Prof. LaShawnDa Pittman contributed an essay in the “Black Voices” issue of Viewpoint Magazine:
It’s important to point out what the UW has gotten right. We have a sundry of initiatives and institutes that bring attention to the plight and power of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). To name a few: the Relational Poverty Network, Urban@UW, the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, the West Coast Poverty Center, the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, the Center for Child and Family Well-Being, and the Population Health Initiative. In 2015, we hired Ana Mari Cauce, the first Latina to serve as our college’s president. In 2019, Joy Williamson-Lott became the dean of UW’s Graduate School. These kinds of hires are important because they demonstrate that women of color, who experience the negative effects of gendered racism on their careers, can move into leadership roles at UW and in academia. It’s important to take stock of what we’ve accomplished so we can remember that our collective activism, past and present, isn’t in vain.