The CCDE has flourished over the past decade, as an innovative space where our community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni gather to promote greater equity through their scholarship, curriculum, and community events. The CCDE facilitates research collaborations for faculty and graduate students, including initiatives like the Health Equity Action Lab (HEAL), which supports and promotes community-based health equity research, and Generation Mixed Goes to School which explores how mixed-race, school-age children form racialized identities through their school environments. The Center offers our broader community networking and action-oriented programming and events, such as Interrupting Privilege, which brings together students and community members from across Seattle for intergenerational conversations about race, racism and its intersections. The CCDE is also a vibrant community hub for students, who regularly gather at the Center, on the first floor of the Communications Building, for weekly Real Talk Tuesday gatherings, mentorship programs, and applied learning opportunities. At the ripe age of ten, the CCDE continues to evolve and innovate as it engages in critical dialogues about race and its intersections and how to create more inclusive systems and structures.
As we celebrate this groundbreaking Center, which serves all three UW campuses and the broader Puget Sound public, we bid farewell to its founding director, Professor Ralina Joseph. Joseph, who has served on the UW Communication faculty since 2005, has accepted a position at UCLA, as Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence. Although the transition is bittersweet for her friends and colleagues at UW, the anniversary celebrations give us an opportunity to reflect on Joseph’s indelible legacy and to express our deep gratitude for the countless ways she has made Communication and the University a more equitable and inclusive place. Her many friends, colleagues, and students past and present undoubtedly cheer her on in this new endeavor.
Associate Professor Carmen Gonzalez, a longstanding member and leader of the Center, will assume the role of director of the CCDE this Fall, supported by associate directors Timeka Tounsel, Andrea Otáñez, LeiLani Nishime, Savaughn Williams and assistant director Josh Griffin. Gonzalez, who joined the faculty in 2015, has been with the CCDE since its inception, working with students and faculty colleagues to launch a number of programs, including HEAL, a collaborative instantiation of Gonzalez’s interdisciplinary and community-based research focused on digital equity and health communication.
Although her faculty and staff colleagues are sad to see her move on, we wish nothing but success and happiness for Ralina Joseph, who we know will continue to foster equitable and inclusive higher education systems through her work at UCLA. We’re grateful in the knowledge that this special Center will continue to thrive in the capable hands of Carmen Gonzalez and the rest of the CCDE team.
Happy Anniversary, CCDE!
Thank you and good luck, Ralina Joseph!
Congratulations, Carmen Gonzalez!
