By Sarah J. Hemminger
The University of Washington’s Faculty Field Tour — a bus trip spanning five days and more than 1,000 miles — allows new UW faculty members to share their unique perspectives and connect with Washington state’s diverse communities, natural wonders and vital heritage.
On the morning of June 10, 30 UW faculty members started the tour from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, with the common goal of learning more about the UW’s positive impact across the state, while experiencing the regions that some of the University’s students come from.
“If you are a new UW faculty member, this opportunity cannot and should not be passed up! I would argue that this is just as important as other discipline- and institution-specific training you may get or need for your role. The week was life-changing, and many moments will forever be etched in my memory.”
Day one of the tour was spent traveling around Tacoma, Olympia, Mount St. Helens and Vancouver, Washington. In Olympia, the group met with Lt. Gov. Denny Heck. Following Olympia, the group set forth to Mount St. Helens. And to finish off day one in Vancouver, faculty members heard from Michael Spencer, the Ballmer endowed dean of the School of Social Work, whose current work includes the integration of Native Hawaiian healers into primary care and addressing food insecurity among Native Hawaiians.
“As a UW alumna, I had lived in Washington state before, but I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on,” said Diana Ceballos, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health. “This trip gave me a new perspective on the immensity, diversity and beauty of not just the places, but also the people. Connecting with new faculty members from all over the UW system was incredibly inspiring. I had never before had the honor of talking to a group of faculty with such diverse backgrounds.”
The following day, faculty members visited the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic — one of the largest community health centers in the nation. In collaboration with the UW, the clinic provides comprehensive medical, dental and social services to local agricultural workers. Later in the week, new faculty members also had the opportunity to take in greater Spokane and learn about the UW School of Medicine – Gonzaga University Health Partnership.
Additional stops on the tour included the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Grand Coulee Dam, the Colville Reservation, the North Cascades and more.
“The Faculty Field Tour pushed me to reflect on my personal value structure as it relates to how I interact with students, colleagues and patients,” said Gabe Sarah, associate dean for student affairs in the School of Medicine and associate professor of pediatric anesthesiology and medicine. “It challenged me to revisit preconceived perceptions of the UW and the state of Washington and its multifaceted, diverse population of incredible citizens. Exploring the natural wonder of our state was astonishing — I never fully appreciated the myriad landscapes that exist in this beautiful home of ours until this trip.”
“Our relationship with the state is really reciprocal. We learn from the state, we teach, and we have impact in the state of Washington, and so it’s really a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know the place that we care about and that we teach about,” said Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs in an Apple Valley News Now interview about the tour.
“The UW Faculty Field Tour wasn’t just an itinerary — it was a transformative experience that showcased the power of education to unite, inspire, innovate and propel us toward a brighter, more connected future.”
In a recent op-ed in the Spokesman-Review, Hilary Godwin, dean of the School of Public Health, along with André Ritter, dean of the School of Dentistry, explained how the Faculty Field Tour highlights the UW’s impact on promoting better health in the Spokane region.
“The UW is home to world-changing research and lifesaving patient care. But core to our mission is educating students so that they can then go out and have a positive impact on their families and communities,” they wrote. “That spirit of public service is what unites us, and we’re so pleased that our newest class of professors will have the opportunity to see firsthand the impact they — and the students they educate — can have.”
“We like to say that the UW is the University for Washington — a reflection of our role as a public university, dedicated to serving the people of our state,” Godwin and Ritter wrote. “One of the goals of this tour is to emphasize this mission to the newest members of the faculty, so along the route they connect with local alumni and some of the UW’s many local, state and tribal partners.”
To learn more about the Faculty Field Tour, visit uw.edu/externalaffairs/faculty-field-tour.
See more photos from the tour below.
