UW Tacoma celebrates recipients of the 2026 Distinguished Awards

The University of Washington Tacoma is proud to celebrate the 2026 recipients of its annual distinguished awards, recognizing excellence in teaching, research, community engagement, service and alumni achievement.

Selected by their peers, this year’s honorees exemplify outstanding contributions that advance the university’s mission and impact. They were recognized at UW Tacoma’s Spring Recognition awards ceremony on May 19.
 

Distinguished Teaching Award

The UW Tacoma Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates reflective teaching practice, commitment to inclusive teaching and mentoring, dedication to creating transformative learning experiences, and service as a mentor, collaborator, and consultant.

Jill Purdy, Ph.D.
Professor, Milgard School of Business

Jill Purdy is a professor with the Milgard School of Business whose teaching excellence has a significant impact on both students and the teaching culture at UW Tacoma.

Across 30+ years of teaching, Dr. Purdy’s commitment to excellence and inclusiveness shines through: she creates a welcoming classroom atmosphere that is conducive to respectful engagement on complex topics, reduces cost barriers by developing her own materials, and builds bridges across disciplines through campus‑wide entrepreneurship workshops that connect students across schools and programs. Her courses emphasize real‑world learning through community‑engaged consulting projects with local organizations and current‑event case analyses that foster critical inquiry and transferable professional skills. Dr. Purdy also provides substantial service as a mentor on teaching matters, coordinating curriculum discussions, advising colleagues, and collaborating across units and institutions.
 

Distinguished Research Award

The UW Tacoma Distinguished Research Award recognizes a faculty member who has achieved a record of notable scholarship or creative activity, who has generated new knowledge or creativity that impacts their intellectual discipline, and who has contributed to the intellectual climate of the UW Tacoma campus and its communities.

Anaid Yerena, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, School of Urban Studies

Anaid Yerena is an Associate Professor in the School of Urban Studies who exemplifies the award criteria through her sustained record of notable, justice-centered scholarship in housing policy, urban planning, and spatial justice.

Dr. Yerena’s work on anti-racism and decolonial housing has shaped conversations in urban studies and has been recognized through publications in leading journals and book chapters, including an invited chapter in a field-defining textbook. She is co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation–funded International Research Experience for Students program, a half-million-dollar grant that advances systems-oriented housing research while creating transformative international learning opportunities for students. Dr. Yerena’s tri-campus leadership role in developing UW’s community-engagement principles further demonstrates her contribution to shaping institutional norms around community-engaged scholarship.
 

UW Distinguished Teaching Award for Teams

This tri-campus recognition is among the UW’s highest teaching honors. It recognizes instructional teams of two to five members from any UW campus who collaborate to enhance the student learning experience and strengthen the university’s teaching community.

Bára Šafářová, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, School of Urban Studies

Nara Almeida, D.Eng.
Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Engineering and Technology

Project: Community Engaged Civil Engineering and Urban Design Capstone

Together, Bára Šafářová and Nara Almeida have combined rigorous technical learning with projects rooted in authentic community needs and complex real-world challenges. Their interdisciplinary capstone course, CollabCapstone, brings together Civil Engineering and Urban Design students to work directly with university partners, city stakeholders, and local firms to help create a new vision for UW Tacoma’s Campus Master Plan.

By immersing students in real challenges, the course design and assignment nurture not only technical competence but also civic responsibility. Additionally, the team mentored student cohorts through the 2025 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Campus RainWorks Challenge, meeting weekly to discuss and address challenges related to UW Tacoma’s existing stormwater systems and other infrastructure. Their work focused on identifying the adaptations needed over the next 25 years.
 

Distinguished Community Engagement Award

The Distinguished Community Engagement Award recognizes innovative, community-engaged work by UW Tacoma faculty. The award honors efforts rooted in mutual benefit, in which both community partners and the university achieve outcomes not possible without collaboration. This year, the award features two categories: one recognizing a community-engaged course and one for a community-engaged project.

Community-Engaged Course

EC Cline, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Courses: Forest Ecology; Introduction to Restoration Ecology
Partner: Nisqually Land Trust

EC Cline is recognized for integrating community-based learning into Forest Ecology and Introduction to Restoration Ecology through a partnership with the Nisqually Land Trust. In collaboration with the organization’s efforts to restore riparian forests along the Nisqually River and its tributaries, students engage in hands-on, field-based learning experiences that promote restoration planting practices now being adopted across the region. The courses provide students with practical skills while advancing ecological restoration efforts that benefit both the environment and the broader community.

Community-Engaged Project

Michelle Montgomery, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Project: Indigenous Speaker Series and Community Engagement: Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Multigenerational Community Learning
Partners: Northwest Maritime, Haida Sails Resurgence Project

Michelle Montgomery is honored for her leadership of the Indigenous Speaker Series and Community Engagement project in partnership with the Northwest Maritime Center and the Haida Sails Resurgence Project. This work supports Indigenous maritime cultural revitalization through collaborative research, public programming and multigenerational learning opportunities. The initiative also expands Indigenous representation in maritime education and youth programming, strengthening connections between cultural knowledge, community engagement and academic scholarship.
 

Distinguished Service Award

Presented in partnership by the Chancellor's Office and the UW Tacoma Staff Association, this award recognizes two staff members for their meaningful contributions to the University’s mission and broader community.

Melissa Ford
Assistant Director of Student Advocacy & Support
Office of Student Advocacy & Support

Melissa Ford serves as assistant director of student advocacy and support, working closely with students navigating the complex and often unseen challenges of housing insecurity, financial hardship and other crises, to ensure they have access to the resources necessary not just to persist, but to thrive.

Recognized for her ability to navigate urgent, high-stakes situations with empathy and efficiency, Ford provides both immediate support and long-term guidance, helping students regain stability and remain on track academically. Under her leadership, the Office of Student Advocacy & Support has launched the Off-Campus Housing Marketplace, partnering with CollegePads to provide students with a secure site to search for local apartments and potential roommates. She has also led innovative efforts to expand access to off-campus housing resources, strengthening support systems that directly contribute to student retention, persistence, and overall well-being.

Christopher Johnston
Husky Post Prison Pathways Specialist
Husky Post Prison Pathways

Christopher Johnston serves as a specialist for Husky Post-Prison Pathways, where he is the primary point of contact for prospective and current students impacted by systems of incarceration. Drawing on his own lived experience, Johnston builds trust with students navigating complex reentry challenges and provides individualized, compassionate support that extends beyond traditional advising.

Known for his thoughtful, student-centered approach, Johnston helps students overcome barriers, persist in their studies and envision new futures for themselves. Beyond direct student support, he contributes to building a stronger, more inclusive UW Tacoma community. He helps shape programming, strengthens outreach efforts, and plays a critical role in expanding access for a population that has historically been excluded from higher education spaces, elevating the University’s commitment to equity, access, and social mobility.
 

Distinguished Alumni Award

The UW Tacoma Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes truly outstanding Tacoma Huskies who have had an inspirational impact on students and the community and made significant contributions to their profession and community service. The award honors alumni who serve as an inspiration to today’s students as they strive for both personal and professional success.

Diana Algomeda Villada, M.Ed.
School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences ’19
B.A. in Ethnic, Gender and Labor Studies

Diana Algomeda Villada exemplifies the transformative impact of a Tacoma Husky education. A first-generation college student who balanced her studies with work and family responsibilities, Villada quickly emerged as a compassionate and effective leader on campus, co-founding UW Tacoma’s First Generation Fellows program and advocating for expanded institutional support for underserved students through her work with the Associated Students of UW Tacoma (ASUWT). She earned a Bachelor of Arts in ethnic, gender and labor studies in 2019 and a Master of Education in educational leadership and policy studies from UW Seattle’s College of Education in 2022.

Today, as director of enrollment management at Seattle Girls School, Villada continues to champion equitable access to education, building on her previous leadership at the College Success Foundation, where she supported the persistence of more than 1,400 students annually. Deeply committed to community service, she volunteers with organizations such as the UndocuProfessionals Network and Alimentando el Pueblo, and supports Nosotros en Naturaleza, which expands access to the outdoors for Latine and BIPOC youth. She also mentors UW Tacoma students in the Dressel Scholars Program, a scholarship she received as a student. Her unwavering commitment to uplifting underserved communities reflects the very best of UW Tacoma’s mission and values.