Bridget Galati is New Compass 2 Campus Executive Director at WWU
Bridget Galati is the new executive director of the award-winning Compass 2 Campus mentoring program at Western Washington University’s Woodring College of Education.
Galati, most recently the district English learner specialist at Mount Vernon Public Schools, was hired following a national search. She started at Western on Jan. 2, 2020.
“Bridget brings to Compass 2 Campus a deep understanding of how schools work, and a commitment to diversity and social justice. She is also an experienced leader in different educational and program settings,” said Horacio Walker, dean of Woodring College.
Galati succeeds Woodring College Professor Maria Timmons Flores, who led Western’s Compass 2 Campus (C2C) program on an interim basis. Timmons Flores will resume her duties as a professor of TESOL-Elementary Education.
At Mount Vernon Public Schools, Galati developed and led training for district staff to support over 1,500 English learner students in grades K-12; reported program trends and assessment data to stakeholders, and supervised a team of community liaisons to ensure equity for English learner students and their families. She has both teaching and administrator residency certificates from Washington state.
Galati has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with Distinction from Duke University; a law degree from the University of Colorado Law School, and completed the Principal Licensure Program at the University of Colorado at Denver.
Galati’s other experience includes as a coordinator for the English Language Acquisition Department, Denver Public Schools; a mentor with Goodwill Refugee Outreach Services, South High School, Denver Public Schools; and as a student attorney, Juvenile Law Clinic, University of Colorado Law School, representing children as a guardian ad litem in dependency and neglect cases. She also served as a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights in Denver.
Compass 2 Campus, is a proactive effort that sends trained WWU student mentors into schools in order to get more kids to see themselves as lifelong learners. The highly successful program, now in its 11th year, provides Western student mentors in school districts throughout Whatcom and Skagit counties.
Mentors spend at least four hours a week in schools, engaged where teachers and administrators feel they’re needed most; some help with after-school activities while others lead small group projects or provide one-on-one academic support to students in need.
Working with elementary through high school teachers, the WWU students learn about the students’ aspirations and talk to them about how going to college can help them reach those dreams. C2C has also an important leadership development component.
About 40 Western students are employed as lead mentors. They are the liaisons between the program, teachers and school administrators, and they play an important role in providing support and supervision to the mentors.
C2C has won several prominent awards. Previous C2C Executive Director and Founder Cyndie Shepard was nationally recognized with a Daily Point of Light Award, which honors individuals and groups creating meaningful change in communities across America. The award was founded by former President George H. W. Bush during his presidency to engage individuals, families, businesses and groups to solve community problems through voluntary service.
Several scholarships– including from Cyndie Shepard and her husband Bruce Shepard, former Western president – have been established to support public school students mentored in the program who go on to attend Western.