Laurel Sercombe
Department: School of Medicine
On the Job: Manager, Program Operations; three years at UW
Achievements: Mas is responsible for the overwhelming success of the SPARX program, which was designed three years ago to attract UW health sciences students into careers that serve the underprivileged. In addition to running the SPARX program, Mas also volunteers to serve in it. Each week she drives health sciences students and faculty members around in a SafeLinks van so that they can provide basic health care to a large number of local street youth.
Quote: "Her skills in helping students find common meaning through service to others has made this program a success. The SPARX program was among the reasons why the UW School of Medicine received the 2002 Award for Outstanding Community Service."
- Leila Gray, assistant director, UW Medical Affairs News and Community Relations
Department: School of Music
On the Job: Archivist, Ethomusicology; 24 years at UW
Achievements: For the past two decades, Sercombe, '77, '01, has been the "keeper" of the UW's Ethnomusicology Archive, which is just one of three university-based ethnomusicology archives in the nation. Her passion for the work has made sifting through the 6,000 audio tapes, 150 films, 300 videotapes, 500 historic phonograph recordings and 300 musical instruments easy for students, faculty and visiting scholars. Sercombe has also lobbied to make the archive more accessible to the public, as well as successfully applying for two grants, from the National Endowment for Humanities and the National Film Preservation Council, that will help transfer decaying films to other media.
Quote: "She is a delightful and keenly intelligent scholar and musician, completely dedicated to her exceptional advocacy for the archives, and to the importance of its educational mission. One could not imagine a more caring steward for this tremendous cross-cultural resource."
- School of Music Director Robin McCabe
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