EarthLab welcomes four new Advisory Council members

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With the 2022-23 school year in full swing, EarthLab is excited to share that we have four new members who have joined the Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is a body of volunteers from diverse professions and backgrounds that provides unique perspectives to help inform our programming, introduce new potential collaborators, and raise awareness and financial support for EarthLab. The Council works to connect decision makers outside of academia to UW resources.

Welcome, Trish, Kate, Chukundi and Bob! We can’t wait to start collaborating together in this next chapter of advisory support. Learn more about our four new Advisory Council members below. To learn more about other present and past Advisory Council members, please visit our Advisory Council page.

Trish Millines Dziko
Technology Access Foundation

Trish DzikoTrish Millines Dziko cofounded Technology Access Foundation (TAF) in 1996 after spending 17 years in the tech industry. Through Trish’s leadership, TAF transitioned from out of school programs to become a statewide leader in public education, operating TAF Academy (a 6th to 12th grade award-winning public school, co-managed with the Federal Way Public School District), partnering with public schools to transform them to promote the highest level of student learning, and increasing the number of teachers of color through the Martinez Fellowship.

Trish is a committed, proactive leader serving on boards of organizations that focus on children and education.

Kate Janeway, JD, MPA
Executive Coach

Kate JanewayKate Janeway has been working on environmental issues for more than 50 years, starting with the oil spill that fouled 40 miles of beach in her hometown, Santa Barbara California, when she was 15 years old. Her work since that time has been defined by her quest for the most effective skill sets to address the existential challenges we face. Consequently, Kate has a law degree, a Master’s in Public Administration focused on Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management and is a certified Executive Coach. The skills and insights from these combined disciplines inform her work with organizations and systems seeking change.

The through-line in Kate’s career has been the thirty years of work with The Nature Conservancy where she began as Assistant Director of the Washington/Alaska Field Office. Since then, she has served as a volunteer on TNC state boards in Ohio, Alaska and, currently, Washington.

Kate also serves on the Advisory Board of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment which is now deeply engaged in launching the new Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University.

Kate holds a B.A. in American Studies and Humanities from Stanford University, a J.D. from Georgetown Law Center, and an M.P.A. in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management from the University of Washington.  She is a certified Hudson Institute Coach.

Chukundi Salisbury
City of Seattle

Chukundi SalisburyA self-described “Parks Kid”, Chukundi grew up in the Central Area and participated in several programs at Miller Community Center and other organizations. He has a lifelong commitment to service as a volunteer, board member, employee, manager, small business owner, and participant.   

Salisbury is a 25-year employee of the City of Seattle, where he works as a Manager for Parks and Recreation and serves as the founding director of the Youth Green Corps. He has served as the Trails Coordinator, Urban Food Systems Manager, Director of Camp Long, as well as a Recreation Center Coordinator at Garfield Community Center.   

Outside of work, he is the founder of Service is a Lifestyle, a 501©3 Non-Profit that has launched several community initiatives such as 100 Black Parents, URBVOTE (the Urban Vote Initiative), and the “This House is Not For Sale Campaign”.  In 2021 he launched the “Health is the Real Bag” campaign to focus on wellness after losing over 70lbs and reversing his Type II Diabetes. 

As a community volunteer he has served in many roles and boards, including Real Change Newspaper, YMCA Camping Services, Mothers For Police Accountability, Southeast Youth and Family Services, The African American Advisory to the Seattle Police Department, and the Central District Community Preservation & Development Authority (CDCPDA).  He currently serves as the President of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Epsilon Epsilon Sigma Chapter in Seattle. 

As an entrepreneur, he is the founder of SEASPOT Media Group, which is a marketing and publishing house. He is the Publisher of the Adventures of Lil Big Fella Comic Book and has owned small businesses.  

Salisbury is also a nationally known Disc Jockey who has performed locally and internationally at venues large and small.

Bob Whitener
The Whitener Group

Bob WhitenerAs owner and managing partner of The Whitener Group, Bob Whitener has over 40 years of experience working with tribal governments and enterprises within Indian County.  

Bob has extensive experience in the areas of natural resources management, finance administration, human resources systems, tribal-state compact negotiations, policy development, and federal negotiations. Bob served as the Natural Resources Director for the Squaxin Island Tribe, The Director of Finance and Administration for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Executive Director of the Squaxin Island Tribe and CEO of Island Enterprises Incorporated. IEI is the economic development corporation for the Squaxin Island Tribe. Bob also served for many years on the Pacific Salmon Treaty, rotating in and out of the Chair of the Southern Panel.

After retiring from tribal service, Bob and his brother Ron, later joined by his Daughter Jennifer Whitener Ulrich, formed The Whitener Group LLC. TWG is dedicated to working in Indian Country and over the past ten years has worked with around 100 different tribes and Native Villages. TWG also works with many, usually non-profits, who want to work with or have good relations with tribes. These include the Pew Charitable Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Mountains to the Sound Greenway, Seattle YMCA, and Forterra. 

TWG also works on emerging issues from climate change to carbon removal for these NGOs and/or as a supportive contributor to on-going processes.

EarthLab would like to thank Troy Alstead, Eric Artz, Jamie Bechtel & Chris Stolte for their years of service as inaugural Advisory Council members. We are grateful for the time, leadership and guidance that they provided within the council, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in other capacities as they transition into alumni roles going forward.

Now Hiring: Associate Director of Advancement

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The College of the Environment at the University of Washington is now hiring an Associate Director of Advancement for EarthLab. This position will be responsible for assisting in the planning, strategy-setting and delivery of activities to successfully secure gifts and grants for the College of the Environment (CoEnv) and its constituent units.  Efforts shall be focused on raising increasing levels of private support, for current use, endowment, and capital purposes, benefiting CoEnv students, faculty, staff, programs, and college leaders.

The Associate Director of Advancement (ADOA) works closely with both the Senior Director for Advancement and the Associate Dean for Advancement in fulfilling annual goals and objectives.  This person is expected to work closely with University Advancement and unit colleagues, including marketing and communications staff, and academic leaders and volunteers to identify, engage, and solicit prospective major gift donors.  The ADOA will have assigned responsibility for oversight and coordination of fundraising programs in one or more academic departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Frontline Fundraising
• Manage a portfolio of major gift prospects for EarthLab and for the department of Earth and Space Sciences, with an emphasis on Top 25 prospects who will be solicited within 12-18 months.  Develop and implement solicitation strategies for each assigned major gift prospect taking into account established best practices and metrics for performance, e.g., substantive contacts, with an emphasis on substantial contacts.
• Special emphasis shall be placed on identifying lead prospects for emerging campaign initiatives, and will require cultivating and soliciting individuals, foundations, corporations, and other organizations in close cooperation with associated frontline fundraisers in the College of the Environment and across the University.
• Manage the identification, engagement, solicitation, and stewarding of a portfolio of major gift prospects and donors for the CoEnv.
• Participate cooperatively and regularly in the University’s prospect management and tracking system, following established protocols and best practices.  Make regular use of the full range of Advancement’s database capabilities.
• Prepare written and verbal proposals, case statements, concept/informational materials, endowment agreements, gift illustrations, and other materials needed to secure gifts and grants.
• Work closely with unit colleagues as well as those in Regional and Internal Giving, Principal Gifts, Planned Giving, and Corporate & Foundation Relations in preparing and executing engagement and solicitation strategies for assigned prospects.

Strategy Development
• Provide strategic leadership to and support for the heads of assigned academic/administrative units, as well as faculty and administrators in designing and implementing strategies and efforts to sustain and increase major gift and alumni support.  Coordinate the participation of administrators, academic leaders, volunteers, and development staff in implementing work along the full donor continuum.
• Develop and implement strategies in working with and cultivating private support and volunteer opportunities with diverse communities and individual prospects.

Program Development and Management
• Work closely with the College’s Advancement colleagues, including the Marketing & Communications team, in helping develop appropriate marketing materials targeting a diverse range of constituents, with special emphasis on major gift prospects and thoughts leaders.
• In consultation with the Senior Director for Advancement and Assistant Dean for Advancement, create an annual personalized work plan for accomplishing specific priority goals and objectives in coordination with overall unit Advancement goals as outlined in annual plans. Provide at least quarterly reports noting progress and challenges.
• Participate in the development of (i) policies and procedures relating to the Advancement program, (ii) marketing materials for the major gift work, and (iii) cultivation and stewardship activities and events; and (iv) work strategic planning opportunities as needed.

Other duties as assigned.

View the full job description and apply here

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Watch the recordings from the 2022 UN Ocean Conference

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Last month, three UW researchers representing two EarthLab organizations presented at the 2022 UN Ocean Conference. Their research centered around ocean equity and access to data. Curious to learn more? Watch the presentation recordings below:

Virtual webinar on ocean equity from Ocean Nexus Center

The Ocean Nexus-led side event introduced a new framework to showcase the development and transmission of Procedural Key Performance Indicators (PKPI), that guide sustainable development efforts in oceans to contribute to reducing social inequity and inequality. Eight Nexus fellows and postdoc researchers within the Ocean Nexus network will present their work on feminist epistemology, ocean’s climate justice, social impacts of marine conservation, racial history of US fisheries and ocean plastic policy in Italy.

In-Person event on access to data moderated by Washington Ocean Acidification Center

The University of Washington’s Washington Ocean Acidification Center and Ocean Nexus Center hosted a side event “Ocean Acidification: Co-designing data connections to underserved communities for equitable outcomes” during the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 30th, 2022. The event highlighted successful partnerships with Indigenous, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and other underserved communities on co-designing activities for adaptation and response strategies.

Three UW researchers to present & attend 2022 UN Ocean Conference on assessing global ocean equity

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Next week, UW will be sending researchers to the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference, which will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, from June 27-July 1. This five-day conference will seek to advance momentum around science-based innovative solutions related to global ocean action within the UN Sustainable Development Goal #14: “to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

In partnership with the UW Office of Global Affairs, three researchers from The Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center and the Washington Ocean Acidification Center – two EarthLab member organizations within the UW College of the Environment – will be presenting their research in real time (both virtually and in-person) at the conference.

Virtual webinar on ocean equity from Ocean Nexus Center

On Monday, The Ocean Nexus Center’s Director Dr. Yoshitaka Ota and team will gather virtually and present at the UN Ocean Conference to introduce new frameworks for developing and conducting such ocean equity studies.

The free event begins at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Click here to register.

Ocean Nexus is a transdisciplinary international network of over 30 research institutes and 100 ocean researchers focused on bringing social equity to ocean governance. This network is built on a 10-year partnership between the Nippon Foundation and the University of Washington.

“We are committed to building relationships at the global scale to deepen our understanding of social equity in the context of ocean management and collectively address systemic injustices, such as racial and gender discrimination and post-colonial hegemony,” said Dr. Ota, who is also a Professor of Practice at the UW School of Marine & Environmental Affairs. “Traditionally, ocean issues are treated separately from social issues, but our team believes that sustainable ocean development must include evolving evidence measurements and innovative performance indicators for a procedural and just transformation of oceans.”

The Ocean Nexus-led side event will introduce a new framework to showcase the development and transmission of Procedural Key Performance Indicators (PKPI), that guide sustainable development efforts in oceans to contribute to reducing social inequity and inequality. Eight Nexus fellows and postdoc researchers within the Ocean Nexus network will present their work on feminist epistemology, ocean’s climate justice, social impacts of marine conservation, racial history of US fisheries and ocean plastic policy in Italy.

The event will open by explaining the co-development processes behind the PKPI creation, how researchers are adapting the framework to specific ocean equity contexts, and will conclude by inviting collaborating researchers, government officials and decision-makers into a moderated Q&A. This session is free and open to the public. UW post doc researchers Jessica Vandenberg, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, and Rebeca de Buen Kalman,  Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, will be presenting their work as a part of this Ocean Nexus side event. Grant Blume, associate teaching professor at the Evans School, will also be attending the conference on behalf of the UW.

Watch the recording here.

In-Person event on access to data moderated by Washington Ocean Acidification Center

On Thursday afternoon, Dr. Jan Newton (WOAC Co-Director, Senior Principal Oceanographer at UW Applied Physics Laboratory and UW affiliate Professor of oceanography) will moderate an in-person panel discussion in Lisbon entitled “Ocean Acidification: Co-designing data connections to underserved communities for equitable outcomes.”

The Washington Ocean Acidification Center was established in 2013 following the recommendation of the Washington state Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification. Based within EarthLab at the University of Washington, WOAC serves the entire state as a regional research hub that monitors, studies and trains the next generation of scientists, managers and decision-makers to face the challenges posed by ocean acidification.

This in-person UN side event will highlight how global programs – such as the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network’s UN programme Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability (OARS) and the Nippon Foundation’s Ocean Nexus Center at UW – can give visibility to local voices, especially those of Indigenous, Small Island Developing States and other underserved communities that depend on ocean-based economies for their survival.

“We need to consider the importance of local ocean acidification efforts conducted within effective global coordination, to take action at both of these scales,” said Dr. Newton. “It is critical to conduct local scale observations co-designed with communities, assuring that connections are made for their local data usage. At the same time, the value of doing so within a global context should be recognized– both for how these data can inform global assessments, like the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.3, and for how global programs can give visibility to local voices. That is where we can make a real difference.”

Through a moderated panel discussion, presenters from Indigenous and Small Island Developing States backgrounds will explore how local partnerships between researchers and Indigenous communities can be supported within global coordination programs to build more resilient communities in the face of climate change as it relates to ocean acidification.

By informing global scientific assessments through local-scale research that is co-designed by both ocean scientists and communities, these collaborative adaptation strategies can better provide future scientific tools and programming to build more resilient communities worldwide.

The event, scheduled for 1:30-3 p.m. local time, was recorded and can be viewed here. To learn more about Dr. Newton and the Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability programme within the UN Ocean Decade, click here.

 

 

UN Ocean Conference Side Event | “Ocean Acidification: Co-designing data connections to underserved communities for equitable outcomes”

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