Percy Winters Jr. honored with Robert Phillips Regional Diversity Award at Northwest conference

The Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference presented the 2025 Robert Phillips Regional Diversity Award to Percy Winters Jr., honoring his years of leadership and mentorship in the regional public-employee community.

Victoria Cross of Multnomah County, speaking for the award committee, introduced AFSCME executive director Joe Basler, who described Winters as a driver of institutional change. "He has changed our union, so much," Basler said, citing the creation of a diversity and equity officer position and efforts to embed equity in union structures.

Former Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafouri praised Winters’s collaborative leadership during the COVID pandemic, saying their joint work required fast, sustained coordination and mutual trust. Wendy Wilcox, a conference cochair, recalled Winters’s long service to the conference and his mentorship of committee members, and formally invited the audience to recognize him.

In his acceptance remarks, Percy Winters Jr. thanked colleagues and volunteers by name, including Jamail Rose, Kevin Kitamura and Carolyn Lee, and reflected on the conference’s growth: "We began as a diversity conference, then came diversity and equity. Today, we proudly say diversity, equity and inclusion," and he noted the event draws "nearly 2,000 participants." Winters framed the award as a call to continue unity and the work of inclusion.

The ceremony celebrated cross-jurisdictional collaboration and the conference’s multi-decade history; the program returned to other sessions after the award presentation.