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Event Recap | Dean’s Forum on Race & Public Policy: Advancing Systems for Racial Equity: Possibilities and Perils of Decentralization

The Dean’s Forum series focuses on the intersection of race and public policy in support of the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance’s mission to host community conversations that inspire public leaders.

While advancing racial equity through public policy is an enduring and ever important mandate, there are no clear or easy pathways for this work. Decentralization is a reality of the American political system that poses both problems and possibilities for addressing the racialized nature of policy and its implementation. This panel considered critical questions about racially equitable policymaking and administration in the face of our decentralized institutions, and discussed instances of challenge and success and what motivates a deeper level of leadership at this important juncture in our national life.

Review Resources
gordon

Gordon Goodwin
Senior Director for Government Alliance on Race Equity
Race Forward

jamila michener

Dr. Jamila Michener
Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy
Cornell University

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Victor Ray
F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor
University of Iowa

Dean Jodi Sandfort

Jodi Sandfort
Dean
University of Washington
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Event Recap | 60th Anniversary Celebration

On October 27, 2022, nearly 400 guests joined the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance in celebrating six decades of inspiring public service.

Honoring the Past

In honor of our 60th anniversary, we commissioned a documentary about the life and legacy of our school’s namesake: Daniel J. Evans. Dan’s approach to bipartisan discussion and action have had a lasting, positive impact for Washingtonians. As he shares in the film, “Not all good ideas come from one side of the political aisle. I’ve never seen a Democratic highway or Republican school. These have to be done together, and that’s where the big successes have been.”

Celebrating the Achievements of Today

We launched a new tradition with the presentation of Public Leadership Awards—an opportunity to honor individuals aligned with the Evans School’s purpose to inspire public service and democratize public policy. Congratulations to 2022 recipients Veronica Very, Kymber Waltmunson, the Washington State Supreme Court, and Vicki Aken. During a powerful panel conversation, we heard more about the context for their work and the tools and practices they have developed to lead with integrity in the face of challenges.

“In my own home state, and my own home city, and in almost 55 years of life, this is the first time I’ve been acknowledged and recognized, and the first time I’ve felt seen […] For my work to be recognized at such a time as this, it means that I get to have a conversation with my city, my state, and my nation about how it is that we’re seen—people who look like me.” -Veronica Very, Founder & Visionary at Wonder of Women International

From left: Awardees Veronica Very, Kymber Waltmunson, and Chief Justice Steven González, and Dean Jodi Sandfort

“‘Yay the auditor is coming!’ said no one ever. I think of my ways of getting grounded in the chaos and when overwhelmed are fairly practical. I have an appointment every afternoon that says, ‘look out the window.’ […] When you create space for yourself, you’re able to take that deep breath and to recommit to the challenge that is always in front of you.” -Kymber Waltmunson, King County Auditor

“My mother used to say, ‘if everybody likes you, you don’t have principles.’  In this world there are difficult issues and there will be people on two sides of it. And you can try to please everyone, or you can try to decide what’s right and do it regardless of what other people think.” –Chief Justice Steven González, Washington State Supreme Court 

Award Receipients

Awardee Veronica Very

Research proves grassroots leadership is a critical component of any community’s wellbeing. The Community Catalyst Award recognizes a leader whose efforts impact not just any community, but one which they call home, too. This individual is celebrated for their consistent efforts to foster collaboration, amplify local voices with special attention to historically underrepresented groups, and maintain proximity to those who are impacted most by their work.

Veronica Very is founder and visionary of Wonder of Women International and the nation’s newest cultural destination experience, WOW Gallery. She is the visionary creator of the ‘Dear Sista, I See You,’ Healing Art Exhibition that unapologetically centers Black Women, Black Love, and the Black Community in the heart of Downtown Seattle’s economic corridor in Pacific Place Mall. Very inspires and encourages the healing of systematic and racial trauma in Black people by using an ancestrally guided framework of storytelling which builds community and spaces for reflection, renewal, restoration, and rejuvenation. Very is a force of a nature and the commitment she has demonstrated to justice and healing for the Black community is nothing short of incredible.

Awardee Kymber Waltmunson

The Systems Changemaker Award recognizes a leader with remarkable sensitivity to the future and courageous determination to do what is necessary today to inspire a better tomorrow. They use strategic and pragmatic leadership as a medium to create change. And while their individual influence can move mountains, this changemaker intentionally shares power and responsibility. They understand systems change is most achievable when conducted as a collective effort and are a trusted convener and facilitator of collaborative action.

Kymber Waltmunson is a 2004 graduate of the Evans School Masters of Public Administration program and currently serves as King County Auditor. In this role, Waltmunson has become a powerful agent for racial equity and systems change, completing impactful audits related to jail safety, the County’s paratransit program, the Sheriff’s Office traffic stop patterns, public defense management, homelessness, and more. Her commitment to changing the systemic issues that beguile our community from within her sphere of influence is remarkable.

Awardee Washington State Supreme Court, Represented by Chief Justice Steve C. González

The Dean’s Leadership Award celebrates an individual or group committed to equity, radical courage, and uncompromising servant leadership. This leader is not afraid to run against the grain where required to support human dignity, embrace diversity, and foster democratic ideals.

The Washington State Supreme Court is receiving this award for their work towards creating a more just legal system within the state of Washington. Beginning with a signed letter in 2020 pressing for change after George Floyd’s murder and continuing into today, the State Supreme Court is making strides toward racial justice by invoking policy change directly aimed at dismantling institutionally racist legal systems. Over the past two years, the Court has taken swift action; overturning decades-long hateful precedents, vacating tens of thousands of criminal convictions, ruling that law enforcement’s history of racial bias must be considered when determining whether police stops and seizures are legal, ordering pay raises to immigrant farm workers, and more.

Awardee Vicki Aken

The Dean’s Leadership Award celebrates an individual or group committed to equity, radical courage, and uncompromising servant leadership. This leader is not afraid to run against the grain where required to support human dignity, embrace diversity, and foster democratic ideals.

Vicki Aken serves as Country Director of the International Rescue Committee, based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since earning her MPA from the Evans School in 2008, Aken has been an unrelenting leader for public service in countries like Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Syria and Afghanistan. Before the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, Aken and the IRC worked with the Afghan people to increase community development, healthcare, education, and access to clean water and nutritious food. After the government collapse, Aken has remained in Afghanistan and tirelessly, despite personal safety concerns, committed to restarting and adapting programs so that her staff – primarily female and nearly 99% Afghan – can continue to work and attend school. Aken’s courageous service work makes her a leader to be impressed and inspired by.

Inspiring the Work Ahead

How can you act to help create the future we need? What does it take to lead from where you sit?

These are questions the Evans School invites you to grapple with in this moment for our society and our democracy. Folks who joined us shared sticky notes to harvest a bit of the rich conversations we had in response to these questions.

As EMPA alum and Dean’s Council Member J. Eduardo Campos shared, “Beyond the critical thinking skills and academic rigor, the Evans School helped us learn how to be better human beings, better professionals, and better citizens.” 

Guided by our shared values of equity, courage, and service, the Evans School is educating leaders, generating knowledge, and hosting communities to co-create a more inclusive society. Your support and partnership help create a path to public service leadership for all who are called to serve–regardless of financial means.

Thank you to those who pledged gifts of time, talent, treasure, ties and testimony at the event. For those who haven’t yet, we hope you’ll join us today.

Alumni Highlight: Matt Fowle, Ph.D., ’22

Matt Fowle (pronouns: he/his/him) finished his Ph.D. at the Evans School in August 2022, where his work focused on homelessness and housing precarity. The Evans School caught up with Matt this fall to talk about his research program. 

Matthew Fowle Headshot

Evans School: Your dissertation project centers on the racialization of homelessness in America. Explain why this is such an important lens through which to view housing precarity today. 

Matt: About 1 in 5 Black households will be unhoused in their lifetime, yet we treat homelessness as if it were a rare experience for most Americans and seldom study the causes of racial disparities in homelessness. In a recently published article from my dissertation, I document the extensive history of homelessness among Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. I find that mass displacement has been publicly sanctioned in the US for centuries to segregate, exclude, and impoverish people of color. The persistence of racialized homelessness requires greater attention to the racist institutions and policies that reproduce homelessness rather than the individual conditions faced by people experiencing homelessness. For example, our primary approach to homelessness focuses on individual-level treatments that assume the causes of homelessness are a set of pathologies (e.g., drug addiction or mental illness). Instead, we must focus on structural interventions that situate homelessness in a broader system of racialized socioeconomic inequality, account for historic harms, and address longstanding systems that perpetuate racial stratification. 

Evans School: Eviction moratoria were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect vulnerable households from losing their homes. You explored the impact of Washington’s eviction moratoria – what did you find? 

Matt: Our study of the experiences of low-income renters in Washington state found that landlords who were unable to use the housing courts to formally evict a tenant due to the moratorium turned to informal, and often illegal, evictions to remove tenants. These informal evictions sometimes involved landlords shutting off utilities, changing locks to front doors, and removing tenant possessions without permission. During our interviews with low-income tenants, one family’s apartment had a leaking roof that led to black mold spreading throughout her children’s bedroom. Their landlord refused to fix the roof because they owed rent. Using survey and administrative data, we estimated that the prevalence of forced mobility among low-income tenants nearly doubled from 6.5% in the year before the pandemic to 11.0% in the first year of the pandemic. Despite lower chances of formal eviction during the pandemic, low-income tenants faced a 179% increase in the odds of experiencing an informal eviction tactic compared to the year prior to the start of the pandemic. 

Evans School: One of the major contributions of your dissertation project is to draw attention to rising homeless deaths. In fact, you created a website — homelessdeathscount.org  — that reports local homeless mortality figures from places around the country. How did this incredibly important part of your project emerge? 

Matt: During my first year at UW, I witnessed an unhoused person die on a sidewalk. I felt compelled to help in some way. I found that we have no idea how many people experiencing homelessness die each year across the country. There is no nationwide database that helps us quantify the extent of this problem. In fact, even when these databases exist in major cities, the information is rarely made public. My dissertation and public scholarship shine a light on this hidden problem. I founded Homeless Deaths Count, an organization to collect and publicize data on deaths among unhoused people. As a public policy student, I have learned that it is often through public pressure that things change. 

I incorporated the project as part of my dissertation because I wanted to better document trends in homeless mortality over time and understand why homeless deaths were increasing, even when the homeless population was shrinking in some parts of the country. In my research, I find that homeless people overwhelmingly die of preventable causes like heat stroke, hypothermia, alcohol poisoning, overdose, and heart disease at between on average 49 and 53 years of age. I attribute these deaths to what I call “systemic neglect.” These people have been collectively abandoned by systems that provide housing, healthcare, and social support. I shared some of the preliminary results from this work with the Guardian and Jacobin. In future work, I plan to examine excess homeless deaths during the pandemic and identify successful policy responses that reduce homeless mortality. 

Evans School: It is moving to hear how you translated this personal experience into an important tool to improve awareness about homeless deaths. Much of your dissertation work has direct relevance for policy and practice – how do you manage your research program so that it is meaningful to scholars and to policy communities? 

Matt: I believe in a future where housing is not a privilege but a right that we all deserve. Through my research and collaborations, I am determined to not only end the human devastation resulting from homelessness but to contribute to efforts that seek to end homelessness itself. In addition to publishing in academic journals, I feel a responsibility to engage the public on topics on which I have expertise and to share research findings with policymakers and practitioners who might be able to affect change. I also believe that academics can facilitate change by using their research skills to support communities making a difference. Generally, I think that if the topic you are studying has relevance to people’s health and well-being, it is (or can be made) meaningful to scholars and policy communities. 

Evans School:  You are just starting an exciting postdoctoral research position – tell us about it. 

Matt: I joined the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Housing Initiative at Penn. Much of my work focuses on the Housing Choice Voucher program, formerly known as Section 8. There is an incredible amount of administration required to implement these programs across the country, and considerable burdens are placed on low-income renters to successfully use a housing voucher. One area of research involves examining who drops out of the voucher application process from when a household first applies to when they successfully rent a home with their voucher. We’re also trying to identify why low-income households might not want to apply for a housing voucher. Another area of research that I am excited about is an evaluation of a “Universal Basic Rent” program in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation is distributing rental assistance as cash with no strings attached to households rather than through the traditional housing voucher system. The goal of the program is to understand the impact of cash infusions on household stability and economic well-being. 

Visiting Scholar: Q&A with Jung-Hwa Ha

The Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) welcome Professor Jung-Hwa Ha from the Department of Social Welfare at Seoul National University in South Korea, as a Visiting Scholar for the 2022-23 academic year. The Evans School found a few minutes to chat with Professor Ha in early September.  

Evans School: Tell us a little about your areas of research expertise. 

Jung-Hwa: My area of research is aging and health. My research examines how late-life transitions such as widowhood or a health decline affect older adults’ social and psychological well-being, and the extent to which various social and psychological factors moderate these relationships. I also conduct more practice-oriented research in the areas of end-of-life care, dementia care, and elder abuse. Recently I have engaged in a collaborative research project examining the needs of advance care planning for people with dementia to enhance the quality of their end-of-life care.  

Evans School: Your current collaborative project sounds really interesting and important. 

Jung-Hwa: I am excited. Now we are working to develop a coaching program for early dementia patients and their family caregivers in Korea to help them engage in advance care planning. My goal is to help these individuals not only think about their medical preferences in end-of-life care but also reflect on their values and preferences for what kind of care they would like to get and what makes their lives important when they lose cognitive abilities.  

Evans School: How will the year at UW and the Evans School support your ongoing research program? 

Jung-Hwa: I hope that my time at UW and the Evans School will open up my eyes and expand my horizons for future research in the field of aging and health. In particular, I would like to learn more about research conducted by UW scholars on the implications of technology for older adults and climate change for vulnerable populations.  

Evans School: You trained in the U.S., have held faculty positions at top universities in the U.S. and in South Korea, and your work engages many different settings – how have those cross-cultural experiences shaped your scholarship and teaching? 

Jung-Hwa: I am grateful that I had opportunities to study and work in the US. The time I spent here provided me with a lens to look at things from different perspectives and think about the cultural and social underpinnings underlying certain phenomena. However, I find many similarities in human nature, especially among older adults. For example, older adults in Korea and the US are both very much concerned about the well-being of their children and do not want to depend on them. They often express these concerns by saying “I don’t want to be a burden on my children.” What I find interesting is that the steps people can take to lessen the burden on their family varies across different societies. That is where social policy comes in. How can social policy or programs support older adults to be what they want to be? I try to tackle this question through my research and discussions in the classroom.  

Evans School: Last question – what is on your Seattle “bucket list” while you are here with your family? 

Jung-Hwa: To visit Mt. Rainier and to see the cherry blossoms on the UW Quad. I am also looking forward to spending time in the beautiful Pacific Northwest as much as I can.  

Evans School: Sounds like you have some great plans. Hopefully there’ll be a day where the mountain is out and you can see the blossoms! Welcome to our community! 

Event Recap | NextGen Civic Leaders Corps Launch

On Friday, May 6, 2022, a formal launch and celebration of NextGen Civic Leader Corps program was held at the Othello-UW Commons. The new program, a collaborative effort between the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and the Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center is designed to allow undergraduate students to recognize and deepen their commitment to community engagement and public service.

Joining the celebration were university and community leaders who came together to honor and recognize students in the pilot program who completed program requirements. Featured speakers included UW President Ana Mari Cauce; Brian Surratt, president and CEO of Greater Seattle Partners; Alex Ybarra, Washington State representative for the 13th district; and Brett Hunt, director of Next Generation Service Initiatives at the Volcker Alliance.

Speakers reflected on the value of and commitment to public service and the importance of cross-sector collaborative approach to solving complex, societal challenges.

Sari Feinberg ’22, one of the students in the first UW cohort, shared:
“Through the NextGen required coursework my fellow colleagues and I have much better understanding of just how complex and interconnected our world is and how society’s wicked problems such as homelessness, global warming, and racism will in fact not be solved by a single non-profit, government, or corporation. These problems and many others require character-driven leaders with a social mission who collaborate and co-create solutions.”
Please consider supporting NextGen students today:

Dean Jodi Sandfort

Jodi Sandfort
Dean
University of Washington
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Brett Hunt, a white man with brown hair in a suit with blue shirt and yellow tie

Brett Hunt
Director
Next Generation Service Initiatives
The Volcker Alliance

Ani Mari Cauce
President
University of Washington

Brian Surratt, a man with dark curly hair with a white streak, wearing a brown corduroy coat and a large green scarf

Brian Surratt
President & CEO
Greater Seattle Partners

Alex Ybarra, a Latino man with short dark hair, wearing a blue suit, white shirt, and light blue tie

Alex Ybarra
Representative
13th Legislative District
State of Washington

Sari Feinberg, White woman with shoulder length greying hair wearing a purple blouse

Sari Feinberg
Class of 2022
UW NextGen Civic Leaders Corps

Event Recap | Wolfle Memorial Lecture in Science & Policy 2022

Wolfle Memorial Lecture in Science and Policy Public Health Policy for Pandemic Preparedness

The Dael L. Wolfle Memorial Lecture Series honors distinguished careers and contributions to the field of science and public affairs, and is made possible by the Dael L. Wolfle  Endowment for Excellence in Public Affairs. Established in 1986, its purpose is to bring distinguished scholars and practitioners in science and public policy to campus to share their ideas with the University community.

Early in the pandemic, a team of University of Washington research scientists were the first to identify community transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus in the United States. This critical discovery changed the course of U.S. public health policy responses to the pandemic and was attributable to the team science that led to the creation of the Seattle Flu Study in 2018 — a prototype early detection system created to improve pandemic response to influenza and other pathogens.

Dr. Helen Chu discussed the origins of the Seattle Flu Study and her work with public health departments, policy makers, and community partners to develop strategies for COVID-19 testing, viral variant sequencing, and community spread mapping. Dr. Chu also shared how the Seattle Flu Study developed ways to measure immune response to the virus that aided in the development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. Much of this work informed public health responses within schools and universities statewide, as well as strategies to address vaccine hesitancy within Seattle’s most vulnerable communities. Reflecting on her work, Dr. Chu mapped a path forward and identified key public health policies that will allow us to be better prepared for the next pandemic.

Review Resources

Dr. Helen Chu

Adjunct Associate Professor, Epidemiology
Associate Professor, Medicine – Allergy and Infectious Dis.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Global Health
University of Washington

Event Recap | Dean’s Forum on Race & Public Policy: Assessing Where We Are in Racial Reckoning

Purple UW W with text Dean's Forum on Race& Public Policy

On April 22, 2022, the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance hosted a conversation about how race influences the shaping and implementation of public policy.  

During the event, Dean Sandfort was joined by Dr. Jennifer Chudy who presented her research on white “racial sympathy.” Washington state policy leaders Sarita Siqueiros Thornburg and Dr. Stephan Blanford reflected on how changing attention to racial justice continues influencing conditions in Washington at the state and local levels. 

You will find links to resources mentioned during the conversation below. You are also invited to watch the recorded event and revisit the PowerPoint slides referenced by our speaker during the event. 

Review Resources

Jennifer Chudy
Knafel Assistant Professor of Social Sciences
Department of Political Science
Wellesley College

Dean Jodi Sandfort

Jodi Sandfort
Dean
University of Washington
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

MicrosoftTeams-image (5)

Stephan Blanford
Executive Director
Children’s Alliance

Sarita Siqueiros Thornburg
Executive Director of Strategy, Evaluation & Learning
Puget Sound Educational Service District

Alumni Spotlight: Helping Change the Future of Colorado’s Healthcare, Hannah Sieben, MPA ’21

Hannah Sieben Policy Analyst Connect for Health Colorado Master of Public Administration, '21

After finishing her MPA in 2021, Hannah Sieben returned to her home state of Colorado, where she is using her experience and the skills she gained at the Evans School for the public good. In her current work as a Policy Analyst with Connect for Health Colorado, Hannah is working to create greater public health care access for all Coloradans.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

The week that I graduated from Evans, I moved back to Colorado, adopted a puppy (Fig! 7 lbs of chihuahua/terrier perfection!), and started a new job. I love being in Colorado; my whole family is here, the mountains and sunshine are a great combo, and there is so much to see and do. In my free time, I’ve been participating in a Master Composter program (to teach Denverites how to start their own compost pile), reading for fun, and scouring Facebook Marketplace for my next DIY project.

What contributed to your decision to pursue an MPA degree? Was there a defining moment in particular?

After returning from Peace Corps service in Namibia, I worked as a civic engagement program manager at a nonprofit. I helped more than 5,000 high school students register to vote during this time, but I knew that I needed to learn so much more if I wanted to contribute to the vision and direction of an organization instead of just the day-to-day responsibilities if I wanted to have the career I was interested in. Pursuing an MPA seemed like the ideal way to gain experience and practice to complement my policy and legislative interests.

Looking back on your Evans School experience, what stands out as being particularly impactful while you were a student?

I was part of the Covid Cohort, MPA Class of 2021, so more than a year and a half of my time at the Evans School was virtual. While that alone was impactful, it also provided me the opportunity to collaborate with my peers in different ways. I learned so much about working as a team with people you may have never gotten to meet in person before, which has been an asset in my current position. I also served as the Vice President of External Affairs for the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and managed to rope in so many of my Evans peers to help us with our legislative priorities. Together, we passed important legislation to get graduate student representation on the Washington Student Achievement Council. All that to say, I was surrounded by incredibly smart and encouraging people at the Evans School, which gives me a lot of confidence about the future of public policy.

Can you share about where you work and your current role?

I’m currently working at Connect for Health Colorado, the official Marketplace for health insurance in Colorado, as a policy analyst. We are technically a non-profit but are really a quasi-governmental organization that implements the Affordable Care Act. I provide a wide range of research and support on policy and legislative issues, including advocacy, education, research, and analysis to help Coloradans get access to more affordable health care.

Can you tell us about some of the work/projects/initiatives you are working on or excited about?

Colorado is truly a leader in the health insurance marketplace space, and it’s been inspiring to be a part of the policy and implementation team at Connect for Health Colorado. One of the most impactful projects I am working on is around providing low-income undocumented Coloradans with state-subsidized health insurance. We are the first state to implement this type of program and much of my research has been around the health needs, barriers to health care access, and the eligibility requirements of our undocumented communities. In 2023, more than 9,000 undocumented people will have affordable, quality health coverage for the first time! It’s amazing to lay the groundwork for other states to implement similar programs and really put our money where our mouth is when talking about equity and inclusion.

Are there any specific skills/tools/learnings from your time at Evans that have been crucial to the work you are doing today?

One of the best things that I was able to practice at Evans was taking complex pieces of information and distilling them into something that non-policy people can understand. I have coworkers who specialize in communications and product development without a public health or policy background, so I use this skill all the time. I am also a confident public speaker, something that I practiced all throughout my time at Evans.

What are 1 or 2 resources (books, articles, podcasts, websites, TEDtalks, etc.) that inspire you personally or professionally?

I recently read Dear America, Notes from an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. He later joined my colleagues and me to discuss his book and his organization, “Define American”, and to explain how he thought we could do our work in a better, more inclusive way. Both his book and organization really highlight the diversity and uniqueness of undocumented narratives.

Sustainability and Impact: A Q&A with Nicki McClung (MPA ’15)

Evans Alum and Aritzia’s Senior Manager of Product Environmental Impact, Nicki McClung (MPA ’15), is leveraging her experience, Evans education, and passion for social justice to positively impact product sustainability and climate strategy.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

My name is Nicki and I use she/her pronouns. I grew up in a tiny town in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I am of mixed Japanese/Irish ancestry, which was a bit of a novelty where I grew up. My undergrad is in accounting and finance, and after a couple of years living and working in Banff, Alberta, South Korea, and Australia and doing some travel in between, I landed in Seattle with my then-boyfriend trying to make it in a new city. 

Fast forward a few years and I left Seattle in the middle of the pandemic to relocate to a small ski town in British Columbia with my husband, two kiddos, and dog. I work remotely with Aritzia, a contemporary women’s wear brand based out of Vancouver, BC, and whenever I can, I’m biking, skiing, or somehow enjoying the outdoors with my family.

What contributed to your decision to pursue an MPA degree? Was there a defining moment in particular?

When I moved to Seattle, I thought I would have no trouble finding a role in my field. With the boom in tech, and my corporate finance and accounting background, surely someone would sponsor me.

My theory proved to be wrong.

I wanted to go back to school to have work eligibility primarily, and someone suggested I look into an MPA. For me, I already had worked in huge corporations, I could make a business case, I could operate easily in the private sector, so an MBA seemed redundant.

The MPA program was like an MBA but with the lens of impact and social justice. Through the wonderful support of the admissions team at Evans, I was able to determine it was the right fit for me, and they helped me through the process.

Looking back on your Evans School experience, what stands out as being particularly impactful while you were a student?

So much changed during my time at Evans, both personally and professionally. There were a lot of social and political changes happening during that time. George Zimmerman had just been acquitted in the homicide of Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown and Eric Garner were murdered months later. The conversation shifted dramatically I found, especially as a newcomer to the US, from bi-partisan politics to the deep and entrenched racism prevalent in the country (and bi-partisan politics).

I learned so much from my professors and cohort at Evans. I’m still learning, but my time at Evans shifted my perspective. I finally had the opportunity to embrace my own identity and my intersectionality. I began to work through the questions and traumas of my own experience, and it has helped me immensely in my career, as a leader, and community member.

Can you share a bit about the work you are currently doing and what a typical day in your work looks like?

I currently work on the sustainability team at Aritzia. Officially I am the senior manager of product environmental impact, but my scope includes beyond just product. I’ve been working on what our climate strategy looks like, both from a high-level organizational view and then specifically what we are doing along parts of our value chain.

My days are nicely varied, but it’s a lot of internal and external stakeholder engagement – and report and memo writing! Thanks, Evans!

As an MPA working in the private sector, how has your Evans education contributed to your work?

Other than the stakeholder engagement and writing pieces I already mentioned – probably critical thinking! Specifically how to dig into the sources of information, and not cherry-pick data! Embracing the data – good and bad – is so hard to do but Evans taught me how to work through that.

I think something else that I credit Evans for is the reminder to always think about the bigger impact and the danger of inappropriate interventions.

Can you tell us about some of the work/projects/initiatives you are working on or excited about?

I am so excited about some big projects coming up soon. In the past, many teams worked in silos, with different goals and KPIs, that didn’t all track towards a common objective. Now, we are entering a very exciting phase of being able to set a comprehensive environmental impact strategy. I hope to be able to share more soon!

What are 1 or 2 resources that inspire you personally or professionally?

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline is probably one of the most realistic portrayals of how products are made and what factories are like. It doesn’t tell the whole picture, but it’s a great primer for anyone interested in the industry.

This New York Times piece on organic cotton is super fascinating and extremely relevant to my world: That Organic Cotton T-Shirt May Not Be as Organic As You  Think.

Harvard Business Review’s article The Myth of Sustainable Fashion is a little depressing, but some good guiding principles.