Faculty Friday: John Vallier
Hey hey, my my / Rock and roll can never die / My my, hey hey / Rock and roll is here to stay Any seasoned musician will tell you that it’s one thing to say the lyrics, but another thing to make them ring true. If Neil Young’s famous lines are to be recognized as rock [...]
Raise the Bar: Summer Spotlight Week 7
It’s the last week of the Raise the Bar challenge for wellness in the workplace, so we thought we’d leave you with a story we hope will inspire participants to carry forward the momentum you’ll have built over the past 60 days into the new academic year and beyond. It’s one that started with a [...]
Staff Story: Danny Arguetty
The universe is unraveling, but Danny Arguetty is hardly concerned. To the contrary: when Arguetty is asked about strategies for overcoming challenges on the path to self-improvement in his capacity as manager of UW Recreation’s Mindfulness Program, he replies that first acknowledging, then embracing the universe’s disposition towards disarray can be a key step in [...]
Raise the Bar: Summer Spotlight Week 6
In Week 6 of our 60-day Raise the Bar challenge for wellness in the workplace, teams across the UW took time out to experience the almost-total solar eclipse, while continuing apace with their regularly scheduled wellness- and team-bonding programming centered on physical activity, eating well, stress management, and positive affirmation. Sue Carr, strategic initiatives and [...]
How to Watch the Solar Eclipse
When the moon passes in front of the sun the morning of Monday, August 21, people living in the Pacific Northwest will be among the first to experience a total solar eclipse in all its stunning splendor. When they do, they’ll be witnessing one of the rarest natural phenomena on the planet. “The effect it has [...]
Faculty Friday: Julie Kientz
For the second day in a row, Julie Kientz blacked out at the sight of blood. When she came to, lifted from the floor of the veterinarian’s office where she was participating in a job-shadowing program, the eleventh grader from Ohio decided it might be time for a change of career plans. “I love computers,” [...]
Raise the Bar: Summer Spotlight Week 4
With temperatures on the rise and a smoky vail descending on Washington from the north, our Raise the Bar teams could easily have thrown in the towel, cranked the AC, and shelved workplace wellness for less sweltering weather over the course of the past week. But did they? Far from it! From team hydration and [...]
Faculty Friday: Amy Ko
Amy Ko’s interest in coding and computer programming started early—six o’clock in the morning early. Growing up in the Portland suburb of West Linn, Oregon, Ko would set her alarm in order to make a 7 a.m. computer science class offered at her high school during “zero period.” While most of her crack-of-dawn classmates used [...]
Raise the Bar: Summer Spotlight Week 3
In Week 3 of our 60-day Raise the Bar challenge for wellness in the workplace, we saw groups push through to new heights (quite literally, in some cases) as well as double down on successful strategies and activities implemented during Weeks 1 and 2. Whether you were baking healthy snacks, blasting tunes at a group [...]
Faculty Friday: Josh Reid
On May 17, 1999, nine members of the Makah tribal nation paddled a canoe into the waters off Cape Alava on the Olympic Peninsula in pursuit of a 30-foot gray whale. From the first harpoon strike to a finishing shot delivered by a specialized rifle, the hunt lasted no more than ten minutes, but kicked [...]
Raise the Bar: Summer Spotlight Week 2
From wall-sits and destress sessions to pushups and potlucks, Week 2 of our Raise the Bar challenge for wellness in the workplace held a range of sunny surprises. In addition to all your work to emphasize a culture of team wellness, we’ve been floored by your humor, hard work, and incredibly clever team names. As [...]
Staff Story: Katie Gallagher
When Katie Gallagher moved to Seattle from Rhode Island three years ago, she didn’t know what the future would hold, so she decided to activate a connection from her past. Near the end of her studies as an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island, Gallagher had attended a feminist camp in New York City [...]











