OUR BOARD MEMBERS
Anita Saito
President
Anita Saito earned her Master’s degree in Community Counseling Psychology from St Martin’s College in 1990.
She has always loved technology, unfortunately, she had never had technical training in school so gadgets collected dust on the shelf. Having the opportunity to learn STEAM skills through the maker space movement has been such fabulous experience for her that she is excited to be involved with George and William in making STEAM training opportunities more accessible in the South Sound! In addition to fundraising for camp and class scholarships, she will be utilizing her years of service in Community Mental Health to enhance technical programs with soft skills training and curriculum to increase personal sense of resilience through accomplishment.
W. George Cargill
Vice President
Mr. Cargill served on the UW Tacoma Advisory Board, where he contributed to the Military Affairs Committee…
…which provided support and guidance to the Chancellor on campus initiatives designed to better serve active military, veterans and their families. He served a distinguished 26-year career in the US Air Force. During his military career, he served as Chief of Physical Therapy at Scott AFB, IL and at RAF Lakenheath, England, Assistant Professor of Biology at the Air Force Academy, Fellowship in Information Systems and tours in Health Care policy in both the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and managed care division of the Air Force Surgeon General’s office. Mr. Cargill retired as the Executive Director for TRICARE Northwest Region 11 having Military Health Care program management oversight over 375,000 beneficiaries in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
Mr. Cargill has degrees in Physical Therapy and Psychology from the University of Texas. After extensive civilian health care experience, Mr. Cargill entered the Air Force Biomedical Science Corp. He was selected for Air Force sponsored graduate education at the University of Washington and completed a Master’s in Exercise Physiology. He taught Biology at the Air Force Academy. He served as a physical therapist at RAF Lakenheath, England and was part of the Readiness Evaluation Team. His time in DoD Health Affairs was during the time of evolving the Military Health System into managed care and the development of TRICARE. He provided in-depth data analysis to show utilization management relationships. He implemented TRICARE in the Northwest, the first region to be awarded a managed care support contract in 1994 and was instrumental in the eventual success of the program in that region. He started with TriWest in August of 2003 and implemented the 2nd generation TRICARE contract.
As the TriWest Vice President for Northwest Operations, Mr. Cargill had an opportunity to be involved in multiple community activities. Mr. Cargill was the Chair for the USO Puget Sound Area Board of Directors and recognized by the Tacoma News Tribune and University of Washington Non-Profit Leader of the Year. Mr. Cargill has been instrumental in supporting the military family through AFA, AUSA, MOAA, and Navy League (Seattle, Bremerton, and Tacoma). Mr. Cargill sat on the Executive Board for the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce and was the Director for Trade and Commerce. He is a member of the Chamber Military Affairs Committee and participates in several opportunities to recognize the military in the community. He is on the board for the WA National Guard Youth Challenge Academy Foundation. He was nominated by Congressman Adam Smith for the City Club of Tacoma 2009 Dennis Seinfeld Leadership Award and for the 2011 JBLM Civilian Hall of Fame. He was the 2012 recipient of the 62nd Air Wing Bryce Lilley Award for superior community service
Mr. Cargill was the WA Director of Programs for Operation Homefront a national non-profit organization supporting the military family. He was recently the community outreach for the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition. Mr. Cargill continues in a variety of military support initiatives with the WA Governor’s WA Military Transition Council and Senator Murray’s Military Summit looking at ways to better support our transitioning military members. He currently serves on the WA Lt Governor’s “Association of Washington Generals”
William Gray
Seceratary/Treasurer
William J. Gray obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Physics and Mathematics…
Following graduation from USD he was given a research fellowship in Physics from New Mexico State University (NMSU) where he graduated with a Master of Science in Physics. Following his attendance at NMSU, he was given a research and teaching fellowship from Washington State University where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Physics and a minor in Mathematical Statistics.
Following WSU he served two years in the Army teaching at the Army Command and Staff School at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and serving as an advisor to the Army Combat Developments Command. He later served 20 years in the Army Reserve retiring as a Major in Artillery.
Following his discharge from active duty, he joined the Boeing Company in Seattle and continued to work at Boeing until his retirement in February 2009. He had various work opportunities while employed at Boeing including, engineering and management positions in structural dynamics, avionics and electromagnetics. He has served as the Boeing Corporate University Relations Continual Learning Manager, and the System of Systems Specialty Engineering Manager for the Army Future Combat Systems Program. At the time of his retirement, he was a research manager in avionics and electromagnetics for the Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T) organization. He was also responsible for the development of training for the BR&T electrophysics skill. During his work at Boeing, he completed a Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Illinois University through a distance degree program at McChord AFB. During his time at Boeing, he served as Adjunct Faculty for Washington State University for 11 years.
He presently holds an appointment from Washington State University as the Academic Director of the Master’s Degree in Engineering and Technology Management. He also teaches online courses in project management, supportability and logistics management, enterprise resource planning and organizational management. In the summer of 2010, he served as an Adjunct Professor from Vaughn College teaching avionics courses at the Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology in Hyderabad, India.
He is a member of the following honorary societies:
-Phi Beta Kappa (Arts and Sciences)
-Pi Mu Epsilon (Mathematics)
-Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics)
-Sociedad de Ingenieros (New Mexico State Univ. Engineering Honorary)
Additionally, he is an elected senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and the International Conference on Systems Engineering, and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics. He has authored/co-authored more than 60 Boeing proprietary technical reports and has presented papers at conferences of the American Institute of Engineering Educators and at several university distance learning seminars.
