Year: 2025

Meet Dr. Estell Williams, ’13, an emergency surgeon, community builder, dedicated mentor and the UW’s 2026 honoree for Black History Month.

By Malavika Jagannathan

From the first grade, Dr. Estell Williams knew she wanted to be a doctor. The self-described science nerd isn’t quite sure where that came from, but she’s got a few guesses.

Maybe it’s the fact that she had a Black pediatrician growing up, one whose office walls were plastered with photos of Black patients and their families, making it look like a relative’s living room. Or all those times she tagged along with her cousin to nursing classes at a local community college, taking copious and detailed notes, even as a child. But ultimately, when Williams attended a summer program designed to introduce her to health careers as a teenager, she knew medicine was her calling.

The California native eventually found her way up to Seattle for medical school at the University of Washington — and hasn’t left. Today, Wiliams is an emergency surgeon and associate professor at the UW School of Medicine, while also serving as executive director for the Center for Workforce Inclusion and Healthcare System Equity (WIHSE) and vice chair for diversity, equity and inclusion for the surgery department. Together with her spouse, Assistant Dean and UW Associate Teaching Professor Edwin Lindo, she co-founded Estelita’s Library, a social justice bookstore and community hub in South Seattle.

In celebration of Black History Month, the UW and the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity celebrate Dr. Williams for her inclusive leadership, mentorship of future doctors, and dedication to building community on and beyond campus.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Give us a snapshot of who you are and your personal story.

I’m originally from Oakland, California, the youngest of seven. I was raised by a father who hailed from rural Louisiana. He grew up on the plantation where my great-grandparents were enslaved. The messaging he gave me growing up is how intelligent and smart I was, and he paid for my education before he paid for the mortgage. That was my first example of sacrifice and hard work, so it didn’t feel so hard for me to go to school and work hard.

My biological mother, who passed away this last year, unfortunately fell victim to the drug epidemic in Oakland after I was born. For a long time, I was afraid to tell that story because it felt stereotypical: A young Black girl from the United States who had a parent addicted to drugs and raised in a single-parent household. I felt like I fit a negative mold of what it meant to be Black in America.

I carried that with me until I started realizing the strength that existed in that story. Although my mother fell victim to substance abuse, she recovered. She had an amazing career, bought a home and married. It showed me that we don’t throw people away. A temporary circumstance does not devalue who they are as a person. And the strength that runs through my veins is the strength that my mother had to conquer her addiction. I have a strong family who instilled so much in me and would not be who I am without that foundation.

What was your journey to college and medical school like?

I went to Xavier University, a historically Black college and university in New Orleans, because it is the number one school in placing African Americans in medical school. I continued that journey at the University of San Francisco after Hurricane Katrina when I moved back home. I ultimately came to the University of Washington for medical school because my older sister wanted me in Washington state while my niece was in middle school.

After getting the acceptance, I was invited through the School of Medicine for a “second look,” an opportunity to see the campus. I was able to meet other students. It was a very diverse group, despite the overall lack of diversity within the school, and I finally saw people I felt connected to. Shortly after, I committed to the UW.

Medical school was a blur and amazing. I also ended up meeting my husband who moved here for law school. We met each other at a Halloween party that October and have been connected at the hip ever since. I stayed here for residency and then for a faculty position. There has always been something about the UW community, the people who have invested in me and wanted to see me be successful. It truly turned into the best decision I could have ever made.

Pictured here during her residency, Williams is mentoring a medical student in the operating room (Credit: UW School of Medicine)

How did you create or find community in medical school?

I don’t know if it’s luck or divine timing, but the people I met during that second look and in something called pre-matriculation (a program that supports admitted medical students from under-resourced backgrounds) were my people throughout medical school — and even now. Dr. Anisa Ibrahim, the medical director of pediatrics at Harborview Medical School, is a Somali immigrant who stayed in a refugee camp in Kenya and moved to the United States when she was young. She was in second look with me when we were deciding on medical school. She did pre-matriculation with me and was in every single course. Every phase of residency, we did together, and we continue to have our children play together. The people I met became lifelong friends.

In 2009, when I entered medical school, we had a historic number of African American medical students that were admitted since 1974. Aside from that, I had a wonderful diversity of students who were represented there. The beauty of what it means to have a community of support around you is that it can enrich your own experience, but even the experiences of the people you are around.

How do your balance your roles as a UW School of Medicine faculty member, surgeon and executive director of WIHSE?

I spend my day living my best life. It feels dreamlike to be able to do what I do day in and day out. I’m a surgeon and an associate professor of surgery. I do emergency general surgery at the UW, both at Montlake and Northwest Hospital. I also serve as the executive director for the Center for Workforce Inclusion and Healthcare System Equity, a center I developed to help inspire the next generation of individuals from economically and educationally under-resourced communities to enter health-care careers.

This stems again from my own story. I made it through as a surgeon because of outreach programs I participated in and mentors. I’ve always continued to volunteer and work within those programs as a medical student and resident. When I became faculty, (former UW School of Medicine) Dean Paul Ramsey recruited me to run the Doctor for a Day program and grow the outreach work we were doing through the School of Medicine. I knew that was just one piece of the pie. There were so many ways we can continue to work with those students, so we now have five programs under the center.

In 2022, Williams received the Health Care Leadership Award from the Puget Sound Business Journal in recognition of her work at the Center for Workforce Inclusion and Healthcare System Equity.

What is the Doctor for a Day program and how did you first get involved?

I credit another close friend, Dr. Joy Thurman-Nguyen, a family medicine doctor who is both African American and Filipina and grew up in South Seattle. She recognized there wasn’t any engagement from the School of Medicine in that community to teach and engage with youth. In medical school, she had a vision to bring that sort of engagement to the South Seattle community. Being a product of those programs, it spoke to my soul.

Before I came to medical school, I served as a coordinator and a director for a consortium of programs through the Alameda County Public Health Department. I had already started working on my skills to develop and run programs like this because I knew that was part of the future that I wanted for my career.

Initially, it was a grassroots effort with just some medical students just going out and holding some workshops to teach the local kids how to do physical exams. As a resident, I started helping the medical students run the program and help facilitate them coming to our simulation lab. Fast-forward to my first couple years as a faculty member, I was really focused on institutionalizing the program, creating more structure instead of it being grassroots and student-run. From there, I moved into getting more grant support and brought back a program called UDOC (Youth and Doctors of Color), which is a summer residential program for high school students. The five programs that I run out of the center are really geared around following students and supporting them along their educational journey to enter a health-care career. Doctor for a Day plants the seed. UDOC is for students who are rising seniors in high school to help them establish strong foundational skills before they step foot on that college campus. Then we have a summer program to support college students to become competitive medical school applicants and tools to be successful medical students. It’s a full spectrum of programs.

Williams and her husband Edwin Lindo, a UW associate teaching professor and assistant dean, outside the Central District location of Estelita’s Library. 

Tell us all about Estelita’s Library.

I co-founded Estelita’s Library, a social justice-focused community library and bookstore, with my husband and partner. People can support our work through our online bookstore, which has all titles available, but our physical space curates the books around BIPOC authors, movements of liberation and social justice. We consider ourselves being in community, rooted in community and for community. We serve as a hub and want you to come in, engage in conversation and build community. We host a Black men’s mental health therapy group, a silent book club, knitting club and more. We want all people to use the space, to learn more about each other, and break down barriers and walls.

We have two locations, one in the Central District and another location we just acquired in Beacon Hill. We’re in the process of doing a capital campaign to clean up that location, which used to be an old gas station. We purchased it with the full understanding that we’d be doing a cleanup, bringing in our new headquarters and cultural hub, as well as about 30 to 40 units of affordable housing.

Why is Estelita’s Library serving as the developer for this housing project?

When you use the traditional model, developers get federal income tax credits to offset the cost of building housing. But you have to use federal income levels for the income requirements for tenants. And if you’ve ever looked at those federal income requirements, it’s not much. If you make even a dollar over that amount, you don’t qualify or you can lose your housing. Unfortunately, that traps people in cycles of poverty because they’re not able to engage in economic upward mobility to advance their careers or economic potential.

That’s why we are serving as a primary developer because we can set our own income requirements. We’re also going to be engaging in financial literacy education and other methods of support so that people don’t have to be forever renters. As a result of working within our housing infrastructure, they can get that job, get that pay raise, save those funds and ultimately engage and become — and see a future for themselves.

An interview with Lydia Berhanu, OMA&D’s 2026 honoree for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Lydia Berhanu is her own mentor. That’s not to say the University of Washington senior didn’t grow up in a supportive household (she did) or wasn’t surrounded by supportive educators (she was). But when it comes to illuminating her path forward, she’s been the one holding the flashlight.

Berhanu has charted her own path as the first in her family born in the U.S., and as a passionate student advocate and grassroots organizer who refuses to let anything stand in her way.

Born and raised in Lynnwood, Washington, Berhanu is studying law, societies and justice in the UW College of Arts & Sciences, with a minor in informatics, and she plans to attend law school. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) celebrates Berhanu’s accomplishments, including her many campus leadership roles and her hands-on work to make education more accessible.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Tell us about your journey to the UW.
My parents are migrants from Ethiopia — I was the first person in my family to be born outside of Africa. [When I applied to college] it was a scary idea to leave the only family members I had in the States. At the same time, when you’re growing up in Washington, the UW is always a goal, and it was such a big goal of mine.

I was really drawn to the law, societies and justice major. I wanted to go to law school, but I didn’t want to sit in a room and learn only about how the government operates. I’m drawn to an interdisciplinary approach to what justice looks like on a person-to-person basis. I chose the UW so I could stay close to my family, grow as a person and discover what justice means and how I can use that in my legal career.

When did you decide you wanted to go into law?
I’ve known since eighth grade. My parents are both in health care — they run an adult family home, which is a residential care facility for disabled adults. So I’ve gotten to see a different side of health care and how policy affects people.

Once I was old enough, my parents tried to find places for me to fit into the business and help them, whether that was reading legal documents or calling pharmacies or therapists. It showed me how policy affects people’s everyday lives. I’m interested in law because I’ve witnessed firsthand how it affects people who can’t speak up for themselves.

In addition to pursuing a degree in law, societies and justice, which she’ll complete in 2026, Berhanu has dedicated countless hours to serving as a student leader on campus.

Can you tell us about your work with the ASUW?
ASUW is the student government on campus, and I got involved my freshman year. I was an intern for the Office of Government Relations, the ASUW’s official lobbying arm, which meant assisting in creating the University’s legislative agenda and helping with the annual legislative reception, where we host state representatives, big names in law, politicians. We had a large legislative agenda that year — involving student scholarships, childcare for parent-students, things like that — and my main job was ensuring that we had enough student testimony at the legislative reception. I also got to do a lot of in-person lobbying, going down to Olympia, meeting representatives, meeting politicians.

My sophomore year, I was the office coordinator. I sat in on ASUW committee meetings and took minutes. One meeting was the Joint Commissions Committee (JCC), which includes all the identity- and advocacy-based commissions on campus, from the Black Student Commission to the Office of Inclusive Design, Student Disability Commission, Office of International Students, etc., that the director of diversity chairs every year. I was in these meetings every week, and when you’re taking minutes, you’re not supposed to be interjecting and giving opinions. But I had a lot of opinions! I’d be writing these minutes like, “I wish I could say this. I wish I could provide this sort of advice to XYZ commission director.”

That year, I ran for [and was elected] the director of diversity efforts. So last year, my junior year, I got to chair the JCC and help them ensure that not only are we providing resources for students, we are aligning ourselves with the UW’s diversity blueprint. That was a crazy year, watching all these executive orders related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility flying through the air. Trying to navigate that was the biggest challenge of the job, specifically in those committee meetings because it was like, “You should know the answers to this question and what’s going to happen.”

Since I sat on the board of directors, I got to write and pass board bills. My favorite bill I wrote was creating a task force for the National Panhellenic Council (NPHC), which is a council made up of nine Greek organizations that are all meant for Black and African American students. I’m a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, which is a part of that council. I created a task force for NPHC to have plots on campus. Plots are basically this historical monument that the council used to represent themselves at campuses nationwide. It’s a monumental type of art piece that sits outside, all nine gathered around each other. People in the past at the UW have created that task force and brought this idea to create it, but unfortunately, it never succeeded. I don’t know what I did to be different, but this task force was really successful in getting UW Facilities to agree to take on this project.

We managed to acquire $75,000 through ASUW to help start designs being created and help fund that part of the project.

This year’s national theme for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, chosen by the King Center, is about building community. What does that look like for you, and how does it show up in your work?
For me, building community means building a group of people in a similar situation and similar point of life and allowing them to bounce off one another and grow together. Talking specifically about RSOs [registered student organizations] and ASUW, the whole point of those organizations is to support students. That means creating a group of people that are meant to be there for one another. ASUW is completely run by students. It’s a group of people who know what it feels like to be a student and are willing to take the extra step to make sure students are having a good time, feel supported and are being advocated for.

Community is a group of people who are willing to do the work for one another. For example, I am the president of the Black Pre-Law Club at the UW right now, and I helped create that last year. And now that I’m studying for my LSAT, having that community and making sure they are learning and I’m learning from them, that vice-versa type of growth and support is what I think community is.

My work has always been hearing what students are feeling, and creating support for them to feel they belong.

What role has mentorship played in your life?
Since I was the first person in my family to be born outside of Africa, I’ve been my own mentor. I go out looking for information. My parents have almost never checked my school grades, because they’re just like, “You got it.” I’ve always made sure I was OK.

Walking into college, I was aware that I needed someone else to ask questions to. My first year, I didn’t find that person. But my sophomore year I joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, and then I was provided literally hundreds of college-educated women just like me who were looking to help undergraduates. We have graduate advisers who pour so much into us, and they’ve always been there to help me. And for the first time in my life, I have women coming up to me saying, “How can I help you?”

Now, as a senior, I have a lot of family members who look to me for support. Every year since I got into the UW, I’ve done college application work voluntarily. The day UW applications are due is literally the worst day of my life [laughs]. But that’s how I found myself in the mentor role: I’m obsessed with higher education and making sure everyone I know is able to access it if they have the desire to. That stems from watching my parents struggle, coming to America. My dad received higher education in Ethiopia, but when he came to America, the credits didn’t count. I’ve always been an advocate for higher education and making sure that I fulfilled that dream of mine and that dream of his, for the both of us.

What are you working on now that you’re excited about?
This year I get to work with [UW Vice President for Minority Affairs and Diversity and University Diversity Officer] Rickey Hall more. Rickey and I were both on the DEI Advisory Committee for the Board of Regents last year, and now I work for OMA&D chairing the Student Advisory Board. It’s a cool experience, working more grassroots with the students, being in a room with RSO leaders who are there to gain help helping their constituents.

I’m also the president for the Bruce Harrell Black Pre-Law Association at the UW, and I’m really excited to see what I can do there. Right now, we are starting this Black pre-law journal that I hope to get published by the end of this quarter with the team. That’s going to be about not only the history of Black Americans, but also the relationship between Black Americans and policy and law. I’m excited to provide pre-law students with more resources.

Manasi Mishra

In honor of Black History Month, the University of Washington and the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity proudly recognize Ernest Balezi, ’25, majoring in public health–global health with a minor in bioethics. Ernest is a Washington State Opportunity Scholar; the 2024 Murray, Pitre, Baker, Rosebaugh Scholar; a Brotherhood Initiative mentor; cofounder of the student organization Africans in Medicine; and a Summer Health Professions Education Program Longitudinal Exposure (SHPEPLE) scholar.

Balezi moved to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of Congo at the age of 11 with his family. Inspired by his mentor to pursue dentistry as a career, he wants to pay it forward by mentoring others from a place of love and care, guided by values from the Congolese culture and faith. Balezi’s compassionate leadership and generosity of spirit are an inspiration for us all at the UW.

We spoke with Balezi about his passion for mentorship, the values that guide him, and how he connects with his mentors and mentees.

Tell us about your passion for mentorship.

I moved to the U.S. in 2016 with my mom and five siblings. At the time, I did not have anyone to guide me, so I had to figure out a lot of things by myself. Eventually, my primary care doctor took an interest in me beyond my physical health. We talked about everything, and he became my mentor. It was amazing to have somebody that I could look up to. Growing up in the Lakewood/Tacoma area, a lot of my peers did not have mentors, so many of them lacked the right voices around them, and I noticed how that negatively impacted them. This led to many peers not responding well to obstacles that they were going through, mainly because they did not have the right voices in their ears. So it became my quest to be somebody who can bridge that gap for my peers, somebody who can play that mentorship role for them and inspire them to pursue their dreams and persevere through the obstacles that they were going through.
My motivation to pursue a health-care career is grounded in the idea of being a good mentor. That’s the legacy I want to leave behind. I think being able to have a platform where I can impact someone’s life positively and play a mentorship role in their lives is definitely worth the sacrifices and hard work required for me to attain that platform. I have seen so many peers who simply needed that positive role model or that voice to encourage them, to pursue their dreams. I believe with my heart that if the platform I am pursuing in life will allow me to go out there and encourage another person the same way I was encouraged, then that platform is now a dream for me to attain, as it allows me to pay it forward.

During my free time, I like to pursue hobbies, read, and engage in activities that build up my character and faith. While I was shadowing my mentor, who’s an ophthalmologist, he once mentioned that I needed to start reflecting upon what kind of character I would like to have as a health-care provider and to start building that character I envision myself having. This encouraged me to engage in mentorship even more.

Do you have any stories that you can share about your own work as a mentor?

Last year I connected with a classmate from Olympia. I noticed that he seemed quiet and did not interact much with others. So we got lunch together, and I began learning about his story and everything that he went through growing up. His story was interesting because it was very similar to mine, though we seemed to have had different responses to what happened to us. This encouraged me to build that friendship with him, especially since we had so much in common.

To this day, we’re close friends. We have taken many classes together as well. I did not necessarily think of myself as his mentor, but rather as his friend. From there, I kind of made it my quest to check in on him often and see how he was doing, how he was balancing everything that was happening in his life, the lack of a father and how he was dealing with that. The more support he received from those around him and from the resources that UW has to offer, the more I saw him open up and begin to achieve many great things. Since I am familiar with what the UW School of Medicine has to offer to students, I helped him connect to some of those programs and people I know in the medical field, and now he’s doing great and on the right trajectory in terms of the pre-medical track.

Additionally, I got to connect with a friend of mine who I have known since I was a Running Start student at community college. I was able to share with him advice on how he can best prepare himself for the obstacles that may present themselves once he moves to UW. I was also able to encourage him and support him as he transitioned to UW. I got to share with him knowledge and advice on how to navigate and utilize all the resources available to him. For me, it was important to ensure that he could start his journey at the UW well aware of the resources that are going to help support him and make his transition as smooth as possible.

What are some of the values that guide you when you mentor someone?

I view my peers and mentees as family members. I do not let any barriers get in the way of that. It does not matter whether the person looks or does not look like me, or does not have much in common with me. I just try to remove the veil from my eyes and see them as a brother or sister and as somebody who needs help at that moment and just approach them with love.

My values stem from the faith that I have and also from the values that have been instilled in me from where I come from. Growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, approaching people with genuine concern and kindness was a normal thing to do. That sense of community, taking care of other people, and ensuring that everybody’s doing well, especially emotionally, is extremely important. Although not everyone has the same financial means, it has always been important to ensure that everyone is doing well emotionally. Overall, everybody’s just making sure that everybody else is doing good. That’s the type of mindset that I grew up with.

I believe in approaching people from a place of love, a place of care, like they are a part of my family — because at the end of it, I think we all are. There’s not that much difference between us.

I think it is interesting how that friend that I mentioned, for example, is Asian but I have more similarities with him than even with some other peers who are Black. We have a lot in common, in terms of our life experiences that allow us to connect on so many deeper levels. So I think it’s just really being able to remove the veil off your eyes and ask: What’s your story? How can I help you? How can I support you in a way that’s helpful and feasible?

Seeking to live my life with that mindset and heart posture has put a great desire in me to pursue a platform that would more easily allow me to be a mentor, be involved in mission-related initiatives, and leave a positive impact on the lives of those I interact with. Through volunteering, shadowing and seeking advice from as many people as I could, I have come to learn that the field of dentistry would allow me to be involved in all of the initiatives that are important to me and achieve my dream of playing a mentorship role in the lives of others. Hence why I plan to apply to dental school after I graduate from UW, and I sincerely hope to be granted admission and receive the opportunity to pursue my dreams and goals.