aerial view of Western's campus at night, with golden lights surrounded by dark trees

Western faculty, staff honored with Community Building Awards

Western Today staff

A number of Western Washington University faculty and staff members were honored at the 2014 Ken Gass Community Building Awards dinner Dec. 9 in Bellingham.

  • All of the winners, with those from Western in bold:
  • Tanya Rojas. - for creating opportunities for families to use their skills to support Shuksan Middle school.
  • Girls on the Run organizers: Tammy Bennett, Jen Gallant, Tracey Diehl
  • Lavonne Sterling-Chue, impassioned thousands of children to find their creativity.
  • Enrique Lopez - Wherever he is he brings people and has has the key to community building.
  • Lisa Moulds—building community and community caring by linking hundreds of college students to emergent needs.
  • Squalicum Health Alliance –for their work to make the Lynden Fair a smoke-free event
  • Betsy Hasegawa, - for bringing student leaders into the community to expand learning
  • Whatcom county 4-H - for building positive youth development programs everywhere.
  • Linda Quinn –for her compassionate and visionary work for educational equity
  • Janet Meddick – for helping elementary youth become Allies for one another
  • Mount Baker Council BSA – for decades of linking healthy, caring adults to youth and the 10,000 hours of service they provide each year..
  • Robert Sarazin Blake --for creating a community each year at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree.
  • Cayley Schmidt for stepping up and initiating the first ever Bellingham Folk Festival
  • Palliative Care Community Engagement Team - Casey Shillam, Bree Johnston and Sara Weir, along with Richard Scholtz and Marie Eaton – for instigating a broad community conversation on caring for each other well.
  • Ashley Benem –For putting together and organizing The Art of Death, that shined a light on the journey we are all on together.
  • Captain Sean Farnand for his challenge those outside of EMS to think of opportunities to work together to have collective impact on the underserved.
  • Marie Eaton –for her thoughtful and compassionate work across the community firm on issues of creativity, equity, and social justice.
  • Jocelyn Winslow for her work building a community around the Alzheimer’s society
  • CIS for the Race for Education bringing community together around school success.
  • Shelly Macy for long-time organizing and support of the early learning community at Northwest Indian College and Whatcom County
  • John D'Onfrio – for creating a community of people that share their love of photography.
  • John Dalgarn for his work with Out of the Ashes , giving those voice they didn't have before.
  • Becky Diaz for her tireless work building community around Alderwood Elementary.
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