Interview with Park Myung Rae
Park Myung Rae came to the United States from Korea in 1987, at 24, and spent 33 years in college administration before retiring to serve the Korean Women’s Association, whose board she has chaired since 2022. In this interview, she tells how the KWA began in 1972 with ten Korean wives of American servicemen near Fort Lewis who wanted a place to sing, eat, and speak Korean, and how those women soon began hiding neighbors from abusive husbands in their own homes. Shut out of both American and Korean communities, they built a shelter, then taught driving and citizenship, built senior housing, and started meal and in-home care programs. Today the KWA has 2,000 employees, serves people in more than 40 languages, and keeps its name to honor the women who founded it.
Background
Park Myung Rae (박명래) worked most recently as executive director of international education at Pierce College, and she earned a doctorate in educational leadership from Seattle University in 2018. Before becoming board chair, she led the Korean Women’s Association’s volunteer committee in 2020.
Transcript
Related material
Brochures, photographs, and newspaper coverage from the association’s history, back to 1978, are in the Korean Women’s Association section of the Source Material page.