Profiles: Alumni in the Spotlight

Erika Hagensen

Erika Hagensen Wins OMB Watch Award
Erika Hagensen, MSW '06, MPHc (master of public health candidate) has received a Rising Star Public Interest Award from the OMB Watch, a nonprofit organization promoting open government, accountability and citizen participation, for her effective advocacy for disability rights. The award recognizes her outstanding work in the Washington, D.C. area and on the national stage. At UW, Hagensen engaged in research related to child-onset disability and lectured on ableism while serving individuals with disabilities. Her current role is Director of Disability Rights for The Disability Policy Collaboration, a joint effort of The Arc of the United States and United Cerebral Palsy.

Read details and watch a video about Hagensen’s remarkable accomplishments.

Leana Pastores Empowers Teenage Girls
Leana Pastores, BASW '07, MSW '08, who trains teen peer advocates at the Asian Counseling & Referral Service (ACRS*), speaks about the program in a Seattle Times article illustrating the outcomes of her work. One of her trainees offered an unsolicited testimonial to the exponential impact that social workers make: “If you empower one girl, then that girl empowers another. It's a chain reaction.” Pastores is an excellent example: she completed the advocacy program as a teen. **