Staff spotlight: Shoshana Hague

Personal life

Shoshana was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but developed a love for travelling the world at a young age. While her family moved to Seattle from Bellingham when she was nine, they spent much of their time travelling to visit extended family from the East Coast and Europe.

As adults, Shoshana and her husband (who is from the UK) have continued to prioritize travel and spending time with their family who live all over the world.

“We have been fortunate to have family in almost all of the amazing places that we have traveled, from Australia to Mexico to Germany and the UK. I’ve passed that love of travel on to my two daughters, who are 9 and 14, both of whom had traveled more internationally by the time they were 3 than they have domestically.”

Shoshana also loves live music of almost any genre and is an avid reader of historical fiction, particularly when the story takes place somewhere she will be travelling.

Education and early career

Her love of travelling inspired her to participate in a year-long study abroad and cultural exchange program in Israel before she moved to Boston for college, earning her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Simmons University.

Returning to Washington after college, Shoshana began her career at the UW.

She originally started out as a patient services representative for the UW Women’s Clinic and then transitioned to a project coordinator role for Charge Capture with the Department of Family Medicine at UWMC Roosevelt.

She spent three years in the private sector as an office manager, overseeing administrative functions, billing, client services and business development.

In 2006, Shoshana brought her managerial experience back to UW, beginning her now 19-year career with the Department of Medicine.

Wealth of knowledge

During her first 10 years, Shoshana was based at Fred Hutch supporting the academic HR work in the Division of Medical Oncology. She then transitioned to her current position in the central department as the administrator for academic human resources.

In this role, she manages the recruitment, appointment, reappointment and promotion processes for without tenure/tenure, research and teaching faculty, and the annual merit process.

“Shoshana is one of the most knowledgeable people at the university on faculty academic appointments, faculty titles and faculty promotions,” said AHR Director Jackie Monroe. “She is patient, diplomatic, and a wonderful educator and problem solver, and serves as an endless resource to so many people in our department and beyond.”

Shoshana has worked on many projects and new innovations for the department. Over the years, there have been many changes in academic HR, which she is excited to be a part of.

Recently, she has been excited to work with colleagues in the School of Medicine to roll out Interfolio, a new enterprise-wide program to manage the faculty promotions process at UW. The new system streamlines the promotion process from beginning to end, from when a faculty member initially submits their promotion documents all the way through reviews and the final approval from the Provost and Board of Regents.

“It’s been something that we have been encouraging the university to adopt for a number of years and it’s exciting to see it finally come to fruition,” Shoshana said.

In addition to her AHR work, “Shoshana has recently stepped up to help propel gender equity priorities for the department,” Monroe said. “She is an amazing co-worker and one of my very favorite ‘Shoreline moms’.”

Gender equity council

Shoshana serves as co-chair of the Gender Equity Council.

“I was inspired by the GEC and the commitment of the council members,” she said. “They are an amazing, dedicated group of faculty and staff who are always thinking outside the box and coming up with great ideas to further gender equity across the department.”

Shoshana said she is continuously inspired by the projects and resources that have come out of the council, and she is proud to be joining them in continuing this work.

“We can always use more staff members on the GEC to strengthen our staff programs, so we encourage any staff members who are interested in joining the GEC to please reach out!”

Nearly two decades at UW

As she approaches twenty years working in the department, Shoshana has most enjoyed the colleagues with whom she has worked and gotten to know.

“From my core team to the division staff that we work with, everyone is so supportive of each other and committed to working together no matter what is thrown our way to accomplish,” she said.

“Plus, there are a lot of really funny and interesting people who work in our department and a really good sense of humor will always endear someone to me immediately.”

Shoshana’s colleague Heidi Williams returns the sentiment:

“Shoshana trained me in my position years ago and is still my go-to person for questions. She is exceptionally knowledgeable about academic appointments, faculty tracks, promotions, and basically anything you would want to know at the university.

She is patient, an excellent educator, and most importantly, an amazing problem solver. She is an invaluable resource to many people within our department and beyond. She is one of my favorite people I've ever worked with and an outstanding co-worker.”