From Campus to Community

Although vast, the Tacoma/Pierce County community is surprisingly tight knit. There’s a tendency to support each other, to look out for each other, to serve our neighbors in need. This mission is evident in organizations like the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center (MCFHC) in Central Tacoma, a resource and child care center for vulnerable families in our area. The Center’s leadership includes several service-minded UWT graduates committed to making meaningful change in the community.

Bryan Neal (SIAS '12)

The desire to help people in need was instilled in Bryan Neal from a young age. Growing up in Tacoma, Neal was involved in supporting his community in various ways. When he was in elementary school, Neal’s mother founded the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center (MCFHC) and Neal grew up volunteering at the early learning center in Central Tacoma.

During his time at UWT, Neal became president of the Black Student Union and participated in programs to feed the homeless, construct housing through Habitat for Humanity, and mentor kids at the Boys & Girls Club, among other endeavors.

“What’s really cool about UWT, which I think is different from a lot of other schools, is that UWT is part of the community,” Neal said. 

He graduated from UWT in 2012 with a deep desire to continue to serve his community. He began working full-time at MCFHC and helped it evolve from an early learning center to a multifaceted community service hub. 

“As we were growing, we just kept looking for holes that families had in their buckets and kept trying to fill them,” Neal said, noting the expansion of a recovery center, parenting classes, free food and diapers offerings, veterans services, homelessness outreach, and more. “Really just listening to the community that we’re serving and figuring out ways that we could help.”

Neal is now the Director of Operations at the Center, ensuring that all 52 of their programs run smoothly. Additionally, he is overseeing the MCFHC capital campaign to expand into a new, 32,000 sq. ft. building to house their services under one roof – an expansion that has been in the works for nearly a decade and is expected to be completed in February of 2026.

“What really drives my passion is helping people,” Neal said. “Sometimes we meet people on the worst day of their life and we try to drag them out of that to the best time of their lives.”

When not at his altruistic day job, you can find Neal volunteering with the Full Tilt Riders Motorcycle Club, with Emergency Food Network, preparing holiday meals and gifts for families in need, or participating in fundraisers for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Neal is also the father of an 11-year-old son who, just like his dad, volunteers at MCFHC after school. “I want to instill that same idea in him of, ‘I need to help my fellow humans,’” Neal said.

Amalia Perez (SWCJ '14)

Amalia Perez always knew she wanted to be in a service role. Initially, during her first year of college at UW Seattle, she considered going into nursing. But after she transferred to UWT her sophomore year, she found her calling with an intro to social work class.

“You know you’re meant to do something when it doesn’t feel like work to do it,” Perez said, recalling how instantly she knew she had found the right path for her.

“I grew up in a close-knit family all about being of service to people,” Perez said. For her grandparents and father, that service was through the military. For Perez, it was through volunteering and social work. 

During her post-secondary education, Perez was a participant in the Palmer Scholars program, a scholarship program that sets students up with a mentor, provides college-readiness training, and helps to fund up to four years of school. She immediately started looking for opportunities to pay it forward — leveraging her experience as a mentee to become a student mentor in the Diversity Resource Center or volunteering with the student social work organization on campus. She fondly recalls assisting with food drives, Habitat for Humanity builds, and supporting student committees and activities during her time as a UWT student.

Upon graduation, Perez became a board member for Palmer Scholars to ensure that other students had access to the same support she benefited from. During her time on the board, the program evolved to support students of color who are interested in attending college or university programs and trade school as well. Now, Perez is in her final year on the board and continues to mentor students who are going through the program.

Perez’s work to support youth does not end there. She works as the Early Learning Director at MCFHC, and credits UWT with connecting her with the organization. In her senior year practicum, she was placed at the Center as part of her undergraduate education. That internship led seamlessly into a full-time position at the organization. At MCFHC, Perez serves children and families from vulnerable backgrounds and advocates on their behalf. “Because I still work in Tacoma,” Perez said, “I feel like being a UWT alum is being from the community for the community.”

In all her endeavors, Perez is committed to her guiding principle: “If you are given the right resources and adequate opportunities to just explore who you can be, it creates a healthier next generation,” she said.

Roxy Magno (SWCJ '15)

Roxy Magno also found a purpose in the social work track at UWT. “This was a missing puzzle piece to who I was, and I didn’t know it,” she said. After earning her bachelor's degree from UWT, she went on to receive her Master of Social Work from UW Seattle in 2016.

Magno now is the Director of Outreach Services at MCFHC, helping to forge community partnerships and establish trust with vulnerable populations. In addition, she is the co-founder of the nonprofit, Krownless Kings, a music, art, and entertainment program for youth.

Her partner, with whom she founded the organization, has a background in music and entertainment, while Magno has a background in social work and experience in the nonprofit industry. Together, they created a program that exposes elementary, middle, and high schoolers to creative outlets, industry experts, and professional equipment.

“There are a lot of us that said we wanted to be artists when we grew up, and then someone said, ‘But what are you going to do for your real job,’” Magno said. “So we tell the kids, ‘Art can be a real job.’ We teach them this financial literacy component, but also let them explore what art does for you – how it attaches you to your culture, your community, and how you can create a livelihood for yourself.” 

Magno operates Krownless Kings with a mission to be led by the people it serves – a mission that is shared in her role at MCFHC. “I’m so lucky and so blessed that all my places of work are so aligned,” she said.

Her focus in both of her roles is on outreach and building trust. She tries to balance both intervention and prevention in the vulnerable populations she serves. “I look at it as if we focus on the youngest and the most vulnerable in our communities, then all of these other really big problems would naturally start to resolve themselves,” she said. 

One of her favorite aspects of her position at MCFHC is getting the chance to work with the UWT interns who come through the organization. She is encouraged by their dedication and is eager to share the knowledge that she’s gained with others who can serve the community.

“I’m really big on not gatekeeping. I don’t want to be the only one who knows how we moved a family from homelessness to housed. I don’t want it to be a secret. I want to create pillars in our community with this information,” Magno said. “I’m just really big on planting these seeds everywhere because that’s what’s going to enrich our community.”