Party the Night Away!
Join the fun as we begin WAPA's 30th year.

• Live jazz!
• Hors d'oeuvres buffet
• Two cash bars with the best mojitos in D.C.

Read more for directions and U Street neighborhood history. And check upcoming newsletters for information on our winter anniversary celebration.

New Directions for WAPA in 30th Year: Remarks from Charity Goodman
When Terry Redding asked me to be president I was deeply honored to be part of this distinguished organization.  WAPA has always meant a lot to me.  It helped me get my career off to a start, gave me the support I needed during my early job hunts and provided me with the longest lasting friendships of my life.  And now we have a chance to look at our 30 year history and think about what the future of WAPA should look like. We have an opportunity to revitalize WAPA, find new resources, contacts and face the tough questions in our society. 

The board met this July and decided we should try a new format and have four regular meetings and in between have salons and, of course WAPA parties and, if possible a field trip.  We are excited about our first event, A Welcome Back Jazz Party on Sept. 17 at 4 pm at U-topia, in the historic U Street neighborhood.  You will hear more about this in the newsletter. In December we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. We are fortunate to have Ruth Sando, a practicing anthropologist in D.C. as our new Program Chair this year.  Look for her bio below.  Another returning WAPA member is Todd Pierce who is organizing the Welcome Back jazz evening and hopes to have a WAPA session on drug abuse.  Another idea that has surfaced is a salon on ethics.  We also hope to have two or three sessions with light food and beverages and with a more casual atmosphere to permit more networking opportunities for members.  Ruth will keep us abreast of the upcoming schedule as it unfolds. 

I was asked to write a little bit about myself. I have worked for Government Accountability Office (GAO), a legislative branch agency, 16 years as a program evaluator studying a number of federal agencies such as IRS, U.S. Customs Agency and Immigration and Naturalization (now Homeland Security), Department of Justice, and the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs. At GAO a number of us have an outreach effort to introduce ethnographic methods to auditors by bringing in speakers, writing reports using these methods, acting as consultant to other teams, and developing a list serve for anthropologists interested in federal, state and local governments.  Currently I excited about my full-time assignment in a new area for me-- foresight, which is the study of the future ten, 15 years or beyond--so that government can better prepare for new and emerging trends and use the appropriate governance tools. Our study is a congressional request on how to prevent future highway fatalities. Before working at GAO I worked three years at NIH at the Fogarty International Center conducting evaluations of their exchange programs. I also worked studying kidney transplant patients and taught at University of Maryland, Hood College and American University. I did my Ph.D. on Spanish guestworkers in Germany. For fun, I garden, sew, read, hike with my husband, watch him in his plays in community theater, hang out with my cat Gizmo, and love doing things with my friends.

Program Chair Kicks off the Year
Ruth Sando has joined the WAPA board as the Program Chair. She has lined up a dynamic program this year, which you'll read more about over the coming months.

Sando is the owner of Sando and Associates in Washington, D.C., a market research services firm offering qualitative research through focus groups, in-depth interviews and ethnography. She has over 20 years of professional experience in private industry, including Blue Cross of California, First Nationwide Bank, and Fannie Mae.  At Fannie Mae, she worked for a number of years as a housing finance consultant to international agencies such as the World Bank and USAID on projects in Poland, Hungary, Russia, China, and Greece, and later in strategic planning.

She is an adjunct faculty member of George Mason University's School of Public Policy, where she
teaches a course on qualitative research methods. She earned a B.A. in anthropology from The George
Washington University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from The University of Hawaii.

Ted Green Gets His Day in Front of Congress
WAPA member Ted Green recently testified before Congress on blood supply safety in Africa. He also has received a $2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to further his work on HIV/AIDS prevention. Read the full article in the Sept. issue of Anthropology News.

The WAPA 30th year opening event of the year!
WAPA invites all of its members, as well as their friends and family members to join us in a celebration to begin the 30th year of the oldest professional organization of anthropologists in the United States!

Sunday, Sept. 17 from 4-8 pm
U-topia Restaurant (Side Room)
1418 U Street, NW

Directions: Green Line Metro, U Street stop, 13th street exit, walk straight down U Street. U-topia is located between 14th and 15th on U, directly across the street from the Reeve's Center.

Because WAPA is a leader within the professional anthropological community nationally, but born within the beltway, we thought it best to celebrate this at a truly DC neighborhood. Once referred to as "Black Broadway," U Street is a quintessential DC neighborhood and is the home of some of the best jazz music ever to be created in America! This event is free to all WAPA members, their family and friends, but there will be an event tip jar to help defray the costs of the event.

A light buffet will be served (mostly hors d'oeuvres) as well as some specialty drinks! And if you like, U-topia has a wonderful menu to choose from with an excellent bar selection at their two cash bars--with some of the best mojitos you'll ever find in DC. Yum! A live jazz band will accompany our party all evening! Hey, what would a U Street party be without Jazz?!

For those of you who are not familiar with the U Street neighborhood, read more at the Cultural Tourism DC Web site.

"Meet the Authors"
WAPA plans to hold a book reading and signing for any WAPA member who has published a book in the past year.  If your book came out in late 2005-2006, or you have a book coming out soon, please contact Jo Anne Schneider at jschneid@gwu.edu by Oct. 1 with information so that we can include you in this event.

2006-07 Program Schedule
WAPA has developed an exciting new program this year. Instead of meetings every month at the Sumner School, the program will include a Nov. 21 "Meet the Authors" book discussion and reception, an informal salon in April, and a 30th anniversary celebration. Check the Web site for more details on the regular meeting scheduled for Oct. 3 and these other upcoming events.

Anthropology-Related Conferences

• Second Annual Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, Sept. 24-26, Portland
• Fifth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, Oct. 17-20, Seattle
• National Institutes of Health Conference on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities, Oct. 23-24, Bethesda
• National MultiCultural Institute Conference, Nov. 9-12, Arlington
• 105th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Nov. 15-19, San Jose
• 108th Joint Archaeological Institute of America/American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Jan. 4-7, 2007, San Diego
• Society for Applied Anthropology 67th Annual Meeting, Mar. 27-31, 2007, Tampa
• Society for American Archaeology 72nd Annual Meeting, Apr. 25-29, 2007, Austin

Current Awards

• 2006 Carrie Hunter-Tate Award
• 2007 WAPA Praxis Award

Call for Papers

• National Institutes of Health Conference on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities, poster abstracts due Sept. 8
• Society for Applied Anthropology 67th Annual Meeting, "Global Insecurities, Global Solutions: Applied Anthropology in the 21st Century," abstracts due Oct. 15
• 34th Annual International Conference on Global Health, abstracts due Oct. 17

Current Job Openings for Anthropologists

• National Geographic Society On-Air Talent

Read more