Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington / Fall 2016
The UW’s Exciting New Scholars Students Take a Special Break Growing Community in a Garden
FALL 2016
viewpoint
:: Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington
P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E U W A LU M N I A S S O C I AT I O N I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H T H E U W O F F I C E O F M I N O R I T Y A F FA I R S & D I V E R S I T Y
In This Issue Rickey Hall
RACE AND EQUITY LEADERSHIP: INTERRUPTING PRIVILEGE
[ The Viewpoint Interview ]
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Digging the Danny Woo 5 Breaking Barriers in Okanogan County 8 A Story of Bravery 10 Searching for Scholars 12 Race & Equity 13 Events 15 MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast 16 ON THE COVER | Michelle Martin joins the iSchool this fall as the new Beverly Cleary Professor. She specializes in children’s literature, African American children’s literature and community literacy programs. See the story about new diverse faculty members on page 12.
Most discussions of inequality focus on violence, disproportionality and discrimination. But what about the concept of privilege? How does privilege—in terms of race, gender, sexuality and citizenship status—shore up inequality? This fall, the UW Alumni Association and the UW Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE) will collaborate with The Graduate School on an opportunity for alumni and students to explore race and equity through a combination of lectures (see Vargas and Francis on page 15) and conversations. The program, Race and Equity Leadership: Interrupting Privilege, engages questions of privilege through The Graduate School’s public lecture series Equity & Difference. It is designed for a small number of undergraduate students and a matching number of alumni who commit to a series of events and activities. “Regardless of whether our alumni and students might be starting in different places, they can all lead and grow together to ultimately create change,” says Ralina Joseph, founding director of CCDE, associate professor in UW’s Department of Communication and adjunct associate professor in the Departments of American Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. To learn more about how to participate in this unique opportunity, please call (206) 543-0540.
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S THIS YEAR’S MULTIcultural Alumni Partnership president, I want to thank you for your ongoing support for such a vital organization. Having spent some time with our group’s founders Vivian Lee, ’58, ’59, and Larry Matsuda, ’67, ’73, ’81, I’ve developed a strong sense of the historical context as well as a deeper appreciation for them as individuals, and for MAP as a whole. In 2004, my good friend Sumona Das Gupta and I had a crazy idea to get our own monument built on central campus to celebrate diversity. Today people on campus may know of “Blocked Out” and some of our struggles in executing that sculpture project. But I bet most people
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don’t know that MAP was THE first campus group we went to for support. Without hesitation, they collectively said yes and wrote the University a letter in favor of our mission. This is the reason Sumona and I feel so indebted to MAP. They could have brushed us off, laughed at our crazy idea and crushed our young student aspirations. But they didn’t. Instead they urged and inspired us to go out and prove to everyone that people of color on campus—staff, faculty and students—should be represented. Along with the crucial help and encouragement of so many others at the UW, we were able to build the monument. This
is the kind of work that we hope to continue as this year’s MAP leaders. Your ongoing engagement with MAP gives us the ability to keep that student inspiration alive. It allows us to support student initiatives and movements like #blacklivesmatter (and yes, black lives do matter), it allows us to build and foster leaders of color, women, and LGBTQ so we can build a strong and vibrant community for our region. I am honored and thankful, even through all the turbulence of social inequity and generational apprehension, to be this year’s MAP president. We can all agree that the Annual Bridging the Gap Breakfast (#BTG2016) is a special
D E NNI S WI SE
points of view
Jaebadiah Gardner, ’05 Multicultural Alumni Partnership President
event—an iconic event— not just for the UW, but for the greater Puget Sound community. We have some special things lined up for you at this year’s awards breakfast. So mark your calendar: October 22nd, 2016 at 8:15 a.m. Adelante!
THE VIEWPOINT INTERVIEW:
Rickey Hall, Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity
CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER
BY HANNELORE SUDERMANN
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n Aug. 1, 2016, Rickey Hall stepped into his new position as the UW’s Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity. Before coming to UW, he served as the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee. He has worked for more than 20 years in higher education, creating access and support for underrepresented, underserved and marginalized students. Hall majored in American Studies at the University of Iowa before completing his master’s in higher education there. He is currently completing a doctorate in education in organizational leadership, policy and development at the University of Minnesota. Through his leadership at the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, Hall will be a resource for UW campuses, colleges and administrative units as they work to recruit and retain diverse students, faculty, and staff, while fostering a more inclusive environment. Where did you grow up? What led you to the University of Iowa? I was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, home to John Deere tractors. Although the state has a number of great colleges and universities, growing up there you get introduced to the University of Iowa early and often. As a child, I was a big fan of Hawkeye athletic teams. In high school, I learned of the school’s outstanding academic reputation. The athletic teams and the academic reputation sealed it for me. Tell us why you directed your career into equity and diversity. I’ve always been engaged in social change in one way or another. While I didn’t think of it that way, the decisions I made were leading me towards a career in equity, diversity and inclusion. For example, my undergraduate degree is in American Studies with an emphasis in race and ethnic relations. While working on my master’s degree, I worked with leadership programs, lecture series, concerts, sororities and fraternities, and the cultural centers. Coming out of graduate school, I asked myself what type of work I was most passionate about. The answer was easy: creating access and success for students of color. My first job out of graduate school was director of Diversity Programs and Services, which allowed me to work with students of color as well as work on broader diversity efforts. How does the UW compare to the other places you’ve worked? There is a lot for me still to learn about UW and the state. However, based on what I currently know, there are similarities between UW and the University of Minnesota. They are both multi-campus institutions with strong access and public-service missions. Both publicly recognize and acknowledge that the institutions are on Native land and want to be in relationship with Tribal Nations in the state. At both institutions there is diversity within the racial diversity. The University of Tennessee, by contrast, is in the beginning stages of creating infrastructure in support of diversity. What in your experience has influenced the work you’re doing today? I learned that a primary purpose of higher education is to prepare students to live and lead in a diverse and global world. In order to do that, students must be able to work effectively across all differences. Exposure is a central theme throughout my work. I stress the importance, especially in a higher education setting, of grappling with diverse views and expressions, and respectfully engaging in critical inquiry. This is how students learn to think for themselves. They learn by being exposed to new and emerging concepts, including some that they may never agree with or fully understand, and that is OK. Through this process students learn about themselves and about others. As they do, hopefully, they will come to see that all people and communities have assets.
Photo by Dennis the story of diversity at the Wise UW
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FOUNDED 2004 Published by the UW Alumni Association in partnership with the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
WELCOME, RICKEY HALL
4311 11th Ave. NE, Suite 220 Box 354989 Seattle, WA 98195-4989 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 BL ISHE R
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ven before he arrived at the University of Washington, Rickey Hall’s calendar was filling fast with appointments, luncheons, events and meetings. Not only are University and community members and leaders eager to meet him, Rickey is equally eager to meet them. As the UW’s new Vice President for the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, and Chief Diversity Officer, Rickey is immersing himself in the UW, Seattle and Washington state. Through careful listening, he is learning about our culture, successes, challenges and opportunities. This approach is true to Rickey’s nature as a collaborative leader. A national leader in the field of diversity, he brings to the UW a breadth of experience in both public and private higher education. Throughout his career—whether at the University of Minnesota or more recently the University of Tennessee, Knoxville—Rickey has worked with tribal nations and a range of underrepresented minority students, staff and faculty. He is a strategic thinker with a
diplomatic approach to improving diversity and campus climates. Rickey’s job is to work with all of us to build on our ongoing efforts in the areas of race, equity and diversity—and to take that work to the next level. He will lead OMA&D’s efforts to broaden college access for, and support the success of, underrepresented minority, low-income and first-generation students. And he will oversee the University’s progress toward fostering a more diverse and inclusive community for students, staff and faculty. To do this, he will work closely with leaders at all levels to take on a shared responsibility for integrating diversity into our work. Rickey will join the leadership of the president’s Race and Equity Initiative, and he will take on leadership of the UW’s Diversity Council. We welcome Rickey’s energy and perspective, and his lifelong dedication to the work of diversity and equity.
— Gerald J. Baldasty Provost and Executive Vice President Professor, Department of Communication
Jon Marmor E D IT OR
Hannelore Sudermann M A N A GIN G E D IT OR
Ken Shafer A RT D IRE C T OR
Julie Garner STA F F WRIT E R
viewpoint ADVISORY COMMITTEE 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 Managing 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 Affaris & Diversity
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DIGGING THE DANNY WOO One UW Alumna Finds Her Place in Seattle’s Iconic Community Garden By Hannelore Sudermann • Photos by Joe Santiago
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he Danny Woo Community Garden is up steep concrete stairs from the International District to a terraced hillside that has provided the Seattle neighborhood with produce and outdoor space since 1975. At the first plateau, the tree canopy opens giving visitors a view of garden plots, a fraction of the nearly 90 that lace across the 1.5 acres. There, on a recent summer afternoon, volunteers tote food up to a covered outdoor kitchen in preparation for an overnight pig roast and community celebration. In the middle of it all, garden manager Mei Yook Woo, ’16, is checking in with elder gardeners, guests helping set up the feast, and visitors meandering through. Wearing a cheerful grin and a bright green T-shirt, she is hard to miss. “We all consume food, and we are all part of the food system,” says Woo. The garden is a source of nourishment and cultural preservation for the community, particularly the elderly Asian immigrants who live nearby. But it's also a place of life, nature and imagination. The pig roast is a key event in the garden’s year, says Jill Wasberg, ‘98. She's the communications director for InterIm CDA, the community development association that maintains the garden and provides lowincome housing and other services in the neighborhood. “It's where everyone can come and learn about the community,” she says. “There’s a lot of sitting down together and sharing stories.” That need to serve the community brought the garden to life in the first place. Its namesake, Danny Woo, was a restaurateur and business-
man who owned the land that connected South Main Street to a city park above. Forty years ago, the late Bob Santos, an activist and Filipino American who grew up in the International District, asked Danny Woo for permission to build a garden for Asian elders on the site. Woo agreed and leased the land for $1 a year to a nonprofit that would oversee and maintain the garden. Volunteers helped terrace the land, divide up the plots and provide resources for the gardeners, most of whom are immigrants, elderly and low-income. Over the decades, dozens of UW architecture students stepped in to further shape the site and improve its accessibility. Through the University’s Howard S. Wright Neighborhood Design/Build Studio, students have undertaken projects that include building seats, stairs, signs, vegetable-washing stations, a tool shed and a pit for the annual pig roast. The most recent student project, an outdoor kitchen and table area for group meals and food-centered activities for children, used the talents and energies of 18 graduate and undergraduate students. They built the cookery at the UW’s Community Design Building and in 2014 assembled it at the garden. It had to be both functional and playful, to make the garden more accessible to children and give them a space to learn and develop a farm-to-table connection. The project is right in line with Mei Yook Woo’s interests. While much of her job involves the elder gardeners, another part is managing the children’s garden program. “My role in that is curriculum development,
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Mei Yook Woo, ’16, is Garden Manager at the Danny Woo Community Garden in Seattle. A food justice and social activist, she works in the areas of food and health, food education, land stewardship and community building.
volunteer education and program rollout—pretty much anything related to garden education,” she says. The mission is to make the Danny Woo garden more intergenerational, a place where people can share food and culture. “I was raised in a household always talking about public health,” says Woo. “As a person of color raised by two other people of color, the language around justice and equity and racism was always pretty prevalent.” When she was younger, Woo herself struggled to understand how to relate to food and her culture. “Growing up in a predominantly white community in the suburbs of Seattle, I had a lot of insecurities around my racial identity and my body,” she says. This challenge manifested in an eating disorder in high school. “It had nothing to do with the food I was eating, but rather the intersections of food and race.” She started exploring nutrition and “how nutrition cannot be talked about without acknowledging race and class and gender.” For many Americans, farming conjures up images of older white men in overalls on tractors, says Woo. “But women are in farming all over the world. Even within the Danny Woo, the majority of our gardeners are women.” She entered the nonprofit world in Seattle at age 20, volunteering and working for agencies like Solid Ground and interning as the children’s garden program coordinator at InterIm CDA. “I started to learn from workshops, my community members and the friends I was making how to articulate what I was seeing and thinking,” she says. “I realized food justice and social justice and identity were all very important to me.” Deepening her expertise, Woo enrolled in graduate school at the UW to study public health nutrition. She explored health and community gardening on the Navajo Nation for her thesis. She also created a guide specifically for Ethiopian and Eritrean patients with diabetes. In her spare time she started a project to explore how race intersects with food, identity and power, with a goal of undoing racism through food-focused education, empowerment and activism. Last year, Woo created a food guide online highlighting eateries owned by people of color. The idea came out of her own needs. “I had all these restaurants I really love; I was having a hard time keeping track of them,” she says. “And people always ask me for recommendations, so I created the map. I didn’t think it would have such a positive response in the community. But it’s a testament to how essential this tool is.” For immigrants and refugee communities, the food industry is one of the few entry points into the city. Many weren’t chefs in the country they came from, but they developed skills around food as a tool for survival, says Woo. She is fascinated by how some chefs appropriate food cultures that aren't their own. “It can happen across racial groups,” she says. “It’s taking a certain type of food and then ‘elevating it.’” Breaking away from our interview, Woo greeted one of the newer gardeners. The Vietnamese woman proudly pointed to the fence she had created with found objects like snow fencing and a chair leg. Ms. Tran had waited for her plot assignment for two years, says Woo. And now she plans to grow greens, flowers and squash. Woo loves to share the gardeners' stories. One 92-year-old man has kept a plot for 20 years and carries a list in English of what plants he’s growing in case people stop and ask.
Woo and friends share food and stories at one of the many events that take place in the Danny Woo garden to bring gardeners, families and volunteers together. A half-hour later, visitors pack into the cookery and fill their plates with fried rice, lumpia, dumplings and fruit. The plates themselves display the cultural diversity of the neighborhood. “Food is often a celebratory tool, especially for a lot of communities of color,” says Woo. “And what’s so wonderful is how through food, different identity groups can connect.”
Visit the Danny Woo Garden exhibit
Seeds of Change, Roots of Power The Danny Woo Community Garden on view at the Wing Luke Museum
March 4, 2016–January 15, 2017 Find Mei Yook Woo’s restaurant map at
COURTESY SEATTLE CHANNEL’S CITYSTREAM\SHANNON GEE
www.foodwaysproject.com
Robert Santos, known to many as “Uncle Bob,” led
Ms. Tran, one of the newer members of the community garden, waited two years for a plot to become available. A Vietnamese refugee who lives in a small apartment nearby, she now has her own piece of land where she can grow food and flowers.
the effort to create the Danny Woo Community Garden in 1975 and fought to protect the International District neighborhood from blight and overdevelopment. The beloved civil rights leader was founding director of the InterIm Community Development Association and a lifelong activist who worked to break down racial and economic barriers throughout the city. Santos died in late August at the age of 82. To see UW footage of Santos talking about his civil rights work in Seattle: depts.washington.edu/civilr/santos.htm
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BREAKING BARRIERS IN
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s sixth-graders at Brewster Elementary ponder mom-and-pop shops while children play at a park nearby. the problem of wolves, deer and a loss of green“Brewster is very rural, and I knew that the students didn’t have ery in a habitat, UW senior Katherine Schaffer a lot of opportunities to leave the community and see the rest darts from desk to desk. This lesson is right in the of the world,” says Lupe Ledesma, a former counselor at Brewswheelhouse of the environmental science major. ter High School who now supervises the state’s Migrant EducaShe excitedly helps the class arrive at the answer. tion Program. “So through Alternative Spring Break, I thought we This might seem like a normal school day, but it could bring the world to them.” is actually a special visit, something the children Schaffer chose Brewster for her spring break because of its have looked forward to for months. similarities to her home community of San Antonio. Schaffer is It is late March. Schaffer and three classmates have come to Mexican American, with family still in Mexico. “I wanted to set an the Eastern Washington town of Brewster as part of the UW Pipeexample and be a familiar face,” she says, “so that they can see I line Project’s Alternative Spring Break went to college and feel that they can program. Since 2001, more than 700 ungo, too.” “I wanted to set an example and dergraduates have used their spring Though their community is small, breaks to volunteer in grade schools the children in Schaffer’s class have be a familiar face,” says Katheracross Washington. This year, 60 Huskies big dreams of becoming marine bioloine Schaffer, a UW senior. spread out among 14 rural and tribal gists, chefs and veterinarians. Through communities from the Olympic Peninsuthis program, the UW students can help la to Eastern Washington. them understand that those dreams can come true. At the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers and Mixing classroom lessons with outdoor activities (the clear fasurrounded by rolling hills and orchards, Brewster is home to a vorite), Schaffer and her classmates spend the week teaching enlarge Latino population. Many residents who migrated here to vironmental science. Using the theme “The Land We Live In,” they work in the orchards stayed, and today about 72 percent of the focus on the natural habitat around Brewster. town’s 2,300 residents are Latino. While the lessons aim to instill an interest in science, the most Here, the students from Seattle find a different pace of life. At meaningful part of the week is the one-on-one interactions beany given time of the day, a few cars roll down Main Street by tween the college students and the sixth-graders, says teacher
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N OKANOGAN COUNTY By Meg Cressey Photos by Dennis Wise
Susan Varrelman. “They’re very high-achieving kids who vocalize their interests already,” she says. “Having the UW students here to talk with them is great to help them start thinking about how they can achieve those goals.” Over the years, Christine Stickler, director of the Pipeline Project, has heard stories of success from across the state: Anthony Rascon, ’14, ’15, a student from the Makah Tribe, was inspired to
become a teacher, and now teaches second grade in his hometown. Nayeli Fernandez from Harrah (population 625) was told she could go to college for the first time by a UW student. Today, she’s a junior and has gone on the Alternative Spring Break every year since her freshman year. Stickler hopes to someday expand the spring break curriculum to disciplines beyond environmental science and literacy. She also wants to make the program a yearlong experience in which UW students would meet with a class from a Washington town or reservation at the start of the school year, keep in touch throughout the year, return to the hometown during spring break, and finally, in June, bring the grade-schoolers to the UW— introducing them to a new habitat, so to speak. While the program is a tremendous experience for UW students, the heart of the Alternative Spring Break is forming meaningful connections across Washington, says Stickler. “I’ve seen how powerful the impact has been on both sides.”
Learn about Alternative Spring Break at
expd.washington.edu/pipelineasb Katherine Schaffer, a UW senior, spent her spring break teaching ecology to sixth-graders in Brewster, Wash. As part of the UW Pipeline Project’s outreach, about 60 students volunteered in schools across the state. Top right, downtown Brewster. Schaffer, top left, leads a game with the students.
Meg Cressey, ’14, is a UW copywriter. Several of her projects focus on efforts to close the achievement and opportunity gaps in Washington’s schools.
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A STORY OF
BRAVERY By
Julie Garner
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riter Larry Matsuda, ’67, ’73, ’78, and animator Randy Eng, ’05, won a Northwest Emmy Award last spring for their animated film “An American Hero: Shiro Kashino.” The 21-minute film was based on a chapter from Matsuda’s World War II graphic novel, “Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers.” Kashino, who grew up in Seattle’s Central District, volunteered to join a segregated Army unit rather than stay imprisoned in the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. His unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, undertook many dangerous missions. Kashino fought in major battles of the European campaign. One included the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in 1944, a five day battle where the unit broke through German defenses in the Vosges mountains and saved 211 men. Kashino’s unit suffered more casualties than white soldiers were saved. Despite his heroism, Kashino was stripped of his sergeant’s rank after being caught up in a bar/dance hall scuffle between another soldier from his regiment and a white officer. The graphic novel and animated video include this incident, which ultimately resulted in a court-martial for Kashino, who had no lawyer to represent him. In 1983, his fellow veterans started campaigning to overturn the court decision and reinstate his rank. They won, but the decision came just after Kashino’s death in 1997. Shiro was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, six Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, one Silver Star and other miscellaneous commendations. “Ironically, these soldiers were fighting to liberate foreigners when their own families were in American prisons,” says Matsuda, a retired educator, poet and former president of the UW Alumni Association. The graphic novel, which he wrote with artist Matt Sasaki, was created in partnership with the Wing Luke Museum and the Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation. The animated video was created in partnership with the Seattle Channel. Matsuda, who was born in the Minidoka War Relocation Center, wanted to tell the soldier’s story for the sake of his family and community, but also so future generations could know about these Japanese American soldiers, the prejudice they faced and the sacrifices they made. About 14,000 Japanese Americans served in World War II and approximately 800 were killed in action. At the same time, 120,000 Japanese American men, women and children were imprisoned in war-relocation camps throughout the West. While justice came too late for Kashino, the two UW alumni and their partners told his story so others would know about his bravery and service.
To watch the documentary, go to seattlechannel.org
SEARCHING FOR
SCHOLAR S T H E U W ’ S E F F O R T S T O WA R D A M O R E D I V E R S E F A C U LT Y BY JULIE GARNER
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his fall, more than a dozen new scholars from diverse backgrounds have been recruited to the UW, the result of a commitment from the president, the provost and the Board of Regents to build a more diverse and inclusive faculty through the Faculty Recruitment Initiative. The initiative, which started in 2012, has provided $300,000 a year from the provost to enrich job offers. Last summer, Chadwick Allen joined the UW as associate vice provost for faculty advancement. His role includes helping schools and colleges across the University with faculty recruitment and retention, notably women and underrepresented minorities. With funds from the initiative, Allen and his staff in the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity are improving hiring practices to help departments build diverse candidate pools. The efforts have paid off, with new scholars in fields including drama, law, engineering, public health and ethnic studies. In recent years, the University has had success diversifying the student body, yet faculty remains a challenge. In fall 2015, students who identified as other than Caucasian accounted for more than 57 percent of the student body, yet hires for faculty positions around the same period of time were 64.1 percent white. While Washington state’s Initiative 200 means the UW cannot hire faculty based on race or gender, state and federal policies encourage the University to pursue outreach efforts to create diverse pools of candidates. All the better if the candidates’ research, mentoring and teaching make the UW more inclusive. Hiring diverse faculty at a comprehensive public university can be especially challenging, because private schools often have deeper pockets for salaries. Pay is important, but a University-wide commitment to diversity
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can also influence candidates. Sophia Wallace, a new associate professor of political science, turned down Notre Dame and left Rutgers University to move to Seattle. “The community of scholars was a draw for me,” she says. “In the political science department there is a strong commitment to study race and ethnicity.” Wallace was up for tenure at Rutgers, but the UW’s outreach tempted her away. “Judy Howard, dean of Social Sciences, went above and beyond, along with the chair of my department, George Lovell,” says Wallace. She added that coming to a university where a fellow Latina is president was really empowering. “I have been watching the rise of Ana Mari Cauce for a long time,” she says. Wallace specializes in Latino politics, representation, social movements and immigration policies. Trevor Gardner, a new assistant professor at the UW School of Law, graduated from Harvard Law and worked as a public defender in Washington, D.C. before becoming a fellow at New York University. The UW caught his interest because of its public mission, innovative research and community orientation. The move felt right for Gardner and his wife. “The UW community matched up with our values,” he says. Allen and his team are guiding search committees to new recruitment efforts and helping faculty and administrators change their approaches to scouting and forming long-range hiring plans. For the 2016-2017 academic year, the money Allen has for enriching competitive offers will rise to $500,000, with another $500,000 available to help retain faculty. “Money from my office is money from the provost,” says Allen, “which signals that not only the specific unit but the University as a whole is invested in the hire.”
SOPHIA WALLACE
TREVOR GARDNER
MICHELLE MARTIN
BETTINA JUDD
TIM BOND
is an associate professor of political science. She teaches and researches Latino politics, race, ethnicity, legislative behavior, and immigration politics and policy. She taught at Rutgers and was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
is an assistant professor at the UW School of Law. He graduated from Harvard Law, worked as a public defender in Washington D.C. and was a law fellow at New York University. He specializes in criminal justice with a focus on policing.
is the Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Servics at the Information School. Martin specializes in children's literature and and community literacy. She comes from the University of South Carolina where she held the Augusta Baker Chair.
joins Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. She is a writer, author and performer who explores the roles of art, literature and music in developing feminist thought. “Patient,” a collection of her poems, won the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Book prize.
’83, joins the School of Drama as a professor from Syracuse Stage and the Syracuse University Department of Drama. Bond has more than 20 years of experience leading regional theaters across the country including the Seattle Group Theater.
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Diversity trainer Rosetta Lee runs a cross-cultural communication workshop.
RACE &EQUITY UW faculty and staff step up to learn BY LEILANI LEWIS
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t’s 9 a.m. one morning in May and Caprice Hollins, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of a race-relations consulting firm, is gearing up for a full day of workshops. In a classroom packed with faculty and staff in UW Bothell’s Founders Hall, she will share stories of her multiracial family and of growing up in Seattle. Then she will invite her audience to reflect on their own stories. Through the participants’ personal narratives, Hollins guides them to examine how their experiences have shaped their worldviews, values and beliefs. The workshop, Cultural Competence: Addressing Race Relations in the 21st Century, was one in a pilot series last spring for staff and faculty through the UW Race & Equity Initiative. Hollins, Greg Taylor of Community Connection Consulting, and diversity trainer Rosetta Lee led over 20 workshops on the Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell campuses. The workshops, which filled up in the first few days of registration, provided employees with a foundation for understanding racial equity, bias and history, an important step in confronting the barriers to change at the University. By the time the pilot series wrapped up in July, more than 450 UW employees had taken part. The Race & Equity Initiative, which UW President Ana Mari Cauce established in 2015, comes with three major goals: to help members of the UW community confront individual bias and racism, to transform the University’s policies and practices, and to accelerate change. “Hollins, Taylor and Lee were asked to lead the initial workshops based on similar work they have done with local school
districts and other public institutions,” says Jeanette James, manager of strategic initiatives and projects with the office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Hollins’ workshop aimed to open a dialogue and expose participants to alternate perspectives regarding bias, history, culture and race. Taylor’s work focused on cognitive bias and dissonance. And Lee tackled cross-cultural communication and microaggressions. “If we aren’t identifying the unconscious biases we bring to work and examining dominant culture’s norms and beliefs, we are not guiding [our students, faculty and staff] in ways that help them be effective in their fields,” says Hollins. “We have to learn to interact differently.” UW employees joined the trainings for a range of reasons. Anastasia Mendoza, ’06, an executive assistant in Marketing & Communications, wanted to support the Race & Equity Initiative. “These dialogues are difficult to have, but the workshop creates a safe and comfortable place to talk about issues,” Mendoza says. “Having people from across the UW community share their personal and professional stories advances the conversation. It’s good to hear perspectives from people you may not see on a day-to-day basis.” Because of the demand, the Race & Equity Initiative steering committee is planning to expand the workshops in 2016-17. Participant evaluations from the pilot series will shape the design of the future programs. “We have a responsibility to move these conversations forward,” says Hollins. “And we all have a lot of work to do, no matter our professional role.”
To learn more about the UW Race & Equity Initiative visit
uw.edu/raceequity the story of diversity at the UW
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MATT HAGEN
Beatriz Pascual Wallace,’87, and her husband Vincent Wallace support diversity and student experience at the UW. Pictured with their pup Tico.
Two paths to diversity
V
incent Wallace and Beatriz Pascual Wallace may have spent their childhoods on different continents, but both grew up in diverse communities and pursued public educations. Today, they have the same desire: that future generations will have similar opportunities. Vincent Wallace was an Army kid who spent most of his early childhood on military bases in Europe. Beatriz grew up in a multicultural neighborhood in the heart of Seattle. When they were young, neither was very aware of racial tension. Beatriz, ’87, saw diversity all around her as she was growing up in Seattle’s Rainier Valley, which the Census Bureau lists as one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse ZIP codes. Her friends and neighbors spoke Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Khmer. The experience extended into college. “I was comfortable at the UW because the student population reflected how I grew up,” she says. When Vincent was a pre-teen, his family moved state-
By Rhonda Smith
side to Fort Lewis in Tacoma. A contrast to his experiences abroad, it was the first time he heard children say negative things about others because of their race. Today Vincent, who works in systems design at Boeing, and Beatriz, a children’s librarian, live near Seattle. They have turned their energies to supporting students and fostering diverse communities. The UW’s Office of Planned Giving is helping them do that by guiding their donations to two programs in the office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. - Intellectual House is a longhouse-style facility that supports the success of American Indian and Alaska Native students, while the Instructional Center provides acadmic tutoring, mentoring and support to underrepresented minority, first-generation and economically disadvantaged students. “Sometimes you need a little help so you can pick up the knowledge and support you will need to be successful,” says Beatriz. “Our hope is that students who benefit will pass it on for others behind them to benefit.”
✂ If you are interested in learning about planned giving, or would like to make a gift to support OMA&D programs, please tear and mail back this insert or contact Rhonda Smith at rsmith@uw.edu or 206-616-2492.
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event Calendar Define American: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant October 6, 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Kane Hall 130, UW Seattle | Admission $5 Jose Antonio Vargas, Journalist, Filmmaker and Activist The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant has simultaneously lived a life in the shadows and in broad daylight. Join Vargas as he shares his journey from arrival in America to his role as an activist.
2016 DEBRA FRIEDMAN ANNUAL LECTURE
People, Place, Power: Advancing Equity in Changing Communities October 6, 2016 | 6:30 p.m. | William W. Philip Hall, UW Tacoma Judith Bell, Vice President of Programs, The San Francisco Foundation Historic levels of prosperity in the Bay Area are at a crossroads with widening inequality, increased poverty and a decline in economic mobility. A national leader on equity issues discusses the challenges facing San Francisco and the lessons for other rapidly growing cities.
Race and Violence in American Politics October 12, 2016 | 7:30 P.M. | Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Megan Ming Francis, UW Assistant Professor of Political Science Issues of unprosecuted violence against minorities, identity politics and racial tension have occupied the greater American consciousness for decades. How do we change course? Francis argues that to look ahead, we first must look back.
URBAN STUDIES PROGRAM ANNUAL LECTURE
After “Latino Metropolis” November 1, 2016 | 6:00 p.m. | Carwein Auditorium, UW Tacoma Rodolfo D. Torres, Professor of Planning, Policy & Design and Political Science, University of California, Irvine In 2000, the book “Latino Metropolis” broke ground with its candid look at race, politics, culture and the growth of the Latino working class in Los Angeles. Co-author Torres reflects on the radical changes the past 16 years have brought the region, and the nation.
Upholding the Beloved Community, Advancing a Just and Equitable Transition to a Low-Carbon World November 7, 2016 | 7:30 p.m. | Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Jacqueline Patterson, Director, NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program When the effects of unchecked resource extraction and development are weighed, the burdens fall heavier on communities already at risk. Patterson explores the intersection of climate science and social justice, and how we might work together to advance equitable environmental preservation.
Washington vs. California Football Viewing Party November 5, 2016 | Time TBD | Location TBD The Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity The OMA&D hosts an away-game viewing of the Huskies vs. the Golden Bears. Join alumni and friends, enjoy complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cheer on our team. For details, visit uw.edu/omad
the story of diversity at the UW
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Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington
4333 Brooklyn Ave NE Campus Box 359508 Seattle, WA 98195
MAP
Bridging the Gap Breakfast
Kennie Amaefule, ’87, ’02, nurse and philanthropist.
Join us on Homecoming Saturday as we honor alumni and community leaders, and celebrate with five student scholarship winners. Proceeds from the breakfast benefit student scholarships.
ANIL KAPAHI (3)
Saturday, October 22, 8 a.m., HUB Ballroom
From left, Julie Johnson; Jacqueline Johnson, ’16; and Sharon Mast, ’70, ’75, former MAP Board member.
n MULTICULTURAL ALUMNI PARTNERSHIP BREAKFAST Learn more and register at
UWalum.com/map
Seven students and four alumni were honored at last year’s Bridging the Gap Breakfast, a Homecoming tradition for the last two decades. To learn about this year’s honorees, visit: uwalum.wm/map
Steve Sumida, ’82, former MAP president, presents Karl Gapuz with the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation Scholarship.