washington business brian forth : I had a wonderful boss after I stopped teaching in the Bay Area and she was someone who was extremely intelligent and ran a technology company made up predominantly of teachers and people who were interested in education from a very value-centric approach . She was somebody who always cared about the person first before the bottom line and made it so it was enjoyable to do extra things for her and the organization . It made you not want to let her down and do great things for the company . The way I run SiteCrafting is directly tied to the way she ran the company . From my perspective , it ’ s important to take care of people first and value the commitment they are giving and give that equal commitment to them .
AWB Executive Committee member Brian Forth , owner of SiteCrafting in Tacoma , shakes hands with Sen . Patty Murray during a 2016 meeting between the U . S . senator and AWB leaders .
jack lamb : As a mentee , I worked under some , in my opinion , world-famous brewers . One is Christian Ettinger of Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland , Ore . Also , working for Will Kemper at Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen . These guys , I mean , I was starstruck . The way they wanted me to succeed in their same industry was just amazing . All I could think about was that I was going to go to this guy and he ’ s not going to tell me anything , he ’ s just going to roll his eyes , pat me on the head and say , ‘ That ’ s cute , you ’ re 24 years old , you don ’ t know what you ’ re talking about .’ Well , I didn ’ t know what I was talking about but I was trying , and they saw that .
As a mentor , it ’ s been fun working with Western Washington University . They ’ re just right up the block a half a mile away from the brewery . Every quarter we get about six to eight group projects that come through the brewery . That has been a lot of fun . My favorite thing to do is to go to the classrooms and speak . wayne j . martin : In the late 1980s , at the national lab ( PNNL ) as an African-American . In the area of science … there were very few black folks . I started noticing it when I started giving papers and going to conferences . At the lab there was probably not more than 100 black individuals in the organization at any given time , from janitors to scientists .
Dr . William Wiley became the lab director . I knew of him , obviously . I was a lowly scientist . One day my manager came to my office and said , ‘ Wayne , Dr . Wiley called our office and wants to meet with you .’ They gave me a meeting time .
I go to the office , wearing my best stuff , sport coat and tie . I go to his office . I ’ m kind of concerned .
He ’ s sitting behind his desk . He ’ s got reading glasses on , you know , where you wear them halfway down your nose . He looks over his glasses and goes , ‘ You ’ re probably wondering why I wanted to see you .’
I say , ‘ To be accurate , yeah , I ’ m wondering .’
He says , ‘ Well , brother , how many of us do you see around here ?’ ‘ Well , not many sir .’ ‘ I ’ m getting reports about you . You ’ re doing a good job . So , this conversation we ’ re going to have is about what ’ s your plans .’ ‘ I plan on working , doing my science .’ ‘ No , what ’ s your future plans ? What do you plan to do with your career here ?’
That was the start . He said if you plan on staying around here , you ’ re going nowhere with just a bachelor ’ s degree . When you leave here I want you to go down to the joint center for graduate study , look into the programs there and see if there ’ s one you can take that starts to lead to a master ’ s . I went , ‘ well ,’ and he said there ’ s no ‘ well ’ about it . There started the relationship . So , I did go back and got into a master ’ s program .
He ’ s the one that got me into the Black Executive Exchange Program . He had done it . He went to a historically black college , I think in Mississippi . He called the lady that ran the program . He had her come to the laboratory and I met with her . And he said to her I want Wayne to start being involved in , he called it BEEP . We were called BEEP-ers . It was well run and I did that for a number of years .
Eventually , Dr . Wiley said , ‘ Let ’ s focus on the next big one , that ’ s getting your Ph . D .’ A master ’ s wasn ’ t even on my agenda .
I ended up going back . In the end , the sad part of this is Dr . Wiley died in 1996 and I finished my Ph . D . in 1997 .
That relationship was what mapped out the rest of my career . I learned there were things that I can do that I never thought I could come close to doing . cynthia leon : My boss at the California Manufacturers and Technology Association . She was the kind of person that stepped back and allowed me to grow . She allowed me to take on tasks that if I failed or made mistakes was willing to help me understand how to make it better . When people let you grow in your own capacity , I think you learn a lot more than constant micromanaging or constantly telling you how to do something . I think allowing me to grow by myself was probably one of the most effective teaching tools . virginia valdez : In my current role , I feel like part of the reason why I accepted my job here at BBSI is because of my boss , Chris Romm . We actually met prior to this opportunity happening . She was one of those people that I instantly connected with . I shared some values with her . I think she is somebody that I aspire to be like and she is kind of taking me on with not as much experience as someone would have in a position like mine . She believed in me and was able to be a coach to me and she ’ s still that for me — a coach .
spring 2017 39