Almeera Anwar (L) and KC Cowen (R) with Department Chair David Domke. Photo by Victoria Sprang.

Over a dozen Communication students joined recent grads KC Cowen (B.A., 2008) and Almeera Anwar (B.A., 2012) for a career chat over lunch. Cowen and Anwar met through the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) during their days as students and now both work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They landed their jobs through a temp agency, sharing with the students that this is an excellent avenue in an increasingly competitive job market. Each student walked away with a copy of an article recently posted on the UW Professional and Continuing Education site about how temporary or contract work functions.

Both Cowen and Anwar gave a straight talk about working for such an internationally recognized organization. At the beginning of each day, said Anwar, “it’s just a job” with all of the day-to-day tasks any job requires. She arrives at her cubicle, checks her email, gets a cup of coffee, goes back to her email, creates spreadsheets or communication pieces, or any number of tasks that she needs to do to help the people she works for do what they need to do, to help the people in the field do what they need to do in order to deliver the vaccines.

Not all nonprofits are the same. The Gates Foundation employees get a laptop and a smartphone – a great perk, but one that comes with the responsibility of being available to respond quickly and sometimes after regular work hours. The pace is fast at their job and they both love what they do. They stressed to the students to not assume that their first job out of college has to be a bad job. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” quoted Anwar.

“Being a soon-to-be graduate of the Communication department with a strong interest in global health, meeting with KC and Almeera was a huge benefit,” one student said. “What they do is right up my alley, and I was so happy to speak with them afterward. Because of the meeting, I now have an opportunity of speaking again with them in the near future.”

Another student said, “I learned many lessons and got several tips of how to behave in a professional manner. I just wished the meeting was longer, but I had to leave early to go to my next class.”

The career chat is part of our Communication Works! series, offering professional development events throughout the academic year.

About the mentors:

KC Cowen was recently promoted to Senior Assistant on the Global Health Financial Planning and Analysis Team. She is responsible for providing high-level support to the Global Health Program Chief Financial Officer. She previously worked as a Program Assistant on the Global Health HIV Team, responsible for team-wide coordination, event planning and relationship management with grantees and partners. Before the Gates Foundation, she was employed at the Medina Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the University of Washington Office of Development and Alumni Relations. Cowen is a proud 2008 alumni of the University of Washington and owes her professional success to the connections and skills she developed as a student in the Department of Communication. She continues to give back by mentoring current Department of Communication students. In her free time, she enjoys walking Green Lake with her new husband Brian.

Almeera Anwar is a Program Assistant on Vaccine Delivery. While in college, she participated in the Dream Project, First Year Programs, Association for Women in Communications, Residence Hall Student Association, Associated Student, UW Leaders, and Relay for Life. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism & Anthropology. She did a Study Abroad in Switzerland, which was an intensive study on “Making Place: Tourism, Culture and Global Communication.” She considers herself an advocate for women and girls, education and cancer research. In her spare time she enjoys digging into a good book, trying out a recipe or exploring a new glass of wine with friends.

About Katie:

Katie King is a writer, editor, literary translator and digital media executive. Her 20 plus-year career includes working as a foreign correspondent, documentary producer, digital story-teller, business leader and journalism professor. Most recently Katie worked for four years as Senior Product Manager Portal & Partnerships for MSN UK in London where she moved in 2008. After graduating from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1985, Katie spent 16 years of her career at Reuters, working as Chief Correspondent in Mexico, Central America and Panama and Chief Correspondent Brazil After leaving Reuters at the end of 2001, Katie worked as a consultant for a number of Washington, D.C.-based companies and non-profit organizations. Katie has been a member of the Online News Association almost since it began in 1999 and was founding co-chair of the ONA International Committee. The year 2012 marks the fifth since Katie led the launch of the ONA’s non-English language awards honoring outstanding online journalism worldwide. Katie is passionate about Spanish culture and history and translates Spanish poetry and short stories into English for the literary non-profit Words Without Borders. Read more about Katie King>>>

About Alex:

Freelance War Reporter Alex Quade covers U.S. Special Operations Forces on combat missions.  She is the recipient of a national RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award, as well as the Congressional Medal Of Honor Society’s “Tex McCrary Award For Excellence In Journalism” for her war reportage.

Alex has worked in television for Fox News and CNN.  Extreme storytelling and silent risk-taking lie at the heart of what she does.  As a “one-man-band”, she embeds with elite combat units several months at a time, producing exclusive, long-form, special series and documentaries.  She recently produced and directed a short documentary about Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan, “Horse Soldiers of 9/11,” that is currently showing in film festivals nationwide.  Narrated by actor Gary Sinise, Quade’s film expands her original investigative reports for The Washington Times, CNN.com, and The Daily Caller.  Vice President Joe Biden quoted Ms. Quade’s stories during the dedication of a monument paying tribute to the secretive warriors, near ground zero in New York.  (FOX affiliates, Armed Forces Network, and the Pentagon Channel re-broadcast the event and Quade’s stories worldwide.) Read more about Alex Quade.