Since 2002, Zynovia Hetherington, associate teaching professor, has been director of the Child Welfare Training and Advancement Program at the School of Social Work. In that capacity, she oversees CWTAP’s multi-million-dollar budget and manages a team of six faculty and four administrative staff. In 2018, the CWTAP team received the School’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Recognition Award. 

Hetherington has been the owner and lead trainer of Real Answers Concerning Equity (RACE) where, since 2007, she has provided skill-based training to social service agencies, community organizations and businesses, including the YMCA Washington State, Mockingbird Association, UW Office of Minority Affairs, UW School of Nursing, and the University of Minnesota Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare.

Hetherington has lectured as part of MSW foundation and advance practice courses on social justice, diverse multigenerational families, and diverse children and families, and has provided trainings on diversity, cultural competency, cultural humility and equity for more than 15 years. She is adjunct faculty at the University of California at Davis, a position she has held since 2005.

From 2011-2016, Hetherington directed “The Sankofa Experience,” a 30-day study-abroad program in Ghana focused on racial identity development, cross-cultural education and community service.  Other previous positions included UW’s Northwest Institute for Children and Families, Harborview Sexual Assault Center, Department of Social and Health Services, and several social service organizations in Detroit, Mich. 

An avid proponent of community service, Hetherington is a member of the Washington State Racial Disproportionality Committee, King County Coalition on Racial Disproportionality, Amara African American Outreach Advisory Council, Ashia Therapeutic Services, and the Black Child Development Institute. She received the UW Sisterhood Organization SHE Award in 2014, the American Public Human Services Association academic excellence award in 2008, and the UW Health Sciences Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Recognition Award in 2006.  

Hetherington received an MSW from Eastern Michigan University in 1995 and a Master of Education degree from the UW in 2015.