Pathways Forward: Centering Survivors

Sarah Dixit is no stranger to YWCA Spokane. She was awarded this year’s Young Woman of Achievement award.

Sarah began her career in advocacy and social justice with Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho and has shown an incredible amount of devotion to the work of human rights. She helped Planned Parenthood launch the Raiz program – which works to build relationships with the Latin community. This hard work especially shined on participating for the 2020 Census, state and county redistricting and voter access – all fundamental building blocks of our democracy. In 2021, she completed a fellowship with Western States Center, focusing on the connection between anti-reproductive rights movements and white nationalist groups.

Sarah is connected with the progressive movement in the Northwest and across the country. Her advocacy also involves serving as co-chair for Spokane’s Asian Pacific Islander Coalition. She is committed to dismantling racism in every form and has helped lead the conversation in Spokane to address hate towards the Asian community by moderating numerous Spokane Coalition of Color panels. She helped pass an ordinance to protect immigrants from warrantless search in Spokane from Immigration Customs Enforcement and Customs Border Patrol. In previous legislative sessions, she helped pass the Reproductive Health Access For All Act that expanded trans care and student health plans. She also fought to get undocumented patients included in the Washington State Budget for Medicaid coverage. At each action, she has made direct impact with countless people, met with elected officials and worked to hold local leaders accountable.

Professor Mary Pat Treuthart received her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, served a judicial clerkship, and worked at Warren County Legal Services in New Jersey as a staff attorney and the program director. Treuthart subsequently earned an LL.M. from Columbia Law School and was a researcher and consultant for the National Center on Women and Family in New York prior to joining the Gonzaga University School of Law faculty in 1989. She teaches and writes in the areas of Comparative Women’s Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and International Human Rights.

She was the Co-Director of the Gonzaga Domestic Violence Mini-Clinic Program. Treuthart was a Fulbright Scholar & Lecturer at Marie Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. She was the co-instructor of a domestic violence clinical course at Qatar University College of Law in Doha. She is a former board member of the Seattle-based Center for Women and Democracy where she directed and participated in women’s leadership delegations to Vietnam, Rwanda, Iceland, and Israel. Treuthart is currently an affiliated faculty member with Gonzaga University’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. She has been a women’s rights activist for more than 50 years.