initiative at uw.edu/raceequity
12
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
COURTESY OF THE B URKE MUSEUM
Tribal elders and culture keepers examine a rare Coast Salish blanket at the Burke Museum. Polly Olsen, tribal liaison, left. BY HANNELORE S U D ERMANN
E
arly this summer, just a week into her new job as tribal liaison for the Burke Museum, Polly Olsen was already hard at work helping with the public announcement of the discovery of a rare Coast Salish blanket in the Burke’s collection. Students, faculty, museum patrons, tribal elders and culture-keepers poured into the museum for a viewing of a blanket that curators and researchers recently tested and found to be woven with hair from a dog (now extinct) that some tribal communities raised for making textiles. “Events like this are about discovery and then reaching out to communities and getting stories about how these blankets were used and how the materials were gathered,” says Olsen, a member of the Yakama Nation. On such occasions, the museum can be a hub for cultural conversations “where Native people can share the original knowledge and what I call the traditional original science.”
While she is new to the job, Olsen is a familiar face on campus and in the region’s Indigenous communities. In her 17 years working at the University, most recently as the director of community relations and development for the School of Social Work’s Indigenous Wellness Institute, she has brought Native expertise to campus and worked tirelessly at multicultural community building. As the UW’s lead representative for an advisory committee of tribal elders, she facilitated their involvement in the development of the - Intellectual House. “Part of the challenge of that job,” she says, “was to bring the elders to campus and help them see it as a welcoming place where they could belong and have effect.” Now, the first tribal liaison in the history of the Burke, Olsen will firm up existing connections and create new ones with tribal government officials, museum curators, elders, and cultural scholars and students so that tribes experience more
RON WU RZER
viewpoint
interview
access to the many cultural and historical items in the Burke’s collections. And when new gifts like artwork, garments, blankets and tools are donated by collectors, Olsen can serve as a consultant. In 1989, for the first time, the museum formally collaborated on an exhibit with tribes from around Washington. It was part of a broad effort to improve state-tribal relations under the Centennial Accord, a multi-government agreement adopted by the state of Washington and 26 tribes. Under the accord, the parties agree to recognize and respect the different governments, their sovereignty and their cultures and values. “We have had strong relationships with tribes for a very long time,” says Julie Stein, the Burke’s executive director. “Having a tribal liaison allows those relationships to deepen and for the museum to access the expertise of the descendant communities of the people who made the very ancient things.” Olsen, in some ways, has been preparing for a job like this since she enrolled at the UW in the early 1990s. She studied cultural anthropology and quickly realized a need for Native expertise, having had to learn about her culture from non-Natives. Since her time as a student, she has stepped into education and leadership roles both
on campus and off with health, youth and community-building efforts. In 2015, she left the UW for a job in Oklahoma as executive director of the Association of American Indian Physicians, but soon realized she missed her life in Washington. “We were thrilled when Polly applied to the position,” says Stein. “She knows the University, she knows higher education, she knows many of the Washington tribal communities and many of the elders.” As the museum’s lead employee for coordinating relationships with tribes and tribal museums, Olsen interacts with tribal officials, elders, leaders and staff in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Not only is she charged with helping Native communities understand the efforts of the museum, she also helps curators, scholars and students connect with Indigenous resources—be they people or museums. While many of the artifacts in the Burke’s collection are centuries old, they are part of a current culture, says Olsen. “Being in museums gives us the reputation that we are something of the past,” she says. “But we’re trying to show that this is a living experience.” Part of that involves bringing the sciences and knowledge of Indigenous people to the fore. “With kids, empowerment, identity and medicine—we [the tribal communities] are showing that we have good ways of working, that we are relevant.” Olsen arrives just as the museum is relocating from its 1960s-era home to a modern 13,000-square-foot structure prominently situated on 15th Ave. “As we move, there will be a lot of protocol and a lot of honoring that we need to do,” says Stein. In some cases, it’s challenging to know whether to go to a tribe’s government officials, its cultural officials or others. Olsen can help with that. One of the largest challenges the museum faces is representing the diversity of cultural beauty from around the state and nation, says Olsen. And in doing so, she adds, it should be saying to the tribal communities, “This is your museum, you are the culture-bearers.”
the story of diversity at the UW
13
Collection of Brenda and Jeff Atkin
Art and absence
I
B y N a nc y J o s e p h
n the 1860s, Chinese men poured into the United States by the thousands and helped to build the Transcontinental Railroad—dangerous work that cost many lives. Their stories are little known and rarely told. But one UW art professor has spent more than a decade researching their lives and remembering them through his artwork. Now the products of his work are on view at the Tacoma Art Museum in an exhibition titled “Zhi LIN, In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads.” “I don’t think our society studies history enough,” says Lin, who teaches painting and drawing at the Seattle campus. Using railroad payroll records, newspaper articles, photos and other historical documents, Lin
Zhi Lin, ‘Railway Tunnels on Donner Summit, California—A Rectification to Albert Bierstadt’s “Donner Lake from the Summit” ’ (1873), 2008/2015. studied what he could about the 24,000 Chinese workers who built the Central Pacific railroad. He also visited sites along the railroad’s route from California to Wyoming, many significant because of the lives that were lost. At Donner Pass, for example, the men suffered through the worst winter on record and many died in avalanches, tunnel collapses and from the cold. In other places, workers were killed placing dynamite along steep granite cliffs. Lin captured what he saw along the rail line with more than 60 watercolor paintings, many
in shades of gray. “They are intentionally muted and there are no people in them because I was trying to capture their absence,” says Lin. Absence is a theme throughout Lin’s artworks about Chinese immigrants. Despite the huge numbers of Chinese men who built the railroad, they are missing from historical photos or captured in the background only by chance. Lin hopes that through his artwork, museum visitors will gain some insight into the difficult journey of early Chinese immigrants and what it says about our country. “I want to affirm who we are as Americans and ask how we can prevent this from being repeated,” says Lin. “We’ve made progress, but it’s very easy for that to be reversed. I think art can play a role for activism and positive change.” “Zhi LIN: In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads” runs through Feb. 4, 2018, at the Tacoma Art Museum. For more information, visit tacomaartmuseum.org.
viewpoint memorials
14
Jeff Brotman, ’64, ’67
Herman Lujan
Donna Schaplow Kelly
James Rabina Cacabelos, ’84
One of the University’s greatest volunteers and most generous graduates, Jeff Brotman has made an immense impact on education and diversity. Among his many contributions, Brotman, as Costco executive chairman, launched the Costco Scholarship Fund in 2000 with CEO Jim Sinegal. The program was established to enhance both the UW and Seattle University’s efforts to increase the enrollment of underrepresented students on their campuses. Since then, it has provided financial support to approximately 1,400 high-achieving, underrepresented students at both universities. For their contributions to access and educational opportunity, Brotman and his wife, Susan, were presented the 2004 Charles E. Odegaard Award, the highest achievement in diversity at the University. Brotman was a UW Regent from 1998-2011, and chair of the board in 2004. He died Aug. 1 at age 74.
For more than 50 years, Herman Lujan was an educator and administrator, and worked for a decade as the UW’s third vice president for minority affairs. Lujan’s impact continues today through programs established during his tenure: Educational Talent Search, which promotes opportunities for low-income, firstgeneration collegebound students in eight Washington state school districts; and the Early Identification Program, which helps low-income, firstgeneration UW undergraduates prepare for success in graduate or professional school. Lujan died May 30 in Vallejo, Calif., at age 81.
Widow of Samuel E. Kelly, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s founding vice president, Donna Kelly was a champion for diversity in her own right. During her time as a personnel administrator for the UW in the 1970s, she helped facilitate the hiring process for many OMA staff members and was known for her dedication to recruiting women and people of color to the University’s workforce. She also attended many UW and OMA&D events over the years and was an ally for equal rights and education. She died April 3 at age 71.
Born and raised in Seattle, James Cacabelos attended the UW, where he was an EOP student and member of the Filipino Students Association. He graduated with a B.A. in Zoology in 1984. As a UW football season-ticket holder since 1976, the Tyee Club member regularly wore purple and always decorated his workspaces with memorabilia. He had a long and successful career within the Seattle-area tourism and hospitality industry, most recently as Regional Sales Manager for Pineapple Hospitality. While those he worked with valued him for his positive energy and many talents, he was even more of a blessing to his family and friends. Cacabelos died on July 25 at age 58.
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t
donor Inspired to support student success
Profile
By R hon d a S m i t h a nd E rin R o w l e y
ka ren orders
L
inda and Dan Jardine are each connected to the University of Washington in their own way. Linda, from Hawaii, has been a staff member with the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) since 1999. Dan, from Seattle, is an alumnus who graduated in 1982 with a BA from the College of Built Environments. But together, after experiencing the impact that OMA&D support programs have on the lives of students, they are bequesting 50 percent of their estate to – Intellectual House, the UW’s American Indian/Alaska Native longhouse facility. “Meeting brilliant OMA&D leaders like Emile Pitre [retired associate vice president] and Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange [former vice president and vice provost] has left a lasting impression of the positive change that can be accomplished with tireless dedication to expanding student opportunity,” says Dan. Attending the Multicultural Alumni Partnership breakfasts and Celebration dinners over the years also inspired the Jardines, especially as they learned about students who thrived with OMA&D support and now give
Dan and Linda Jardine, pictured on their front steps, are inspired by the stories of students and alumni. back to their professions and communities. “Hearing their stories,” adds Linda, “makes me want to help future students.” The Jardines felt compelled to support in particular for two reasons. They would like to continue to enhance a space on campus that speaks to the unique experience of American Indian/Alaska Native students and reinforces their place in the academic realm. They also want to honor the memory and contributions of the late
Julian Argel (a member of the Tsimshian and Haida tribes). Argel was an 18-year OMA&D staff member who served as director of Educational Talent Search and assistant to the vice president on Native American affairs. “In some small but tangible way, we hope to contribute to the inspiring stories of students overcoming adversity to find their path at the UW and achieve success,” says Dan. “In so doing, maybe even change the face of success in our country.”
✂ Name Address Phone # Email address
r
I would like to learn more about planned giving and how it can make an impact at UW.
r
A check payable to the UW Foundation is enclosed to support GO-MAP.
r
Please charge my Visa, MasterCard or American Express to support GO-MAP:
Account number Expiration date Name on card CVC#
If you want to learn more about planned giving, or make a gift to support GO-MAP programs, please tear and mail back this insert. Or contact Rhonda Smith at rsmith@uw.edu or 206-616-2492. You can also make a gift online at: uwfoundation.org/diversity
Authorized signature
the story of diversity at the UW
15
Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington
4333 Brooklyn Ave NE Campus Box 359508 Seattle, WA 98195
Dr. Samuel E. Kelly Award a partnership between his agency and the School of Social Work to provide UW students with a direct path to earning their chemical dependency certification with onsite internships and hands-on training. He has advised, mentored and led many.
MAP
Bridging the Gap Breakfast
Denise Stiffarm, Esq., ’96, serves on the UW President’s Minority Community Advisory Committee. A Seattle lawyer practicing in municipal, land use, and education law, she often advises school districts. When she isn’t working, she fills her hours with community work, including serving as the president of the board of directors of the Chief Seattle Club (which serves urban Native people in need), and the board of the YWCA. Her past volunteer work includes environmental, educational and cultural causes.
8:45 a.m., Oct. 28 HUB Ballroom Join the Multicultural Alumni Partnership in honoring alumni and community leaders, and celebrate with student scholarship winners. Proceeds from the breakfast benefit student scholarships.
Learn more and register at UWalum.com/map
Lori Matsukawa, ’96, joined KING 5 in 1983. Her most memorable stories include Governor Gary Locke’s first trade mission to China, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Vancouver and flying in an F-16. She is a founder of the Asian American Journalists Association, from which she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Her extensive history of community service includes volunteering with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington and the YMCA of Greater Seattle. In 2012, she was inducted into the UW Communication Department’s Alumni Hall of Fame.
Distinguished Alumni Award Norman Johnson, ’71, ’73, is a “Distinguished Alumnus” at the UW School of Social Work. As executive director of Therapeutic Health Services, a nonprofit, he has provided decades of advocacy for those in the African-American community who are challenged with mental illness and substance abuse. He also shaped
Dr. Stephen Sumida, ’82, is a professor emeritus and former department chair of American Ethnic Studies. He came to the UW in 1998, already known for his expertise in Asian American literature. He also served as coordinator of the Northwest Asian American Writers Conference, and co-founded of Talk Story Inc. In 2007, he was awarded a Fulbright to teach in Tokyo. In 2013, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Asian American Studies. Dr. Jean Hernandez, ’96, was president of Edmonds Community College for six years, during which time she established the office of Equity and Inclusion, raised money for the Veterans Resource Center, and increased student ethnic diversity. In 2009, she received the Ruth Woo Citizen Activism Award presented by the Women of Color Empowered. Her public service includes membership on the boards of the Rotary Club of Lynwood, the Economic Alliance of Snohomish County, the NAACP of Snohomish County, the Boys' and Girls Club and the YWCA for the Seattle region.