stella chao B A S W ‘ 9 9 , M S W ’ 0 0 , E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R – T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L D I S T R I C T H O U S I N G A L L I A N C E When Stella Chao was in her mid-thirties, she left a comfortable job as a researcher with the UW School of Medicine and moved to Kenya. There she devoted her energies to a maternal and child health program, developing projects with elders and street kids and working with a brigade of international volunteers. She stayed for two-and-a-half years. “It was an incredible place. I left a piece of my heart there,” she admits. Stella eventually returned to Seattle, and started back to school, this time at the UW School of Social Work. It was the beginning of an enduring relationship between Stella and the school, and the community is better for it. While working on her BA (1999) and MSW (2000), Stella served as the executive director of the International District Housing Alliance, a position she still holds. The IDHA is a community-building organization that offers housing services, a youth development program, and financial education for immigrants and refugees. As an older student of social work, Stella had a pretty clear idea about what she wanted to do with what she was learning. “I was using the tools I was being taught in the classroom in a practical way. I used the opportunity to evaluate the agency’s policies and programs,” she remembers. “The guidance from my professors was invaluable.” The give-and-take relationship between Stella, her professors, and the School of Social Work benefits everyone, above all the larger community. Two of Stella’s professors now sit on her board, and she regularly welcomes UW graduate students from the School of Social Work to complete their field work at her agency. Last year two interns successfully established a transitional housing program for women with limited English skills who are victims of domestic violence. The program is the only one of its kind in the Northwest. “These two young women had all sorts of experience in program development, policy, outreach, and fundraising,” Stella says of the interns. “It was an incredible opportunity for them. They created social change, and now something exists in the community that didn’t exist before.