MAT T H A G EN
THE CITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Patricia Lally Leads Seattle’s Equity Efforts By Hannelore Sudermann As head of Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights, Patricia Lally, ’98, enforces the city’s civil rights laws, advises Mayor Ed Murray, and oversees a staff of 30. She also leads the citywide Race and Social Justice Initiative. “How can we ensure that your zip code doesn’t determine your quality of life?” asks Lally. Whether the focus is schools, safety, or resources, “we’re constantly trying to provide assistance to our communities and constantly trying to imagine ways to communicate what equity is and how to achieve it.” The former deputy U.S. Attorney also helps departments across the city review their work with racial equity in mind. “We ask them what is the goal of their project? What are the consequences?” she says. “If the project is detrimental to a certain group, how do we mitigate that?” Lally grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of Mexican-American parents who didn’t have the resources to attend college themselves. She majored in accounting because she needed an immediate income to support her family. The accounting office she launched in rural Thurston County grew into a lively business with four employees and 350 clients. Still, Lally wasn’t satisfied. At 40, Lally started her first year of law school at UW, while continuing her accounting work on weekends and holidays. She won
a fellowship at Perkins Coie for diverse law students. The fellowship and subsequent job provided years of experience, but little time in court. Seeking more, she applied to the U.S. Attorney’s office, and worked there as a prosecutor for 11 years. All the while, Lally kept her ties with the UW, helping recruit and mentor law students of color. She also joined the state’s Minority and Justice Commission, and was president of the Washington Bar Association’s scholarship foundation. In 2013, Lally took two months to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. “Beware of any sabbatical,” she says, laughing. As she traveled the pilgrimage route, she pondered how she could better serve her community and realized she was ready to change careers again. Back in Seattle, she reconnected with Murray, a state senator running for mayor. “His platform really matched my idea of service,” she says. When his transition team called, she jumped at the chance to steward the city’s Race and Social Justice Initiative. Now she guides the city’s efforts around social justice and race. “Sometimes people ask why ‘racial equity’ and not other kinds. It’s because the data shows the inequity around race is the most profound and pervasive.” Areas like LGBT, disability, and age truly matter, she says. “But we’re using race to build the skill set to tackle all inequities.”
the story of diversity at the UW
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