Since February 1, 2019, Dr. King has served as the Washington MESA Executive Director. He oversees 6 K–12 Centers and 12 MESA Community College Programs. Prior to joining the WA MESA team, he served as a Seattle MESA Director and Advisory Board member. King has devoted his career to increasing educational opportunities for underserved and low-income youth. He began as a middle and high school teacher before serving as an assistant principal and an elementary       and high school turnaround principal. Since then, he has worked as a district administrator, career and technical education director, chief academic officer and executive director for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math).

Shezwae (also known as Sezi) comes to UW MESA from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she worked as the Interim Director of the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence. Prior to that, Seziworked as a Manager ofDiversity and Inclusion for the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland and Michigan Technical University in Houghton. Seziearned her undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Iowa (Go Hawkeyes!). Sezi is a native of Detroit, MI and enjoys reading, traveling, and watching movies.

Daniel grew up in Chad and Togo before moving to the USA.Following his passion for Technology after graduating fromTacoma Community College. He joined WA MESA as DigitalCoordinator in the late of Summer 2021. He enjoys everythingtechrelated and does not limit himself to one skill. He likesplaying soccer as a hobby and is a Techpreneur as well. Not amorning or a night person, Daniel just work to make others lifeeasier.

Elsa is a junior studying business at the University of Washington, with concentrations on marketing
and information
systems. She has been involved in various student organizations and community programs on campus and
passionate about
leadership and community engagement. Elsa recently gets started in marketing and looks forward to
helping with WA MESA
rebranding efforts through design, storytelling, marketing campaigns, and more. In her free time, Elsa
enjoys baking,
playing guitar, karaoke, traveling, and trying out new food places.

Stephanie Chrismon has nearly 15 years of experience in higher education, including work in academic advising,admissions, and student affairs. She is a political scientist, a generational theorist, and an equity and inclusioneducator. As a winner of the Dr. Josie Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice award, she is also a nationallyrecognized journalist and essayist who presents and writes on various topics related to equity and diversity, as well aspop culture, literature, and art as critical tools in exploring social justice and dismantling oppression. She was aparticipant in the 2016-2017 Loft Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose and was a fellow in the 2015 EmergingWriters’ Mentor Program sponsored by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature. Her writing has appeared inWater~Stone Review, MN Artists, The Root, Black Girl Nerds, and is included in the anthology Queer Voices: Poetry, Proseand Pride. Her debut novel (under her pen name dc edwards), Bright City, was published in 2017.She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Hamline University and a Bachelor of Arts in politicalscience from the University of Minnesota, Morris.She currently splits her time between Ohio (working with Avant Consulting Group) and MN (her home for over 20 years).

Dr. David Bowman is Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and at Eastern Washington University. He holds a B.S. and PhD. in Geology from the University of Southern. He was a member of the faculty of the Department of Geological Sciences at California State University, Fullerton from 2001-2016 and Interim Dean of CSUF’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from 2014-2016 before taking over the College of STEM at Eastern Washington University in July 2016. Dr. Bowman’s research specialty is Earthquake Physics; he has authored numerous papers on earthquake seismology with students and colleagues from around the globe. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for MOBIUS Spokane and Washington MESA. He is the Co-Chair of the Spokane STEM Network andserves as an Honorary Commander for the 141

Dr. Shelley Redinger is in her eighth year as Spokane PublicSchools superintendent and 30th year as an educator. Dr.Redinger has set high expectations for student achievement andlaunched the district’s T-2-4 initiative to preparestudents for success in a technical, trade, two- or four-yeareducation and beyond. She has added options and innovativeprograms, built significant community partnerships, prioritizedbetter understanding of the connection betweendisproportionality in discipline and student achievement, andbeen a strong advocate for student voice. Dr. Redingerreceived her B.A. and M.Ed. from Washington State University andher M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Educational Administration fromthe University of South Carolina.

Angela Jones serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Washington
STEM. Angela brings 25+ years of passion, service, and
leadership in Washington’s P-20 public education systems. At the
helm of Washington STEM, she is focused on ensuring
that students underrepresented in STEM fields have access to the
education, resources, and opportunity needed to thrive,
regardless of race, income, or gender. Angela and her team
convene and collaborate cross-sector to ensure that
Washington’s students are on track to access family sustaining
wages so that our communities and state don’t just
survive, but prosper. She received her Juris Doctor from Gonzaga
University School of Law, her Master of Science in
Communications from Eastern Washington University, and her
Bachelor of Arts in English/Language Arts and her initial
teaching certificate from Washington State University.

Scott Walston is currently theDirector of Engineering for the 737 Program,overseeing the program’s engineering performance andexecution.  He joined Boeing in 2013 and wasDirector of Propulsion Engineering for 3 years prior tomoving to the 747, 767 and 737programs.Walston worked at GE Aviation inCincinnati, OH for over 20 years, includingroles leading various Engineering teams working with airlinecustomers, Airbus and Boeing. His early GEexperience involved development of turbine blade alloys andcoatings, and creating strategic roadmaps forfuture aviation materials. He also served as a Six SigmaMaster Black Belt working on Global Engineeringopportunities.Walston has a bachelor’s degreein Materials Science and Engineering from NorthCarolina State University and a doctorate in the same fieldfrom Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, hehas an Executive MBA from Ohio State University.  Heholds over 30 U.S. Patents and has publishednumerous journal and conference proceedings. He is the Board Chair for Math,Engineering, Science and Achievement (MESA), anon-profit STEM organization across Washington State.He also serves on the Executive Board for BoeingWomen in Leadership.

Tennille serves as the assistantsuperintendent of System and School Improvement at Office ofSuperintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI). System and School Improvement provides oversight andsupport for Washington public schoolsidentified for additional support through required state andfederal accountability systems. System andSchool Improvement supports focus on graduation andpost-graduation success through academic,social/emotional and career programming, including: schoolcounseling, student engagement(attendance/behavioral health), safety, dropout prevention,reengagement, and dual credit. Prior toOSPI, Tennille served as the Chief Human Resources Officerfor Spokane Public Schools (SPS) for sixyears. SPS is the second largest school district inWashington. Tennille serves on the National PolicyMakers Council for Center for the Analysis of LongitudinalEducation Research (CALDER) and has served asthe president for the Washington School PersonnelAssociation (WSPA). Tennille is from Snohomish,Washington and is proud to be the product of publicschools—Central Elementary, Snohomish Junior High,and Snohomish High School in the Snohomish School District.

Felix Braffith, director of student equity and outreach, hasa deep understanding of the challenges historicallyunderservedstudents face while attending college. The oldest of 16children from a family with deep military roots, he wasraisedin Lakewood and Tacoma, Wash. Both of these ethnicallydiverse and culturally rich communities is where he providedtransformative experiences for students strived to becomethe first in their families to graduate from college. With abackground of working with the military community anddirecting TRiO programs, Braffith brings to his position apassionand commitment for ensuring that historically underservedstudent populations are provided the resources, support andaffirmation needed to achieve their fullest potential at WSUVancouver.

Kazuhiro’s current position is VP of Academic Affair / Provost at Heritage University (HU), Toppenish Washington. HU is a small, private, Hispanic and Native American serving institution located in the Yakama Nation in a rural agricultural region of Central Washington. In addition, he has served as a Director of Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program funded by US Department of Education. Kazuhiro has extensive experience with working with minority students especially low income, first generation Hispanic and Native American Students. As we all know, diversity among STEM professionals should be much higher. Kazuhiro strongly believes that diversity among STEM professionals will greatly benefit our society by bring in different worldviews
from different cultures. His goal is to contribute his knowledge and experience of working with those minority students to MESA to achieve significantly higher diversity in fields of STEM workforce.

Dr. Ann Auman is Dean of the Division of Natural Sciences at
Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) and a Professor of
Biology. Dr. Auman has long been an active member of
the PLU faculty. She has served in many roles and has held
several leadership positions in PLU’s faculty governance
system. Her role also includes the
directorship of the NSSURP and the position of Responsible
Administrator (RA) for the Tacoma/South Puget Sound MESA
Program. She also serves as co-principal investigator of
PLU’s STEM Scholars Program, which provides scholarship,
curricular, and cocurricular support to low-income STEM
students at PLU, an initiative supported by a recent award
to PLU from the National Science Foundation’s S-STEM
Program. Through her leadership, Dr. Auman is committed to
promoting equity and to building a holistic learning
environment for faculty and students at PLU and in our local
community.

Jim Mohr has been in higher education for over 20 years. HeKim earned a Ph.D. in LeadershipStudies at GonzagaUniversity where his dissertation focused on how members ofwhite supremacists came to leavetheir organizations. Heobtained his Master’s Degree in Student Development fromGonzaga University and his Bachelor’sDegree in SpecialEducation and Psychology. He has also been an active memberof his community having served onthe following boards:College Success Foundation, Priority Spokane, Spokane CountyHuman Rights Task Force, Unity inthe Community, SpokaneNAACP, Blue Door Theatre, and others.

Evangelina Galvan-Shreeve is a passionate, results-driven manager with over 25 years of experience in Policy & Public Administration for K-20 Education, STEM education initiatives, strategy development and execution, and relationship building. She is a visionary leader, skilled in navigating and influencing policy, developing educational programs, resource identification and procurement, and management of programs and personnel. Evangelina has served as a board member for numerous federal, state, and local programs and organizations, building an impressive network in the areas of workforce development, higher education, government, and research institutions.