Like many first-year college students, Yasmin Ahmed, who uses they/them pronouns, suffered from a bit of imposter syndrome when they arrived at UW in 2014. Although Yasmin was born in Seattle, they hadn’t been in the Pacific Northwest since they were a small child. Their family lived first in Muscat, Oman—where they recall playing in [...]

Continue Reading →

Wayne Au was lucky enough to come of age during hip-hop’s golden era. Listening to the stylistic innovations in the late 1980s and early 90s of pioneers like Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Queen Latifah, Run-D.M.C. and Nas, he was electrified by music bursting with lyrics of protest and Black pride, lyrics demanding solutions to urban [...]

Continue Reading →

You could say that Joseph de Veyra did not find nursing – nursing found him. Arriving in the U.S. as a 21-year-old immigrant from the Philippines with just $100 in his pocket, Joseph took advantage of the first opportunity that presented itself: caregiving. This early position quickly morphed into a certified nursing assistant (CNA) role. [...]

Continue Reading →

It’s hard to be healthy when you’re poor. It’s hard to be healthy when you’re unhoused. Or when you are hungry, unemployed or underemployed, or unsafe. When you’re disabled or have a chronic illness. Or if you are Black or brown, LGBTQ+, an immigrant or refugee, or if you have other or multiple marginalized identities. [...]

Continue Reading →

When Lucas Harrington was in college, his life was all about magic: magic after classes, magic every Friday night, and magic on the weekends in giant multiplayer games that carried on late into the night. Not the magic of card tricks and sleight-of-hand, however – Lucas’ preoccupation was with the wildly popular tabletop and digital [...]

Continue Reading →

In March 2020, UW became the first university in the country to move to fully remote classes, in an effort to stem the burgeoning tide of what were the first reported cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the U.S. It was an unprecedented decision, followed in short order by other universities across the country. Eighteen [...]

Continue Reading →

Exploring Indonesian culture and identity  The UW campuses abound with people who could rightly be characterized as Renaissance people, polymaths, multipotentialites – those who possess both strong intellectual curiosity and strong creative ability, coupled with interest and expertise in multiple subjects – and ethnomusicologist Christina Sunardi is no exception. Christina’s intellectual curiosity was ignited as [...]

Continue Reading →

Christine Lew is mad, and she wants to tell people about it.   It’s not so much that she’s angry, although she feels that kind of mad, too, when she encounters overt ableism or systemic barriers to disabled people.   No, Christine’s kind of mad is crazy-mad, insane-mad, mental-illness mad. She has long-term depression and panic-attack-inducing anxiety, [...]

Continue Reading →

Leo Egashira is a man of many interests and pursuits. Talking to him, the word multipotentialite – a fancy new term for an old idea, of the polymath or Renaissance person – comes to mind. The research coordinator with UW’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute celebrates his 68th birthday this month, but he has no plans [...]

Continue Reading →

Psychiatrist Pamela Collins has long been interested in the intersection of mental health and global public health. While a medical student at Cornell University, she had the opportunity to conduct summer research in Haiti during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, a formative experience that brought into focus the impact of the sociocultural environment [...]

Continue Reading →

The Whole U is thrilled to re-introduce our Spotlight column, now titled People of UW, to highlight the incredible people at the University of Washington. Across our campuses and medical centers, the energy at UW is truly boundless. Join us in celebrating the people who make our University one of the best institutions in the [...]

Continue Reading →

In March, Dr. Nick Johnson (above left), a physician in the Emergency Department, Medical Intensive Care Unit and Neurocritical Care Service at Harborview Medical Center, contributed an article to Prevention describing What Life Is Like Inside a Seattle Emergency Department During COVID-19. We caught up with Dr. Johnson to learn what he and colleagues have [...]

Continue Reading →