October 16, 2024
Event Recap | 2024 Leadership Awards & Celebration
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.
Given the recent passing of Dan Evans and of Nancy Evans earlier this year, it was also an opportunity to reflect on the tremendous legacy and impact that this dynamic duo had on our school, the UW, and Washington.
Awardees
We also honored the work of our three 2024 Public Leadership Awardees: Jennyfer Mesa, Liz Baxter, and Trish Millines Dziko. You can watch the full program recording and read more about our awardees below.
Celebrating Community
Inspiring the Next Generation
Following the panel, we watched a short video highlighting our NextGen Civic Leader Corps. This academic program brings together undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines who are passionate about public service, community engagement, and civic leadership and gives them opportunities to connect with like-minded peers and mentors in the public space.
Awardee Profiles
Community Catalyst Awardee Jennyfer Mesa
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.
Jennyfer Mesa is the Executive Director of Latinos En Spokane, a Latino and immigrant-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on supporting the Latino and immigrant population in Spokane County. As Executive Director, Jennyfer has significantly increased cultural visibility, health equity, and community livability for Latino and immigrant communities in Eastern Washington by guiding the organization’s strategic direction, developing a diverse staff and consultants, and providing strategic guidance to city and state agencies. Her background in Urban and Regional Planning, housing development, and cross-cultural community development has empowered her to lead impactful programs that directly challenge systemic inequities affecting Latino and immigrant families.
A dedicated advocate for immigrant rights, cultural community development, and social justice, Jennyfer has been at the forefront of countering Border Patrol’s unlawful immigration sweeps and racial profiling, which target and destabilize immigrant communities. By combining community organizing with legal advocacy, she was pivotal in securing policy changes safeguarding immigrants in Washington State. In addition to her immigration advocacy, Jennyfer is deeply committed to advancing health equity for underserved communities. Under her leadership, Latinos En Spokane has implemented crucial health initiatives to address disparities in healthcare access, especially for uninsured Latino populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jennyfer has championed culturally responsive care and broader healthcare reforms in Washington State, ensuring that immigrant communities receive the support they need. Through her work in health equity, economic empowerment, and immigrant advocacy, Jennyfer continues to shape Spokane into a more inclusive and supportive community for Latino and immigrant residents.
Systems Changemaker Awardee Liz Baxter
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.
Liz Baxter is CEO of the North Sound ACH, which works to advance health, equity, social justice, and wellbeing across five counties in the northwest corner of Washington, which sit on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish people.
Before joining North Sound ACH, Liz was Executive Director of the Oregon Public Health Institute (OPHI), an Oregon nonprofit committed to building vibrant communities of health by advancing policies, plans, and practices that address the root causes of Oregon’s most pressing health concerns. She also spent seven years as Executive Director of We Can Do Better, an Oregon nonprofit founded with former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, an organization that believes small groups of people can have great impact, and influence the state and national debates on health and health reform.
Liz has spent her career in executive positions that build bridges between complex policy discussions and the public’s desire to understand and weigh in on these issues. She often plays the role of “translator” of technical knowledge for those who don’t live inside the policy world. She is an innovative disruptor of policies and strategies, working to create spaces where power is shared, especially by those who most often have not had the experience of influencing decision makers.
Liz has her undergraduate degree in social work, two years of graduate study in gerontology and a Master’s Degree in Public Health.
Dean’s Leadership Awardee Trish Millines Dziko
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.
Trish Millines Dziko is a change agent, mentor, and advocate for children of color. In 1996 she left her successful 17 year career in the tech industry to ensure students of color had the same opportunities she had. Trish is the cofounder, Executive Director, visionary and strategist behind the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) — one of the leading education non-profits educating children of color to their full potential.
Through Trish’s leadership, TAF transitioned from out of school programs to become a statewide leader in public education, operating TAF Academy (a 6th to 12th grade, award-winning public school co-managed with the Federal Way Public School District), and created TransformED that partners with public schools to create healthy and safe learning environments that center student voice and cultivate students into socially conscious and self-aware critical thinkers, problem-solvers, ideators, creators, and leaders. In addition, Trish led TAF through the creation of the Network for EdWork designed to recruit, retain, and develop teachers of color for our Washington State public schools.
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!
