viewpoint - spring 2013

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

L E A D D A W G S

AlumniASSOCIATION

Thanks to their UW education, Huskies from underrepresented backgrounds are making their mark as leaders in a variety of fields—and blazing trails for alumni of color.

V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m . c o m / v i e w p o i n t s2

P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E U W A LU M N I A S S O C I AT I O N I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H T H E U W O F F I C E O F M I N O R I T Y A F FA I R S A N D D I V E R S I T Y

viewpoint : : Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington

In This Issue

Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center • 5

Leadership Profiles • 6

Noteworthy • 12

The Viewpoint Interview: Phyllis Fletcher • 13

Nikkei Celebration • 14

2013 Odegaard Award • 16

S P R I N G 2 0 1 3

PHOTO BY ANIL KAPAHI

On The Cover

Businessman and philanthropist Geta Asfaw was photographed in one of

the McDonald’s restaurants he owns in the Denver area by Marc Piscotty.

the story of diversity at UW 3

HOME SWEET

HOMENEW

It was celebration time Jan. 10-11 when hundreds of UW faculty, staff, students,

alumni and friends joined the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity to com-

memorate the opening of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. The center,

which was originally built in 1972, underwent a major renovation at its location

on the corner of Brooklyn Avenue N.E. and N.E. 40th Street. It was named in

honor of the late Dr. Sam Kelly, the founding vice president for minority affairs

at the UW. The center serves 100 student organizations and has been a home

away from home for students of color at the UW since its inception.


points of view

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Stephen A. Sumida PhD, ’82 / MAP President, 2012-13

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A P E R S O N W I S E beyond his years spoke after hearing students discuss which “role models” they might invite to campus. I paraphrase him: By “role models,” we typically mean leaders in business, civics, technology and culture. But people we consider “ordi-nary” are also role models in their ways. They show us possibilities of how we may lead productive lives in any endeavor.

Who among the students knew the servers in the caf-eterias or the custodians in their buildings? The students realized they did not know. They didn’t even think that among the custodians were

SE V E R A L M O N T H S ago, I spoke to a group of students in the UW Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) about the three key attributes I believe are essen-tial to effective leadership: tactical skills such as budget-ing and management; charac-teristics such as integrity and honesty; and traits such as vision and charisma.

Many people tend to think that while tactical skills and characteristics can be learned on the job or in the classroom, the traits associated with strong leadership are innate. However, I told the GO-MAP students that these traits can also be learned. No one thinks

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

It is not impossible to develop the skills and habits that people perceive as vision and charisma.

But people we consider “ordinary” are also role models in their ways.

of me as being shy and quiet, but I am. It is not impossible to develop the skills and habits that people perceive as vision and charisma. Anyone, with practice, can learn to be an effective leader.

Here at the UW, we provide opportunities for students to do just that and the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center (ECC) plays a large role in this effort. By participating in clubs and organizations served by the Kelly ECC, underrepre-sented minority students gain hands-on leadership experi-

ence. The Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity is also a partner in the new campus-wide Husky Leadership Initia-tive led by staff, faculty and students to enhance leader-ship education on campus.

Our success is evident by the number of UW alumni who, as extraordinary leaders, are making a difference in our underrepresented communi-ties. By doing so, they serve as outstanding role models for the next generation of Huskies who today are learning how to follow in their footsteps.

Asian Americans. This was in the Midwest. While these students denounced the Asian American Myth of the Model Minority, their idea of “com-munity” was still uninformed about how socioeconomic class narrowed their images of elite role models.

Does this differ from the situ-ation in Seattle, where diverse communities generally know their histories of survival? What that atypical student in the Midwest implied applies here: leaders are defined by having people to lead. Every

leader recognized in this issue of Viewpoint would be quick to agree. Without “followers,” there would be no “leaders.” Selected as a “Bridge Builder” among women leaders in Seattle, Vivian Lee, ’58, ’59, a co-founder of MAP, writes that while she is “included in that group of Bridge Builders . . . I much prefer to have all mem-bers of the bridge-building teams be equally honored.” Our gratitude to the leaders featured in this magazine also carries our respect and thanks to all who support them.


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n Named for Samuel E. Kelly, the UW’s first Vice President for Minority Affairs.

n One of the largest and oldest college cultural centers in the U.S.

n The first UW building to be named for an African-American.

n 25,000 square feet and is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certified.

WELCOME TO SAMUEL E. KELLY

ETHNIC CULTURAL CENTER

Sound Success

n Designed by former ECC students and UW alumni, Alex Rolluda, ’89, and Sam Cameron, ’75, of Rolluda and Associates.

n The home of 22 of the historical murals from the original building.

n The home of 100 registered student organizations.

n A new building that replaces one built in 1972 by Ben McAdoo, the first African American architect licensed in Washington state.

n A building with a design inspired by an open mar-ketplace of ideas that encourages people to meet and talk to one another.

n If you visit in person, be sure and stop at the front desk to ask for a map to locate the 22 murals that were preserved and installed in the new building.

n Go to UWTV.org for a look at the new Kelly ECC: www.uwtv.org/watch/17516611962

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It’s not every day that a UW

doctoral candidate adds

“GRAMMY Award winner” to

her list of accomplishments.

But Martha Gonzalez (in the

pink dress), who is working

toward a P.h.D. in the Depart-

ment of Gender, Women, and

Sexuality Studies, is a musician

and vocalist in the group Quet-

zal, which bagged a Grammy

this year in the Latin Pop, Rock,

or Urban Album category for

the album “Imaginaries.”

Gonzalez is a GO-MAP Fellow.


THE LEADERSHIP ISSUE

[ C O V E R S T O R Y ]

P H O T O S B Y M I C H E L L E B A T E S A N D M A R C P I S C O T T Y

P R O F I L E S B Y J U L I E G A R N E R

The University of Washington does much more than

educate students from the state of Washington and

beyond. It turns out leaders. Look around and you will

find alumni from underrepresented minority communi-

ties in key leadership positions in all kinds of fields—

from business to sports, politics to health care. This

issue of Viewpoint highlights a handful of alumni who

are making their mark as visionaries and leaders.


ow in her mid-50s, Cindy Ryu, ’82, is hitting her stride as a leader. She was elected in 2010 to the Washington State Legislature to

represent the 32nd legislative district, and was then elected to serve as vice chair of the powerful Business and Financial Service Commit-tee. Previously, she was the first female Korean American mayor in the U.S. when she was mayor of Shoreline. Ryu’s story begins in South Korea, where she was born. Her family lived in three countries before finally immigrating to the U.S., landing at SeaTac International Airport on Christmas Eve 1969 when she was 12. “My parents said, ‘Our job in America is to work. Your job is to learn.’” Although learning English was difficult, Ryu triumphed and excelled in school. “When the high school counselor asked me what I didn’t want to be, I said I didn’t want to be a politician or a lawyer because of their reputations. Now, I am a politician and a lawmaker. So I never say never!” While Ryu pursued

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her bachelor’s degree in biology at the UW, she enrolled in the Honors College. “The UW required us to have a well-rounded education,” she says. “It opened up my eyes and that’s when I got the first inkling that I should step up to leadership. I learned about theories of leadership, personal obligations and moral obligations, really what makes a good citizen. It made a good foundation on top of what my parents had drummed into my head.” Ryu says that she uses what she learned at the UW every day—not just from her time in the Honors College but also from her training as a microbiologist. “My professors at the UW taught me to observe carefully. Even when I’m talking, I am observ-ing, gathering information and drawing conclusions,” she says. When asked if someday she might like to sit in the governor’s chair, Ryu says, “My grandmother lived to be 98, so I have plenty of time.” She paused. “I guess I’d never say never.”

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Cindy RyuWashington State Legislator

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or a man who has a multimillion-dollar business with more than 400 employees, Geta Asfaw’s ideas about leadership are not

related to the size of his business—nine McDonald’s restaurants in Colorado—or the number of cars in his garage or the size of his bank account. Rather, he says, leaders look to the needs of their commu-nity and to their city. That’s what Asfaw, ’79, ’82, has done. Through a family foundation he created, he provides more than 300 bicycles and helmets every year to children; tuition and other benefits to school children in East Africa; and scholarships to African American men attending college. Although he has lived in Colorado for decades, Asfaw credits the University of Washington—where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees—as well as the City of Seattle for the definition of leadership he lives by. “The mission of the UW and

the city is to help one another,” he says. “There are a lot of non-profit organizations in Seattle. I learned at the UW that success can be judged only by how much we help each other.” In many ways, Asfaw’s trajec-tory from student to community leader is the quintessential American story. He left Ethiopia at the age of 18 to attend school at the UW. After he graduated, he bought a 7-11 store on Rainier Avenue South and worked 70 hours per week. He then applied to and was accepted as a prospective McDonald’s franchisee. While many people go through the McDonald’s program, very few are actually selected to own a franchise. Asfaw was offered his first restaurant in Colorado and has built on that success. As for his deep feelings that leadership is a responsibility to the community, he has passed these values onto his three children, all of whom will continue the work of the Asfaw Family Foundation.

Geta AsfawBusinessman & Philanthropist

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or Karen Bryant, ’02, being a student athlete at UW helped set her on the path to her current leadership position as CEO of the

Seattle Storm. Bryant transferred from Seattle University to the UW as a junior and played basketball under former UW women’s basketball coach Chris Gobrecht. “My time under Chris Gobrecht had a tremendous impact on me. Being part of a team in sports in general is a lab for life. I had to learn leadership and teamwork. I had to fight through adversity, deal with injuries and losses. Gobrecht was very demanding and you have to find your purpose when you are work-ing with someone vocal, demanding and competitive,” says Bryant. While results are important, Bryant says the leaders she admires are defined not only by a combination of business results and the

highest level of character and integrity, but also by their ability to inspire and mentor others. When Bryant was a student she worked for Janet Donelson, who was Director of Capital Projects at UW for more than a decade. “I recently saw her and told her that as a young 20-year-old I looked up to her. She balanced her career and family life. She ran successful projects. I watched her resolve conflicts. Janet gave me opportunity and she believed in me,” recalls Bryant. During her tenure the Storm has had four different owners, so much of Bryant’s leadership has involved crisis management. As ownership has stabilized, she has worked on building the organization and its management team. With that accomplished, she is now focusing on long-range planning and growth.

Karen Bryant President & CEO, Seattle Storm

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s a UW Professor of Drama and Head of Performance, foster-ing and providing leadership is Valerie Curtis-Newton’s daily

bread. “In my undergraduate directing class at the beginning of a quarter, a student will always ask me when I’ve assigned a paper to write, ‘How many pages?’ I smile. I don’t answer questions that sim-ply give validation.” This example reflects Curtis-Newton’s stance on leadership: “A leader is willing to make choices and accept the consequences of those choices,” she says, observing, “Most of our students will not be theater artists. We are training them for their lives.” Curtis-Newton’s own experience as a graduate student majoring in Fine Arts was pivotal in forming her as a leader profes-sionally. “I think I brought the ingredients with me when I came to Seattle, but the opportunities to exercise those muscles was provided by the UW,” she says. Curtis-Newton, ’96, says that in her

early years of directing she would become frustrated because what was in her head—her vision—wasn’t something she could make happen on the stage. “I would yell. But I learned that making people do what I said wasn’t leadership. My job became how to meet them where they are rather than to bend them to my will.” If someone had told Curtis-Newton when she was in her 20s living in her native Hartford, Conn.—first paying claims for Aetna Insurance, then in new product development—that she would someday be one of Seattle’s leading theater figures, and that she would receive the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2012, she would have been surprised. She followed her vision, though, and became a leader molding future generations to become leaders themselves. “I try to model leadership to the students I teach. I want them to know it’s okay to be in charge,” she explains.

Valerie Curtis-NewtonDrama Professor & Theater Director

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avid Acosta, M.D., chief diversity officer for the UW School of Medicine, became a leader because Dr. Tom Norris, professor and

chair of Family Medicine, recognized his potential. Prior to joining the UW School of Medicine, Acosta spent many years working in a community health center that provided health care and education to rural, underserved and migrant farm-worker populations in Northern California. Norris recruited him to the UW to train Family Medicine resi-dents in rural health and suggested that Acosta participate in a faculty development program. “I still draw on many of these skills today in my executive-leadership role,” he says. The next set of challenges was even bigger. In 2003, he became associate dean for Multicultural Affairs, a position he held for nine years. Under his leadership, the School of Medicine established a Center for Cultural Proficiency in Medical Education. Now, as chief diversity officer for the School of Medicine,

Acosta fulfills many other leadership roles in support of diversity, including: working with departments and units to identify diversity leads; developing department-specific metrics to track diversity and inclusion, and to identify and prioritize goals to be measured; survey-ing SOM units for successful “best practices” initiatives and dissemi-nating these; promoting new initiatives related to diversity; develop-ing a toolkit for widespread use to improve diversity and inclusion in all departments and units; and meeting regularly with chairs and unit leaders to provide assistance in improving diversity. Just as Norris did with him more than a decade ago, he looks for the potential within these leaders, and provides them with doors of opportunity to grow in the name of diversity and inclusion work. In 2009, he received the Washington State Association for Multicultural Education Excellence Award for his innovation and diversity work at the School of Medicine.

David AcostaChief Diversity Officer, School of Medicine

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The College of Engineering is the ninth best engineer-ing program for Hispanics, according to Hispanic Business Rankings, which were released in the fall.Lloyd Hara, ’62, ’64, King County Assessor, has established an Endowed Graduate Student Support Fund at the UW’s Evans School of Public Affairs. The sup-port fund is aimed at students who have academic merit, who are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and who have experience with diverse cultures. The fund is also aimed at students committed to public service and working in local government.Elaine Ko, ’75, has been inducted into the UW Department of Communication Alumni Hall of Fame. She was a founding member of the International District Housing Alliance and was executive director of InterIm

in the newsVivian O. Lee, ’58, ’59, co-founder of the UW Alumni Association’s Multicultural Alumni Partner-ship (MAP), was honored at the Women of Power: Building Bridges event in January. Lee, a retired nurse, has been involved with MAP since its inception in 1995. Also honored at the event was Sharon Parker, assistant chancellor for equity and diver-sity at UW Tacoma.

Uwajimaya, the Asian grocery store run by the Moriguchi fam-ily, received the EnergySmart Grocer Award for its efforts to reduce its energy usage.

Kenyon S. Chan will step down as chancellor of UW Bothell in July. Under his leadership, UW Bothell doubled the number of students it serves and tripled the number of degree programs it offers.Mary J. Pavel, ’92, was appointed by Sen. Maria Cantwell to serve as staff director for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Pavel, who graduated from Dartmouth College and then from UW Law, is a member of the Skokomish Tribe of the state of Washington. She is an expert on Tribal law and policy. She was one of the first Native American women to be made a partner in a national Indian law firm.Karen Bryant, ’02, President and CEO of the Seattle Storm, has been inducted into the Snohom-ish County Sports Hall of Fame.

in memoryAndrew Brimmer, ’50, the first African American governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, died Oct. 7. The son of a Louisi-ana sharecropper, he earned a doctoral degree from Harvard University after graduating from the UW. “He is a man of wide professional experience and great personal integrity,” President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote in nominating Brimmer to the Fed. He was 86.Winifred C. “Winnie” Chin, widow of former UW Regent Ark Chin, ’50, ’52, and a major sup-porter of UW scholarships, died Nov. 7. She was 87.Susan Gunderson, ’74, a former banking executive who ran marketing diversity training to many companies, died Nov. 17. After working at Seafirst Bank,

she was executive director of Washington Business Week, and was one of the original owner-operators of Rub-a-Dub-Dog in Seattle’s Greenwood neighbor-hood. She was involved with the Women + Business and Greater Seattle Business Association. She was 61.George Hickman Jr., a Tuskegee Airman in World War II who later worked in the press box and as an usher at UW football and basketball games, died Aug. 19. He was 88. “He was,” says Husky men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar, “one of the most inspira-tional men that I have met.”Ruby Inouye Shu, a former UW student who went on to become the first Japanese-American woman doctor in Seattle, died Sept. 24. She was forced to leave the UW in 1942 after three years because

she and her family were sent to the Minidoka Relocation Camp in Idaho. After the war, she completed her education at the University of Texas and the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She practiced in Washington from 1949 until her retirement in 1995. During her career, she delivered 1,066 babies. She was 91.Calvin Masao Uomoto, ’71, ’80, who served as area director of World Relief Corp. for more than 20 years, died Oct. 26. He dedicated his life to working with underprivileged youth, the poor, prisoners and refugees. He was 63.

CDA, promoting the welfare and revitalization of the Chinatown/International District.Alan Sugiyama, ’84, has been named executive director of the Executive Development Institute. The organization collaborates with 50 North-west corporations to provide business-relevant, culturally tailored leadership training for Asian Pacific Islander and His-panic participants.Honored at the Top Contributors to the Asian Community event in December were State Sen. Bob Hasegawa, ’09; Mark Okazaki, ’77, executive director of Neigh-borhood House; Sam Ung, ’99, owner of Phnom Penh Noodle House; Joan Yoshitomi, ’76, board member, Center for APA Women; Trong Pham, president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce; and Someireh Amirfaiz, ’89, executive director of the Refugee Women’s Alliance.

Andrew Brimmer, ’50

April 18Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture

> 5-6 p.m., Reception, Kelly ECC

> 6:30 p.m., Lecture, Alder Hall

Commons Auditorium

> RSVP: [email protected] or

206-685-9594 by April 15

bit.ly/ZdLTmC

April 192013 Tribal Leadership Summit

> Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center

> RSVP: [email protected]

May 16EOP Celebration, Fête and Honors

> 5:30 p.m., Reception

> 6:30 p.m., Dinner

> HUB Ballroom

> RSVP by April 25

bit.ly/Xq8QUm

May 23GO-MAP End of the Year Celebration

C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S


hyllis Fletcher, ’00, ’11, an editor for KUOW radio, is a journalist with an extra-sharp eye for a good story and the curiosity to dig deep. Those professional qualities have earned Fletcher five national awards this year.

Take Fletcher’s story “Secrets of a Blonde Bombshell” about Ina

Ray Hutton, one of the swing era’s first female bandleaders. Fletcher won a coveted Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association for her story on Hutton. Although Hutton grew up black on Chicago’s south side, Fletch-er discovered that she passed as white during her musical career and in her personal life, even among family members.

“I looked at a picture of Ina and her all male orchestra, all white men. She was standing in a gown smiling and holding this baton and her facial features shouted out to me,” Fletcher recalls. She checked U.S. Census data that revealed Hutton’s black/mulatto heritage.

In addition to the Murrow Award, Fletcher also won both Gracie and UNITY awards for her Hutton story. (Gracies are given for work about women or by women. The Radio Television Digi-tal News Association presents UNITY awards for outstanding achievement for coverage of diversity.) If that weren’t enough, the Journalism Education Association recognized Fletcher with a National Award for Education Reporting in 2011.

“It is the type of work that isn’t typically recognized but it’s the daily grind,” says Fletcher, who grew up in Fremont and is a graduate of Garfield High School.

She started at KUOW as a volunteer during a membership drive, later worked as an intern, freelance reporter, fill-in news-caster, staff reporter and worked her way up to being an editor.

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Phyllis Fletcher

BY JULIE GARNER

PHOTO BY ANIL KAPAHI

T H E V I E W P O I N T I N T E R V I E W :


he UW Nikkei Alumni Association (UWNAA) is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year with a reunion dinner at the HUB on Saturday, Aug. 24. (Nikkei are Japanese people who have relo-cated overseas as well as their descendants.) Since 1922, the UWNAA has served Japanese immigrants and their descendants who have graduated from the UW.

The association originally was formed to provide housing to Japanese students who were banned from Greek Row. For years, the group owned a house where the UW School of Social Work now stands. While the association no longer owns housing on campus, it still provides opportunities for alumni of Japanese descent to come together as a community to recog-

nize their heritage and connection to the UW as Nikkei Huskies.When it comes to serving the University and Nikkei students, the

group has a lot to celebrate. Over the years, association members have helped defray college expenses for UW students of Japanese ancestory by awarding more than $300,000 in scholarships.

The UWNAA also helped to organize a 2008 ceremony in which the UW awarded honorary degrees to more than 400 surviving stu-dents (or their family representatives) as a way of acknowledging their forced internment into camps during World War II, an event that disrupted their education in such a way that many never finished their education.

All UW alums of Japanese ancestory including honorary alumni, their family and friends are invited to attend the reunion dinner. For more information, email Irene Mano, ’54, at [email protected].

TNikkei group celebrates 90 years


from the president

P A T R I C K C R U M B , ’ 8 8

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

4333 Brooklyn Avenue N.E.

Box 359508

Seattle, WA 98195-9508

Phone: 206-543-0540

Fax: 206-6895-0611

Email: [email protected]

Viewpoints on the Web

UWalum.com/viewpoints

viewpointS T A F F

Paul Rucker PUBLISHER

Jon MarmorEDITOR

Paul FontanaASSOCIATE EDITOR

WEB EDITOR

Julie GarnerSTAFF WRITER

Ken ShaferART DIRECTOR

DESIGNER

Greg LewisLIAISON TO OFFICE OF

MINORITY AFFAIRS AND DIVERSITY

viewpointA D V I S O R Y C O M M I T T E E

Paul Rucker, ’95, ’02Associate Vice President

Alumni and Constituent Relations, Chair

Malik Davis, ’94Director of Constituent Relations

UW Alumni Association

Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06Vice President for Minority Affairs

Vice Provost for Diversity

Tamara LeonardAssociate Director

Center for Global StudiesHenry M. Jackson School of

International Studies

Greg Lewis, ’94Senior Director for Advancement

Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity

Carmela Lim, ’05Board Member

Multicultural Alumni Partnership

Erin RowleyDirector for Communications

Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity

Kathleen FarrellAssistant Director for Advancement

UW Graduate School

Eleanor J. LeeCommunications Specialist,

UW Graduate School

Stephen A. Sumida, ’82Professor, American Ethnic Studies

President, Multicultural Alumni Partnership

F O U N D E D 2 0 0 4

Published by the UW Alumni Association

in partnership with the UW Office

of Minority Affairs and Diversity

Five students receive MAP scholarships

O N E O F T H E M O S T important things we learn at school has little to do with a course syllabus: it’s how to become a leader.

I know that was the case with me. And in this issue of View-point, you will read profiles of five students from underrepre-sented minority communities who themselves overcame a host of challenges to become visionaries in their fields—and role models for all of us.

That’s what the UW does every day; provide the kind of educa-tional opportunities, knowledge and mentorship that can take a student who may never have thought about attending college, and help turn them into a leader.

What’s even more impressive is how these individuals are known not just for their accomplishments in their field, but how they give back to their community. That’s a legacy we can all be proud of.

Making leaders

MAPSNAP-SHOTS

Five UW students were honored with Multicultural Alumni Partnership scholarships at the 2012 MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast. 2012 MAP Scholarships went to: Danny Herrera, American Ethnic Studies, and Clarity Lefthand, Environmental Health; the Owen G. Lee Scholarship went to Jonathan D. Winn, English Literature and Comparative

History of Ideas, Diversity Minor; the Alfredo Arreguin Scholarship went to Bethany De Turk, Interdisciplinary Visual Arts, Global Health Minor; and the Cabatit and Tajon Memorial Scholarship was presented to Peter Iglesias, Microbiology.

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4333 Brooklyn Avenue N.E.

Box 359508

Seattle, WA 98195–9508Telling the Story of Diversity at the University of Washington

OMA&D and Friends of EOP Celebration 2013

DATE May 16, 2013

WHERE Husky Union Building Ballroom, UW Seattle Campus

TIME 5:30 p.m. Reception, 6:30 p.m. Dinner

PRICE $125

CONTACT Roxanne Christian / 206-221-0680 / [email protected]

WEBSITE www.omadevents.uw.edu/celebration

ogelio Riojas,’73, ’75, ’77, president and chief executive officer for Sea Mar Community Health Centers, is the 2013 recipient of the Charles E. Odegaard Award.

The award will be presented at the 43rd annual EOP Celebration, Fête and Honors hosted by the UW Office

of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D) and the Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) on May 16 at the Husky Union Building on the UW campus. The dinner and scholarship fundraiser will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Established in 1973, the Odegaard award honors individuals whose leadership in the community exemplifies the former UW president’s work on behalf of diversity. It is the only University and community-selected award, and is regarded as the highest achieve-ment in diversity at the UW.

“As the leader of Sea Mar for the last 35 years, Rogelio has ensured that thousands of our state’s most vulnerable people receive health and human services,” said Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06, UW vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity. “Equally

important is his activism and commitment to empowering youth in the Latino community. Rogelio’s service in the areas of social equity and justice reflect the goals of OMA&D and EOP and we are honored to present him with this award.”

Riojas was born in West Texas and attended high school in Othello, Wash. He spent his youth as a migrant farm laborer and was the first member of his family to go to college when he enrolled at the UW in 1969. At UW, Riojas was a leader among Latino student activ-ists. He was a member of the UW chapter of M.E.C.h.A. (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan) and Seattle’s Brown Berets. Riojas was involved in campaigns both on campus and in the community. He helped to convince UW Latino staff to donate five percent of their salaries to the United Farm Workers and participated in the 1972 takeover of Beacon Hill Elementary School which led to the founding of El Centro de la Raza.

Riojas’ activism inspired his career in public health. He gradu-ated from the UW with bachelor’s degrees in political science and economics, and a master’s degree in health administration.

In 1978, he started Sea Mar as a single clinic in South Park. Sea Mar’s network now includes more than 50 clinics and centers serv-ing more than 140,000 people in Washington state.

Under Riojas’ leadership, Sea Mar broadened its services to focus on education. He established a program that has awarded more than 1,000 scholarships to children of migrant farm workers. In addition, Sea Mar acquired the Latino/a Educational Achievement Program (LEAP), which empowers young Latinos to become strong, educated community members.

Rogelio Riojas To Receive UW’s 2013 Odegaard Award

CHARLES E. ODEGAARD

AWARD RECIPIENTS

2013 Rogelio Riojas2012 Gertrude Peoples2011 Assunta Ng2010 Nelson Del Rio2009 W. Ron Allen2008 1968 Black Student Union2007 Alan T. Sugiyama2006 Charles Mitchell2005 Mike McGavick2004 Jeff and Susan Brotman2003 Herman McKinney2002 Constance L. Proctor2001 Ernest Dunston2000 Vivian Lee1999 Albert Black1998 Bill Hilliard1997 Andy Reynolds1996 Hubert G. Locke1995 Ron Moore1994 Bernie Whitebear1993 Ron Sims1992 Sandra Madrid1991 Ken Jacobson1990 Herman D. Lujan1989 J. Ray Bowen1988 Frank Byrdwell1987 Andrew V. Smith1986 Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney1985 Norm Rice1984 Nancy Weber1983 William Irmscher1982 Mark Cooper1981 Millie Russell1980 Minoru Masuda1979 Toby Burton1978 Vivian Kelly1977 Sam and Joyce Kelly1976 Leonie Piternick1975 Larry Gossett1974 Dalwyn Knight

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viewpoint - spring 2013

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