Director
Lucas Smiraldo
Lucas Smiraldo joined Vibrant Schools as its new director in September of 2014. Lucas began his career as a community organizer in Akron, Ohio and served his non-profit development corporation where he led a reinvestment initiative that brought new low-interest banking dollars to a neighborhood that had been previously redlined. Nearly 100 homes were rehabilitated over two years under that program. More recently he worked as the Associate Director for Education at the Broadway Center where he helped develop site-based after school arts programming for youth. He also created and wrote the touring show “Eleven Days in the Life of Dr. King” in collaboration with Charhyse Bailey and Antonio Edwards which has now reached over 50,000 youth over three touring seasons through the Broadway Center. Lucas is an educator who has worked extensively in the schools teaching creative writing and spoken word. He was chosen as the 2013-15 Poet Laureate for the city of Tacoma where he initiated the “Laureate Listening Project” which created a home for over 50 diverse voices acknowledging neighborhoods, communities and landmarks throughout the region through an audio anthology which will continue to grow.
As the new director of Vibrant Schools Tacoma, Lucas helped facilitate a strategic planning process with the steering committee and coalition members that will focus on eliminating the achievement gap in the Tacoma Public Schools. The initiative, entitled “No Dream Deferred: The Equity Initiative” is designed to investigate chronic gaps in outcomes for young people of color and those impacted by poverty and advocate for a sustained strategy to end this gap permanently.
Steering Committee Members
Bill Hanawalt
Bill Hanawalt is the Executive Director of Peace Community Center in Tacoma (www.peacetacoma.org). He has held this position for over a decade. Peace Community Center opened its doors in 2001 and is the community-based non-profit vision and ministry of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church. At Peace Community Center, Bill has gained skills and expertise in fundraising, community based program development, strategic planning & implementation and non-profit start-up. Bill has led fund development that has raised over $3.5 million dollars in operational funds during his career, watching the organization grow to an annual budget of just under $1 million per year. Bill, and his wife Kathy of eight years, along with their daughters Nora and Maryn, attend Peace Lutheran Church and live in the Hilltop community which the Center serves.
Eve Bowen
Eve Bowen was born in Ohio and lived in a working-class, ethnically diverse farming community until her parents and sibling moved to Washington State in 1958. There, her family resided in another rural farming community before moving to the suburbs of Pierce County in 1962. Eve attended junior high and high school in the Franklin Pierce School District, earned her BA in Education at the University of Puget Sound and her MA in Education at Antioch University-Seattle.
Eve retired in 2007 from Tacoma Public Schools, but remains actively involved in advocacy efforts in the educational field. Her passion for equity and social justice intersects with her educational advocacy work.
Sally Perkins
Sally Perkins is the owner of Practical Solutions (www.practicalsolutionstacoma.com), a business and management consulting firm serving non-profit and public sector clients in the greater Puget Sound region since 1996. Prior to that, Sally served as Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of Pierce and the Coastal Counties, and in Washington State government in public health and budget and finance positions.
As a volunteer and resident of the Hilltop since 1997, Sally has tutored high school students–Hilltop Scholars at the Peace Community Center—since 2008, which has motivated her to advocate for system-level improvements in public education that benefit all children.
Jonathan Johnson
Jonathan hails from New Mexico as the fourth of seven siblings and the oldest male. He is the father of two daughters and a son all exceptionally creative and talented to their credit.
Jonathan served as a career Army Officer in roles of increasing responsibility including; command, staff, project management and command-and-control research. Currently on staff at Pacific Lutheran University (www.plu.edu), where he provides instruction and software technical support aimed at empowering faculty and staff. He served two terms as co-chair of the Safety Committee, as a member of the diversity committee and on the Provost Search Committee. B.A., Arizona State University; Studied Computer Science at the Masters level at Pacific Lutheran University.