Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington | Spring 2022
♥
REASONS TO
THE KELLY ECC
Celebrating 50 Years of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center
Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington
SPRING 2022
FOUNDED 2004
Published by the UW Alumni Association in partnership with the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity 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
AP R IL HO NG
VIEWPOINT S TA F F Paul Rucker, ’95, ’02 PUBLISHER
Hannelore Sudermann, ’96
BY R I C K EY HA L L V I C E P R E S I D E N T F O R M I N O R I T Y A F FA I R S & D I V E R S I T Y
Looking Forward at the UW Rickey Hall and Magdalena Fonseca, director of the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, celebrate the center’s 50th anniversary in March.
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Welcome to the Spring 2022 issue of Viewpoint. Spring is here once again and it brings new life on campus. The beautiful cherry blossoms have bloomed, and for the first spring in over two years, our campuses are operating mostly in-person. The energy and excitement of being together again in community is palpable. As many of us have felt with the return to campus, the regained sense of community and shared experience is profound. As we continue to adjust to the many changes from the pandemic, we are also determined to learn from the past and forge ahead, excited about new possibilities. As always, Viewpoint brings focus to the excellence of many alumni, faculty and current students. This issue focuses on many things that are “new” at the University. A new Regent and leadership, new programs and name changes—and reasons new and old to be proud of the University of Washington. The Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center turns 50 this year and continues to innovate in how it serves students. UW civil and environmental engineering is do-
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ing important and interesting work raising awareness of critical population health issues. We also hear from the chair of the Friends of the Education Opportunity Program Board about what fuels her drive to support EOP students. As we return together in community, I invite you to once again join the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and the Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program—in person—on May 18, for our annual Celebration. We’ll recognize exceptional students and honor the 2022 Odegaard Award recipient Frank Irigon, ’76, ’79. You can find out more about Frank’s inspirational life-long journey of social justice, and learn how to register for UW’s signature event recognizing diversity, equity and inclusion featured on the back cover of this magazine. I hope to see you there.
EDITOR
Ken Shafer ART DIRECTOR
Chris Talbott S TA F F W R I T E R
Matt Hagen, April Hong, Barbara Lord MacClean, Sarah McQuate, Emile Pitre, Sophanna Tes, ’19 CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jackson Holz CONTRIBUTING WRITER
VIEWPOINT A DV I S O RY COMMITTEE
Rickey Hall
Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity University Diversity Officer
Eleanor J. Lee, ’00, ’05 Director of Communications UW Graduate School
Tamara Leonard
Associate Director Center for Global Studies Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
Eric Moss
Director of Communications Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
In 1975, the Asian Family Affair, a newspaper produced by UW students for readers in Seattle’s Asian American community, turned its focus to Asian American rights, activism and community experience.
IN THIS ISSUE
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NEWS COVER STORY
Reasons to Love the Kelly ECC FEATURE
Preserving Community
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AWARDS
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IN MEMORY
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Harvy Blanks ODEGAARD AWARD
Frank Irigon A B O U T T H E COV E R
From left to right, students Alina Doan, ElijahJoseph Lazaro, Winnie Ngo, Sophie Nget and Alisa Chin gather in front of the Kelly Ethnic Cultral Center for a portrait by photographerSophanna Tes, ’19. Tes, himself, was a regular at the center, stopping in for student club meetings and to catch up with friends.
C
OMMUNITY JOURNALISM In 1972, Asian American and Pacific Islander students developed
Asian Family Affair, the first pan-Asian newspaper in the Northwest. The hardworking team of journalists tackled topics including labor disputes and neighborhood preservation and women's rights. They did this work out of the Ethnic Cultural Center. For more, see “Reasons to Love the Kelly ECC” on page 6.
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UW’s New Regent, Leonard Forsman, ’87, Looks Ahead By Chris Talbott
LEONARD FORSMAN Forsman is chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and president of the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Indians. As a student, he majored in anothropology and worked as an intern at the Suquamish Tribal Archives in a partnership with the Burke Museum.
As the first Native American member of the UW Board of Regents, Leonard Forsman comes with a long to-do list to make life on campus more welcoming to American Indian students and those from underrepresented communities. “Indian students come in and have to be introduced to the campus as kind of outsiders,” Forsman says. “We want to make it so that the University is learning from the Indian students and faculty as well, so that we cannot only get an education, but provide an education to the to the institution,” Forsman says. “I can’t do that by myself. But there’s great students and people on faculty who are ready and willing and trying to bring that forward.” The chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and president of The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians sat down recently with Viewpoint to discuss the priorities he’ll tackle during the early stages of his sixyear term:
When your appointment was announced, you said recruitment and retention of Native faculty and students was a priority. How do you accomplish that? 4
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You’ve said you’d like to see Native American faculty and students develop curriculum and research in certain areas of interest. What do you envision there? I think that we’re talking about research into salmon recovery, climate change, better health outcomes, development of curriculum for public schools and training school teachers on history and culture of tribes. These aren’t being ignored, but they need to be emphasized and amplified in a way that makes it more relevant and accessible to tribes.
Many of the topics you mentioned aren’t tribal or local issues, they’re global. Oh, yeah, they are, and I think that one of the places that it comes into play for us is salmon recovery and ocean acidification. On salmon recovery, we’ve got challenges with habitat, restoration and preservation. So not only restoring, but also preserving what we do have has created a dynamic of diverging priorities with ag, timber, urban development and the fish and habitat. All these things are coming together, so we need to have more engagement with University help identifying potential solutions to these challenges.
BURK E M USEUM
UW P HOTO
There are different ways. One starts with the faculty, the programs and investing in the curriculum—essentially the classes that are important to them to have on campus because American Indians will seek out those programs. Even though they may be in another major, they’ll seek out those experiences with fellow students. That’s one of the reasons why we push so hard for the Intellectual House to have a place to nurture that, and that’s why phase two [of — Intellectual House] is super important. My experience when I got there was the Educational Opportunity Program was solid and they had a different ethnic cultural counseling center. So there was counseling available for all different types of groups— American Indians, Asian Americans, economically disadvantaged Americans—and that went away. It got consolidated essentially, so we lost some of our identity there, and that was kind of a blow to us.
GABRIELA CHAVARRIA
New Leader at the Burke Last month, Gabriela Chavarria became executive director of the Burke Museum. She brings more than 20 years of experience in science, management, influencing policy, developing new scientific collections and leading research efforts both nationally and internationally. “What excites me the most about joining the Burke Museum is that I’m coming to an institution that has created a totally new way to showcase collections,” says Chiavarra. “There’s no other museum in the world that wants to show the public the work behind the scenes to the extent that the Burke does.” Looking ahead, Chavarria is prioritizing expanding the museum’s approach of giving visitors up-close views of science at work as well with outreach to the community. “In a world where we’re trying to be more inclusive and diverse, more equitable, the Burke has much room to grow, incorporating new ideas and thoughts,” Chavarria says.
New Name, New Vision The Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) has served graduate and professional students from underrepresented communities for decades. Now it has changed its name and expanded its mission to meet the times. Last fall the program was renamed and recast as the Office of Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE). “We are living through another historical moment of racial reckoning. Racialized injustice, violence, and stunted opportunities remain too ubiquitous in American society,” write Graduate School Dean Joy Williamson Lott and GSEE Director Carolyn Jackson. The term “minority” is outdated and does not signify the change-making the Graduate School is committed to in the current historical moment. Expanding its work, the GSEE will focus on improving departmental climate and equity for students in their academic homes.
Toward a More Diverse Faculty By Jackson Holz Last fall Angélica Amezcua, the first in her family to earn a Ph.D., arrived at a tenuretrack job at the UW. Her journey started in Jalisco, Mexico, and continued through California, where her family moved when she was 11, and Arizona, where she completed her doctorate. Now assistant professor of Spanish and director of the UW’s Heritage Language Program, Amezcua says coming to the University directly from her graduate program was daunting, especially since she is breaking ground in a new field. But she feels at home thanks, in part, to a campus-wide effort to support underrepresented groups
SAR AH MCQ UATE
“I just felt so reassured that I made the right decision [to come to the UW]. Not only did I feel validated, but I felt like I was going to be receiving support.”
Unequal Air
Despite cleaner air, pollution disparities for people of color remain across the US By UW News Despite dramatic improvements in air quality over the past 50 years, people of color at every income level in the U.S. are exposed to higher-than-average levels of air pollution. While this disparity has been widely studied, the links between today’s air pollution disparities and historic patterns of racially segregated planning are still being uncovered. Now a study from researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Washington has found that housing discrimination practices dating from the 1930s still drive air pollution disparities in hundreds of cities today. In this study—the first national-level analysis of modern urban air pollution and historical redlining—the team examined more than 200 cities and found a strong correlation between present-day air pollution levels and historical patterns of redlining. The researchers recently published their findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. “Racism from the 1930s, and racist actions by people who are no longer alive, are still influencing inequality in air pollution exposure,” says co-author Julian Marshall, professor of civil and environmental engineering.
“The problems underlying environmental inequality by race are larger than any one city or political administration. We need solutions that match the scale of the problem.” The term “redlining” describes a widespread federally backed discriminatory mortgage appraisal practice in the 1930s. This process color-coded city areas red if they included high concentrations of Black, Asian, immigrant or working-class residents, deeming these areas hazardous and excessively risky for investment. Redlining blocked access to favorable lending and other services. Historically redlined areas have been cumulatively affected by a low prevalence of home ownership, uneven economic development, displacement of residents, community disintegration and lack of access to education and economic opportunities. The researchers compared year-2010 levels of two regulated air pollutants—nitrogen dioxide (a short-lived gas emitted by traffic, industry and other sources) and fine particulate matter (longer-lived, tiny particles found in dust, soot, smoke and other emissions or formed in the atmosphere)— to redlining maps in 202 U.S. cities.
A new study from a team of researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Washington has found that housing discrimination practices dating from the 1930s still drive air pollution disparities in hundreds of American cities today.
and first-generation faculty. “I just felt so reassured that I made the right decision,” she says. “Not only did I feel validated, but I felt like I was going to be receiving support.” That support is part of an effort to recruit and retain faculty in line with the Race and Equity Initiative that the University launched in 2015. The new program is run out of the provosts office and led by UW sociology professor Alexes Harris. It serves about 28 new faculty from the Seattle and Tacoma campuses. They are paired with mentors with tenure in their academic units. They also have workshops and discussions to designed so they can build community, network and find professional development. “We cannot be an excellent university without a racially and ethnically diverse faculty,” says Harris, ’97. “We need to fully support our colleagues of color and ensure our community is a space where everyone can flourish.” At a town hall meeting this February, Provost Mark Richards described UW’s hiring trends: Nearly 27% of new tenure-track hires in 2021 are from underrepresented populations, the most diverse new faculty cohort in recent UW history. What’s more, the number of underrepresented faculty in tenure/tenure-track positions has increased 22% since 2017, and the number of women faculty in tenure/tenure track positions has increased 6.4% Hannelore Sudermann contributed to this story. the story of diversity at the UW
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S R E AS OTNHE TO LOVE
You can organize a movement, build a community, find a campus family, find your calling or just escape from class. Four decades of alumni share their love of this place.
♥ | Because it’s the best place on campus Students Alisa Chin, left, Sophie Nget, center, and Alina Doan love meeting up at the Kelly ECC. It’s a place for them to share their culture, connect with friends and take a break from campus.
When I think of mental health and things like that, I think of the ECC. It offered a place of inclusion and belonging for all of us. And when I was a student, pretty much every student of color knew every other student of color on campus. Beyond being a base for all the student associations, it was a place where successful people in the Hispanic community—like engineers at Boeing—could connect with us. They would come out and feed us during finals and bring us presents during the holidays. Those were like family gatherings. It was also one of the places the offcampus community felt they had access to connect with students. Within the students, every group did something special, and we were all part of it. The Hawaiian students, for example, held luaus. The building during my time as a student was run down. It was not the nicest place on campus, but it was the best place. —Roy Diaz, ’94, ’96, ’02, is an intellectual property lawyer and former president of the UW Alumni Association.
INTERVIEWS BY
Hannelore Sudermann P H OTO S B Y
Sophanna Tes
♥ | Because it is a different world
I grew up on the Yakama Reservation and came from White Swan High School in Yakima. My graduating class was about 36. My first class at the UW had over 200. It was culture shock. Without the ECC and the Minority Scholars Engineering Program, I don’t think I would have made it through. At first, it was mostly tutoring at the Instructional Center across from the ECC four to five days a week, and later the ECC became place for socializing. Though the engineering program had hundreds of students, only two of us were Native American. It was lonely. The ECC offered a different world. It was the one place I could see another Native American. A couple of my friends were always there no matter what time of day. If someone wasn’t there, they would be showing up soon. My experience with the ECC is one of the reasons I became so involved: I was president of the chemical engineering student organization, active in First Nations at UW and the first student to participate in OMA&D’s ambassador program. It’s why I’m working with students now. It’s why I’m mentoring them. —Jerald Harris, ’01, is a citizen of the Chinook Indian Nation. He works as a mentor and enrichment coordinator with students in �he Confederated �ribes of the Grand Ronde.
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♥ | Because you can do big things there
We took over a community newspaper and, out of the ECC, we created the first pan-Asian publication in Seattle. It started with Diane Wong, ’72, Norman Mar, ’72, Alan Sugiyama, ’84, and me. I remember meeting at the ECC to name it. We had a number of ideas and someone brought up the song by Sly and the Family Stone, “Family Affair.” We took that and created “Asian Family Affair.” We would meet up at the center on Saturdays and Sundays and did everything by hand. Sometimes we would have to ask the campus police to let us in on the weekend. We had an IBM electric typewriter and we wrote up and laid out the paper, putting together all the stories and pictures. The University afforded us that space to publish a newspaper and tell stories no other local media would produce. We wrote about Alaska Cannery Workers and Executive Order 9066, the 1942 order that led the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. We interviewed Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color elected to Congress, and George Takai, actor and activist. We were pushing to highlight Asians in public roles. None of us were paid. The newspaper was a labor of love for our community and need for getting the news out. A lot of us were going to school and the ECC was close. Without being able to start it there on campus, I don’t know how long we would have been able to stay focused. At the ECC we had nurturing environment. It was a place where people could have different points of view and still get along.
♥ | Because it’s where you can find your path
One of the most important parts of my UW experience was the leadership opportunities. I was president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and a member of the student organization called Sisterhood, which was formed by Toyia Taylor. We met in the Black room at the ECC. I spent most of my time there. In both organizations, we were committed to community service. We would go and visit a house for teenage mothers bringing clothes and gifts. It made us think about our lives and the opportunities we had and to connect with young brown women that we loved to give back to. We also mentored young women at local public schools. The experience has definitely informed my career now. How often was I there? Every day! We lived there! I worked as a tutor in the Instructional Center across the street and then I would come over to the ECC and just hang out. At big public universities you often hear that you’re going to be lost. But as a student of color at the University of Washington, it was very personal. I felt the UW was and continues to feel so small. —Tiffany Dufu, ’96, author of “Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less,” is a national figure in the women’s leadership movement. Her company, �he Cru, focuses on advancing women and girls in their personal and professional lives.
—Frank Irigon, ’76, ’79, lifelong activist and co-founder and onetime executive director of the International District Community Health Center. Recipient of the 2022 Charles E. Odegaard Award.
The University afforded us that space to publish a newspaper and tell stories that no other local media would produce. It was a labor of love for our community. At the ECC we had a nurturing environment. It was a place where people could hae different points of view and still get along. —FRANK IRIGON, ’76, ’79
♥ | Because it’s a base from which alumni can encourage diversity across campus
In the late 1990s, the UW Alumni Association’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership held several annual retreats at the Kelly ECC. And from 1997 to 2001, MAP developed and co-sponsored diversity summits with a student group called Multicultural Organization of Students Actively Involved in Change. The goal was to encourage campus-wide involvement in promoting diversity. MAP had a lean budget and we often provided food for the summits out of our own pockets. The large session was always held in the ECC Theater and all the breakout sessions were held in the ECC, in each of the four rooms with the ethnic paintings. The ECC and the Ethnic Theater have represented diversity just by being named as diversity places. —Vivian Lee, ’58, a nursing alumna with a ground-breaking career in the Seattle health community, is a volunteer, advisor and activist. She mentors future nurses and advocates for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She co-founded the UW's Multicultural Alumni Partnership in 1994 and won the Odegaard Award in 2000.
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♥ | Because it was ahead of its time
I was an Afghan refugee who immigrated here with my family in 1987. While the UW didn’t have that many Afghan students when I started in the early 1990s, I found a community of people at the ECC who looked like me. It was a great place for community building. I remember there was a TV where we would watch “Days of Our Lives” together. We also did our homework there, just sitting near other students. It was a community of scholars. Out on a campus that was predominantly white, you didn’t feel like you belonged, but at the ECC we felt understood and supported. It was ahead of its time. There were individuals who worked there who really understood students of color and the challenges we faced. It’s something a lot of institutions should be doing. A lot of what I do now is certainly informed by my own experiences at the UW. —Shafiqa Ahmadi, a former UW student and current associate professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California. She is an expert on diversity and legal protection of underrepresented students, including Muslims and survivors of bias, hate crimes and sexual assault.
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♥ | Because it was home to Seattle’s first multiethnic theater
The Group Theatre was formed in the ECC’s theater back in 1978 when Rubén Sierra and 10 other people put on a play called “Short Eyes.” It was so successful, more performances were added. Once the run was done, people kept asking “What are you going to do next?” So the next play was “Steambath” about God being a Puerto Rican janitor. And people were asking, “What is your theater group called?” And Ruben said, “The Group,” and that’s how it became The Group Theatre. It was the only multicultural theater in the city and became known around the country. The Group performed plays by African American, Chicano and Asian American playwrights and cast actors of color in plays that typically had white actors. I was a student coming with a BFA from Howard University back in 1980-’81 and I read that the UW had an Ethnic Cultural Theater that was home to a professional company that does multiethnic plays. There was a fellowship especially for graduate students of color in the drama department. It attracted me all the way from Washington, D.C. It totally changed my life. Once it formed, The Group quickly became one of the top five theaters in Seattle, it was so successful. By the time I got there in 1981, it was a professional theater that used professional actors. Rubén and I started a multicultural playwrights festival. Writers from around the country would come and workshop their plays with us. We also had a loyal season ticket-holding audience. We were a major part of the theater ecology, a place where actors could launch their careers, going from amateur to professional on their way into major careers. It was a great time for theater in Seattle. —Tim Bond, ’84, was artistic director for �he Group from 1991 to 1996. From there he worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and went on to direct in theaters around the world. He returned to Seattle in 2016 to serve as head of the UW’s professional actor training program. In 2020 he became artistic director for �heaterWorks in Silicon Valley.
♥ | Because you can be who you are
I’m originally from Mexico and I grew up in Eastern Washington. When I came to campus, I struggled to find any kind of support. I actually walked into the Ethnic Cultural Center and said I'm an undocumented student, where can I get resources? At the time, people on campus did know there were undocumented students, but they didn't understand how to help us. There wasn't an active ally-ship. Being a freshman in a new city, keeping my grades up and dealing with financial pressures and living pressures was more than most people realized. While we had in-state tuition, thanks to House Bill 1079, we had no access to financial aid. When you walked into an office on campus, you never knew if you were able to feel welcome. Professors had no idea about our student experience. We were closeted. But I would talk to anybody who would listen about how we were underresourced. When you make a space dedicated to students of color—people who look like me—you feel you can actually trust people with who you are. When I met Maggie (Fonseca, an ECC staff member at the time and current director), she said, "You can trust me." It was just so important having someone to listen. Where I met barriers on campus, at the ECC they just asked, how do we help you? I think I started speaking up right away. I was the person who would just put myself out there even though I was afraid. We started a registered student organization for undocumented students and put together a fundraiser that raised $1,000 to give a scholarship to someone who was undocumented. Then we thought of holding a conference and invited regional teachers and counselors to help build a community around undocumented students. I remember that day, March 22, 2012. We were planning for about 45 people and 230 showed up. Educators and parents brought their students and children. We packed them all into the ECC. Afterwards, we heard from the students that it was a relief to learn that college was a possibility and there might be a scholarship you can apply to. Everybody should be able to lean into their lives, including undocumented students. —Yuriana Garcia Telez, ’18, led the Kelly ECC-based Leadership Without Borders program for undocumented students. She later worked in undocumented student services at Rutgers University. She also worked in diversity outreach and engagement for the city of Bellevue. �oday she is an inclusion recruiting program coordinator at Netflix.
♥ | Because it was planned by students for students
In the late 1960s, some of the founding members of Black Student Union attended a conference in Los Angeles to learn about establishing Black studies programs and recruiting Black faculty, students and administrators to their school. They also heard from poet Sonia Sanchez, a leader in the Black arts movement, about how celebrating culture can foster student wellbeing. They came home wanting to build a place on campus for social and cultural support and celebration. The students drafted plans for a multiethnic cultural center, a theater and a learning center and, with the help of Dr. Samuel E. Kelly, presented them to the University’s administration. —Emile Pitre, ’69, was a founding member of the Black Student Union and later joined the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Over three decades workng with underrepresented. first-generation and low income students, his various roles included serving as director of the Instructional Center and associate vice president for assessment at OMA&D. He is also known as OMA&D’s “elder statesman” and historian.
When I met barriers on campus, at the ECC they just asked, how do we help you? When you make a space dedicated to students of color, you feel you can actually trust people with who you are. —YURIANA GARCIA TELEZ, ’18
The interviews were edited and condensed for clarity.
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BELOVED COMMUNITIES College of Built Environments students help historically Black churches survive gentrification B Y C H R I S TA L B O T T
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P H O T O S B Y M AT T H A G E N
R
EV. GEORGE DAVENPORT JR. HAD
a vision of using real estate to sustain his church community in its historically Black Central District neighborhood. But while the streets around the church gentrified, he struggled through the complex landscape of zoning laws, building codes and speculative funding options. Then he stumbled upon the Nehemiah Initiative and the work of the UW’s Nehemiah Interdisciplinary Studio. A partnership between Black church leaders and community advocates seeking to preserve their communities and the UW’s College of Built Environments, the collaboration engages students in charting an economically sustainable future for the churches in one of America’s most expensive ZIP codes. “I was in the desert looking for a cup of water,” Davenport says, and “the Nehemiah Initiative and the University of Washington really gave me some water to drink.” After spending time with church and community leaders, the UW-based group of faculty and students developed a detailed assessment. It provided the Peoples Institutional Baptist Church a path to develop affordable housing for church elders while also generating income from market-rate housing. It’s a plan the church might not have come to on its own, and thanks to recent changes in state and city laws, it’s a realistic blueprint for the 80-year-old congregation. “I was blown away by the architectural design and the possibilities with the renovation,” Davenport says. “I was blown away by what we could do as far as affordable housing and the creation of curb appeal, and also how it could ultimately benefit my membership.” There are many decisions to be made, but leaders at Peoples can now see a future that includes the option to remain in the Central District, a section of Seattle that used to be home to the largest African American community north of California, according to Donald King, a UW affiliate professor of architecture and president and CEO of the Nehemiah Initiative. African Americans once made up more than 73% of the population in the Central District, one of the few places in Seattle available for them to live due to redlining, restrictive covenants and The idea of a “beloved community” was popularized by Martin Luther King Jr. who envisioned a future where all people could share in the wealth of the earth. The Nehemiah Initiative-College of Built Environments collaboration pairs students and faculty with historically Black communities to help institutions like churches and the people they serve survive rapid socioeconomic change. Left, DeJai Mitchell, ’21, and her classmates worked with architect Donald King, left, and the Rev. George Davenport to craft a plan for Peoples Institutional Baptist Church. She later earned a degree in urban design and planning.
other racist practices. Gentrification and increasing economic disparity have flipped the dynamic in the neighborhood in the 21st century with once affordable houses and properties going for six and seven figures. Today, African Americans make up less than 14% of the neighborhood, and more than a dozen Black churches have moved or closed over the past decade. King and other community leaders established the Nehemiah
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Initiative in 2018 to stem the tide. The following year, King worked with fellow professors Rachel Berney, Branden Born, CBE Dean Renée Cheng and Al Levine to develop course offerings. The solution, they found for some, was right under their feet. Many churches have dedicated parking lots, making them cash poor but property rich, as King puts it. “And these parking lots are rarities,” King says. “In their neighborhood, where there’s higherdensity development, they can be picked out very clearly in an aerial photo. What’s wrong with this picture?” That one question has led to many more, he says. Like what does the future look like for churches, especially Black urban churches? Is a smaller sanctuary viable now that the community is shrinking? And is it OK to go without a parking lot in a community that relies increasingly on public transportation and ride sharing? “So it’s got them questioning a number of things and it’s got that conversation going on,” King says. “And it goes on primarily among the younger church leaders, the younger pastors, who can embrace the change, the change in business model and in how their worship services are delivered, because COVID now has really pressed that question for them.” The studio projects began with simple conversations and surveys of church and community members, says DeJai Mitchell, a ’21 graduate who now works as a planner for the city of Kirkland. What they heard back was powerful. “They want a sense of community again,” Mitchell says. “They felt like just walking down that street (in the Central District) they felt out of place. They mentioned tales of living there and you would talk to your neighbor, the neighbor after that, the whole block, and there would be music playing. It was just a welcoming place. And now, they just didn’t feel like they belong to a place that they helped to make what it is. They just want to have that sense of place again.” The collaboration is giving them the opportunity to reclaim that feeling, and on their own terms. Each project has turned out a little different, based on each church community’s needs. Ebenezer Zion AME, for instance, wanted to explore joining forces with the Meredith Mathews YMCA in a project that would include shared space. Damascus International Fellowship is looking at a dramatic transformation that includes a seven-story building to house the church, retail and community spaces, along with housing. The permutations are plentiful. Berney says most congregations are open to smaller sanctuary space. Two churches are even in talks to merge congregations, using one space for worship and the other for housing.
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Peoples has a more conservative plan, retaining its lovely original sanctuary, but developing its parking lot and unused space. “But that comes with a ton of externalities that you just have to consider,” says Sean Underwood, ‘21, who continued to work with the Peoples congregation after the studio class ended. “And sometimes when you’re just staring at a pro forma sheet or something like that, those don’t come across when you’re just seeing how much money it costs. What it really does is change the landscape of wherever you’re building forever. So that’s a massive point in real estate that I think sometimes gets overlooked because people’s hair is on fire because they’re trying to build so much so quickly.” The Nehemiah Interdisciplinary Studio developed by Berney, King and Levine and the Nehemiah Urban Design & Planning Studio developed by Born push students to examine urban land-use from a far different perspective than their usual coursework. “That’s really one of the reasons why I got into planning: I just feel like a lot of times planners just plan and they never plan for the spaces that they are in or the people who are involved in those spaces,” Mitchell says. “And a lot of times you have a lot of brown communities that just kind of get the short end of the stick. So I think it was really impactful. I honestly think it should be a requirement. I think it’s super helpful, to not only future planners but planning as a whole.” The Nehemiah Interdisciplinary Studio has drawn national attention, receiving the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s 2021 Curriculum Innovation Award. The faculty are continuing to develop projects for the initiative in Seattle, including a new mapping project. There is also more outreach to do with church leaders so they feel comfortable explaining development approaches to their congregations, King says. “This is a big deal with the churches, that level of trust, especially around their property and assets,” he says. “Property is something they hold very close and dear, so it is work to get them to trust anyone involved in that process of saying maybe there’s something you can do with it.” One of the keys to that process is “figuring out some of the things that the initiative might do next to continue building its legacy and capacity in the city,” Berney says. “For example, we've realized we need more Black developers. And to do that there needs to be a bit of a pipeline. And so some of the folks who helped mentor the studio, who are volunteers, often from the development world, could also start to mentor and help start to create that pipeline.”
In 1970, the Central District was 73% African American, today it's less than 14%. The Peoples Institutional Baptist Church has worked with UW's Nehemiah studio to create real estate and community development strategies to stem further displacement of the Black population.
MAP Awards 2022 The Multicultural Alumni Partnership celebrates alumni and community members who support diversity
—Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Alumnus—
—Distinguished Alumni—
—Distinguished Alumni—
Emile Pitre, ’69, tutored and mentored UW stu-
dents over four decades. As a graduate student in the late 1960’s, Pitre helped found the Black Student Union whose calls for diversity and equity led to the establishment of what became the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Later, he taught at and led the Instructional Center. Before he retired, he served as OMA&D assistant and associate vice president for assessment. He is a keeper of history for OMA&D.
, ’06, has a background in politics as well as experience working to serve marginalized communities in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She also studied design in graduate school at Harvard University. In 2021, she founded her company làmdi to consult leaders and organizations in transition. Previously she worked in accessible and affordable housing and lead public engagement for the Seattle city planning team.
Marcus Harden, ’18, is an educator, mentor and
—Distinguished Alumni—
—Young Alumni—
—Community Orgnization—
Michael �ulee, ’93, ’15, (Yakama) is executive director of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, a Seattle-based community center and cultural home for urban Indians. Tulee studied geography and teaching at the UW and later returned to complete a Ph.D. in Environmental and Forest Sciences. He has also worked in government and as a recruiter for the Boys & Girls Club. He teaches American Indian Studies at the UW.
Varisha Khan, ’17, joined the Redmond City
�he Seattle Community Kitchen Collective
Council in 2020 and became one of the first Muslim women elected to public office in Washington state. Her work at nonprofit organizations in King County focused on making media and government more representative and inclusive. As a council member, she advocates for environmental sustainability, criminal justice reform and renters’ and workers’ rights.
advocate. At the UW, he took part in the Danforth Educational Leadership Program and earned a master in education. He started his career as an intern in the U.S. Senate and later worked for the King County Superior Court through Family Law Facilitation. He was worked in Seattle Public Schools for nearly 15 years. Marcus is now senior director of academics and development for Overtime Elite Academy in Atlanta, GA.
started in 2020 when chefs and restaurant owners in Seattle’s South End transformed their establishments to feed neighbors in need. Melissa Miranda, ’07, who opened Musang in 2016, used her Beacon Hill kitchen for feeding community members during the pandemic. The collective continues to seek ways to promote food education and food security. the story of diversity at the UW
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One Who Dared
M E D I A
Remembering Harvy Blanks When Harvy Blanks was a child in Chicago, a teacher took a group of neighborhood children to a performance of “Aida” starring Leontyne Price, and Blanks was smitten. He could see himself on the stage. His journey detoured through the UW and college football. He was a star Husky running back during the ’67 and ’68 seasons. He was well known for his speed as well as his resistance to racism within the football program. He didn’t hesitate to speak out about how African American players were treated. In 1969, he and three other Black players were suspended from
D E NVE R P OST
the team after they refused to pledge unconditional loyalty to Coach Jim Owens, the team and the University. Carver Gayton, an assistant coach and former player, resigned in protest of the suspension. While the three other players were later reinstated to the team, Blanks, who had suffered a broken foot and was likely the most outspoken, was not. After completing his studies at the UW, he enrolled at Cornell University to earn a master’s degree before going into acting, directing and writing plays. A gifted actor who performed in a wide range of theater works include plays by Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, he kept the works of August Wilson at the core of his performances. He spent 25 years of his career at the Denver Center Theater Company. In 2017 he made his Broadway debut performing in “Jitney,” the only Wilson play that hadn't, until then, been performed in the nation’s theatrical center. In 2021, Blanks and the three other former players who stood up to the UW coach and Gayton were inducted into the UW Sports Hall of Fame as “The Five Who Dared.” Blanks died in Denver on Feb. 6 at age 74.
Undocu Graduation Celebration May 26 Kelly ECC
Filipino Graduation June 4
— Intellectual House
Lavender Graduation Celebration EM I L E P I T RE
June 4, Virtual
La Raza Graduation Celebration
Celebrations and Graduations Many of the special ceremonies for students, families and their UW communities are returning to campus after having to move online during the pandemic. These multicultural and multilingual events are designed especially to celebrate students from underrepresented groups as well as their families who sacrificed and supported them through college. For some events, times are still to be determined.
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V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m .c o m / v i ew p o i n t
June 8 – 5-6:30pm — Intellectual House
Black Graduation Celebration June 9, 8 p.m. Meany Hall
Pasifik Graduation June 9
— Intellectual House
Native Graduation June 10
— Intellectual House
A Drum in One Hand, A Sockeye in the Other By Charlotte Coté, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies University of Washington Press, 2022 Tapping into her scholarly expertise as well as her experience as a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht on Vancouver Island, Charlotte Coté tells stories of Indigenous food sovereignty. She brings forward stories of family members maintaining their sacred food practices and taking steps to move away from unhealthy contemporary foods and Western diets. As she explores food sovereignty, Coté also examines how the return to traditional and healthy practices like eating salmon and berries and community gardening, can repair relationships with the natural world. The 1990s saw a start of a movement among Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada to use food sovereignty to strengthen community bonds, support healthy decision-making, and assert cultural and political autonomy. Here Coté looks at how Indigenous people today continue to face food insecurity but are finding ways to wellness through food and family. The Town of Babylon By Alejandro Varela, ’06 Astra House, 2022 In his debut novel, Alejandro Varela tells the story of Andres, a public health professor who, in the wake of his husband’s infidelity, returns home to see his ailing father. While in the suburban town of his childhood, he reconnects with old friends and his first love. And he attends his 20-year high school reunion. The novel explores queer, racial and class identity as well as the role of community in one’s own health. Varela, a School of Public Health alum, often draws from his interest in the health of individuals and community in his writing. Besides this novel, he has had stories published in magazines including Harper’s Magazine and The New Republic.
Care Package Community Supporting former foster youth By Chris Talbott The UW Champions Program was established in 2011 to serve foster care youth and alumni at the UW. It has since expanded to include students who experienced unaccompanied homelessness as youth.
BAR BAR A LO R D MACLEAN
Barbara Lord MacLean, ’80, got her first close look at the UW’s Champions Program, for students who come from foster homes, as a member of the Friends of the Equal Opportunity Program Board of Directors. It changed the direction of her philanthropic life, especially around the holidays. “They had speakers from the Champions Program, these two young women that were both physics majors, and they came from a background of foster care,” MacLean says. “Their story was, just oh, my God, it just broke your heart and blew your mind how well they had done given their circumstances. After that, I was really, like, ‘Let’s do something!’ ” The Champions Program, which operates out of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, exists to ensure academic success among its nearly 100 students who were in the foster care system or experienced homelessness and to prepare them for life after graduation. The students can access academic mentoring, and help finding housing, clothing and school supplies. Now the FEOP board president, MacLean makes sure the Champions are in the thoughts of the board members—and her extended circle of friends—during holiday breaks, when the students need it most. In December, the FEOP and the University District Rotary Club teamed up to provide care packages during exams and to stock a pantry to provide food security while the campus is on break. Exam week and the holidays are difficult under any circumstances, let alone during a pandemic. While most students have a family or guardians to help them through tough times, many Champions participants, who leave the foster care system at age 18, don’t have the same resources. The hope, says the Rotary’s Jeff Werthan, was “just to make finals week a little bit easier and less stressful.” The resource drive matched the goals of the Rotary’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Peacebuilder committees. After meeting with UW administrators to figure out what was needed most, Rotary members went on a holiday shopping spree. “And all four of
us wound up going shopping at Costco to purchase mostly food,” Werthan says, “but also hygiene products.” Rotary hopes to continue to work with OMA&D on projects, Werthan says. Engagement can become addictive—just like the treats MacLean now makes for the students each year with the help of a growing team of bakers. The former Boeing manager called upon family and friends who like to bake. This year they made nearly two dozen cookies for each Champion participant. “And they loved them,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like much, because it’s just cookies, but they were so excited. We had 19 bakers, including me and my sister. Thirteen of us were retired from Boeing. The others were friends I grew up with. And everybody was so enthusiastic. So on both sides it seems like a huge success, right? It’s just a morale booster.”
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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
CHARLES E. ODEGAARD AWARD RECIPIENTS
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Emile Pitre 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 Jacobsen Herman D. Lujan J. Ray Bowen Frank Byrdwell Andrew V. Smith Phyllis 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
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m .c o m / v i ew p o i n t
A social and civil rights activist shaped by his own experience and the racial and political unrest and activism of the 1960s, Frank Irigon, ’76, ’79, is the recipient of the 2022 Charles E. Odegaard Award. Irigon was born in Fort McKinley in the Philippines in 1947. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 to join his father, who was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas. From there they traveled to Germany and then to Fort Lewis in Washington, where the senior Irigon finished out his active duty. Enlisting in the Army after high school, Frank Irigon served from 1965 to 1968. He furthered his education on the G.I. Bill, starting at community colleges in Tacoma and Seattle and then finishing a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in social work at the University of Washington. His experiences during those tumultuous times shaped his political views and inspired him to be of service to all people pursuing the American dream. While at the UW, he took part in anti-war and social justice activism and joined the Asian Student Coalition. “When I was a student, the things we did were for the community,” he says. “Today, students are working with the community. They are coming and asking what does the community need them to do.” Irigon was the first Filipino American on the Associated Students of the University of Washington board of control and later he ran on a minority/feminist slate for higher ASUW office. He ran for second vice president and the slate won. His aim in becoming a student body leader was to help direct funding for student programs. Interested in protecting culture and community, Irigon initiated and helped lead a major protest at the 1972 groundbreaking ceremony for the Kingdome. The students represented the larger community in the nearby Chinatown-International District who feared the stadium would harm the nearby fragile neighborhood, where resources and public services were already in short supply. Irigon co-founded and developed content for the Asian Family Affair, the city’s first pan-Asian community newspaper, which was first produced out of the UW’s Ethnic Cultural Center. He also co-founded and served as executive director for the International Dis-
trict Community Health Center. Today, Irigon serves on the boards of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, the OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates—Greater Seattle Chapter, and the Asian and Pacific Islander Americans for Civic Engagement. Most recently, he has been out front drawing attention anti-Asian and Pacific Islander hate crimes. He is married to Felicita, whom he met at the UW, and they have three children and five grandchildren. Established in 1973, the Odegaard Award honors individuals whose leadership in the community exemplifies the former UW president’s work on behalf
UW P HOTO
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974
Activist and Advocate Frank Irigon Honored With 2022 Odegaard Award
FRANK IRIGON
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.
Frank Irigon will be honored at Celebration 2022.
The dinner event, which also highlights student success, can be attended in person or online at 6 p.m., May 18 in the Husky Union Building. For more information, contact Daya Terry: wmnterry@uw.edu.
