Viewpoint -Fall 2013

Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington / Fall 2013

Alumni ASSOCIATION

Looking to the Future

FALL 2013

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 A T 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

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In This Issue Diversity Requirement • 5 Looking to the Future • 6 Noteworthy • 12 The Viewpoint Interview: Steven Kim • 14 2013 MAP Breakfast • 16

Purple, Gold and Lavender The joint was jumping at the 12th annual Lavender Graduation ceremony June 11 in the UW Tower. “May the Fierce Be With You” was the theme of the event, which was produced by the Q Center, Office of Student Life and Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. The celebration, which was open to all eligible students of any level (undergraduate, graduate

or professional), invited the UW queer, same gender loving, two-spirit and allied communities to come together and celebrate “our multiple identities, our accomplishments and sheer awesomeness.” Q Center director Jen Self, ’05, ’10, told the crowd, “We have all been through hard times, but without tears, joy is not as possible.”

PHOTO BY KAREN ORDERS

On The Cover Rainier Scholars teacher Drego Little was photographed in Seattle’s Rainier Valley by Anil Kapahi. the story of diversity at the UW

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HE UNIVERSITY OF Washington believes in tomorrow. That is why one year ago, UW President Michael K. Young launched an initiative focused on our commitment to making an impact in three areas: leading change in public higher education; turning the UW inside out to apply expertise to early education, sustainability, health care and social justice; and driving our economic future.

This edition of Viewpoint highlights some ways our faculty, staff, students, alumni, partners and programs are making a difference in these areas.

For example, it is no coincidence that in the last year a principal and teacher from two UW GEAR UP schools re-

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FA C E T H E F U T U R E for this issue of Viewpoint, and The Future mirrors worry and hope. It is July 24. I’m preparing to leave for Hiroshima, the place my grandparents were born. There, the World Friendship Center has invited our group of 10 cast and crew to perform Breaking the Silence, a dramatized reading of three generations of Japanese American history composed by Nikki Nojima Louis, a UW alumna, out of sources in oral and published histories.

In the post-WWII beginnings of the World Friendship Center are two people from Seattle whose voluntary work to build homes, stick by stick, for the devastated people of Hiro-

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ceived national acclaim, largely for their efforts to expand their science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives for low-income students. Young people struggling to overcome poverty and adversity are benefiting from the work done by Seattle Education Access, an organization we partner with to help create a college pathway.

We have a faculty member and a graduate student who are performing a study on how debris and logging waste from Flathead Indian Reservation for-

ests in Montana can be used as aviation biofuel. We have an alumnus who started a software company that builds datacollection systems that work in remote parts of the world.

As alumni, you too can play an important role in making our world a better place. Consider making an investment in the future by supporting the next generation of innovators who are served by the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity.

You can support the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity at: uwfoundation.org/diversity.

Sheila Edwards Lange PhD, ’00, ’06 / Vice President for Minority Affairs Vice Provost for Diversity

You can play a role in making our world a better place.

shima should qualify them for sainthood: Floyd Schmoe and Daisy Tibb Dawson, a UW alumna whom MAP should be honoring. They built hope for our present. I believe the Japanese invited us because they want to understand how 120,000 Japanese Americans, imprisoned in U.S. concentration camps during World War II, were caught up in the same war that took lives at Pearl Harbor, in the firebombings of Tokyo and other cities, and in the atomic holocausts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When we visit, Hiroshima

and the world will be holding memorials for those who perished on Aug. 6, 1945 under the atomic bomb. I see our performance as a mission of peace, not of war. In her monumental novel, Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko tells of an old Laguna Pueblo grandmother who was struck by a blinding light from the testing of atomic bombs in New Mexico. Without understanding the material reality of our present and the future it makes, our faces are creased with worry. Without peace, there would be little hope.

ANIL KAPaHI

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MA RY LEVIN

points of view

Stephen H. Sumida PhD, ’82 / MAP President, 2011-14

Without peace, there would be little hope.

Student-Led Diversity Requirement Passes A DIVERSITY COURSE requirement for all University of Washington undergraduates—the culmination of 25 years of work—came to fruition May 24.

The diversity graduation requirement will include three credits of coursework that focus on the sociocultural, political and economic diversity of human experience at local, regional or global scales. As stated in the legislation, “the requirement is meant to help the student develop an understanding of the complexities of living in increasingly diverse and interconnected societies.”

Faculty of each school, college and campus will recommend and approve courses to meet the requirement. The requirement will likely be implemented in the fall of 2014.

The current proposal for the diversity requirement origi-

Bjong Wolf Yeigh named UW Bothell chancellor BJONG WOLF YEIGH, professor and president of SUNYIT, the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, has been named the next chancellor at the University of Washington Bothell.

“Dr. Yeigh has been a force of innovation and change throughout his career, particularly in positions of academic leadership,” says UW President Michael K. Young. “He has left a trail of success everywhere he has been, and we are very excited to have him join the University of Washington and lead our dynamic campus at Bothell as it continues to grow and develop.”

Yeigh has been at SUNYIT since 2008. There, he oversaw operations for the 800acre science and technology campus, SUNY’s only institute of technology.

Yeigh holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering science from Dartmouth, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford and a master’s and doctorate in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton.

nated three years ago by the UW Students for Diversity Coalition. The coalition’s membership featured students from several campus organizations including the Black Student Union, First Nations, Filipino American Student Association and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan.

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Cover Story

LOOKING AHEAD âžş A UW education increasingly extends beyond the classroom.

Our student body is becoming more diverse and is being transformed by new interdisciplinary approaches in crucial areas: reshaping K-12 education, promoting sustainability and clean energy, collaborating with community organizations devoted to social welfare and launching innovative new companies. This issue of Viewpoint showcases several of the people and programs that are at the forefront of this evolution.

PHOTOS BY ANIL KAPAHI

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The FUTURE

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By launching the Open Data Kit, Yaw Anokwa put organizations on the high road to better data collection and management.

SOLVING MEANINGFUL PROBLEMS | Yaw Anokwa had just wrapped up his master’s degree in computer science in June 2007 when he felt like something was missing. “I got to a stage in my life where I wasn’t working on meaningful problems,” he says.

Anokwa found that meaning in Rwanda, where he spent six months in late 2007 as a volunteer with Partners in Health, a global-health advocacy organization that treats HIV and tuberculosis patients. As a tech-minded volunteer, he set up and maintained the organization’s computer systems and managed patient data.

The Ghana native and self-described “wandering do-gooder” soon discovered an opportunity to make an even bigger difference. While in Rwanda, Anokwa found that almost all of the work Partners in Health did was done the old-fashioned way: on paper. With thousands of patients requiring regular care and medicine, keeping their records and prescriptions organized became an unbearable chore. “You can’t do that on paper,” Anokwa says. The revelation led him to marry two of his biggest passions: technology and giving back.

Thus inspired, Anokwa returned in 2008 to the University of Washington, where he pursued a doctorate degree in computer science and helped launch a project called the Open Data Kit. Anokwa, along with a team that included future business partner Carl Hartung, ’03, ’12, developed the

by Matt Wastradowski

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free set of tech tools to help organizations generate and manage data collection through smartphones and tablets.

With Open Data Kit, Anokwa saw the chance to replace cumbersome and easily lost paper forms with sleeker, quicker and more useful technical tools. Open Data Kit has since been used to fight wildfires in rural Montana, monitor elections in Egypt, help nurses diagnose illness in Kenya and track climate change in the Amazon rainforest. “It’s really shocking,” Anokwa says. “It’s astonishing to know that you put some time into the project and it has this kind of impact.”

Its popularity led Anokwa and Hartung to launch a new Seattle-based company, Nafundi, in late 2011. The pair established Nafundi to consult with and problem-solve for the growing list of Open Data Kit users. The company name is Swahili for “with a craftsman,” and Anokwa feels the name fits. “That’s how we see our work,” he says.

Hartung has known Anokwa since March 2006, when they met as computer science students, so he had no reservations about continuing the duo’s Open Data Kit work with Nafundi. “He’s good at figuring out what people need in order to be successful and helping them achieve that,” says Hartung. “He’s an incredible personality, loves networking and trying to figure out how we can help more people.” ■

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The FUTURE

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Toppenish High School principal Trevor Greene (left) and Zillah High School teacher Jeff Charbonneau received national recognition for their work with the GEAR UP program.

GEARING UP KIDS FOR SUCCESS | If someone had told sophomore Luis Gonzales when he was 12 that he would attend the UW and major in engineering, he would have said, “That would be a dream.”

And yet, because of his personal initiative and with support from several programs and partnerships of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D), the dream is coming true. Gonzales grew up in Yakima, Wapato, Lynnwood and Toppenish, the son of a single mother who earned her living as a migrant worker. He first encountered the UW through Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) at Toppenish Middle School.

Administered by OMA&D, GEAR UP serves nearly 5,000 students in 14 school districts in the Skagit and Yakima valleys. GEAR UP partner schools have high poverty rates and traditionally low-achieving student populations.

The GEAR UP staff logs many miles every year going into public schools and talking with students about the importance of college and how to finance it. The UW also serves middle- and high-school students through a GEAR UP partnership program (Rural Initiative in STEM Education and Undergraduate Preparation) as well as a professional development program (GEAR UP Educator Development

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by Erin Rowley

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Initiative) sponsored by the Washington Student Achievement Council for staff, teachers and school leaders. Through these three programs alone, the University reaches out to more than 17,000 students. The efforts are gaining some serious attention. In the last year, Toppenish High School’s Trevor Greene was named the National High School Principal of the Year and Zillah High School’s Jeff Charbonneau was named National Teacher of the Year. Both schools are GEAR UP partners and have been cited specifically for their commitment to expanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives.

GEAR UP is just one of several pre-college programs administered

by OMA&D that inspire underrepresented, low-income and firstgeneration students in grades 6-12 to pursue higher education and to prepare themselves for college.

“The UW is making every effort to ensure that students from all economic sectors have funding available and the opportunity to succeed,” says Enrique Morales, OMA&D associate vice president. For students like Luis Gonzales, GEAR UP may have an impact on both his family’s present and future. His little brother is 12. “When I go home, he says ‘Tell me a story’ and I tell him a story about college.” Gonzales has every hope that in a few years, his brother will have his own stories to tell about the UW. ■

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Alumna. Volunteer. Community Activist. Philanthropist.

For more than 50 years, Vivian Lee has worked to make the University of Washington inclusive and accessible for all students through her volunteer work. Now she is leaving her mark in another way. A retired nurse and 1958 graduate of the UW School of Nursing, Vivian has decided to make a bequest to the UW toward scholarships that support two of her greatest passions: the UW Alumni Association’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) board and the UW School of Nursing.

Vivian’s commitment to the UW is rooted in her family and her devotion to

If you are interested in learning more about planned giving, or would like to make a gift to support OMA&D programs, please tear and mail back this insert using the envelope provided.

You can also make a gift online at www.washington.edu/ omad/advancement/

higher education. She was fortunate that her parents were able to pay for her UW education, and she strives to make it possible for students from all underrepresented backgrounds to have the same opportunity she did. Through her bequest, Vivian wants students to know there is a community supporting them in their pursuit of higher education.

This passion for higher education is something Vivian has supported through organizations such as MAP, which she helped found nearly 20 years ago. She encourages others who are consider-

ing making a planned gift to do their research: attend events, understand the kind of work that is happening around campus and within the department, and get involved by volunteering. This will allow you to understand the resources that are and are not currently available, and then make an informed decision about giving back in a powerful way.

Vivian considers the UW her family, and for her, it is important to give to causes that reflect her values. As she says, “You leave your resources where your heart is.”

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The FUTURE

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Drego Little of Rainier Scholars rarely stands still as he helps students from ethnic minority backgrounds.

CREATING CONSEQUENTIAL KIDS | Roughly a decade ago, first-year literature and writing teacher Drego Little, ’98, M.A., ’05, was in the middle of a lesson about fairy tales when a middle-school student piped up. “These stories are sexist,” Little remembers the young girl saying. He was taken aback but nevertheless listened to her rationale.

So, in the next class period, he tasked his students with finding stories in which female protagonists saved the princes. “They were trying and that was the most important thing,” Little says. “All kids are capable of doing high-level work, but you need a culture that supports that.”

That “a-ha!” moment had been 20 years in the making, and Little has spent the 10 years since ensuring that his Rainier Scholars students enjoy and cultivate a supportive classroom atmosphere.

Little’s journey to Rainier Scholars—which offers educational opportunities and support to motivated children from ethnic minority backgrounds—started in the ’80s, when he spent time as a classroom assistant with Seattle Public Schools, and continued through the ’90s, when he worked with youth programs in community centers and public schools. But Little grew dissatisfied over the years. “I just wanted a place that treated serious kids seriously,” he says. “A lot of times, serious kids are mixed in with kids who are disengaged or discouraged, and they’re left

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to wither on the vine.” The program admits about 60 students each year.

Teachers work with students through college, whether it’s after school, over the summer or via email. “They seemed to have gotten the most important thing right,” Little says, “and that was academic preparation.”

That dedication caught the eye of Rainier Scholars Executive Director Sarah Smith, who hired Little in 2003. From the first time they met, “it was palpable that he was going to take our kids very, very seriously,” Smith recalls. “Not only does he say it, but he means it. There’s no beginning or end to the day with Drego and his work.”

Little returned to the UW for his Master’s in Teaching. His training from the College of Education and support from the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program helped prepare him to engage with students across cultures and backgrounds to work through weighty issues like class, race and gender. Reading assignments typically revolve around questions like “What keeps people from being themselves?” or “How do people fight with integrity?” The way Little sees it, his students might one day become a city councilmember or his grandchild’s pediatrician. “I try to treat them like they’re going to be consequential,” Little says.

“One of the things you do with consequential people is engage them in discussions about things that matter.” ■

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The FUTURE

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With the backing of Anthon Smith (left) of Seattle Education Access, Max was able to navigate the college application process and is thriving as a UW student.

REALIZING COLLEGE DREAMS | Max (he asked that his last name not be used) was a long way from his home in the Ukraine when he came to the U.S. in 2008 to attend Garfield High School as an exchange student. When the year was up, Max, who is gay, didn’t want to go home. Incidents of discrimination and violence against LGBT people are pervasive in the Ukraine, and he was also facing compulsory military service.

Max wanted to go to the UW but was overwhelmed by the application process. With the help of staff at Seattle Education Access (SEA), one of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s (OMA&D) community partners, he began the journey to a college education. SEA provides scholarships to students in need, helps them negotiate social services and provides tutoring and other support.

With the help of SEA staff, Max enrolled in the Running Start program at Seattle Central Community College. Max was also referred to a lawyer who helped him attain asylum in the U.S. After earning 60 credits at SCCC, he qualified for financial aid and transferred to the UW. He is majoring in molecular biology and chemistry and works part-time for a biotech company. He is on track to graduate this winter.

Emily (who asked that her last name not be used) comes to the University District SEA office when she feels overwhelmed. She started

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living on the streets of Seattle when she was 13. At 15, she became emancipated from her parents and got her GED. “She showed up in 2007 afraid to call colleges. She had no family,” says Anthon Smith, SEA executive director. Emily finished her second year at SCCC in June and is in the honor society. She is also the mother of a little boy who is almost five. SEA serves as a kind of support system for Emily as she plots her route to her ultimate goal: the UW. Smith estimates that up to 50 percent of the 650 young people SEA serves eventually attend the UW. Every year, OMA&D refers about 20 UW students to the program.

SEA has been filling this need for the past eight years. Polly Trout, a former San Diego State University professor, founded SEA after she started tutoring students at the University District Youth Center. “I was working with homeless youth, and I realized that a lot of them were very smart and passionate about learning. I thought they would make good college students,” she says.

Most SEA students don’t begin college at the UW. Like Max and Emily, they attend community college and then transfer. “Once they get to the UW, the University takes good care of them,” says Trout. In partnership with the UW, the organization is vital to helping low-income young people realize their dream of a college education. ■

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The FUTURE

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PH OT OS COU RT ES Y LAU REL JA MES

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Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (at right) are working with UW faculty and graduate students like Yakama Nation member Laurel James (above left) to turn woody biomass residues into renewable aviation fuel.

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH COMMUNITY | In ancient days, alchemy was the science of turning base metal into gold. Today, the UW has some modern-style alchemy going on. UW faculty and graduate students are partnering with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and lead institution Washington State University on a $40 million USDA grant to turn woody biomass residues into renewable aviation fuel.

Biomass isn’t the only thing being transformed. Dan Schwartz, chair and Boeing-Sutter Professor in the UW Department of Chemical Engineering, and Laurel James, a member of the Yakama Nation and a UW Ph.D. student and GO-MAP (Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program) fellow, work with other UW graduate students in engineering and environmental sciences to look at problem solving from a different perspective. Typically, engineers seek effective, lowcost technical solutions that comply with all appropriate regulations.

But their education rarely prepares them to focus on how a solution affects a community and its culture.

James has experience being on the other side of the engineering solutions’ fence. She worked for years in timber sales on the Yakama Reservation. “I was looking at things like bridge replacements. It was the first time some of the engineers were told they couldn’t just come

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into our environmental planning office and throw down their work.

They had to consult with the tribe on things like impact on wildlife and the impact on cultural and traditional use areas. When you are dealing with a tribal government, you learn that they manage things in a holistic manner,” she says.

Schwartz and James are coordinating and mentoring a team of students, many of whom are Native Americans from diverse disciplines, in their work with the CSKT and other tribes. The students seek to estimate the tribe’s supplies of sustainable biomass, the cost to transport it, and the broader impacts on the tribe’s overall forest management, environmental and economic goals.

“Clean-energy projects touch the landscape in big ways,” Schwartz notes, so engineers and scientists ignore community perspectives at their peril. A Google search on ‘oppose biomass,’ or ‘oppose solar,’ or any other clean-energy technologies illustrates that peril.

By working with tribes to set the project scope, collecting data and interpreting it while actively seeking diverse community feedback and involvement, the students gain skills in participatory research.

In this project, alchemy UW-style means more than a job well done.

It also means a satisfied community. ■

in the news Mark Mitsui, ’03, is leaving his position as president of North Seattle Community College to become deputy assistant secretary for community colleges in the U.S. Dept. of Education.

Mitsui’s goal is to improve the nation’s college completion rate. Mitsui previously was vice president of South Seattle Community College, which was one of the first six members of a national group of institutions serving Asian Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06, Vice President for Minority Affairs and Vice Provost for Diversity, received the Women in Engineering ProActive Network Founders Award and was named the UW College of Education Distinguished Graduate Awardee in June.

Mark Mitsui, ’03

The UW’s Native Voices Film Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in May. Documentaries produced by the Native Voices Center have won awards and been screened at Sundance, the American Indian Film Festival, the National Museum of the American Indian and other venues.

Kelly Aramaki, ’97, has been named executive director of schools for the Southeast Region of Seattle Public Schools.

He had been principal of Beacon Hill International School.

Morgan Cassell, ’10, received a 2013 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship. Cassell, who received a MAP Scholarship in 2010 while she was a UW student, plans to pursue a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. The fellowship is funded by the U.S. State Department and managed by the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University.

Leonard Forsman, ’87, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, was appointed to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation by President Obama.

Three alumni were honored at the Women of Courage event in May: Dr. Carol Simmons, ’68, retired educator and co-founder of the UWAA Multicultural Alumni Partnership; Pamela Banks, ’81, President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle; and Winona HollinsHague, ’75, who serves on the Advisory Board of the UW Health promotion Research Center and is immediate past chair of the UW School of Social Work’s Practicum Field Work Advisory Committee.

Two prominent alumni were named to the UW Board of Regents by Gov. Jay Inslee, ’81: Constance Rice, ’70, ’74, managing director for Knowledge Management for Casey Family Programs, and Rogelio Riojas, ’73, ’75, ’77, president and chief

executive officer for Sea Mar Community Health Centers.

Rice is filling the seat formerly held by Sally Jewell, ’78, who left to become U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Riojas will succeed Craig Cole on Oct. 1.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS October 17 GO-MAP’s Getting Connected Reception > 4-10 p.m., UW Club RSVP: gomap@uw.edu

October 26 The Weekend > Celebrate UW Homecoming with the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and campus partners. $75 package includes admission to the OMA&D tailgate in The Zone and one ticket to the UW vs. California football game. Time TBA. www.washington.edu/omad/ the-weekend/

in memory Roy Flores, who served as the first director of the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center from 1970 to 1974, died March 12. Flores was Assistant Director of the State Board for Community College Education and the longtime Vice President for Student Development Services at North Seattle Community College. He was 69.

Takashi Hori, ’40, whose family owned the Panama Hotel in the International District for many years, died May 6. Born in Littell, a small sawmill town near Chehalis, he earned a degree in business from the UW in 1940. He was interned at the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho. Before World War II, his family bought the Panama Hotel, where many families stored their possessions when they

were forced to leave Seattle during the war. Hori owned and operated the hotel until his retirement in 1985. He was 95.

Akira Moriguchi, ’65, who worked in his family business, Uwajimaya, Inc., for many years and was president and chief operating officer, died Dec. 22, 2012. From 1965 to 1988, he headed Seasia, Uwajimaya’s wholesale division and he helped establish Food Service International. He was 73.

Lois Price Spratlen, ’76, School of Nursing professor emeritus and former longtime UW ombudsman, died March 30. She was the first female ombudsman at the UW, serving in that role from 1988 to 2009. She was also the ombudsman for sexual harassment from 1982 to 2009. She was a member of the UWAA’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership and received its

2005 Dr. Samuel E. Kelly Award.

She and her husband, Thad Spratlen, UW professor emeritus of marketing, are UW Laureates, having given $1 million to the UW. She was 81.

Kip Tokuda, ’69, ’73, who as a state legislator worked to protect budget cuts to the vulnerable, especially economically disadvantaged children, died July 13. Tokuda, a former member of the UW President’s Minority Community Advisory Committee, was former executive director of the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. He served in the Legislature from 1994 to 2002 and was a founder of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington and the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leader Foundation. Last year, he received the Order of

Kip Tokuda, ’69, ’73

the Rising Sun award from the Emperor of Japan for his work strengthening and promoting good relations between the U.S. and Japan. He recently retired as the director of the City of Seattle Human Service Department’s Family and Youth Services Division. He was 66.

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THE VIEWPOINT INTERVIEW:

Steven Kim

LAW OF THE LAND

B Y L EI GH TU CK E R

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teven Kim, ’97, ’00, senior deputy attorney for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, returned to Seattle in February after spending a year in South Korea teaching government officials about the American criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice invited Kim after learning he had tried nearly 100 cases and that he is fluent in Korean.

When the opportunity arose, Kim and his wife, Lina Kim, ’99, ’03, made the difficult decision to divide their family for a year. His wife stayed at home with their school-aged daughter; he took his 3-year-old son and his mother. “It was meaningful to me,” Kim says. “When my mother lived in Korea, it was wartime. She immigrated … for [her family] to have a chance.”

His son attended Korean kindergarten, where he learned the language. Now, Kim’s family speaks only Korean at home.

During the first few months, Kim lectured at almost every major law school.

He spent the following eight months writing a textbook about the U.S. jury system. After translating it to Korean, the Ministry of Justice sent copies to prosecutors throughout the country and will distribute it to every new Korean prosecutor.

When Kim realized that he didn’t know a lot of the cultural aspects of being Korean, he decided to make it his mission to educate other Korean Americans about their shared heritage. Since returning, he has signed on as president of the Korean American Bar Association; as part of that role, he plans to provide career guidance for Korean American UW undergrads.

Kim left Korea with a deeper cultural understanding: “The best part of my trip wasn’t anything professional. It wasn’t the books, it wasn’t the lectures, it wasn’t the resumé. It was the fact that, now, in my home, we all speak Korean.”

PHOTO BY ANIL KAPAHI

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from the president

4333 Brooklyn Avenue N.E. Box 359508 Seattle, WA 98195-9508 Phone: 206-543-0540 Fax: 206-685-0611 Email: Viewpoints @ uw.edu Viewpoints on the Web UWalum.com/viewpoints

[ The End of Slavery ] As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in 2013, the UW History Lecture Series returns this fall with four presentations by nationally recognized historians

FOUNDED 2004

on the theme “Slavery and Freedom in the Making of America.”

Published by the UW Alumni Association in partnership with the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity

October 23

viewpoint STA F F

W E C H E R I S H T H E University of Washington for everything it has done for our community and for society as a whole. And we depend on the University to make our future even better.

This issue of Viewpoint examines a number of fields— and reveals just how much of a role the UW plays in creating a future we want for our children. The educational opportunities available here will continue to provide our students with the kind of learning environment that enables students of color and other underrepresented minorities to stretch themselves.

After all, that is what the future is about—reaching for new heights and coming up with better ideas to make our community proud. It’s a vision I plan to pass on to my two children.

Paul Rucker P U B LIS HE R

Jon Marmor ED ITOR

Paul Fontana A SS O CIATE E D ITOR W EB E D ITOR

Julie Garner S TA FF WR ITE R

Ken Shafer A R T D IR E CTOR D ES IGNE R

Greg Lewis L IA IS O N TO OFFICE OF M IN O RITY A FFA IR S & D IVE RS ITY

viewpoint ADVISORY COMMITTEE

M I K E E G A N , ’9 0

Professor Sandra Joshel will discuss how Rome often served as a touchstone for slaveholders in the United States from the colonial period through the 19th century.

October 30 Professor Stephanie Smallwood will focus on the early modern Atlantic world and the critical role of slavery in European colonization efforts across the Americas.

November 6 Professor Stephanie Camp will discuss slavery in the modern United States, highlighting the overwhelming economic significance enslaved labor held for the entire country, not simply the southern states, in the years following the American Revolution.

November 13 Professor Moon-Ho Jung will focus on the ongoing legacies of slavery, particularly on the ways race has remained a dominant force in shaping American culture and politics after the Civil War.

All lectures will be held in Kane Hall.

Ticketing information will be available shortly at www.historylectureseries.org or by calling 206-543-5790.

U W A A P R E S I D E N T, 2 0 1 3 – 2 0 1 4

Paul Rucker, ’95, ’02 Associate Vice President Alumni and Constituent Relations, Chair

Malik Davis, ’94 Director of Constituent Relations UW Alumni Association

HER CALLING

Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06

After spending the summer as the new media

Vice President for Minority Affairs Vice Provost for Diversity

manager for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, ’81,

Tamara Leonard

through two special legislative sessions, My

Associate Director Center for Global Studies Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

Tam Nguyen, ’06, is now attending Harvard University, pursuing a master’s degree in urban planning. Prior to the governor’s office, she

Greg Lewis, ’94 Senior Director for Advancement Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity

worked on social media and public engagement at the City of Seattle Department of

Carmela Lim, ’05

Planning and Development. A cancer diagnosis

Board Member Multicultural Alumni Partnership

in 2011 brought about a change for the native

Erin Rowley

of Vietnam, who came to the U.S. when she was

Director for Communications Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity

8 years old. “I’m grateful to have served the City of Seattle and our great state,” Nguyen says.

Kathleen Farrell

“Through treatment, I was reminded of my hu-

Director for Advancement UW Graduate School

manity, and as a survivor, I realized that I want

Eleanor J. Lee, ’00, ’05

Stephen H. Sumida, ’82 Professor, American Ethnic Studies President, Multicultural Alumni Partnership

to serve as many people as possible. Studying AN IL KAPAHI ( 2)

Communications Specialist UW Graduate School

urban planning will give me the technical tools and knowledge to inform my future work to address global urban poverty.”—Jon Marmor

the story of diversity at the UW

15

4333 Brooklyn Avenue N.E. Box 359508 Seattle, WA 98195–9508

Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington

MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast Diane Narasaki

Saturday, Oct. 26 8 a.m.

HUB Ballroom Join us on Homecoming Saturday as we honor four alumni and one community leader along with five scholarship recipients.

Proceeds from the breakfast benefit student scholarships.

Learn more and register: UWalum.com/map

Sarah Sense-Wilson

Alejandro Torres

Lembhard G. Howell

Polly Olsen

n DR. SAMUEL E. KELLY AWARD

n DISTINGUISHED COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

Diane Narasaki, ’76, is the longtime executive director of the Seattlebased Asian Counseling & Referral Service, one of the nation’s largest pan-Asian Pacific American community service organizations.

ACRS provides food to the hungry as well as culturally sensitive assistance in the areas of employment, medical and other matters.

Lembhard G. Howell is an attorney who has been involved in many of the Pacific Northwest’s most significant civil-rights cases. For example, he was the lead counsel in the 1969 case that caused trade labor unions of Washington to open their doors to minority applicants who had historically been excluded from the construction industry. And in 1979, he was plaintiff in a suit against the State of Washington to ensure equal educational opportunities for minority school children.

n DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS Sarah Sense-Wilson, ’99, (Oglala, Sioux) serves as the elected chair for the Urban Native Education Alliance. She is committed to strengthening the urban Native American community through organizing, program development, advocacy and networking.

Currently, she is leading the campaign to restore and reinvigorate Seattle’s Indian Heritage School and its Native American murals.

Alejandro C. Torres, ’88, is director and corporate securities counsel for Starbucks Coffee. After working for a private law firm, he joined InfoSpace as corporate counsel before moving to Starbucks in 2012.

He gives back by meeting with, advising and mentoring students who have questions about attending college and choosing a career.

n 2013 DIVERSITY AWARD FOR COMMUNITY BUILDING Polly Olsen, ’94, is director of community relations and development for the UW School of Social Work’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. There, she links UW researchers with tribal communities to examine health-care disparities and find solutions. Olsen, a member of the Yakama Tribe, also works tirelessly to build community and inclusiveness throughout the UW, particularly with tribal communities.