{"id":1896,"date":"2021-03-24T12:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T19:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2023-06-13T14:04:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T21:04:21","slug":"dr-karen-johnson-mpa-adjunct-faculty-appointed-director-of-washington-office-of-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/dr-karen-johnson-mpa-adjunct-faculty-appointed-director-of-washington-office-of-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Karen Johnson, MPA Adjunct Faculty Appointed Director of Washington Office of Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>by<\/em><strong> <\/strong><strong>Lindsay Fujimoto, MPA Student Ambassador<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>March 24, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Karen Johnson, an MPA adjunct faculty member, was appointed as the Director of the Washington State Office of Equity on March 8, 2021. Created by the legislature last year and signed into law in April 2020, this office will \u201cwork with agencies to increase access to equitable opportunities in order to bridge opportunity gaps and reduce disparities. The office will also work with communities to develop the state\u2019s five-year equity plan,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.wa.gov\/news-media\/inslee-names-karen-johnson-phd-director-new-state-office-equity\">Governor Inslee\u2019s appointment announcement.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The work that Dr. Johnson will be embarking on as the Director of the Office of Equity is very closely tied to the work that she has done as the Equity and Inclusion Administrator for the Department of Corrections. In that role, she aimed to \u201cincorporate equity, diversity, inclusion and respect (EDI-R) into DOC policy and practices,\u201d and served on the \u201cstatewide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Johnson\u2019s extensive experience working on EDI-R in the public sector is reflected in the transformative courses she teaches in the MPA program, such as Check Your Bias at the Door. \u201cI especially appreciate teaching this weekend course at Evergreen because our students, faculty, and staff create learning communities to explore and implement socially just, democratic public service,\u201d she writes as she reflects on her experiences teaching at Evergreen. Dr. Johnson underscores the critical importance of this work as she states, \u201cEveryone has bias. Some we are conscious of and some operate on an unconscious level. Both types shape our perceptions and judgments about people\u2019s character, abilities and potential behavior.\u201d For students in the MPA program, as public administrators, this course sets the foundation for recognizing and addressing hidden biases to create more fair and equitable public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of us are transformed by sharing this space together,\u201d Dr. Johnson writes of her Check Your Bias at the Door course, and we are excited to see how Washington State will be transformed through the work of the Office of Equity with Dr. Johnson at the helm. Congratulations, Dr. Johnson!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Lindsay Fujimoto, MPA Student Ambassador March 24, 2021 Dr. Karen Johnson, an MPA adjunct faculty member, was appointed as the Director of the Washington State Office of Equity on March 8, 2021. Created by the legislature last year and&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/dr-karen-johnson-mpa-adjunct-faculty-appointed-director-of-washington-office-of-equity\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}