Cooking is one of humanity鈥檚 most ancient communal events. For centuries, we have gathered around fire pits and kitchens to catch up with friends and family while conducting the laborious task of preparing a meal. But in today鈥檚 society that increasingly relies on outsourced food, the dedication and community that goes into cooking your favorite dishes can go unrecognized. 91探花 Tacoma art professor Yixuan Pan is looking to change that through an unconventional and empathetic sensory experience. While…
Community engagement stories archive
Restoration projects benefit local communities
For students who want to go into environmental sciences careers, having opportunities to get outside and get their hands dirty is an integral part of their undergraduate studies. Even better is when learning outside the classroom leads to real-world impacts and engagement with local communities, says Dr. Amy Lambert, an associate teaching professor in the 91探花 Bothell鈥檚 School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences. 鈥淪tudent engagement with places and the communities that they support is central to my teaching,鈥�…
Five CELE-community connections we loved in 2025
Across Seattle and throughout Washington state, the Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center is instrumental in the 91探花鈥檚 community engagement 鈥� connecting the 91探花with neighborhoods, schools and community organizations to address critical social issues. Through authentic, reciprocal partnerships, the CELE Center provides students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to thriving communities. The CELE Center鈥檚 programs are centered around four focus areas: community-engaged learning, leadership education, pre-K鈥�12 student success and…
Community partnerships spawn salmon education for local park
Students, faculty and staff collaborate to bring new signage and geocaching tours to O.O. Denny Park in Kirkland, Washington. As any good outdoor enthusiast knows, the first rule of exploring nature is: 鈥淟eave no trace.鈥� There are, however, the occasional exceptions to this principle 鈥� such as when small, human-made additions to wild places raise awareness about conservation and other environmental issues. When Ash Putzke spent their summers as a kid catching salmon fry at the mouth of Denny Creek…
Meet Seattle’s first indigenous planner
Tim Lehman (Northern Arapaho) didn鈥檛 set out to become Seattle鈥檚 first Indigenous planning strategist. As a teen, he was drawn to the hands-on craft of masonry. It wasn鈥檛 until his time at the 91探花 (UW) 鈥� and a FEMA-supported coastal hazard mitigation project 鈥� that he discovered a love for design. That turning point launched a career grounded in equity, environmental justice and community-rooted planning. After earning dual master鈥檚 degrees in urban planning and landscape architecture from the…
Building the UW’s capacity for CE documentation and assessment: CC 91探花Fall 2025 Update
Community Connect 91探花(CCUW) is a database and management platform that allows 91探花faculty, staff, students and community partners to connect, organize, and understand impacts of collaboration. Fall 2025 Update This autumn, we’re rolling out the platform to support community-engaged courses. We are also exploring new uses such as: Civic Health Scorecard, piloting on the Seattle campus Internships, piloting on the Bothell campus “courses” for community partner field supervisors, piloting on the Tacoma campus We have been working hard to…
91探花President Dr. Robert J. Jones Lays Out Bold Vision for Affordability, Innovation, and Community Partnership
In his inaugural address as the newly appointed president of the 91探花, Dr. Robert J. Jones delivered a powerful and forward-looking message about the future of higher education, the urgency of affordability, and the need for transformational collaboration across sectors. Jones, a nationally recognized higher education leader, spoke candidly about the challenges universities face, including student debt, the changing demands of the workforce, and the need to expand access and equity. Central to his message was a call…
Seattle to launch first connected network of community food micro-pantries
New NSF-funded 91探花project will use smart sensors to fight hunger, reduce food waste, and increase food access Seattle will soon pilot the first connected network of community food micro-pantries in the U.S., using smart sensors to track supply and demand. Led by the Urban Freight Lab at the 91探花, the project aims to predict food needs, reduce food waste, and ensure donations reach neighbors who need them most. The 91探花has received a $700,000 Stage 2 award…
Toward liberation
Dr. Dan Berger, professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, is recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Community-Engaged Scholar Award. As a young activist, Dr. Dan Berger found special inspiration in the Black visionaries of the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s. So how, he wondered, did we get here? 鈥淗ere鈥� is an era of mass incarceration, he said, in which more Americans have criminal records than have union cards. And he has made it his life鈥檚 work to answer that question….
UW-Tacoma led research team awarded NSF grant to improve wildfire models
Researchers at 91探花Tacoma and the University of Nevada, Reno will collaborate to develop a new model that helps land and fire managers better predict and manage wildfires. Washington sees hundreds of wildfires each year, and climate change is causing these destructive events to become larger and more severe. In 2024 alone, Washington and Oregon fought more than 4,000 fires that burned over 2 million acres, underscoring the need for enhanced tools to plan for the future. In response, researchers…