Speaker Biographies
Queer Activism: How the Personal becomes Political in the fight for Social Justice
Festus Kisa Ibanda
Festus Ibanda Kisa is a sexual and gender minorities activist, and sexual reproductive health and rights advocate in Q-Initiative Eldoret, Kenya. He has been a program coordinator since 2013, with a background of social work, HIV testing and counseling, Human Rights for Sexual Minorities.
Migration and Health in Europe: The Case of Norway
Hadil Al-Tamimi
Hadil Al-Tamimi is currently completing her last quarter for her bachelors in the Human Services program at WWU. Her family fled Iraq in 1991 where they ended up in a refugee camp (Rafha) in Saudi Arabia where she was born. She came to Washington state as a young child where she soon learned that her passion in life was to help people. Her key interests are working with children and marginalized groups. She plans on pursuing her masters but is undecided in which direction she will go. At the moment she works with Campfire where she teaches self reliance course to elementary kids as well as working with kids living in low income apartments.
Fungisai Gwanzura Ottemöller
Dr. Ottemoller is an Associate Professor in Health Promotion at the University of Bergen. She has her bachelor’s in science from the University of Zimbabwe, a master’s in health promotion from the University of Bergen in Norway and her PhD in human geography from St. Andrew’s in Scotland. Fungi has previously worked on mental health projects (Zimbabwe) and childhood studies (Zimbabwe and Scotland). Her current research interests are immigrant and ethnic minority children and youth’s acculturation to Norway; young people and families’ experiences of the Norwegian child welfare system; parent training and parenting practices in relation to ethnic minority/immigrant families; young immigrants’ transitions into employment; social inclusion from both immigrant and the ethnic Norwegian perspectives. She is a qualitative researcher and is particularly interested in participatory action research. She is currently enrolled in a Norwegian cross-University program for young research leaders. Fungi is the program leader and lecturer on the Health Promotion and Health Psychology master’s program.
Policing and Incarceration: Examination of Violence Against Black and Brown Bodies
Clarence Spigner
Professor Clarence Spigner was raised in poverty and segregation in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He served in the U.S. Air Force (1964-68) including a tour in Vietnam (1966-67), and worked as a telephone lineman (1968-74) in Los Angeles County while attending colleges on the GI Bill in Santa Monica (1974-76) and in Oakland (1977). He worked his way through college in a series of jobs (dispatcher, janitor, physical fitness instructor, kitchen-worker, tutor) while completing his BA in sociology at UC Berkeley (1977-1979) and his MPH (1980-1982). He went overseas and worked as health planner for the National Health Service in London, England (1982-83), returned to U.C. Berkeley to earn his doctorate (DrPH) in 1987. While completing a post-doc, he joined the University of Oregon faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1988. While at UO, he developed research/teaching expertise in race/ethnic relations, institutionalized racism, marginalized populations, and the intersection of popular culture in health and society, earning tenure in 1994. He joined University of Washington’s School of Public Health faculty that same year. While at UW, he conducted research on tobacco-related behavior among Asian/Pacific Islander Americans. He studied opinions and perceptions about organ donation and transplantation among other minority populations. He studied health-provider attitudes towards diabetic and/or kidney patients. He studied African American opinions about genetic knowledge of pre-dispositions to kidney diseases. He served on the university’s Institutional Review Board, in the Faculty Senate, and on the Faculty Council. He was faculty advisor to the Multicultural International Research Training program. He also directed the Global Partnerships Travel Grant Program. He was faculty director for Global Health’s Peace Corps Masters International (PCMI) program. Since 2014, he has been the Director for the Masters in Public Health program. He has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Global Health and courtesy appointments in American Ethnic Studies and in the African Studies Program. As Program Director in the Department of Health Services, he teaches Program Planning and Evaluation, and Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. He created courses in Honor’s College based on such prize-winning books as I am Charlotte Simmons, Stoner and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. He teaches structural racism,
health informatics, and survey research methods. He created the first UW course on the Black Lives Matter movement and the links to police violence and the public’s health. Since 2007, he directs his own study abroad program called Dark Empire addressing multiculturalism and health in Britain.
Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros
Ricardo López-Pedreros is Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University and coeditor of The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History, also published by Duke University Press. He is currently the VP of the UFWW.
S. Komarovsky
S has worked within the bounds of justice and equity development for over 15 years, with projects ranging from community based sexual-assault intervention to radical curriculum development development within public and private school systems. S’s current work surrounds justice and advocacy from Palestine, focusing on program development for community-based health programs in West Bank refugee camps, while working with Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advocacy Council. He is finishing his masters degree in UW’s Department of Global Health.
Michael Wolff
Michael Jerome Wolff is an assistant professor of political science at Western Washington University, where he teaches courses in Comparative Politics, Development, and Political and Criminal Violence. His research explores the relational dynamics of criminal organizations and state institutions in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on modalities of violence, urban policing regimes, mass incarceration, and non-state social orders in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America. His recent publications can be found in the journals of Urban Geography, NORIA, Politics & Policy, and Latin American Politics & Society.
Patanjali de la Rocha
Masters Student at University of Washington: Patanjali de la Rocha is a parent, full spectrum doula, herbalist, childbirth educator, parent educator, and reproductive justice activist. They are currently a masters student at UW School of Social Work and Department of Global Health. They have presented at The Decolonize Birth Conference, NW Doula Conference, and University of Washington Scholar’s Studio. Their work centers around providing services to those most marginalized in our society. A queer mixed Indigenous survivor, they have worked with many grassroots and community-based organizations in Seattle: Open Arms, Full Spectrum Doulas, The Well on Beacon, Incarcerated Mother’s Advocacy Project, Families of Color Seattle, API Chaya, Mother Nation, Rainier Valley Community Clinic, Puget Sound Birth Center, and Na'ah Illahee Fund, among others. They are currently developing a community based prison doula program at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW).
Working Within Criminalization: Public Health Work and Criminalized Populations and Services
Tim Costello
Tim Costello is the Director of the Center for Community Learning and has been in his position since 2006. Working at Western is an extension of his passion for promoting a just and diverse society. Prior to working at Western, Tim worked in the nonprofit sector in areas related to HIV/AIDS, hospice, and child welfare. In 1987, while living in New York City, he went to the inaugural meeting of ACTUP, the acclaimed HIV/AIDS activist organization. After moving to Bellingham in 1992, Tim continued his HIV/AIDS work locally, then internationally when he founded Slum Doctor Programme, an NGO that brought HIV treatment and increased access for secondary education to areas of Kenya and Uganda. At Western, Tim has carried forward the knowledge he gained from his international NGO experiences to the Rwanda and Kenya study abroad programs. These programs are dedicated to the transformative power of cross-cultural relationships through shared living and love.
Diane Bushley
Diane Bushley, M.A., has been a Global Programs Manager at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands (PPGNHI) since 2012, and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of sexual and reproductive health, both in the U.S. and on projects in 12 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Prior to joining PPGNHI, Diane worked with a wide variety of sexual and reproductive-health focused international NGOs as a program manager, capacity-building specialist, and writer/editor. As a Program Officer at Pathfinder International and in subsequent consulting work, Diane‘s work focused on postabortion care, which aimed to address the consequences of unsafe abortion, primarily in settings where abortion was legally restricted. Diane was also actively engaged in the Postabortion Care (PAC) Consortium (now the Abortion and Postabortion Care Consortium), serving as the editor for the Consortium’s newsletter for five years. Diane received her Master’s Degree in Applied Anthropology with an emphasis on medical anthropology and public health from Northern Arizona University and a dual Bachelor’s degree in History and Latin American Studies from Oberlin College.
Erin Papworth
Erin Papworth is the CEO/Founder of Nav.it, a fintech company on a mission to demystify finances and increase financial literacy in the United States. Erin has a background in applied behavioral science and ran multi-million-dollar US-government funded health and development programs across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Her primary focus area was increasing access to health care and economic development for high-risk groups for HIV, including women and vulnerable children and LGBTQ communities. She has a Master of Public Health and has authored multiple scientific journal articles and university textbook chapters.
Jen Segadelli
Jen (she/her) is midwife, attorney, mother, and professor at Bastyr University where she teaches legal, ethical, and professional frameworks, and social justice advocacy in several departments. Jen is also the Clinical Education Supervisor for the Bastyr Masters of Science in Midwifery program, overseeing all aspects of the clinical training of midwifery students. Jen’s experience as a reproductive rights attorney inspired her to further her professional interest in reproductive health and, in particular, parental health and childbirth. This work pulled her closer to the 14 inexcusable and highly preventable loss of birthing persons and infants in pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, and eventually led her to midwifery, as a consumer and professional, where she found a healthcare model that had capacity to truly serve a reproductive justice framework. Prior to her birth work, Jen worked as an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Gender Violence Recovery Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. She currently serves as the Equity Officer for the Midwives’ Association of Washington State, and the co-president of the Washington State Chapter of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. Jen’s central interest is the intersection of midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth as viable solutions to the rising parental and infant care crisis in the United States, and the systemic and policy changes necessary to make midwifery a more sustainable, equitable, and representative option for birthing families
Policing Gender: Access and Obstacles for Transgender Individuals in Ecuador, India, Thailand, and the U.S.
Raine Dozier
Raine Dozier is a sociologist and professor of Human Services at Western Washington University. She received her PhD from the University of Washington; her dissertation examined the growth in black-white wage inequality among women in the United States. His research addresses gender theory, transgender topics, and inequality. Dr. Dozier has received numerous awards for his research including the American Sociological Association Distinguished Article Award in Sex and Gender for his article, “Beards, Breasts, and Bodies: Doing Sex in a Gendered World.” More recently, she has published two articles from a study examining the experiences of masculine females in the workplace (see “You Look Like a Dude, Dude: Undoing Gender in the Workplace”). He is in the beginning stages of a study regarding health insurance access to chest reconstruction, i.e., top surgery, in the United States.
Understanding the Intersection of Law, Migration, and Health
Angela Fillingham
Dr. Fillingham is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and an ESJ Board Member.
Before coming to Western, Angela worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, human rights, and international law. Her current project examines how race shaped U.S. Cold War engagements in Latin America. Particularly, how race shaped U.S. policy toward different nations. Her next project will look at the history of U.S. aid to police in the United States and in Latin America.
Angela teaches classes on Immigration, Social Theory, Latin America, and she is in the process of developing course in Latinx Sociology and Human Rights. Additionally, she works with the Latinx Student Union and the Blue Group.
Angela received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2015, she specialized in Race, Immigration, and Latin America. Angela was born in El Salvador and raised her adoptive parents in the United States. Her work is inspired by her parents’ dedication to social justice.
Bayle Conrad
Bayle joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in 2015 as the Health Access Program Coordinator. She provides long-term case management support for vulnerable refugees, including many with complex illnesses. Bayle came to the IRC from Zidisha, a microfinance organization where she served as the Country Liaison Manager for Kenya, Ghana, and Zambia. Her background includes public health and HIV education in Kenya and Uganda.
Bayle earned her Master of Public Health at Emory University with a concentration on Global Health and Community Development.
Dolores Calderon
Dolores Calderon is associate professor of Youth, Society, and Justice at Western Washington University's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. She is from the El Paso/Juarez border region where her family (Mexican & Tigua) have lived since the 1680s. Her research interests include coloniality/settler colonialisms, land education, indigenous epistemologies, and border issues as they manifest themselves in educational contexts. Some of her research projects include examining how settler colonial ideologies manifest themselves social studies curriculum, in attitudes around Title XI American Indian programs (formerly Title VII), and teacher education.
A research project she is excited on pursuing is examining how archives have been (mis)used to frame ideas of mestizaje. As a firm believer that theory is best illuminated by engagement, she values the work educators do to concretize critical perspectives. She has published in Qualitative Inquiry, Educational Studies, Environmental Education Research, Harvard Educational Review and Anthropology and Education Quarterly. She is also the co-author of Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: Communities of Color and Official Knowledge in Education.
She is affiliated with and teaches across multiple programs at Western including American Cultural Studies, Education and Social Justice, Law, Diversity and Justice and the Fairhaven College core. Some of the classes she teaches include Critical Indigenous Studies, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Race Theory in the Law, Comparative Cultural Studies, Research Methodologies, and Border theories and education.
Wendy J. Elizalde Romero
Immigration Paralegal
I am Wendy J. Elizalde Romero, born in Sinaloa, Mexico and raised in Seattle, WA. I am currently part of the Ortiz Law Office, PLLC, a practice specializing in Immigration Law. I have 8 years of experience in immigration law and a total of 18 years in the law field. Prior to my career in Immigration Law, I was working in Litigation, Bankruptcy, and Foreclosure Law. I am bilingual in Spanish and English. I strive to make a difference in people’s lives and to be a positive role model to others. I love being an advocate for the Latino community and feel that my work allows me to do this at a personal level, making it a rewarding career in which gives me opportunities to do volunteer work for other organizations. When I am not working, I enjoy crafting and getting outside to explore nature. My greatest pleasure is being a mother to my four awesome children and spending time with my family.
An Indigenous Round Table: Decolonizing Gender, Trauma, and Wellness
Dion Million
Dian Million (Tanana), Ph.D. is Associate Professor in American Indian Studies and Affiliated Faculty in Canadian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Million is author of Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights (University of Arizona Press, Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies Series, 2013), “Intense Dreaming: Theories, Narratives and Our Search for Home,” and “Felt Theory: An Indigenous Feminist Approach to Affect and History.” Dr. Million’s research explores Indigenous practices and theories of resurgence, health and well-being lived in the presence of racial capital and settler colonialisms. Therapeutic Nations is a discussion of trauma as a political narrative in the struggle for Indigenous self-determination in an era of global neoliberalism. Reading unprecedented violence against Indigenous women and all women as more than a byproduct of global contention Therapeutic Nations makes an argument for the constitutive role violence takes in the now quicksilver transmutations of capitalist development. She teaches courses on Indigenous politics, literature, feminisms and social issues.
Dr. Natalie Clark
Trauma and Violence Counsellor, Clinical Supervisor, Girls Group facilitator and specialist trainer on Indigenous trauma
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Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Thompson Rivers University teaching courses on trauma and violence informed practices; groups and practice
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Registered Social Worker
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Registered BC Play Therapy Association Member · Email: nclark@tru.ca
Education:
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Bachelor of Social Work UBC (1990)
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Masters of Social Work focus on healing from abuse and trauma (1992)
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PhD with specialization in Secwepemc and Indigenous approaches to healing children and youth from trauma (2018)
My work is informed and mobilized through my interconnected identities including my metis ancestry; as a parent of three Secwepemc children, and part of the Secwepemc community through kinship ties; an academic; activist and sexual abuse counsellor.
In addition to my role as an Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University in the School of Social Work, I continue to practice as a clinical supervisor, educator and counsellor specializing in violence and trauma as well as a girls group facilitator for Indigenous girls. I have over 25 years of experience in the area of trauma and violence with a focus on healing and resistance, and the coping responses to trauma/violence including self-harming, substance use, disordered eating and other survival responses. I also consider the impact of colonial and gendered policies on Indigenous children, youth, families and communities.
Miriam Zmiewski-Angelova, MPH, P-3 (Choctaw, Cherokee, Sauk/Fox, African-American, Ashkenazi)
I am an Indigenous educator, activist, consultant, artist and mother living in Duwamish territory (Seattle). I am earnestly passionate about our important work in early learning and am incredibly honored to have received mentorship from and collaborated with Indigenous leaders and communities locally, nationally and internationally. I am proud to serve as the Program Manager for Daybreak Star Preschool. I am also a Na’ah Illahee Fund: Yahowt Permaculture Cohort member, advocating for Indigenous food sovereignty. Previously, I served as an early learning instructional coach for the City of Seattle – Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL). In this capacity, I collaborated on effort to strengthen culturally responsive and anti-bias teaching practices. I have over 20 years of experience and service to the care and education of children and their families. I earned my Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Arizona with a focus on Maternal and Child Health in Native American populations. I also have a P-3 Endorsement from the University of Washington. It is a blessing to give back to my community and family in building a more equitable and sustainable future for our children and especially my son, Nashoba.
Global Criminalization of Homosexuality Panel
Amie Bishop
Amie Bishop, MSW, MPH, is a human rights advocate and global health leader with professional experience in more than 20 countries. She currently works as an independent global health and human rights consultant. From 1989 until 2014, she worked for PATH, a Seattle-based, non-profit global health organization. Her work there spanned a variety of leadership and technical roles, focusing, in particular, on women’s cancers, tuberculosis, and HIV, with a focus on key populations. From 2008 to 2017, she served on the Board of Directors of OutRight Action International (and as co-chair for 3 years). Based in New York City, OutRight has advocated for equality and justice for LGBTIQ people globally for nearly 30 years. She currently is serving as their consultant Research Advisor. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Health and a Master’s of Science Degree in Social Work, both from Columbia University.
Macland Njagi Nyaga
Macland Njagi Nyaga is a graduate Community Health Nurse, an emerging researcher in HIV/AIDS, and currently a full-time global health student at Seattle Central College. Originally from the town of Embu, Kenya, Macland studied nursing at Kenya Medical Training College, Kisii. He worked as a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Nurse in Kenya becoming Director of Clinical Services at Ishtar, a community wellness center serving Men who have Sex with Men in Nairobi. Under an HIV Research Fellowship from AmfAR, he studied at University of Pittsburgh and was principal investigator on a study of the efficacy of peer recruitment in identifying HIV positive Men who have Sex with Men in Nairobi, published in AIDS and Behavior. Moving to Seattle in 2016, Macland became an HIV Outreach Specialist at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Institute before starting at Seattle Central, where he is a member of the Student Leadership Board.
Lina Stinson-Ali
Lina Stinson-Ali was born and raised on the small island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. Being gay in a patriarchal, predominately Muslim country is a criminal offense punishable by life imprisonment. Lina received her Advanced Diploma in Clinical Medicine in Tanzania. Later she immigrated to the US to escape persecution for being gay, to further her education, and to build a better life for herself. Lina received her Associate of Science degree in Social and Human Services, at Seattle Central College. Lina is currently the supervisor of the Connection Desk at HealthPoint clinic, in Tukwila. The Connection Desk connects the underserved and vulnerable population to services available to them. During her free time, Lina volunteers at health fairs focusing on refugees, asylees, and immigrants. Lina’s passions are advocacy, empowerment, and the overall wellbeing of these underserved populations.
Nayyef Hrebid
Nayyef Hrebid is originally from Iraq, now living in the United States. He moved there after a sequence of events outlined in his film “Out of Iraq”. In 2004, Ramadi, Iraq was the most dangerous place on earth and the last place anyone would expect to find love. But that's what happened. Nayyef and Btoo Allami were two Iraqi soldiers who fell in love on the battlefield, but were forced to flee when Btoo became the target of an honor killing for shaming his family. Nayyef was a translator for the U.S. Marines at the time. He got a U.S. visa for helping the soldiers work with the Iraqi Army but had to leave Btoo behind. Four years later they embraced again, in Canada, and promised never to be separated again. “Out of Iraq” won a daytime Emmy, was nominated for Outstanding Documentary at the GLAAD Media Awards, and was the first LGBT movie screened at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in New York City. Nayyef has also spoken about his story on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Disrupting Power and Privilege in Global Health
Julia Robinson
Julia Robinson currently serves as the lead of Advocacy Programs and Senior Program Manager for Cote d’Ivoire programs at Health Alliance International, a Seattle-based organization working to strengthen public sector health systems around the world. She also serves as the Global Steering Council Representative for North America for the People’s Health Movement, a global network bringing together grassroots health activists, civil society organizations and academic institutions from around the world, particularly from low and middle income countries (L&MIC). She has been working in West Africa since 2001, when she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin. She has worked on country programs in Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Timor Leste on programs involving health systems strengthening, HIV programs and services, working in post-conflict regions, and advocating for just macroeconomic and global health policies.
James Pfeiffer
James Pfeiffer is Executive Director of Health Alliance International and Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Anthropology at the University of Washington. He is a medical anthropologist and public health practitioner with experience in health system strengthening, social justice in health, and the role of NGOs in global health.
Jen Segadelli - Bio above
Adam Granato
Adam Granato is Senior Manager of External Relations at Health Alliance International, having previously served as Program Manager for HAI's Côte d'Ivoire program. A medical anthropologist by training, Adam is also clinical instructor in the Department of Global Health at University of Washington.
Celso Inguane
I am Celso Inguane, Mozambican, sociocultural anthropologist, and senior fellow at the Department of Global Health of the University of Washington. I intend to talk about what I regard as ‘global health patchwork’: a reflection around global health experiments with the present and future of people and public health systems in the global south.
Josette Wicker
My name is Josette Wicker, and I am a senior here at Western Washington University, majoring in Sociology with minors in Political Science and Education Social Justice. I am one of the Co-Student Leaders for the 15th Annual Global Health Conference.
I had the opportunity to study abroad in Kenya during winter quarter 2018 with Liz Mogford. I received not only a life-changing experience but I also gained a deeper understanding and insight surrounding the implications that studying abroad can and has on our global community. Kanesia and I will be doing a joint presentation on voluntourism and presenting ways study abroad programs can shift their way of interacting within the global community as a whole. After our trip, I focused my social action plan on increasing the accessibility of taking education abroad for students of color here at Western.
Kanesia Price
My name is Kanesia Price and I am a Senior majoring in Community Health at WWU. For this panel, I am planning on speaking about my experience studying abroad in Kenya last winter, apart of Liz Mogford's Social Justice and Society program. In part of this program, I developed a social action project, focused on fundraising for a local grassroots organization in Kochia, Kenya. I would love to share more on the value of grassroots movements, sustainability, and the importance of empowering communities both locally and internationally to make their own decisions about change.
How to Start a Social Movement: Workshop on Tools for Change
Patanjali de la Rocha - Bio above
Festus Kisa Ibanda - Bio above
Vicki Hsueh
Vicki Hsueh is the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research and teaching interests focus on Anglo-American political thought, identity politics and post-colonial theory, health activism, and sex, gender, and sexuality in political theory. My current research focuses on the role of affect and emotion in direct action protest and examines how emotions of grief, love, anger, and elation spur and sustain contemporary political movements. I am especially interested in the ways in which health, wellness, and concepts of agency are mobilized in the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Idle No More movement, and the direct-action disability organization, ADAPT. In my research, I focus more comprehensively on the role of emotion in direct action in order to: 1) better understand the formation of political groups and parties 2) better identify forms of political rationality and judgment exercised by contemporary social movements 3) address how emotions and affect are mobilized to pursue justice, particularly for more marginalized and oppressed groups. I have been actively involved in scholarship in women studies, gender studies, and identity politics. I have a history of service to both the university and the Bellingham community, with a particular emphasis on projects that tackle issues of equality, justice, and violence prevention and care. In the past, I have worked with: 826 Seattle (writing and tutoring center); the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services (DVSAS) agency of Whatcom County as an DV/SA advocate; the South Whatcom Fire Authority as a volunteer FF/EMT.
Rachel R. Chapman
Rachel R. Chapman, Ph.D. (University of California Los Angeles, 1998) Dr. Chapman is a womanist political-economic medical anthropologist. Her research interests meet at the intersection of race, class and gender, in the politics of reproduction, especially how to eliminate reproductive health disparities and build movements for social justice in the urban U.S. and Southern and East Africa. She has conducted research in Mozambique over 25 years to understand community and clinic influences of the HIV epidemic on their daily lives and on why HIV+ pregnant women frequently do not access antiretroviral treatment. Her current research in Seattle is titled “Birthing Diversity in Seattle: Modelling Innovative Perinatal Care at the Intersection of Risks, Resources and Resilience to Improve Maternal/Infant Outcomes in Underserved Urban Communities.” What matters most to her is how knowing any of this can improve community healthcare and well-being so that every person can reach their fullest capacity so that they can join in assisting others in achieving liberation and well-being for all. She is also proud of her less-known identity as a poet, performer and mother.
Dr. Muna Osman
Dr. Muna Osman practiced as a Registered Nurse for Ten years, Graduated from Washington State University (WSU) with a Doctor in Nursing degree with a focus in Family practice (DNP-FNP) 2016; certified nurse practitioner in Washington state 2018. Mrs. Osman is a member of many professional and student organizations including the WSU College of Nursing Diversity Committee, WSU honor society, and King County Somali Health Board.
The King County Somali Health Board (SHB) is an organization comprised of Somali health professionals in collaboration with community leaders and healthcare providers, it was established to promote positive health outcomes for the Somali population within the King County.
Resistance Through Art with WWU's Blue Group
Emma Caro
I am a Senior at WWU majoring in Language, Literacy, and Culture Studies with a minor in Education and Social Justice. I hope to become an Elementary School teacher. My passion for becoming a teacher has been driven my desire to become a support and voice for underserved students in hope that they do not face the same advertises I faced growing up in a public school system. Currently, I am one of co-chairs for Blue Group, where we hope to bring a safe inclusive space for undocumented and mixed status students and families.
People of Color Caucus Debrief
James Pai
James Pai (he/him/his) James Pai is currently a fourth year undergraduate at Western Washington University and will be receiving a BA in BioCultural Anthropology in Spring 2019. Eventually he hopes to become a practicing emergency medicine physician. He has served as an intern and health scholar at Swedish Medical Center as part of their Health Scholars program and currently serves as Advocacy Director for the Ethnic Student Center and as a medical assistant at a local urgent care clinic. When not in class, he is involved in organizing student lobbying efforts at the local and state level, as a camp counselor for Camp Korey, and as Director of Branding and Promotion for TEDxWWU.
Kayla-Anastasia Johnson
Kayla-Anastasia Johnson is a fourth-year student at Western Washington University. She is majoring in Political Science with a focus on race, gender, and sexuality. She plans to graduate in the fall of 2019. After graduating she plans to work for a non-profit organization focused on community development around, youth, LGBT, race, class and sex issues. Her inspirations for social justice have been Angela Davis, James Baldwin, and Patrisse Khan-Cullors. She is very immersed in the topic of prison abolition and the theory she reads has a heavy focus on the intersectionality of incarceration. She is also interested in the connections between the struggles of race, class, sex and gender identity on a national level.”
Whiteness in Global Health: How to Utilize White Privilege for Equitable Change
Madeleine Rackers
Madeleine Rackers is a fourth year student at Western Washington University who will be graduating in spring 2019 with a degree in biological anthropology and international studies. They have served as a co-organizer for Amnesty International WWU and WWU Students for Anti-Racist Action, and currently serve as a Washington state Student Activist Coordinator for Amnesty International. Eventually, they hope to obtain a Master's degree in public health with a focus on the intersections between public health and racial justice, and either practice family medicine or midwifery. In their free time, they work as an advocate for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services and participate in local and state lobbying efforts.
Bodies Beyond Binaries: Normalization Paradox in Cleanliness Practices of Female Sex Workers (FSW's) in China
Dr. Yeon Jung Yu
Yeon Jung Yu is a social and medical anthropologist with a background in public health, women’s and gender studies, and East Asian studies. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor at Western Washington University. Her research and teaching experience integrates a range of scholarly interests, including labor migration, HIV/AIDS, social stigma, marginalized populations, and social networks. She is currently writing a book, based on her dissertation, with the working title Enmeshed: Social Networks and the Integration of Female Sex Workers in Post-Socialist China. Her work is focused on extensive field research on “hidden” rural-to-urban migrant women working in the sex trade in contemporary China.
Anna Schrieve
Anna Schrieve is a junior at Western Washington University. She is currently majoring in Human Services, and plans on getting her Master’s in public health after graduation. She is extremely passionate about advocating for the decriminalization of sex work, due to her own personal experiences surrounding this topic. She believes that decriminalization of sex work is important because it allows access to public health resources as well as protection from violence and prosecution. She also emphasizes that it is important to understand and acknowledge the intersectionality within sex work as well, as marginalized populations are most commonly the victims of unjust arrests and violent crimes
WWU Alumni activists Speak / Student report-outs
Kyann Flint
Kyann Flint, a native of Bellingham, Washington, studied Political Science and graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in Humanities and Social Sciences. She now works for AbiliTrek, a local company that is dedicated to advocating for people with disabilities. She also held the title of Ms. Wheelchair Washington 2017 and now is the coordinator of the state program. Kyann is the author of the blog “Life from a Lame Perspective” where she shares her experiences of living with a disability. She not only likes to write, but loves spending time with her friends and family traveling, exploring the outdoors, and drinking tea and coffee. Kyann uses a wheelchair for mobility and looks at her wheelchair like a pair of glasses that enables her rather than inhibits her but rather it is society’s social barriers that truly disable her. She lives her life to defy the defined disability.
Rachel Clark
Rachel Clark graduated from WWU in 2013 with a concentration in Health Inequity and Medicine from Fairhaven College. She was awarded the Adventure Learning Grant for 2011-2012, and spent the year in Kenya doing a homestay witnessing the work they did through a Community Based Organization. She entered medical school in 2015 at the University of Washington, where she focused her activism on anti-racism within the school of medicine. She graduates in May, and will head to the Bronx for residency at Montefiore’s Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine. Rachel is passionate about creating a health care delivery model that brings health to where people are, respecting their culture and community, with laughter and joy.
