Dr. Gallardo is a Professor and Extension Specialist in the School of Economic Sciences, at Washington State University. She has been in that role since 2020. She has been at WSU since 2008. She received her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University in 2007.
Find Dr. Gallardo’s slides below.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring the Executive Director of the Buffalo Soldier’s Museum, Jackie Jones-Hook.
The program will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7 a.m. The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m. No registration is required, and the program is free.
The meeting will be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning. The Zoom line will open shortly after 7 a.m.
A lifelong resident of Washington State, Jackie holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Central Washington University and a master’s in public administration from Evergreen State College in Olympia. She received her first government job, in high school working for the Honorable Governor Dan Evan and retired from Washington State Government.
Department of Transportation where she worked in Management Information Systems. Her retirement life is filled with serving as the Executive Director of the museum. The Museum founder was William Jones who served as a Buffalo Soldier and POW. Jackie never saw her dad until she was 2 years old because he was a prisoner in Korea. Growing up, the daughter of a military parent, she gained her appreciation and respect for the military and those who serve this country both then and now. Her memories include her dad being assigned to Fort Lawton, Washington along with thousands of Black Soldiers.
The mission of the Museum is to Educate, Preserve and Present American Military History and the Buffalo Soldiers story from 1866 1944 which includes all branches of the armed forces. The museum’s primary focus is to be a community partner with public schools in the teaching requirement of history for the 5th, 8th and I grade students. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum is a cultural American History organization, located in Tacoma’s Tacoma with a project office in Seattle for the preservation of the historic 25th Infantry Band Building. The preservation project will educate, preserve, and present American military history, of the Black soldiers and tributes to military service men and women who sailed from Seattle during WWI and WWII. The project’s significant theme is service, bravery, honor, and valor. Through adversity and discrimination, these men won major battles for America during WWI and WWII. The museum presents the factual dates, times, and places of the history from the military records. The strategy is to display American Military history, Black heritage, and culture, providing educational programs, and building a partnership with Public Schools.
In her free time, she enjoys jazz music, cooking and entertaining. She is a grandmother of two and spending time with them is one of life’s highlights.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring Seattle City Council Candidate Maritza Rivera.
The program will be presented in person and on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7:00 a.m. The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m. No registration is required, and the program is free.
The in-person meeting will be at the Wedgwood Community Church at 8201 30th Ave NE, Seattle. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. and the program begins at 7:30 a.m.
The meeting will also be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning. The Zoom line will open shortly after 7:00 a.m.
A mom of two teenage daughters, Maritza Rivera will never forget the hours waiting and worrying outside Ingraham High School as her girls were in lockdown after a student was fatally shot inside.
At that moment, Maritza knew she had to take action. She never expected to run for political office, but Maritza is running for City Council to restore Seattle to the safe and vibrant city she moved to more than two decades ago.
Maritza’s parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York in search of a better life. Maritza grew up in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx, on the 5th floor of a five story no elevator building. Her dad was a welder and proud union member; her mom worked at a factory.
Maritza went to Bronx High School of Science, Skidmore College on a full-ride scholarship, then Fordham Law School.
Maritza went to work in the White House as President Clinton’s Hispanic liaison, later served as a Vice-President of the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where she worked closely with Hispanic small businesses from across the country.
In Seattle, Maritza has had the privilege of working at the ACLU post 9/11 to protect Muslim communities from xenophobia, at City Hall working for Former City Council Member Tom Rasmussen, for Mayor Durkan and now in the Harrell Administration, as Deputy Director of the Department of Arts & Culture.
Maritza is running to make restoring our public safety system a priority, because she knows from personal experience that failing to take public safety seriously harms low income and underserved communities the most. She won’t rest until we get to 5-minute response times for priority 911 calls, take home and car break-ins seriously, get guns off our streets and out of our schools and shut down open air fentanyl markets.
Maritza loves Seattle, the small businesses, food, arts, music and diverse populations that make up our city’s rich fabric. Maritza is committed to listening to everyone and working with everyone – to find real solutions to real challenges we cannot ignore any longer.
Ron Davis is a public school dad, Harvard Law grad, and tech entrepreneur. He serves on the boards of Futurewise, Seattle Subway, The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, and the University YMCA. He is running to make Seattle equitable, affordable, safe, clean and just.
Ron’s Story: My parents were teenagers when they found out I was coming. My dad took a pay cut from his job at a diner to work in a factory, with the hope it would turn into something more. Eventually my parents got a house and when I was about ten, and my dad started earning a family wage, so he didn’t have to work 60-70 hours a week anymore.
In my teens I lived a more middle class life, with more stability and access to opportunity. I also got lucky a lot. I was the first in my immediate family to get a bachelor’s degree, and by my late twenties I ended up at Harvard Law School, where I graduated with honors. As you can imagine, that transformed my life and it catapulted me into the comfortable professional class.
Rather than practice law, I spun a company out of MIT that was focused on improving mental health for call center workers and tried to make the world better while I raised my two little boys with my kindhearted, brilliant, beautiful wife, who is a family doctor.
Since I launched my startup, I’ve helped bring products and services to market that I believe serve the greater good. This includes everything from helping people age in place to getting underrepresented communities better access to clinical trials, helping progressive political campaigns with access to critical data, and reskilling workers as the job market turns lives upside down.
We moved to Seattle ten years ago. I’d lived most of my life in the Portland area, and after grad school, we wanted to get home to the northwest, but into the big city. In 2013 we rented a one bedroom in U-District right next to Trader Joes, with our one year old, sleeping in the utility closet. When our second was born, we moved the bigger boy into the living room closet. We now own an older rowhouse right where Roosevelt, Ravenna and the U District come together.
Parenting and putting down roots turned my attention to local politics. I had been a progressive since 2001, but I hadn’t yet come to understand how local law is used to build walls around privilege. But I soon saw special interests hard at work shoring up these walls, and saw how much harder this made it for people with working class backgrounds like mine. Of course I also realized the walls were three times as high for people who don’t look like me. I saw how impossible it was for most people from most walks of life to get a toehold in neighborhoods with the kinds of schools, parks, and transit that provide upward mobility, or the kinds of services to help you when you fall flat.
So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I got involved in neighborhood improvement through local activism and the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, and supporting kids, seniors and families through the YMCA; in transit advocacy through work with Sound Transit and Seattle Subway, and statewide environmental activism through Futurewise. I lobbied our businesses to take a more progressive view on taxes and labor and public safety. I showed up and testified, wrote opeds, organized and door knocked, and picketed and marched.
But it wasn’t enough. So I started thinking about what else I could do to help the people in our community. I’m running because I learned it takes too much luck to make it in America. I am one of the few that got lucky and I want to pay it forward so that the next person has a real shot, and to make sure we take good care of people who aren’t so lucky.
On October 5, we will reconnect with TINFA (Technology and Information for All) led by TINFA’s founder and Executive Director, Emma Le Dû.
Emma is the Executive Director of TINFA (www.tinfa.org). She has previously held positions at the Grameen Foundation as Senior Technical Program Manager. She has been in Information Technology for over 15 years, at Microsoft and Amazon.com in various positions in International and Program Management. Emma spent two years in Lao P.D.R, as a computer consultant to the European Union and UNDP. She holds an Engineering degree in Robotics and Electronics (ESIGELEC in Rouen France) and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard University with a focus on Leadership and International Development. Emma is TINFA’s co-founder.
TINFA’s mission is to empower teachers to bring 21st century skills to kids in underserved areas of developing countries.
Our club has partnered with TINFA over the past nine years on multiple projects to provide computer equipment, teacher training and student scholarships.
“At the meeting, we plan to connect with a 4th grade class of our partner school San Isidro, Olintepeque District, in Guatemala. We will get an update on the TINFA program, as well as hear a summary of our joint efforts to date. “
In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities’ diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.
Gregg Colburn is an assistant professor of real estate in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. He received his Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include housing policy, housing markets, housing affordability, and homelessness. He is the author of Homelessness is a Housing Problem (order the book here).
Gregg entered academia after spending the first seventeen years of his professional life in the private sector. At the University of Washington, Gregg enjoys teaching courses in housing, economics, and finance at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He maintains an active research agenda focused on housing policy, housing markets, housing affordability, and homelessness. Gregg is also actively engaged in a wide range of community efforts to address the acute housing crisis in the Puget Sound region.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring David Ellingson discussing his kayaking adventure paddling the Mekong River.
The program will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7 a.m. The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m. No registration is required and the program is free.
The meeting will be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning. The Zoom line will open shortly after 7 a.m.
Dave Ellingson will be addressing the University Sunrise Rotary Club about his adventure paddling his kayak through Southeast Asia.
The Mekong Paddle Adventure in March was an epic voyage. Dave, Gerk, Deby, and Tom experienced the culture, history, people, spirituality, and delicious food of SE Asia along the Mekong River.
Adventurer, author, and speaker David Ellingson is most well-known for his Paddle Pilgrim books. He is a:
From Cathy’s Campaign:
When it comes to local politicians, ethics, good judgment, and emotional intelligence are key. But to get elected, people have to feel a candidate is just like one of them. Cathy Moore fits this profile to a T.
Cathy has been a lifelong Seattleite, mother of three, and spouse to a small business owner. But Cathy has also served as a judge on the King County Superior Court, where she fought for the rights of individuals. With her friendly “one-of-us” manner and long career of public service, Cathy now seeks to bring her talent and expertise upstream so she can impact our city as a whole. She would be a good fit for District 5.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring ChrisTiana ObeySumner, a candidate for Seattle City Council in Northeast Seattle, District 5.
The program will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the line opening at 7 a.m. The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m. No registration is required and the program is free.
The meeting will be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning. The Zoom line will open shortly after 7 a.m.
ChrisTiana’s Story: I was born in Alaska in 1986 to a single mother. Growing up, my family faced financial struggles and disability challenges. As a Black, economically disadvantaged, and non-verbal child, I had difficulty attending school, as special education services were not well-established prior to passage of the American Disabilities Act in 1990. Despite testing high, I did not qualify for services, and lacked diagnoses for learning disabilities. My mother and I were often unhoused, moving frequently, and I was often exiled from classes.
After living in several states, I moved to Seattle in 2010 and attended Seattle University. I became involved in social justice advocacy and organized on campus. My advocacy work became personal when my Uncle Wayne went into a nursing rehab facility for disabled individuals who were incarcerated. I advocated for the facility not to take away his wheelchair and dehumanize him, but sadly, my Uncle passed away as a result of gross negligence on the part of the facility.
I would then go on to work in the permanent supportive housing space, where I administered assessments and coordinated services with other providers. However, I saw how the grants received for the work did not match the needs on the ground. This experience led to me realizing that the systems we have in place actually end up perpetuating the disparities we see in action today. This inspired me to become the CEO and principal consultant of Epiphanies of Equity LLC — A social equity consulting firm that particularly specializes in social change, intersectionality, antiracism, and disability justice.
As a recognized expert in my field, I have served on panels for organizations like the Housing Development Consortium and Seattle Center RSJI; given guest lectures at the University of Washington, Seattle University, and M.I.T.; and have been featured in the Seattle Times, Crosscut, Seattle Arts, Seattle Magazine, and Diverse City LLC’s online learning series.
I am also the former co-chair of the Seattle Disabilities commission, and former co-chair of the Seattle Renter’s commission. I have also previously or currently serve as a member or lay-leader on the following boards: the King County Transit Mobility Council, The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, The Seattle University African American Alumni Association, and the King County Board for Developmental Disabilities Legislative Council.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring a trip report from our week-long sojourn through Eastern Washington exploring the remnants of the great floods.
The program will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the line opening at 7 a.m. The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m. No registration is required and the program is free. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning.
In June, nine members and friends of our club spent a week exploring eastern Washington. We spent two nights in the Grand Coulee area and two nights in Walla Walla.
There was particular interest in learning about the great floods of the region that occurred over 10,000 years ago. It is an amazing story. And there is fantastic evidence of the floods that was clear to us on the trip.
Our Thursday morning speakers are our intrepid trip survivors who will share their experiences exploring the wilds of Eastern Washington from the comfort of their automobiles. Thrill to pictures of soaring basalt formations exposed in all their raw beauty by massive floods!
Learn why you will not want to miss your opportunity to take a trip next year!
