Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Alexes Harris, professor of sociology, to the Board of Regents, effective Oct. 21, 2022. Harris becomes the first to hold the new Faculty Regent position on the Board.
“I am excited and thankful to have been appointed by Governor Inslee to the first Faculty Regent position for the University of Washington,” Harris said. “I am a first-generation student from Seattle who graduated from the UW in 1997. My educational experiences created my path towards a fulfilling research career.”
Harris joined the UW Department of Sociology faculty in 2004 and her research investigates how contact with varying institutions — educational, juvenile and criminal legal, and economic — impact individuals’ opportunities in life. She has also served as the UW Faculty Athletics Representative since July 2019, and as a Special Assistant to the Provost as Director of the Faculty Development Program at the UW, since April 2021.
“Alexes has broad influence inside and outside the UW and is a fantastic choice to be the UW’s inaugural Faculty Regent,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said. “She is an extremely active scholar whose teaching and whose research on inequities in the justice system is driving needed change. And she’s done all this while also supporting and empowering underrepresented faculty through her leadership of the Faculty Development Program and student-athletes through her work as Faculty Athletics Representative. I look forward to continuing to work with Alexes as she takes on this new role.”