UW School of Social Work E-news
March 2011  |  Return to issue home

In Memoriam: Remembering Joyce Reyes, MSW '73

Joyce Reyes
Joyce Reyes

Joyce Reyes (May 21, 1937-Dec. 2, 2010) graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma, Wash., in 1955. From 1964 to 1965, she performed on KVI Radio with popular radio personality Bob Hardwick.

In 1970 she was elected president of the Indian Womens' Service League in Seattle. In 1990, she was appointed the first Indian director of the Yakama Indian Health Center in Toppenish, Wash. Four years later, she received the highest award from the UW's Master's Graduate Program in Social Work.

Joyce was appointed the director of Tribal & Service Unit Operations of the Health and Human Services in Portland. Joyce's father, George Meachem, was Chief of the Warm Springs Indian Tribe in Warm Springs, Ore.; her mother, Margaret Sampson Ross, was a member of the Swinomish Tribe at Bow Hill, Wash.

March 2011  |  Return to issue home