In Memory: Gail Styall, Michele Khazak, Suzanne Gage Brainard and Nancy Reiko Motomatsu
Viewpoint Magazine remembers four women who made a difference in their communities.
Gail Stygall
1951–2025
Gail Stygall was a UW professor emeritus of English and a leading scholar in the language of law and rhetoric. During her 31-year teaching career at the UW, she taught more than 30 courses and chaired 21 dissertation committees. She served on the Faculty Senate and College of Arts & Sciences’ College Council, and as faculty legislative representative in Olympia, in addition to directing the expository writing program. She joined the UW in 1990 after earning her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Her research and publications spanned the fields of linguistics, applied linguistics, discourse analysis, composition studies, rhetoric and her interests in law, which reached back to her early experiences as a part-time court reporter, where she overheard jurors deliberating the meaning of jury instructions. When she returned to graduate school, jury instructions and legal language more broadly became a natural focus of her work and sparked the beginning of an independent consulting career as an expert witness. She consulted on trademark cases involving Microsoft as well as the Navajo Nation vs. Urban Outfitters. In a death penalty case, she showed how jury instructions can unintentionally lead jurors to believe they must decide for death. In the wake of that case, the state of Washington clarified and improved instructions. She died Sept. 25 at age 74.
Michele Khazak
1980–2025
Michele Khazak, ’03, studied linguistics and English at the UW, but was best known for her work as a musician and singer in Seattle’s experimental music scene. She played piano from an early age and later lent her voice to countless performances and musical collaborations, singing with many Seattle groups, including Threat of Beauty, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Exohxo and hip-hop artist Spekulation. She also contributed her songwriting abilities to Ball of Wax Quarterly and Bushwick Book Club Seattle. With her own band, Scandalmonger, she recorded and released the five-song EP “whiskey & carats.” She was a featured artist on the Jack Straw Cultural Center’s avant garde live-performance broadcast series “Sonarchy.” Her distinctive voice became familiar to many through her work for several years as a producer at KEXP, where she combined her love of sound and language. She died Oct. 17 at age 45.
Suzanne Gage Brainard
1945–2026
Suzanne Gage Brainard was a pioneering advocate for equity in engineering education. She served as the longtime director of Women in Engineering at the UW and co-founded the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network, a national nonprofit that provides technical assistance for academia and industry seeking to encourage women to pursue engineering studies. She died April 12 at the age of 81.
Nancy Reiko Motomatsu
1932–2026
Nancy Reiko Motomatsu, ’60, spent her decades-long career in public education and retired from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, where she served as the Supervisor of International Education. Born in Woodinville, Nancy and the Motomatsu family were interned at the Tule Lake Relocation Center during World War II. They eventually resettled in Oyster Bay in Olympia. She graduated from Olympia High School before earning an education degree from Western Washington State College and a Master’s in Librarianship from the UW. A champion of global connection, she built international relationships by hosting teachers and librarians from around the world and participated in numerous reciprocal cultural exchanges. She died Feb. 23 at age 94.