[Wsssc] FW: Director of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Announcement

[Joe Holliday]

Good morning, colleagues. Below is the announcement of our new Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Sophia Agtarap.

Joe

[Compass]
Joe Holliday
Director, Student Services
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
jholliday at sbctc.edu<mailto:jholliday at sbctc.edu>* o: 360-704-4334 * f: 360-704-4418
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

SBCTC Vision:

"Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice in service to our diverse communities."


From: Paul Francis <pfrancis at sbctc.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 7, 2022 7:56 AM
To: SBCTC All Staff <SBCTCAllStaff at sbctc.edu>
Cc: Sophia Kristina <sophieagtarap at gmail.com>
Subject: Director of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Announcement

Colleagues -

I'm thrilled to announce that Sophia Agtarap will join us on November 1 as our new Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Sophia brings a remarkable commitment to and demonstrated leadership in EDI work to this role. She comes to us from Sound Transit, where she helped develop their EDI programs across the agency in addition to their anti-racism strategy. Prior to that she worked as Director of Equity and Language Service for the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District in Sumner. Earlier in her career she worked as a program coordinator at South Seattle College as well as an English Language Instructor in Adult Basic Education at Renton Technical College.

I am particularly impressed with Sophia's extensive background in communications work through an EDI lens. For four years she served as Director of Communications for the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. While there she led communication, messaging, and marketing efforts to launch and sustain multi-million-dollar programs focused on racial justice, gender and sexuality, and economic and ecological justice.

Sophia is currently enrolled in a Doctor of Education program in Diversity and Equity in Education through the University of Illinois. She currently possesses a Master of Communication in Digital Media, a Master of Teaching in English + ESL, and a Bachelor of Arts in English, all from the University of Washington. She also holds several professional certificates, including one on leading diverse teams and organization through the University of Michigan and is currently enrolled in one on Native education through the UW.

Sophia will work closely with leaders across our system, many external stakeholders and partners, and all of you to actualize the goals in our State Board's 2020-30 Strategic Plan<https://www.sbctc.edu/resources/documents/about/agency/strategic-plan/strategic-plan.pdf>. I'm especially excited to integrate her into the work of Director of Tribal Government Affairs Lynn Palmanteer-Holder and new Director of Leadership Development Rod Smith. I firmly believe that we work best when we work together; we now have the team in place to move forward.

A sincere thank you to Interim EDI Director Melissa Williams, who stepped into this role during my second week on the job and led with distinction over the past two months. Melissa also had to deal with the departure of our EDI administrative assistant during this time and did not miss a beat, even as a department of one. I could not be more grateful that Melissa will remain with us in her policy associate role going forward.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

Paul

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Paul Francis
Executive Director
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
pfrancis at sbctc.edu<mailto:pfrancis at sbctc.edu> * o: 360-704-4355  * c: 206-303-9216
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

SBCTC Vision - "Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice in service to our diverse communities."

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