UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity E-news
Spring 2010  |  Return to issue home

2010 Diversifying Our Professional Workforce Speaker Series

Diversifying Our Professional Workforce

The Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D), in partnership with student groups and UW programs, is hosting a three-part series of expert panel discussions entitled Diversifying Our Professional Workforce. The series allows current students to meet UW alumni and friends who are experts in their respective fields to learn more about their professions.

The first two events were held during the fall and winter quarters and featured prominent field experts and UW alumni. The Business and Entrepreneurship Expert Panel, held Dec. 3, featured Earl Overstreet II, president of General Microsystems, Inc. (GMI), and David Santillanes, president of D. Lark, Inc. Overstreet’s company specializes in high performance servers, workstations, storage and storage management products, and is one of the largest minority-owned businesses in Washington. Overstreet also serves on the board of directors for the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and the Case Western Reserve University Puget Sound Alumni Chapter. Santillanes is a member of the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Seattle Association. D. Lark, Inc. is a franchisee of McDonald’s Corporation and operates seven restaurants in Seattle and Bellevue.

The Feb. 24 event highlighted a panel of experts in Law and Justice including United States District Court Judge Richard Jones, ’75, and lawyers Constance Proctor, ’78, and Daniel Gandara. Jones, the District Court judge for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, also served as a King County Superior Court judge for 13 and a half years before his appointment to the federal bench in October 2007. Proctor joined the law firm of Vandeberg, Johnson & Gandara in 2006. She received the Outstanding Lawyer of the Year Award in 1994 from the Seattle-King County Bar Association and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the UW Law School in 1998. Gandara joined the law firm of Vandeberg, Johnson & Gandara in 1993, earning the King County Bar Association Outstanding Lawyer Award in 2006 and the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors Affirmative Action Award in 1995. View photos from the event.

The final event will be held during the spring quarter featuring experts from the science, technology, engineering and math fields. The date is yet to be announced.

Spring 2010  |  Return to issue home

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Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, Community & Public Relations, 320 Mary Gates Hall, Box 352835, Seattle, WA 98195
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