Eastern Magazine | Fall/Winter 2020

STAYING SAFE, STAYING STRONG.

EAGLE STRONG

We’ll Meet Again

Down the decades, the institution now known as Eastern Washington University has borne its share of burdens. But few challenges have so transformed the campus as the March 2020 arrival of SARs-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Almost overnight, the Cheney campus, typically bustling with the energy and effervescence of its collegiate spring, was emptied of students, faculty and staff. Some six months later, as this magazine goes to press, campus life remains upended. But Eastern lies waiting, as beautiful as ever, for the time when we will gather again.

Sidewalks converge near the entrance to the One Room School House on EWU's Cheney campus.

TAKING FLIGHT

Dear Alumni and Friends:

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ife in and around Cheney looks a lot different these days. Gone is the hustle and bustle of hundreds of students jetting to and from class, and the humming of operations that keep the university chugging along. I live in Cheney, was born and raised in Cheney, and graduated from EWU in 1988 with a degree from the College of Business. These days, I serve as chair for the EWU Foundation Board, the private fundraising arm that supports and advances the mission of EWU. It has been a challenging time, indeed. But Eastern has been through challenging times before. And while we are in a critical position right now, there is also much to be grateful for and hopeful about: The new red turf (I had forgotten just how red that field really is!), the rise of the Catalyst and Science buildings, the joyful interactions of the few students and student-athletes who remain, socially-distanced, here in town. I am so proud of my alma mater, an Eastern Eagle through and through who is a passionate advocate for all things EWU. I hope, like me, that you are all of these things too. We need our Eagle family now more than ever!

— Krisann Hatch ’88 Chair, EWU Foundation Board of Directors

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n this time of social distancing, sheltering in place and masking up, I’m reminiscing more about the past. My years at Eastern are easily some of my best memories. I realize now Eastern prepared me to handle uncertainties like this, and continues to drive me forward, personally and professionally.

Being “Eagle Strong” has meant battling my children for internet bandwidth while mentoring Eagles in the Eagle Career Network, gathering the Alumni Association board on Zoom, and supporting Eagle-owned businesses. I’m grateful for the laughter that comes with having time to reconnect with friends I met in the dorms and did Fast Fitness with. I hope you’re doing the same; taking time to think back to your days as a student at Eastern.

Reach out to former classmates and share a laugh. Live Eagle Strong and become an active Eag. Serving as president of the Alumni Association is my way of giving back and staying engaged, but there are so many ways to be involved. You, too, can find an avenue to connect with your university.

If we can make it through winters in Cheney, our Eagle Strong mentality will get us through this, too. Go Eags!

— Jeff Stannard ’91 President, EWU Alumni Association Board of Directors

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2020

MAKING THE MOST OF

As this unprecedented year draws to a close, you can make the most of your 2020 charitable giving and share your hope for the future.

By making a year-end gift to the EWU Foundation, you can provide support for our hard-working students through the coming year, while saving on your 2020 income taxes. Your gift can support scholarships or a program of your choosing.

COMMON YEAR-END GIFTS INCLUDE: • Appreciated assets (such as stocks)—your capital gain can benefit our students and create an income tax deduction for you • IRA Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)—if you’re 72 or older, your RMD can support scholarships and lower your taxable income • Charitable Gift Annuity—fund a CGA that provides fixed payments for life and possible income tax benefits with the remaining funds to support Eastern YO U R Y E A R - E N D G I F T CO U L D H E L P A N EASTERN STUDENT FINISH THEIR DEGREE!

Contact Courtney Susemiehl | Director of Gift Planning Office 509. 359.6703 | Cell 509.559.2082 | csusemie@ewu.edu

FALL/WINTER 2020 EDITOR Charles E. Reineke ART DIRECTOR Ryan Gaard ’02 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Meany Leilah Langley PHOTOGRAPHY Eric Galey ’84 Chris Thompson ’19 VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Barb Richey ’92, ’99 DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Lisa Cargill ’03 MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD Karene Garlich-Loman ’03, ’98 Joseph Haeger ’10 Kory Kelly ’98 Nick Lawhead ’07 Lisa Leinberger ’98 Brian Lynn ’98 Kelly Naumann ’10 Robin Pickering ’03, ’97

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! EMAIL easternmagazine@ewu.edu PHONE 509.359.6422 WRITE Eastern Magazine, 102 Hargreaves Hall Cheney, WA 99004-2413 Eastern magazine is published spring/ summer and fall/winter by EWU Marketing & Communications and is mailed free to alumni of record in the United States. View this and previous issues online at ewu.edu/easternmagazine.

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CONTENTS

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24 Kira Lewis ’20

CONTENTS

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Features 18 Health Heroes

Eastern graduates are at the heart of our region’s coronavirus response.

24 Transformative Vision

On the banks of the Spokane River, a building like no other is ready to make its mark.

32 The Road Less Lethal

Deadly car crashes have become a tragic fact of life on the Colville Reservation. A group of faculty and student researchers are changing that.

38 On Hold

Shantay Legans

Eagle athletes and coaches adapt to pandemic uncertainty.

Departments 04 08 40 42 45 47

Taking Flight Eastern Etc. On the Road Class Notes In Memoriam Back Story

On the Cover: “Eagle Strong,” as adapted from a poster and billboard series developed by EWU for the Spokane region.

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President Cullinan Steps Down

Mary Cullinan announces retirement; David May will serve as interim.

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astern Washington University’s 26th president, Mary Cullinan, announced in early August she was stepping down from her leadership of the university. Cullinan will act as the “special assistant to the president for transition” through mid-September, after which time she will join the EWU faculty as a professor in the Department of English.

The announcement came during a special public session of the EWU Board of Trustees. During the meeting the trustees named David May, provost and vice president for academic affairs, as interim president.

Staying Strong

As the pandemic progressed, Eastern stepped up.

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n early march, as the first cases of COVID-19 started appearing in the Seattle area, EWU began to mobilize its resources to keep students, faculty and staff safe. Surfaces were disinfected, hand sanitizer stations were filled, and expert panels and other information sessions were convened to help the campus community better understand the nature of the threat, and how to protect themselves from it.

By the middle of the month, it was clear these measures would not be enough.

On March 11, the university announced that, in a way never been seen over EWU’s long history, campus life was essentially shutting down.

“All academic operations, to the fullest extent possible, will be moved online through the remainder of the current academic year,” President Mary Cullinan’s letter read. “This includes classes, academic advising and educational activities.”

The months that followed have seen heroic efforts to adapt to the new normal.

Faculty, students and their families rethought the nature of higher education to make remote learning not just viable, but vibrant and rewarding. Staff members rallied to create a virtual commencement that rivaled the joyous pomp and circumstance of the in-person event. And Eastern employees have doubled-down on their dedication as telework and CDC-recommended safety measures have transformed the way they served the institution they love.

Going forward, there will be a continued need for out-of-the-box thinking and resilience. As it became clear, for example, that the suspension of most faceto-face instruction would need to be extended, EWU announced an innovative “Maximum Flexibility” model for instruction and campus operations this fall.

The approach, developed with the advice of faculty experts in public health and science, calls for a continuation of online-first modality for most courses.

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“It’s been a tremendous honor to serve this great institution,” Cullinan said. “EWU is truly a remarkable university with exceptional students, faculty, staff, alumni and community supporters.”

In elevating May, the EWU Board said it was moving to maintain continuity. As provost, May spearheaded the university’s shift to online classes during the pandemic, and has been instrumental in working with faculty on an academic reorganization plan that will reduce Eastern’s seven colleges to four.

We’ll have more coverage of the leadership change, including an in-depth interview with interim President David May, in our next issue.

EAGLE STR NG Courses that can’t be offered online, such as some labs, are — for now at least — slated to go forward following public health guidelines aimed at minimizing health risks to students, faculty and staff.

The “flexibility” part kicks in if public health restrictions ease: online offerings, for instance, could be switched to face-to-face instruction or a hybrid model. Likewise, if health concerns increase, all courses can shift back online.

The idea is to help students mitigate, in so far as is possible, any disruption in their progress toward a degree.

Other adaptations include waiving the live-on-campus requirement for first-year freshmen. For those students who do want to live on campus, residential halls and dining operations will be open. Only one student per room will be permitted.

Housing staff will assist residents with social distancing practices and guidance on how to follow other public health measures.

Such planning will ensure that this fall, although in no way normal, EWU will unite to proudly advance excellence in learning and service.

Equality, Equity and Inclusion After George Floyd’s killing, university leaders call for ‘true social transformation.’

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fter video of the police killing of George Floyd shocked the nation and world, officials at Eastern joined the upwelling of voices that demanded justice and change.

As protests spread across the world, Deirdre Almeida, EWU’s director of American Indian Studies; Scott Finnie, director of Africana Studies; Nydia Martinez, director of Chicana/o/x Studies, and Judy Rohrer, director of Women’s & Gender Studies, co-signed a statement that endorsed demonstrators’ call for an end “to antiBlack police and state violence.”

“We are inspired by the outpouring of solidarity and resistance across the globe, the country, Daniel Lopez’s mural dedicated to George Floyd — and the protestors seeking justice following his killing — on the and right here in Spokane,” the statement said. side of a downtown business in Spokane. Photo by Chris Thompson.

“As educators, we are particularly moved by the youth who are acting with brilliance and courage.

We are at a tipping point and they are unrelenting in their demands for in an earlier message released at the end of May. “Eastern Washington University has been, and continues to be, committed to building this true social transformation.

“In this historic moment, we are putting all of our collective weight new normal,” it read.

“We are partners for change. While we may occasionally stumble on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s long ‘arc of the moral universe’ to and fall short in these efforts, we will relentlessly pursue the goal of a bend it more quickly toward justice.”

EWU’s president and its leadership team echoed these sentiments campus and a country defined by equality, equity, and inclusion.”

Justice For All An EWU attorney helps her colleagues help others.

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he Latin phrase pro bono publico — for the public good — is both a description of what the law is meant to achieve and a reminder of attorneys’ obligation to give back to the communities they serve.

In practice, according to the American Bar Association, pro bono work is meant “to promote justice and to make justice equally accessible to all people,” by rendering legal services “without fee or expectation of fee for the good of the public.”

Christine Kuglin, an attorney and assistant professor of accounting at EWU, has long been an advocate for improving and expanding pro bono work in Washington, a goal experts say is

crucial to addressing our state’s enormous unmet legal needs, especially among those who struggle financially.

Kuglin’s efforts will now take on a higher profile, as she was recently appointed to the Washington State Bar Association’s Pro Bono and Public Service Committee, a group dedicated to “enhancing a culture of legal service by promoting opportunities and best practices” among lawyers doing pro bono work.

Kuglin, who also serves on the EWU Women’s and Gender Commission, says she is committed to diversity and justice, and that the work will provide an opportunity for her to create a path to justice for all, regardless of their economic status.

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Pomp and Pandemic

For the Class of 2020, a graduation experience like no other.

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t EWU, and on college campuses across the nation, graduation ceremonies are a celebratory rite of spring, a time when the diligence and dedication of seniors and graduate students is rewarded with cheers, hugs and high-fives.

For the class of 2020, things would be different. By late May it was clear that the coronavirus pandemic would make the scheduled June 13 commencement ceremony impossible to hold — at least in person.

To ensure that each graduate got the recognition they deserved, EWU faculty and staff scrambled to create a commencement experience to rival the canceled event, a “virtual graduation” package meant to create its own set of lifelong memories for participants.

At the center of this effort was the creation, led by EWU's Chris Robbins, director of strategic university planning, of customizable “commencement celebration webpages” for every graduate. These individualized webpages included recorded celebratory messages from President Mary Cullinan, Provost David May, the deans of EWU’s individual colleges and others. Graduates were encouraged to gather with their friends and families, tune into the customized celebration pages and watch the video tributes together.

The pages also included personalized messages, photos and videos submitted by each graduate, their family and friends, as well as EWU faculty and staff.

Students also received a special graduation kit in the mail, one loaded with items specially chosen to help celebrate the special milestone, including a link to a downloadable electronic program, an Eagle4Life window cling and a red EWU sling bag. The grad kits also included a special commemorative graduation edition of The Easterner student newspaper.

For those high achievers who were scheduled to receive honors and awards from their respective programs, many departments created special videos for their students. Visit our website to find links to a selection of videos, as well as links that will allow you to share in some of the moments and memories that made the class of 2020 so special.

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Jasmine Banga, a 2020 graduate in international affairs, at a socially distanced Roos Field photo shoot.

Digital Lifelines

Not all students were equipped for distance learning. The EWU Foundation was there to help.

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arly in the pandemic, when Eastern was forced to shift to virtual learning, many students were left without the technology they needed to continue their educations. Fortunately, the EWU Foundation and the university’s Student Care Team recognized the need and quickly utilized the Student Emergency Fund to purchase Chromebooks. Two hundred were distributed at the beginning of spring quarter.

Since then, the “thank you” notes from students who applied for and received the laptops have been streaming in. Janastasia Jackson-Stiller is one of those students. She says the support meant a lot to students who, like her, were feeling overwhelmed with online learning.

“I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude and appreciation,” Jackson-Stiller wrote. “I was blessed with a laptop grant and that was great news. It gave me the confidence I needed to tackle this quarter of online classes. When I picked the laptop up and took it home, I expected it to be [just] a tool to get me from point A to point B in my academics. I was brought to tears when I got home and opened it up: It was absolutely beautiful.

It may seem like a small thing, but in the midst of all this upheaval and uncertainty I was truly blessed by this.”

Judy Miller in EWU’s Student Accounting Department helped with the ordering and distribution of the Chromebooks. Miller says that every student she’s spoken with has been appreciative and thankful.

“I heard things like: ‘Thank you so much, you saved my life!’ ‘Please tell whomever gave us these, thank you!’ ‘I appreciate you so much!’ ‘OMG, I have been using my phone for all my assignments, this is amazing!’ Lots more comments like that,” she says.

Donor gifts make the Student Emergency Fund possible. On Giving Joy Day, which occurred April 3, EWU faculty and staff raised more than $29,500 to help cover immediate student needs. Additional Eastern supporters gave almost $13,000 to the fund that day.

If you are interested in making a difference in students’ lives with a gift to the emergency fund, please visit the Giving to EWU webpage: ewu.edu/give

Suds Studies

A new EWU course will examine craft beer, from grain to glass.

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n a college town, the phrase “craft beer education” suggests a range of undergraduate experiences, none of which are typically related to the official university curriculum. But that’s changing at Eastern, thanks to a new course to be headed by Chris Cindric, a senior lecturer in recreation and leisure services in EWU’s Department of Wellness and Movement Sciences.

With his new “Craft Beer Evaluation and Service” class this fall, Cindric says he will seek to broaden students’ understanding of craft beer, from grain to glass, and its deep connection to agriculture and recreation.

“I’ve always felt like there’s this amazing opportunity to connect recreation with agriculture,” Cindric says.

“Europe does it exceptionally well—there’s biking and hiking that finishes with great food and drink.”

The class will focus on the essentials of craft beer, including its history, styles, origin, qualitative and quantitative characteristics, ingredients, and the brewing process. Beer service, glassware, flavor and evaluation of quality will also be on the menu. Cindric says he wants to ensure his students learn to focus on quality over quantity, local over global, and taste over

(what he describes as) “tasteless.” He says students will have the opportunity learn from local craft brewers, maltsters and growers who are having a profound impact on the local craft beer industry. To enroll, students must be over 21 years of age and, as part of the class, must pass a Mandatory Alcohol Servers Training permit test.

“What’s pretty unique about Spokane right now is that you can have a fully local pint,” Cindric says. “I’ve actually had a beer at Mountain Lakes with the brewer, the maltster and the farmer, who all contributed to that single beer, drinking that beer with me. And that’s pretty powerful!”

Because of the pandemic, Cindric has had to make a few adjustments to his plans for the class. He had originally hoped, for example, to do several field trips to local breweries and grain farms.

“I’m not going to be able to have people visit all of those places, but I will be able to have a class that takes place where I’m at the brewery or we have the brewer, maltster or farmer on as a guest on Zoom,” says Cindric. “We’ll lose a little bit of the personal connection, but the content will still be there.”

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Eastern graduates look down from a billboard at the corner of N. Monroe St. and Boone Ave. in downtown Spokane. EWU reserved the billboard — pre-pandemic — to congratulate graduates and their families as they left the commencement ceremony planned for Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. When graduation went online, the university moved to replace its original message with the smiling faces of recent graduates.

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Erik Budsberg is the head of Eastern’s Office of Sustainability and its Community Garden.

The Lone Gardener

Covid-19 restrictions make ‘community’ gardening a one-man affair.

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s this magazine reported last fall, Erik Budsberg, indefatigable sustainability coordinator at Eastern, has long been committed to building up the EWU Community Garden, a verdant plot of organic goodness located on the southwest corner of campus.

“The goal has always been to grow food to give to the EWU food pantry,” says Budsberg. And for the past several years he’s been doing just that, while also working to educate Eastern students and employees about the benefits of growing their own food.

This spring, Budsberg was busy putting the finishing touches on a garden redesign to help manage weeds and installing new raised-garden beds. He was also helping horticulturally inclined students like Angela Denton, a junior majoring in biology, start what he and the members are calling the Easy Come, Easy Grow Gardening Club.

“I met Erik during a produce giveaway—I was so surprised we even had a garden center,” recalls Denton.

“We were ready to do a lot more in the garden than in the past,” adds Budsberg. “It was really exciting.” Then came COVID-19, and an end to all in-person events, including student club activities.

Thus did Budsberg find himself, once again, managing the garden space alone. He planted seeds in the greenhouse, tended to their growth, and then transplanted the starts into the garden. These days he’s engaged in a mostly one-man battle against weeds, while also staying on top of his additional responsibilities in EWU’s sustainability office and juggling

childcare responsibilities at home.

But the added challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic only strengthened Budsberg’s drive to grow healthy food for the campus community. Rather than waiting until the fall harvest to help stock fresh produce in the EWU Central Food Pantry, Budsberg is doing something new this year: giving away vegetable starts.

In late May and early June, he set up a table at the Central Food Pantry room in Tawanka Hall. It featured tomato, zucchini, squash and pepper plants for students who wanted to grow their own produce. He also helped educate students on how to start a home garden.

Meanwhile, Budsberg and Denton say, the gardening club will go on. For now, their activities are restricted mostly to a bi-weekly Zoom meeting. But they’re hoping, as the state moves through its phases of reopening, that student interns and volunteers will be able to return to the garden later this summer or fall.

Still, whether he’s weeding and reaping alone or with help, Budsberg is confident the harvest from the EWU Community Garden will continue to benefit the EWU Central Food Pantry. He says he and the Easy Come, Easy Grow Gardening Club are on a mission to help curb food insecurity on campus.

“I think it’s extremely important to know how to grow your own food,” says Denton. “Part of our plan is to help students—we want them to see that it’s really not as intimidating as people think.”

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COVID-Free Delivery

Eagles respond to neighbors in need.

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or some of the university community’s most vulnerable, COVID-19 made already difficult situations that much worse. But it didn’t take long for members of the Eagle family to jump into action.

Within days of coronavirus shutdowns, a group of five friends, each with a connection to EWU, quickly organized the West Plains Emergency Response Volunteers group on Facebook.

“We were looking at the situation and knew community would be key,” says co-founder and volunteer Chris Valeo, who is also a professor and director of English studies at Eastern.

The group developed a method to provide assistance, such as grocery delivery, to individuals and families living in the Cheney School District area, though recipients do not need to have children in Cheney schools.

For the organizers, it was important that the service was confidential.

They thus created a system that focused on discretion as well as the health and safety of recipients and volunteers. Here’s how it works: When a community member signals a need for assistance via Facebook, a single administrator messages the individual. That administrator then assigns the delivery of aid to a volunteer, who knows the recipient only by his or her number on a spreadsheet. The volunteers can pick up prescriptions, get groceries or do other shopping.

When it is time to deliver, the quarantined individual or family is asked to place a box or a cooler in a designated location, such as their front porch. The volunteer places the items in the box and alerts the WPEV

administrator, who lets the recipient know that the delivery has landed safely on their front stoop.

Beyond privacy, the procedure also ensures that the volunteers do not touch anything at the home. Quarantined community members are encouraged to wash or disinfect their deliveries before use, while volunteers are asked to wash their hands often and abstain from helping out if they are not feeling well. Organizers of the effort say that coming together as a community is the best way to protect each other as we negotiate through the COVID-19 situation. Valeo says she and other volunteers are also getting their families and children involved.

“I took my son, a senior at Cheney High School, with me to a delivery,” she says. “It’s important to show our kids how we can help.”

Stellar Service

Another ‘Fighting Eagle’ instructor earns top honors.

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or the second year in a row, a faculty member serving with the Eastern Washington University Army ROTC “Fighting Eagles” battalion has received the U.S. Army Cadet Command Instructor of the Year Award.

Maj. Nicholas Carbaugh was selected for the award from among instructors in 274 ROTC units located across the country.

Carbaugh studied finance at Virginia Tech University before coming to Eastern. He is currently assigned to the field artillery branch of the EWU battalion, where he serves as lead instructor for third-year cadets preparing to attend Advanced Camp, a 31-day training event that is designed

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to assess cadets’ proficiency in basic officer leadership tasks.

Carbaugh also represents the Department of Military Science as its representative on EWU’s Academic Senate. As a senator, he is responsible for helping to formulate university policy and developing recommendations to be acted on by the Board of Trustees. Carbaugh also serves as treasurer of his local Montessori School Board.

“Maj. Carbaugh is clearly not only an outstanding instructor, but an important part of the university and the community,” writes Lt. Col. Jonathan Stafford, chair of the ROTC program, in an article on the EWU Army ROTC website.

Carbaugh’s award follows the Non-Commissioned Officer Instructor of the Year Award given to then Sgt. 1st Class Jason Henning in 2019. EWU Army ROTC is the only program in the nation that has won a total of three national Cadet Command awards for excellence in the past two years. Also in 2019, Human Resources Administrator Linda Moody won the award for the Top Cadet Command HRA.

Covering Up, With Gratitude

A student mask-maker boosts critical efforts to contain the coronavirus.

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ven as the coronavirus pandemic has upended business as usual for millions, Nichole Speaks, a senior studying psychology at EWU, went all in on a new enterprise: working to ensure that some of our region’s most vulnerable persons — and the people that care for them — got the face masks they needed to stay safe.

In addition to her studies, Speaks is employed full-time as a member of the management team at an acute medical detox facility in Lynnwood, Washington. It’s a rewarding but challenging job. COVID-19 has exacerbated those challenges, particularly for nursing staff who risked exposure to the virus on a daily basis.

Early on in the crisis, Speaks, a can-do person who in February received Eastern’s 2020 President’s Student Civic Leadership Award, recognized that her facility’s stock of face masks and other PPEs wasn’t going to cut it.

“I was anxious about the fact that my nursing staff would soon be left without proper personal protective equipment, including but not limited to masks,” she says. “I thought there was no better way to help than to provide them with handmade masks. I wanted to do something, and that was the ‘something’ that I could do.”

Speaks figured about 100 cloth masks would do the trick.

Unfortunately, she admits, she’s a far-from-expert seamstress.

“As an inexperienced sewer, I knew that it would take me quite a bit of time to sew 100 masks, so I reached out to my community for assistance,” Speaks says.

Within minutes, community members were volunteering to help. So many reached out, in fact, that Speaks soon realized a more formal way to manage the mask making was required. Thus the Gratitude Masks Facebook page was born.

“The name Gratitude Masks came from the gratitude I felt from the outpouring of support, the gratitude put into the masks as we make them for the heroes who are on the front lines and the gratitude from the recipients who wear them,” she says. “My attempt to reach out for a ‘few helpers’ has turned into well over 200 members.” Those members have since produced thousands of masks.

Speaks says she was so impressed by her community’s response—and the scale of ongoing need—that she thought her experience might be useful at the regional level.

After connecting with the founder of stopthebug.org, a larger effort to provide PPEs for first responders, health-care professionals and others who need them, Speaks became the lead in the organization’s mask division. “Our masks are not only being delivered to local hospitals, EMS, local police, fire departments [and] other front-line heroes, we are also setting a standard for the rest of the country to follow, and they are coming to our group for assistance,” she says.

Nichole Speaks

A mask in the making. Photos courtesy of Nichole Speaks.

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Stone Sliders

In February, EWU hosted the USA National Curling Championships.

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ack in February, just weeks before the coronavirus upended athletic competitions across the globe, the EWU Recreation Center for the first time played host to the USA Curling National Championships. The weeklong competition featured the nation’s top men’s and women’s curling sides, each vying for a spot on Team USA and a berth in the World Curling Championships.

Michael Roos ’05 of EWU football fame, helped kick off the tournament on Saturday, Feb. 8. Roos ceremoniously started the USA Curling National Championships by sliding the opening “stone,” the smooth-granite orbs that players shepherd down the icy ally, toward the “house,” the 12-foot, circular scoring zone.

Though he is most well-known for his football career — Eagle’s All-American, Tennessee Titan All Pro, namesake of EWU’s Roos Field — Roos has more recently teamed up with some of his retired NFL buddies to compete in curling, though, sadly, his team did not qualify for the national championship tournament.

This event took months to plan, much of it coming together in the final weeks. And though curling is a novelty for many sports fans in the region,

Michael Roos at the USA Curling National Championships in February.

crowds were big and enthusiastic, especially for the championship weekend.

Eric Sawyer, president and CEO of the Spokane Sports Commission, told the The Spokesman-Review that the event represented an opportunity to both partner with USA Curling and grow the sport in the region.

“We hope [this championship] is going to be the first of many” in the Spokane area, Sawyer said.

Hail to the Victors

Men’s Basketball honored for its 2020 Big Sky Conference title.

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n May, the Spokane County Board of Commissioners recognized the Eastern men’s basketball team in a proclamation made during a remotely-held meeting. The citation recognized EWU for winning the Big Sky Conference outright championship, honored Mason Peatling

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for his conference MVP win, and gave a shout-out to Peatling, Jacob Davison and Kim Aiken, Jr. for their selections to the All-Big Sky team.

The Big Sky Conference title was the fourth in school history, but was ultimately bittersweet. The coronavirus pandemic ended the team’s hopes of traveling to Boise, Idaho, for the Big Sky Tournament, where a win would have sealed the team’s third NCAA Tournament berth. “ We handled business and put ourselves in a position to play in the NCAA Tournament,” says head coach Shantay Legans, the Big Sky Coach of the Year who in June was named one of the “Top 40 Coaches Under 40”

by ESPN. “We felt good every time we stepped on the court, and worked hard to get there.”

Seeing Red

A generous gift restores historic Roos Field to its inferno-like luster.

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n an appropriately sweltering July day, crews at The Inferno began installing the second generation of Roos Field’s iconic red turf. The project was slated to be completed well in advance of Eastern’s home football opener against Western Illinois on Sept. 12, a game that was canceled due to the pandemic.

The upgrade came after the original red turf reached its maximum lifespan of ten years. A portion of a generous $5 million pledge to EWU’s $25 million Stadium Renovation Project made installation of the new playing surface possible.

“The new turf, that beautiful red carpet, is being put down!” tweeted Eastern Athletic Director Lynn Hickey. “It is a very bright red — looks INCREDIBLE!!”

In addition to its fresh turf, the field also boasts a new end-zone look, one created by Eastern magazine’s own Ryan Gaard ’02. Gaard’s design was selected after EWU hosted a five-day, online-only vote that allowed fans to trade a cash contribution for a chance to pick their favorite configuration from among four gridiron options—all red, of course. The “Your $, Your Vote” online contest didn’t just help Eastern settle on a new-look field, it also raised more than $9,000 for student-athlete scholarships.

The retired red turf, meanwhile, still had one more role to play in supporting Eastern Athletics — sections of the old carpet, in sizes ranging from “doormat” to “tailgate,” were sold to fans looking to own their own little piece of Inferno history. Proceeds from the online sale, more than $100,000, will also go to support athletic scholarships.

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Health Her es EASTERN GRADUATES ARE AT THE HEART OF SPOKANE’S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

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t is not glamorous work. The days are long, often exhausting: there are phone calls, data analyses, site visits, isolation interventions, testing, more testing, and messaging that urges, sometimes pleads, with residents to “wash your hands, maintain social distance, wear masks, stay home when you’re ill.” Their labors are mostly behind the scenes, thankless.

When the workday ends, no one hangs out of apartment windows cheering their efforts.

But make no mistake, the local public health professionals who perform these tasks — those crucial foot soldiers in the battle to beat back the most deadly viral pandemic in a century — are heroes just the same.

Their work has already saved dozens, if not hundreds of lives here in the

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Inland Northwest. In the coming months they will almost certainly save many more.

At the Spokane Regional Health District, the agency at the center of Spokane County’s full court press against COVID-19, graduates from Eastern Washington University are prominent among those keeping us safe. Eastern magazine spoke with several Eagle alumni to learn how they’ve contributed — and how they’re coping — during this time of unprecedented threat to our health and wellbeing.

Kira Lewis

One of the newest Eagles at the health district is Kira Lewis ’20, a public health nurse who balanced her lengthy work days with study for Eastern’s Master of Public Health program. Lewis was just a quarter away from graduation when the pandemic hit, but managed to complete her classes anyway. She says she was so busy that she barely registered the fact that Eastern’s semester graduation ceremony, scheduled early May, had been suspended due to the virus.

“The last bit of school happened amid very long work weeks and the craziness of Covid,” says Lewis, who completed her MPH while working as a public health nurse at the health district. “Finishing this semester was rough. Many of my coworkers knew that I was aching for the end, so they threw me a little surprise graduation event at work.”

Seldom has a party been more deserved. Lewis is among a handful of public health nurses who work directly with some of Spokane County’s most vulnerable people — the poor, the homeless, the drug and alcohol dependent, and others on society’s margins.

Keeping these populations healthy is never easy, but Covid ratcheted up

Cassie Prather

the challenge. As the pandemic began its rampage across the region there I feel so incredibly were real concerns that individuals in these groups — many of whom lucky to be a part of suffer from a range of chronic health such a supportive conditions — would be devastated by and hard-working the illness. That this hasn’t happened is a testament to the dedication and team, even on the courage of professionals such as worst days… We Lewis.

“I have been, and will continue to must constantly be around people with COVID-19,” adapt, sometimes by she says. “But I use PPE and follow the hour, to keep up the established protocols and process that keep me and the people I’m with all things Covid. helping as safe as possible. This is part of being a nurse.”

When Cassie Prather ’17, ’19 first arrived at EWU, she thought she wanted to be a nurse, too. But soon the life-long Spokane resident shifted gears into health policy and later, as a graduate student, into the field that now defines her working life: epidemiology.

“I took an epidemiology class my senior year at EWU, and instantly knew that is what I wanted to do,” Prather says, pointing to Anna Tresidder, former program director of Eastern’s MPH program, and Pamela Kohlmeier, a physician and public health lecturer at EWU, as being particularly influential.

Prather joined the health district just as the pandemic was taking hold, and immediately became a key part of the agency’s all-hands-on-deck COVID-19 response. As one of five permanent epidemiologists, she is on the front lines of the battle.

The detective-like work of epidemiologists involves identifying people who have been infected with the virus, their close contacts, and others who may be at risk. For Prather, her job also includes controlling the virus’

Katie Booher

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in to take on much of the STD reporting burden, while at the same time drawing up plans to adapt the needle exchange to post-Covid realties — including supply chain interruptions that created serious shortages of sanitizing gear.

“I created a plan for our Syringe Services Program in response to the Health District and CDC guidelines,” she says. “This included creating distance in a very small service area, scheduling volunteers and staff for temperature taking, and enforcing mask wearing with clients, when applicable.” She also streamlined the normal syringe-service process to get clients in and out more quickly. What used to take as long as 10 minutes, she says, now can be done in as little as one minute.

And, after months of shortages and uncertainty, the program now is again receiving the supplies it needs to keep clients safe.

Through it all, Booher says she has remained confident that she and her colleagues will remain on Summer Rose top of things. She admits, however, that she sometimes wishes the wider world were just a bit more appreciative. spread in locations that are especially vulnerable, “Public health rocks,” she says. “We are trained to places such as long-term health facilities, group expect the unexpected, and boy did we have to embrace houses and factories. that. Public health is so versatile and important in our So far, she says, it has been an exhausting everyday lives, so it is sad to say that it took a virus of We are trained to expect but rewarding experience. “I feel so incredibly this magnitude to highlight the incredible work of public the unexpected, and boy lucky to be a part of such a supportive and health employees.” hard-working team, even on the worst days, Expecting the unexpected is all in a day’s work did we have to embrace she says. “I think what makes me the proudest for the health district’s Summer Rose ’13, ’18, an that. Public health is so is the team’s ability to navigate ever-changing emergency-preparedness planner. Rose, who earned both versatile and important systems and policies. We must constantly adapt, a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a master’s sometimes by the hour, to keep up with all things degree in public health from EWU, says she first heard in our everyday lives, Covid.” about the outbreak of a novel coronavirus just before so it is sad to say that Katie Booher ’14, ’16 also earned both Christmas. bachelor’s and master’s degrees from EWU. Her “I remember getting the CDC notification on it took a virus of this master’s degree in public health, with its focus on Dec. 21,” Rose says. “Receiving those notifications is magnitude to highlight disease prevention, ensured that, like Lewis, she nothing unusual for those of us who work in disease the incredible work of too was well placed to help some of our region’s prevention and response, but I remember that particular most vulnerable. one because it mentioned the marketplace in Huang public health employees.

Before the pandemic she led the health Province, which reminded me of the last scene in the district’s effort to limit the spread of HIV and movie ‘Contagion.’” other sexually transmitted diseases, with a focus Rose says she wasn’t seriously thinking the outbreak on coordinating disease-prevention activities at would result in anything resembling a Hollywood the Syringe Services Program — a walk-in facility more colloquially known thriller. Yet it wasn’t long before she realized that the virus would not be as the “needle exchange.” contained in China, and that the whole world had better get ready. “By the “Because of the pandemic,” Booher says, “a lot of our staff was pulled time we all returned to work after the holidays, it was already becoming to work on case investigation and other tasks related to COVID-19. This clear that we needed to prepare,” she says. left a lot of daily tasks with little to no staff.”

When COVID-19 arrived on our shores, Rose was serving as the The pandemic, of course, did not end the transmission of STDs, nor planning section chief on the health district’s Incident Management the need to alert those who may have been exposed. So Booher stepped Team, the group charged with responding to serious public health threats.

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Tiffany Turner

She also served as the health districts point person for the joint Emergency Operations Center — the multi-agency group that helps the city and county deal with disasters.

“As our team at the health district joined with the city and the county at the Emergency Operations Center, it quickly became very clear that we would need more manpower in key incident management positions,” she says. “We pulled staff from all over the health district. I was amazed and impressed with how our staff preformed and collaborated with our partners in a very high pressure, high-stress environment.”

“Our staff members that went to the EOC with me were extraordinary,” she adds. “We were working with politicians, city workers, emergency management, fire, police, military, the department of corrections, local non-profits, community organizations, and others. They stepped into the emergency response world — not an easy thing to do — and they proved to be these amazing partners, leaders and collaborators.”

Rose is currently spending most of her time ensuring that the health district’s isolation site — a place where Covid-positive patients without the means to self-isolate can convalesce — has everything it needs to safely quarantine patients. She says work at the isolation site, like her planning efforts, have reinforced the encouragement she received from mentors at Eastern who said a career in public health, though sometimes underappreciated, makes a real difference.

“There are days, times in all of our lives, that we will always remember: where we were, what we did, how we felt,” Rose says. “As challenging and physically exhausting as the last six months have been — and the next six months likely will be — I have been humbled and honored to have seen the things I have seen: the creativity people have shown; the collaborations between groups who are rarely called upon to work together; the kindness of people, even when they know they will not get any recognition for it.”

As Rose’s experience shows, a successful campaign against a threat on the level of COVID-19 can only succeed when everyone knows their role and feels empowered to accomplish it. For close to 20 years, the health district’s Tiffany Turner ’96, an EWU community health graduate, has been leading efforts to ensure that we were prepared for the worst.

Serving as the program manager for SRHD’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Program, she’d planned, modeled and table-topped pretty much every potential catastrophe under the sun. And the cataclysm came.

“We spent a lot of time developing plans, training and practicing to respond to various hazards,” Turner says. “Now it was show time!”

During the pandemic she was named the health district’s liaison officer at the county Emergency Operations Center, where, like Rose, she works with local, regional, state, and federal partners to coordinate efforts and share information. Years of developing relationships with such groups was crucial to Spokane’s successful Covid crisis response.

“I’m extremely proud of how our agency staff willingly stepped up to take on new roles and responsibilities, and how our community partners offered to assist public health in whatever capacity they could,” Turner says.

“Although each program and agency have their own plans and processes, we came together as one to take care of our community.”

Since the pandemic began, experts have pointed to widespread community testing as the key to containing it. Only by knowing who has the disease, in other words, can public health professionals effectively quarantine the ill and isolate their virus-exposed close contacts.

For Kari Lidbeck ’93, a life-long resident of Spokane who graduated from Eastern with a degree in community health education, helping out with testing came naturally.

In the years following her graduation, she built a career working in

Kari Lidbeck

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looking at offering curbside vaccinations to reduce barriers for parents — we will definitely be ramping up efforts to vaccinate against influenza this season.”

Those concerns aside, Lidbeck, like the rest of her colleagues, has been gratified that so many have joined together to accomplish so much. “I have been pleasantly surprised at the ability for disparate groups of people to come together for a common purpose, to get ‘stuff done,’” she says.

Elena Mierau ’09, is a die-hard Eagles fan who met her husband at EWU and never misses a home football game. For her, getting stuff done meant an abrupt shift in her working life.

Mierau, with a bachelor’s degree in community health from Eastern and a master’s degree in public health from Des Moines University, coordinates active transportation programs for the health district, chiefly two programs that encourage Spokane residents to make their commute more “active.”

The Walking School Bus supports and accompanies elementary school students on their safe walk to school, and Walk Bike Bus supports adults in walking, biking and busing in their community.

When the schools closed, Mierau shifted to COVID-19 response.

Because she had previously worked with the Regional Emergency and Elena Mierau Disaster Healthcare Coalition, or REDi, she returned there to support member hospitals looking to better communicate their ongoing capacity health administration, compliance, quality improvement and electronic needs. After a few weeks, she found herself moving to the coalition’s medical records; experiences that led her, pre-pandemic, to a job with operations center, helping to get coronavirus patients to other facilities the health district’s Immunization Assessment & Promotion Program. when maxed-out hospitals could no longer care for them.

That position, Lidbeck says, was focused on helping to move the dial on “When COVID-19 began to ramp up,” she recalls, “it was all hands immunization rates for children under the age of on deck. Many people were put far outside of their 6, including setting up mobile vaccination clinics. comfort zones and started new jobs that they had When the pandemic hit and the desperate rush to test never intended to work in. Other staff began working began, she was uniquely positioned to help. seven days a week, lots of overtime, with very little If — or when — a vaccine “Once we were in the COVID-19 emergency rest. Everyone laid aside their needs to support the response, my role was to supervise task forces community.” is developed, we know responsible for setting up community testing sites,” We will need to maintain that community spirit, that it will be met with she says, along with the isolation facility and an she adds, even after we eventually get a handle on alternate-care facility for those with the illness. “As hesitation by many. the pandemic. of today,” she says, “I am still the lead on community “Of course cases need to decrease so we can get testing.” children back to school, and businesses can feel In that role, Lidbeck has been instrumental in comfortable reopening,” Mierau says. “But after the again moving the dial, this time toward containing disease is under control, our long-term battle must the virus. “We have made it possible for thousands of people to get tested involve raising awareness [about] social factors that influence health. This for COVID-19,” she says. disease is disproportionately effecting people of color. We need to create But testing, she adds, is not enough: Communication is critical. Just as an equitable society were all people have the opportunity to live in safe some, out of ignorance or fear, resist vaccinating their children, so do we housing, have access to healthy food, exercise and clean air.” face a limited but potentially damaging backlash against a science-based Protecting and promoting the health of diverse populations is a key approach to combatting the pandemic. part of what Jackie Post ’06 does every day. Post earned a bachelor’s “Some people think that a vaccine is the answer,” Lidbeck says. “But degree from Eastern with a double major in both visual and technical if — or when — a vaccine is developed, we know that it will be met with communications. She says that after her graduation she was determined hesitation by many. I also hear from people that they do not trust the not to limit herself to any particular field or discipline, but did hope to messaging that is coming from the Department of Health and other one day write about science and health-related topics. government agencies.”

That ambition was fulfilled when she joined the health district as a There has also been Covid-related fallout for routine childhood health communications specialist two years ago. Health communications vaccinations, she adds. “We are currently seeing a huge decline in is defined by the CDC as creating solutions that “deliver health information vaccination rates for children because of the shutdown. My program is and interventions using customer-centered and science-based strategies.”

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Jackie Post

Seldom has such work been so important. “Since the pandemic,” Post says, “my day-to-day tasks have focused almost exclusively on communications related to COVID-19.”

In public health, she adds, it’s common to shift gears to accommodate the particulars of a response. One month, for example, she might need to ramp up efforts to address poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke. The next month, it might be an emerging health issue such as the recent spate of vaping-related lung illnesses.

“However, the all-consuming nature of the pandemic response has been unique,” Post says. “Every communications project now must take COVID-19 into consideration, regardless of the topic.”

Among the most high-profile of these projects for Post has been her work with the health district’s “case information and data visualization page,” a critical resource for policy makers, health-care workers and journalists who need constantly updated information on the crisis.

“There are a lot of components that go into reporting COVID-19 case data, and it requires collaboration,” she says. “Taking part in that, working with our talented staff, and gaining a better appreciation for the statewide case-reporting process has been fascinating.”

Post says the work has cast into stark relief the critical role public health plays in society, and that no era is immune to unexpected challenges. Her initial training at the health district, she recalls, included a history section with the 1918 influenza pandemic as a major topic. “I remember wondering what it would have been like to live through,” she says. “Now, we all have a better understanding of what it might have been like.”

A big advantage today’s public-health pros have over their 1918 counterparts is access to vast troves of data — information that allows them to better target responses, allocate resources and anticipate problems.

Hannah Cylkowski ’15 is in the business of managing all of that information. At Eastern, she studied health services administration and

health science, where, she recalls, German Izon, an associate professor of economics, had a big impact. “He taught me there was no easy way, you have to learn to grow, and to believe in myself,” Cylkowski says. “He also helped me change my narrative about ‘being bad at math,’ and that had a lasting impact.”

Prior to the pandemic, she deployed her math skills as the REDi Healthcare Coalition information management coordinator for 19 counties and four tribes in Eastern Washington. Much of that coordination happened via WATrac; an online communication system used by health care agencies to coordinate activities and prepare for emergency events.

WATrac is still a fundamental part of COVID-19 response, Cylkowski says, and since the pandemic’s onset she has taken on the role of operations section chief for the healthcare coalition’s response.

Such efforts, along with the community partners that have worked to tamp down transmission and treat those infected, have thus far kept the region from lapsing into a New York-style capacity crisis. But she’s not getting complacent.

“We’ll see challenges in staffing both from the public health side and in the healthcare setting,” Cylkowski says, adding that the risk of burnout among everyone involved in the response is also a real threat. “Public health employees are under a lot of stress, as are emergency management professionals and healthcare professionals,” she says. “In many ways, public health is a difficult career path. When public health is working, no one knows. When public health is failing— or there is a serious threat to public health — everyone knows.”

Cylkowski then offers up her own strategy for coping. It’s advice we might all profit from.

“It’s about taking stock of what we have now,” she says. “I bought a stand-up paddleboard during the middle of April as a “pandemic purchase.”

It’s been a tangible, symbolic reminder of riding the waves of the response, and that the only constant is change. It’s helped me make peace with the current situation, and continue on with a positive outlook.”

Hannah Cylkowski

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A LY S T TRANSFORMATIVE Story by Leilah Langley Photos by Chris Thompson

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nnovators can see a future where others see only blight. When they look across an industrialized riverscape, over scrubby railroad tracks to the “wrong” side of town, they see opportunity. The innovators who sparked the South Landing Project in Spokane’s East Sprague neighborhood are leading a powerful transformation. Not only will the new Catalyst they’ve championed help change the way the world constructs buildings, it will alter for the better the way students learn and companies do business — a revolution that Eastern Washington University will be right in the middle of.

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he South Landing Project started in 2004 with a bridge — a pedestrian overpass designed to connect the downtown Spokane core, the University District and the medical complexes along the Lower South Hill. Bringing these areas together, the thinking went, was key to encouraging their economic advancement, especially in the burgeoning health science and technology industries.

Fifteen years after its conception, the University District Gateway Bridge opened to foot and bicycle traffic, immediately becoming a new landmark on the Spokane skyline. A 120-foot tall concrete arch seemed to call, “This way to the future.” But the future on the other side of the railroad tracks wasn’t immediately clear to the community.

For decades, East Sprague had been an underserved neighborhood often associated with street crime and prostitution.

“When the University District Bridge was funded, it was really exciting, but all of the sudden folks said, ‘What’s going to go on the south side?’” recalls Latisha Hill, vice president of community and economic vitality for Avista. The utility owns the land on the south side of the Gateway Bridge. It was Avista chairman, and CEO at the time, Scott Morris who had the vision to create what he called the “five smartest blocks in the world” there, Hill says.

“We had not only an opportunity, but an obligation to create something that could be really special and long lasting for the next phase of the University District and its connection with health care, business, industry and innovation.”

With this vision in mind, Avista purchased several parcels of land, then partnered with some of the brightest construction minds in the nation to develop them. The goal, ultimately, was to give East Sprague a new identity as a leader in energy innovation, environmentally conscious construction and sustainability.

The heart of the South Landing Project is its ecologically friendly building footprint, a shared space where super-efficient “shared energy” fuels multiple structures.

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SUSTAINABLE BUILDING, GLOBAL BENEFIT Job one for utilities is delivering safe, reliable energy to their customers.

Typically, once that energy is delivered to a home or business, the utility's responsibility ends.

At the same time, building owners have traditionally focused only on maximizing the operating efficiency of their facilities. They may try to be more sustainable by, for instance, installing energy efficient systems to reduce usage.

But they don’t usually think about when they’re using energy.

For utilities, on the other hand, timing is critical — if everyone needs energy at the same time, then the utility needs to build sufficient infrastructure to meet that peak demand.

“If we can shift when people use energy, we can better utilize the existing grid, and delay costly construction of the next substation to meet energy demand, which ultimately makes energy more affordable for everyone,” says Heather Rosentrater, senior vice president of energy delivery for Avista. “What we learn about working together to enhance sustainability and affordability can then be applied to how we operate our entire system.”

And of course, she adds, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing sustainability creates a global benefit we all share.

“Most buildings are constructed one at Eco District as a living laboratory where a time, each with a dedicated heating and the utility will research and test additional cooling system and their own grid connection,” sharable, sustainable and affordable energy says Heather Rosentrater, Avista’s senior vice solutions to benefit all of its customers—and president of energy delivery. “But Avista and hopefully drive change for the entire industry. our South Landing partner McKinstry are The Eco District is only part of the testing a new shared energy model called an equation. Next, Avista’s partner McKinstry Eco District—a centralized heating, cooling needed an anchor building for South Landing and electrical system that reliably, sustainably that would meet the highest energy standards. and affordably serves the energy needs of a “The world is changing rapidly, or if it isn’t, group of buildings.” it needs to change quicker in terms of energy,” The guts of the Eco District reside within says John Lang, director of design services for the Scott Morris Center for Energy Innovation, McKinstry. “We’re all about saving energy, the first building constructed at the South that’s the bottom line here.”

Landing site. Inside, you can see a network of heat cKinstry is pumps, boilers and chillers a national that supply the heating and leader in cooling. Solar panels line designing and operating By actively much of the roof space high-performing managing energy, of the Morris Center (as buildings. The Seattlethey do the neighboring based company has in we can maximize Catalyst building), while recent years put down the efficiency of thermal and electrical roots in the Inland storage units ensure that the building and its Northwest, operating energy to the complex can multiple facilities in the operations—along be both generated and Spokane area. with when and stored.

Avista recruited local Instead of operating in timber industry leader, how to best utilize Katerra, to work with silos, explains Rosentrater, the grid—all while the Catalyst and Morris McKinstry to design and Center structures have keeping occupants build the Catalyst building been designed to “talk” — a 150,000-square-foot, comfortable.

It’s to each other. Thousands five-story building — using of sensors track ambient wood. Katerra operates a a win-win-win. conditions, air quality, mass timber production occupancy and other line in Spokane Valley attributes. All of this where it produces a hightechnology allows building quality building material operators to actively manage energy loads and called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, and balance on-site energy demand, generation houses one of the largest presses for creating and storage in real-time, which reduces the CLT in the world. impact on the city’s power grid.

Katerra design partner, Michael Green “By actively managing energy, we can Architecture, based in Vancouver, British maximize the efficiency of the building and Columbia, designed the building. The firm its operations—along with when and how has been leading the global conversation on to best utilize the grid—all while keeping timber construction for more than 20 years, occupants comfortable,” Rosentrater says. “It’s and built the first “tall wood” building in a win-win-win.”

North America, a seven-story office building Avista will also utilize the South Landing in Minneapolis.

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CLOUD COVER Look to the ceiling inside the Catalyst building and you’ll find another first: McKinstry’s initial installation of their innovative new ceiling appliance units called “Clouds.”

“CLT buildings are absolutely gorgeous. You see all that exposed wood and you don’t want to have it cluttered up with what we do for a living, which is the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and data cables,” says John Lang, McKinstry director of design services. “To ensure that the designers could showcase the building itself, we needed a better way to organize our trades.”

From a neatly organized patchwork of utility components in the ceiling, McKinstry installed Cloud units in each room. The white, square panels deliver heating and cooling, lighting, audio speakers, fire alarms and more.

The Clouds are even made from sound absorptive material to provide better acoustics. McKinstry subsidiary Overcast Innovations prefabricates the Cloud units in the factory, then ships them to the construction site for quick installation.

Principal architect Michael Green calls cross-laminated timber the “grand daddy” of mass-timber products. “They’re taking a piece of wood, which is already very strong, and they’re gluing it together in a way that makes it even stronger,” he says.

The cross-laminating process involves lining up rows of small-gauge wood, like 2x4s, and gluing the rows on top of one another, alternating each row by 90 degrees.

The finished panels can be three, five or seven layers thick. “It’s kind of like a big, thick sandwich of these boards that are cross laminated by rotating every layer,” Green says.

The strength of the material is crucial for building a structure the size of the Catalyst, and of course wood is a renewable resource.

But there is an even more important reason to build with wood: It is the only material that stores carbon rather than emits it. According to Green, buildings in the United States represent about 47 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than cars. All transportation, in fact, accounts for only 27 percent of such emissions, he says.

“Wood buildings do the opposite. As a tree

grows, it’s giving us oxygen while soaking up the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When you cut down the tree and put it into a building, it’s basically storing the carbon dioxide in the building for the life of the building,” Green explains. “That means instead of emitting greenhouse gasses, we’re actually creating a place where we can store greenhouse gasses.”

Green is also a proponent of wood construction due to its positive impact on human stress. According to industry research, when we can see nature or are surrounded by natural products, stress levels go down.

We learn more quickly and work more productively. Thus the Catalyst was designed to showcase as much CLT as possible.

The same consideration was given to the design of the Catalyst’s windows. “We spent a lot of time doing day lighting studies in this building, and I think the quality of light surpassed what I was expecting. It’s just absolutely wonderful,” says Lang.

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windows throughout the building was deliberately planned at a that [structures like this] can be done in a cost-effective way, and 60-percent-solid to 40-percent-window ratio to balance the amount hopefully be part of the change we need to make buildings far more of heat-generating daylight with the need for more highly insulated energy effective than they are today.” solid walls.

The exterior is constructed with a building bursting with this high-performance terracotta material, much innovation deserves to be which is an excellent insulator and filled with the brightest minds has a natural texture which breaks up in the region. Some 1,000 EWU students The company that sound—thus helping minimize the noisy will proudly occupy about 70 percent train traffic rumbling by. The exterior of the Catalyst building, which was tested Catalyst for air and windows are also air tight, which purposely designed to allow Eastern to keeps the interior heating and cooling lead a transformation in the way it and tightness said it was the costs down. other universities collaborate with their tightest building they’ve “The company that tested Catalyst communities. for air tightness said it was the tightest “We tried to create a dynamic number ever tested in North building they’ve ever tested in North of spaces that hopefully will bring people America. That made America. That made us very happy,” says together,” says Green. “A building and [its] Lang. architecture aren’t important until it fills us very happy.

“This building is going to be one of up with people who make it special and who the top performing energy buildings in bring the warmth and joy and community the nation, certainly for its size,” adds to the building.”

Green. “It’s going to show other builders Eastern, already an important economic driver for the region, is committed to pushing the creative and high-tech vitality of the Inland Northwest forward. Expanding into the Catalyst space will allow some of the university’s most successful programs to better position themselves to work alongside businesses and industry.

“Having the opportunity to be housed right in downtown Spokane is going to present an incredible opportunity for faculty and students to apply their learning directly to real world problems with real working engineers, designers and computer scientists,” says David Bowman, dean of EWU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. “It’s going to be the epitome of hands-on learning for our students, and hands-on research and scholarly activities for our faculty.”

The College of STEM is relocating three programs to the Catalyst: computer science, electrical engineering, and design.

The programs were specifically chosen because of their relationship to the tech and business industries. STEM also is planning to create a new program, computer engineering, which will be housed in Catalyst. Additionally, the College of

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ZERO ENERGY, ZERO CARBON

Business, along with some College of Health Science and Public Health programs, will relocate from the north side of the University District to the Catalyst. EWU’s Creative Writing MFA program will also be based there.

“The whole idea behind Catalyst — the reason it’s called Catalyst — is that the entire project should stimulate reactions among our faculty and our students and businesses. Bringing more programs together is just going to allow us to make the reaction event bigger,” says Bowman.

“It is such a wonderfully warm, beautiful and comfortable environment. I think it’s a game changer for our faculty and for our students.”

Eastern’s involvement in Catalyst was made possible, in part, thanks to a $5 million gift from the Avista Foundation and the McKinstry Charitable Foundation—a public-private partnership that will serve the community for generations to come. Working together, these

agencies have helped raised the bar for future development, and brought higher education closer to the regional businesses and industries it serves.

Another plus is that EWU is now leading the expansion of Spokane’s University District, a move which will allow students and faculty to help the East Sprague neighborhood emerge as a tech and energy center for Spokane. “ W h a t’s r e a l l y a m a z i n g a b o u t o u r community is that we always punch above our weight,” says Avista’s Latisha Hill. “We create grand visions, and then we are often taken aback when we actually achieve them. I think the South Landing is a reflection of that.”

— You can make an impact on EWU’s future in the Catalyst. To find out how, visit ewu.edu/ catalyst. Interested in naming rights? Contact Lisa Poplawski Lewis at (509) 844-5915.

McKinstry aims to have the Catalyst building be zero energy and zero carbon certified by the International Living Futures Institute. Once completed, Catalyst would become the largest building of its type in the country to be certified as such.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? A zero-energy building produces enough renewable energy to meet its own annual energy consumption requirements, thus reducing the use of nonrenewable energy in the building sector, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Zero carbon occurs when the amount of carbon dioxide emissions released on an annual basis is zero or negative. The World Green Building Council defines a zero-carbon building as a highly energyefficient building that is fully powered from on-site and/or off-site renewable energy sources and offsets.

On the Colville Reservation, deadly car crashes have become a tragic fact of life. EWU faculty and students are determined to change that.

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o drive along one stretch of the Coulee Corridor, a national scenic byway, is to experience North Central Washington in all its glory. The majestic Columbia River is never far away. Mountains stack up in layers against a distant horizon. At every turn, motorists are greeted by endless acres of stunning landscape sprawling in every direction: sagebrush and native grasses bowing low before the wind, jagged rock formations shooting up to expansive blue skies, green pines and firs holding fast to golden hills.

But this striking landscape creates somewhat of a deceptive beauty, one that masks a terrible reality of navigating this breathtaking expanse of State Route 155 on the Colville Reservation.

The two-lane highway has long been among the state’s most deadly; few who have grown up navigating this treacherous path are free of the weight of its tragic memories.

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Like many other reservations nationwide, the remote roads crisscrossing the Colville Tribe’s land are fraught with hazards: blind corners, narrow shoulders and dangerous passages. Not surprisingly, traffic fatality rates on these roads, as compared to other state highways, are high. Over the years, too many wooden crosses have become fixtures along these routes, too many lonely memorials built to commemorate a friend or loved one lost.

“We are almost five times more likely to die in a car fatality than the national average,” says Adam Amundson ’16, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Having grown up in Omak and Nespelem, Amundson knows the lay of the land as well as anyone. Yet he was almost one of those statistics.

In 1996, a tired Amundson had just completed a

Photo by Chris Thompson.

We are almost five times more likely to die in a car fatality than the national average.

Colville Tribe language elder Elaine Emerson.

16-hour shift at Colville Indian Precision Pine, a since-shuttered sawmill operated by the tribe. He hopped in the passenger seat of his Chevy Chevelle as a friend drove them home on a county road near Okanogan.

They didn’t make it. Amundson doesn’t recall many details of the onevehicle crash, only that he woke up after two weeks in a coma unable to walk, talk or think straight. It would take him six months to relearn to walk on his own.

Amundson says crashes like his seemed like an everyday occurrence on the reservation. But his own near-death experience left him with a determination to change that narrative.

“When you have a fatality within a tribal community, they are so small there is a ripple effect,” says Amundson. “It has an impact on the whole community. If there is any way I can reduce fatalities it is worthwhile.”

That path for Amundson led to Eastern in 2015, where he majored in urban and regional planning after earning an associate’s degree at Wenatchee Valley College. He quickly immersed himself in the department’s many programs and initiatives aimed at assisting tribes on transportation issues, with a specific eye toward exploring Route 155 safety issues on the reservation.

“We’ve had so much tragedy and heartache in Indian Country, that we don’t necessarily specifically identify traffic safety as something we can do something about,” says Margo Hill, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at EWU. How much tragedy? The Washington State Traffic Safety Commission says 257 American Indians and Alaskan Natives, abbreviated as AIAN, died in traffic crashes from 2008-2017 on reservation roads. This put the AIAN traffic fatality rate at 28.5 per 100,000 people — the highest rate in the state for any ethnicity. According to the safety commission, there were 1,946 crashes on or within five miles of the Colville Reservation between 2010 - 2014; of those 34 were fatal. Seventy more were reported as resulting in serious injuries.

Sadly, there have been times the tribe has experienced more than

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20 fatalities on its roadways in just one year. With only 9,500 enrolled tribal members, such numbers are particularly devastating.

Hill knew EWU could help address these traffic issues by having expert faculty guide students through hands-on service-learning projects. As a Spokane tribal member and Colville descendent, Hill has longtime connections to area tribes and a deep understanding of the challenges they face. Her success in securing grants to fund some of these initiatives only boosted those efforts.

Working within the culture of telling stories to educate tribal members, Hill knew that telling this particular story would require more data. But there was one lingering roadblock. As sovereign nations, American Indian reservations are not required to submit vehicle crash data. Only in the last decade has that data been available, and it’s been sparse at best.

Thus, began a collaborative, and successful, project between Eastern, the Colville Tribe and the state traffic safety commission to drastically reduce vehicle fatalities on reservation roadways.

“The tribe was determined to reduce fatalities,” says Hill. “They were eager to work with the traffic safety commission and EWU to identify problems and create a culture of traffic safety.”

It’s been a long road, to say the least. Transportation planning and engineering can be a bureaucratic maze in any community. Reservations nationwide include a mix of tribal, local and state government interests — along with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs — all of which create jurisdictional complexities with law enforcement, emergency medical services, crash reporting, road maintenance and capital safety projects.

Thanks to a grant from the traffic safety commission, the Colville Tribe was able to navigate these complexities by hiring a traffic safety coordinator to track crash and fatality data — something not done before. The coordinator worked with a team of students and staff from EWU, traveling to each district on the reservation to conduct surveys, workshops, and focus groups with tribal members and leaders.

Data Source: Adam Amundson. Infographic by Ginny Baxter.

An illustration from Tribal Traffic Safety: A New Coyote Story, drawn by Colville Tribe artist Emma Noyes, depicts the harsh aftermath of crashes.

Their research also identified attitudes on seat belt usage, drinking while driving, poly-druguse, and distracted driving (mostly texting) within the reservation boundaries.

The Colville Traffic Safety Project, which included EWU graduate students earning their Executive Tribal Planning Certificate, produced remarkable results for the Colville Confederated Tribes – authorities say traffic fatalities dropped from 28 in 2018, to only two in 2019.

“My eyes welled up because it felt good to know that families weren’t losing loved ones on the road,” says Kylee Jones ‘18, who worked on the safety plan as part of her senior capstone. “We literally do work that helps save lives here at EWU,” adds Hill.

The drastic reduction in fatalities happened because multiple layers of agencies, along with eager students, committed

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themselves to making a difference.

Hill says the EWU team, for instance, spent a week in Inchelium conducting workshops to educate youth on traffic safety. “The youth identified issues they thought were contributing to vehicle crashes and fatalities such as drinking and driving,” says Hill. “EWU students conducted a scripting workshop with the teenagers, a key demographic for this project, who ended up producing a series of public service announcements incorporating interviews with first responders.”

All the information gathered, including GPS data collected at crash sites by the traffic safety coordinator, assisted the Colville Tribe’s Department of Transportation in implementing proven safety measures — such as obtaining additional guardrails in strategic locations along roads like SR21 and SR155.

The project also produced a unique, illustrated storybook, Tribal Traffic Safety: A New Coyote Story. Written in English, EWU worked with tribal language elder, Elaine Emerson, to translate the story into dialect and record it. The books were delivered to the Colville Tribal School, where they will be used to communicate important messages such as: “Wear your seat belt,” “Don’t speed,” and “Don’t text and drive.”

“My goal in transportation planning is to help those who are disproportionately and adversely impacted by transportation,” says Jones. “Planners don’t always see the fruits of their study recommendation and project outcomes, so I am incredibly grateful to know that our contributions have helped save lives.”

While earning his bachelor’s degree at Eastern, Amundson completed his own SR155 research that would provide critical

assistance to the tribe’s Traffic Safety Project.

He uncovered fatal accidents that were never properly recorded with the state. And he came up with some low-cost solutions such as simple alignment signs (chevrons) to warn drivers of upcoming turns, dangerous curves or other hazards.

Amundson was mentored by Dick Winchell, a professor emeritus at Eastern who is an expert in tribal planning and transportation issues. Winchell, along with Richard Rolland, previous director of the university’s former Northwest Tribal Technical Assistance Program, is credited with starting the whole concept of tribal planning programs at Eastern.

Another alumna mentored by Winchell, Angelena Campobasso ’10, ’12, is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and grew up on the reservation. As program manager for EWU’s Small Urban Rural Tribal Center of Mobility, or SURTCOM — a byproduct of Winchell and Rolland’s earlier work — she too shares a passion for improving the welfare of those living in Indian Country.

Campobasso spent time as the Colville Tribe’s Senior Transportation Planner, where she helped bridge all the stakeholders involved to commit to the traffic safety project.

“For the first time in years, the [Colville Tribe] was able to create crash data. How many crashes, types of crashes and on what roads,” says Campobasso. “The crashes were mainly focused on the state highways. This way we could show the Washington State Department of Transportation exactly where the problem areas were within the reservation.”

Identifying those problems led to the solutions, like adding the new guardrails as well as paving highways with adequate stripping, improving crosswalks with lighting in school zones, and placing signage in strategic locations.

“We had no traffic fatalities that involved our youth or a young adult [in 2019]; no one under the age of 65 passed away on our roads this year from alcohol, drug-use, distracted driving, speeding, weather conditions, animal

EWU's Margo Hill (top right) with teacher Melissa Campobasso and students at Hearts Gathered Waterfall Immersion School on the Colville Reservation.

crossing, none! This is the first time in years!” said Hill, who managed the Eastern team’s role in this project, noting how the university’s training is so critical to providing tribes with technical support.

While at EWU, both Amundson and Campobasso were awarded Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships, an honor for students pursing degrees in transportationrelated disciplines (Campobasso earned the distinction twice). They both traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their research to experts from around the world at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board — a division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

These accomplishments were just one reason these two EWU graduates were equipped to help ensure their beloved tribe wouldn’t have to experience so much heartache along Route 155. Campobasso knows plenty of people who have lost loved ones. In addition to his personal near-death experience, Amundson’s heartache only deepened in 2013, when his 22-year-old daughter died in a car crash. While the accident was not on tribal land, he was

even more motivated to see traffic safety improvements. And now he gets to do it every day as a planning technician for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, focusing on economic development, transportation planning and land use.

Everyone involved in the traffic safety project would like to see continued advances in tracking crash data, which in turn could help secure funding for future safety upgrades and roadway improvements that will save more lives.

“There is still significant work to do and thousands of miles of unsafe roads on tribal lands,” notes Kylee Jones, who is now with the Spokane Regional Transportation Council.

For Margo Hill, this project typifies the partnerships that make Eastern so valuable to the communities it serves. It’s the type of story she wants elders to pass on to the next generation who live on tribal lands.

“My work at EWU is not just an academic exercise,” says Hill. “I want to do work that is meaningful to our tribal communities. If I can support tribal students while they are here at the university — help them find solutions for their tribal communities — then I’ve done my job.”

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E

astern Washington University men’s basketball head coach Shantay Legans had a unique view of the outbreak of COVID-19 back in March.

In Boise for the Big Sky Conference Tournament, Legans vividly recalled the day it all fell apart for his red hot Eagles, a team riding a seven game winning streak that had propelled them to a regular-season championship with a 16-4 record and…well, who knows?

To this day the Eagles’ third-year coach has pondered just what if Eastern had conquered its Boise bracket and reached the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in school history? But that journey was forced off the road by a pandemic that experts feared would break out of its boundaries and rampage across the world — which it has.

An optional shoot-around had just taken place in preparation of Eastern’s game against Sacramento State. His team returned to the hotel and were about to start loading the bus when, “We got the call that the tournament was over, the Big Sky Tournament was canceled,” Legans says.

And shortly after, the NCAA made the previously unthinkable announcement that “March Madness” had also been cancelled.

COVID-19 was now deemed serious to a level the world had not seen in more than a century.

For Eastern's fall and winter sports coaches, it’s been an unprecedented journey. “I’ve just got to keep getting the guys ready for the season,” Legans says of the campaign he was anticipating, including big games with Washington State and Notre Dame.

The Eagles had plenty of unfinished business they hoped to complete from a team that went 23-8 overall. “We’ve got guys who have played in the last two [Big Sky] championship games, [and 2020] would have been a third for them,’ Legans says. “I mean not a lot of players or teams could say, ‘Hey, I played in the two championship games, and we were picked to win the last one. And we won the [regular season] championship.’”

Normally during an interview conducted in late June, Legans and his staff would have had been in regular contact with their players, prepping them for practice and helping to build team camaraderie. For women’s head coach Wendy Schuller, late June typically brings similar team-building activities. She says also that it would have been the time

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that incoming freshmen would have arrived for summer school.

“They would have been doing workouts with the team,” Schuller says, adding, “With this awesome weather that we're having, we probably would have taken them out to the lake and gone paddle boarding or some kind of a fun team activity.”

Throughout the pandemic, the closest any coaches have gotten to their players is virtually, through online meetings via Zoom, all in preparation for a season that they hoped would begin in November.

Three Eastern fall teams — football, soccer and volleyball — had a much shorter time frame with which to operate.

Throughout the summer, the clock wound down on the start of their seasons with a great deal of uncertainty.

EWU Athletic Director Lynn Hickey, who monitored things perhaps more closely than anyone, also remains in the dark as to what the future might hold for sports such as soccer — which was to begin play in an exhibition match with NCAA Tournament qualifier, Washington State, on Aug. 14 in Cheney.

“We are planning and moving forward like we want to,” Hickey said back in June. But at the time, the state of Washington was still in Phase Two of its reopening process. Phase Three was required in order to have legally more than ten people gathered in one place.

“Even in Phase Three, you can't have more than 50 people together at a time,” Hickey said. “So it’s kind of hard to put a whole football team together.”

Football lost its spring camp, but was set in August to begin preparations to meet the University of Florida in Gainesville on Sept. 5.

When a reporter asked him to peer into his crystal ball, head coach Aaron Best offered, “There are no crystal balls in life, let alone coaching.” That game, with its reported $750,000 guarantee to Eastern, was canceled on July 30.

As with everyone else, Best said, any activities must follow state, university and NCAA guidelines. One of the few “normal” aspects of the pre-camp preparations period, Best said, were voluntary strength and conditioning workouts, albeit with participants limited to five at a time.

[Ed. Note: On Aug. 7, the Big Sky Conference announced its member presidents had voted to postpone the upcoming football season until the spring of 2021.]

Waiting for play to resume at Reese Court.

For EWU women’s soccer coach Chad Bodnar, summer meant the team returning and also undergoing voluntary workouts. Those were ongoing into August, but were being conducted remotely.

One key missing element, Bodnar says, is recruiting for future teams.

“June would usually be a heavy recruiting and travel month for us as coaches. Families are a bit nervous, yes, but it is the same everywhere — so we have to continue to sell what EWU offers and go from there.”

When asked for his own prediction about the upcoming season, Bodnar also deferred. “I thought three months ago we would be done with this. We are all just living day by day and hoping for good things to happen.”

As with soccer, Eastern volleyball coach Leslie Flores-Cloud says she missed an important recruiting window. “June 15, we were able to chat with the 2022 class of kids. Now we are chatting but we are not able to see anyone.”

Volleyball was slated to begin play August 28-29 in Moscow, Idaho, in a tournament hosted by the Vandals. Did Flores-Cloud think they’d make it to Moscow? “I am scared to answer that,” she said. With fingers crossed, Flores-Cloud then outlined her best-case scenario: a great preseason, a fully prepared team heading into conference play, lots of fans at matches and, most importantly, no one would be getting sick.

[Ed. Note: Just days after postponing fall football, all fall sports were postponed. A decision on winter sports will come later.]

Schuller has discovered somewhat of a silver lining to all the corona craziness. “These are kids who have been accused of being soft and not being able to take care of their business,” Schuller said. “They’ve had this thrown at them and they did it, they just did it. They deserve some credit.”

— Paul Delaney, a former Cheney Free Press reporter is the author of the forthcoming large-format book, Taking Flight: The Incredible Story of Eastern Washington University Football and its Rise as a National Power, his third book on Inland Northwest sports history. To get a preview of the book, or to place an order, visit ewufootballbook.com. A portion of all sales will be directed to various EWU athletic, alumni and other organizations.

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On the porch in Cheney 2 3

Thanks to pandemic-related travel restrictions, few Eagles have been able to take their copies of Eastern magazine “On the Road.” But that didn’t stop the EWU faithful from gathering with loved ones at that most cozy of destinations — their own front porches. During the locked-down months earlier this year, photographer Bridget Mayfield ’92 (above) documented these and other “staycationing” local families for her “Front Porch Cheney” project. You can see more on Instagram at @frontporchcheney or @bridget_pescadolagostudies

5

On the Road will return next spring. As always, send us your best photo of you with our latest issue! Ready to submit? Send via email to: easternmagazine@ewu.edu. Or mail to Eastern magazine, 102 Hargreaves Hall, Cheney, WA 99004.

[1] Ian Shoemaker, Eagle football’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, with his wife, Jenel Chang, and children, Kai and Quinn.

[2] Kelsey Hatch-Brecek with her husband, Aaron Brecek ’03, and their son, Kameron.

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[3] Josh Ashcroft ’00, Eastern’s associate vice president for campus life, with his wife, Stacy ’00, their daughter, Mia, and sons, Tyler and Austen.

[4] Shantay Legans, head coach of EWU men’s basketball team, with his wife, Tatjana, their daughter, Zola Lee, and son, Maksim (Mak) Lee. [5] Krisann Hatch ’88 chair of the EWU Foundation Board of Directors, with her husband, James Sloan, their daughter, Tatum, and son, Trey.

[6] Tricia Hughes, director of Health, Wellness, and Prevention Services at EWU, with her husband, Marc, their daughters, Ally and Paige, and dog, Junior.

[7] Nick Fell ’14, with his wife, Maria, and their daughters, Hadley and Charlee.

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CLASS NOTES 2010s

2000s

’17 Frank Jachetta, BA operations management, has been named to an electric customer project coordinator position with Avista’s construction services division.

’07 Katheryn Nuernberger, MFA poetry, has published her third book of poems, Rue (BOA Editions, Ltd.). Nuernberger is an assistant professor of English at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

’13 Cody Schoonover, MS biology, recently joined the Wyoming Game and Fish Department as game warden assigned to the Cheyenne Warden District in southeast corner of the state. Schoonover began his game and fish career as a wildlife damage technician in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 2016. ’11 Brittany Zuger, BA communication, earlier this year began a new position as deputy clerk for the city of Waitsburg, Washington. ’10 Ashley Wurzbacher, MFA creative writing, last year published a volume of short fiction, Happy Like This (University of Iowa Press). The book received the 2020 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, and much positive attention from prominent writers and critics. “This is a writer at the top of her game,” wrote The New York Times, “but hopefully she’s only just getting started.”

’04 Ben Wick, BS computer science, earlier this year became mayor of Spokane Valley, Washington. Wick, a member of the Spokane Valley City Council, was named to the post following a council vote held on Jan. 8.

’08 Evan Buelt, BA philosophy, recently joined Battelle, a nonprofit Columbus, Ohiobased science and technology company, as a decontamination technician working to supply first responders and front-line healthcare workers with virus-free N95 respirators. Buelt, a former ASEWU president, wrote to Eastern magazine in March that, “I paused life to go help fight against the virus. I’m in desperate need of an EWU Flag. I’d love to show, as an Eastern alumnus, that we Eagles support the cause.”

The flag arrived soon thereafter.

’03 Michelle Bonczek Evory, MFA poetry, joined the faculty of Klamath Community College in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Bonczek Evory is the author of three books of poems, most recently The Ghosts of Lost Animals (Gunpowder Press), winner of the 2018 Barry Spacks Prize. ’01 Tamara Cullen, BA marketing, is the president of Spokane-based TRC Enterprises, a producer and vendor of products to assist home gardeners. Among the most popular is the “Roo,” an apron with an ingenious kangaroo-like pouch that helps with harvesting.

EXPERT ADVICE Give back to EWU on your own terms, while helping next-generation professionals.

For Eastern students and recent alumni looking to embark on a new career, few assets are more rewarding than the advice of someone who’s successfully accomplished this goal. That’s why EWU’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Career Center have partnered to create the Eagle Career Network, ECN, a new online networking community that will provide powerful, on-demand career mentoring opportunities.

This “Eagles helping Eagles” model relies on alumni and friends to serve as resources to current students and fellow grads who could benefit from learning about the professional experiences and career journeys of seasoned business people. Eagle mentors drive how they want to be involved. It might be one-time support, such as reviewing a

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resume or sharing advice via an online chat or phone call. It could involve an ongoing series of conversations or email exchanges. Or it might entail allowing individuals to chat with — or job shadow — you or other professionals in your organization who are doing what they would like to do.

For those helping out, their generosity will come with rewards: By interacting with ECN participants, you will be able to make direct connections with other Eagle professionals and enhance the strength of your organization by identifying talent within the EWU community.

We need you, Eagles! Signing up is easy – you can even merge your LinkedIn profile with one click. Visit ecn.ewu.edu to learn more.

CLASS NOTES

Good Chemistry A recent EWU grad is poised to make his mark on biochemistry.

J

ohn Vant ’18 would be the first to admit that his decision to attend Eastern Washington University had little to do with academics.

The Montana native, now 26, says he enrolled at Eastern mostly because the university’s rec center had an ice rink.

Hockey helped Vant make new friends and immerse himself in the university community. But it didn’t take long for the gifted undergraduate to be crossed-checked by a passion that transcended the puck: research in biochemistry. Now a standout doctoral student in biochemistry at Arizona State University’s School of Molecular Sciences, Vant was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The fellowship will allow him to continue working with some of the world’s top biochemical experts.

Vant is no stranger to academic awards. At Eastern, he was the recipient of the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation Scholarship, a fulltuition award for his senior year. In part thanks to that financial assistance, Vant says, he was able to fully focus on his time with Eastern’s faculty

scientists, an experience that was invaluable to his progress as a young researcher.

“The thing that sets Eastern apart from other schools is its size and its focus on teaching students,” says Vant. “By the time I left, I personally knew every single chemistry professor in the department. You wouldn’t get that at a lot of big universities.”

Vant’s research at ASU involves molecular dynamics, a method that involves using computers to simulate the motion of atoms in biological molecules, in Vant’s case protein molecules. “A lot of my science is focused on bio-energy,” he says, “but it’s not too much of a stretch for me to solve problems related to human health.”

Human health is exactly what Vant has been up to this spring and summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, he’s part of a team developing a model for disrupting the virus’ “envelope protein,” a molecular structure that is crucial in preserving its genetic material as it travels between hosts. By disrupting the envelope

’00 Melanie Miller, BA finance and management, joined 1st Security Bank, a financial institution headquartered in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, as a commercial lending relationship manager.

education, athletics, recreation and wellness at Community Colleges of Spokane.

1990s ’97 Kyle Rydell, BA education, earlier this year was named superintendent of the West Valley (Spokane, Washington) School District. ’95 Brian Leavitt, BA developmental psychology, was named the Kennewick (Washington) School District’s K-12 student services director. He previously served as executive director of learning support in the Pasco (Washington) School District. ’94 Robert “Bobby” Lee, BA education, a former member of the EWU baseball team, late last year was named athletic director at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Lee previously served as the interim district director of athletics and dean for physical

’94 Dena Naccarato, BA English, became the new superintendent of the Post Falls (Idaho) School District on Aug. 1. ’93 John Polm, M.Ed education, in July became the new superintendent of the Puyallup (Washington) School District. ’91 Angela Birney, BA education, was elected mayor of Redmond, Washington. Birney was sworn in for a three-year term on Dec. 17, 2019. ’90 Ali Abdullah Al Ahmed, BA business administration, was named the United Arab Emirates’ permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The UAE is ranked sixth on Unesco’s list of the largest donor countries. In addition to his position at the United Nations, Al Ahmed also serves as the UAE’s ambassador to France.

protein, the thinking goes, researchers could interrupt transmission.

When Vant completes his doctoral and postdoctoral work, he says he aspires to work in one of the federally run national laboratories. No matter where his career takes him, Vant says, he will always appreciate the education he received at Eastern, and the scholarship donors whose generosity helped him to succeed.

“Even now, when I’m going through a rough time and things aren’t working out, I can think back and remember that people believed in me,” he says.

’90 Angela Wilson, BS chemistry, is one of two candidates for president-elect of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. Wilson, the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University, recently completed a rotation as a director with the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation.

1980s ’83 Henry Hix, BA recreation, in January was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to serve on Washington’s Recreation and Conservation Funding Board. The board awards some $250 million in grants every two years. Hix also serves as the chief of natural resource enforcement for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. ’83 Doug Kelley, BA recreation management, a regional account executive with Avista, received a lifetime achievement award from the West Plains Chamber of Commerce for his service to the greater Spokane community.

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CLASS NOTES

FLYING TO YOUR PORCH THIS FALL It’s no secret we Eagles love our red and white: That’s how we know you’re going to love this too!

Coming to your porch this October will be the inaugural flight of…Eagle Flights, the new official wine club of the EWU Alumni Association! Get fabulous Washington wines made by Eagles, for Eagles, delivered straight to your door. You’ll enjoy delicious wines while benefiting Alumni Legacy Scholarships. Joining takes less than a minute!

Sign up now at eagleflightswineclub.com.

’81 Larry Soehren, BA business administration, in January announced he was retiring from his position as president and CEO of Kiemle & Hagood, the property management and commercial real estate firm in Spokane where he had served for 37 years. ’80 Doug Matson, BA accounting, retired from his position as deputy superintendent of the West Valley (Washington) School District after 31 years of service.

1960s ’69 Ethan R. “Rick” Allen, BA journalism, recently released a new book, Inside Pitch (Persistence Press). The book chronicles the “one-year-and-bankrupt” history of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Pilots from the perspective of two team administrators who experienced firsthand the chaotic nature of the team’s front office.

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EWUAA, YPN Board Members Announced

T

he EWU Alumni Association, EWUAA, is the official body representing EWU alumni. The volunteer-driven organization is a non-dues-paying, nonprofit that works in partnership with the university’s Office of Alumni Relations to continue to strengthen the bond between alumni and the university.

The EWUAA is led by a board of passionate Eags, volunteers who give of their time to connect with and engage current and future alumni in fun activities, projects and programs.

New board members for the 2020-21 year are Marianne Duong ’06 and Jenna Linerud ’01, ’05.

In addition, board member Erik Puthoff ’05 has been appointed as vice president/president elect.

All EWU graduates are automatically enrolled for free in the Alumni Association upon graduation, and are invited to join in all of our activities.

The Young Professionals Network, YPN, is an EWU alumni community promoting professional growth and career success. The YPN provides professional development opportunities for all EWU graduates of the last decade. It is led by an eager group of young Eags who volunteer their time to help plan events and activities, market YPN to their colleagues and friends, and champion EWU in their communities.

New board members for the 2020-21 year are Austin Combs ’16, Rachel Dryer ’13, Holly Johnson ’17, Nic Lawrence ’15, Jessie Miller ’18, and Dragana Perkovic ’13.

Each spring, new board members are recruited for the upcoming fiscal year. Both EWUAA and YPN board members serve twoyear terms. Complete lists of all board members are available on the web: ewu.edu/alumni.

IN MEMORIAM

A Visionary Leader

G

eorge Frederickson, the revered former president of Eastern Washington University who led dramatic advancements in academics, athletics and fundraising, died on July 24 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 86.

Over the university’s long history, few individuals have had a greater impact than Frederickson. During his decade-long tenure, he was instrumental in transitioning Eastern Washington State College into the thriving regional university today known as Eastern Washington University. He helped create the university’s schools of health sciences, public affairs, and mathematical sciences and technology. And because he saw a need for a fundraising vehicle to help Eastern students succeed long into the future, Frederickson also helped establish the EWU Foundation.

Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, Frederickson held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, Syracuse University, Indiana University and the University of Missouri. In 1977, at age 42, he became Eastern’s president.

Frederickson was by all accounts a dynamic leader, one whose vision for what Eastern could become sometimes clashed with those reluctant to embrace change.

Among his more controversial moves was one that generated perhaps his most high-profile success — transitioning EWU Athletics from membership in the NAIA to the NCAA and the Big Sky Conference. Frederickson left EWU in 1987 to become the Edwin O. Steen Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the University of Kansas, but made a point of attending the 2010 FCS National Championship Game, where he cheered his beloved Eagles on to victory.

Frederickson was unable to watch the Eagles face North Dakota State in their

return to the national championship game. “I don’t drive anymore, and my wife doesn’t see very well,” Frederickson told Cheney Free Press and Eastern magazine writer Paul Delaney at the time. But, he added, “I think that it’s been a blessing to me to live long enough to see some of the results of our hard work.”

2010s ’18 Keigan Baker, age 24, died March 19, 2020.

’90 Carl Humphreys, age 58, died Jan. 7, 2020.

’75 Mike Blatman, age 65, died Jan. 28, 2020.

’13 George Baker, age 25, died June 12, 2020.

1980s

1960s

’87 Diane Rosman, age 54, died Sept. 16, 2019.

’68 Ronald H. York, age 73, died Feb. 4, 2020.

2000s

’86 John Pettibone, age 55, died Jan. 14, 2020.

’67 Lawrence “Larry” Klavano, age 75, died June 10, 2020.

’06, ’11 Natividad “Nate” Rubio Jr, age 36, died Jan. 11, 2020.

’86 Steven Ulrich, age 58, died June 6, 2020.

’65 Michael Boutz, age 60, died June 19, 2020.

1990s

’84 Mark R. Charlton, age 65, died Feb. 1, 2020.

’63 Sharon Jameson, age 78, died Nov 9, 2019.

’95 Melanie Sue Roberts, age 47, died Jan. 22, 2020.

1970s

’60 Matthew Finnigan, age 84, died Jan. 7, 2020.

’93 Rev. Christine J. Soule, age 82, died Jan. 20, 2020.

’78 Sue Ann Mauk-Olsen, age 66, died Feb. 10, 2020.

1950s

’91 Paul Anders, age 58, died Jan. 25, 2020.

’77 Sandra Mead, age 69, died Jan. 8, 2020.

’53 Bill Hake, age 88, died April 26, 2020.

’90 Frederick Brian Burke, age 64, died July 9, 2020.

’76 Janice Erickson, age 66, died Feb. 7, 2020.

’51 Altamae Sims Whitehill, age 90, died Feb. 13, 2020.

’11 Robert Yamada, age 31, died June 16, 2020.

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IN MEMORIAM Faculty and Staff Christie Brooks, died April 5, 2020. She served for 29 years as an administrative assistant in a number of EWU departments.

Mariann Donley, died May 12, 2020.

Donley worked for 15 years in the university’s Department of Education supervising student teachers and teaching classes.

Pauline Flett, died April 13, 2020. See story below.

Earl Forsman died July 13, 2020. He served as a professor of physics and astronomy professor for 27 years before his retirement in 1997.

H. George Frederickson, died July 24, 2020. See story Page 45.

David McKinstry, died Feb. 24, 2020. An emeritus professor and former chair of

the university’s Department of Physics, he retired in 2008.

Donald McManis, died March 8, 2020.

McManis, a professor and noted researcher in the area of applied psychology, retired from the university in 1996 after 27 years of service.

Jay Rea, died April 18, 2020. Rea retired in 1998 after serving as the university’s collection management librarian and archivist for 28 years. He was a former president and secretary-treasurer of the EWU Retirees Association.

Dorothy “Muriel” Radebaugh, died June 5, 2020. A professor of education, she taught pre-service and master’s level students.

Radebaugh retired in 2003 after 21 years of service.

Demitrios “Jim” Prekeges, died April 24, 2020. After earning a BA in education from EWU and a doctorate from the University of British Columbia, he served for 20 years as a member of the university’s mathematics faculty.

In 2007, he was inducted into the Washington State Mathematics Council Hall of Fame.

Alys Seifert, died March 4, 2020. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern, she served for 22 years teaching French language while also leading the university’s study abroad program.

Randy R. Wagner, died December 22, 2019.

He served as director of vocal studies and choirs at EWU for nearly 20 years.

William “Bill” Wolrehammer, died May 8, 2020. He served for 15 years with EWU Dining Services.

Treasured Preservationist

I

n June 1998, Pauline Flett appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show. With the host translating at her side, Flett told the traditional story of the coming of the salmon in her native dialect of Salish, a language she was working tirelessly to preserve from extinction.

It was an inspiring, moving performance, one of many such inspirational moments in the life and work of Flett, a treasured teacher and elder of the Spokane Tribe, who died on April 13, 2020 in Spokane. She was 93.

“She was a trailblazing linguist who taught at EWU for years and compiled the Spokane Dictionary,” says Margo Hill, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at EWU. “She inspired myself and many others.”

Growing up in a Salish-speaking household in the West End area of the Spokane Indian Reservation, as a youth Flett became completely fluent in language. As the years passed and others’ knowledge of Salish waned, Flett became determined to ensure the language would remain accessible to new generations of speakers. She co-wrote the first Spokane-English dictionary, and for years taught the language at EWU, where her meritorius service earned her an honorary master’s degree in 1992.

“Pauline Flett was a beloved member of the EWU community and our whole region,” said EWU President Mary Cullinan in April. “Her work to preserve the Salish language was incredibly significant.”

In addition to her contributions at the university, Flett also helped

46 EASTERN MAGAZINE

lay the groundwork for Native language education programs across Washington state. LaRae Wiley, executive director of the Salish School of Spokane, remembers Flett as her first Salish teacher.

“I did an independent study with Pauline through EWU,” Wiley says.

“I had never heard a word of Salish in my life and I know I sounded horrible. But she always encouraged me and even translated a few of my original songs into Salish.”

BACK STORY

The Cheney State Normal School’s Lyric Glee Club boarding a train at the old depot in 1914.

Even after the advent of the automobile, passenger trains remained the conveyance of choice for generations of Eastern students traveling to and from Cheney. As train travel was eclipsed by more modern forms of transportation, the rail depot fell into disuse and disrepair. When threatened with demolition, however, the Cheney Depot Society, a local organization dedicated to preserving the station and its legacy, launched a successful campaign to save the structure by moving it — in one 120-foot-long piece — to a new downtown location. You can learn more about their efforts at cheneydepot.com.

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Eastern Washington University University Advancement 102 Hargreaves Hall 616 Study Lane Cheney, WA 99004-2413

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Eastern Washington University

REIMAGINING EAGLE GATHERINGS

We sure miss seeing the Eagle nation out and about! Although the future of in-person events for fall and winter remains uncertain, we continue to re-imagine ways to connect Eagles near and far. Below is the latest on Eagle gatherings. Visit ewu.edu/alumni for the latest event information.

RED ZONES O N T H E R OA D

EAGLE STRONG WEEKEND

TIME FLIES

VIRTUAL EVENTS

With football delayed until spring, tailgating will have to wait. Keep that Eagle gear handy though because you’ll be putting it to good use during Eagle Strong Weekend.

(More details below).

What is Homecoming without football and in-person events? It’s Eagle Strong Weekend, October 9-11! Mark your calendars for a weekend of fun, virtual activities. Hint: You’ll want to have lots of Eagle gear ready to decorate with, and join the Eagle Flights Wine Club now for exclusive fun.

50-Year Reunion for classes of ’70 & ’71 The in-person festivities are postponed until 2021, but we’ll be announcing fun ways the classes can connect online between now and then. Together, we’ll reminisce and build excitement to come back to campus in 2021 when it’s safer to gather.

RED Hours online in April and May were fun! We enjoyed hearing from some of Eastern’s most interesting experts on topics like rocketry, happiness and navigating new careers during Covid.

In July and August we had lunch together on two Facebook Live series, one on building and protecting your nest egg, and the other on navigating career changes.

Now we need your help to know what you’d like to see next! Email us at alumni@ewu.edu with your ideas, and watch our website and social channels for future invites!