By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University women's swimmer Niki Kates (Sr., Truckee, CA/Forest Charter School) has been named the Jean Williams Award winner for 2019-20. The Jean Williams Award is presented annually to the senior women's student-athlete who most excelled in all areas of their career at Willamette by exemplifying and demonstrating outstanding leadership, scholarship and athleticism.

Kates is a Rhodes Scholar finalist. At Willamette, she is a double major in Refugee and Migration Studies as well as Psychology, who qualified for the College Honor Roll five times. Her academic interests led to her Senior Thesis research topic of Comparing Prison Reentry and Refugee Resettlement. 

She received the Shannon P. Hogue Civic Communication and Media Award in 2017 and 2018. The award honored her use of communication in her refugee advocacy work, including research and other forms of civic engagement. In 2019, she was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma national student-athlete honorary society. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. 

As a swimmer, she is the school record holder in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:09.26 at the 2020 NWC Swimming Championships. She also is ranked fourth, seventh and eighth in the 200 I.M. at Willamette. She is second all-time in the 200-yard backstroke (2:07.37), and also owns the fifth, sixth, ninth and 10th fastest times. Kates is sixth all-time at WU in the 100-yard backstroke at 59.17, and also holds seventh, eighth and 10th on the list. She swam on the third and fourth fastest 400-yard medley relay teams in school history.

She placed fourth at the 2020 NWC Championships with her school record time in the 200 I.M. She also was sixth in the 200-yard backstroke and eighth in the 100-yard backstroke, as she earned Second Team All-NWC honors three times this season. During her career, she received Second Team All-NWC recognition a total of 11 times, once for each time she reached the championships finals in an individual event. In addition, she competed on 11 relay teams at the NWC meet over the past four seasons. She served as a team captain in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Kates was a Colloquium Associate at Willamette in the fall of 2019. She tutored first-year students in reading, writing, note taking and critical thinking skills. She also led classroom sessions and discussions.

She participated in the Take a Break program during the 2018 Spring Break, working with other students and faculty to help migrant agricultural workers in Fresno, California. She was an Opening Days Leader each of the past three years. She served as the Willamette Events Board (WEB) graphic design chair in 2017-18, leading efforts to brand campus events. She was the Community Service Learning media and outreach coordinator for 18 months.

She has been the co-president of the Restorative Justice Coalition since May of 2018 and was a founder and president of the Swahili Club in May of 2019. She has been a member of the Jewish Student Union for all four years at Willamette.

Her off-campus community service participation has been exceptional. She was a student resource specialist with the Transformative Justice Initiative (TJI) dealing with prison education and reform. She helped local refugee high school students through Global Partners for Student Success and also was involved with Salem for Refugees as a community outreach member and mentor team member. As part of that work she helped to develop a Refugee Clothing Drive on campus.

In addition, she helped Special Olympics Oregon as a swimming teacher. She contributed to the Liberal Arts Research Collaborative regarding prison reentry last summer. She has taught English as a volunteer since February, 2018, and has been involved with restorative justice at the Oregon State Penitentiary since September, 2018. In the summer of 2018, she worked with the Borgen Project as a political affairs intern, working to increase human rights and access to resources in the developing world.

Kates was awarded a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs. As a result, she will be working in San Francisco starting in the fall.

Recent winners of the Jean Williams Award include cross country and track and field runner Olivia Mancl in 2017, soccer player Emmy Manset along with cross country and track and field runner Hannah Swanson in 2018, and swimmer Kiley Lin in 2019. Kates is the second swimmer to receive the award.