University of Washington Alumni Dr. Terryl Ross (‘03) will receive the UW Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) Distinguished Alumni Award this Sat., Oct. 19 at the 25th Annual UWAA MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast to be held this Sat., Oct. 19 at the UW Husky Union Building.
What makes Ross’ story so unique is that it started in an unlikely place—failure.
“I really wanted to go to the UW when he was in high school, but I was turned down because I ‘wasn’t qualified,’” said Ross. “So he had to take the long route that took over 15 years.”
Like so many African-American teenagers of his generation, Ross initially did not see college as an option.
“I came from a working class, Black family of six children that once lived in the projects of Philadelphia,” says Ross. “I never entertained the thought of going to college, to be honest, I thought college was for rich people, White people and smart people and I wasn’t any of them.”
Ross credits his Lakes High School career counselor, Margorie E. Larsen, for kick starting his journey into higher education.
“She pulled me out of class my junior year and told me, ‘I see your name is not on the list of students that are going on the Afro-American Club field trip to the University of Puget Sound tomorrow. I want you to go so I called your mother. The bus leaves at 7:30 am and I’ll see you at 7:15.’”
Ross ended up applying and being admitted at Eastern Washington University where he excelled in and out of the classroom. Specifically, he was Student Body President, a varsity football player, the top R.O.T.C. cadet in his class, Black Student Union President and graduated with honors.
“I got an excellent education at EWU that enabled me to effectively communicate with people from all over the world,” says Ross, who credits his professors for believing in him and for encouraging him to learn.
After serving one tour as a U.S. Army Military Intelligence officer in Germany, Ross got his MA in Public Relations and Film from Syracuse University before returning back to Washington in 1989. At that time, Ross was content with volunteering for the Seattle Public School system and donating his time and resources to various local community groups. His first big turning point occurred when he worked as the Regional Affairs manager for the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
“On one hand, I got to work with many of the key leaders in our region and to see the dynamics on how power operates. On the other hand, the lack of representation and agency for people who looked like me and grew up like me was eye-opening,” Ross explained. “I realized I was helping rich people get richer and I made a life changing decision to go back to school at the UW. This time, I got accepted,” he says with a smile.
In the fall of 1992, Ross started his formal relationship with the UW as a doctoral student in the Educational and Communication Technology program in the College of Education. It did not take him long to realize that the UW’s commitment to diversity was not all that it was advertised to be.
“About a third of our cohort of 44 students was disappointed in our college’s diversity efforts but, instead of just complaining about it, we got active and started collaborating with graduate students throughout the campus,” Ross states.
A few years later, he ended up creating a student group called MOSAIC, the Multicultural Organization of Students Actively Involved in Change and one of the first UW diversity-related listservs called UWMOSAIC.
When he arrived at the UW, all students, staff and faculty got free e-mail accounts while the rest of society had to pay for service by the minute. Their use of e-mail enabled them to work across colleges, disciplines and departments in ways that had never been done before.
In addition to MOSAIC, Ross also became a member of the newly formed UW Alumni Association Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) and the two groups had amazing synergy that lead to results. In their first year, the organizations co-sponsored the first annual UW Diversity Summit, presented a grant-writing workshop, and organized the first new UW diversity event, the MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast, for then-new UW President Richard McCormick.
Over the next five years, MOSAIC, MAP, the Minority Think Tank, McCormick and a plethora of other organizations forged relationships that made great strides for UW diversity and inclusion efforts by including the communities of color. Ross and his colleagues also created a UW Diversity Pledge which the UW President McCormick signed at a MAP Garfield Community Center event. The Pledge reads, in part, “As a public university, we have a vital responsibility to serve a student population that encompasses all of Washington, as well as the broader global community. Within our commitment to this vital responsibility, the UW aspires to become an international model for excellence through diversity…” Actions to fulfill this Pledge led to the completion of the ground-breaking UW Diversity Compact which UW President McCormick created. The Diversity Compact was a university wide diversity plan, which addressed very specific actions to enhance diversity at the University of Washington.
For Ross, the pinnacle of his commitment to social justice was his leadership in the creation of the Compact that was signed in October 21, 2000 at the sixth annual MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast and took effect in 2001. In addition to other items, the Compact established a minimum goal of raising $25 million in endowment funds to support UW diversity efforts, created the first ever UW Diversity Council, and expanded the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. The Compact is believed to be the first student led diversity plan in America that was signed by students, the campus president, campus regents, and community leaders.
The UW Compact was updated each year during UW President McCormick’s presidency and distributed at the annual UW MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast. Current UW President, Dr. Ana Mari Cauce has continued and expanded the UW diversity vision with her special diversity and inclusion campus-wide policies.
In addition to completing his doctoral degree in 2003, Ross is also proud of being one of the founders of the UW MAP Bridging the Gap Breakfast, which will continue to honor UW Alumni of Color and present the MAP scholarships. The event has attracted new community support for UW activities and raised over $1 million dollars for a scholarship endowment, in addition to awarding scholarships to a multicultural group of students each year.
“The Breakfast is important because it has grown into a way to let our alums of color know that they matter and to reconnect them with their alma mater,” Ross states.
In addition to Ross’ award, two African-American UW Students will be among those receiving scholarships:
Christian Love is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the higher education program within the College of Education. As a native of Detroit, Michigan, 2013 graduate of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and first-generation graduate student at the University of Washington, he has a passion for transformational leadership and community development. In his fifth year at the University of Washington, Love aims to explore to what extent community cultural wealth and individual/collective agency impact the collegiate experiences and educational attainment of first-generation Black male students at predominantly White institutions.
Sumaya Bashir Mohamed graduated from the University of Washington in 2016 with a BS in Public Health, BA in Anthropology w/ honors and a minor in Global Health. She was born in Iffo, Kenya and came to the United States in 1999. She currently works on a Population Health Initiative Grant to investigate and address in culturally congruent ways, the high rates of preterm/low birth-weight babies, cesarean birth and inadequate perinatal care in South Seattle among the East African population.
