Regional Research Impact Archives - Give to 56�Թ�� Bothell

From 56�Թ�� Bothell to 56�Թ�� Medicine

John Vicory — Wed, 14 May 2025 23:37:48 +0000

Claire Truongdang’s journey of purpose and persistence

When alumna Claire Truongdang, Biochemistry ’24, started at 56�Թ�� Bothell, she wasn’t sure what to expect from college.

Having moved from Vietnam years earlier, she and her family were unfamiliar with the application process. With help from someone at her high school, she applied to 56�Թ�� Bothell because it was close to home and easy for her family to access.

Once at 56�Թ�� Bothell, she started in psychology but changed course after her mother faced serious health issues. “I just wanted to understand what she was going through,” Truongdang said.

It was then a chemistry course with Dr. Brandon Finley that sparked a new passion. “He changed my life,” she said. “He made me want to spend my whole day thinking about chemistry.”

With his encouragement, she switched to biochemistry and found a new direction in college and in a career.

Doors to research and opportunity

Through 56�Թ�� Bothell, Truongdang gained access to resources across the University of Washington. She joined the Maternal-Fetal Research Lab at 56�Թ�� Medicine, mentored by Dr. Stephen McCartney and Dr. Raj Shree, where she studied how pregnancy may unlock new insights into diseases like cancer and knowledge about human parturition mechanisms.

“Pregnancy is often seen as an invasion — like a tumor — but the body tolerates it,” she said. “Understanding that could help us find cures.”

Even after graduation, she has continued research with Dr. McCartney and Dr. Shree, exploring her interest in both science and social impact, especially in reproductive health care. “Pregnancy research is so underexplored,” she said. “It’s more than just uteruses, vulvas and vaginas. It can teach us about cancer, cardiovascular disease and more.”

While her lab work as a student took place at the 56�Թ�� in Seattle, Truongdang said the foundation she built at 56�Թ�� Bothell was essential. “Our campus feels small, but it opens doors across the 56�Թ��,” she said.

She credited Dr. Finley for inspiring her academic shift, Dr. Marc Servetnick for helping her secure research funding from the Associated Students of the 56�Թ�� Bothell and Dr. Brian White for connecting underrepresented students (including her sister) to internship opportunities at 56�Թ�� Medicine and other labs in Seattle.

Support that shaped her future

Now working full time in the 56�Թ�� Medicine lab while preparing to apply to M.D.-Ph.D. programs, Truongdang said she hopes eventually to lead her own lab, advance research that improves lives and support patients through complex health decisions just like her current mentors.

In addition to the support of faculty, this path was made possible through financial support, including the 56�Թ�� Bothell Alumni Endowed Scholarship and the Worthington Scholarship.

When her mother was laid off, the extra support helped her continue her studies. “That summer, those scholarships reduced the financial burden on our family’s budget by not having the added expenses of school.”

To the alumni who fund scholarships through efforts like the 56�Թ�� Bothell Husky 5K, Truongdang offered heartfelt thanks. “It’s not about big, flashy gifts,” she said. “It’s about giving back to the communities we came from. That kind of awareness is the highest level of giving.”

Despite the challenges, Truongdang found her voice — and it is clear, focused and grounded in purpose.

Like Claire, every student has a story full of potential, challenges and discovery. Giving to 56�Թ�� Bothell helps unlock opportunities for students to find their path and pursue their future with confidence.

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Transforming classrooms through representation

John Vicory — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 09:44:00 +0000

With support from the Washington Education Association, 56�Թ�� Bothell’s School of Educational Studies will expand efforts to diversify Washington’s teacher workforce. The $1.5 million gift — the largest in the school’s history — will help remove financial barriers for future educators, especially during the unpaid student teaching phase. By supporting teacher candidates of color, the initiative aims to create more inclusive classrooms and improve outcomes for students across the state. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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More support, more impact

John Vicory — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:40:00 +0000

More than 370 alumni, donors, faculty, staff and students gathered at the Westin Bellevue for the I 56�Թ�� Bothell luncheon, raising over $190,000 for scholarships, faculty support and student success programs. The event highlighted the powerful impact of even modest support — from emergency funds to undergraduate research opportunities — and celebrated the 56�Թ�� Bothell community’s continued commitment to educational access and student achievement. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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Lifting others through education

John Vicory — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:07:00 +0000

Longtime education advocates Clyde and Sherrelle Walker have dedicated their time, leadership and philanthropy to creating more equitable pathways to college — especially for students of color and first-generation students. From founding an endowed fund for future teachers to mentoring student leaders, the Walkers have left a lasting impact across the 56�Թ��, including at 56�Թ�� Bothell, where their legacy of service and support continues to inspire. As recipients of the 2024 Legacy Award, they embody the spirit of giving back and lifting others as they rise. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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Inspiring communities to connect with nature

Xuan Bui — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 21:30:07 +0000

When Susan Carlson looks back on her career in the environmental field, she sees three big influences: her mother, her father and Mother Nature. Together, they gave Carlson the motivation to make a difference to the world — and the drive to help coordinate the creation of the Environmental Education & Research Center (EERC) at Saint Edward State Park.

The 56�Թ�� Bothell-led EERC makes use of the park as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory for research and learning. Community members, including K-12 students, also experience enhanced opportunities to connect with and learn from nature.

Learning about the world — and herself

Carlson’s own love of the outdoors developed early in life, growing up in Ithaca, New York, and mid-coast Maine where nature was never far away. Her parents sent her to an outdoor preschool and as the oldest sibling, she was often pulled into her father’s adventures. Carlson remembers some of those experiences viscerally. “He would take me night sailing in the epic dark waters off coastal Maine, with the aurora borealis in the night sky above,” she said. “The boat stirred up the phosphorescent diatoms in the cold Atlantic below. It was so surreal and so emblematic of my father’s fluidity across science and spirituality.”

While Carlson views her father as the philosopher in the family, her mother was more of an activist. She taught English as a Second Language to Cornell’s international faculty wives, helping them get a toe hold in Ithaca society. She also transformed abandoned lots into community gardens in Washington, D.C. Thrift, frugality and a Do-It-Yourself outlook on life was central to the family ethos. Challenges were often met with an “If not you, then who?” approach to getting a job done.

While in elementary school, Carlson was deeply affected by her father’s explanation that the human population was growing exponentially while the earth’s resources remained finite. When Carlson asked what she could do, her father’s response, “If not you, then who?” motivated her to organize her first environmental organization — an ecology club made up of three friends who met in shrubs behind her house. They conducted “salamander monitoring expeditions” in the creeks and gorges of Ithaca.

In high school, Carlson traveled to Cape Cod to clean up oiled birds after a major oil spill off the George’s Bank. By college, she was studying natural resource management at the University of Maine. She jumped at the chance to do an internship with The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. That internship evolved into a paid fellowship which ultimately launched a 30-year career with several national environmental NGOs in the district.

Along the way, Carlson directed EnvironMentors, an environmental science mentorship program for diverse high school students interested in environmentally related college degree programs. Carlson helped scale the program to include chapters in 14 partner universities. Working with faculty and administrators to launch the EnvironMentors chapters at across the country kindled Carlson’s interest in the powerful role universities could play in the environmental education ecosystem, particularly related to high school to college bridging programs for diverse youth.

A vision for environmental education and research

After 30 years in the nation’s capital, it was time to follow a dream to live closer to nature. Carlson and her husband, Eric, moved back to his hometown in the Puget Sound region, settling into a house in large part because of its proximity to Saint Edward State Park.

She envisioned the park as a place for community connections to nature and potentially to fulfill a dream to help create a university-led environmental education center of which there are few nationally. Having just moved from the East Coast and knowing very few people, Carlson consulted with her father on how to get a campaign underway and who could help. His first words were, “If not you, then who?” His main advice was “to just get the right people in a room.” This set the stage for an upcoming three-year period of building support for the EERC.

During this period, Carlson presented at community and state park commission meetings, met with state park leadership, North Shore legislators, and 56�Թ�� faculty and administrators. She played a central role in early fundraising and secured and helped to direct the EERC’s year-long planning process for community engagement.

Soon, some of the larger features of the future EERC began to fall into place when the right people joined together. A lease between Washington State Parks and Daniels Real Estate included 2,000 square feet for the EERC; state Rep. Gerry Pollet sponsored a planning grant for the EERC’s programming; former senator David Frockt secured a capital construction grant to renovate a former gym annex for the EERC’s facility; former 56�Թ�� Bothell chancellor Wolf Yeigh awarded the EERC a three-year capacity building grant; the EERC’s Faculty Oversight Committee was formed, with professors Dr. Warren Gold and Dr. Santiago Lopez serving as the EERC’s faculty directors, and Lily Cason was hired as the EERC’s program manager.

The years between 2017 and 2020 seemed like something of a windfall for the EERC. Then the COVID pandemic hit. Renovating the gym annex during the pandemic resulted in supply chain delays and cost overruns. The architect’s design for the EERC facility included a garage door that would open to an Outdoor Learning Area (OLA), yet construction funds were exhausted renovating the EERC’s interior. Carlson’s mother died, and what was to be an inspiring Outdoor Learning Area was instead a pile of rubble outside the garage door.

Securing the facility’s finishing touches

In the wake of his wife’s passing, Carlson’s father created a small family foundation in her honor with a mission “to help ensure a cohesive democracy which thrives in an environmentally sustainable world.” The family believes there is no better way to achieve both aspects of this mission than to connect people to nature in ways that inspire stewardship and build community.

A foundation contribution to 56�Թ�� Bothell to finish the OLA was among her father’s first major gifts. This too occurred during the latter part of the pandemic, and further cost overruns resulted in insufficient funds to complete the OLA as envisioned by the EERC’s architects. At this point, running out of resources, Susan’s architect husband volunteered to build the final details of a trellis, planters and bench supports in their garage. The now completed OLA is dedicated to Susan’s parents, Sam and Mary Lawrence, who made sure she spent her formative years outdoors, immersed in nature.

Eric Carlson completing the OLA

While Carlson will accept that these early-life influences may have lit the spark for the EERC, she is also quick to state the EERC is much less about her as an individual than it is a testament to the power of a positive vision which is shared by many.

“I am in awe of the enormous patience, persistence and perseverance invested by so many 56�Թ�� Bothell faculty, staff and administrators to bring what started as an idea to life as a major new facility and academic center supporting student learning, research and community connections.”

“I sincerely hope hundreds of 56�Թ�� Bothell students will benefit from the EERC and will be inspired to follow their own ideas and vision for the future they want to live in.”

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Building campus connections for a day of giving

John Vicory — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:03:00 +0000

From strategic outreach to authentic storytelling, Assistant Director of Annual Giving William Langevin shares how 56�Թ�� Bothell is building momentum for Husky Giving Day. His work focuses on connecting donors with causes they care about, creating meaningful impact across campus. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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Innovation Hall expands STEM pathways

John Vicory — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:58:00 +0000

With the opening of Innovation Hall, 56�Թ�� Bothell and Cascadia College are offering more space and resources for STEM learning. The facility enhances collaboration, research and training in high-demand fields, supporting students as they prepare for careers in Washington’s growing tech economy. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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Supporting faculty who spark discovery

John Vicory — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 09:36:00 +0000

Dr. Joey Shapiro Key, associate professor of physics and an advocate for student research, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Sr. Chief Ronald G. Gamboa Endowed 56�Թ�� Bothell STEM Faculty Fellowship. The award, created by alumna Michelle Gamboa in honor of her father, recognizes faculty who mentor undergraduates and inspire the next generation of scientists. With support from the fellowship, Key will expand the reach of 56�Թ�� Bothell’s STEM Public Outreach Team — helping more students engage in hands-on science communication and research. Read the full story on 56�Թ�� Bothell News.

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2019 Legacy Award Recipients – Jud Marquardt & Connie Niva

Xuan Bui — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 21:01:00 +0000

Both within a few months of turning 80, Connie Niva and Jud Marquardt have left a powerful imprint on the communities in Snohomish and King counties they call home. This includes 56�Թ�� Bothell, which they have supported for many years and which now figures prominently in their estate plans.

When deciding where and how to give back, says Jud, people often “seek out an established connection — from their own or their children’s history — but it’s not required.” Neither he nor Connie attended the University of Washington. Only one of their combined six children did. But both saw an untapped opportunity in the young 56�Թ�� Bothell campus.

Supporting student access and opportunity

“When you look at Everett and Snohomish County, there were so many students, but they had been shortchanged,” says Connie, noting there was no easily accessible 56�Թ�� campus in the area before 56�Թ�� Bothell was founded. “Now, they make up a significant proportion of 56�Թ�� Bothell students, which provides needed engineers for Boeing, nurses for the region’s hospitals, and teachers and principals for local schools.”

Connie, who was a co-founder of the Center for Women in Democracy in Seattle, says she feels personally connected to the school’s commitment to educating women, especially in fields where they remain underrepresented. “You don’t have to go back that far,” she says, “to see that there were not many opportunities for us.”

From the very beginning, Connie says, 56�Թ�� Bothell was intentional about attracting students who were financially disadvantaged or the first in their immediate families to earn a four-year degree — students who have incredible drive and important dreams to realize.

As a first-generation college student, this resonates with Jud.

It’s all about putting the students first, he says. “You can see this with class size and teacher–student ratios. While these are easier to do as a young educational institution, even as it grows the Bothell campus consistently sets itself apart in this respect and is doing more than ever for the students.”

Imagining the possibilities

There is absolute clarity of purpose for both Connie and Jud when it comes to addressing the cost shift in public higher education from the state to students and families. Connie explains it was a very different financial picture when she and Jud attended college.

“We came through school for under $100 for a quarter because the state was funding school then,” she says. “We came out of college debt-free.”

Graduating without crippling debt made all the difference in what they could do with their lives — and how they could give back.

With an undergraduate degree in microbiology and a master’s degree in government relations — which she earned at age 53 — Connie took on a number of leadership roles in public service. She was a member of the Everett City Council and Everett Port Commission. She served on the Washington State Transportation Commission, for three years as its chair. For 12 years, she also was a member of Washington State University’s Board of Regents, twice serving as chair.

Jud co-founded a successful architecture firm, LMN Architects, which now has a 40-year legacy of projects across the country — including the Activities & Recreation Center on the 56�Թ�� Bothell campus. He also has been a dynamic member of the 56�Թ�� Bothell Advisory Board for the last 15 years, serving as chair for two of them.

On one point, Jud is unequivocal: Had it not been for the state school system, its funding and the doors that a four-year college degree opened, he and Connie would not have had the means to become the highly productive and engaged members in their respective communities. And they would not have been able to support 56�Թ�� Bothell among other noteworthy higher education institutions across the country.

“Students need to begin their lives without this overwhelming weight of debt,” Jud says.

Making a difference at 56�Թ�� Bothell

When asked why they support 56�Թ�� Bothell, the answer is simple: How could we not? They are quick to point with pride at the successes of the school, its students and alumni. Statewide, 56�Թ�� Bothell has an enviable graduation rate, says Jud. “Their highest average graduate starting salaries — the ROI of the cost of education — are an assurance that the time and donations we make are fueling success.

“These are powerful ways to say, ‘Don’t overlook 56�Թ�� Bothell,’” he adds, noting that 56�Թ�� Bothell has evolved to become a first-choice school.

This is a transformative moment for 56�Թ�� Bothell, Connie and Jud believe. “It’s a top-tier higher ed institution now and is continuing to evolve every day,” says Jud. “We know that our contribution will help ensure that today’s progress continues into the future.”

Another point of pride for the couple is the fact that 61% of 56�Թ�� Bothell undergraduate students and 54% of graduate students graduated debt-free in 2018-19. “As donors, these numbers tell us that there is a return on our investment,” Jud says.

In recognition of their service, philanthropy and inspiration, 56�Թ�� Bothell named Connie and Jud the recipients of the 2019 Legacy Award, the highest award for donors and supporters of the university.

“We are ready to support higher education wherever it’s being delivered with enthusiasm and success,” says Connie.

Staying in the game

Beyond their own personal contributions, Connie and Jud take a community view of philanthropy and believe in the collective power of giving. “It’s about creating a group force for change. You need bodies, and there’s nothing better than people working together to support students,” says Jud.

“A hallmark of 56�Թ�� Bothell is to honor all contributions,” he adds. “No gift is too small, and when you look at the board and alumni contributions, this is verifiable enthusiasm for the institution. It shows that everyone is in the game — including faculty and staff — and that’s powerful!”

Adds Connie: “Helping students thrive and live their dreams is the best investment in the future of our community and the school. We put 56�Թ�� Bothell in our estate plan,” she says, “and we want others to stay in the game with us.”

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Regional Research Impact Archives - Give to 56�Թ��� Bothell

From 56�Թ��� Bothell to 56�Թ��� Medicine