Evans Professor Heather D. Hill and MPA Student Diana Rucavado have published a new Evans Research Brief on Paid Family Medical Leave. The Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (WA Paid Leave) provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers who need time to care for their own medical needs, care for a familymember, or bond with a new child. In interviews with parents who used WA Paid Leave for physical health reasons, either their own or a family member’s, we find that the program allowed the parents to take the time needed to address health issues with less stress about work or income. However, for some taking leave was financially challenging or offered insufficient time for recovery or illness management. The findings of the study provide insight on how specific economic circumstances and/or health conditions affected workers’ experiences during leave.
Category: News and Information
Theory to Practice: Addressing Inequalities in the Philanthropic Sector
Theory to Practice is an ongoing series of discussions hosted by the Evans School that brings together academics and researchers at UW with practitioners in the field to explore key policy, governance, and social sector topics.
As a sector, philanthropy is beginning to acknowledge and grapple with an inherent dissonance: though philanthropy’s intended purpose is to create positive change, it can also be a driver of continued inequity and harm. The policies and structures that support charitable giving have perpetuated wealth inequalities, and the practices that many philanthropic institutions have historically employed may cause harm to the communities they are trying to support.
On December 7, 2023, Maria Kolby-Wolfe, President and CEO of Washington Women’s Foundation, and David Suárez, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Evans School spoke about systemic challenges in philanthropy as well as new models that strive to reduce harm and shift power to communities closest to the work.
Speakers
Maria Kolby-Wolfe is President and CEO of Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF) and a part-time instructor at the University of Washington in Nonprofit Management. Prior to WaWF, Maria served in a variety of development and communication roles at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Seattle Symphony, Path with Art, ACT Theatre, the Museum of Pop Culture, and Swedish Medical Center Foundation. She is also an experienced board member, having served on the boards of TeamChild, Rainier Valley Food Bank, Allied Arts Foundation and the Global Leadership Forum. Maria was raised in Bellingham, Washington, graduated from the University of Puget Sound, and achieved doctoral candidacy in American History at Northwestern University. Her passions and beliefs align directly with her work: Food, Art, and Justice for All.
David Suárez, Ph.D., is an associate professor and the Colleen Willoughby Endowed Faculty Fellow in Philanthropy & Civil Society at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington. His current research focuses on social sector organizations (nonprofits and foundations) and explore show management strategy shapes organizational performance, the relationship between service-provision and social change activity, and the consequences of professionalization. Ongoing projects include research on the emergence and development of participatory grantmaking in foundations, the Civic Life of Cities – a multi-team project exploring how nonprofits contribute to the communities they serve, public-nonprofit partnerships in national parks and schools, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices in development NGOs, and the role of foundations in generating social change.
From Isolation to Connection: Lockdown Relationships Inspire New Professional Network
By: Lauren Domino (MPA ’11), Assistant Dean for Advancement & Innovation at the Evans School
2020 was not the easiest year to begin a career as an elected official, but that’s the situation Vanessa Kritzer (MPA ‘17) found herself in as a newly elected member of the Redmond City Council. “It was a challenging time – navigating this new role via virtual council meetings and facing multiple complex policy and budgeting issues. I started reaching out to other leaders that I respected to get a sense of how they were approaching it, and Janice Zahn was at the top of my list,” shared Kritzer. The two met a few years prior while Kritzer was still a student at the Evans School and serving on the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington Board and connected over their shared Evans School experience.
When Kritzer reached out during the early days of the pandemic, Zahn (EMPA ‘12) had already served on the Bellevue City Council for a few years and had begun a three-year term on the King County Board of Health in January 2020. “I was more than happy to connect with Vanessa and support her in this journey,” shared Zahn, who faced similar challenges of moving into lockdown and leading through the public health crisis. “I think back on this time and wonder, what could have been possible if I was able to dial into the Evans School to navigate this uncharted territory?” She recalled how her EMPA cohort was thirsty to continue working together after graduation in 2012 and self-organized “salons” around different topics – from public safety to affordable housing – to help springboard the work that they were each trying to advance.
Kritzer and Zahn have kept in touch over the years – through the ups and downs of public leadership and reelection campaigns. Now, they’re thinking bigger about what’s possible. The two have come together with support from the Evans School team to launch the Evans in Government Network. The goal is to build a community of Evans Alumni who are working as government staff or elected officials to strengthen professional ties, support one another in addressing the pressing issues of today, and expand pathways to public service by connecting with the next generation of leaders. “I’m thrilled to create a space where we can come together and think about the most wicked problems we want to solve – and how we can work on innovative solutions that cut across cities, counties, and state policies,” shared Kritzer.
Planning is underway for an Evans in Government Network launch event in March 2024. For more information or to sign-up, please visit the Evans School’s Alumni page.
Isabelle Cohen New Blog on Reducing Child Marriage in Northern Nigeria
Evans faculty Isabelle Cohen has blog post at VoxDev feature her collaborative work with Maryam Abubakar (Chief Technologist, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria) and Daniel Perlman (Girls Education Program Lead, OASIS) around a local intervention to reduce child marriage in Northern Nigeria.
2023 Leadership Awards & Celebration
On October 18, 2023, the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance hosted the Public Leadership Awards & Celebration at Town Hall.
Honoring Public Service
Thank you everyone who joined us for the Public Leadership Awards & Celebration. We launched the Public Leadership Awards in conjunction with our 60th Anniversary in 2022, and we will continue it annually going forward. In these times, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the courageous leadership happening to improve our communities and transform our public systems. It’s a moment to celebrate and to learn together, and to recharge for the continued work ahead.
Throughout the evening, we had the opportunity to honor the work of our three Public Leadership Awardees Pa Ousman Joof, Anne Levinson, and Dr. Brent Jones. As Dean Jodi Sandfort shared in these challenging times, “it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the courageous leadership happening to improve our communities and transform our public systems.”
Expanding Pathways to Public Service
We also had the opportunity to watch a short video about Alex and Arielle’s experiences with the Evans School’s Junior Summer Institute (JSI) program this summer. We believe that access to a world-class public policy education should not be for the privileged few, yet we know many barriers exist and historical inequities persist. JSI is just one of the programs that Evans School is leading to expand pathways to public service and support students along a continuum of growth and learning.
Awardees
It was an honor to celebrate the 2023 Public Leadership Awardees: Pa Ousman Joof, Judge Anne Levinson (ret.), and Dr. Brent Jones.
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.
Pa Ousman Joof is the founder and Executive Director of the Washington West African Center (WAWAC). Since founding WAWAC in 2017 from his living room as a volunteer-run organization, he has worked to build the organization’s capacity, which now offers 10 key programs and serves more than 5,000 community members annually with a staff of six and a program center in Lynnwood. WAWAC provides culturally relevant services to the West African community in Washington, offering an After-School Program and Summer Camp for children, monthly Grandma hangout for seniors, Weekly Food Drive (Washington West African Market), Emergency Transportation, Language Interpretation/Translation, Outreach and Advocacy, A Drop-In-Center with case management with support for the West African community to apply for resources, including scholarships, jobs, unemployment, medical insurance and other government benefits.
Prior to founding WAWAC, like many immigrants, Pa worked various menial jobs and faced many struggles including eviction, disconnection of utilities, and no means to buy food or diapers for his children. Pa Ousman struggled and lived in fear of being deported for 18 years, only becoming a US citizen on September 7, 2022. These experiences inspired Pa Ousman to establish WAWAC to provide the services and support he needed but could not find as an undocumented immigrant to his people. Currently, Pa sits on several boards, including the Snohomish County Racial Equity Housing Advisory Board, City of Lynnwood Parks Love Co-Design team and Washington State Department of Health Collaborative Thought Partner, where he champions and advocates for Racial Equity.
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.
For nearly two decades Judge Anne Levinson (ret.) has been an advisor to governments, non-profits, and foundations on issues including child welfare and juvenile justice, police accountability, campaign finance and disclosure, gender based violence, and gun violence prevention. Learning from research and the experiences of those most impacted, Judge Levinson leads multi-disciplinary reviews, builds coalitions, and recommends ways to redesign and improve systems, strengthen laws, policy, and training, and ensure effective implementation. She shepherded creation of a first-of-its-kind regional unit to more effectively implement court-ordered firearms removal from DV abusers and those at risk of harm to self or others; and comprehensive reforms of laws on protection orders, unlawful firearm possession, and oversight of law enforcement.
Previously, as a judge, Anne founded and presided over the country’s first municipal mental health court. She led consumer protection reforms and partnered with others to stop efforts to deregulate energy markets as chair of the Utilities and Transportation Commission. She chaired the Public Disclosure Commission, spearheading passage of legislation to strengthen the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, and co-chaired a bi-partisan blue-ribbon commission that recommended creation of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. She served as a Special Assistant to Mayor Royer and as Deputy Mayor, Chief of Staff, and Legal Counsel for Mayor Rice, where she led several initiatives, including developing the first families & education levy, the first self-managed transitional housing for the homeless, the first transitional housing for women, enacting domestic partner benefits, reform of finance and contracting systems, and helped lead efforts to address the AIDS epidemic.
One of our state’s first openly LGBTQ public officials, she advocated for state laws providing rights and protections for LGBTQ individuals and families and chaired several campaigns that defeated attempts to roll-back those laws. During the litigation about relocation of the Sonics, she put together an all-female ownership group and led the negotiations to secure the Seattle Storm’s future in Seattle.
Anne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kansas and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. She is also a graduate of the University of Washington Cascade Institute’s Senior Management Program.
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.
Dr. Brent Jones is a visionary educational leader committed to fostering the success of all students through transformative cultural shifts and the revitalization of PreK-12 educational systems. As the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, he oversees Washington state’s largest school district and champions an environment where every student can flourish.
With an extensive background in the public sector, Dr. Jones has cultivated a profound expertise in strategic planning, community engagement, change management, and human resources. His leadership roles span across notable institutions including King County Government, Kent School District, Seattle Colleges, Green River College, and the Seattle Public Schools system.
Notably, Dr. Jones has been instrumental in propelling Seattle Public Schools towards greater equity and innovation. He masterminded the implementation of a district-wide racial equity strategy, forging impactful public-private collaborations to expedite student advancement. Furthermore, his leadership culminated in the integration of racial equity considerations within collective bargaining agreements, the establishment of the Civil Rights Compliance Office, and pioneering initiatives in talent development and recruitment aimed at enhancing workforce diversity and employee engagement.
Dr. Jones has deep community roots and is a proud product of Seattle Public Schools and the University of Washington. He has earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Education Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Jones’ unwavering dedication to educational excellence, combined with his dynamic leadership, has left an indelible mark on the landscape of education in Washington state. His commitment to equitable, innovative, and inclusive education continues to shape the lives of students and educators alike.
Thank you for supporting the Evans School!
The evening helped raise critical funds to support the school’s mission of educating leaders, generating knowledge, and hosting communities to co-create solutions to pressing societal problems. It’s not too late to give and support this work – gifts of every size make a difference and are greatly appreciated!
Please visit our YouTube channel to view the full program or select segments.
UW Center on Risk and Inclusion in Food Systems (CRIFS) Launches
We are excited to announce the launch of the Center on Risk and Inclusion in Food Systems (CRIFS).
CRIFS’ mission is to generate policy and action-focused research for improving the lives and livelihoods of small-scale agricultural producers (SSPs), inclusive of women, in low- and middle-income countries, through increased contributions of social, climate, and other scientists to advancing cost-effective strategies for managing risks and volatility as food systems transform.
The CRIFS launch kicked off on the UW campus with a technical workshop on measuring resilience in collaboration with UC Davis Professor Michael Carter and his USAID Feed the Future Lab on October 16. A day of small working group meetings was followed by a learning event co-hosted by CRIFS and the Gates Foundation, focused on topics central to investing in food systems facing heightened climate and associated risks in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The event brought together a blend of donors, practitioners, and researchers to provide a common grounding in key concepts and definitions, current and projected climate risks faced by food systems actors, and the state of applied research.
Learning Event Sessions
The six sessions of the learning event covered the broad themes of risk measurement, sub-national heterogeneity, statistical vs. perceived risk, and decision-making under uncertainty, with a strong emphasis on perspectives and methods that embed gender and nutrition dimensions.
- Session 1: Risk Fundamentals 1 – Biophysical food system risks and SSPs
- Chris Funk (UCSB), Mario Herrero (Cornell), Tess Russo (BMGF), and Heidi Webber (ZALF)
- Session 2: Bringing Risk, Nutrition, and Gender into South Asian Climate Platforms and Policies
- Pramod Aggarwal (Borlaug Institute for South Asia), Prabhu Pingali (Cornell), and Shelly Sundberg (BMGF)
- Session 3: Risk Fundamentals 2 – Decision-making and Behavior Change: Risk Perceptions, Poverty, and Risk Communication
- Ann Bostrom (UW), Alison Cullen (UW), and Crystal Hall (UW)
- Session 4: SSP Commercialization and Income Diversification under Risk: Institutions, Infrastructure and the Enabling Environment
- Stanley Wood (BMGF), Ana Paula de la O Campos (FAO), Ken Giller (Wageningen), Avinash Kishore (IFPRI), June Lukuyu (UW), Saweda Liverpool-Tasie (MSU), and Shelly Sundberg (BMGF)
- Session 5: Advancing Measurement of Post-Shock Resilience
- Peter Agamile (UW), Michael Carter (UC Davis), and Jenny Frankel-Reed (BMGF)
- Session 6: Can Increased Food Security Strengthen Inclusive Institutions?
- Didier Alia (UW), James Long (UW), Sameer Shah (UW)
CRIFS to Address Key Elements of Decision-Making
There has been a steady supply of innovative agricultural technologies over the last few decades, but the rate of sustained uptake remains stubbornly low. This is due, in part, to technical knowledge about potential adaption strategies outpacing our understanding of SSP decision-making facing risks. Addressing this disconnect is urgent as climate change increases many SSPs’ exposure to flooding, drought, and extreme temperatures, which compromises rural household production and leads some families to cope by dipping into savings, selling livestock, or reducing food intake.
Which is why CRIFS is interest in the bio-physical and political economy of food systems that matter as SSPs make daily decisions on risk/return trade-offs that affect their enterprise and livelihood trajectory. CRIFS is concerned not only with decisions made for managing extreme events, or climate shocks, but with the ongoing communication and choices that may either expose SSPs to excessive risk, or limit their investment potential and, in aggregate, hinder inclusive agricultural transformation.
Evans School research team studies ballot rejections to improve voter experience
Registered voters in Washington State will be receiving their vote-by-mail ballots in the next few days. Washingtonians have been voting by mail for over a decade and voter turnout in Washington routinely is among the highest in the country. Despite the success of vote-by-mail, a research study by the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington has been examining why ballots are rejected to improve the voter experience and inform efforts by state and county leaders to continue to reduce the number of ballots rejected in any election.
For a ballot to be valid and counted, it must meet three conditions: Completed ballots must be placed in an official ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on election day or postmarked by election day. Ballot envelopes must be signed by the voter. And, that signature must match the voter’s signature on file with their county elections office. For most voters the signature to match is the one on your driver’s license or state ID, because people commonly register to vote when getting or updating their driver’s license and the Department of Licensing.
County elections offices process ballots and decide whether the signature from the ballot envelope matches what is on file. Ballots without a signature or without a matching signature are thus “challenged” and voters have the opportunity to “cure” or correct their ballot. Counties send out ballot cure letters within 24 hours of a ballot being challenged, which invites voters to submit by mail or in-person a signature verification that cures the ballot. If voters have a phone number on file, they also should receive a phone call from their county election office. Challenged ballots are rejected if they are not cured at the time election results are certified, which occurs about three weeks after election day.
Study director and Evans School Professor Scott Allard reports that roughly 98 to 99 percent of ballots cast in November elections since 2012 have arrived on time with an envelope signature that matches the voter’s signature on file. “Even with this level of success, far too many ballots are rejected each election,” according to Allard. Although each general election is a little different, the study finds that about one-half of rejected ballots in November elections without a presidential or midterm congressional election (a.k.a. off-off-year elections) are simply received late. “Off-off-year elections like those this November get less media attention and less public discussion, which makes it easier to forget to return your ballot on time,” Allard notes.
Project team member Calista Jahn observed several counties processing ballots in November 2022, “it is clear from watching county election offices work that they process ballots carefully and securely and receive training in signature matching that ensures integrity in the voting process. Our election workers are focused on ensuring elections have integrity and that all valid ballots are counted.” The study finds that about 1 in 8 rejected ballots lack a signature, with roughly one-third of rejected ballots challenged for signature mismatches in off-off-year elections.
UW researchers found, however, that about 60 percent of all challenged ballots in November elections are cured before counties certify their final election results. “While this shows that ballot curing processes work, we should still have it be a goal to reduce the number of ballots needing to be cured,” Allard said.
The Evans School study team final report will be delivered to the Secretary of State in early November, but other key findings stand out as voters prepare to fill out their ballots in the next few weeks.
With these results in mind, the study team offers three simple guidelines for voters this election season. “First, sign your envelope,” notes Professor Allard. “Second, when you sign your envelope – sign your name as you do on your driver’s license or state ID. Third, mail or deposit your ballot early – ideally the week before election day, which this year is on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. This will ensure your ballot arrives on time and that you have time to cure your ballot before election day, just in case you forget to sign the envelope or signed too quickly for there to be a good match.”
Voters can go to the Secretary of State elections website and follow their ballot through processing. Allard recommends that voters contact their county election offices with any questions they have about their ballot. He notes that voters also can go to their county election office websites to learn more about vote-by-mail and about ballot curing processes. “Sign your envelope, sign with your license signature, and return your ballot early,” encourages Allard.
David Suarez receives grant from Surdna Foundation
Evans faculty member and nonprofit scholar David Suarez received a research grant from the Surdna Foundation for a project entitled, “What is Effective Participatory Grantmaking? A Comparative Assessment of Four Initiatives.” This project extends Suarez’s growing expertise and research program in participatory grantmaking, a power-sharing approach to grantmaking, which a number of private foundations have pursued in recent years. Since few foundations have evaluated their efforts to share power with stakeholders, the purported benefits of adopting such innovations remain unproven, and insufficient knowledge has accumulated in the field to elucidate critical questions such as whether some practices shape outcomes more than others. To begin to fill this gap, Suarez will complete a field scan of participatory grantmaking practices and initiatives in institutional philanthropy. Then, building on that work, as well as the literature on participation in nonprofit organizations, he will utilize a comparative case study approach to investigate four participatory grantmaking initiatives.
Art of Hosting and Harvesting 2024 Cohort
Leading Courageously in Higher Education: The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter (affectionately called ‘Art of Hosting’) was called for leaders within and partners of the university and by the Evans School to support fundamental systems redesign.
The Art of Hosting is both a methodology and a world view. It is held by an international community of practitioners who share with each other tried and true ways of engaging people in dialogue, understanding complex systems, and designing ways forward together. It is a powerful approach for actually walking the talk and guiding systems change in this era when we are striving to unlearn old practices and become anti-racist leaders of groups, organizations, and institutions.
Throughout the 3-day training, participants learned hands on and participatory methods to explore powerful questions about both our personal leadership and goals for conversations that matter in our work and communities. The training was centered around the following purpose: to grow our capacity to be curious and courageous leaders who strive to make every space and system anti-racist, through our individual and collective actions that put humanity at the center as we navigate complexity. These methods and frameworks can be used to fuel innovation in higher education and public governance, helping us to understand more deeply how to decenter traditional sources of authority and invite in more voices to engage communities authentically.
Alumni Spotlight: Isaac “Izzy” Sederbaum, MPA ‘14, Ph.D. Candidate
Izzy Sederbaum’s research has been getting a lot of attention lately. In the past few months, he has received funding awards from the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP), the Russell Sage Foundation, and the University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative to study how administrative burdens affect transgender people in the United States. It’s enough support to fund two full quarters. But more importantly, the funding means that there are other people who are excited about his research.
After completing his MPA at the Evans School in 2014, Izzy spent five years as a researcher working with jurisdictions around the country to rethink their approaches to youth incarceration, both at the Center for Court Innovation and the Vera Institute of Justice. While working with these institutions, he often tried to get a sense of how queer kids were moving through the justice system only to be told repeatedly that there simply weren’t any.
Interested in asking his own research questions, Izzy decided to pursue a Ph.D. and started back at the Evans School in Fall 2019. In his second year, he took a course on organizational theory with faculty member Benjamin M. Brunjes, who introduced him to academic literature on administration burden. Izzy noticed that literature failed to mention trans communities and people, despite their often precarious living situations and need for safety net programs.
As Izzy dug deeper, he noticed that many common technical fixes to administrative processes weren’t solving problems for trans people trying to navigate government systems. He noticed that no one was asking trans communities about the challenges they were facing or how administrative processes might be improved.
His dissertation is just the first step into making more accessible policies.