Winners:

Company that most values diversity

• Premera Blue Cross
• The Fairmont Olympic Hotel
• Highline Community College

The Premera Blue Cross gang wins yet another category, and it's easy to understand why. "You just have to visit our Mountlake Terrace campus to see the diverse workforce," says one worker. "We have associates from many different countries and cultures, as well as those who have physical disabilities." The Fairmont Olympic goes so far as to celebrate the 46 different nationalities of their employees with a wall of flags dedicated to each country they originated from. Says one Olympic employee: "It's so cool to be able to work with people from all over the world. I'm able to learn about different cultures and meet very interesting people." And Des Moines' Highline Community College makes a strong effort to "recruit a diverse faculty and staff to match the diverse student population," says one proud employee. The school was recently awarded with an Achieving the Dream grant that will allow them to help even more students succeed at their college career.

Honorable mention:

Center for Human Services
To quote one employee of the Shoreline nonprofit: "I have never worked at a company or organization where employees were allowed to find a substitute for 10 minutes so that they could go pray; where a significant number of employees could be openly GLBT; where employees are encouraged to speak in their native languages, or where customers (in our case, 'participants') represented nearly every major ethnic group in Western Washington."