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A Newsletter for Friends and Alumni of the University of Washington
News Stories
Gift launches the Jordan Education Trust Fellowship Program
Top row (from left to right), Mawiyah Khazer Khalil Alhalasa, Heather Robison, Phil Condit, Kevin Gallagher, Sana’a Mustafa Dawoud Al Reiahy. Middle row (left to right), Marvice Thorton, Vivek Srivastava, Abeer Abdel Jabbar Ali Al Hamad, Megan Condit, Maha Harbi Abdelaziz Alshakhshir, Mimi Heggelund. Bottom row (left to right), Dean Patricia Wasley, Michelle Luders, Geda Condit, Hanan Abdalla Eid (Al Madahin).
Teachers from Jordan and Seattle participated in a three-week exchange in July and August through the new Jordan Education Trust Fellowship, created with a gift from the Jordan Education Trust, established by Boeing executive Phil Condit and his wife, Geda Maso Condit (’77). Geda Condit, who grew up in Jordan, earned an engineering degree from the UW.
During their stay on the UW’s Seattle campus, the five Jordanian school teachers, each of whom received Queen Rania’s Teacher of Excellence Award in 2007, visited the IslandWood environmental learning center, attended a learning sciences seminar presented by the UW’s LIFE Center, and participated in activities focused on science, math and literacy. The five Seattle-area teachers, who teach at the K-8 level in Seattle and Renton, visited classrooms in Jordan for a first-hand view of best practices in education in that part of the world.
“The Jordan Education Trust Fellowship Program is helping the College to strengthen global partnerships in education,” says Dean Pat Wasley. “We are grateful to the Jordon Education Trust for helping us to expand our reach and impact.”
For more on the College of Education, visit http://depts.washington.edu/coe/.
Remembering a friend, supporting research
The late Bob McMillen (right) has been
honored by Mike (’61, ’64) and
Lynn Garvey (left).
Garvey and McMillen worked side by side at Saltchuk Resources, a Seattle-based company that invests in the maritime industry, and shared strong ties to the UW. McMillen served on the UW Foundation Board and the Tyee Board of Advisors. Garvey and his wife, Lynn, have served on numerous UW boards, committees and councils in the Business School, School of Law and UW Medicine. In addition to supporting lipid research, the Garveys recently made a major gift to the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.
The Garveys are creating the Robert B. McMillen Endowed Professorship in Lipid Research, a position that will support the clinic. “I wanted to do something for Bob that he would appreciate,” Garvey says. McMillen, who died in 2002, was a generous supporter of the clinic and its director, Dr. Bob Knopp.
For more on the Northwest Lipid Research Clinic, visit http://depts.washington.edu/nwlrc/.
Largest gift to UW creates new health research center
Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“We hope to set the gold standard for scientifically rigorous evaluation in health care,” says Murray, named in May to direct the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Global health spending is on the rise, yet too often there are gaps in information about where these funds can have the greatest impact.” Murray’s research has shown that some major health problems in developing countries, such as vehicular accidents, have been virtually ignored as health-care organizations have focused on diseases such as malaria.
In providing funding for the institute, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made the largest gift in the University’s history to UW Medicine and the School of Public Health. “With generous and forward-thinking partners like the Gates Foundation and talented faculty like Chris Murray and his colleagues in the Department of Global Health,” says President Mark Emmert, “the UW is playing an important role in improving health care for people around the world.”
For more on the institute, visit www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/.
Spurring Innovation in the iSchool
As a principal of information technology with the Quellos Group, a Seattle investment management firm, Eric Larsen is keenly aware of a growing need for new systems and technologies to preserve and manage organizations’ most vital assets — information and knowledge.
To that end, he and his wife, Christine, are encouraging the inventiveness of students in the UW Information School (iSchool) with the establishment of the Larsen Endowed Fellowship for Innovation in Information, which will support graduate students studying information management and technology.
Larsen, a founding member of the iSchool’s advisory board, has first-hand knowledge of the informational needs of an increasingly data-driven world. In his various career roles he has been involved in everything from managing information systems projects, to analyzing business processes, to designing communications systems. Innovative approaches, he believes, will be essential for future leaders of the knowledge revolution.
“The UW iSchool fills a void in the business world, which has a critical need for skilled professionals in information management and technology,” he says. “Christine and I are pleased to support the students who will be shaping the future of these important fields of knowledge.”
For more about the iSchool, visit www.ischool.washington.edu/.
Former football star pledges support to gay students
Former Husky Rose Bowl co-captain
David Kopay (’64) has made a gift to the
UW’s Q Center.
Part of the Student Activities and Union Facilities Office, the Q Center is dedicated to respecting, understanding and empowering the UW’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. It provides resources to faculty, staff and students through education, advocacy, visibility and skill development.
An All-American running back, Kopay played for the San Francisco 49ers and five other professional teams before retiring in 1972. Three years later, he publicly acknowledged that he is gay and subsequently wrote The David Kopay Story about his life and experiences as a gay man.
“I think Seattle and the University have always been ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to gay rights,” Kopay says. “Maybe my pledge will encourage more people to help students feel free to be themselves.”
For more on the Q Center, visit .www.qcenter.washington.edu
New endowments advance Southeast Asian studies
A gift from Charles and Jane Keyes to UW
Press will support a book series on
Southeast Asia.
The couple’s planned gift to the UW Press benefits the series Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian Studies, of which Charles is a series editor. “The gift for UW Press was a good match for both of us,” says Jane, a former assistant editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. “It combines our interests in Southeast Asia, our love of books and our involvement in scholarly publishing.”
Charles, a professor emeritus of anthropology and founding member of the Southeast Asia Studies Program in the Jackson School, says the couple also wanted to support field work by graduate students studying in Southeast Asia. “It is our hope that our gift to the Jackson School will enable a number of graduate students to follow in our footsteps and carry out research in a region that has been so significant in our lives.” The couple’s gift was enhanced through the Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign, which provides matching funds for student endowments established by current and past University employees.
For more on the Jackson School, visit http://jsis.washington.edu/.
For more on UW Press, visit www.washington.edu/uwpress/.
Josef “Joe” Diamond (’29, ’31)
When Diamond graduated from the School of Law in 1931, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression and Seattle had few legal jobs available. But Diamond was persistent. He set his sights on the firm Caldwell and Lycette and arranged to meet Hugh Caldwell, the former mayor of Seattle. When Caldwell told him he didn’t have money to pay him, he offered to work for free. When Caldwell told him he didn’t have extra office space, Diamond said he would work in the firm’s library. Diamond spent a month working for free out of the library before Caldwell offered him his first paid law job. While pursuing his business interests, Diamond continued to practice law for the next seven decades.
Prior to his death, which occurred just three days shy of his 100th birthday, Diamond reflected on his many years as an active attorney: “Practicing law was fun for me. Law is a fascinating field, and you get the opportunity to get things done.” To provide similar opportunities to others, Diamond and his wife, Muriel, created the Josef and Muriel Diamond Law Student Scholarship, which will provide need-based scholarships to law students. This was the first gift to the School of Law as part of the Students First matching initiative, which matches gifts to endowed funds at 50 cents on the dollar.
Muriel Diamond says her husband loved everything about the law. “Now we hope to make it a little easier for a deserving student.”