Diversity Oversight Committee

The DOC reports to the CEO and Board of Directors regarding Sound Transit's compliance with our guiding principles for small and disadvantaged business employment and contracting opportunities.

Mission

The Diversity Oversight Committee (DOC) was established by the Sound Transit Board of Directors on July 13, 2006. The mission of this advisory committee is to report to the CEO and on occasion the Board of Directors regarding Sound Transit's compliance with the guiding principles for employment and contracting established in Motion No. 17. The DOC works with Sound Transit as partners to represent the concerns of the community related to contracting and jobs for small and disadvantaged businesses and thereby facilitate changes that result in the financial stability and health of communities. 

Members

The DOC is composed of members from throughout the Sound Transit District, and includes representatives from small business, trade and craft organizations, communities and community organizations in impacted neighborhoods, and other such interested parties as deemed appropriate by the CEO. Committee members are independent of Sound Transit, meaning they have no contracts with Sound Transit and no plan to compete for or bid on Sound Transit contracts or subcontracts. The committee reflects the cultural and ethnic diversity of the communities in the Sound Transit District. 

Current DOC members

Lisa Bogardus (DOC Chair) currently serves as the Assistant Executive Secretary for the Seattle Building Trades Labor Council. She also serves as an executive board member for the Puget Sound Labor Agency, and as a member of the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee. She has also served as the vice chair of the King County Economic Opportunity and Empowerment Advisory Board and participated on Mayor Durkin’s Affordable Middle Income Advisory Committee. Lisa previously worked for the Port of Seattle as Project Labor Agreement Manager. She worked with various Port of Seattle partners including Office of Social Responsibility, Contract Procurement Office, Project Management Group, and Engineering. Ms. Bogardus has also worked a practicing attorney in the State of Washington. She holds a J.D. degree from University of Oregon Law School: J.D. and a B.A. from State University of New York at Stony Brook. 

Ollie A. Garrett is CEO and President of PMT Solutions, a full-service receivables management firm located in Bellevue, WA that she established in November 2006. Ms. Garrett has been working in the collection industry since 1987 where she started out as a collector for Comp-U-Check, Inc. in Southfield, MI (a national check guarantee company) and has had years of exemplary experience as a national industry executive. She has served as President of Tabor 100 for the past sixteen years, an association of entrepreneurs and business advocates who are committed to economic power, educational excellence and social equity for African-Americans and the community at large. Additionally, Ms. Garrett is an at-large appointee of the King County Civil Rights Commission, an Advisory Committee member of the Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises and a board member of the Washington Economic Development Finance Authority. She also serves as a commissioner on the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) as well as being a member of the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board, an Executive board member of Mt. Calvary COGIC and a Member of the NAACP, American Collectors Association, and the Washington Collectors Association.  

Janice R. Greene, PhD, retired after a successful career with The Boeing Company. For 20 years, she led Commercial Airplanes supplier diversity strategy, economic development, and business intelligence. During her tenure at Boeing, Dr. Greene had responsibility for maintaining strategic alliances with domestic and international agencies, global business intelligence, utilizing procurement systems and external providers to support supply chain strategies. In addition to expertise in supply chain, she has over 15 years of experience in manufacturing and operations. In August 2017, Dr. Greene became President/CEO of Women’s Business Enterprise Council Pacific, creating an exciting opportunity to pursue her passion for economic development for women-owned businesses. Dr. Greene has served on several executive boards, including WEConnect International, a global organization focused on creating opportunities for women-owned businesses. She continues to collaborate with several business development organizations that support diverse companies. Dr. Greene has a BS and MS in Management and a Ph.D. in Strategy, Project and Program Management. 

Karla Malacon leads the Northwest Mountain MSDC as President and CEO. She is responsible for helping develop minority business enterprises (MBEs) into organizations that can support the specific needs of the council’s corporate and public agency members. The Northwest Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council (Northwest Mountain MSDC) is a nonprofit organization certifying, developing, and connecting Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) with major corporations and public agencies. Northwest Mountain MSDC is an affiliate of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) providing certification, membership and subscription services to the Pacific Northwest Mountain region which includes Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming 

Lyle Quasim has been actively involved in civil rights activism since being a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked as a community organizer in his home neighborhood, the West Side of Chicago. After leaving the university, he joined the Air Force and served as an Air Force medic in Vietnam. After his service, Mr. Quasim began working in health services and on social service policy for the state, federal, and county governments with the hope of bringing more attention to disparities caused by race, class, and gender. Mr. Quasim has co-chaired since its inception, a group of African American community leaders in Tacoma that in 1970 became known as The Black Collective.  

Mr. Quasim joined The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services in 1973, eventually becoming Director of State Mental Health Services. When gang violence rose in Tacoma, he returned to the city in 1988 to serve as the first director of the Safe Streets Campaign, whose model of community engagement was recognized by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Public Affairs. In 1995 he returned to the agency to become its first African American Secretary (director), a position he held until 2000. From 2001 through 2008 he was Chief of Staff for Pierce County Executive, John Ladenburg.