Honoring Raymond Reyes

Reflections on the impact of a beloved Gonzaga icon.

Raymond has served the Spokane region for 44 years, with his initial work focused on Indian Education. He was administrative director for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and became the executive director of Gonzaga University’s Northwest Indian Technical Assistance Center in 1988, overseeing the training on Indian education provided to 200 school districts in seven western states.

As he joined the faculty in Gonzaga’s School of Education, he also expanded the scope of his research and scholarship to include institutional diversity planning, intercultural competence and multicultural literacy, and culturally responsive teaching, across the U.S. and in Zambia, Mexico, Colombia and Canada.

Among his many educational and outreach endeavors to support Native students, Raymond also taught courses at the U.S. Olympic Training Center for 55 Native American elite runners, and helped to publish a guide for the Native American Sports Council.

A founding member of the Gonzaga Institute for Hate Studies (now the Center for the Study of Hate), he became integrally involved with Gonzaga’s efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion, becoming its first Chief Diversity Officer.

In the community, he has served on the Spokane Task Force for Race Relations, and for seven years, he produced three community access TV programs, called, “On Becoming Human,” “Tribal Voices,” and “Diversity Works.”

This is but a fragment of his legacy.