Celebrating the End of the Campaign for Evans

Ten years ago, the University of Washington launched the Be Boundless — For Washington, For the World campaign, with the powerful idea that what you care about can change the world. Over this decade-long campaign, the Evans School community — our alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and students — invested a combined $50,453,543 in our school through the Campaign for Evans. Your investment helped to profoundly amplify the impact of the Evans School.

Today, in this time of tremendous societal upheaval marked by racial injustice and a worldwide health crisis, the work of Evans School students, alumni, and faculty is more important than ever. As we pause to celebrate the campaign’s completion and reflect on the many ways you helped change the world for the better, we also know there is much work ahead, in the months and years to come.

More than 500 Evans alumni, faculty, staff, and public service champions, along with the UW and the State of Washington, came together to contribute $24 million to transform the interior of Parrington Hall. Together, we have created innovative and inspiring spaces for Evans School students and faculty, so that they can bring innovative solutions to the world’s most challenging public problems.

• Parrington now boasts five large classrooms (more than doubling our classroom space), all of which are outfitted with the technology needed to prepare public leaders for the challenges of 21st century.
• While you may be familiar with the iconic red brick exterior, the remodeled Parrington has turned GREEN, having achieved LEED Gold standards thanks to the energy efficiency of all new electrical, ventilation, and climate control systems.
• Throughout the project, we upheld Evans’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by exceeding UW Equity standards for contracting with women and minority-owned businesses.

Evans School alumni are change-makers. Their impact is broad and deep – and has grown tremendously over the course of the campaign. In fact, 43% of ALL Evans Alumni graduated during the last ten years.

Moving forward, more students than ever before will have access to our school. Since 2010, donors have contributed nearly $6 million in student support funds. In addition to gifts that were put to use supporting students immediately, 17 new endowments have been established to provide fellowship funds for Evans students in perpetuity, including 4 new funds designated for Black, Indigenous, students of color or first-generation students. We are proud that today, nearly 40% of MPA students receive a fellowship award upon admission to the Evans School, enabling more students to pursue a degree and career in public service.

In addition to educating the next generation of public leaders, Evans School faculty are aiming their scholarly work towards some of society’s most pressing problems. Over the last ten years, Evans School faculty received more than  $30 million  in private grants to support their research. From the Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR), to the Minimum Wage Study, to a report on the Washington State Ferries’ Triangle Route, our faculty work collaboratively to apply evidence-based research with cutting-edge methods to solve problems.

In addition to research funding, individual donors provide an important source of support for the contributions of our faculty through endowed professorships and faculty fellowships. For example, in 2017, David Suárez became the inaugural recipient of the Colleen Willoughby Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Philanthropy & Civil Society. This fund has supported Dr. Suárez’s work, including his research on advocacy among community foundations in the U.S., and their ability to produce social change.

Since 2017, the Evans School’s International Program in Public Health Leadership (IPPHL) has trained 45 public health professionals across 18 African countries on how to craft policy solutions and identify and mobilize stakeholders to address public health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and infectious disease. Today, many program fellows and alumni are at the forefront of their country’s and region’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IPPHL continues to increase in both scale and impact, including doubling the cohort size, expanded alumni opportunities through ongoing development, and new partnership development on the African continent.

Thank you for the 50 million ways you’ve helped to broaden our school’s reach and deepen our impact over the last decade. It is because of the generosity of the Evans School community that we can and will take on the many challenges of today — and prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.

Will you join us?

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