Psychology graduate student elected to led GPSA

The incoming president for the WSU Graduate and Professional Student Association is Reanne Chilton, a fourth-year student in the clinical psychology program.

The current chair of legislative affairs committee for GPSA, Chilton has been part of the WSU community for nearly a decade.

“It’s been an honor to work with the current VPLA, James, who exemplifies the ideal of the servant-leader. I hope to uphold this legacy of leadership with humility, openness, and dedication,” Chilton wrote in her candidate statement.

A first-generation college student, Chilton earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 2015 and her master’s degree in education in 2017, both at the WSU Pullman campus.

Her candidate statement continued: “As a therapist I typically get to do that on an individual basis, but as a legislative advocate I’ve had the chance to consider how a change in policy can enact a change in the lives of whole communities. Advocacy teaches one to be patient and hopeful; rarely would we get to see sweeping changes occur overnight. More often, it’s the small victories; the subtle changes in language, the addition of another representative voice, the seeds that are planted in policymakers’ minds that slowly work to change the tides.”

She also served as a GPSA senator for 2020-21 and received the “Senator of the Year” award.

Top image: Reanne Chilton

Adapted from The Daily Evergreen.