Archives West Finding Aid

Dr. R.Y. (Roz) Woodhouse has had a distinguished career. Appointed Director of the State Department of Licensing by Governor Dixy Lee Ray in 1977, she thus became the first female Chief Motor Vehicle Administrator in the nation. She was the first African American woman ever to hold a cabinet level position in the State of Washington.

In 1977 Dr. Woodhouse was honored as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Women in America." In the same year, the legislature of her home state of Michigan enacted a special tribute to her for "Civic and Professional Achievement." She is included in Who's Who Among Americna Women, Who's Who Among Black Americans, Who's Who in the West, and Washington Women.

Honors include the Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences; the prestigious Natalie Skeels Memorial Award; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Civic and Professional Achievement; the Outstanding Woman Leader Award of the Seattle Section of the National Council ofNegro Women; the National Real Estate Brokers Democracy in Housing Award; the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Finer Womanhood Award; the Mentor of the Year Award from the Women's Professional and Managerial Network; the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Fellowship, the Matrix Table Woman of Achievement Award; the Seattle Chapter of Soroptimist International Woman of Distinction Award; the University ofWashington Alumni Legend Award; the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Talented Tenth Award; She Knows Where She's Going by Girls Clubs ofPuget Sound; the Puget Sound Big Sisters Professional Distinction Award and; the Heroes Among Us Award from the Seattle SuperSonics; Timeless Achievement Award, University ofWashington.

Dr. Woodhouse has been and remains active in many community organizations. She was the first President of the Washington News Council, past President of the Northwest Conference of Black Public Officials and has served twice as President of the Seattle Women's Commission. Other affiliations include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; Rotary; ,Leadership Tomorrow; the Links, Incorporated; Seattle Economic Development Commission; the former Seattle-King County Private Industry Council; Metro/King County Transition Commission and Meeting Professionals International.

Additional appointments include: Puget Sound Grantwriters Association Board, Charter Member of the Alliance for Education, and Member of the Board of Governors of The Virginia Mason Medical Center. She served twelve years as a member of the Board of Trustees, Central Washington University and was a charter member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Minority Trusteeship in Higher Education (NAMTHE).

She is a World Affairs Fellow and has been an Ambassador for the Washington State Friendship Force to South Korea and to West Germany; was a delegate to the Soviet Union from the City of Seattle and the National Association of Social Workers; and was the official representative of the National Urban League at the United Nations Decade for Women Conferences in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985 and Beijing, China in 1995. She also served on the 1995 Seattle Women's International Conference Steering Committee and attended the European Economic Union Women's Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Woodhouse has earned a Bachelor of Science, a Masters of Social Work, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy, Governance, and Administration, all from the University of Washington in Seattle.

In 1984 she was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, becoming the first (and only) woman executive in the history of the agency. She served with distinction for 15 years. Immediately prior to joining the Urban League, Dr. Woodhouse was Vice President and Manager of Employee Relations for Rainier Bancorporation, where she was responsible for the development and maintenance of a variety of mechanisms to ensure open lines of communication between management and its 5500+ employees worldwide.

Following a one-year "retirement" from the Urban League, Dr. Woodhouse was invited to affiliate with Lutheran Community Services (LCS) Northwest from which she retired in 2005. Her duties at LCS included serving as an internal organizational development consultant in the areas of corporate and foundation relations, training, grantwriting and cultural competency initiatives. Also while at LCS she directed the Mental Health Services Division, including International Counseling and Community Services. She was recruited to Alaska by the Anchorage Urban League in 2008. Since 2009 she has been an Assistant Professor in the Human Services Dept. at the University of Alaska at Anchorage She operates her own consulting firm, Cascade Corporate Alliances, which focuses on nonprofit governance, work place mediation, facilitation and grantwriting as well as leadership and communication skills. She is a former trainer in nonprofit governance for United Way of King County and intermittently serves on the faculty of the University ofWashington School of Social Work teaching multicultural & community practice. She also teaches fundraising and grantwriting.

Married to the late legendary jazz and blues stylist, Woody Woodhouse, a feminist, for 48 years, she is the mother of two and grandmother of two. (revised 2012)