Associate Professor Tracy Harachi, an internationally known researcher, educator, mentor and social justice activist, will retire in mid-June. As a prevention science researcher, Tracy’s scholarship has centered on youth development and community practice, with a focus on immigrant and refugee groups.
“We will miss Tracy greatly and her absence will be felt in large and small ways,” said Dean Eddie Uehara. “Please join me in thanking her for being such a valuable colleague to the School community, for sharing her deep knowledge, heartfelt commitment and hard work, and for making a significant and long-lasting impact at the School and in our lives.”
In 2004, Tracy founded an innovative and highly successful partnership program with the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), establishing the first social work education program in that country. That year, she recruited five Cambodian students to attend UW School of Social Work’s MSW program. When the students graduated, she connected them with other faculty and administrators who helped mentor them in teaching and program administration.
In 2008, these talented graduates launched the Department of Social Work at RUPP, serving as faculty and administrators for the new undergraduate degree program. Its first class graduated in 2012 and today, cohorts of BSW graduates are receiving professional education and skills training and then serving as social work practitioners, helping to build Cambodia’s still nascent social and health services infrastructure.
In recognition of her vision and dedication to the RUPP partnership, Dean Uehara announced that the School will contribute $10,000 to a fund dedicated to RUPP-related expenses or future travel to Cambodia.
Tracy’s continuing interest in Cambodia has engendered a number of other learning opportunities, including study abroad courses, global field learning, independent coursework and research with colleagues at RUPP.
Throughout her career, Tracy has been an active scholar and community advocate, supporting individuals subject to criminal deportation, particularly in the Cambodian American community. In addition to her position at the School, she is also an adjunct associate professor for the UW Department of Global Health. She received her MSW and PhD from the University of Washington.
In 2019, Tracy received the School’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service. Previous awards include the 2012 Partners for International Education Award from the Council on Social Work Education and, in 2011, the UW’s prestigious Outstanding Public Service Award. She also garnered the Community, Culture, and Prevention Science Award in 2005 and the Friend of Early Career Preventionist Network Award in 2006—both from the Society for Prevention Research. Tracy joined the School in 1992.