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UWAA Recognizes Alumni with Deep Ties to OMA&D

Join OMA&D in congratulating two long time OMA&D partners for their recent awards and honors from the UWAA. Both recipients have deep ties and a demonstrated commitment to OMA&D and the University of Washington. Through their efforts UW continues to become a more diverse and equitable community for faculty, staff, and students.

Colleen Fukui-Sketchley

Colleen Fukui-Sketchley has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the University of Washington Alumni Association. The honor is awarded to “UWAA members and volunteers who have had a significant impact on the UWAA, the UWAA Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding service or devotion to the Alumni Association, the University of Washington and the alumni community.” Fukui-Sketchley is a Charles E. Odegaard award recipient and remains active in the UW diversity landscape.

Form the University of Washington Magazine, “Fukui-Sketchley’s work on behalf of diversity at the UW and UWAA has been so important that the UW recognized her with the 2015 Charles E. Odegaard Award, which honors a member of the University community whose leadership sustains the former UW president’s distinguished work on behalf of diversity at the UW and the citizens of Washington. She served on the UW’s Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program board for more than a decade and remains as committed as ever to the University’s race, equity and inclusion initiatives. She was also involved in the creation of Viewpoint magazine, which tells the story of diversity at the UW, and co-created and chaired the first D&I Committee of the UW Foundation Board.”

Read the full story about Colleen Fukui-Sketchley’s Distinguished Service Award on the UW Magazine website.

Larry Gossett

Larry Gossett has been honored as Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus by the University of Washington Alumni Association. The honor is described as, “the highest honor bestowed upon a UW graduate and is presented annually by the UW and the UW Alumni Association. It recognizes a legacy of achievement and service built over its lifetime.

Gossett was a part of the original group in 1968 of Black, Chicano/Latino, and Native American students to stage a sit-in protest in the UW President Charles E. Odegaard’s office, resulting in the formation of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D), hiring of more Black faculty and staff, and new curriculum in African American, Asian American, and Native American studies on campus. From the University of Washington Magazine, “Gossett and a small group of fellow students motivated the UW to expand its curriculum and recruit and support first-generation students and students of color. They also prompted the school to hire more faculty of color. The results of their activism enriched the college experience for everyone, not just underrepresented and economically challenged students.”

Read the full story about Larry Gossett’s receipt of the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus honors on the UW Magazine website.