On Friday, Jan 9th 2015, the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Tacoma, WA. held a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP) Summit directed specifically at including non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in a community discussion of sexual harassment and assault in the Army. Members of the UW Tacoma community were also invited to attend as part of an ongoing partnership between JBLM and the University of Washington. Shelby Edwards, the Program Assistant for Community Engagement in the Office of the Chancellor, and PPPA Assistant Professor Dr. Sarah Cote Hampson were among those in attendance. Hampson conducts research on women and workplace cultures, and one of her areas of specialty is women in the U.S. military.
The title of the event, “Leaders Change the Culture” summarized its spirit. It was the first event of its kind in the nation to specifically involve NCOs in the discussion of the means to achieve cultural change on the topic of sexual harassment and assault in the Army. In his opening remarks LTG Stephen Lanza, the Commanding General of I Corps at JBLM stated that “the Army has an important leadership role to play in achieving broader social change” on this issue. He also noted that in the Army, “it is the NCOs that lead change.”