October 15, 2020
MultiCare and Sea Mar support underrepresented students
MultiCare and Sea Mar Community Health Centers, a non-profit network of community health clinics serving adults and children in underserved communities, primarily in western Washington recently announced a joint $100,000 gift to the University of Washington - Seattle’s Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) and UW Tacoma’s Office of Equity & Inclusion (OEI). The gift will provide financial assistance to undergraduate students participating in the Educational Opportunity Program at the UW in Seattle and in programs under development within OEI on the Tacoma campus.
The gift will establish the Sea Mar-MultiCare Endowed Scholarship.
“We know that education is an important component of building healthy communities and it’s our privilege to partner with Sea Mar to expand access to a college education,” said MultiCare President and CEO Bill Robertson.
According Jamilia Sherls-Jones, Director of Health Equity at MultiCare Health System, the impact grants such as this one has is the ability to help retain local talent in our community which positively impacts our economy in the future.
“Racial and ethnic minority students are underrepresented in health professional programs,” said Sherls-Jones, “Scholarships help make their dreams of attaining a health care career a reality.”
“Sea Mar is proud to join with MultiCare to invest in the future leaders that graduated from the University of Washington,” said Rogelio Riojas, President and CEO of Sea Mar, a UW Regent and an alumnus of the university, “We know UW students represent the next generation of health care professionals in our region, and both our organizations want to be there to support their success.”
On the Seattle campus, the scholarship will provide financial assistance to undergraduate students in health care related studies participating in OMA&D’s Educational Opportunity Program. EOP promotes academic success and graduation for under-represented ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students at the UW in Seattle.
On the Tacoma campus, the scholarship will support undergraduate students participating in programs and activities of the Office of Equity & Inclusion, which includes the Center for Equity & Inclusion.
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, low-income students from underrepresented and marginalized groups face many barriers to completing a college degree, including financial. According to recent government data, only 14 percent of the lowest-income students finish a degree within eight years of first enrolling.
“In the context of declining public support, scholarships from philanthropy are an incredibly important way we can ensure all members of our community have access to college,” said Dr. James McShay, Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion at UW Tacoma. “The generosity of these two pillars of our non-profit healthcare community will impact students now and for generations to come,” said Rickey Hall, Vice President for Minority Affairs & Diversity and University Diversity Officer at the UW.
About MultiCare
MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization with more than 18,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers. MultiCare has been caring for our community for well over a century, since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital and today is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in the state of Washington.
MultiCare’s comprehensive system of health includes numerous primary care, urgent care and specialty services — including MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care, Pulse Heart Institute and MultiCare Rockwood Clinic, the largest multispecialty clinic in the Inland Northwest region.
MultiCare’s network of care includes 10 hospitals:
- MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, Auburn
- MultiCare Covington Medical Center, Covington
- MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, Spokane
- MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Puyallup
- Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley
- Navos Behavioral Health Hospital
- Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital