By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March, it’s crucial to recognize trailblazers within the Black community who continue to lead and push for the advancement of Black individuals in fields such as education, health, and beyond.
For many in Seattle, Dr. Constance Rice is best known as the wife of Norm Rice, the city’s first Black mayor, who served from 1990 to 1998. However, that title barely scratches the surface of her extraordinary contributions to the community.
While Norm Rice made history in politics, Dr. Rice built a legacy of her own, working tirelessly in education, civil rights, public policy, and global activism. Her professional career and volunteer efforts have left an indelible mark on Seattle and beyond, ensuring that her influence will span generations to come.
Rice currently serves on the University of Washington’s (UW) Board of Regents. She is also the President of Very Strategic Group, a consulting firm specializing in executive coaching and educational policy. Additionally, she was appointed by Mayor Durkan to the Families, Education, Pre-School, and Promise Levy Oversight Committee in Seattle, Washington.
Dr. Rice’s passion for activism began early. Growing up during the civil rights movement, she was surrounded by people dedicated to justice and equality.
“There is such a need for all of us to really engage in our own communities and broader communities,” Dr. Rice said. “Since I was a child of the civil rights movement, which is my era, there was a great deal of activism. Everybody was moving toward justice and peace, and I think it really stayed with me in terms of what a difference a single person can make.”
Rice holds a graduate degree from the University of Washington, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Washington, College of Education, and started her extensive career in the field of higher education.
Her first job was at the National Urban League in New York, where she worked under Whitney Young and collaborated with nonprofits serving African American communities. That position also gave her the opportunity to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a moment that reinforced her commitment to civil rights.
She carried that dedication into higher education, shaping curriculum and expanding access for students of color. As chair of Ethnic Studies at Shoreline Community College, she played a key role in making ethnic studies a graduation requirement, ensuring that students learned about the histories and experiences of marginalized communities.
“I started my career in undergraduate school writing the civil rights movement,” says Rice. “While I try to make an impact on everything I do, I think the first great impact I made was when I was chair of Ethnic Studies at Shoreline Community College, and I worked hard to get ethnic studies as part of the requirements for graduation.”
When she moved to Seattle in 1967, she brought her national perspective on racial justice into local advocacy, connecting with influential community leaders.
“When I moved to Seattle in 1967, Whitney Young introduced me to Ed Pratt, who is the head of the Seattle Urban League and was assassinated. So, I have always been around activist people, and I think that is probably what reinforced me in terms of what activism can yield,” Rice said.
As she progressed through her professional career, Dr. Rice served in many capacities—including President of North Campus for the Seattle Colleges, and Vice Chancellor for the Seattle Community College District—where she continued to push for systemic change, which, according to Rice, allowed her to demonstrate her ability to follow and lead, which “are very important in terms of activism.”
Throughout her career, Dr. Rice worked closely with some of the most influential figures in Black history, not just learning from them but actively contributing to their missions.
“Maya Angelou, Patricia Harris, Shirley Chisholm, Constance Baker Motley, Fannie Lou Hamer—I can go on and on in terms of history,” Rice said. “But these are all people that I actually met, worked with, and supported. So, I am mentioning people that I know a little bit deeper than what people read about in the newspaper.”
Rice said that her own family and being an only child has helped inspire her to achieve anything that she sets her mind to.
“We have our own families for inspiration—my grandmother out of Pittsburgh Uniontown, my granddad who was a former coal miner. We are all living with role models in our family who have done things under enormously difficult circumstances,” said Rice. “I have a core of family and people, so there is nothing that I can’t accomplish, and I am blessed with that.”
In 1999, a conversation with Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, led Dr. Rice to a new chapter in her activism.
“Machel took me aside and said, ‘What are you doing for African women? I think you ought to do something in Africa for African women,’” Dr. Rice said. “But I don’t believe in just jumping into things without being invited, especially if I don’t understand the environment.”
Machel formally extended an invitation, and Dr. Rice took the opportunity. She traveled to Swaziland (now Eswatini), where she worked on developing a technology program to educate young women.
“They recruited about five of us that worked on a project together in Swaziland developing a technology program where teachers in Swaziland taught young ladies 14 and up science,” said Rice. “And through collusion with Technology Access Foundation (TAF) and United Parcel Services (UPS), I was able to get 120 computers over there, and we also had two schools open in Swaziland, which was really difficult to do.”
At the time, 30% of Africa’s population was HIV positive, making health education an urgent priority.
“It was all of the worries and myths that went around what HIV actually was and how to be cured. Getting girls to understand their right for education and their right to get jobs that paid well, was all through the knowledge of technology,” said Rice.
Unfortunately, Rice and her colleagues were in the process of launching their program in Swaziland when the 9/11 attacks shut down U.S. air travel, stranding her and her team abroad. She credits Ambassador Gregory Lee Johnson, a Seattle native and Franklin High School graduate, for ensuring their safety.
“The reason we had no fear of being stuck in Swaziland was because of him [Johnson],” recalled Rice. “He was our ambassador from America to Swaziland. He graduated from Franklin High School, so it was a full circle moment,” Rice said. “I had a person representing our country who came from Seattle and went to a Seattle Public School.”
“The Swaziland project was probably one of the most inspiring and encouraging to me as an individual because of [Johnson] and the tenacity of the people in Swaziland,” she added.
At the heart of Rice’s career and passion lies her commitment to empowering African American women and amplifying their presence within the community. She reflected on the ongoing struggle for equality and said that she has come to a realization that in order to truly achieve the type of equality that we aspire to see, it requires building coalitions and working in solidarity with other communities.
“Because of white people, African American women still haven’t achieved equality, and that is a drive that I see to have us all lift and push for,” said Rice. “I am a family-based person when it comes to working in coalition with other communities in order to achieve parity and equality for folks.”
Despite all she has achieved, Rice remains aware that there is still work to be done. Her greatest hope is that her legacy will inspire future generations of African American women to adopt a “we can do it” mindset and encourages them to create their own lasting legacies of empowerment.
“I hope to leave the booster effect of nominating women to positions where they too can change different areas of life through corporate participation, nonprofit leadership, educational leadership, and health leadership,” Rice said. “I want to see us in more areas where we can control not only our own destinies, but help others control theirs, and I want to leave that impact on as many people as I can.”
Source: Seattle Medium
