Distinguished Speaker Series

The Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement (IIGE) promotes a globally engaged university through collaborations and partnerships that connect the classroom to the world. Its Distinguished Speaker Series features prominent speakers who expand knowledge and understanding of the world through their global work and travel. All events are free and open to the public. Please email us at ghonors@uw.edu or register via invitation link.

In Winter and Spring 2021, students will have an opportunity to connect with prominent speakers and community members at a series of small-group, roundtable discussions.

Recent Speakers

Winter 2021

Chris Barnes is the founder of Emphatic Communications, an Olympia-based design consultancy in the South Sound. He has over 25 years of experience providing creative services and consulting to global leaders in healthcare and the life sciences. He is also a co-organizer of Design for Healthcare, a meetup group with 1900+ members.

 Enrique Leon, MD

Winter 2021

Enrique Leon, MD, is a faculty physician at Tacoma Family Medicine (TFM), MultiCare and part of the University of Washington Family Medicine Network.  The mission of his current residency is to educate family physicians and medical students to work in rural, urban, underserved, and international regions of high need. He is also a Clinical Instructor in the University of Washington Medical School and serves on the board of Tacoma Public Schools.

Fall 2020

Gianpaolo Baiocchi is a sociologist and an ethnographer interested in questions of politics and culture, critical social theory, and cities. An engaged scholar, Baiocchi was one of the founders of the Participatory Budgeting Project and continues to work with groups improving urban democracy. He heads Gallatin’s Urban Democracy Lab, which launched in 2014 and which provides a space for scholars and practitioners to collaborate and exchange ideas for cultivating just, sustainable, and creative urban futures.

Drew Bamford

Head, HTC Creative Labs

Fall 2020

Drew Bamford brings a broad background in product development, as well as deep knowledge of user experience design to HTC Creative Labs. When he started at HTC in 2006, Drew had the opportunity to help drive the transformation of HTC from ODM to global consumer brand by creating a branded user experience for HTC products with TouchFLO on Windows Mobile and then HTC Sense on Android. More recently, Drew has been instrumental in the success of the BlinkFeed and the Zoe video highlights experiences. Today, Drew and his team are creating the experience infrastructure that will power HTC's VR platform business in the future.

Fall 2020

With over a decade of experience working in economic development in the Puget Sound region, Rep. Derek Kilmer is focused on getting the U.S. economy and Congress back to work. He was reelected to a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 and serves on the House Appropriations Committee, in addition to the House Subcommittees for Defense, Interior and Environment, and Energy and Water Development.

John Wolfe

Fall 2020

John Wolfe is Chief Executive Officer of The Northwest Seaport Alliance. He sets the organization’s vision and strategy, and guides the NWSA’s unique customer-focused culture. He previously served as CEO of the Port of Tacoma, a position he assumed in 2010.

Please note, special lectures featured as part of a Global Honors course have limited space available - attendance at these events are only available via advance registration.