PRESS RELEASE

UWAA Welcomes New Trustees

The University of Washington Alumni Association welcomes new trustees and board president

The University of Washington Alumni Association (UWAA) Board of Trustees is responsible for managing UWAA affairs and setting the tone and direction for the association. In keeping with the UWAA’s mission of broad-based engagement, UWAA trustees represent a wide range of viewpoints, backgrounds and experiences.

CONTACTS:

UW Alumni Association, 206.543.0540 uwalumni@uw.edu

SEATTLE, Wash. – The University of Washington Alumni Association announced the election of five new members to their Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees provides strategic oversight in keeping with the UWAA’s mission of supporting the UW and higher education in the state of Washington.

“Our new trustees represent the extraordinary impact graduates have in this community,” said Paul Rucker, ’95, ’02, vice president for alumni and stakeholder engagement at the UW and UWAA executive director. “We look forward to their continued contributions to our alma mater and the difference they will make for current students and future alumni.

The five new trustees represent a diverse range of experience and expertise, and include graduates from all three UW campuses. Their term began Aug. 1. The new trustees include:

Courtney Acoff, ’20 — At-large trustee — Courtney Acoff currently serves as the Pierce County district representative for Rep. Kilmer’s Office (WA-6). She previously worked for 13 years at Metro Parks Tacoma in a range of roles including as community outreach and engagement specialist, which furthered her work on behalf of serving marginalized communities. As a certified diversity consultant, her focus is to acknowledge the intersectionality of life, along with the complexity those intersections bring to service organizations. Courtney also serves on the board as a commissioner to the Human Rights Commission for the City of Tacoma and the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force.

Skyler Brown, ’19 — At-large trustee — Skyler Brown is an investment advisor at the Seattle office of Goldman Sachs. He was commissioned into the U.S. Army and eventually became a Special Forces Green Beret with the Persian Farsi language specialty. Skyler deployed to Afghanistan and several other countries while serving. He currently sits on the boards of ACT Theatre, Pioneer Human Services and the University of Washington Alumni Association.

Deborah Fournier, ’95 — At-large trustee — Deborah Fournier grew up in Des Moines, Washington. During her time as a UW student, she was a baton twirler with the Husky Marching Band and worked on campus in the library system, food services and at the KEXP radio station then known as KCMU. She has been an educator for over 20 years and is currently an elementary school teacher-librarian in the Edmonds School District. She is passionate about anti-racism education and feels fortunate to have a position where she can teach future generations.

Mina Hooshangi, ’12 — Regional out-of-state trustee — Mina Hooshangi is a leader at Boeing and has worked in various functions over the course of her 10-year career including in the departments of finance, engineering, human resources, facilities and quality. She has also served on the Boeing Women Inspiring Leadership Executive Board and is a graduate of the prestigious Leadership NeXt development program. Mina served multiple terms on the UW Bothell Alumni Council serving as general chair, fundraising chair and secretary. She resides in Arizona.

Solynn McCurdy, ’01 — At-large trustee — Solynn McCurdy is senior vice president, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Officer, for Symetra Life Insurance Company. In this role, he leads the holistic DEI strategy across the company, benefiting products, partners, customers and employees. Solynn joined Symetra from BECU, where he was senior vice president of Social Impact, leading all philanthropic and financial health efforts, community engagement and cooperative community advocacy. Prior to joining BECU, Solynn was chief executive officer at Social Venture Partners Seattle and led social impact programs at Premera Blue Cross. Additionally, he served as director of external affairs at Seattle University.

In addition to welcoming trustees, Amit Ranade, ’98, ’03, has begun his term as board president for the 2021-2022 academic year. A “Double Dawg,” Ranade holds both a bachelor’s degree and juris doctorate from the UW. In his professional life, Ranade is a principal with the law firm Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson. His practice focuses on bankruptcy and insolvency matters as well as real estate, land use, and environmental litigation. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the UW School of Law, where he teaches courses in bankruptcy and secured transactions. Amit joined the UWAA Board of Trustees in 2015 and has served as an at-large trustee, secretary, vice president, and most recently as president-elect.