Share the Mic

Ariana Williamson is a transfer student from San Diego State University. She is the president of the Black Student Union, an intern for Crimson Creative Public Relations firm, and a digital media coordinator for the Women*s Center. She is a member of the People of Color Pre-Law Coalition, Black Women’s Caucus, and the Krimson Kouture Chair in the Coalition for Women Students. She is an ASWSU chair and the ASWSU committee square chair. She is graduating in May with her Bachelor’s of Arts in Strategic Communication, and she plans on continuing her education in the Media, Society, and Politics program here at WSU studying computational public relations, strategic communication theory, and political communication.

Josie Cohen-Rodriguez is a Mexican/trans/queer abolitionist educator & consultant from the border towns of Yuma, Arizona and San Luis, Mexico. Currently, she is based between Portland, the Palouse prairie of eastern Washington, and north Idaho where she is an educator and community organizer. As an educator, Josie has served as a consultant for health care/mental health practitioners, community organizers, non-profits, and businesses on LGBTQIA+ equity, inclusion, and mutual aid development through building justice oriented partnerships, curriculum, workshops, and events. She’s currently a member of the Brokeback Palouse Collective, organizing towards recognizing the necessity for public queer-centered spaces and mutual-aid networks in rural communities. Josie has broad experiences as an educator, equity consultant, community organizer, coach, athlete, and mechanic.

Lindsey du Toit is a Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist in the Department of Plant Pathology at Washington State University (WSU), specializing in vegetable seed crop pathology. Lindsey obtained a BSc degree in plant pathology at the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu Natal), South Africa, and MS and PhD degrees in plant pathology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She served as a diagnostician for the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Lab at the WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center from 1998-2000, and then became an Assistant Professor at the WSU Mount Vernon NWREC in 2000, where she was promoted to Associate and then Full Professor. Her research and extension program focuses on the epidemiology and management of diseases affecting vegetable seed crops in the Pacific Northwest USA, particularly small-seeded vegetables. Lindsey teaches a graduate course in field plant pathology, leads the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Extension Group, holds the Alfred Christianson Distinguished Professorship in Vegetable Seed Science at WSU, and is a Fellow and former President of the American Phytopathological Society. In September 2023, Lindsey was appointed as chair of the WSU Department of Plant Pathology.