Guest Speakers
Kwabi Amoah-Forson '15
Peace Humanitarian, The Peace Bus
Kwabi (Kwah-bee) Amoah-Forson is a humanitarian from Tacoma, WA. Through various humanitarian campaigns he has helped others in need in his community. He also works to educate others on what peace really means and create dialogue for the subject through “The Peace Bus”.
Kelli Bush '03
Co-Director of Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP)
Kelli Bush co-directs the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), a partnership founded by The Evergreen State College (Evergreen) and Washington State Department of Corrections (WA Corrections) focused on bringing nature, science, and environmental education into prisons. Kelli oversees all of SPP’s Evergreen-led programs, including about 50 statewide conservation and environmental education initiatives. She believes access to education and nature are human rights that improve ecological and human communities. Kelli and the team of colleagues she works with collaborate across differences to support transformational learning exchanges inside and outside prisons. Prior to joining SPP in 2010, she gained over 15 years of horticulture and restoration ecology experience and earned a B.A. in Agriculture Ecology from The Evergreen State College.
Joel Clement MES '95
Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Joel Clement is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he leads efforts on resilience and climate change adaptation. Prior to joining Harvard, Mr. Clement served as an executive for seven years at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In September, 2017 he was awarded the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage and resigned from public service in October of that year. Since then he has received multiple awards for ethics, courage, and his dedication to the role of science in public policy. He has been featured and interviewed on all the national television networks (but one) and has been published by The Washington Post, The Denver Post, The Guardian, The Hill, and NBCThink.
Kiara Daniels '14, MPA '18
Tacoma City Councilmember
At-Large Council Member Kiara Daniels was elected in November 2021. A proud Tacoma native and resident of Central Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, she is a longtime community advocate who values giving back and contributing to a stronger community.
While attending The Evergreen State College, where she earned a master’s degree in public administration, Council Member Daniels was inspired to follow in her parents’ footsteps – each of whom served more than 30 years for the State of Washington. She has since dedicated her entire career to strengthening community access to education, affordable housing, and local business development.
Council Member Daniels continues to prioritize uplifting and engaging under-represented members of our community, and ensure their voices are heard across city government.
Cholee Gladney '00
Associate Dean of Climate and Belonging Education
Cholee Gladney (alumni 2000) currently serves as Associate Dean of Climate and Belonging Education, coordinating DEI learning through Evergreen’s Social Justice Center. She is an artist, mother, and equity practitioner who values song and story, image and rhythm. Cholee focuses on holding space for connection, encouraging self-awareness, and cultivating compassion. As a multiracial person, she inhabits the spaces between and savors moments of true belonging and relationship with the human and other-than-human natural world. Cholee’s superpowers are insight, creative flow, wonder, and empathy.
Yến Huỳnh '16, MPA '19
Olympia City Councilmember and Equity & Social Justice Consultant for Washington State Department of Corrections
James Jackson (JJ) '19
Reentry Scholars Program Facilitator
As a Formerly Incarcerated College Graduate, James Jackson currently works as a Statewide Community Education Reentry Navigator, Reentry Scholars Program Facilitator, Evergreen Prison Education Project Reentry Lead and Co-Chair of the Evergreen Education Coalition for Justice Involved Students. His position serves the South Puget Sound and Peninsula Counties from The Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington. His work provides in-reach into Prisons, Work Releases, and Community Corrections Offices recruiting currently and formerly incarcerated students for Washington State's Public Colleges. His duties include college navigation, student support, campus and institutional education.
Carolina Landa '19, MPA '21
Assistant Ombuds, Office of the Governor, Office of the Corrections Ombuds
Carolina Landa, MPA, identifies as a Mexican American woman. She currently works at the Office of the Corrections Ombuds as an Assistant Ombuds. She graduated from The Evergreen State College with a bachelor’s degree followed by a master’s degree in Public Administration. Her three areas of specialized work include social justice, disabilities, and immigration. She believes people with lived experiences impact the most effective changes in our society.
Anthony Levenda Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Climate Action and Sustainability (CCAS)
Anthony M. Levenda is the Director of the Center for Climate Action and Sustainability and member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College. His work focuses on climate policy and action. Anthony’s new edited book (forthcoming in 2023, University of Georgia Press) focuses on theory and practice for urban climate justice. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies from Portland State University, a MS in Environmental Engineering and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Jenaro Mathews
Evergreen Student
Jenaro Mathews, recently left Cedar Creek Correctional Center on Department of Corrections Graduated Reentry Program and will be joining the Evergreen, community starting fall quarter 2022. Jenaro is currently enrolled in Evergreens Gateways for incarcerated Youth, one of the foundations of Evergreens Prison Education Project. He hopes to use his lived experience to give back to his community.
Nichole Ossa '02
Chief of Proactive Equity, Access Planning and Belonging at Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Nichole Ossa graduated from Evergreen in 2001 with a focus on Latin American and human rights studies. She continued her education with a Master’s degree in counseling psychology, and is currently working toward a Ph.D. in leadership. Over her 20+ year career in public service, Nichole has brought lived and professional experience in social justice to life in every role she has held, including her current role focused on elevating the work of proactive equity, anti-racism, disability access, and belonging. Nichole credits her opportunity as a youth to participate in a campaign to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as her first awakening to the meaning of proactive equity. Currently, she is living her childhood dream of participating in creating a more equitable world, something that would not be possible without the work of those that came before her, those that join her today, and those stepping in to continue the work. She feels grateful for this every single day.
Candace Penn '13
Squaxin Island Climate Change Scientist
Candace Penn is the Squaxin Natural Resource Departments Climate Change Ecologist, she recently received her Masters in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College. As part of her work with the Squaxin Island Tribe, Penn works to design maps and future modeling scenarios in relation to Climate change. She also developed a program for Tribal youth to earn high school credit while learning valuable environmental based career skills. She currently serves as Vice Chairwoman for the Squaxin Island Tribes Education Commission. In 2019 she advocated for Climate Change Funding in Washington D.C. meeting with Washington State Representatives Derick Kilmer, Denny Heck, and Patty Murray.
Vincent Perez MPA '18
Founder and Director of the Equity Institute in Olympia, WA
Vincent founded La Cima Bilingual Leadership to serve the burgeoning Latinx population in 2004 (this later led to the middle school program ¡La Chispa!, Rethink Manhood to promote healing-centered masculinity in 2016, and the Equity Institute in 2020. The Equity Institute serves education, government, and nonprofit organizations by fostering racial healing, cross-racial solidarity, and intersectional social justice. In addition, the Equity Institute serves Spanish-Speaking communities through Tu Hogar WA with rental/utility assistance, health/vaccine clinics, and educational programs. As an educator, Vincent aims to sustain the dignity, courage, and commitment of children, families, and service providers.
Mason Rolph '17
Founder and Board President of Olympia Community Solar
Mason Rolph earned his bachelors of arts from Evergreen in 2017. He is a Founder and the President of Olympia Community Solar, a non-profit organization working to expand access to clean energy. He and his team have developed solar installations around Thurston County that support low-income residents, tribes, and communities that have historically been excluded from the clean energy transition. Olympia Community Solar is currently enrolling the Thurgood Marshall Community Solar project located on an Olympia middle school and raising funds to develop low-income sited solar energy projects. Mason also serves as a board member for the Washington Solar Energy Industry Association. Learn more at olysol.org.
La'Keisha 'Kewee' Roselle '20
Community CARE Coordinator for Freedom Project WA
La’Keisha “Kewee'' Roselle is a Community CARE Coordinator for Freedom Project WA. She is a Tacoma, Wa, native and a 2020 Evergreen State College Tacoma campus graduate. Kewee is a formerly incarcerated person and was a resident at the Washington Correctional Center for Women (WCCW) for 13.5 years. Kewee is also a Freedom Project of Puget Sound (FEPPS) alumni, a member of The Womxns Village, a member of Shinobi Fit, and is helping to create reentry curriculum for incarcerated youth. She is an advocate for education, for justice impacted individuals and an advocate for anti-oppression. Kewee believes in the power of storytelling in order to change oppressive systems and is passionate about bringing opportunities to those underserved in her community.
Kathleen Saul MES '09
Member of the Faculty, Master of Environmental Studies Program
Kathleen Saul received her BA in French and BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and MA in Management from the Wharton School of Business before joining the MES program at Evergreen. A course devoted to Ukraine and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant piqued her interest in energy. Kathleen taught at Evergreen briefly before pursuing her Ph.D. at the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. Her dissertation research focused on the displacement of people that results from large scale technology projects, with a focus those involving nuclear technology. We need to understand energy systems as more than just providers of the electricity or fuel we use every day. Kathleen’s engineering acumen, business sense, and environmental awareness have all come together in her current focus on modern energy systems, green/clean energy, and the justice implications of the transition to a different energy future.
Terrance Turner '05
Philosopher, motivational/inspirational speaker, writer, author, spoken word artist/poet
Terrance Turner is one of the rare voices - thinking, speaking, writing, and delivering the stories and messages that few can… from a place of experience. Terrance is a philosopher, motivational/inspirational speaker, writer, author, spoken word artist/poet and more. Hailing from the City of Destiny, (Tacoma, Washington) Terrance’s path is one that combines tragedy with triumph. A former gang-member, Terrance is reputed as a natural leader, who often walks alone. But before learning how to walk alone, Terrance found himself, serving a Juvenile-Life sentence in Washington State’s Juvenile Intuitions (from age 15-21). And this destination would inevitably transform Terrance’s life trajectory.
In 1997 while incarcerated, Terrance was introduced to the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth founded by, Dr. Carol Minugh a professor at The Evergreen State College. This program was the pivotal moment for great change in Terrance’s life. Through this program Terrance, as well as many other youth, were able to begin their conquest towards upper education earning their bachelor’s Degree and beyond.
During his endless quest for knowledge through post-secondary education Terrance reinvented himself, and as a result of finding his voice, he began to use his voice through various mediums and efforts to get his message of “change” not only to those incarcerated with him, but outside the confines of imprisonment as well.
By the ages of 19 and 20, Terrance had written and published two books “Incarceration-1999” and “Through the Eyes of The Judged-2000 (required reading if you are a student taking the Gateways Class at The Evergreen State College) while still incarcerated. Terrance was released from his six year sentence in late August of 2000 and ever since, his life-work has consisted of shamelessly sharing his testimony and teaching/lecturing at hundreds of schools during the last 20 years his life. For Terrance, giving back is inextricably part of who he is - there is no separation.
Andrew Winfree
Evergreen Student
I received my GED as an incarcerated youth in 1992. I was conditionally enrolled at The Evergreen State College in 2021. Since then, I have received excellent evals in every program I have taken. I work alongside JJ and justice involved students. I am now part of a community that extends our collective hand to other folx who have similar experiences. This year I will be taking Gateways for Incarcerated Youth, to bridge the gap between the education community and incarcerated peoples. Because of this, I have been afforded the opportunity to liberate the scared little kid that is Andrew who still exists behind mental bars, while mentoring youth, using empathy based on experience and understanding of their struggle. I have a deep understanding of their struggle.
Anthony Zaragoza Ph.D.
Member of the Faculty
Anthony has been a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College since 2004. His expertise is in political economy. Anthony has taught on both Evergreen Tacoma and Olympia campuses and in several different prisons with incarcerated youth and adults. He served as the faculty member for the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth program for several years where he supported learning for Evergreen campus-based and incarcerated students using a popular education model. Anthony connects with students through empowering written and oral history projects highlighting and valuing knowledge gained through lived experience and impacts of neoliberalism in their communities. He earned a B.A., in English and Philosophy at Indiana University in 1996, an M.A., in American Studies at Washington State University in 2000, and a Ph.D. in American Studies at Washington State University in 2007.