Meet the Future Heights Keynote Speaker
Bernadette Ray is a Tacoma native whose east coast parents arrived in the area in the late 1970's via Fort Lewis. She is a product of Tacoma Public Schools attending Stanley. Franklin, Hunt, and Stadium. She then attended Puget Sound for both a BA in English, Creative Writing and a MAT.
During her time at Puget Sound, she interned at Weyerhaeuser Company in four different areas. While she enjoyed her internship, she was also coaching swimming and water polo at Stadium High School at the time. It was there she discovered her passion for instruction, and knew that what she did on the pool deck would transfer to the classroom.
Ms. Ray taught English at Lincoln High School in Tacoma for ten years and also served as the athletic director before moving into administration. She is currently principal at Dr. Dolores Silas High School, formerly Woodrow Wilson High School, just about ten blocks west of the Puget Sound campus. She is President of the Puget Sound Black Alumni Union and Ali's Prom Project. She also serves on the Multicare Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Council and on the Pierce County Birth to 25 Board.
Bernadette lives in the Stadium District here in Tacoma with her Olde English Bulldog — lovingly named Choke. She plays water polo with Puget Sound Polo Women’s Masters, is obsessed with her Peloton bike, and longs to have a house in the Palm Springs area where she does not have to wear socks.