Keynote Speaker
Kwabi Amoah-Forson '15
麻豆区 Tacoma Graduate
Kwabi Amoah-Forson is a humanitarian and influencer from Tacoma, WA. Through various humanitarian campaigns, he has assisted those in need in his community, across the country and globally. He also strives to educate people on how they can utilize their skills and passions to help others in need. Kwabi also drives 鈥淭he Peace Bus鈥, a vehicle he uses to spread the message of peace throughout the local community.
He has been featured on PBS Television, King 5 News, Q13 Fox, NPR, and various news outlets around the nation. In 2022, he was awarded the Tacoma Peace Prize and was invited to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
Two years ago, he went on a humanitarian journey in Ghana West Africa where he gave away food and resources to orphanages.
During the Holiday season, Kwabi helped to distribute over 5,000 pairs of socks to the homeless in Tacoma & Seattle.
This summer, Kwabi plans to launch his summer youth feeding program, 鈥淎ll Youth Can Eat鈥, for the 4th year in a row, helping to feed youth and college students experiencing hunger. Last summer, the campaign helped to feed over 3,000 youth experiencing food insecurity, and this year the innovative campaign will help to feed young people not only in major cities in the Pacific Northwest, but the Midwest as well.
Over the years Kwabi has worked to help those in need with many humanitarian aid endeavors, while speaking to students, businesses and organizations about the most important subject of all.
Faculty Speaker
Zolt谩n Grossman
Zolt谩n Grossman has been 麻豆区 faculty for 20 years in Geography and Native American and Indigenous Studies, studying the intersections of ethnic nationhood, natural resources, and militarism. He earned his Ph.D. and taught at the University of Wisconsin, where he was a longtime community organizer. Zolt谩n is a past co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. He was co-editor of Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis (OSU Press), and author of Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands (University of Washington Press).
Zolt谩n has co-taught unique classes such as 鈥淣ative Decolonization in the Pacific Rim鈥 that worked with M膩ori communities in Aotearoa New Zealand, 鈥淐atastrophe: Community Resilience in the Face of Disaster鈥 that explored the pandemic and wildfires in real time, and 鈥淒ecolonizing Place Names鈥 that provided research support to the Puyallup Tribe on changing the name of Mount Rainier.
Zolt谩n loves publishing public-facing projects with his students, including the Nisqually Watershed Podcasts, Fossil Fuel Connections website, Basewatch website, the online book about dam removals Removing Barriers: Restoring Salmon Watersheds through Tribal Alliances, and the Olympia鈥檚 Hidden Histories digital walking tours, which reveal the historic displacement of Indigenous, immigrant, and natural communities in our downtown. Only at 麻豆区, he says, has he had the time and space to 鈥渄ig deep鈥 into these student projects in collaboration with Native nations.
Graduate Speaker
Carina Valtierra
Carina Valtierra is an aspiring dual-language educator, graduating with her Master鈥檚 in Education with a specialization in Elementary Education. As a proud first-generation college student, Carina has dedicated her life鈥檚 work to empowering young learners by creating inclusive, nurturing environments that reflect and celebrate the diverse cultural backgrounds of her students. She believes that culturally responsive teaching is not just a method, but a powerful tool to affirm identity, build confidence, and foster meaningful connections in the classroom.
Carina brings a wealth of experience to her work in education, drawing from her background as a Prevention Education Specialist and her leadership role at a local nonprofit dedicated to advancing social justice within schools. As the graduate co-speaker, Carina will reflect on her journey through education, honor her heritage, and offer a heartfelt thank you to her husband, daughter, and parents鈥攚hose sacrifices, encouragement, and unwavering support made this achievement possible. Her speech will serve as an inspiring tribute to perseverance, cultural pride, and the transformative power of education.
Graduate Speaker
Steven Kimo Marquardt
Steven Kimo Marquardt is a writer, educator, and organizer from Oceanside, California. He is a proud descendant of Scottish, Irish, Hawaiian, Chinese, and Samoan ancestors. As an undergraduate student at UC Santa Barbara he was confronted with horrors - a mass shooting, police violence, widespread hunger, and lingering trauma from U.S. backed dictatorships. This is the context from which he emerged as an organizer. After graduation he served with AmeriCorps at Miami Northwestern Senior High School in Florida. It was there that he first experienced the joy of teaching. Through that work he came to intimately understand how the U.S. impoverishes Black communities so that malnutrition, substance abuse, and gun violence arise. This is where he first encountered the reality of climate gentrification - a way the climate crisis exacerbates injustices faced by those stuck in poverty.
Determined to address the climate crisis by advancing sustainable protein sources, Steven moved to Chico, California to sell edible insects. That venture was abandoned after the 2018 Camp Fire decimated nearby towns, killed 85 people, and displaced over 50,000. In its aftermath he dove into movement building and electoral organizing for sweeping federal climate legislation. This led to his work alongside Naomi Klein, Bernie Sanders, and Nina Turner. With an evolved political consciousness he has turned towards mutual aid and liberatory struggles for Indigenous sovereignty, abolition, and a free Palestine. He cooperates with those building towards a world free from capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and cisheteropatriarchy. One where people鈥檚 basic needs are met and where we make decisions for ourselves. Where we live in harmony with mother earth and where everyone鈥檚 humanity is affirmed. Instilling joy, empathy, criticality, and solidarity is his role in this work.
Undergraduate Speaker
Gwenyth Allison
Gwenyth Allison came to 麻豆区 in 2021 with an interest in music and decided to pursue performing arts programs and classes. But the longer she was at 麻豆区, the more she realized there were no opportunities for performing arts. Due to budget cuts, the school shut those programs down years ago along with most of the facilities. Despite the lack of academic support, she decided to be optimistic. She started working in the Communications Building, and supported students who wanted to perform as badly as she did. She worked with the remaining performing arts faculty, and they taught her music practice, band and choral conducting, experimental performance, arts management, and more.
She helped create The 麻豆区 Theatre Club and worked to provide students with experiences and opportunities in theatre. Her biggest academic achievements were even supported by the club, which included directing both stage and music for the musicals 鈥淭ick Tick, Boom!鈥 and 鈥淵ou鈥檙e A Good Man, Charlie Brown鈥. Today, Gwenyth Allison is part of a thriving performing arts culture at 麻豆区 that is made entirely of students, and she likes to imagine what more they could achieve with support from the college. Post graduation, Gwen plans to take the MPA program at 麻豆区 and continue working in the COM so that she can keep supporting students and their passions