"The question is not whether a Rainier Scholar will go to college, but rather, from which one they will graduate."
- Bob Hurlbut, Founder
Calvin L. Lyons, Executive Director – Calvin joined the team at Rainier Scholars in June 2005. Calvin was born and reared in Gary, Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University and received his MBA from Pepperdine University. He began his career at the Boeing Company in Long Beach, California and moved to Seattle in 1997 to manage INROADS/Puget Sound, Inc. a not for profit career development organization that places minority youth into business and industry internships and prepares them for corporate and community leadership. In 2001, Calvin joined Washington Mutual as Vice President, Diversity Recruiting.
Calvin’s current volunteer activities include serving on the Board of the Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA, the Advisory Board of the Seattle University Albers School of Business and Economics, and the Board of INROADS/Puget Sound, Inc.
Bob Hurlbut, Founder and Director of Recruitment – Before founding Rainier Scholars in 2000, Bob served as the Executive Director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund, an organization which provided tuition assistance to children of low-income families that wished to attend a private school. His nonprofit experience also includes working as an Area Director for Young Life Ministries. During his six years with Young Life, Mr. Hurlbut had the opportunity to create relationships with various Seattle and Tacoma inner city faith-based and community organizations. In addition to his non-profit work, Bob has extensive experience in sales and sales management in the private sector. Bob is a graduate of The University of Washington.
Sarah Smith, Academic Director – Sarah Smith taught History and English in the public schools of Washington and California for 7 years prior to the founding of Rainier Scholars. As the first employee hired by the Rainier Scholars founder, she has been with the organization from the beginning, and is thrilled to see this vision and mission become a reality in the Seattle community. Sarah taught at both Nathan Hale High School and Rainier Beach High School throughout the 1990’s. While at Nathan Hale, she was a co-founder and key architect of the 9th and 10th-grade “academy programs”, an interdisciplinary approach that focused on providing a rigorous, highly personalized education for urban students. She also designed and piloted a course in Ethical Leadership, a class in which students are challenged to develop their values, voice and vision as leaders in the next generation. She believes that education is critical to creating a more socially just society, and that educators have an obligation to provide students with the opportunity to fulfill their potential to the utmost.
Sarah has extensive experience in developing interactive, integrated curriculum that challenges students to think deeply and critically about the world in which they live, and their role as citizens in it. A passionate educator, Sarah won the 1996 Seattle School District Excellence in Teaching Award, as well as the Nathan Hale Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence in 1999. She was awarded a James Madison Fellowship for the study of the American Constitution and was recruited by TeachFirst, a web-based professional development program, to be an inaugural curriculum writer. Sarah is a member of the Leadership Tomorrow Class of 2000 and a Board member of the Strategic Education Centers, an HIV/AIDS prevention program based in Swaziland and Seattle. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in History from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree in Education with a Certificate in Teaching from Stanford University.
Susie Wu, ACSS/Leadership Development Director – Susie Wu was a high school science teacher for ten years in both California and Massachusetts, educating students in integrated science, chemistry, physics and biology. She is passionately committed to the academic success of students of color, having worked in a small inner city high school in Roxbury, MA, and with the Rainier Scholars program as a science instructor. Susie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master’s degree in Education with teaching credentials in both Physical Science and English from Stanford University.
During her time at Rainier Scholars, Susie created a Water Quality Project that received three years of funding from the Peach Foundation and the King County Department of Natural Resources. Susie also developed a grant proposal for a biotechnology unit which was awarded funding by the Amgen foundation in 2004 and led to a two year sponsorship of the 14-month science program that she helped create for the academic phase. Since 2004, Susie has worked as a fulltime program director implementing support services for 7th – 12th grade in the ACSS and Leadership Development phases of the program.
Dr. Ronnie Cunningham, Dean of Students and Educational Psychologist - Ronnie Cunningham has spent the past twelve years as a football coach, counselor, intervention specialist, teacher, and educational psychologist in Washington, California and Germany. The proud father of two children, he completed a Doctorate in Educational Psychology at the University of Washington in 2005, where his dissertation focused on the impact of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and exposure to violence in predicting outcomes of poor mental health in school-aged adolescents. He has also worked as a School Psychologist for both the Edmonds and Seattle School Districts. Ronnie brings tremendous experience in working with students of color throughout the Seattle area in programs such as Reconnecting Youth, the Seattle Children’s Home, and the Nathan Hale Football Team. In addition to his duties at Rainier Scholars, Dr. Cunningham works as an adjunct professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Washington.
Ronnie spent multiple summers working as a teacher with the Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program (LEEP), a summer enrichment program for gifted students of color entering high school. As an alumnus of Lakeside, Ronnie appreciated the opportunity to provide other young people with some of the same educational opportunities he had as a younger man. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Occidental College, a Master’s degree in school psychology and a doctoral degree in educational psychology both from the University of Washington.
Mary Bristow, Director of Development – Mary began her work at Rainier Scholars in May 2006 and brings a depth of experience in resource development, community partnerships and program management. After graduating from WSU with a BA in Child and Family Studies, Mary started her career working with youth and families at Children’s Home Society of Washington. During the past twelve years she has been employed with the YMCA of Greater Seattle directing Child and Family Programs and most recently as the Co-Executive at Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA in central Seattle. The development director position offers the opportunity to utilize her primary areas of passion – relationship building, community connections, and meaningful work in diverse communities – in partnership with staff, volunteers and donors. Mary was drawn to the mission and goals of Rainier Scholars as a powerful program model that will create a lasting legacy.