Women of Inspiration Recipients
Trish spent 15 years working in the high tech industry as a software tester, a software developer, a manager, a consultant, and a database designer in such industries as military weapons, business systems, communications, and medical equipment.
It was during her 8.5 years at Microsoft that she became active in diversity. In 1995 Trish worked as a Senior Diversity Administrator. She traveled the country to recruit college level technically trained people of color and found that the pool of people she had to choose from was very small.
Trish realized that in order to increase the number of qualified people coming out of college, she would need to find a way to increase the number of people of color enrolling in university to pursue technical degrees. Capturing the interest of children of color early in their lives, and providing them with the opportunity to become users and creators of technology is the foundation on which the Technology Access Foundation is based.
In 1996, Trish left the technology industry and with support and help of friends and family, created the Technology Access Foundation (TAF).
TAF�s vision is to be a catalyst for social change in underserved communities of color. Serving one child at a time, TAF enhances their educational and professional prospects through the delivery of tools for learning in the 21st century.
TAF programs are rooted in project based learning, and are designed to increase problem solving, critical thinking, information synthesis, and communication skills.
In addition to her work at TAF, Trish has served on numerous boards of organizations that focus on children and education. Trish has received dozens of local and national awards for her work educating children of color.
A native of New Jersey, Trish attended Monmouth University (then known as Monmouth College) on a full basketball scholarship, the first woman to do so. She received a B.S. in Computer Science in 1979.
In June 2001, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Seattle University. She was honored for her work with TAF as one of Essence Magazine�s 25 Most Beautiful Women of 2006.
A Seattle native and graduate of WSU, Kathi serves as the lead anchor of the 4 p.m. newscast "First News @4" and as co-anchor of the 5pm and 6:30pm weekday editions of KOMO 4 News. She has earned multiple journalism and community service awards on both local and national levels including five Emmy Awards and an Edward R. Murrow Award. She serves on the board of the Seattle/King County YWCA and the Children�s Hospital Foundation.
Perhaps more than anyone in her generation, Dr. Mary-Claire King has managed to reconcile the objectivity of a highly knowledgeable, well grounded researcher with the ardor of the activist. For her, science is personal.
Born in a Chicago suburb in 1946, she learned the cruelty of cancer when she was still in high school and a childhood friend died of the disease. She attributes her interest in science and particularly her groundbreaking work in cancer research in part to that early loss. Certainly she was a highly motivated student. She earned a bachelor�s degree in mathematics cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, at the early age of 20. She received her doctorate in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, and then pursued post doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.
While still at UC she interrupted her studies briefly to work with Ralph Nader�s consumer advocacy organization, to study the effects of pesticides on farm workers. Throughout her career, she has been acutely aware of the benefits of scientific discovery to the human condition and she has focused her research energies on projects that will benefit humanity. She has worked with the United Nations using DNA evidence to identify victims of war crimes in various parts of the world. And she became famous internationally for helping to establish the genetic links of children of �the Disappeared� in Argentina whose parents were killed in civil unrest, thus helping to unite the children with their grandparents.
Dr. King has focused years of research on cancer, especially breast cancer. Perhaps her most dramatic contribution, to date, is the demonstration of the link between breast cancer and a single gene, BRCA1. Other researchers have since used her method of analyzing the genetic effects on breast cancer to study other illnesses, including Alzheimer�s disease and Parkinson�s disease.
While actively engaged in research, she has also forged a reputation as a great teacher. She was a professor of genetics and epidemiology at UC, Berkeley, from 1976 to 1995, and since then has been an American Cancer Society research professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is an affiliate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle.
She has served on numerous government panels and with private organizations, including the National Cancer Institute�s Breast Cancer Task Force, the National Institutes of Health Genome Study Section and the Office of Research on Women�s Health Advisory Board, the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal and UN Forensic Anthropology Team and the Robert Wood John Foundation�s Minority Medical Faculty Development Program, Scientific Advisory Board. She also has served on the editorial boards or reviewing panels of many publications including Science and Nature magazines.
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Co-founder and Vice President of The Moyer Foundation
Karen Moyer, a leading philanthropist in the Northwest, stays extremely busy as a Vice President of The Moyer Foundation, mother of six children and wife of Seattle Mariner All Star pitcher, Jamie Moyer. Karen has received many honors for her leadership and efforts to improve the lives of children including:
In addition, she actively serves on the Boards of
In 2006, Karen co-produced and hosted the Emmy-nominated �Dreamcatchers� TV show, making real-life dreams come true for children in distress. Karen is an active public speaker, focusing on issues relating to philanthropy, foundation work, mentorship and motivation.
Karen and Jamie established The Moyer Foundation in 2000 with the mission of making a positive impact in the lives of children by offering encouragement, comfort and support to children and their families enduring a time of profound distress. By providing opportunities for enhancing overall wellness, stability and quality of life, The Moyer Foundation has raised over $8.5 million to support over 100 different organizations that help children in distress.
Karen has lead the Foundation�s establishment of several key initiatives, including an endowment for Pediatric Palliative Care at Children�s Hospital, The Gregory Fund, for early detection research at the Hutchinson Center, and Camp Erin, bereavement camps for grieving children--now established in five states.
Karen is a 1987 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. Her father is former Notre Dame Basketball coach and current ESPN analyst, Digger Phelps. Her mother is, Teresa Godwin Phelps, a law professor formerly at Notre Dame currently at American University and an established author and activist for women�s rights. Karen also enjoys teaches a �spinning� exercise class several times a week.
�With the grace of God I am able to balance a very blessed life of taking care of others.� Karen Moyer
Mary Ellen Stone is the Executive Director of King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC). For more than 26 years, has played an active role in changing the nature of sexual assault prevention, education and victim response in Washington State. She has been Executive Director of KCSARC since 1979 and is a leader in the non-profit sector. She has served on several boards and task forces including most recently the Washington State Sexual Assault Advisory Committee. She has been co-chair of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs Board, the Women�s Funding Alliance, as well as a past board member of the Children�s Campaign Fund and the Seattle-King County Municipal League. She is a program graduate of Leadership Tomorrow and the Alki Foundation. She has a Masters in Counseling from the University of Minnesota.