In Memory and In the Media

“There’s this huge emphasis on getting your work done,” she says. “But what about connection? What about emotion?

I learned the hard way that you have to make time for that, or your body will force you to make time for it. I wanted to prevent the same thing from happening to these kids.”

That thought stayed with Habib after she graduated. She read books about youth development and volunteered with nonprofits to better understand existing programs for children. But none of those programs provided the services she wanted to offer. So, after a year of planning— including many conversations with mentor Bettina Shell-Duncan, professor of anthropology— Habib launched World Mind Creation Academy.

The after-school program in South Seattle’s Rainier Vista neighborhood offers six-week sessions where children ages 6 to 14 play games, participate in teambuilding activities and take on community projects. “Children need to feel a sense of belonging, to celebrate their cultural heritage, and to discover that they can thrive and make a difference in their own communities,” says Habib.

Adult mentors are an important part in this endeavor. Habib says that children benefit from mentors who look like them, speak their languages and can relate to their experiences. The academy’s mentors help with projects but encourage the children to take the lead—an experience Habib wished she’d had as a child. “I didn't feel fully heard when I was 8,” she says. “That happens so much with kids, and it’s so unfair to them. At WMCA, kids get to own the program. That can be very challenging for the adults, who want things to be perfect. But our idea of perfect and the kids’ idea of perfect is not that same, and we have to accept that.”

For the first few years, Habib ran the program on a shoestring, securing short-term projects on a contract basis. Then she heard about King County’s Best Starts for Kids initiative. “It felt like the perfect grant at the right time,” she recalls. “It just fit with everything we were trying to do.”

With a $500,000 grant in 2017, Habib has expanded WMCA’s curriculum while maintaining the focus on children’s emotional well-being.

Receiving the grant was both exhilarating and scary, Habib says, much like the decision to follow her passion. Her journey has been difficult, but “I feel like it’s all working out the way it’s supposed to.”

Billy W. Hilliard

Billy (Bill) W. Hilliard, who helped build the foundation for the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity as one of its early leaders, died on Oct. 2, 2019, at the age of 78. Hilliard, ’71, was born in Weed, California in 1941. His family moved to Washington in 1943 when his father found work in a West Seattle shipyard. Hilliard attended Seattle Public Schools and graduated from Garfield High. Later, he enrolled at the University of Washington to study sociology.

In the late 1960s, when the UW was creating programs to support students of color, Hilliard was hired to coordinate the recruitment of minority and economically disadvantaged students. He helped launch what is known today as OMA&D, serving as assistant vice president from 1968-1975.

After leaving the UW, Hilliard continued his career in public service as director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission and later led the Seattle Human Rights Department. He was also a lobbyist for Seattle City Light. He was president of the Breakfast Group, a nonprofit service organization of civic-minded professional African American men dedicated to mentoring and addressing the challenges of low-income and at-risk male youth of color.

Hilliard’s leadership in the community and his commitment to service was honored with the UW’s Charles E. Odegaard Award in 1998. The award is the university’s highest achievement for diversity and is presented each year at OMA&D’s annual Celebration event. Hilliard was also recognized in 2002 with the UW Multicultural Alumni Partnership’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Viewpoint Media

Camera Power: Proof, Policing and Audiovisual Big Data By Mary D. Fan, UW Professor of Law Cambridge University Press, 2019

It took nearly two days for the footage of LAPD officers beating Rodney King to reach the public. Today, it would take a matter of seconds. Since that explosive moment in U.S. history, the rapid evolution of technology has amplified and reframed the conversation around race, law enforcement, violence and civil rights, leading to unprecedented revolutions in proof and police regulation. The impacts of this cameracultural revolution and how to better protect civil rights and liberties are the subjects of Mary Fan’s new book.

Her research included nearly two years of reporting from more than 200 jurisdictions and more than 100 interviews with police leaders and officers, watchdog groups, community members, civil rights and civil liberties experts, industry leaders and technologists. The result is a first-of-its-kind exploration of the policy questions raised by the evolution of technology in regard to policing.

Fan, the Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law, is a former federal prosecutor.

Haboo Native American Stories from Puget Sound, Second Edition Translated and edited by Vi Hilbert University of Washington Press, April 2020

This vibrant collection of traditional stories from the Lushootseed-speaking people of Puget Sound was first published in 1985. The tales, translated by Vi Hilbert, who taught Southern Lushootseed language at the UW for many years, represent an oral tradition by which one generation hands down beliefs, values and customs to another. Many of the 33 stories are set in the "Myth Age," before the world transformed. Animals, plants, trees and rocks had human attributes.

Hilbert, who died in 2008, was a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe and grew up with many of the old social patterns of her community. Her first language was Lushootseed. She spent many years translating and transcribing recordings of the language to help in its preservation. She also co-wrote Lushootseed language primers and dictionaries.

Beautifully redesigned and with a new foreword by Jill La Pointe, “Haboo” offers a resource for linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, future generations of Lushootseed-speaking people and others interested in Native languages and cultures.

4333 Brooklyn Ave NE Campus Box 359508 Seattle, WA 98195

CHARLES E. ODEGAARD AWARD RECIPIENTS

Marvin Oliver Ricardo S. Martinez Joanne and Bruce Harrell Richard A. Jones Colleen Fukui-Sketchley Denny Hurtado Rogelio Riojas Gertrude Peoples Assunta Ng Nelson Del Rio W. Ron Allen 1968 Black Student Union Alan T. Sugiyama Charles Mitchell Mike McGavick Jeff and Susan Brotman Herman McKinney Constance L. Proctor Ernest Dunston Vivian Lee Albert Black Bill Hilliard Andy Reynolds Hubert G. Locke Ron Moore Bernie Whitebear Ron Sims Sandra Madrid Ken Jacobson Herman D. Lujan J. Ray Bowen Frank Byrdwell Andrew V. Smith Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney Norm Rice Nancy Weber William Irmscher Mark Cooper Millie Russell Minoru Masuda Toby Burton Vivian Kelly Sam and Joyce Kelly Leonie Piternick Larry Gossett Dalwyn Knight

Celebrating Emile Pitre, ’69

Winner of the Charles E. Odegaard Award

By Erin Rowley

AS A GRADUATE STUDENT IN THE LATE 1960’S, EMILE PITRE helped found the UW’s Black Student Union, whose calls for equity led President Charles E. Odegaard to establish the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Since then Pitre has spent over three decades with the office, serving in various roles, including time as director of the Instructional Center and associate vice president for assessment.

QUINN RUSSELL BROWN

Pitre dedicated his career to advocacy and educational opportunity for underrepresented minority, first-generation and lowincome students at the UW, and since his retirement in 2014, has been known as OMA&D’s “elder statesman” and historian.

The son of a sharecropper, Pitre was born in Louisiana and grew up with seven siblings. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, and he received a full-ride scholarship for the first seven years of college. Pitre earned a bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Southern University, and a master’s degree and Ph.C. in chemistry from the UW, where he was a National Institutes of Health fellow.

After graduating, Pitre worked as chemist and educational planner, but ended up rejecting an offer that would have paid more to return to the UW in 1982 and serve as the head chemistry instructor with OMA&D’s Instructional Center. Seven years later, he was promoted to director. Under his leadership, more than 11,000 IC students earned bachelor’s degrees and the center won two UW Recognition awards.. Pitre went on to serve as OMA&D assistant and associate vice president for assessment. He currently works part time as senior adviser to the vice president. For over 20 years, Pitre has served as an adviser to the UW’s Black Student Union. He also led the production of an awardwinning documentary in 2007 that highlighted the BSU’s role in the establishment of OMA&D. In 2008, Pitre and the other founding BSU members were presented the Odegaard Award as a group.

Pitre is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and has held various leadership roles within the organization. In 2010, he received the Sigma Inspirational Award for dedication of service to education. Pitre has been the recipient of several other honors, including the UW Professional Staff Organization Award for Excellence, and he has three academic scholarships in his name.

Pitre has long worked to document the story of OMA&D and is writing a book on its 50-year history. An avid photographer, he is often seen at OMA&D and UW events with a camera in hand.

“Not only was he involved in creating transformational change at our university in 1968, Emile Pitre has dedicated his life to supporting educational opportunity and success for thousands of students,” says Rickey Hall, vice president for Minority Affairs & Diversity and university diversity officer. “His leadership throughout the years and his commitment to our OMA&D mission is extraordinary. We are incredibly proud to honor him with this award, especially as we commemorate a historic 50th year of Celebration.”

The Charles E. Odegaard award was established in 1973 to honor individuals whose leadership in the community exemplifies the former UW president’s work on behalf of diversity. It was President Odegaard’s response to student-led calls for equity in 1968 that led to a University-wide commitment to diversity and the establishment of what is now known as OMA&D. The Odegaard award is regarded as the highest achievement in diversity at the UW. The winner is recognzied at the annual Celebration event.

OMA&D CELEBRATION 2020 CANCELED

Due to a campus-wide closure for spring quarter, the 50th-annual Celebration event hosted by OMA&D and the Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program (FEOP) is canceled. Please visit washington.edu/omad/celebration for more information about plans to recognize the Odegaard recipient and student scholars.