Title: Associate professor of sociology, University of Washington Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles; B.A., University of Washington (all in sociology)
Age: 37
Career Mentors: Al Black, University of Washington; Bob Crutchfield, University of Washington; Walter Allen, UCLA; Vilma Ortiz, UCLA; Katherine Beckett, University of Washington; Becky Pettit, University of Washington; and Larry Gossett, King County (Wash.) council member
Words of Wisdom: “Figure out what is important to you professionally (e.g., teaching, research, service) and personally (e.g., family, heath, hobbies), then set your priorities and goals. Live by what is important to you and you won’t have any regrets.”
Dr. Alexes Harris remembers well when as a high school junior she lost a classmate to senseless violence. He’d been briefly detained by police for allegedly selling drugs. A few days later he was discovered shot to death. Investigators suspect his supplier was responsible for the murder.
“He was a good kid; he went to good schools. He’d just gotten caught up,” recalls Harris, an associate professor at the University of Washington, or UW. “The media automatically labeled him a gang member because he was a Black boy, wearing khakis with a bullet wound to the head.”
The incident had such a profound impact on Harris that she vowed to become a public defender to help keep children like her friend out of the criminal justice system. An undergraduate course at UW a few years later, however, convinced her that the field of sociology was the best fit for her to make her mark and a difference.
