Eastern Magazine | Spring/Summer 2023

FAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

EASTERN ALUMNI ARE KEEPING THE GAME ON COURSE

Spirit Power on Display On June 3, EWU’s Native American Student Association teamed up with the American Indian Studies program to host the annual Spirit of the Eagle Powwow at Reese Court. During the day-long event, tribal citizens old and young came together for friendly dancing, singing and drumming competitions that evinced the joyful richness of our region’s Native heritage. “The NASA students and the powwow committee bring good spirit power to all of the planning and organizing that is necessary for an event this big,” says Erin Ross, Eastern’s director of tribal relations. “It’s the largest, student hosted event each year for EWU, and it brings our tribal nations together in a spirit of fun and healing.”

Photo by Luke Kenneally

Embracing Change

CHANGE AND OPTIMISM

are two powerful forces that move us forward. As I write this letter, the winds of change are picking up and I’m feeling excited about where we’re headed.

Some of that change starts with Krisann Hatch ’88, the EWU Foundation chair, and Stacey Rasmussen ’03, our EWU Alumni Association president, celebrating their many years of service and fulfilling their volunteer terms. They’ve been an invaluable asset, will be sorely missed, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. Building upon their successes, Alexis Alexander ’08, ’14 and Nate Peters ’16 have already begun their roles as leaders, respectively, of the EWU Foundation and the Alumni Association. Both are committed to maintaining our spirit of collaboration, innovation and excellence.

Change has impacted our institution throughout its long history—from academy to normal school, from state college to university. We began by focusing mostly on training teachers. We now help to drive the entirety of the region’s professional workforce, with an impressive variety of programs tailored to meet today’s workplace needs. As alumni, you’ve seen it all throughout the generations. And I hope you’ll come relive some of those memories this fall when we celebrate

begun their new leadership roles. Both are committed to maintaining our spirit of collaboration, innovation and excellence.

our 100th year of Homecoming. Still, change can be daunting. When I speak with our students today, many of them face regular barriers and obstacles, from financial to cultural. It is during these times that we must hold onto optimism and the unwavering belief in our ability to overcome.

That is where your stories of success and triumph over challenges as alumni serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for today’s Eagle students. By sharing with us your achievements, experiences and life lessons, we’re able to light a path for our students, and provide them with the tools to navigate the challenges that lie ahead.

Over the past few years, we have invested in a significant opportunity for sharing your insights: the Eagle

Career Network. This is one of your best opportunities to participate in the lives of our students, by mentoring, coaching and advising them. Not only can you provide them with the tools they need, but you can also form longlasting relationships, share your stories of inspiration and empower the next generation of Eagles.

Thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to Eastern. We are immensely proud of your accomplishments and look forward to the great things we can achieve together.

Go Eags!

Kelsey Hatch-Brecek ’21

Alexis Alexander and Nate Peters have already

EASTERN MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2023

EDITOR

Charles E. Reineke

ART DIRECTOR Ryan Gaard ’02

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Dave Meany

Melodie Little ’91

PHOTOGRAPHY

Eric Galey ’84

Luke Kenneally

VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT

Barb Richey ’92, ’99

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

Kelsey Hatch-Brecek ’21

MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD

Joseph Haeger ’10

Nick Lawhead ’07

Lisa Leinberger ’98

Brian Lynn ’98

Kelly Naumann ’10

Robin Pickering ’97, ’03

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

EMAIL easternmagazine@ewu.edu

WRITE Eastern Magazine 102 Hargreaves Hall Cheney, WA 99004-2413

Eastern magazine is published twice each year by University Advancement and is mailed free to alumni of record in the United States. View this and previous issues of Eastern online at ewu.edu/magazine

Enduring Bequest

A campus ministry closes its doors, but ensures its legacy.

After more than 70 years of service to Cheney and the university community, Emmanuel Lutheran Church announced this spring that it is closing its doors.

This unhappy outcome was the result of a shrinking congregation, financial pressures and the loss, earlier this year, of Emmanuel Lutheran’s half-time pastor. Nevertheless, church officials say, the congregation is determined to ensure that its long legacy of involvement with EWU will continue.

As part of this year’s Giving Joy Day events, Emmanuel Lutheran pledged to Eastern a portion of the proceeds from the sale of its campus-adjacent church building. The gift, totaling more than $130,000, will create a named nursing scholarship endowment, bolster general scholarship funding and help EWU’s new Emergency Medical Services certificate program purchase equipment.

Jake Rehm, president of Emmanuel Lutheran’s church council, acknowledged the situation is bittersweet.

“Emmanuel Lutheran, much like EWU, has served the Cheney community, as well as the entire region, for many decades,” Rehm says. “While it was painful to close our doors, we are thankful to be able to continue to bless Cheney and EWU through our gifts.”

Rehm, a senior lecturer and director of the Fitness Center for the Department of Wellness and Movement Sciences at EWU, is one of many university faculty and staff members who’ve belonged to the church over the years. Charlie Mutschler, for example, a beloved archivist and historian, was among the church’s congregants. Mutschler died suddenly in 2019, and Emmanuel Lutheran’s leadership is working with the university to create a memorial on campus.

Since the early 1970s, the church has also helped support a Lutheran Campus Ministry at EWU with the goal of providing a welcoming and inclusive community for students, faculty and staff. That ministry will continue.

“Many of the members witnessed, firsthand, the positive impact Eastern Washington University has had on the students and people in our community and in our region,” the church council said in a statement. “We hope that this gift will allow EWU and Emmanuel to continue to help serve the community for years to come.”

Jake Rehm.

Photo by Luke Kenneally

Make-Over Money

Funding for EWU’s Science Building renovation gets a thumbs-up from Olympia.

As the first part of Eastern’s two-phase renovation of its Science Building nears completion, the project’s second phase, scheduled to start next spring, received a welcome appropriations boost from lawmakers in Olympia.

The final 2023-25 biennium budget, signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in April, allocates an additional $58 million to complete the more than $110 million Science Building makeover. The work will add state-of-the-art research and laboratory facilities, modern classrooms for STEM-related learning, and space to enable hiring of new faculty positions to support Eastern’s ever-expanding STEM footprint.

The old Science Building, completed in 1962, had long been due for an overhaul, David Bowman, dean of Eastern’s College of STEM, told Eastern magazine last year. Bowman described the pre-renovation facility as a “Sputnik-era building designed for Sputnik-era science.”

Work on the modernization effort is scheduled for completion in August 2025. “This has been a multi-phased project,” said EWU President Shari McMahan in a statement after the appropriation number was finalized. “We are excited to receive the funding that will allow us to finish the job.”

Photo by Anna Yeend

Higher Ed Advocate

A new member of EWU’s Board of Trustees begins her service.

Christine Johnson, chancellor emeritus of the Community Colleges of Spokane, is the newest member of Eastern’s Board of Trustees, the university’s governing body.

Johnson, who served as CCS chancellor from 201022, was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee this spring to serve in the seat vacated by Michael Finley, who stepped down last fall. She brings to the board years of collaborative management and mentoring experience, as well as a long history of advocating for sustained improvement in the quality and delivery of higher education.

“EWU plays a vital role in the higher education ecosystem in eastern Washington and throughout the state,” Johnson said following her appointment. “Eastern serves a key role as a transfer partner for the 40 percent of Community Colleges of Spokane students who

Support for Speech

choose to transfer. I am honored to have an opportunity to support student success as job No. 1, so that we can ensure the region’s economic and workforce development is strengthened as a result of EWU’s priorities and actions.”

Johnson also previously served as the president of the Washington Association of Community and Technical Colleges (WACTC) and was named Washington CEO of the Year in 2022. While working with Eastern’s board, she will also fulfill the three years remaining on her term as a member of the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees.

A generous grant will help Eastern help Parkinson’s patients.

The World Health Organization estimates that some 8.5 million people across the globe live with Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness and difficulty with balance and coordination. As the illness progresses, verbal communications and swallowing are often adversely affected.

Helping patients overcome speech and swallowing issues has long been a priority for clinicians and researchers with EWU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Now, thanks in part to a $280,000 grant from the Parkinson Voice Project, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides speech therapy for Parkinson’s patients, those efforts will continue well into the future.

The five-year grant will provide the training, supplies and research equipment necessary for EWU’s Speech and Language Clinic to expand its use of the SPEAK OUT! program, a therapy that helps people with Parkinson’s and related disorders retain and regain speech and communication abilities while reducing swallowing complications.

EWU was among 16 universities in 16 states

to receive a share of the more than $4.5 million in services and funding from the Parkinson Voice Project. The grants were announced on April 11, World Parkinson’s Day.

At EWU, the grant will expand access to both in-person programs and telehealth therapies. It will also allow some 25 graduate students to take the SPEAK OUT! online therapy course each year. The course typically costs $475 — putting it out of reach for many students.

“The really neat thing is that the students get to do the training — and it’s about 10 hours — at no charge,” says Doreen Nicholas, senior lecturer and director of the EWU Speech and Language Clinic.

The grant is just the latest instance of a larger, decade-long collaboration between the EWU Speech and Language Clinic and the Parkinson Voice Project. During that time, the EWU clinic has helped close to 100 Parkinson’s patients from the greater Spokane area learn exercises that strengthen muscles that support speaking and swallowing.

“I think it’s so great that this is something that Eastern can stand out for providing,” says Nicholas.

The grant is just the latest instance of a larger, decade-long collaboration between the EWU Speech and Language Clinic and the Parkinson Voice Project.

Easing the Path to Service

Jay Day, Eastern’s chief of police, is honored for supporting Guard and Reserve members.

As a kid growing up in Blytheville, Arkansas — a small town about an hour upriver from Memphis, Tennessee — and later in Tacoma, Washington, EWU Police Chief Jay Day was always proud to embrace the values he learned from his dad, a service member in the U.S. Army.

“My foundation is discipline and integrity,” Day says. “My dad raised us like little soldiers and instilled all those principles, which have served me well in my law enforcement career.”

As the head of EWU’s police department, Day ’95 has continued to honor those who serve, including the Eastern officers who divide their time between police work and periodic deployments in the Armed Forces Guard and Reserve. In recognition of this support, Day recently received the U.S. Armed Forces Guard and Reserve Employer Patriot Award, an honor reflecting the commitment he has shown toward easing the path to service for his employees.

The award was announced at the EWU Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 24 by Dave Millet, director of the Veterans Resource Center at EWU. Day, who is also an Eastern alumnus, was nominated by Deputy Chief Sean O’Laughlin, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

“It was a complete shock and surprise, I wasn’t expecting it but it was probably one of the top honors of my life, I should say, having grown up military,” Day says.

Military service was originally going to be his own career path, Day recalls. But at Eastern he chose the route of law enforcement. “Law enforcement mirrors the military in a lot of ways,” he says. “It’s selfless service, there are a lot of sacrifices that not only yourself but your family makes in service of others.”

“I’m very appreciative of our troops and the tremendous sacrifices that they give every day in support of our country,” Day adds. “My debt of gratitude to them is immeasurable.”

Aiming High

A mentoring program connects Eagle undergrads with high school students.

For many high schoolers , particularly those from families who’ve never sent a kid off to college, attending a university like Eastern can seem like the impossible dream. Completing the right classes, preparing for aptitude tests, touring campuses, completing federal financial aid forms and admission applications: for the uninitiated, it’s a lot to ask.

Guidance counselors can, and do, provide help. But what if there was someone else to talk to? Someone who might be closer in age, maybe with similar life experiences?

Eastern’s new Aspire Program aims to provide those voices. The program, funded with grant support from Innovia and the Washington Student Achievement Council, puts Eagle undergraduates in local high schools to support, advise and mentor college contenders who might not otherwise make it to matriculation.

Along the way they are also there to provide guidance for those students whose best move might be military service or vocational training.

Mentoring is an excellent way for college students to give back to their communities while enhancing their resumes, says EWU’s Jasmin Davis, an MBA student who serves as Aspire’s manager. Students earn a stipend while working six hours per week, helping to make participation more manageable while not interfering with their academic pursuits.

“The Aspire Program is about connecting college students with high schoolers to help them figure out what they want to do after high school, whether that be a two-year or a four-year college, a vocational school or the military,” says Davis. “We want to help them navigate that pathway.”

In 20052006, EWU’s Archaeological and Historical Services did a dig at People’s Park. It uncovered 60,000 artifacts. Radiocarbon dating found some of them to be more than 8,000 years old.

Ghosts of Salmon

EWU’s Paul Lindholdt introduces a new generation to a park’s hidden history.

Few places in the nation can match the cultural and historical significance of the small patch of verdant land lying slightly upstream from the confluence of Latah (Hangman’s) Creek and the Spokane River.

Paul Lindholdt, author and English professor at EWU, has long worked to ensure that his students — and others in the wider community — more fully appreciate the significance of this pretty peninsula, today known as People’s Park. As part of this effort, each spring he takes students in his honors course to the site for a “First Year Experience” alongside the river.

The field trip includes on-site discussions of material from The Spokane River , a 2018 book that Lindholdt edited and contributed to — material that touches on a range of issues related to the environmental and human history of Spokane’s once spectacularly rich river ecosystem. (Lindholdt donates all profits from

the book to Spokane Riverkeeper, an advocacy group whose experts contribute to the class.)

No issue resonates more for the students than the story of People’s Park. The park takes its name from the World’s Fair hippie encampment created there. But its true significance lies in a much deeper history, one that centers on the almost-unimaginable abundance of salmon that once ascended the river as they journeyed toward their ancient spawning grounds.

That history is deeply entwined with the region’s Native peoples, particularly the ancestors of today’s Spokane Tribe of Indians, who expertly managed fishing and catch distribution at the site for thousands of years. “In 2005-2006, EWU’s Archaeological and Historical Services did a dig at People’s Park,” says Lindholdt. “It uncovered 60,000 artifacts. Radiocarbon dating found some of them to be more than 8,000 years old.”

These artifacts, the students learn, indicate that present-day People’s Park is the oldest continuously occupied site in what is now the state of Washington. According to Lindholdt, salmon were so plentiful prior to the 1911 construction of Little Falls Dam that the three bands of the Spokane Tribe could share their namesake river’s bounty with Native people who came to trade from hundreds of miles away.

The haunting loss of those fish, and ongoing environmental challenges in the Spokane watershed, hold sobering lessons for students. What we do today matters, Lindholdt says. Our actions — or lack of actions — can have consequences that continue to resonate down the ages.

“An old saying from environmental studies is: ‘Think globally and act locally,’” he says. “Community engagement on the local level might translate into greater awareness today of global climate change.”

EWU Honors Program students at People’s Park.

Hackers Take Note

Eastern students win big in a national cybersecurity competition.

According to CyberSecruity Ventures , a prominent industry group, the computerenabled misdeeds known as “cybercrimes” are already costing the world’s individuals, businesses and governments some $6 trillion — that’s trillion with a “t” — each and every year. By 2025, the group says, that number will reach $10.5 trillion.

Effectively fighting back against the torrent of attacks, experts say, will require new approaches and new thinking. Students at EWU are proving they are ready to do both.

As we’ve previously reported, faculty and students in Eastern’s Computer Science & Electrical Engineering department, led by Stu Steiner, an assistant professor of computer science, are at the forefront of training those who can blunt the threat. The program’s cyber defense initiative, for example, has created regional partnerships that not only assesses and secures critical infrastructure, but also provides real-time monitoring for regional municipalities. Among their many real-world interventions, Eagle students have blocked Russian hackers from infiltrating the city of Spokane Valley’s computer network and have worked with Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State to ensure election security.

Now there is even more assurance of Eastern’s

cyber-sleuthing prowess. Earlier this spring, students in Steiner’s program, took first place in West Regional of the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity competition, a respected cybergames contest that helps students build the skills they’ll need to move up in the intensely competitive world of cybersecurity analytics. They followed this triumph with an even bigger prize — a national title at the event’s championship in Tampa, Florida.

During the NCAE Cyber Games finale, the Eagle team endured an 8-hour marathon of defending a computer system from a cyber-

Joy to the Eagles

attack in a real-world situation. The Eastern team notched 6,274 total points, edging out the University of Florida Gators by just seven points.

Back in Cheney, CSTEM dean David Bowman neatly summed up the breadth of the students’ accomplishment: “The finals are a grueling challenge under any circumstance, but flying across the country and jumping straight into a high-pressure competition takes it to another level, Bowman says. “I’m incredibly proud of our students and faculty who have shown that EWU really is a premiere destination for anyone who wishes to pursue cybersecurity.”

Once again, Giving Joy Day delivers for students.

This year’s Giving Joy Day , the eighth installment of Eastern’s annual service and philanthropy event, saw Eagles from 23 different states make more than 500 gifts to support 110 different university funds.

By events’ end, the university had raised more than $450,000 to support student scholarships and aid programs, according to Linda Safford, senior director for annual giving.

Safford said there were many “generous and

happy surprises” during the 2023 event, which is scheduled each year to coincide with EWU’s birthday on April 3. The local office of Gemini Corp., for example, gave $10,000 to benefit EWU design students, while an anonymous donor kicked in $10,000 toward the student-athlete nutrition station (which joins a $70,000 gift from Gatorade | PepsiCo Partners).

The event isn’t just about fundraising, however. As part of what is now a Giving Joy

Personally, as a scholarship student, I am so incredibly amazed at so much generosity towards our scholarship programs – and we are very, very thankful,” said Lucas Fyre, ASEWU’s president.

Get Lit! Turns 25

For its silver anniversary, Eastern’s annual literary fest brought the star power.

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón was among the luminaries that appeared before packed venues at the 25th anniversary of EWU’s Get Lit! Festival, Washington state’s longest running literary gathering and the university’s premier literary event.

Limón, one of the nation’s most acclaimed poets — and the first writer of Mexican descent to be honored as poet laureate — appeared alongside a diverse lineup of celebrated national, regional and local authors during the four-day festival.

Audiences were treated to readings, writing workshops, craft classes, poetry slams, panel discussions, literary happy hours and more — all offered free or at a low cost.

“Get Lit helped me to see how lucky Spokane is in terms of its literary community,” says Jordan Brown, a master’s of fine arts student from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. “I hope we can keep it going for future generations… It is not something to take for granted.”

There was certainly no sign of diminished enthusiasm at this year’s fest. Limón’s master class, for example, sold out in just two days.

“It really shows that people are as excited as we are for the opportunity to learn from Ada,” said author and Get Lit! Director Kate Peterson ’14, in advance of Limón’s appearance. “Clearly, lots of folks know what a rare chance they have to sit down in an intimate setting with the U.S. Poet Laureate to learn how to start a poem.”

In all, some 80 authors participated in 40 Get Lit! events. As an added bonus, this year, for the first time, Eastern students were able to attend any ticketed event for free.

“I had a fabulous time,” said Liina Koivula, an EWU creative writing graduate student from Olympia. “The energy was fantastic. Everyone seemed so happy to be there. Spokane has such a vibrant literary community, and EWU is an essential part of it.”

23 Different States 500 + Gifts

Day tradition, a team of Eastern staff and alumni volunteers spread Eagle affection in the days prior to the event by bringing balloons, chocolates and swag to alumni-owned businesses in Cheney and Spokane.

Back on campus, meanwhile, students showed their gratitude by providing poignant stories about the life-changing impact of scholarships in interviews posted on the Giving Joy Day website and social-media channels. Students also

braved chilly temperatures to manage a booth where currently enrolled Eagles wrote thank you notes to those whose support made their scholarships possible.

Lucas Fyre, president of the Associated Students of EWU, later offered up his own message of thanks. “Personally, as a scholarship student, I am so incredibly amazed at so much generosity towards our scholarship programs – and we are very, very thankful,” said Fyre, a

Raised More Than $450,000

21-year-old psychology major from Spokane Valley. “Thank you so much to everybody.”

EWU President Shari McMahan also weighed in with her appreciation: “Thank you all for providing and sustaining scholarships that will help our students persist in their education. Your support is very, very important,” she said.

Miss your chance to join in the joy? Visit us at ewu.edu/give to learn how you can help.

From Left to Right: Poets Gabrielle Bates, Ada Limón and EWU's Laura Reed. Photo by Morgan Henderson ’23

Making History

Men’s basketball dominates the Big Sky Conference.

While the end to Eastern’s greater ambitions came too soon — a heartbreaking final-second loss in the 2023 Big Sky Basketball Championship tournament — EWU’s men’s basketball team walked off the court in Boise knowing they’d already cemented a season for the history books.

Head coach David Riley’s squad, a group just a year removed from a big rebuild, came into the season with three returning starters, a core of experienced role players and high expectations. In preseason polling, however, coaches and sportswriters expressed their doubts, with both groups picking Eastern to finish no higher than fifth.

The Eagles answered the doubters with a remarkable regular season that included a Big Sky record 16-0 start to conference play. That streak,

part of a record-tying 18-game stretch of victories, earned them the regular season Big Sky Championship.

Following a heartbreaking, last-second conference tournament exit, the team got a nod from the National Invitation Tournament, where, in the first round, they avenged an early-season defeat to Washington State with a gritty road win in Pullman. It was just the second postseason game win in program history.

A second-round loss to Oklahoma State brought the 2022-23 season to a close. Then the accolades began pouring in.

In March, Eagle’s guard Steele Venters was named the Big Sky’s Most Valuable Player, the conference’s most coveted individual honor. It was the fifth time in seven years —and seventh time overall — that the Big Sky’s

top accolade had been awarded to an Eastern player. In addition, Venters’ teammate Angelo Allegri was named to the All-Conference First Team, while forward Ethan Price earned an All-Conference Honorable Mention.

Coach Riley, meanwhile, was named Big Sky Coach of the Year, joining a distinguished list of seven previous EWU head coaches who have been awarded the conference’s highest coaching honor.

Not surprisingly, it was Riley who, after the season ended in Stillwater, shifted the focus back to where it belongs — on the student athletes.

“The talk in the locker room after the game was very, very brief about this game in particular. We played a good team and lost,” Riley said. “But what these guys have done throughout the season, I can’t tell them enough how much our coaching staff appreciates them.”

Hickey to Pursue ‘New Adventure’

Lynn Hickey, Eastern’s groundbreaking athletics director, retired in June.

EWU Athletics Director Lynn Hickey, one of the nation’s first women to play, coach and administer collegiate sports, late this spring stepped down after five years at the helm of Eastern Athletics.

Hickey announced her decision in February. She said she was making the move to be closer to family in Texas and Oklahoma, among them her daughter, Lauren.

“I would like to thank EWU and the Board of Trustees for the opportunity to serve the institution the past five years,” Hickey wrote in a letter to colleagues and Eagle supporters. “I am incredibly passionate about intercollegiate athletics, and will miss the interaction and competition. But it is time for me to prioritize my family.”

Hickey came to Eastern in 2018. Her groundbreaking resume included serving as the first female athletic director at the University of Texas, San Antonio, where, at the time, she was the only female Division 1 athletic director in the state. When Hickey left the job 18 years later, her list of accomplishment included initiating UTSA’s football, women’s soccer and women’s golf programs.

During her tenure at EWU, Hickey led an athletics department comprised of 14 intercollegiate sports, including six for men and eight for women. Her legacy includes hiring eight head coaches and numerous staff members, all while working to help Eagle athletes excel in both the classroom and in their respective sports.

“I have been blessed to have been involved in coaching and administration at the high school and college level for 50 years,” says Hickey. “It is time for a new adventure, and I look forward to moving closer to family and finding new ways to continue to have an impact — and be of service — in this business that I love so much.”

Photo by Braeden Harlow

SMALL TOWN SENSATION

NBCUniversal’s Jim Orr beat the odds to become a Hollywood success story. You can too, he tells Eastern students.

By Charles E. Reineke

Photo courtesy of Jim Orr/NBCUniversal.

The tiny towns in the shadow of the Grand Coulee Dam are low-slung, big-sky locales — wide spots in the road where the sage brush often outnumbers the people. Eastern alumnus Jim Orr loved his home turf, and was proud to be a “raider” at Roosevelt Lake High School. But that didn’t mean he never dreamt of other places, places buzzing with 24/7 music, arts and culture. Cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Not that there was ever anything wrong with Grand Coulee and its environs. These are tight-knit, friendly communities. The scenery, though austere, is spectacular. But they’re a long way from L.A.

Orr found himself ruminating on that distance earlier this spring as he met with a group of EWU film students. They were chatting in a sunny conference room, its polished table set with fancy finger foods, located just outside Orr’s office in, you got it, Los Angeles.

In both miles and mindset, Orr emphasized to his visitors, places like Grand Coulee — and Cheney — can seem light years removed from media capitals such as New York and Los Angeles. But you can make it work, he said. It’ll take some effort, but you can do it.

As the president of theatrical distribution at NBCUniversal, Orr ’83 is living proof that it’s possible. In his executive capacity at Universal, he’s responsible for the strategy and management of the studio’s North American film releases. It’s a straightforward description of a job that’s anything but.

Orr recalls, back in 2020, describing the gig to his newly promoted boss, Peter Levinsohn, NBCUniversal’s vice chairman and chief distribution officer. “I started walking him through what we do — because he had not been exposed to theatrical before — and after a while he said something that was perfect, priceless. He said, ‘On the face of it, your business is as simple as it gets. And, at the same time, it’s the most complicated thing I’ve ever seen.’”

This “complicated thing” is centered around what the film world calls “exhibition:” putting a motion picture in theaters, then working to keep it there, generating licensing revenue, for as long as possible.

“That’s the crux of the job, but it’s a more complex and strategic endeavor than it may seem,” Orr says. “Film distribution is both an art and a science. It involves selecting the optimal release date, the ideal markets and number of screens, for each film. It requires assessing the competition from other studios and creating a competitive advantage to ensure that every film reaches, or exceeds, its potential for success.”

Another necessity, Orr adds, is the ability to sell your strategy to filmmakers while setting ambitious but realistic box-office expectations — both for them and the company’s senior executives. “It requires constant vigilance, analysis and interpretation of where

audiences’ tastes are trending, anticipating how those trends are likely to evolve over time, and then planning accordingly. Data and statistics are invaluable in that process, but you also have to trust your own instincts.”

All of this is further complicated by a film industry that is in a near-constant state of evolution. At the start of Orr’s career, for example, movies were delivered to theaters on actual film. (At Paramount Pictures earlier in his career, he led the transition from analog to digital projection and filmmaking.)

“This industry is always changing,” Orr says. One thing that hasn’t changed, he adds, is the people part. And that’s something he was keen to share with his Eastern visitors.

“It’s much more corporate than it was when I started in the business back in the late 1980s, but the core of it is still about relationships,” he says. “I still know, and talk with regularly, people I’ve been dealing with for literally decades.”

“As I told the students, ‘Sure, if you end up selling cars in Orange County, networking will be important. But in Hollywood? It’s absolutely everything,’” Orr says. “I don’t mean that in the cliché way of, ‘It’s not what you know but who you know.’ That’s not it at all. It’s developing relationships, working with people and seeing how you can help them. It’s about who you can help, and how can you do great things together.”

Thatbit of wisdom was just one of the insights offered up by Orr and other industry professionals during the whirlwind two-day, one-night visit. Not surprisingly, the students may have been a little too awestruck — at first anyway — to take it all in, says Drew Ayers, the EWU associate professor who accompanied them.

And who wouldn’t have been? On Day One they blasted into Burbank on an early flight. Just an hour or so later they found themselves gliding through the fabled gates of Universal Studio’s backlot, the behemoth television and film complex that, since the era of silent film, has been America’s movie-making epicenter.

The trip was the culmination of a process that began five years ago, when Pete Porter, professor and chair of fine and performing arts at Eastern, connected with Orr about opportunities for EWU students to engage with the film and television industry.

“Jim really wanted to give back to the university, especially with the film students,” Drew Ayers says. “He wanted to show them that you don’t have to be from a big city like L.A. to have a career in the film industry.”

Porter suggested that perhaps Orr could host a handful of undergraduate seniors — along with a couple of EWU senior administrators — at his office at NBCUniversal. Orr could share stories, insights, and help them connect with others in the industry. Orr said

yes, and Porter, with Ayers’ help, scheduled an inaugural get-together for the spring of 2020.

That trip fell victim to Covid-19. The show did go on, via Zoom, and Ayers says those sessions were great. (They included visits by Jason Blum of Blumhouse, Margie Cohn of DreamWorks Animation, Luke Ryan of Chaotic Good, and Rebecca Arzoian from George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures.) Still, everyone knew a computer screen couldn’t compare to being there. So when Ayers reached out to Orr earlier this year and asked whether the in-person visit might happen in 2023, Orr didn’t hesitate.

“Before we left campus,” Ayers says, “Jim told me: ‘Tell the students to leave all their shyness in Spokane. Don’t bring it with you. Come here, engage, ask questions: that’s why you’re here.’”

And that, after those initial jitters, is exactly what they did. “The students brought their A Games,” says Ayers. “They were prepared. They had great questions and some had printed out bios of the guest speakers. I was impressed.”

That preparedness and professionalism, on display at the meetings, conversations and tours that filled their itinerary, underscored the point Orr hammered home to his guests repeatedly during their visit: “You can do this.”

“Our student body draws regionally, so it can be hard for these kids to see the next step: ‘How do I go from Cheney to Los Angeles?’” Ayers says. “For a lot of students that just seems impossible. My goal was to show them that possibility. And Jim is such a great spokesperson for possibilities. He is them, 40 years ago.”

“The speakers he lined up were designed to show a bit of everything,” Ayers continues. “It’s not just about you becoming Steven Spielberg — sure, that would be great, we should all strive for that. But Spielberg is one of a handful of big names. Jim showed them how there are lots of ways to make it. He kept saying, ‘if you want a career in this industry, you will have one.’”

Orr’s own career got its start with a dream, the kind of thing you see in the movies.

“Somehow I just had it in my head that I was going to get into the movie business,” Orr says. “I had no right whatsoever to even think like that. I’m from a very blue-collar family. My

first jobs were painting houses, construction, even picking fruit when there were no painting jobs. While at Eastern I worked at Sears Northtown as security. I had no exposure at all to Hollywood, to the film business, or to anything like that.”

On the eve of his EWU graduation, broke but determined to move to California, Orr borrowed his roommate’s suit and drove from Cheney to Seattle to interview for a sales job with fruit and vegetable giant Del Monte. On his application, Orr had indicated that, yes, he would indeed be willing to relocate to the Golden State. “Sure enough, they called and said, ‘We’d like to offer you a job: You said you could move to L.A. Is that still true?’” It was.

Though only at Del Monte for a year or so, Orr availed himself of what he describes as “incredibly good” sales training. Next, he found work with a technology firm, Harris Lanier, where he continued to prosper.

“I realized I was good at sales. I was successful, I was being promoted. In other words,” Orr says with a laugh, “I was good at talking people into doing things they might not otherwise want to do.”

Still, Orr says, he never lost focus on his ultimate goal: making it in the film industry.

In the movie business, “sales” translates into theatrical distribution. Orr kept his day job, but mailed dozens of queries to studio heads asking about distribution opportunities. He got plenty of replies, lots of advice, but no offers. Finally, just when he was about to give up, his big break came.

“I told myself, ‘I’m just going to make one more phone call and then I’m done,’” Orr says. “No joke, that very last phone call was to a guy at Paramount who said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got your resume right here, and I was just about to call you. Why don’t you come in and we’ll do an interview.’”

An offer followed. Saying yes, it turned out, would mean a 50 percent pay cut. Orr said yes.

That first, low-level job soon yielded a promotion and relocation to Boston. While there, Orr, never short on energy, used his limited spare time to pursue a law degree at Suffolk University. After another promotion and transfer, this time to New York, Orr finished his juris doctorate at New York University. He doesn't practice law today, but

Cast and Crew: EWU’s Drew Ayers, seated, with the group who made the trip to Hollywood.

his legal education wasn’t time wasted.

Orr remembers Suffolk’s law school dean conveying a particularly on-target message the very first might of instruction: “If you go through this process,” the dean said, “you give it your all and get to the other end of it — whether you ever practice or not — you will think differently. You will think better, you’ll think further ahead, you’ll analyze things differently.”

“And he was 100 percent right,” Orr says.

Like a lot of executives in the film industry — a business in which reorganizations, mergers and buyouts are commonplace — Orr’s path from Paramount to NBCUniversal was a winding one. After years of success on the East Coast, Orr, by then a senior vice president at Paramount, was transferred back to Los Angeles in 2004. Two years later Paramount merged with DreamWorks. The DreamWorks crew, Orr learned to his dismay, would be tasked with handling distribution. He was out of a job.

Unemployment lasted exactly a weekend. Orr joined the executive team at MGM, and, for good measure, started a couple of film-related businesses. After another merger deal left him

on the outs at MGM, he cashed out his stake in the businesses and joined the leadership team at FilmDistrict, an independent film company.

“I was the head of distribution at FilmDistrict,” Orr says, “and we all ended up coming over to Focus Features, which is the specialty arm of Universal. From Focus I got moved over to Universal and where I am now.”

Peter Levinsohn says the studio is fortunate to have him. “Jim Orr is an outstanding executive and leader and is the driving force behind our success in theatrical distribution,” Levinsohn said in an email. “Jim’s dedication to his work is matched only by his commitment to helping students without access to traditional entertainment pipelines find opportunities in the industry. This is a testament to the supportive culture he has cultivated within his own team here at Universal, and it is truly inspiring.”

Inspiring and supportive: Two attributes anyone would love to own. Orr takes such praise in stride, saying he’s just pleased to be in a good place; a position that allows him to do what he’s good at, what he loves. And to help others, too, such as his work with the Pioneers Assistance Fund of the Will Rogers Foundation — a financial aid and counseling project assisting exhibition and distribution workers who are struggling with an illness, accident or injury — and the Lollipop Theater Network, which brings first-run, only-in-theaters movies to hospitalized kids around the nation.

In Orr’s earnest, staccato account of his career you can hear the wonder of it all: the kid from Grand Coulee made good, the small-town striver leaving his mark on Hollywood. It’s a story he seems powerless to contain, hence his desire to share it with a new generation of talented young people. Especially young people from the Inland Northwest, a place, he says, that he is “ridiculously proud of being from.”

“I had a great time, at Eastern,” he says. “I’m very happy, quite frankly, that I went there.” Orr pauses for a beat, then smiles and adds. “I do wish, wholeheartedly, that I had been a better student, a more serious student, and that

I had more fully taken advantage of everything the university had to offer. Woulda, coulda, shoulda: What can I tell you?”

When pressed a bit, Orr describes what actually sounds like an admirably high level of engagement with his studies. At one point during his junior year, in fact, he was recognized by the EWU Alumni Association as one of EWU’s “students of the year.”

“My major at Eastern was in organizational and mass communications — a Bachelor of Science degree,” Orr says. “The thing that I liked about it very much was that it was, in essence, skill building. I really enjoyed the fact that you were doing things, not just reading and reciting.”

Which bring us back around to today’s aspiring pros, students for whom “doing things” is also a priority. They just need their own shot at success, and the confidence to pursue opportunity when it presents itself.

On that score, their trip couldn’t have been more encouraging, says Drew Ayers. “The students were surprised by how welcoming everyone was. They were just so super-kind, which was great. That just speaks to the kind of people Jim knows.”

At one point, Ayers recalls, a staffer from Orr’s team offered up an unscheduled tour of the working lot. Soon the students were out on foot, peeking into soundstages where an army of Hollywood creatives were working, each in their own special area of expertise, to make the movie magic happen.

“The students were just exposed to so much more than any of them were expecting,” Ayers says. “Before the trip they didn’t know what they didn’t know: that there were so many possibilities, so many career pathways open to them.”

That was certainly Orr’s hope.

“I’m sure some of it was lost on them. But when you get exposed to these things, you can start to see what’s possible,” Orr says. “What I wanted them to understand is that, ‘Yes, it helps to be smart, to be hardworking, to be a good person. But you can do it.’ And I’m pretty sure they got that.”

The students were just exposed to so much more than any of them were expecting.

PLAYING IT FORWARD

EAGLE ALUMNI ARE LEAVING A DECIDEDLY EASTERN IMPRINT ON THE GAME OF GOLF.

FORWARD

By Melodie Little and Charles E. Reineke

When citizens of the far-flung Eagle nation return to Cheney for Eastern’s 100th Homecoming this fall, you can be sure that many, if not most, will be toting golf clubs. That’s not just because the game is popular — a National Golf Foundation survey found that 41.1 million Americans played at least one 18-hole round in 2022 — but because the Inland Northwest is an exceptional golfing destination.

Eastern alumni play an important role in keeping it that way, serving as club and course administrators, as well as staff and teaching professionals. It’s not easy. Conditions can be challenging, patrons demanding and hours long: working at play is, after all, still work. But for these talented professionals, no job could be better.

Just ask Paul Stringer ’79, a former Eagle golf-team standout who has pretty much done it all with, and for, the game. Over the course of his 35-year career, Stringer has served as a club professional, a course general manager, and, perhaps most consequentially, as an international course-design executive. With his Eagle alumna wife, Christie ’80, he has lived in China and Australia, while his work-related duties have taken him to nearly 90 countries.

These days, Stringer is the president of Nicklaus Design, the world’s leading golf course design firm. During its 50-year history, the company has built more than 435 courses in 46 countries, close to one percent of all the courses in the world.

At Nicklaus Design, he says, the goal has always been to realize the vision of founder Jack Nicklaus, who is widely acknowledged as both a master course designer and, arguably, the greatest golfer of all time. The company, like its founder, has long championed courses that are beautiful, challenging and fit within the natural terrain and environment of their locations.

“Many designers,” says Stringer, “have their own style. They’re artists, yes, but their golf courses tend to look similar. At Nicklaus Design, we embrace the topography, designing to the owner’s vision while working within environmental constraints to maximize

T he Creek at Qualchan.

Photo by Eric Galey

I call this the public golfcourse Mecca of the U.S. It really is a cool place where people can come and play many different courses and still keep it way under $100 per course, per day.

— Bob Scott ’87

Carisa Padilla, a sophomore member of EWU’ s women ’ s golf team, plays out of a bunker at Indian Canyon.

players’ experience. This ensures that each of our courses is going to be totally unique.”

The stunningly varied landscapes of the Inland Northwest similarly represent the perfect opportunity for creating playable but challenging courses with jaw-dropping beauty. And across the region, Eastern alumni are committed to helping both visitors and club members make the most of these special locations.

“Once that spring clock hits, and the temperature is turned up to good golfing weather, Spokane is a golf town. It really is,” says Mark Poirier ’03, golf manager for Spokane Parks and Recreation.

Poirier oversees the City’s four municipal golf courses — Esmeralda, Downriver, Indian Canyon and The Creek at Qualchan — where eager local players and visitors from out-of-town logged some 172,000 rounds last year.

Esmeralda, with its lush, forgiving greens, is ideal for those who are relatively new to the game or want to play fast without a lot of hazards and bunkers. Downriver, the city’s oldest and busiest course, plays well for all ability levels.

The Creek at Qualchan, with its varied water features, and Indian Canyon, designed in 1930 and carved into a scenic hillside, are championship-style courses. In fact, Indian Canyon has, on multiple occasions, been listed in Golf Digest’s top 25 public courses in the country.

“We really do have a golf course for anyone. From the beginning golfer that has never touched a club, to the scratch handicappers, to the golf pro,” Poirier says.

Poirier found his way to EWU after former men’s golf coach Marc Hughes recruited him out of Wenatchee High School. Poirier accepted the scholarship and played for three years, until the program was discontinued in 2002.

Poirier says he practiced at all four of the courses he now oversees, not only honing his game but developing relationships that would later open doors: “I always thought to myself, ‘Gosh, this would be a pretty cool pace to work; this would be a pretty cool career — to be a golf pro.’”

Making his dream a reality involved, first, working as an assistant golf pro at The Creek at Qualchan, where he picked up hands-on management skills while working with Qualchan’s head pro, Mark Gardner. “You can’t beat real-world type of experience in that – and I felt fortunate to learn from one of the very best in the industry,” says Poirier.

Next up was a job managing North Idaho’s Highlands Golf Course, where he worked for nearly nine years before, in 2019, accepting the job in Spokane. These days, Poirier oversees contractual agreements for the city’s four managing pros, leads searches for new head professionals, and directs the course superintendents who, in turn, manage the grounds crews who ensure the courses look great and invite optimal play.

Serving in a role that advances golfing opportunities for an entire community, finding new and innovative ways to support youth golf, and connecting with people who also love the game: these are just some of the reasons that Poirier says it’s the best job he has ever had.

“I have a fun time coming to work every single day,” he says. “My focus is always on how we can make our product better, and serve the community better, each and every day.”

Local public course options aren’t limited to those run by the city. There are also three high-quality county-run courses: Latah Creek, MeadowWood and Liberty Lake.

“I call this the public golf-course Mecca of the U.S. It really is a cool place where people can come and play many different courses and still keep it way under $100 per course, per day,” says Bob Scott ’87, MeadowWood’s director of golf.

Scott is an unapologetic booster of the local scene. Spokane city and county courses, he says, offer quality golf at a bargain price due, in large part, to the public-private partnerships that set them apart.

The city and county, he explains, provide course maintenance, including top groundskeepers. Contracted club pros, meanwhile, lend their expertise in running the daily operations, as seasonal crews handle tee-times, league management, merchandise sales, restaurant operations and the myriad other tasks that keep facilities running smoothly.

Mark Poirier at The Creek at Qualchan

Scott, who manages a crew of 28 at MeadowWood, a links-style course that caters to all skill levels, says EWU helped to ready him for the job: “My business degree really helped me, because as a golf pro here in Spokane — especially in the city and county courses — we’re independent contractors.”

Scott got his start in 1985, after he cajoled a gig from fellow Eagle

and EWU Athletics Hall of Famer Gary Lindeblad ’72, then head golf pro at Indian Canyon. “I started bugging him, like in January, for a job,” says Scott, who, at the time, wanted to work in the industry because of the “free rounds of golf and range balls.”

At the urging of Lindeblad, whom he considers to be a mentor, Scott started on the path to become a golf professional in 1986 and completed the PGA program in 1989, soon after graduating. He continued at Indian Canyon before going to work at Liberty Lake Golf Course and then, crossing the street, to work at MeadowWood, Last year, golfers played about 40,000 rounds at MeadowWood, says Scott, who is never shy about crediting his crew and course superintendent. “The conditions are always good,” he says. “The speed of play is always excellent.”

A quick, 30-minute drive across Washington’s border leads to Rathdrum, Idaho, where another Eagle, Jennifer Dolph ’03, is making her own mark on the industry. Dolph, one of nation’s few women working as a club-managing pro, oversees the operation at Twin Lakes Village, a community that includes 360 private homes and a public course.

A golf pro since 2003 and a PGA member since 2008, Dolph played on the EWU women’s golf team from 1999-2003 while studying recreation management. “In the very first class [the professor] said, ‘If you are here to make money, leave now. If you

Lining up a putt at Spokane’ s Downriver Golf Course

Bob Scott

are here to do what you love, please stay,’” Dolph says. “That has held true throughout my entire career, and all of the different decisions that I’ve made,” says Dolph, who today manages a team of 40 mostly seasonal employees.

Playing on EWU’s women’s golf team also had an influence. She recalls an inspirational moment when her team was working out in the weight room and members of Eagle football team came in to exercise. Not only were the guys amazed to see the women golfers lifting weights, they complimented them on their hard work.

“It was kind of a light bulb moment,” Dolph says. “Other people don’t always see the work you put in — sometimes golf is a sport that people associate with drinking beer and driving carts.”

After graduation, Dolph taught golf to young campers in Massachusetts, coached collegiate golf at the University of California, Riverside, served as a regional director of golf and managed clubs across the country. When she accepted the position at Twin Lakes Village, Dolph, who grew up in Pullman, felt like she was coming home. “It’s a small [golf pro] community in a big world. To have people who I played with back in the day — Trevor Fox is down at Black Rock and Mark Poirier with the Spokane courses — it is definitely really cool.”

Dolph’s former Eagle golf partner, Trevor Fox ’02 , has carved out his own successful niche in the hills above Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Fox is the director of golf at The Golf Club at Black Rock, a private club with roughly 280 members (certain celebrities-who-must-gounnamed among them).

Fox, who got his start at Indian Canyon, has been a professional for close to 20 years. He says he can think of half-a-dozen team members who are professionals working in the immediate area. “It’s kind of interesting to have that many in the area who were on the Eastern team at a certain point,” he says.

Although Black Rock routinely makes top 100 lists for private courses, it has a laidback, summer-camp vibe.

“It’s one of few top golf clubs where T-Shirts, flip flops and board shorts are okay,” Fox says. “That’s because of the lake. We call it North Idaho casual, and just really try to let our members enjoy themselves. We want them to feel like they are on vacation all of the time.” Black Rock is, in fact, like its own little resort town. As such, Fox and his team of roughly 25 employees often find themselves providing services that go well beyond typical golf-pro duties.

And while his time playing the Jim Enghdesigned course never fails to excite, Fox says his favorite part of his job is the membership and staff at Black Rock.

“It is very much a family atmosphere,” Fox says, adding, “It’s a heck of a spot and I’m very lucky to be where I am.”

That sentiment is one shared by Eagle pros working at clubs and on courses across the nation. “Lucky” also describes, of course, those golfers fortunate enough to drive, chip and putt their way through these places that EWU alumni make so special.

Want to see a listing of additional Eastern alumni making their own contributions to the game? Visit our website: ewu.edu/ magazine.

Star Athlete, Inspiring Coach

Former Eagle athlete Brenda Howe, EWU’s head golf coach, is chiefly motivated by her players’ successes both on — and off — the golf course.

From an early age, Brenda Howe ’99, who next year will celebrate her 15th season as Eastern’s head golf coach, knew the game was in her future.

“I was introduced to the golf business from high school and on. Transferring to EWU [from the University of Idaho] reconnected me to the local golf community,” says Howe.

As an Eastern undergraduate, Howe studied recreation management while anchoring the university’s women’s golf team, twice earning AllBig Sky Conference honors.

After graduation, Howe worked as assistant men’s and women’s golf coach at Washington State. She then spent seven years as a golf pro at Spokane’s Downriver and Indian Canyon courses before accepting the position as the head golf coach at EWU.

Howe says there is a long history of collegiate men’s golf graduates — at EWU and around the country — going on to become industry professionals. That trend doesn’t apply so much to women, Howe says.

In her 14 years of coaching, Howe recalls only one of her former players making a living in golf: “It’s more of a trend that we have good students focused on careers in the medical, educational and business fields.”

Howe says that she’s proud to see so many of her student athletes successfully earn their way into such high-impact occupations.

“Coaching golf is fun, but watching them grow into young adults and enter their careers is even better,” she says.

Jennifer Dolph

HONOR ING OUTSTANDING EAGLES

EXCEPTIONAL EAGLES

Each year the EWU Alumni Association holds a gala event to honor Eastern’s most impactful alumni. This year’s gathering was dubbed “1882: Honoring Outstanding Eagles” to commemorate the year of Eastern’s founding. It included an added bonus: a partnership with the EWU Foundation that celebrated our most generous benefactors, including a corporation and two individuals whose philanthropic contributions have been particularly helpful to Eastern and its students.

BENJAMIN P. CHENEY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

At Cheney and Wahluke high schools, Lori Wyborney ’86, ’92, ’95, the 2023 Benjamin P. Cheney Lifetime Achievement Award winner, made a name for herself as the educator and coach who spoke out against inequalities in women athletics (while bringing a tenacious style to building winning softball teams). But her true legacy was created at John R. Rogers High School, where she became principal in 2010. At the time, Rogers and its students were struggling, with graduation rates among the state’s worst. Wyborney turned things around. Graduation rates went up. Way up. “She was the right leader at the right time,” recalls Shelley Redinger, then Spokane School District superintendent.

Wyborney’s success at Rogers attracted national media attention and made her an in-demand speaker across the U.S. Since retiring in 2021, she has continued her strong commitment to community service. As a consultant with the Spokane Public Schools, she helps principals adopt innovative student-success strategies. Her work with the Gonzaga Family Haven project, meanwhile, is providing permanent housing for more than 70 unhoused families. At Eastern, Wyborney has for years volunteered as a speaker and lecturer. As if this weren’t enough, she is also a big booster of Eagle athletics, not just attending games but serving on the board of the Eagle Athletic Fund and working to support the Fast Break Club.

EAGLE4LIFE SPIRIT

Eagle alumni are famous for their pride and dedication, but among the Eastern faithful Kory Kelly ’16 stands out as a true Eagle4Life. At every home football game, for example, you’ll find him, in his time-honored parking spot, hosting a boisterous tailgate for fellow alumni and friends. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, his work with the Eagle Athletic Fund has helped grow financial support while expanding EWU Athletics’ fan base. Beyond sports, Kelly gives back to current Eagles as the president of the Alumni Volunteer Corporation of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, where he mentors undergraduates who often go on to serve in key student-leadership roles. In addition to all this, Kelly has taken on the broader role of alumni-involvement contact for EWU’s fraternity and sorority life staff, and has generously offered his time and insights as a member of the editorial advisory board for this magazine.

SANDY WILLIAMS TRAILBLAZER

A friend, neighbor and activist collaborator with the late Sandy Williams, Barbara (Lili) Navarrete ’99 is the first recipient of EWU’s inaugural Sandy Williams Trailblazer Award. Like Williams, Navarrete is a powerful advocate for the underserved: In Navarrete’s case, immigrant communities, both documented and undocumented, and others who suffer from social marginalization and workplace exploitation. In her current position as director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood’s Raíz (Spanish for “root”) program, she works tirelessly to promote health equity and better outcomes for vulnerable immigrant woman.

As a community activist and volunteer, meanwhile, Navarrete has an extensive track record of effective engagement. She has served, for example, as vice president of Spokane’s Hispanic, Business, and Professional Association; is an active member of the Spokane Immigrant Rights Coalition and the Washington Immigration Solidarity Network; and is currently serving in her second term as a commissioner on the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Among the many ways she has given back to Eastern has been her service as the 2020 Women’s and Gender Education Center’s Activist in Residence, while her ongoing participation in university workshops has enhanced the reach and effectiveness of education and outreach programs related to race, gender and health outcomes.

MILITARY SERVICE

Our honoree for military service, Lt Col. (Ret.) Brad Liberg ’81, studied industrial engineering while serving in the EWU ROTC Corps of Cadets. Over the course of 22 years of service in the U.S. Army, Liberg earned numerous awards and citations while playing an integral role in developing and maintaining the readiness of some of our nation’s (and the world’s) most advanced missile systems. Among these were both the Stinger missile and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that have proved decisive on the battlefields of Ukraine.

After his promotion to commander of the Army’s Combat Equipment Battalion in Hythe, England, Liberg was positioned on a solid track to further advancement. Instead, he chose to continue his service in a different way, moving into another high-pressure engagement demanding vigilance and unwavering dedication to duty — that of public educator. For the past 11 years at West Valley High School, he has served as the career and technical education director, a dean of students, assistant principal and, currently, as principal.

GOV. CLARENCE D. MARTIN EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR

From the very first time he set foot in a classroom, Marty Robinette ’76, ’07, the Gov. Clarence D. Martin Educator of Year Award winner, has been fiercely determined to see each of his students succeed. In his first teaching job, for example, Robinette developed a successful after-school academic support program so that struggling students might have a better shot at success. His next position also involved improving student prospects, this time as an assistant principal at Spokane’s North Central high School, a place that had never quite developed, as educators say, a “college-going culture.” Robinette changed that, bringing the GEAR UP program to North Central and so helping an entire cohort of seventh-to-twelfth graders get college-ready.

In 2011, he joined the staff of Principal Lori Wyborney, our lifetime achievement honoree, at Spokane’s Rogers High School. There he played a key role in administering the programs that helped turn around Rogers’ notoriously poor graduation rates, while at the same time advocating for better Advanced Placement options. “He never gives up on any student,” Wyborney says.

TAWANKA SERVICE

Giving back started early for Patricia Chandler ’57, the Tawanka Service Award winner. As an undergraduate at Eastern, she was active in the Tawanka service organization (while also serving as president of the 100-plus member Future Teachers Club). As Tawanka wound down, Chandler helped establish a scholarship fund so that former members might continue to participate in Tawanka-style service work. Her fundraising for that effort led to twice-annual Tawanka meetings on the west side of Washington (where Chandler worked at Brier Elementary as a classroom teacher, a specialist for staff development and, finally, principal).

Over the years Chandler has given generously to EWU while leading outreach efforts that encouraged other Tawanka alumni to do the same. More recently, Chandler and her late husband, Leo, established the Leo & Pat Chandler Leadership Scholarship endowment to assist Eagle students who, like them, aim to use their leadership skills to uplift people and communities.

RISING EAGLE

As a communications studies student at Eastern, Isabella Robertson ’22, distinguished herself as an exemplary young scholar, community leader and advocate for campus diversity and multicultural activities, efforts that resulted in her receiving EWU’s Frances B. Huston Award for meritorious service. After graduation, she has wasted no time in bringing this spirit of service to the national stage. First she served as an intern with the office of Rep. Kevin McCarthy — now U.S. House Speaker — and, more recently, has entered the professional political ranks as an aide to Rep. Brian Mast of Florida’s 18th Congressional District, where she handles constituent services related to immigration.

What’s the next step up for this Rising Eagle star? Robertson says she hopes to complete a law degree, and then to continue to serve her country as a U.S. Armed Forces JAG lawyer. “Isabella embodies the spirit of an Eagle: loyal, tenacious and fiercely dedicated,” wrote one of her biggest fans, Robertson’s sister, Catherine ’21. “She has always sustained these characteristics — as well as a true heart of kindness, justice, and courage — for her entire life. It’s an honor to be her older sister and fellow EWU alumna.”

ALUMNI PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR

Barbara Shields ’92 found her professional niche right out of high school as a phone operator for Pacific Northwest Bell. Over the years, even as Shields’s career blossomed with promotions and additional responsibilities, one thing continued to bug her — her lack of a college degree. As she neared retirement, Shields did something about it. Taking advantage of a tuition reimbursement program offered by her employer, she enrolled at Eastern. It didn’t take long for Shields to accomplish her goal, graduating magna cum laude in general studies.

As a retiree, Shields decided she’d like to give a boost to others, who, like her, may have deferred their dream of a degree. “I decided to endow a scholarship while I’m still alive to see students benefit from it,” she told InsideEWU. In 2008, Shields established two separate endowments: One funds two undergraduate scholarships each year, the other provides two graduate-student scholarships. "There’s so many wonderful young people who just need a hand up,” she says.

PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR

Bill Youngs, a professor of history at EWU, has served the university — and the larger Eastern community — for more than 50 years. Over the course of this fruitful career, Youngs has written five books, published numerous academic papers and given countless presentations to audiences both in the United States and abroad. He has received research grants from the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a recipient of EWU’s Trustees’ Award. Beyond these accolades and accomplishments, however, it is his steadfast commitment to his students that has distinguished Youngs’ time at EWU.

Just over two years ago, two of these former students, Mike Clawson and Alicia KinneClawson, chose to honor Youngs by establishing the Bill Youngs Endowment. The fund helps undergraduate students in history, environmental science and/or interdisciplinary studies with the cost of tuition, research projects and publishing expenses. Since the endowment’s establishment, Youngs says he has been personally compelled to work to extend its impact: “If this young couple can dig deep to contribute to the university, so should I.”

CORPORATE PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR

For close to a century, STCU has been one of our region’s most generous corporate citizens, providing financial, in-kind and volunteer support to schools, colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations. At Eastern, STCU has long been a valuable partner, helping the university provide opportunities that help students in need reach their full potential. Over the years they have also lent crucial support to projects as varied as the installation of EWU’s iconic One-Room Schoolhouse and the founding of the Eagle Career Network, to support for the Innovation Hub at the Catalyst and funding for the electronic-reader board that greets students and visitors as they pass by Roos Field.

This is an especially apropos time to honor STCU with EWU’s Corporate Philanthropist Award. Recently the company and its CEO, Ezra Eckhardt (pictured above), formed the Here for Good Foundation, a philanthropy that will allow STCU “to double down” on its giving, ensuring that its tradition of service remains robust for decades to come.

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3. On a cold January day in west Texas, Joanne Wright ’87 and Kevin Semler ’87 celebrated reaching the summit of Guadalupe Peak in Guadalupe National Park. “We had to hike through snow and persevere in 40 mile-per-hour winds to reach the top with our Eastern magazine,” says Semler.

4. Angel L. Rios ’16, ’18, a support contractor for the United States Antarctic Program, was stationed on the Earth’s southern-most continent from October 2022 to February 2023. “I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to live and work here supporting the science programs,” she wrote from McMurdo Station.

1. Patrick ’10 and Nicolette Spanner ’10, ’12 enjoyed a Covid-delayed honeymoon on Italy’s Amalfi Coast this spring.

2. David Sutton, ’73, took his magazine with him on a “staycation” in his backyard in Spokane.

5. While on their own Antarctic excursion this January, Cyndi and Bruce Christofferson ’77 paused for a snapshot near Red Rock Ridge, Antarctic circle: 66°33”S.

6. Brendan Genther ’20 experienced the sunny beaches of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, this spring.

7. Nancy McKay ’68 and Kent Richardson ’70 in the winter visited the Great Pyramid of Giza near Cairo, Egypt.

8. On a two-week tour of Thailand this winter, Nancy Iris Martin ’84 paused for a photo in front of a bright red postal box in Bangkok.

9. During a trip to Hawai’i with his wife earlier this year, John Hausmann Jr. ’00 stopped by to say hello to EWU alumna Michelle Horton ’10 (pictured). Horton, who was featured in our Fall/Winter 2019 issue, is the founder of the Lokahi Kailua Farmers’ Market on the island of O‘ahu.

1970s

’75 Edmond A Bruneau, BA journalism, is a Walla Walla-based poet, songwriter and music producer. His latest work, a collaboration with the Italian band Whistlewit, was released earlier this year. The CD, titled Sunflower 69, is a homage to 1960s-era musical magic, the best of which, Bruneau says, “embraced enormous innovation and genuine movement toward community, peace and love.”

1980s

’81 Scott Bockstruck, BA recreational administration, in June 2022 retired as the associate regional director for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Bockstruck had previously served, from 1983-2000, as staff director for EWU’s chapter of the InterVarsity ministry.

’84 Cal FitzSimmons, BA journalism, retired in January after a 40-years career in the news business. FitzSimmons, a former editor of The Easterner, got his start with The Spokesman-Review while still at EWU. He went on to work for six daily newspapers, including the Tri-City Herald and The Missoulian, before being named editor of The Daily News in Longview, Washington. He edited The Wenatchee World for nine years before finishing his career as the news and sales director at Wenatchee TV station NCWLIFE.

’84 James Ruzicka, BA radio and television, in April received the Elbert K. Fretwell Outstanding Educator Award from the Palmetto Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Ruzicka, after a long and successful military career, recently completed his first year as a Junior ROTC instructor at Union County High School in Union, South Carolina.

’85 Joe Harris, BA physical education, in July of last year was inducted into their Court of Honor by the National High School Basketball Coaches Association (NHSBCA), a distinction that recognizes

members’ contributions to the growth of NHSBCA and positive impacts on scholastic basketball nationally. After coaching boys’ basketball at Chelan High School for 31 years, Harris stepped away from the court in 2016 with a 516-260 win-loss record and a state championship title. In 2011 he was inducted into the Washington State Basketball Coaches Hallof-fame.

’86 Todd Metter, BA management information systems, retired in February after a 32-year career as a firefighter/ paramedic with the Bellevue (Washington) Fire Department. Says Metter: “After countless calls and sleepless nights, I will be snow skiing at destination resorts, completing endless home-improvements projects and travelling to Southeast Asia to discover amazing flora and fauna.”

1990s

’91 Lisa Parks, BA urban and regional planning, in May won confirmation from the Tumwater (Washington) City Council to serve as the city’s new administrator. She had previously worked as executive services director at the Port of Olympia.

’91 Karl Scarborough, BA education, in June retired after 32 years of service as a music educator with the Winlock (Washington) School District. For most of his career, according to The Chronicle newspaper in Centralia, Washington, Scarborough was the district’s only music teacher, serving as band and choir director for both middle school and high school students. He was inducted into the Washington State Educators Hall of Fame in 2020.

’94, ’95 James Jewell, BA, MA history, published his latest book, Agents of Empire: The First Oregon Cavalry and the Opening of the Interior Pacific Northwest during the Civil War with the University of Nebraska Press. The book, wrote one reviewer, is “a welcome addition to the growing body of work on the Civil War in the Far West, adding new dimensions and richness to

our understanding of the war’s impact on the entire nation.” Jewell is a professor of history at North Idaho College.

’94 Rick Walk, BA urban and regional planning, at press time was in contract negotiations to become the next city manager in Lacey, Washington. Walk has served as Lacey’s interim city manager since December 2022.

2000s

’04 Randi Holm, BA communication studies. In March, Holm’s candy company, Holm Made Toffee Co., earned three top prizes at the 19th annual Oregon Chocolate Festival in Ashland, Oregon: People’s Choice Award, voted by festival attendees; Best Chocolate Candy, voted by festival judges; and Best in Show.

’04 Ashlie Beal, BA interdisciplinary studies. As the founder of The Light Factory, a Spokane company creating bespoke lighting fixtures, Beal has spent the last decade building a national customer base. Her work was featured in the Dec. 13, 2022 issue of The Inlander.

’05 Tyler Doupe', BA English, has written for The Fandango Movie Blog, The Syfy Channel’s website (SyFyWire), and several prominent digital and print publications in the fantasy and horror genre. He now serves as the editor of the website Wicked Horror, while also curating several of the site’s ad-supported VOD streaming channels.

’06 Carmell Engebretson, BA business administration, is the director of communications for the Bristol Bay Native Corporation. In April, she was honored as one of Alaska’s “2023 Top Forty Under 40” by the Alaska Journal of Commerce and the Anchorage Daily News, an award that recognizes young professionals who have demonstrated both excellence in the workplace and a commitment to their communities.

’06 Micah Rieke, MS physical education, is a PE teacher at Icicle River Middle School in Leavenworth, Washington. Earlier in 2023 he was named the school’s certificated employee of the year.

’09 Cathrene (Cat) Nichols, BA English, is a senior director for Spokane County Community Affairs, an agency dedicated to building communities while helping vulnerable local residents maintain healthier, more independent lives. Nichols work was recently featured in the book, Governing on the Ground: The Past, Present, and Future of County Government

2010s

’16 Nate Peters, BA visual communications, earlier this year was named vice president of marketing and communications at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington.

’19 Madyson (Mady) Rigg, BA communications studies, was awarded the title of Miss Montana USA during a competition held in Lewistown, Montana on May 7. She will represent her home state at the 72nd Miss USA pageant to be held later this year at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.

2020s

’21 Eric Barriere, Jr., BA communications studies, this spring signed with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL. Barriere, one of the most successful quarterbacks in Eastern football history, joined the Generals after beginning the 2023 USFL season with the Michigan Panthers.

’22 Carly Bair, MM piano performance, has joined the music faculty at Whitworth University as an adjunct professor.

Passionate Educator

John Cogley, a professor who left an indelible mark on students’ lives and careers, died on Dec. 31.

With his “vivid smile” and “infectious laugh,” John Cogley never failed to lift spirits and light up classrooms during his long tenure as a professor and department chair of therapeutic recreation at EWU. With his support and guidance, Cogley also fired up the career prospects of his students: Today hundreds are making their mark in what we now refer to as “wellness and movement sciences,” a professional field he was instrumental in advancing.

Cogley arrived at Eastern in 1978, and immediately set about making the therapeutic recreation program at EWU among the nation’s best. From 2005 until his retirement in 2011 he served as chair of the Department of Physical Education, Health and Recreation, which was renamed the Department of Wellness and

2010s

’18 Joel Teats, age 31, died May 5, 2023.

’14 Rick Dandurand, age 65, died Dec. 19, 2022.

’10 Ellen Holland, age 51, died March 12, 2023.

2000s

’07 Amanda Ward, age 38, died Jan. 7, 2023.

1990s

’92 Terri Quinlivan, age 63, died April 30, 2023.

Movement Sciences in 2019. “He made our department what it is today,” says Alan Coelho, a former colleague and professor of exercise science at EWU. “He had high standards, and held his students and faculty to those standards.”

Throughout his 33 years of service, those standards were evident both in the esteem Cogley earned from both colleagues — Cogley, for example, was tasked with contributing questions for the national certification exam used by colleges nationwide — and students, many of whom recently shared memories with Coelho.

Pam Young is one of those students. Young credits Cogley with providing incredible support after she, when pregnant, transferred to EWU as a junior. “Because of the kindness, grace, encouragement and support given by Dr. Cogley, I graduated on time,” Young said, adding that

1980s

’87 Kerry Rodeen, age 57, died March 8, 2023.

’84 Kevin Carson, age 62, died Feb. 12, 2023.

’84 Christa Richardson, age 79, died Feb. 23, 2023.

’84 Betty Sansom, age 88, died Feb. 25, 2023.

’83 Jeanne Tomlin, age 91, died April 3, 2023.

’82 Gary W. Pierce, age 72, died March 1, 2023.

’81 Dorothy Pierce, age 90, died March 22, 2023.

even after graduation Cogley’s assistance meant the world to her. “It catapulted my professional experience and confidence,” she says.

Alongside his academic and professional contributions, Cogley, a lover of all things outdoors, also assisted with programming for the adapted ski program on Mt. Spokane. In addition, he and his wife, Patty, were instrumental in creating the reading garden located outside EWU’s One Room School House.

Professor John Philip Cogley was 77 years old.

’81 David Sullivan, age 66, died March 3, 2023.

’80 Nicholas Fenno, age 67, died April 11, 2023.

1970s

’77 Hosey Ray Horton, age 86, died Aug. 22, 2022.

’74 John Clark, age 81, died Feb. 22, 2023.

’74 Jocelyn Moore, age 73, died Feb. 8, 2023.

’72 James Nimnicht, age 74, died Dec. 7, 2022.

’71 Michael Angelo, age 74, died April 22, 2023.

’71 Richard Martin, age 75, died April 2, 2023.

’70 Raymond Fox, age 76, died March 17, 2023.

’70 Reese Hinthorne, age 76, died March 23, 2023.

1960s

’69 Jean Huber, age 84, died April 6, 2023.

’67 Don Harwood, age 82, died Feb. 27, 2023.

’67 William Hachman, age 84, died March 6, 2023.

’66 Richard Bretthauer, age 86, died April 4, 2023.

’68 Albert Kissler, age 78, died Jan 21, 2023.

’66, ’74 Larry Peterson, age 78, died Jan. 21, 2023.

’64 Leroy Faling, age 87, died Jan. 15, 2023.

’64 Leslie Francis, age 85, died Feb. 3, 2023.

’63 Mary Ritchie, age 82, died March 19, 2023.

’60 Leroy Lowdon, age 91, died March 6, 2023.

1950s

’59 Duane Colvin, age 88, died April 10, 2023.

’55 Jeannine Sigler, age 90, died April 5, 2023.

Faculty and Staff

Jack Benson, died Dec. 29, 2022. Benson ’62 coached EWU men’s gymnastics team while serving as a faculty member in health and physical education. He retired in 1999 after 34 years of service, and was inducted into the EWU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

John Cogley, died Dec. 31, 2022. During his long tenure at EWU, Cogley served as a professor and department chair of therapeutic recreation. (See story Page 33.)

Michael Dietrich, died Dec. 19, 2022. Dietrich, a talented drummer who left his mark on the Spokane music scene, retired from EWU Dining Services in August 2007 after 27 years of service.

Michael Green, died Feb. 23, 2023. Green ’60 served as a professor and department chair of history before retiring in 2001. Over the course of his 33-year career at Eastern, Green specialized in U.S. diplomatic

history as well as that of the Pacific Northwest.

Bill Greene, died Jan 1, 2023. Greene served for 34 years as an EWU professor of psychology. Green, a widely published researcher, helped to advance forms of biofeedback therapies that are widely practiced today. He retired in 1998.

Frank Ide, died April 23, 2023. A U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, Ide worked in various communications and technologysupport services at EWU for 15 years. He retired in 1997.

Jerry Krause, died May 24, 2023. Krause was EWU’s men’s basketball head coach for 17 seasons from 1967-85, compiling a 262-195 record. He was inducted into the EWU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

Jamie Manson, died June 7, 2023. Malone ’94, a nationally prominent researcher and fellow of the American Physical Society, was a professor of chemistry. (Story to follow in Fall/Winter.)

Robert Salsbury, died Feb. 5, 2023. Salsbury ’58, ’61 served as a professor of education at EWU for 31 years. As both an educator and researcher, Salsbury worked to ensure that remote learning became accepted as part of the university experience. He was named Alumnus of the Year in 2002.

Beverly Siegel, died Dec. 26, 2022. An avid reader, Siegel assisted students and university community members at the University Bookstore (now the Eagle Store) for 17 years before retiring in 2009.

Carrie Yerty, died January 24, 2023. Yerty served as an assistant women’s volleyball coach at EWU in the early 1990s.

• Establish an endowed scholarship in your name

• Provide funds for the program — or team — that changed your life

• Support student activities to enrich campus life

Celebrating Home: The origins of Homecoming, that football-centered rite of return that brings alumni back to their collegiate alma maters, is shrouded in mystery, with several American universities making competing claims to having hosted the first one. Eastern makes no such assertion, but our own century of celebrating Homecoming an anniversary itself to be celebrated this fall has seldom failed to deliver on the pomp and pageantry. While images from EWU’s earliest fall gatherings are rare, photos from later events including these from Eastern’s 25th Homecoming in 1948 demonstrate the enduring appeal of living on, and returning to, the Eastern Washington University campus.

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH THE

Mark your calendars for Eagle fun!

July 23 EWU DAY AT MARINERS

(Sold Out)

Aug. 11 EWU DAY AT SILVERWOOD

Aug. 25 FALL SPORTS KICK-OFF DINNER

Sept. 2 FOOTBALL VS NDSU

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sept. 19 PASS THROUGH THE PILLARS

Oct. 16-22 100 YEARS OF HOMECOMING

Cheney

Feb. 15 2024 EAGS IN THE DESERT

Palm Springs, California

Mar. 19-21 2024 MARINERS SPRING TRAINING

Peoria, Arizona

Eagles! Connect with us, near and far! Keep up-to-date on all events: ewu.edu/alumnievents