Ben Henry, a Senior Policy Associate at the Alliance for a Just Society, is expected to graduate from the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs with a Master’s in Public Administration in Fall 2011. A Puget Sound resident since 2007, Ben grew up in the ethnic melting pot of Honolulu, where he attended one of the most culturally diverse universities in the country, Hawaii Pacific University, graduating with honors.

After a 10-year journalism career working as an award-winning newspaper production editor, Ben was elected to represent the Evans School in UW’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) as Senator in 2009. In 2010, the Senate elected him Vice President.

As 2010-11 Vice President, Ben represented graduate student interests to the Washington state Legislature in Olympia. During his term, he proposed the creation of what became Washington State Senate Bill 5795, “Regarding funding higher education child care grants,” which would create a funding mechanism for the Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Child Care Matching Grants program. The bill, prime-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, made it out of Ways & Means by a 19-2 vote. It was pulled from the Rules Committee and made eligible for a floor vote, but missed the cut-off deadline. Eventually, the previously suspended program was reinstated and funding restored in the final omnibus state budget bill, despite the state facing a $5.1 billion budget shortfall.

Ben also has experience in organizational development. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Student Association, Ben led a strategic planning process as Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force.

Ben, whose mother immigrated to America from Korea in the 1970s, has roots in the Seattle Asian and Pacific Islander community, as the first Washington state Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) / Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation (ACLF) Fellow, co-authoring “The State of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington.” He is also a 2010 graduate of ACLF's Community Leadership Program.

Ben was also the co-founder and 2010 Steering Committee Chair of the inaugural Evans School Symposium of Public Affairs Research.

As father to his 2-year-old son Jack, Ben is passionate about student-parent childcare issues. And as the son of an immigrant mother and a Vietnam veteran father, he is also passionate about diversity, immigration, social justice, education, and veterans issues.

In his spare time, Ben enjoys rocking out with his band Grim Smiley and tending the net as a soccer goalkeeper.