Newsprint: Pike Place expands, Foster School shines, UW Medical Center stands out

Upscale market

The fish will be flying at Pike Place Market in celebration of the June opening of MarketFront, the $74 million expansion of the Seattle icon. “The MarketFront represents the vision for the Market, established more than 40 years ago, when it was saved from demolition by the people of Seattle,” says Ben Franz-Knight, ’96, executive director of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority. The late Victor Steinbrueck, ’40, a renowned UW architecture professor, led the battle to preserve Pike Place Market from redevelopment.

Diamond graduation

The University of Washington Bothell Class of 2017 will hold its commencement ceremony June 13 at Safeco Field. It will mark the first time UW Bothell will use the Seattle Mariners stadium to honor its graduating class. UW Bothell outgrew Hec Edmondson Pavilion, where its commencements have been held since 2003.

Diamond dandies

Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, ’81, Boeing’s first woman test pilot, heads the list of six alumni who will be honored at the College of Engineering’s 2017 Diamond Awards ceremony on May 19. Microsoft President Brad Smith will receive the Dean’s Award. Alumni awards will be presented to Darcy-Hennemann, Distinguished Achievement in Industry; Ashutosh Chilkoti, ’91, the Alan L. Kaganov Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, Distinguished Achievement in Academia; inventor Cherng Jia Hwang, ’64, ’66, Entrepreneurial Excellence; Allan Osberg, ’45, longtime community volunteer, Distinguished Service; and Jean Wang, ’04, ’07, who works for the UW Electrical Engineering Photonics Lab, Early Career.

Boffo blog

Two math educators in the College of Education co-authored the most-read blog post of 2016 on the Teaching Channel’s Tchers’ Voice blog. “Modeling With Mathematics” covered the importance of providing children with opportunities to practice making sense of the world through a mathematical perspective. It was written by Elham Kazemi, the Geda and Phil Condit Professor in Math and Science Education, and Kendra Lomax, managing director of UW’s Teacher Education by Design project.

Foster is first

With a job placement rate of 98 percent, the Foster School of Business ranked No. 1 out of the top 20 U.S. business schools, according to the latest Financial Times MBA Rankings.

New dentistry digs

The brand spanking new UW Northwest Center for Oral and Facial Surgery has opened for business in Magnuson Park. This state-of-the-art facility—which tackles everything from wisdom teeth extraction to reconstructive jaw surgery—is under the direction of Thomas Dodson, chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the School of Dentistry.

Awards magnet

UW Medical Center is the first facility in the world to earn a sixth magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. It also was the first hospital ever to earn the designation, in 1994, and has been continuously re-certified since then. “This recognition is viewed around the world as the ultimate seal of quality and confidence,” says Grace Parker, UW Medical Center’s chief nursing officer. Fewer than eight percent of U.S. hospitals currently carry this designation.

25+ Tacoma

UW Tacoma alumni and students in the school’s graduate education program will get together June 2 at Tacoma’s Swiss Restaurant & Pub to mark the 25th anniversary of the program that’s bestowed master’s degrees on hundreds of dedicated teachers, many of whom work in schools in areas of poverty. The event fetes students pursuing a dual special- and general-education track, and honors UW Tacoma’s partner schools: The Franklin Pierce and Sumner school districts, as well as Tacoma-based Communities in Schools, which is part of a national dropout-prevention organization.