Westwind Spring 2017

WWU's 125th birthday, the 10th anniversary of the WWU student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, the 50th anniversary of the aviation program, and a Messengers reunion concert.

HOMECOMING ALUMNI WEEKEND at Walla Walla University

April 27–30, 2017

WEEKEND EVENTS INCLUDE: Alumni homecoming banquet, Prism vespers, honor class reunions and photos, seminars

HONOR YEARS

1957, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2007

For more information and the weekend schedule, go to wallawalla.edu/homecoming. Or call Alumni and Advancement Services at (800) 377-2586.

is

4 From the President

5 College Avenue

12

The latest from across campus

“The Mountains Are Calling ...”

Kelsey Zuppan and Sarah Sexton undertake an epic journey along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.

20

About the cover

Kelsey

125 Alumni to Watch

They’re smart, they’re driven, and their accomplishments inspire us as we celebrate our 125th anniversary.

30 Alumni Currents

30 Alumnotes, 33 In Memory, 34 Alumnus of Note

“CrossFit

my happy place.”

Pressing on to groundhigher

I am more convinced than ever of the significance and importance of missiondriven, Christian higher education. At Walla Walla University we are looking to the future bearing the torch of four core themes—excellence in thought, generosity in service, beauty in expression, and faith in God. Our students are not just a large group of nearly 1,900, but are individuals, each “created in the image of God as a being of inestimable value and worth, imbued with powers of intelligence, stewardship, and creativity akin to those of the Creator.”

I wish you could have sat with me yesterday as I dialogued with a group of seven current student leaders on our campus. Two colleagues and I left the room marveling at the eloquence, maturity, and sheer ability of WWU students, who personify the purpose and pathos of the university’s mission.

As you enjoy the contents of this issue of Westwind, you will be reminded of the honor of pursuing WWU’s transformative mission. You will hear resonant echoes of the core themes in articles and news notes. You will have a chance to engage 125 alumni as the individuals that they are. You will gain a sense of how rewarding it is in the spring of 2017 to be part of what the WWU mission statement ably describes as a “community of faith and discovery.” It is a place full of hope for the future, which is mirrored in the groundbreaking for the Bowers Hall renovation project. It is a university guided by a skillful set of board members and staffed by excellent, inspiring faculty and staff members. It is a campus motivated by the humanitarian engagement of our students. Even so, when the warm west winds of spring begin to blow, one can feel the call to get away from even the nicest of campuses! One of the things I enjoy most about WWU is that close at hand is

world-class backpacking and scenery. Our family especially enjoys floating down a stretch of the Wallowa River in early summer and traveling down the Lostine Corridor (on a road I’m told was engineered by a WWU alumnus) toward all the wonders of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. You will read here of the joy and peace faculty and staff members find in the great outdoors of the Great Northwest. And you’ll have a chance to learn about alumnus Kelsey Zuppan and her long hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. While it is rewarding to be away at times, it’s always good to come back to campus after a trek in nature with “a deep respect for the beauty in God’s creation” and a fresh grip on “the promise of re-creation through Jesus Christ.”

Thank you for reading this Westwind, appreciating afresh the peerless mission of Walla Walla University, and praying for all of God’s children who call it their academic home.

Cordially,

John McVay President

Hope in the Hills

ASWWU GLOBAL SERVICE is at it again— taking on a humanitarian effort that by all rights should be too big. But big goals are what the Associated Students of Walla Walla University do best.

Avenue

ASWWU Global Service sponsors refugee students in Rwanda

Africa lost nearly 1 million of its citizens to genocide. Today it is rebuilding itself and has become a refuge for citizens of neighboring countries, such as the Congo, where the killing continues.

ASWWU is working on Hope in the Hills in conjunction with ADRA Rwanda. The money raised will help send high-school-aged refugees to Adventist boarding academies throughout Rwanda. Students receive education, a clean bed, three meals a day, and an Adventist community for support.

Six ASWWU officers—envoys for their fellow students —spent two weeks last summer in Rwanda touring refugee camps to get a firsthand look at the educational system in the camps. Getting the lay of the land was just the first step of the yearlong project in which WWU students planned to raise $45,000 to send 75 refugees to Adventist boarding academies. The project name, Hope in the Hills, refers to Rwanda’s nickname, The Land of a Thousand Hills.

Rwanda is a country that has come full circle. More than 20 years ago the small nation in the heart of

Learn how you can get involved: watch ASWWU’s Hope in the Hills video at aswwu.com/ globalservice or email ASWWU. GlobalService@ wallawalla.edu.

“As students ourselves, we know that education is the key to opportunity, and it is no different for these students in Rwanda,” says Ivory Vogt, senior international communications major and 2016–17 ASWWU Global Service director. “It is rewarding to know that we are making a difference in the lives of the refugee students who are going to be able to finish their high school education. We’ve learned that fundraising definitely requires us to rely completely on God and to trust that He will provide for the project.”

And provide He has. As Westwind goes to press, ASWWU has surpassed their goal of $45,000 and is aiming even higher with a new goal of $75,000.

PHOTO:

ASWWU Global Service is working to help fund educational expenses for Congolese refugees living in Rwanda.

Little Women

Students perform Broadway musical production at WWU

THE DEPARTMENT OF Communications and the Department of Music collaborated during fall quarter to bring the Broadway musical production Little Women to the Walla Walla University stage. The cast of 10 performed to a sold-out house in Village Hall for five performances. The story is old—Louisa May Alcott published the book in 1868—but the musical didn’t open on Broadway until 2005.

“The musical hits a lot of the highlights of the story, mostly following the character of Jo through all of the different major turning points,” said Director David Crawford, instructor of communications. The music was directed by Christine Janis, instructor in voice, and Kraig Scott, professor of music.

“These are all people who know how to sing,” Scott said of the cast. “Some of them

are actually voice majors; a lot of them are voice minors.” He described the score, by Jason Howland with lyrics from Mindi Dickstein, as more melodic than Stephen Sondheim and reminiscent of Richard Rodgers. The result is a show with a classic feel that pleased all the fans of Broadway who came out to watch.

Staging a production so early in the aca-

demic year presented a few challenges. The production timeline was condensed from 10 weeks to six, which required parts to be cast the previous spring and students to practice over the summer. Local professionals comprised the orchestra, which included WWU and Whitman College faculty and former faculty, as well as players from the Walla Walla Symphony.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Greg Dodds receives 2016–17

WWU Community Service Award

Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce awards banquet.

Greg Dodds, professor of history and chair of the Department of History, is the 2016–17 recipient of the Walla Walla University Community Service Award.

Dodds was presented with the award in December by Bob Cushman, WWU vice president for academic administration, at the 134th annual Walla

Dodds has been an active member of the Walla Walla community for many years, in particular as an advocate for social causes and for people adversely affected by social injustice. He is chair of the Rogers Adventist School Board and

the Children’s Home Society community council and has been the faculty sponsor for the WWU Amnesty International Club for more than 10 years. In addition to his many campus and professional presentations, Dodds speaks at large on behalf of religious liberty and was a member of the Humanities Washing-

ton Inquiring Minds Speakers Bureau. Through his leadership many students have been encouraged to become involved in community organizations and social concerns, the reach of which extends far beyond the Walla Walla Valley.

Dodds served as chair of the University Master Planning Com-

mittee for six years and has been active in all aspects of university governance. He has received the Walla Walla University President’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, the DeLona and Michael C. Bell Outstanding Teaching Award, and has been the WWU Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

PHOTOS: ALIX HARRIS (TOP), CHRIS DRAKE

The cast included Lindsay Armstrong, Johanna Chevrier, Kristina Kozakova, Chelsea Bond, and Brandan Patchett.

WWU welcomes 11 new members to the Board of Trustees

1 / Bryan Clay ’82 is the former president and owner of a long-term care company. He is chair of the finance committee for the Kirkland Adventist Church, serves on the Washington Conference Board of Education, the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) Board of Education, and the North American Division Executive Committee.

2 / Lowell Cooper is special assistant to the General Conference president serving as chair of the boards at Loma Linda University. He has been a pastor and a missionary to Pakistan and India, and he has served as general vice president of the General Conference.

3 / Rena Holland is cofounder of HopeLife, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless families with housing needs. She volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Washington and the Police Activities League.

4 / Yvonne Iwasa ’88 is a Pathfinder leader, a church elder, and a youth Sabbath School teacher. She serves on the Idaho Conference Executive Committee and the NPUC Board of Education. She has taught sociology and served as social science department chair at Treasure Valley Community College.

5 / Stephen Kreitner is associate general counsel for Kalispell Regional Healthcare System and is vice chair of the State Bar of Montana Health Care Law Section.

6 / Kevin Miller is president of the Alaska Conference. He pastored in Alaska from 2007 to 2016 and is a captain with the Alaska National Guard Chaplain Corps.

7 / Joyce Newmyer is president of the northwest region of Adventist Health.

8 / Todd Pascoe ’92 is an attorney who specializes in criminal and family law. He has also taught high school history.

9 / Paul Rhynard ’04 is an executive vice president for the Joshua Green Corporation in Seattle. Rhynard previously served on the WWU board from 2006 to 2011. As a WWU student, he was president of the Associated Students of Walla Walla College.

10 / Jaime Rodriguez ’89 is an associate professor of global history at St. John’s University in Queens, New York.

11 / Ron Wilkinson ’78 is an entrepreneur and

BY THE NUMBERS

125-year anniversary celebration! 3

Graduates at the first WWC commencement ceremony in 1896

1926

The 500th WWC student registered for classes 3 WWC students who died in a typhoid epidemic in College

Place in 1902

1965

A 1942 Collegian prophecy is fulfilled when each room in Sittner Hall receives its own telephone

Good business

Groundbreaking ceremony marks beginning of Bowers Hall renovation

A GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY was held in January to mark the beginning of a renovation project that will transform Bowers Hall, home of the WWU School of Business. More than 3,000 square feet will be added to the space, and the existing 11,000 square feet will be renovated and reorganized.

To ensure that WWU continues to develop excellent business leaders, the university and generous donors will invest $4 million to transform the 1920s-era building. The project will include an innovation classroom and laboratory, technologies that enhance digital learning, efficient group study spaces, and multifunctional meeting spaces.

During the groundbreaking, WWU President John McVay invited all to imagine the finished project, which is scheduled to be completed in fall of 2017. McVay described the new space as “an environment that is tuned to cutting-edge School of Business education and project-based learning with lots of circulation space and lots of community-building space.”

“The Lord has built our School of Business,” said McVay, “and now we together get to do the easy part and wrap a state-of-the-art building around that School of Business.” McVay noted that fall 2016 enrollment in the School of Business has grown to 196 majors and 64 minors.

Groundbreaking participants included George Bennett, WWU director of Facility Services; Larry Dodds, member of the WWU Board of Trustees and the Life.Changing. Campaign Committee; Josefer Montes, dean of the School of Business; Brandan Patchett, senior business major and president of the Business Club; Jodi Wagner, vice president for University Relations and Advancement; and McVay.

a strong supporter of Christian education. He serves on the board of Walla Walla General Hospital.

The south-facing windows will look out onto Kretschmar Hall lawn.

Watch a video recording of the groundbreaking ceremony at wallawalla.edu/ Bowers-Hall.

College Avenue

Cosaert named president of Adventist Theological Society

Carl Cosaert, professor of biblical studies, was named president of the Adventist Theological Society (ATS) in November 2016 following a two-year term as president-elect. He will serve two years as president.

“What interested me in helping out with ATS is their global outreach to the world church,” said Cosaert. “I’ve traveled for ATS internationally and have seen the blessing this organization has been in helping to educate church leaders as they grow in their understanding of the biblical basis of our Adventist beliefs.”

ATS resources are available by request from church leaders and seminaries for theological assistance, training for workers, Bible symposia, and camp meeting speakers. The ATS regularly touches Adventist leaders, pastors, theologians, and lay people with God’s Word.

Cosaert has traveled extensively in his work with ATS. On an ATS trip to Mexico in 2015, he helped with the recording of a video series titled Faithful to the Scriptures, which was prepared as a gift from ATS to the Seventh-day Adventist church in connection to the North American Division Ministerial Council and the General Conference Session in San Antonio that same year. The series consists of 26 programs, each 30 minutes in length, that introduce members of the Seventh-day Adventist church to the books of the Bible and what it means to be faithful to them. The series is available at ATSacademy.org

In 2014, Cosaert also completed a term as president of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies. He is the first individual to serve as the president of both societies.

books sites

Reading and browsing recommendations from our experts

Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread— The Lessons from a New Science

by Alex Pentland

(Penguin Press, 2014)

This provocative book from MIT professor Alex Pentland explores how ideas flow through networks and what prompts those ideas to become behaviors. Pentland found predictable social network patterns, and he asserts that adopting the most successful patterns will lead to improved idea flow. From weight management to music choice, politics to work performance, Pentland’s research shows that idea flow patterns have more effect on group performance than intelligence, personality, skill, and other factors. It’s a fascinating expose of how social networks predictably impact our behavior.

—Jodi Wagner, vice president for University Relations and Advancement

Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy—Until You’re 80 and Beyond

by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge (Workman Publishing Co., Inc., 2007)

This book is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Dr. Henry Lodge is an internist in Manhattan. Chris Crowley, a lawyer, is his star patient. They take turns showing us how to turn back our biological clocks and eliminate 50 percent of serious illness. After running the six major marathons between ages 59 and 64, I often get asked about lifestyle changes. This book is what I recommend and often give away.

—Gary Rittenbach, director of academic computing

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

by Frances E. Jensen (HarperCollins Publishers, 2015)

2017 SENIOR CLASS OFFICERS

COLLEGE PLACE CAMPUS Front row from left: Paul Dybdahl, professor of mission and New Testament, sponsor; Bryndilynn Goodlin, humanities/English major, secretary/historian; Joseph Ausmus, physics major, social vice president; Erick Juarez, business administration/accounting major, treasurer; Emily Tillotson, assistant professor of social work and sociolo�y, sponsor. Back row: Foluwasomi Oyefeso, bioengineering major, vice president; Gregory Ringering, mathematics major, president; Jonathan Spracklen, industrial design major, marketing and public relations; Andrew Barcenas, health science major, spiritual vice president.

PORTLAND CAMPUS Not pictured: Kelsey Bissell, clinical instructor for advanced acute nursing, sponsor; Michaelynn Paul, associate professor of nursing, sponsor; Amber Aqui, nursing major, copresident; Zoe Foulston, nursing major, copresident.

A recent flight passed quickly thanks to a compelling conversation with another passenger. His expertise: teenagers. His job: headmaster of a prestigious secondary school. The subject of our chat: the perils and possibilities of the young mind. This book recommendation was the best gift of our time together. The author demonstrates, utilizing the most recent neuroscience, the consequences of how we treat our brains in the early years of life. Common dangers: concussions, alcohol, and emotional trauma. Opportunities: learning a language, forming good habits, building positive relationships. This book ranks as the most important I’ve read in the past year.

—Alex Bryan, senior pastor of the University Church

PHOTOS: BRYAN AULICK (TOP), CHRIS DRAKE

From the archives /If memory serves

Adventure in the Blues

What draws us to the great outdoors? We get cold. We get rained on. And we keep going back for more! Snow in the Blues was just an invitation to adventure for Matt White ’02 and his friend, Joel Thomas, on this snow-cave camping trip with the WWU chapter of Collegiate Adventists for Better Living.

Paul Dybdahl

The

I’VE TAUGHT IN the School of Theology at Walla Walla University for the past 16 years. During this time, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism have all experienced significant growth in the United States. No longer can we speak of these as “foreign” religions that exist in some distant corner of the world. Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus are fellow citizens, co-workers, and neighbors.

This reality has caused me to grapple with what I think is a rather important question: How should a Seventh-day Adventist like me, living in America, relate to the world religions? My current perspective on this question has been influenced by many sources. Here, I’ll briefly review just three: George Vandeman, my students, and Jesus.

VANDEMAN

I never met George Vandeman, the well-known Adventist evangelist and long-time director and speaker of the It Is Written television series. Years ago, however, I read his book, What I Like About— In it, Vandeman explored the ways God had been at work in religious groups other than his own and named specific things he liked about each of these groups. Though an unabashed Adventist, Vandeman had no trouble noting, for example, the many Catholic monks and nuns in history who were “heroes” and “radiant examples of genuine Christian love.” 1

Vandeman taught me that it was possible to defend one’s own faith without tearing down the faith of everyone else. He sought to understand others and appreciate whatever he could, despite his disagreements, and he did it all with kindness.

MY STUDENTS

When I was assigned to teach a world religions course on our campus four years ago, I determined to do my best to take the Vandeman approach. I wanted to talk about other religions with respect. I wouldn’t present what others believed only to turn around and mock, degrade, or attack those beliefs.

professor of mission and New Testament

JESUS

Finally, what might we learn if we looked at Jesus?

The religious leaders of his day believed they were living in a wayward and decaying society. There was a strong foreign presence in the land, and with it, political and religious controversy. These devout religious leaders responded by doing their best to protect themselves from the defilement of the unclean masses, people outside their community of faith, and those they considered sinners. In short, they were afraid of the world and created barriers to protect themselves.

But Jesus showed them—and he shows us—a different way. Instead of avoiding sinners, Jesus sought them out. He touched the unclean, commended Samaritans, and conversed with prostitutes. In the words of Ellen White, “The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good.” 2

Watch Dybdahl’s Distinguished Scholar Lecture on this topic at wallawalla.edu/DFL or read his book Before We Call Them Strangers: What Adventists Ought to Know about Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus

At the end of the course, students wrote a short paper describing the impact of the class. As I collected the papers, I was afraid. I worried that my attempt at showing respect for other faiths would somehow come across as support. Should I have been more aggressive and more pointed in my criticisms of where I felt others were wrong?

As I read those papers, I felt relief. Christian students at the start of the quarter were still Christian at the end. But I also felt joy because it seemed clear that God had been at work. Many students had changed. How? They testified that they had actually grown in their faith as they studied other faiths.

These students taught me that careful and prayerful learning about others can be a blessing to us. Followers of Jesus can benefit as we respectfully seek to understand those with whom we do not agree.

Then, at the end of his time on earth, Jesus spoke to his gathered disciples and said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 3 It’s a command that is difficult to obey, because it is always more comfortable to stay in an “upper room” among similarly-minded religious friends. We may even consider it a virtue to do so. But Jesus models and then calls us to a different sort of life. He expects love for the world to overcome our fear.

A CONCLUSION?

I began by asking a question: how should we relate to those of other faiths? In my view, George Vandeman, my students, and Jesus help us begin to answer that question.

Like Vandeman, we should try to understand others, affirm what we can, and do it all with kindness. Like my students, we should be open to learn, and we should expect to be blessed in the process. Like Jesus, we must love the world. That means we can’t simply cloister ourselves away from those of other faiths, quaking and afraid. Our Master and Savior promises his presence and sends us out. And our journey may not take us far, for there might be someone to love, even across the street.

Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for 2017 reflects on what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist in a religiously diverse world

1. George Vandeman, What I Like About— (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1986), 66. • 2. Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, 1905 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1942), 143.

3. John 20:21. The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984).

No longer can we speak of these as ‘foreign’ religions that exist in some distant corner of the world.”

In April 2016, Kelsey Zuppan ’13 and her friend, Sarah Sexton, set out on an epic journey to hike the 2,650-mile Paci c Crest Trail. Along the way they discovered friendships in unexpected places, strength that grew each day despite the challenges of trail life, and the importance of leaving space for God to work.

“in every walk with Nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”

—John muir

are

Story by Amy Wilkinson + Photographs by sarah sexton + Lettering by Cymone Wilder

Zuppan enjoys the desert of Southern California near the town of Julian and what Sexton describes as “the most diverse cactus garden in the world.” “We were purposefully limiting our days to no more than 10 miles to heal my injured knee,” she says. “It gave us a lot of extra time in the afternoons to enjoy the scenery, and we sat here watching a thunderstorm roll in on us.”

IT STARTS just north of Mexico near the border town of Campo, California, this journey of 2,650 miles through the formidable peaks and serene valleys of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, culminating at the edge of majestic Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of hikers traverse portions of the Paci c Crest Trail (the PCT if you’re on a rst-name basis) each year, but only a determined few attempt thru-hiking the entire corridor.

What inspires these brave souls to lace up their boots, clear their calendars, and walk the length of the United States? The reasons, as you can imagine, are as diverse as the hikers themselves: grief, heartbreak, adventure, discovery, solace, a search for … something.

For 2013 music graduate Kelsey Zuppan, you could call it a divine detour. Having just nished her nursing degree at Loma Linda University, Zuppan was eager to spend a few months abroad as a missionary before entering the workforce full-time. So she reached out to fellow former Big Lake Camp sta er Sarah Sexton (a 2011 Union College graduate), who had been serving for the past three years in the Philippines. A er giving Zuppan a few suggestions, Sexton

The Sound of Silence

JODY WASHBURN

assistant professor of

biblical studies: Hebrew and Old Testament

ONE REASON I LOVE THE OUTDOORS: “I love the quiet. Sometimes in the woods, or on the edge of a mountain lake, the quiet is almost tangible, like you can reach out and touch it.”

ONE MEMORABLE HIKE: “When I was a student here at WWU, a group of us backpacked

10 miles in sleet and snow to a hot springs somewhere in Montana. I remember being so wet and cold that I didn’t even want to get in the hot springs for fear of not being able to dry o and warm up afterward.”

A FAVORITE BACKPACKING

MEAL: “When we go backpacking,

we usually prepare a special foil meal for the first evening. It adds a bit of weight to our packs, but when you sit around the campfire that first night eating potatoes and corn and beans and carrots roasted to perfection in foil over the fire, packing that extra weight seems more than worth it.”

ONE REASON I LOVE THE OUTDOORS: “It miniaturizes all the usual stu of life—the overflowing inbox and bottomless to-do list.”

ONE MEMORABLE HIKE: “A couple of years back I did a solo weekend in the Crazy Mountains near Bozeman, hiking up to Blue Lake and pitching

my tent on a little island in the lake. It was great! It was only later that I had second thoughts. When I arrived at the Billings Campus graduation, Joe Galusha asked me if I had bear spray along, mumbling something about that is where they release the bears that menace people in Yellowstone National Park!”

EXPERIENCING GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE OUTDOORS:

“For me it is usually associated with being someplace high, looking over some vast landscape. Snowshoeing on a high ridge in the Oregon mountains often sets the stage for a sense of both God’s nearness and otherness.”

Presence of God

JOHN McVAY president of Walla Walla University

parted with an invitation: “I’m going to come back to America in April and hike the PCT, and you should join me!”

Zuppan wasn’t immediately convinced, but unbeknownst to her, Sexton went ahead and bought an additional permit for her start date—the last permit available for that day.

“I was really stubborn about it,” Zuppan recalls. “I was playing Gideon with God for a while and wanted a sign. But he just told me to step out in faith without all the answers, so I decided to go.”

Ironically, Zuppan got her sign—written in the heavens, no less—just a week later: “I was dropping someone o at the airport and went the wrong way and had to make a U-turn, and right where I made the U-turn there were these whuge signs, in the sky, in front of this industrial building, a huge P and C and T. I have no idea what PCT they were talking about or why they were on the corner. I was like, ‘OK, I just need to trust you.’”

ZUPPAN

AND SEXTON

SET

OUT APRIL

23, 2016, from the trail’s southern terminus (most hikers travel south to north rather than north to south because of the timing for better weather conditions) with no real training and no real daily mileage goal. Sexton, who was in charge of logistics, had estimated the hike would take them 5 ½ months, but from the outset, neither was sure they would make it even a few days. Zuppan considered herself out of shape from her busy nursing school schedule while Sexton was rehabilitating from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disorder in which the immune system attacks the nervous system and which had left Sexton temporarily paralyzed just two years before.

“I just never felt like I had fully regained all my muscle strength 100 percent,” Sexton says. “I felt like it just plateaued, and I had a lot of residual weakness, and nothing was helping to push that further, so I was curious if I ever would. I thought, well, the best way to nd out is to really really try and push it.” And despite her own worries over physical shortcomings, Sexton was a continual source of reassurance for an anxious Zuppan, insisting she was certainly stronger than her and that the best way to train was to train on the trail.

“Sarah kept telling me you don’t have to be in shape—the trail will get you in shape.”

Zuppan hikes down the “Golden Staircase” in the Sierras, coming down Mather Pass. “It’s an incredibly hard section that goes down elevation super fast with massive rock steps for miles,” says Sexton.

And so Zuppan loaded a 47-pound pack onto her back, heavy by most standards but necessary considering there is no access to water for the rst 20 miles of the PCT.

“They say you carry your fears on your back—the more things you’re nervous about, the more things you carry on your back,” Zuppan muses.

That day she carried 15 pounds of water on her back, and the pair hiked a respectable 12 miles.

“It was pretty surreal,” Zuppan recalls of their rst 24 hours. “Not a huge day, but we heard stories of another hiker that had left their pack on the trail and walked o before 12 miles. We weren’t going to quit our rst day!”

DESIGNATED A NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL in 1968, the Paci c Crest Trail has nurtured a subculture all its own for decades, with traditions and social mores adopted and passed on by its sons and daughters. They are things you can read about in the guidebooks, sure, but you never fully understand until you’re living on the trail.

Zuppan and Sexton were about a week into their trek when they met their rst “trail angel,” the so-called Good Samaritans who aid backpackers along the way, asking for nothing in return.

“Some trail angels will open up their house or their yard and you can camp in their yard instead of paying for a hotel. Or they’ll leave a cooler with drinks by the trail, and that’s what we call trail magic— nding something totally unexpected somewhere,” says Zuppan. “There are a ton of trail angels all through the corridor.”

This particular trail angel was deliciously well-timed given

that the women had heard rumors of free pie in nearby Julian, California, but had no way of getting to the town—a 13-mile hitch away. The trail angel drove them to Julian and helped them run several errands around town before leaving them to enjoy their apple boysenberry crumble and cider.

“I was like, ‘Wow that is so much more than people in my own church would do for strangers,” Zuppan says. “It blew my mind so much, and it just kept happening.”

Yet, the most intimate bonds on the trail are invariably forged among trail families. While Zuppan and Sexton started the PCT as a party of two, they frequently added to their ranks.

“You end up forming little hiker families, the people you end up hiking with the most or click with the most. They’re very loyal. People aren’t putting up appearances,” says Zuppan. “It’s almost like a mutual safety net—maybe you’ll never see this person again, so you’ll tell them your whole life story. Or even if you do [see them again] they’re a hiker and you know they’ll respect it.”

Of the fellow hikers that drifted in and out of their group, the women spent the most time with a boisterous Texas native named Big Spoon (a trail name—we’ll get to those in a minute), who hiked at least a third of the time with Zuppan and Sexton.

“He’s not the type of person we normally would have become friends with in real life—that happens a lot on the trail,” says Sexton. “He’s just hilarious. And he really cares.”

Sexton also forged a bond with an Oklahoma man named Pickles, a rst-time backpacker who was at something of a crossroads in his life.

“He had just quit his job working at Walgreens as a manager, and he wasn’t sure if he should go back when he was done, but he just wanted to do something more with his life,” Sexton recalls. She shared her own goals for the future—serving as a midwife in Africa—and the story stirred something within him.

“This whole world opened up to him and he was like,

I WAS PLAYING GIDEON WITH GOD FOR A WHILE AND WANTED A SIGN. BUT HE JUST TOLD ME TO STEP OUT IN FAITH ... SO I DECIDED TO GO.

‘I want to do something that helps people,’ and he’s thinking maybe he wants to be an electrician because he wants to do something hands-on. I told him that could be so needed in the bush villages, and he got so excited about that. He still now will connect with me and tell me, ‘Don’t forget when you’re in Chad, I’m going to come help set up solar panels!’”

But what of those trail names? Big Spoon? Pickles?

“The idea is that it happens to you,” Zuppan explains. “You don’t really choose it; it’s given to you.”

About a month in, Zuppan agreed to a trail name that had been oating around for a while, Skittles, and was duly knighted by one King Leonidas.

Zuppan explains: “I have lots of bright colors and neon everything. And so, inevitably, it came out in my gear choices. My pack was orange. My rain jacket was bright yellow. My sleeping bag was purple … . Big Spoon and [another hiker] Baloo made some comment, ‘You’re like a pack of Skittles running down the mountain!’”

As for Sexton, when word got around that she is a midwife, there seemed few options other than “Stork.”

Captions (clockwise): Sexton and Zuppan pause for a photo on Forester Pass, which at 13,200 feet is the highest point on the PCT. • “This goofy deer let me pet her head after snapping this shot,” says Sexton. • Zuppan from their “awesome cowboy camping spot” at 12,100 feet on the top of Mather Pass. • Sunset in September overlooking the Sandy River with Mount St. Helens in the background.

What to do if you’re lost in the Wilderness

1. S.T.O.P. STAY CALM: Drink some water, eat something, breathe slowly.

THINK: Think about how you got where you are. Look at your map.

OBSERVE: Look for your footprints and for landmarks.

PLAN: Plan your next moves carefully and mark your trail as you go.

water. This relaxed approach left them open to whatever adventures—be it surprise pizza or picnic-burgling raccoons—that came along. Yet boredom would still sink in. There is a certain one-foot-in-front-of-the-other monotony to trail life, which is why drop-ins from family and friends became so invaluable. Lisa McMillan, a fellow Walla Walla University alumna, hiked for three weeks with the women in Northern California, and Zuppan’s mom spent a few days on trail.

“It was great; she absolutely killed it,” Zuppan enthuses of her mom’s brief visit. “She showed us all up. She did more than I did on my rst day on the trail.”

There’s actually a special type of ennui associated with the trail’s mid-way mark, dubbed the “NorCal Blues.” It’s here, according to trail lore, that hikers often throw in their crampons.

“There’s nothing wrong with Northern California,” says Zuppan. “It’s just a little anticlimactic coming out of the Sierras.”

And Zuppan should know of climactic, given that she experienced her most trying time in the northern reaches of the Sierras, along the 9,625-foot-high Sonora Pass.

The women had decided to do their rst “marathon day,” a 26-mile hike in memory of a fellow Big Lake sta er who had recently died while hiking. Zuppan and Sexton rose early, hoping to log plenty of miles before it got too hot. They’d already sent their snow gear home, having passed the more treacherous reaches of the snow-capped Sierras, and found themselves wholly unprepared for the slippery mess that awaited them on the pass at sunset. (See photo on page 19.)

“It was super exposed and so windy and there are these huge snow elds that, at the middle of the day would have been ne, but now in the evening the sun isn’t on them anymore and they are rock-solid ice.” Zuppan couldn’t help but envision herself sliding down the rocks to the craggy bottom below. But she prayed and her feet found traction. Though slow going, the two nally navigated the snow eld, only to nd at the 26-mile mark that there was no at ground upon which to camp. They had to hike three more miles to sleep.

“That was the rst time that I remember actually getting to the end of my rope. I was ghting back tears,” Zuppan says. “That was probably one of the hardest nights on trail.”

A harrowing journey followed by the prospect of the

YOU WOULDN’T BE WRONG TO CALL THE women’s approach to the PCT—at least at times—unorthodox. While many thru-hikers plan their daily routes down to the mile, Zuppan and Sexton rarely knew where they would camp each night and didn’t maintain any semblance of a daily “routine.” They woke up when they felt like it and stopped for the day when they felt like it. The only real constraint was needing to replenish food and

2. GET NOTICED. Call for help or use your emergency whistle in tweets of three. Wear bright clothes. Start a fire or signal with a mirror on a sunny day.

3. STAY WARM AND DRY. Find shelter if you can, and stay with your group.

FAVORITE BACKPACKING TRIP: “The Ptarmigan Traverse in the North Cascades. It is a multi-day o -trail hike involving rock and ice, glaciers, and lakes so splendid I find my soul filling with the beauty and power of God’s creation.”

WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT THE OUTDOORS: “I love the change of pace, from stretching my mind at work to stretching my body outdoors. What calls me more than anything is the camaraderie with friends, nature, and God.”

CURT NELSON professor of engineering

the Adventure Begins

NorCal Blues inspired Zuppan and Sexton to ask for a little help from their friends. They posted to Facebook asking their followers to mail notes of encouragement (or even small treats) to the nearby post o ce in Dunsmuir, California. When they arrived at the post o ce several days later to pick up their missives, they were told they had set a record for awaiting packages.

The pair also got to reunite with friends and family during brief o -trail breaks. Sexton took a short hiatus to attend her brother’s graduation; Zuppan later left to march in her own graduation. Both continued on without the other, slowing down their pace so that once the other rejoined the trail at the place they’d left, they would be able to catch up. (That way they maintained what is called a “continuous footpath.”)

WITH AN AVERAGE PACE OF 20 MILES per day, the women made it to Southern Washington by the 5 ½-month mark—the time Sexton had originally budgeted for the entire trip. It was here, near the banks of crystalline Trout Lake, that the women realized they were running out of time; Sexton had accepted a new job, and her start date was looming.

“We weren’t going to have time to nish the rest of the trail going at the pace we were because of the weather,” says Zuppan. “So the hardest decision of the entire trail was deciding not to nish it.”

And so it was on October 7—168 days and 2,226 miles into their journey—that the women abandoned their continuous footpath to spend their nal two weeks driving in Sexton’s

ONE MEMORABLE HIKE:

“Right after my boyfriend, Kevin, and I graduated from WWU in 2009 we went camping with my parents, Dave and Karen Vixie; my uncle and aunt, Doug and Marcy Vixie; and my brother and sisterin-law, Cameron and Betsy Vixie. In what is typical fashion for my family, we decided to go on an extralong day hike near Icicle Creek up

above Leavenworth. While we hiked along, my uncle started showing me various interesting mosses, bugs, etc. Kevin held back with my parents until we were out of sight and hearing range. Then he asked them for permission to marry me. Even though I wasn’t part of that asking, I’m glad that the very start of our married adventures began on the hiking trail.”

WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT THE OUTDOORS:

“The smell of the woods and that feeling of accomplishment that you get when you reach your destination.”

FAVORITE HIKING SNACK:

“I like to make my own fruit leathers. I try to make plenty in advance of various adventures, but often we’ll have eaten half of it before even hitting the trail!”

car to portions of the PCT to hike piecemeal.

“We were never all about the miles,” re ects Zuppan. “A lot of hikers get caught up—it becomes a race to Canada. We were more about the journey than the destination.”

Sexton agrees: “We both were very, very positive about; it’s okay if we don’t make it. We’d rather make the time for people and for conversations and for relationships. To me, that was always more important.”

They set their sights on the Goat Rocks—nestled between Mount Adams and Mount Rainier, 70 miles west of Yakima—before moving on to Hart’s Pass in Northern Washington and hiking the nal 30 miles to the border. They arrived in Canada on October 15, snow-soaked.

Yet, that nal, harrowing three-day march into the Great White North, in which they faced an oncoming blizzard, marked an especial achievement for Sexton, who lead a group of four through the bitter storm.

“It was really exhausting. You’re not ying down a trail, you’re breaking snow up to your knees or waist,” says Sexton. “But it made me so excited at one point, realizing I just broke through 30 miles of snow. Even before I had Guillain-Barre, I wasn’t at a place where I could have done that unless I trained a lot beforehand. I felt like, wow, I’ve really come full-circle and have 100 percent recovery with my legs. To be able to do that was just really incredible.”

Zuppan too found herself a changed woman after the trail, and it’s clear she’s still processing both the physical and mental e ects of the journey.

“I don’t even know what I’ve done to my body, honestly,” says Zuppan. “You adapt to a lot of things on the trail, but your feet de nitely take the worst of the beating and there was never a day when my feet didn’t hurt. It almost feels like I fast-forwarded to old age. It’s getting better now, but I still can’t go running—the impact is just too much on my joints.

“I think the mental part of it was the worst for me,” she continues. “The closest thing I can compare it to is being a [student missionary] in another country and coming back and having reverse culture shock. That’s what it felt like but way more intense. It really caught me o -guard. I didn’t even leave the country! But the life I was living was so di erent, so primitive. You wore the same clothes every day. You only shower once or twice a month. You’re sleeping on the ground every night. You don’t have to worry about anything but where you’re going to get water next, where you’re going to get food. I just felt really spoiled to be living like that. Coming back, there’s so much stimulation and noise. It’s so overwhelming and exhausting.”

Yet, despite the ups and downs, both women agree they would do it all over again.

“I have to be careful with myself now—it’s addicting,” says Zuppan, who hopes to one day complete the miles in Washington she and Sexton skipped.

“When you’re hiking you get asked that question and you think, ‘No way!’ But now that I’ve come all the way through it I’m like, ‘Wow, I feel like I breezed through everything!’” says Sexton. “I think, ‘Yeah,

MINDY COLEMAN guest relations coordinator

With a little help from their friends, Zuppan (left) and Sexton set a record at the Dunsmuir, California, post o ice with the number of packages awaiting them.

I’d love to go back to that spot and that spot and that spot,’ and then I think, ‘I might as well hike all the way through it again!’”

And the Paci c Crest Trail isn’t the only route on Sexton’s mind. She’s also been contemplating a trek through the Continental Divide Trail (even longer at 3,100 miles), which follows the rugged Rocky Mountains. (The Paci c Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Appalachian Trail are known collectively as the “Triple Crown” of long-distance hiking.)

But, as for the immediate future, the women are unlacing their boots, lling their calendars, and returning to “normal life.” Whatever that means now.

“I’m not sure if I even know the full reason yet that I was called to hike,” Zuppan says. “One of the biggest things I’ve learned from the trail is the value of right now. The present is all we have. I work well with a plan and goals, but if I schedule myself out that doesn’t leave room for God to move or work in my life, so that has been a really valuable lesson, and I hope that continues to stick with me.”

Traversing the Peaks

FAVORITE TRAIL SNACK: “PB&J on whole wheat tortillas. Tortillas don’t get smashed or soggy like bread does!”

FAVORITE BACKPACKING

TRIP: “Ptarmi-

gan Traverse in the North Cascades. You traverse each day among the 12 peaks and then drop down each evening to camp by a lake. It is for more experienced hikers!”

MARVIN DENNEY assistant professor of health and physical education

Zuppan hikes over snow fields by moonlight as she and Sexton attempt a 26-mile day in honor of a friend who had died recently on a hike in Oregon. “This was one of our hardest days on trail physically and emotionally,” says Sexton. “We hiked 29 miles into the dark of night over frozen snow fields and in 80 mph winds pushing over 10 miles of exposed trail above 10,000 feet, trying to make it to Sonora Pass.”

ONE OF THE BIGGEST THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM THE TRAIL IS THE VALUE OF RIGHT NOW ... . IF I SCHEDULE MYSELF OUT, THAT DOESN'T LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD TO MOVE OR WORK IN MY LIFE.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Professors Denney and Nelson have never hiked the Ptarmigan Traverse together, but since they both said it is their favorite Northwest hike, it must be worth checking out!

Barrett

Borges

Brown

L.Dinwiddie

Duffy

Howard

Rajah

Nathan Reeves

Seibold

Gillian Seton

Sarah Snyder

Vyhmeister

• Jason Wells

Les Zollbrecht

Dreaming Big and Changing the World

125 Alumni to Watch

By Alex Aamodt and Kim Strobel

In the 125 years since Walla Walla University sprouted in the middle of southeastern Washington farmland, it has grown beyond what the first graduating class of three students could have ever imagined. When those three vanguards left College Place with their diplomas in hand, WWU was laying a firm foundation from which to launch future graduates to all corners of industry and society. The faith and ambition of those early alumni, students, faculty, and sta would carry the up-and-coming school through the rise of two new centuries, and those same qualities will help carry WWU into the future. Whether leading among the upper echelons of business or developing groundbreaking engineering solutions, here are 125 alumni we look to for the next chapter. Their spirit inspires us!

ALUMNI TO WATCH AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Use

CHAD ANGASAN ’12

B.A., theology • M.Div., (in progress) Andrews University

Angasan is a pastor for the Alaska Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He is exploring ways to teach and minister to young people and is co-president of seminary students at Andrews University.

KIRSTEN ARCHER ’08

See page 28.

KEN ASO ’97

B.A., business administration • M.B.A., Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

Aso is an executive at Boeing Commerical Airplanes and is president of the WWU Alumni Association.

CHRISTIAN BELL ’10

B.A., history • M.A.C.S., Duke University Bell is an account executive at CMBell Company. He has previously worked as a sta assistant for the U.S. House of Representatives and special projects manager at the WWU Church.

KATHRYN BENNER ’15

B.S., nursing Benner is a nurse in the cardiac unit at Providence St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Portland.

TANYA BLAICH ’92

B.A., humanities and B.A., French • Diploma, vocal accompaniment and chamber music, Vienna Conservatory • M.Mus., New England Conservatory of Music • D.Mus., New England Conservatory of Music Blaich is a member of the collaborative piano faculty at the New England Conservatory (Boston).

CHAD BORGES ’97

B.S., chemistry • Ph.D., analytical toxicology, University of Utah

KIEREN BAILEY ’02

B.S., graphic design • M.L.I.S., University of Western Ontario • Ed.D., (in progress), University of Calgary Bailey is the library director at Union College. Her interests focus on emerging technologies, online education, and e iciency recommendations for librarians.

NATE

BARRETT ’11

B.A., mass communications Barrett is a news anchor/reporter for CBS4 in El Paso, Texas

Carrie Ojanen Cockerham ’07

B.A., majors in English and French • M.F.A., creative writing/poetry, University of Montana

THE PROLOGUE OF Carrie Ojanen Cockerham’s thesis work Small Bird My Heart reveals the sense of displacement and homesickness that motivated her to write after leaving her native Alaska. “The past is visible in the sky. The lights we see from earth set out from their stars years ago. We are not seeing the universe as it is, but as it was when it set out to meet us.”

Borges is an assistant professor at Arizona State University with joint appointments in the School of Molecular Sciences and The Biodesign Institute. His current research, funded by the National Cancer Institute, employs novel analytical approaches to identify molecular markers of cancer.

STEFAN BOYD ’12

B.B.A., finance and B.S., applied mathematics • M.B.A., Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business Boyd is an investment banker with JP Morgan Chase, New York.

Small Bird My Heart also reveals her interest in science fiction, strains of which appear throughout her poetry, which also examines the pain of loss, both of place and loved ones.

“One of the things from my M.F.A. thesis ended up being these two birds traveling through space and hoping to see—if you have the right sort of telescopes you can see all the way back through time to the shadows of the past,” says Ojanen Cockerham.

Observing the world from a unique perspective is nothing new for Ojanen Cockerham. An Alaska native of the Ugiuvamiut people, her poetry fuses a visceral lyricism inspired by that wild landscape with a sense of displacement she has felt personally and through her community. Her grandparents lived on Ugiuvak (King Island) in the Bering Sea until the 1960s when the government forced all the Ukivokmiut to relocate.

“They had to move to Nome. Basically the whole island had to leave. My grandparents were so homesick, and they missed their island home so much; I feel like that really informs my writing, that sense of loss, but also the things that they still cared about and that they passed on to us,” she says.

Ojanen Cockerham writes under her Inupiat name Carrie Ayagaduk Ojanen. She has been published in Prairie Schooner, Louisville Review, Yellow Medicine Review, and As Us Journal, and is working to release her first book of poetry.

Science, tech, engineering, & math (STEM)

Business & communications

Illuminating loss and love

REBECCA

BROTHERS ’13

B.A., English •

M.L.I.S., University of Washington

Brothers is the media and e-resources librarian at Oakwood University. She recently launched a media literacy workshop titled “You Can’t Make This Stu Up: Sorting the Real News from Disinformation, Satire, Clickbait, and Sponsored Content.”

RICHIE BROWER ’95

B.A., theology • M.Div., Andrews University (in progress) Brower is associate director of Youth and Family Life for the Upper Columbia Conference of Seventhday Adventists and is a speaker and blogger for Marriage Conversion, a web-based ministry.

Providing solutions for complex challenges

JASON COURTRIGHT ’96

HOLLEY BRYANT ’02

B.S., elementary education •

M.A., educational leadership and administration, La Sierra University

Bryant is principal at Rogers Adventist School. She has been director of Marketing and University Relations at WWU and principal at Hood View Junior Academy.

STACY BUTLER ’06

B.A., history and B.A., Spanish • M.D., Loma Linda University Medical School

Butler is a resident physician at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

CARL CANWELL ’08

B.S., mass communications • M.F.A., digital cinema, National University

Canwell is director of creative media at Loma Linda University.

JUSTIN CASSON ’08

B.B.A., finance • J.D., Gonzaga University School of Law

Casson is an attorney in the O ice of the Chief Counsel for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

JAMES CHRISTIANSON ’96

B.S., health science • M.P.H., Loma Linda University

Christianson is owner of Jame + Schulze Photography Studio and co-founder of P3—Partner. Process. Purpose., which supports Adventist education through business.

ERIC CLAUSSENBROWN ’06

B.S., physics • Ph.D., physics, Purdue University

Claussen-Brown is a data scientist with O erUp. He did postdoctoral research in astrophysics with the

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and was a senior research engineer in analytics and machine learning with RECON Dynamics.

CHRIS COLLIER ’14

B.S., nursing Collier is an emergency department nurse on a remote island in southeast Alaska.

ROSALIE CONTRERAS ’97

B.A., music and B.A., business administration • M.B.A., University of Cincinnati Contreras is vice president of communications for the Seattle Symphony.

JASON DAMAZO ’07

B.S., mathematics and B.S.E., engineering • M.S., aerospace engineering, and Ph.D., aeronautics, California Institute of Technology

Damazo is a shock physicist at Boeing. He received the Guggenheim and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowships to study combustion at the California Institute of Technology.

JUSTIN DAVIS ’12

B.B.A., business

Davis is an account executive at NetSuite with prior work experience at Twitter, SAP, and Adventist Health.

CYNTHIA L. DINWIDDIE ’95

B.S.E., mechanical engineering • M.S., environmental systems engineering, Clemson University • Ph.D., environmental engineering and science, Clemson University

B.S.E., mechanical engineering • M.B.A., finance, international business, and technology management, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Vice president, chief financial o icer, Apogee Engineering

WES GEORGES ’97

B.S.E., mechanical engineering President, chief executive o icer, Apogee Engineering

TOM HAMEL ’96

B.S.E., mechanical engineering

Chief operating o icer, Apogee Engineering

SARAH CORLEY ’11

B.S., mass communications and B.S., graphic design Corely is a Nestle Toll House Baker and Brand Ambassador, 2017 Guinness World Record Holder, and marketing specialist at WSOL.

JASON COURTRIGHT ’96

See at right.

STEFANIE CRUMPACKERFLERCHINGER ’12

B.Mus., education

Crumpacker-Flerchinger is a music educator with Walla Walla Public Schools.

JUSTIN DAARUD ’07

B.S.E., mechanical engineering Daarud is sponsor of the WWU Daarud Student Leader Scholarship, president of Lloyd's Register Energy Americas Inc. & Lloyd's Register Energy Canada Limited, and Americas operations manager, Asset Integrity & Development Solutions for Lloyd's Register.

Dinwiddie is principal scientist in the Earth Science Section of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute®. She is an environmental, earth, and planetary scientist specializing in hydrogeology. She has authored or coauthored 26 peerreviewed articles. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Rossiter W. Raymond Memorial Award and the Alfred Noble Prize. She has served on grant review panels for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

LANCE DOWNING ’13

B.Mus., education

Downing is music director at Monterey Bay Academy.

JIM DRAKE ’01

A.S., automotive technology • B.A., business administration, Eastern Washington University

Drake is president and chief executive o icer of Blue Mountain Credit Union.

Courtright, Georges, and Hamel worked together for Lockheed Martin Defense and Space after graduating from WWU. After a time, the three transitioned to the same engineering consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton.

In 2004 they started their own firm, Apogee Engineering, which provides solutions for engineering, science, information technology, and software; mission support; management services; and cybersecurity for multiple defense and civilian customers.

In the 13 years since starting the company, it has grown to 160 employees and 16 locations across the country.

Carrie Ojanen Cockerham at the Valley View Library in Seatac, Washington.

Healing through art and science

Brian Lundstrom ’01

“I WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN to where I am scientifically without the organ,” says Brian Lundstrom. It seems unlikely that music would be so instrumental for the career of an M.D., Ph.D., and former Fulbright Scholar, but it was a chance connection with a fellow organ lover—a prominent scientist—that set Lundstrom on the path to working with some of the top researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. It was his experience at Karolinska that helped him gain admittance to the medical scientist training program at the University of Washington.

“My Ph.D. work involved trying to understand how single neurons process information in the field of computational neuroscience,” Lundstrom explains. He has also investigated the mechanisms of memory and most recently, epilepsy. Now at the Mayo Clinic, he coauthored a 2016 study detailing a novel treatment of drug-resistant focal epilepsy with electrical brain stimulation.

“Epilepsy in some ways is a unique subspecialty in that it spans very low-level single cell physiology all the way up to the whole human,” says Lundstrom.

He describes a patient from the study who was unable to walk after experiencing an injury to his leg many years prior. “He had a somewhat unique type of epilepsy where every time he tried to walk he would have a seizure,” says Lundstrom. The patient received a brain implant that provides continuous electrical stimulation, and after 20 years he was able to walk again. While not every result is so dramatic, Lundstrom finds the combination of research and full-patient care at the Mayo Clinic rewarding.

Is the organ still impactful? “Music can give you a broader sense of what the human brain can do, and I think maybe a broader sense about how people think,” says Lundstrom.

LOURY DUFFY ’03

A.S., business and B.S., aviation technology

Du y is a pilot–captain for Compass Airlines and is the former director of operations for the WWU aviation program. He is also a designated pilot examiner working on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration.

TYLER DUFFY ’04

B.S., engineering and B.B.A., accounting

Du y is president of Campground Automation Systems, a company that helps simplify the reservation process while increasing revenue at campgrounds across the country.

PAUL EVANS ’96

B.S.E., mechanical engineering • M.S., mechanical engineering, Iowa State University

Evans is director of manufacturing technologies for Southwest Research Institute. He is a licensed professional engineer and holds two patents.

OKSANA

EZHOKINA ’97

B.Mus., piano • M.Mus., piano, Northern Illinois University • D.M.A., piano performance, Stony Brook University

Ezhokina is assistant professor of music/piano studies chair at Pacific Lutheran University.

JESSICA FERRERAS STONE ’04

B.S., physical education • M.A., La Sierra University • Ph.D., University of Tennessee Ferreras Stone is an instructor for the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University.

IAN

FIELD ’13

B.A., history

Field is chief of sta for U.S. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA–5).

Previously he was campaign manager for McMorris Rodgers, a press secretary for the U.S. House of Representatives, and a candidate

for the Washington State House of Representatives.

STEPHANIE FIELD ’09

B.S., biochemistry • M.D., University of Washington School of Medicine

Field is currently a clinical instructor of medicine for the University of Washington Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, where she practices hospital medicine at Harborview Medical Center. She has published research on sleep deprivation.

WES GEORGES ’97

(See sidebar on page 23.)

LAUREN RESLER

GILBERT ’14

B.B.A., marketing • M.B.A., George Fox University Gilbert is a project manager for Esri. She was previously a process specialist for Nike.

A.J. GRANT ’97

B.A., theology

Grant is a chaplain in the Navy.

ASHLEY GULKE

LEAVITT ’04

B.B.A., majors in business and mathematics • J.D., Santa Clara University Gulke Leavitt is a farmer and an attorney.

TOM HAMEL ’96

(See sidebar on page 23.)

ADAM HANSEL ’98

(See sidebar on page 26.)

JOHN HAWKINS ’10

B.S., mathematics; B.S.E., engineering; and B.A., humanities • Ph.D., computational science, engineering, and mathematics (in progress), The University of Texas at Austin Hawkins’ research is focused on developing novel high-throughput computational and experimental techniques to characterize DNA repair and editing proteins, particularly CRISPR proteins.

ANDREA HAWKINSDAARUD ’05

B.S., mathematics • M.S., computational and applied mathematics, The University

B.S., biophysics and B.A., music • M.Sc., applied physics, University of Washington • Ph.D., physiology and biophysics, University of Washington • M.D., University of Washington

Brian Lundstrom at the Mayo Clinic o ices in Rochester, Minnesota.

of Texas at Austin • Ph.D., computational sciences, engineering, and mathematics, The University of Texas at Austin • Post-doctoral fellow and research associate, University of Washington and Northwestern University Hawkins-Daarud is an informatics specialist II at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale. Her work has centered around continuum models of tumor growth and Bayesian parameter estimation, including optimizing laser treatment for prostate cancer and mathematical modeling of gliomas.

LINDSEY HENRIKSON RODGERS ’03

B.A., music • M.Mus., organ performance, Yale University • Ph.D., musicology, University of Oregon Henrikson Rodgers is assistant organist at

Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon.

BEN HENRY ’12

B.S., engineering

Henry is project manager and engineer for Tigo Energy, a company that develops module smart technology for the solar industry. He is also engineer, marketer, and web administrator for Paklite Gear, a company that manufactures and sells a small LED flashlight Henry patented that snaps to the top of a 9-volt battery.

ZACH HOKETT ’09

B.B.A., business • M.A., organizational leadership, Gonzaga University • M.B.A., University of Washington Hokett is a business operations specialist at The Boeing Company.

Johnny Jesson ’06

ELISE HOLCOMBE ’92

B.S., nursing Holcombe is senior project quality lead at PAREXEL International, a biopharmaceutical and medical device provider, and is owner of DreamWorks Development, Inc., and Boost Fitness Company.

DANIEL HOWARD ’15

B.B.A., marketing/management and project management certificate • M.B.A., George Fox University

Howard is a business process and project analyst at Adventist HealthCare.

ADAM HUBBARD ’05

B.S., physics • M.S., physics, University of Waterloo •

J.D., Cornell Law School, Cornell Law Review editor Hubbard is an associate at

Holland & Hart in Boulder, Colorado, where he helps clients obtain, protect, and enforce their intellectual property rights in numerous industries, including software, semiconductors, telecommunications, consumer electronics, manufacturing, and biotechnology. Previously, Hubbard worked for federal trial and appellate judges in California and Washington, D.C. He is also a mentor for the “I Have a Dream Foundation” of Boulder County.

DENNIS HUYNH ’06

See page 27.

JOHNNY JESSON ’06

See below.

ELIZABETH JONES ’07

B.S., business administration • J.D. (in progress), University

Building on a cloud

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, Johnny Jesson accomplished the last of the three goals he set for himself at the beginning of college: finishing a mathematics degree, studying at MIT, and completing actuarial exams. He worked in finance at T. Rowe Price and insurance at ODS Companies but wanted a new challenge, so in 2013 moved to the world’s largest company—Walmart.

“The first job I had there was in real estate strategic finance. The second role I took at Walmart was more of a corporate function, seeing how all of their businesses come together.” Yet Walmart’s dominant position still did not o er Jesson the opportunity to be part of building something new and groundbreaking.

Last year Jesson joined Google in the rapidly growing Cloud division. Cloud computing provides the infrastructure for other companies or websites to build their products. Amazon and Microsoft have been the dominant players in the market, but Google is dedicating itself to challenging the established cloud leaders. Although Jesson cannot disclose the size of Google’s cloud business, it is already sizeable and a key focus for the company’s future.

“I’m the finance lead for anything that has to do with cloud products,” Jesson explains of his role. “It’s a pretty diverse set of things we do.”

With his original goals accomplished, Jesson is able to enjoy his current position and decide on new goals. “Right now is that phase of enjoying life, getting ready for family, and deciding how we can give back,” he says.

of Michigan Law School

Jones will clerk for a bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of New York after completing law school.

STEPHANIE JONES

RITTENBACH ’07

B.A., humanities • M.D., Loma Linda University School of Medicine

Jones Rittenbach completed an anesthesiology residency at Stanford University and a fellowship in cardiac anesthesiology at the University of Washington. She is now a cardiac anesthesiologist at Sacred Heart Hospital. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society her senior year of medical school.

B.S., applied mathematics • M.Fin., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Johnny Jesson at Google headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

Innovating advanced technologies

JANELLE THE KAY ’11

B.S., physical education • M.A., wellness and lifestyle management, Rowan University

Kay is a school wellness specialist and creator of Project School Wellness, a school wellness blog providing resources for educators to revolutionize how schools empower students to thrive.

KYLE KAY ’11

B.S., physical education • M.S., physical education pedagogy (in progress), University of Nebraska Kearney.

Kay is athletic director and teaches physical education at Fraser Valley Adventist Academy. He is the 2016 recipient of the Makito Excellence in Teaching Award.

EVAN KINNE ’09

B.S., business administration •

M.B.A., UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management

Kinne is a partner and advisor at HyperActive Capital.

NARI KIRK ’07

B.A., English • M.F.A., creative writing, University of New Mexico Kirk teaches English at Olympic College and has work published or forthcoming in Blue Mesa Review, Hobart, the anthology Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God, and elsewhere.

BYRON KNELLER ’91

B.A., chemistry • Ph.D., chemistry, University of Washington Kneller is director of analytical and formulation development at CMC Biologics where he is working in biologics contract manufacturing.

MICHAEL KUDLA

HOOPER ’14

B.S., physics and B.S., engineering

Kudla Hooper works for Zella Hydro, a Canadian company whose “run-of-the-river” projects will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help British Columbia to become a net exporter of electricity. He has recently been accepted to the University of British Columbia to pursue a master's degree in medical physics.

TANZI LAMPERT ’12

B.S., graphic design

Lampert is a missionary with MOVE (Missionary Outreach and Volunteer Evangelism), a missionary training center.

STEPHANIE LAMPSON ’15

B.B.A., business • M.A., business analytics (in progress), University of Colorado, Denver.

Lampson is an administrative intern at Centura Health.

OFA LANGI ’06

B.A., theology

Langi is the senior pastor at North Cascade Seventhday Adventist Church and has been a speaker for the One Project.

TAYLOR LEWIS ’13

B.A., history • J.D., Lewis & Clark Law School

Lewis is an associate attorney with Cummins, Goodman, Denley & Vickers, P.C.

BETHANY LOGAN ROPA ’06

B.A., French • M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management Logan Ropa is an executive director in the Real Estate, Lodging and Leisure group at UBS Investment Bank.

JONNY LONG ’10

See page 29.

JOSEPH LONG ’01

See page 29.

CODY LONNING ’10

B.A., history • J.D., University of California Berkeley School of Law

Lonning is an attorney with Venable LLP. During law school, he served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Judge William Alsup at the United States District Court, and as a law clerk for the Solano County Public Defender. Prior to law school, he worked at the National Geographic Society where he wrote and produced television interviews about restoring the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

DAVID LOPEZ ’04

B.B.A., management • M.A., international development, Andrews University Lopez is director of volunteer projects for Maranatha Volunteers International.

BRIAN LUNDSTROM ’01

See page 24.

DARRYL MASSON ’13

B.S., physics, • M.S., physics and Ph.D., physics (in progress), Purdue University Masson is a part of the XENON scientific collaboration, which operates the world's largest and most sensitive dark matter detector, currently in operation in Central Italy. He is an expert on some of the calibration subsystems for the detector.

PADDY MCCOY ’99

B.A., majors in religion and speech communication • M.A., youth ministry, Andrews University

McCoy is the WWU campus chaplain. He is a writer for Adventist Youth Ministry magazine, has been a keynote speaker at worship events around the world, is an executive member of the One Project board, and is a founding member of ascent.faith.

GREG MCCULLOCH ’00

B.S., business administration and accounting • M.B.A., finance and organizational management, University of California Davis Graduate School of Management McCulloch is vice president and chief financial o icer for Sonora Regional Medical Center.

LISA MCGILLVARGAS ’04

B.S., biology • M.D., Loma Linda University School of Medicine McGill-Vargas is a neonatologist at Pediatrix Medical Group. She was an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and is the 2014 and 2016 Young Investigator Award recipient from the AAP and SSPR for her research on glucose regulation in premature babies.

ADAM HANSEL ’98

B.S.E., mechanical engineering • M.S.M.E., University of California, Davis

Chief technical o icer, DMG Mori USA

Hansel is one of the original four founders of Digital Technology Laboratory (DTL). DTL is now part of the DMG Mori Group with 180 employees in Davis. California.

Hansel is a technical lead of the organization. The group specializes in manufacturing and assembly of high precision machinging centers and multi-axis machines, research and development, manufacturing automation, and robotics.

DAVID MCNEILL ’04

B.S., biology • M.B.A., University of Utah • Ph.D., biology, The Johns Hopkins University McNeill is assistant director for Open Legal Services in Salt Lake City, where he works to provide legal services for the underprivileged.

ALAN NEWBOLD ’07

B.A., majors in theology and Spanish • M.A., teaching for secondary education • M.A., youth, family, and culture, Fuller Theological Seminary Newbold is a pastor working in public campus minisitries mostly on and around the campus of Montana State University. He ministers through counseling, music groups, mission trips, weekend retreats, concerts, and a weekly worship gathering.

JEFF NEWGARD ’96

B.A., theology • M.B.A., Washington State University Newgard is president and CEO of the Bank of Idaho.

CARRIE OJANEN COCKERHAM ’07

See page 22.

KIRT ONTHANK ’06

B.S. and M.S., biology • Ph.D., zoology, Washington State University Onthank is an assistant professor of biology at WWU. He specializes in ecological physiology and behavioral ecology of marine invertebrates, especially cephalopods. His research on octopuses was featured in the 2015 short film “Octopus” produced by AT&T. He is a 2014 and 2016 recipient of the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust College Research Grant.

MEGAN PARDEE ’08

B.B.A., international business • M.I.M, international management, Portland State University Pardee is a sourcing analyst for Columbia Sportswear Company.

ADAM PARDY ’14

B.Mus., education

Pardy teaches music at Fraser Valley Adventist Academy.

Celebrate 125 years of excellence at WWU during homecoming weekend 2017. wallawalla.edu/ homecoming.

ALUMNI TO WATCH AREAS OF EXPERTISE Business & communications Humanities & religion STEM Education

SHELDON PARRIS ’10

B.A., religion • M.A., administration and leadership, La Sierra University

Parris is the principal at Portland Adventist Academy. He was previously a religion teacher, chaplain, dean, and then principal at Newbury Park Adventist Academy.

GRANT PERDEW ’15

B.A., international communications and marketing

Perdew is a video producer at the CMBell Company. As a WWU student, his film The Exquisite Outdoors won Best in Festival and top prize in the Best Dramatic Short category at the SONscreen Film Festival.

NIKOLAS PETERSON ’09

B.A., history • J.D., Seattle University School of Law

Peterson is sta attorney at Hanford Challenge, which represents whistleblowers at the Hanford Nuclear Site. He is a mentor for “Inheriting Hanford” and published “The Current State of Whistleblower Law in Europe: A Report by the Government Accountability Project.”

TOMMY POOLE ’11

B.A., theology

Poole is associate chaplain for missions and discipleship at WWU.

SCOTT

RAE ’11

B.A., religion; B.S., nursing; and M.A., secondary education and teaching (’14)

Rae is an associate dean of men at WWU.

BRENDEN RAJAH ’13

B.S., physical education

Rajah is vice principal of student relations, athletic director, and physical education teacher at Kirkland Adventist School and Puget Sound Adventist Academy.

NATHAN REEVES ’12

B.A., history; B.S., mathematics; and B.S., engineering • J.D., Harvard Law School

Reeves is an associate at Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP. He has interned for Hanford Challenge and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. As a student at Harvard Law School, he was managing editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and was editor-in-chief at Harvard Law Record

DEANNE RHYNARD ’04

B.A., business administration

Rhynard is senior director of operations/head of people + culture for Olo. She was previously operations manager for PublicStu and corporate relations associate for the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

PAUL RHYNARD ’04

B.B.A., finance concentration

• M.B.A., University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business Administration

Rhynard is executive vice president at the Joshua Green Corporation and a CFA Charterholder. He was previously an engagement manager with McKinsey & Co. Rhynard also spent time as an associate for Adveq Management AG and as a private markets research analyst for CTC Consulting. He is a member of the WWU Board of Trustees.

JASON RIEDERER ’09

B.B.A., finance • M.A., political management (in progress), George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management

Riederer is a legislative director at the U.S. House of Representatives.

HEATHER RODRIGUEZ ’99

B.S.W., social work and M.S.W., social work

Rodriguez is an assistant professor of social work at WWU and is the previous clinical supervisor at Children's Home Society of Washington.

THE METAPHOR Dennis Huynh jokingly uses to describe his work as design director for BuzzFeed News is that of a plate spinner— keeping multiple objects in the air at once. After years working in editorial design at Cincinnati Magazine, Tennis Magazine, Cooking Light, and Entertainment Weekly, Huynh made the leap from print to the frenetic pace of digital.

“BuzzFeed is an interesting place to be because it’s on the cutting edge of what people are looking for,” he says. Founded in 2006 as a viral lab focusing on tracking viral content and how it spreads on the Internet, BuzzFeed has grown to be a major disruptor of traditional media, and the news division begun four years ago has garnered awards, and at times controversy, for its bold reporting.

Huynh sees his role as integral to informing the reader, citing an investigative story into the misdeeds of psychiatric hospitals that required more than just photographs. “You try to do that storytelling through illustration and you try to make sure those images convey the story, the tone and the gravitas of what’s happening,” he explains. Another piece about the operation to retake Mosul, Iraq, from ISIS required sending a photographer into a war zone. Having the correct image can catch a reader’s attention, but also explicate more than words, and BuzzFeed is the perfect platform for innovation.

“This is a growing organization. Good design along with good editorial permeates throughout. It’s in the backbone, it’s in the bones of the thing. It’s not just making something pretty.”

Dennis Huynh at the BuzzFeed o ices in New York City.

Dennis Huynh ’06 B.S. graphic design

Telling authentic stories through art

JEFFREY RUDOLF ’07

B.S. biochemistry • Ph.D., chemistry, University of Utah

Rudolf is a postdoctoral research associate/Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Shen Lab at Scripps Florida (The Scripps Research Institute) where his work is focused on drug recovery.

RACHEL RUGGERI ’09

Postbach B.S., business administration and accounting • B.A., English literature, University of Puget Sound • M.B.A., Washington State University

Ruggeri is the senior vice president of finance for Global Retail at Starbucks Co ee Company.

MOUSSA SALEH ’09

B.S., biochemistry • M.D., Loma Linda University School of Medicine

Saleh is a cardiology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Fresno.

TRAVIS SANDEFUR ’07

B.A., history • M.B.A., health care, The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School

• J.D., University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law Sandefur is working to start Chalala Woodland Adventist Medical Center in Zambia.

ALEXANDER SCOTT ’13

B.A., history • J.D., Gonzaga University School of Law

Scott is campaign manager for U.S. congressional candidate Ben Stuckart. Before that, he served as legislative aide to the Spokane City Council president. During law school, Scott interned with the GU Environmental Law and Land Use Clinic, and worked at Washington State Senate Committee Services and for the WSBA Moderate Means Program. During his time as a student at WWU, he was elected to the College Place City Council.

BRANDON SEIBOLD ’09

B.S., business administration/accounting

Seibold is treasurer at Adventist Health.

GILLIAN SETON ’04

B.A., humanities • M.D., Loma Linda University School of Medicine

Seton is a surgeon who has been serving at SDA Cooper Adventist Hospital in Liberia since 2014.

TYLER SHERWIN ’16

B.B.A., business

Sherwin is a travel management specialist at Insouciance Abroad. He was a senate intern for the Washington State Legislature, where he also led a 50-member debate team. During his time at WWU, he served as president of the Business Club and wrote the School of Business Honor Code.

MATTHEW

SHEVITZ ’12

B.S., industrial design

Shevitz is a designer I with Columbia Sportswear and serves on the WWU Technology Advisory Board.

KELLY SMITH ’92

B.A., business administration Smith is vice president, Global Digital Products at Starbucks and founder of Curious O ice.

SARAH SNYDER ’15

B.S., nursing • M.P.H. (in progress), emphasis in global health, Loma Linda University

Snyder has worked as a registered nurse at Bere Adventist Hospital in Chad, Africa.

JARED SPANO ’03

B.A., theology • M.Div., Andrews University Spano is pastor of the Pasco Riverview Seventh-day Adventist Church where he is experimenting with new ideas in ministry.

KRISTI SPURGEON

JOHNSON ’05

B.A., mass communications • M.A., communication and leadership studies, Gonzaga University Spurgeon Johnson is director of marketing for Adventist Health Portland.

Kirsten Archer ’08

B.A. double major, English and history • M.A., American/United States studies/civilization, University of Iowa • Ph.D., American/United States studies/civilization, University of Iowa • M.S., Food Policy and Applied Nutrition, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University • M.P.H., Health Services Management and Policy, Tufts University School of Medicine

AT THE AGE OF 20, Kirsten Archer had her first real experience with poverty while serving as a missionary. “I knew poor people and those who struggled with their bills, but to see people where it is written on their bodies—that I had never experienced,” she says. Archer finished a doctorate at the University of Iowa in 2013, but the desire to make an impact for the underserved never left. “I started thinking seriously about what I wanted to do, what sort of impact I wanted to have on the world, and if there were other ways of exploring the questions that I was exploring through my academic work.” Archer went back to school, this time studying food policy and public health.

She now works at Boston Medical Center as a grants o icer, pulling from her academic experience to procure funding for life-saving research and unbillable programs and services. Nearby is an addiction clinic. The e ects of health crises are visible to Archer every day, both in the hospital and on the street.

“The mission of my o ice is to really figure out ways of telling those people’s stories and trying to alleviate su ering in really tangible ways, recognizing su ering for what it is,” Archer explains. “There are so many ways in which the environment that we’re in reinforces the ability to succeed. Many things about the world are not equitable. So many things restrict people’s ability to live the best, most healthful life possible. That’s something we really take to heart.”

Fighting the inequalities of health and disease

ALUMNI TO WATCH

AREAS OF EXPERTISE Business & communications

Humanities & religion STEM Education

JEFF STAHLNECKER ’13

B.A., mass communications • M.A., strategic communication, American University Stahlnecker is director of marketing communications and public relations at beroNet GmbH in Germany.

JASON ST. CLAIR ’05

B.A., English • M.S. information science, Drexel University

St. Clair is head of patron services and instructor of library science at Andrews University.

JORDAN STIMMEL ’12

B.S., civil engineering • M.A., kinesiology, option: sport management, California State University, Long Beach Stimmel is the interim athletic director at WWU. Previously, he worked as a venues and infrastructure operations manager for TrackTown USA during the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the

Kirsten Archer on the campus of Boston Medical Center where she serves as a grant o icer.

2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials—Track and Field. Most recently, he completed a stint in Houston as the manager of exterior layout for Super Bowl LI.

ANN SZALDAPETREE ’07

M.S.W., social work • Ph.D., biopsychology, The University of Montana

Szalda-Petree is a professor of social work at WWU. She is also a radio host and producer of “Health and Spirit,” a 15-minute radio show focused on how spirituality a ects every day life.

TERRANCE TAYLOR ’06

B.A., theology • M.Div., Andrews University

Taylor is the pastor of the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist church in Pasco, Wash. He is board chair of the Pasco Discovery Coalition and is on the H.O.P.E. advisory board for the Pasco School District.

DARYL TOL ’97

B.S., business administration • M.H.A., Loma Linda University

Tol is president/CEO of Florida Hospital and Adventist Health Systems Central Florida Division.

MONIQUE

VINCENT ’07

B.A., history • M.A. and Ph.D., Near Eastern languages and civilizations (focus: Syro-Palestinian archaeology), University of Chicago Vincent is publications manager for the Center for Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University. She has done archaeological fieldwork in Jordan, Turkey, Spain, and Greece.

ARIC VYHMEISTER ’14

B.A., piano, B.S. physics, B.S.E., mechanical engineering Vyhmeister is a systems engineer with Lockheed Martin Space Systems and will begin graduate studies in collaborative piano at the University of Colorado Boulder in the fall.

JANELLE

WALIKONIS ’08

B.B.A., international business •

M.A., international development and emergency practice, Oxford Brookes University Walikonis is the emergency response program o icer for ADRA International, supporting emergency responses across Africa.

GREG WARREN ’86

B.S., biology and B.S., chemistry • Ph.D., biochemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Warren is a senior applications scientist at OpenEye Scientific Software, Inc. For his work in pharmaceuticals, Warren has received the Bronze Impact Award, the Outstanding Scientist in Discovery Research Award, and has twice received the Crystal Impact Award. He holds two pharmaceutical patents. His publications have been cited more than 20,000 times. He sits on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling

JODY

WASHBURN ’05

B.A., theology • M.A., religion, Old Testament, and M.A., religion, family life education, Andrews University • Ph.D., Near Eastern languages and cultures, University of California, Los Angeles Washburn is an assistant professor of biblical studies at WWU. She has traveled extensively to Israel and Jordan for research and archaeological excavation and is currently working on publishing new photographs of Hebrew inscriptions found in two burial caves in ancient Israel.

JASON WELLS ’96

B.A., English • M.B.A., Benedictine University

Wells is president and CEO at Howard Memorial Hospital.

TODD WESSLEN ’07

B.S., computer science • M.S., computer science, California State University, San Bernardino • D.D.S. and M.S., orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, Loma Linda University School of Dentistry Wesslen owns and operates an orthodontics

practice with two locations in California and has previously worked as a software developer at Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

KRIS

WETTSTEIN ’07

B.A., piano performance

• M.Mus., piano performance, Rice University

Wettstein is director of music at Mott Haven Reformed Church.

AMY WILKINSON ’04

B.B.A., business • M.S., journalism, magazine publishing, Northwestern University

Wilkinson is a senior editor for Entertainment Weekly. She has also been an editor for MTV News and Bauer Publishing.

NICOLE WILLER ’11

B.S., industrial Design Willer is an innovation specialist with Karcher North America, Inc. She has been a senior product designer for Marbles: The Brain Store and a volunteer game night host at an assisted living center.

LAUREN WILLIAMS ’13

B.S., biochemistry • Ph.D., biochemistry (in progress), University of Utah Williams’ research is focused on quality control of cell division.

JOHN WINSLOW ’93

B.S., business administration and M.A., teaching/ education administration Winslow is principal at Upper Columbia Academy.

LES

ZOLLBRECHT ’99

B.A., theology • M.A., leadership, Andrews University • National Outdoor Leadership School Zollbrecht is director of Big Lake Youth Camp. He has taught at Portland Adventist Academy, has been executive director of the Mountain Leadership Institute, and is the recipient of three excellence in teaching awards.

Bringing the world into focus

JONNY LONG ’10

B.A., mass communications

Johnny’s company, Fly View Aerial, specializes in aerial cinematography and production. His client list includes Nike, Mercedes, Honda, the Portland Trail Blazers, and Digital Kitchen. He has partnered with Kaspi, Inc., to produce stock photography and video. Their iStock and Getty Images portfolio, FatCamera, has 48,000 assets and is one of the fastest growing portfolios in the industry.

JOSEPH LONG ’01

B.A., mass communications, and B.A., business administration • M.F.A., media arts, University of Montana

Joseph is owner and creative director at Very Long Media. His film awards include Best Film at Christopher Coppola’s PAH*FEST Digital Film Festival, o icial selection at the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival, and o icial selection at the Lahore International Children’s Film Festival. He divides his time between teaching film and photography, filmmaking, and working on collaborative media projects with his brother, Jonny.

Alumni Currents

Staying in touch with our family of graduates

AlumNotes

Get up to

date with fellow WWU alumni.

Submit your information for AlumNotes at wallawalla.edu/alumnotes.

1950s

Doris (Bush) Anderson ’59 and her husband, Donald, live in Highland, Calif. Doris is retired after teaching 36 years with the San Bernardino City Unified School District. Doris says her days of writing for The Collegian and studying for her bachelor’s degree in English launched her on her teaching career. She estimates that she has taught 7,000 students throughout her career. She has published two books and in 1995 completed a master’s degree in English composition. In their free time, Doris and Donald work on restoring the home they bought 42 years ago, which was built in 1886. They also enjoy golf and travel. Of her favorite memories from her time at WWU, Doris writes: “I loved playing French horn in the school band and orchestra with Mr. Haffner.” The Andersons have three children: Joan, Brent, and Ted. Dennis Brown ’57 and ’70 and his wife, Sharon (Edmisten) ’72, live in Burns, Ore. Dennis retired from teaching in 1997. After official retirement, he and Sharon spent five years as historians at Ellen White’s home, Elmshaven, in St. Helena, Calif., where they enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. Of their time at WWU, Dennis writes: “We loved walking on Hello Walk and seeing all those beautiful smiles.” Dennis and Sharon have three children Zane ’76, Diana Pleitez att., and Christianna KelseyBrandwein att.

Elizabeth (Canaday) Dunlop ’57 and her husband, Robert, live in Kent, Wash. Elizabeth retired as a registered nurse after most recently working at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital. “I have had some great, some exciting, and sad times, but God has always been there for me,” she writes. Her favorite memories of her time at WWU are of the friends

she made. Elizabeth has two children: Shelly (Palmer) Fishkin ’87 and Brenda (Palmer) Kaegi, and two stepchildren: Michial att., and Shelia Unterseher att.

Rich Roberts ’57 and his wife, Barbara (Parker) att., live in Brier, Wash. Richard served the Seventhday Adventist church for 40 years in treasury work. He was with the Washington Conference for 36 years and the Alaska Conference for four years. His memories of WWU include meeting “many wonderful people” including his wife of 62 years. He writes, “The morning and evening worships in Sittner Hall were a blessing and helped me grow spiritually.” Richard and Barbara have three children: Richard ’83, Dan ’83, and Sally Jo ’84

Dorothy (Anderson) Solomon ’57 lives in Caldwell, Idaho. After graduating from WWU, Dorothy completed a dietetic internship at the University of Oregon Medical School and then worked as a dietitian at Walla Walla General Hospital. She currently works at a dental office in Caldwell. Her favorite memories from WWU include working for Mr. Wall in the cafeteria, cooking at Rosario, worship in the girls’ dorm, and being one of the first women to take woodworking and mechanics classes. Dorothy has two children: Monte and Rhonda Wood.

Iris (Hansen) Stober ’57 and her husband, Alvin att., live in Sequim, Wash. Throughout her career in nursing, Iris taught nursing in Puerto Rico and was the associate director of health and temperance in Nicaragua. She is now retired, but in her free time, enjoys birding, hiking, gardening, and driftwood sculpture. She has published her life story and

has volunteered at Sequim ACS for 15 years. Her favorite memories of her days at WWU include band trips, friendships, and the biology station. The Stobers have one daughter, Carmen Hayden McDowell.

1960s

Marilyn (Wehtje) Deininger ’67 and her husband, Albert, live in Loma Linda, Calif. Marilyn is a retired registered nurse and now spends her free time enjoying time with her children and six grandchildren. Her favorite moments from her days at WWU are of Evensong, Helen Evans’ worships, and the friends she made. Marilyn and Albert have three children: Robert, Ronald ’99, and Rachel Zbaraschuk ’04

registered nurses, and worked in nursing administration. “I truly loved my nursing career,” she writes. For 25 winters in Arizona she has sung with the Sweet Adelines, a barbershop group made up of ladies from across the Unites States and Canada. She has also sung at church and campmeetings. “I have gratitude and appreciation for Mrs. L. Jones, my nursing professor at Walla Walla University and Mr. Sloop from the accounting office who was so caring, understanding, and patient.” Vivian and John have three children: Bret, Brad, and Bruce.

Fred W. Troutman ’66 lives in Portland, Ore. He retired in 1999 from the United States Air Force Nurse Corps and is also a WWU professor emeritus of nursing. In retirement, Fred continues to work as a community health clinical instructor for the WWU School of Nursing on the Portland campus. He writes that he has many wonderful memories from WWU that include “Flossie Gabelhouse, Francis Fox, Regina Blake, and I getting selected to assist with the delivery of quadruplets and having our pictures in The Oregonian,” and “my friend Shirley Canaday,” and “my years as a WWU faculty, particularly working with Francis Fickess.” Fred has one son, James. His son, Jonathan, died in an automobile accident in 1987.

Vivian (MacPhee) Dobbin ’62 and her husband, John, spend the summer months in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, and the winters in Mesa, Ariz. Vivian has retired from her career as a director of patient services and a nurse educator. Throughout her career, she specialized in cardiology nursing, was an instructor for student nurses and

Willis “Dan” Weston ’67 and his wife, Norma (Leaming) att., live in Vancouver, Wash. He retired from his job as an electrical engineer for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in 2014 after working there off and on for 25 years. He continues to work as a part-time contractor for BPA. He also currently volunteers at Clark County Adventist Community Services. “I had the privilege of teaching for four years at Andrews University,” he writes. “I also had the privilege of working for Adventist World Radio on the island of Guam for seven years.” He has also worked for Douglas County PUD and Pasco Scientific. Dan and Norma just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. “We were married while students at WWC,” he writes. They have three children: Sherri Martel, Lori, and Paul.

Wendell Wettstein ’66 and his wife, Pat (Stephens) ’65, live in Riverside, Calif., where Wendell is semi-retired as a physician and Pat is retired from a career in nursing. After graduating from the

The Whites

Sandra (Clough) White ’62 and her husband, Cleon ’63, live in Berrien Springs, Mich. Sandra is retired from her work as the interlibrary loan supervisor at the James White Library at Andrews University. Throughout her career, she also worked as an elementary school teacher, assistant girl’s dean, and school registrar, but she says, “My greatest service was in being a wife and mother.” She is also active in her church as a Sabbath School leader and teacher and has taught cooking school and cake decorating to Pathfinders. Sandra counts among her life-changing moments becoming a mother, living and traveling in Asia for two years while her husband was principal at Hong Kong Adventist Academy, and “finally becoming a grandparent at 73.”

Sandra has many fond memories of her days at WWU, including “dedicated teachers who were both interesting and interested in areas of your life other than the classroom, who wanted you to succeed.” She also fondly recalls the meaningful worships by Mrs. Evans, moonlight hikes to begin the school year with cider and doughnuts, beautiful sunsets, great friendships, watching baseball games, snowball fights, and walking the rails in your high heels on Sabbath afternoons.

Sandra and Cleon have two children: Suzanne White-Wain ’91 and Eric.

as an organist and accompanist on Sundays and, for the last three years, has taught band at the local elementary church school. He and his wife also teach private music lessons in their home and continue to serve as organists and worship leaders at the Georgia-Cumberland Academy Seventh-day Adventist Church. Charles’ favorite memories from WWU include Evensongs with Melvin West and various speakers.

1970s

Lester Atkins ’77 and his wife, Janice (Forgey) ’76, live in Colville, Wash. Lester spent his first four years out of college working for Hyster designing special attachments for lift trucks. He then spent 28 years working for Freightliner LLC as a development engineer, designing truck chassis and components. After retiring in 2009, he and Janice moved to northeast Washington. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, snowshoeing, and gardening. He writes, “My wife and I have enjoyed being active in at least eight churches in four states.” He and Janice have three children: Brenda Loucks ’06, Brian att., and Jennifer att.

schedule flexibility. I work 70+ hours per week mid-January to mid-April and about half-time the rest of the year.” He participates in a financial mentoring service through LOVE, INC., a network of local churches in the Skagit Valley of Washington state. “Each year I’ll help three families develop spending plans and find ways to repay debt and be free from its burden,” he writes.

“The satisfaction from seeing joy and hope replace fear and despair is the best paycheck ever received.”

Duane enjoys mountain climbing. He has climbed five continents and reached the highest point of each of the 50 states. His favorite memories from WWU include the people he met—classmates, professors, and work supervisors—many of whom he stays in touch with. “The best relationship from WWU has been with my wonderful wife, Pattie,” he writes. The Gillilands have four children: Scott ’00, Richard ’02, Stephanie Weldon, and Caelli Edmonds.

Randon “Randy”

Loma Linda University School of Medicine (LLUSM), Wendell interned at Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He practiced medicine for 10 years in Canada, three years in Milton-Freewater, Ore., and 32 years in Victorville, Calif. He now works part-time for Heritage Medical Group. Pat writes that her “nursing education at WWU has given me flexibility to work in several fields of healthcare in hospitals and the community.” She found her passion in public health nursing focusing on infants, children, and their families. After completeing a master’s degree, she worked in quality management, utilization, and marketing. The Wettsteins enjoy camping, boating, and water sports. A few of Wendell’s favorite memories from WWU are “actually graduating from U, getting [my] letter of acceptance to LLUSM, and chapel with NASA and all the projected space models.”

Charles Zacharias ’67 and his wife, BeVerly “Jeri” (Lemon), live in Calhoun, Ga. After working as the keyboard and instrumental director for 35 years at four different academies, Charles retired in 2008 from Georgia-Cumberland Academy. Since then he has continued to work

Carolyn (Woolbert) Clausen ’72 and her husband, Loren ’72, live in Libby, Mont. After graduating and getting married in 1972, Carolyn and Loren moved to Detroit, Mich., where Loren went to anesthesia school and Carolyn worked as a public health nurse. They lived in Hoquiam, Wash., for five years, then moved to Libby in 1980, where they built a home. Carolyn is a retired public health nurse and school nurse, and Loren is a retired certified registered nurse anesthetist. “We are very involved in our little church here in Libby,” she writes. Her favorite memories from WWU are of the many friends she and Loren made and that she and Loren met in chapel. “A good place to meet!” she writes. They have two children: Elizabeth Oberg and Casey.

Duane Gilliland ’72 and his wife, Pattie (Woodruff) att., live in Battle Ground, Wash. He works as a tax manager for Williams & Nulle, PLLC, CPAs. Duane writes, “My career as a CPA has allowed me great work

Hesgard ’72 and his wife, Donna (Brass) ’73, live in Battle Ground, Wash. In 2012, Randy retired as a United States Air Force (USAF) chaplain. After graduating from WWU, he was a pastoral intern at the Meadow Glade Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oregon. He then studied at the seminary at Andrews University where he graduated in 1975. He pastored in the Oregon Conference for four years before beginning a 37-year career with the USAF. With the USAF, he was stationed in Texas, England, California, Alaska, Washington, Florida, Idaho, and Nevada. He served on deployments to Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Egypt, New Zealand, Iraq, and on a one-day trip to Antarctica. Randy enjoys camping, boating, and woodworking. His favorite memories of WWU are of the Christian atmosphere and friendships. Randy and Donna have two sons: Timothy ’98 and ’00 and Joel ’01

Trudy (Carpenter) Klein ’72 and her husband, James ’70, live in College Place, Wash. “The day after graduation I married my college sweetheart,” writes Trudy. The newlywed couple spent the next five years in Germany where James was

The Wettsteins have four children: Michael ’71, Lamont att., Alina Wettstein–Hansel ’98, and Brina Wettstein–Kunkel.

Alumni Currents

Staying in touch with our family of graduates

stationed after being drafted into the Army. Trudy works as a nurse manager at the Walla Walla Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, but she says, “The most fulfilling years of my nursing career were the 21 years teaching in the [WWU] School of Nursing.” Of her days as a student at WWU, Trudy fondly remembers the programs in Columbia Auditorium, music in the University Church, band tours, and nursing clinicals in Portland. The Kleins have two children, Hans att. and Katrina Wentz ’03

1980s

Richard “Ed” Green Jr. ’87 lives in Answorth, Ga., where he is a registered nurse at Northside Hospital–Cherokee. He has worked as a registered nurse in hospitals for more than 33 years, mostly in the intensive care unit (ICU). He also spent 14 years working as a travel nurse. One of the most memorable moments of his career was working in the burn ICU on 9/11 and taking care of Pentagon burn survivors. When not working, he enjoys going on medical mission trips. His favorite memories from his days at WWU include banquets, driving between the Portland campus and the College Place campus to visit his girlfriend and his grandmother, and playing ping pong with Chaplain DeHaven. Ed has three children: Jenna Ethridge, Richard, and Austin.

now he is “ready to vacation and volunteer around the world.” His favorite hobby is racing rally cars with his brother, Dave. His favorite memories of WWU include his fellow students, lifelong friends, sports, and dorm life.

David Olson ’82 and his wife, Laura (Bramham), live in Wenatchee, Wash. He is chief executive officer for Columbia Valley Community Health with locations in Chelan and Douglas counties. After graduating from WWU, he obtained a master of health administration degree from the University of Washington and then moved to Southern California to start a career in hospital administration. He switched careers 23 years ago to medical practice management, which lead to his current position. He and Laura are members of the Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church where he is an elder. They have two children: Victoria and Alyssa. His favorite memory of his time at WWU is of “being adopted by my Canadian friends as an honorary Canuck in spite of my obvious physical disability (unable to play hockey).”

1990s

Roschelle “Shelly” (Jones) Fritz ’92 and her husband, Terry ’91, live in Mossyrock, Wash. Shelly is an assistant professor of nursing at Washington State University (WSU). She is also working with a team of engineers at WSU to develop a health-assistive smart home. Terry has worked in engineering and computer science at Hewlett-Packard for more than 20 years. They enjoy spending time with their kids and their church youth group, water skiing, snow skiing, and camping. Shelly’s favorite memories of WWU are of Friday night vespers and the bonfires afterwards. Shelly and Terry have two sons: Matthew curr. att. and Michael.

education has been not only humbling, but has also made very clear how important education is, and how much it shouldn’t be taken for granted.” Dawn also says, “I’m still single, no children, still writing, with a number of fiction and nonfiction (life in Afghanistan) publications under my belt.” From her time at WWU, she fondly remembers “the excellent professors and the interest they took in helping students.”

2000s

Grace (Kincaid) Bryant ’07 lives in Washington. She worked as a dialysis social worker for Fresenius in Moses Lake, Wash., Othello, Wash., and Hermiston, Ore., for five years. Of her time at WWU, Grace writes that she “really enjoyed all my classes and the interactions and conversations with other students and teachers.”

Rick Hintz ’87 and his wife, Marta (Vliet), live in Enumclaw, Wash. Rick writes that he “had a great career as a civilian working for the Navy as an engineer.” He primarily did shipyard submarine work, aircraft carrier work in San Diego, and support work in Japan. He says, “The best year of my career was in Iraq working for the State Department.” He recently retired from the U.S. Department of Defense and says

Milton Adams ’92 and his wife, Brenda, live in Linden, Tenn. Milton works as a Simple Church global network coordinator for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. He writes that “In 2008, we transitioned from pastoring to teaching, which provided the opportunity to plant a house church in our home.” In 2009, the North American Division invited Milton to develop and coordinate a global network of house churches. In 2012, he and his family moved to Tennessee where they continue to develop the Simple Church Network. They spend their extra time homesteading. Milton writes, “Beginning with 100 acres of raw land, we enjoy an orchard, vineyard, gardens, and building an off-grid home.” Of his time at WWU, Milton fondly remembers Sabbath hikes in the mountains, small group retreats, and Friday evening vespers at Whitman Mission. Milton and Brenda have three children: Weston, Kenton, and Elena.

Aman Grant ’97 lives in Chula Vista, Calif. He is a chaplain with the United States Navy. He has served in Okinawa, Japan, and Crete, Greece, and is currently the command chaplain on the USS Lake Champlain out of San Diego. Aman writes that he enjoys “exercising, traveling, and preaching.” Some of his favorite WWU memories are “Having Dr. Alden Thompson pay me to weed his garden while he worked beside me. His intuition knew I was, ‘a little rough around the edges,’ and I needed extra work outside the classroom.” Another treasured experience was “Pastor John Cress hiring me to be assistant chaplain on campus, which was the beginning of me obtaining my leadership for future ministry.”

Dawn Lloyd ’98 lives in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she has been an English instructor at the American University of Afghanistan for the last six years. “It’s been an amazing experience with both incredibly awe-inspiring stories and a few very disheartening ones,” she writes. “Working in a place where a number of our students are literally risking their lives to get a good

Shara (Erickson) Mock ’07 and her husband, Brian ’07, live in Citrus Heights, Calif. Shara is the director of global patient experience at Florida Hospital. Brian is an entrepreneur and business owner of Pocket Deli and a thrift store. They have three children: Emery, Saige, and Lumen.

Michael Vercio ’02 and his wife, Magdalena (Bartkowiak), have lived in Wichita, Kansas, for 12 years. Michael is vice president of product support for Textron Aviation, the merged entity of Cessna and Beechcraft/Hawker aircraft companies. He regularly travels around the world leading the Textron Aviation product support team. Previously, he was chief engineer for a number of CitationJet products, including the Citation M2 and CJ3+. He writes, “My family and I enjoy traveling to Europe and shape our lives around our two children and our church. I fondly look back on my time at Walla Walla College and am very appreciative of the education and experience I received while I was enrolled there. I remember great times in the engineering department, as well as the Friday evening vespers, which were really a wonderful time of social and spiritual renewal.” Michael and Magdalena have two children, Colin and Sienna.

In Memory

Bock—Lowell ’46 was born June 1, 1923, in Puyallup, Wash., and died Aug. 22, 2016, in Loma Linda, Calif.

Surviving: wife Merlo ’46 of Loma Linda; son Allan of Upland, Calif.; daughters Janel Isaeff of Redlands, Calif., and Colleen Laudenslager of Redlands; brother Robert of San Diego, Calif.; and sister Vera Davis of South Lancaster, Mass.

Bartell—Jeannette Ann Taylor ’61 was born Aug. 15, 1938, in Port Angeles, Wash., and died Nov. 25, 2015, in Salida, Calif. Surviving: husband Silas att. of Salida, and son Bruce of Salida.

Berg—Brian ’84 was born Aug. 28, 1959, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, and died June 17, 2016, in Arlington, Wash. Surviving: wife Chalann of Arlington; daughter Rochelle of Arlington; brother Gerald of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada; sister Brenda Proud of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; sister Sherilyn Quirk of Redding, Calif.; and parents Delvin and Rose of Lacombe.

Dick—Betty “Becky” (Becker) ’47 was born Feb. 11, 1925, in Walla Walla, Wash., and died Feb. 11, 2016, in Oregon City, Ore. Surviving: husband Warren ’51 of Oregon City (deceased Sept. 20, 2016); daughters Carol Sellards att. of Oregon City, Marylou Vanlaanen

of Boulder, Colo., and Bonnie ’85 of Oregon City; sons James ’81 of Angwin, Calif., and Bill att. of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho; mother Marie (Hedrick) Becker att. and father Elmer Becker att. of College Place, Wash.

Dick—Warren ’51 was born Feb. 2, 1923, in Portland, Ore., and died Sept. 20, 2016, in Gladstone, Ore. Surviving: daughters Carol Sellards att. of Oregon City, Ore., Marylou Vanlaanen of Boulder, Colo., and Bonnie ’85 of Oregon City; sons James ’81 of Angwin, Calif., and Bill att. of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho; and sister Florence Crumley ’47 of Berrien Springs, Mich.

Dorner—Roger ’55 was born Sept. 27, 1932, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and died June 22, 2016, in Wenatchee, Wash. Surviving: wife June ’54 of Wenatchee; daughter Dixie Hunt att. of Troy, Idaho; and son Duke of Wenatchee.

Dudar—Peter att. was born July 7, 1923, in Two Hills, Alberta, Canada, and died Jan. 22, 2016, in Sun City, Calif. Surviving: sons Peter ’85 of Cuenca, Ecuador, Gary of Menifee, Calif., and Brian of Paradise, Calif.; and mother Maria Dudar and father Petro Dudar of Two Hills, Alberta, Canada.

Ferguson—Marlene ’57 was born

at ROSARIO

Randall ’90; daughters Heidi and Bonnie; brother Arthur; and sister Heidi Rohel.

Mills—Opal ’68 was born Oct. 15, 1923, in Coquille, Ore., and died Jan. 21, 2016, in White Salmon, Wash. Surviving: daughters

Aug. 23, 1931, in Frazer, Mont., and died July 13, 2016, in Billings, Mont. Surviving: sons Charles of Fort Peck, Mont., Bruce of Fort Peck, and Donnie; daughter Dianna att. of Billings; brothers Lyle Nelson and Lowell Nelson att. of Montana; sister Wanda Whisennand of Montana; mother Nellie Hoskins and father Ed Nelson of McCone County, Mont.

Fuller—Flora Araujo ’61 was born Dec. 6, 1937, in Contamana, Peru, and died Sept. 17, 2002, in San Francisco, Calif. Surviving: husband Lester ’61 of Groveland, Calif.; son David of Hughson, Calif.; daughter Sherrie Wendt of Modesto, Calif.; brothers Silas Bartell of Salida, Calif., and Carlos Valdivia of Missouri City, Texas; and sister Ana Johnson att. of Houston, Texas.

Humphreys—Bonnie ’66 was born May 7, 1941, in Riceville, Iowa, and died June 16, 2016, in Spokane, Wash. Surviving: husband Ronald ’66 of Mead, Wash.; daughter Karina Pettey ’90 of Polebridge, Mont.; son Scott of Westerville, Ohio; and sister Lucille VanHorn of Bellingham, Wash.

Klimes—Anna ’57 was born Feb. 2, 1929, in Saskatchewan, Canada, and died Dec. 29, 2015, in Folsom, Calif. Surviving: husband Rudolf ’57 of Orangevale, Calif.; son

Virginia Chapman ’64 of White Salmon and Janet Fullerton of Moyle Springs, Idaho; brother Dale Collver of Odell, Ore.; and sister Eva Mae Popp of Myrtle Point, Ore.

Rhynard—S. Frank att. was born Dec. 20, 1925, in Selah, Wash., and died May 30, 2014, in Tonasket, Wash. Surviving: wife Jean of Tonasket; son David ’72 of Arlee, Mont.; daughter Linda ’70 of Tonasket; and sister Betty Fowler ’50 of Tonasket.

Trude—James ’76 was born Nov. 4, 1953, in Napa, Calif., and died May 30, 2016, in Portland, Ore.

Surviving: wife Julie of Clackamas, Ore.; daughters Rebecca BogarTrude of Juneau, Alaska, and Rachel Smith of Harrison, Ark.; brother John ’76 of Clackamas; and sister Bunny Carr att. of Yakima, Wash.

Wall—Ernest ’55 was born Oct. 25, 1921, in Grandview Bench, British Columbia, Canada, and died April 8, 2016, in Walla Walla, Wash. Surviving: sons Ernest of Coleville, Calif., David att. of Tigard, Ore., and Gary att. of Stayton, Ore.; daughters Marie of Gresham, Ore., Valerie of Stayton, and Elizabeth ’88 of Walla Walla; mother Olga and father August; brothers Joshua ’52, Clinton att., and William att.; and sister Helen.

Alumni Currents

Staying in touch with our family of graduates

Marc Gupilan AC Alumnus of note

SHANGHAI, CHINA Programming director,

and senior health and athletic performance coach

2011, bachelor of science physical education

I moved to China in September 2014. CrossFit was still new in Asia, and there were only three CrossFit gyms (boxes) in all of China. In the two years since I’ve been in Shanghai, I’ve opened two CrossFit boxes for CrossFit Body in Motion and helped spread the CrossFit movement as a coach, competitor, and Lululemon Athletica ambassador. There are now more than 150 CrossFit boxes in China!

CrossFit is a style of training. The book definition is “constantly varied, functional movement, performed at high intensity.” CrossFit is my happy place. It allows me to challenge myself to become a better version of me. There are days when I accomplish a personal goal like squatting 300 pounds over my head, and I feel like I’m on top of the world. Then there are days when the little voice inside me tells me to quit. It’s a game of ups and downs, but it gives me so

much joy to constantly feel challenged and to improve myself as well as the people I coach.

I start my day at 4:30 a.m. with a five-minute cold shower to build immunity and fire up my central nervous system. I either teach a group class or private clients at 6 a.m., and then around 7:30 I do my morning training session. Then I check in with clients whom I program training for remotely, work on training programs for group classes, or coach new clients. Around 3 p.m. I do my own afternoon training session. Then in the evening I coach group classes or personal clients.

I love when I walk into work and see a di erent kind of confidence on the face of one of my clients. People can feel so much personal pride from feeling healthier, stronger, and more fit. Knowing that I had just a little to do with that

confidence boost is one of the best feelings in the world.

I was an Asia Championship finalist in 2015 and 2016, and I’m looking forward to making my third appearance at the finals for 2017. I placed second in China in the 2016 CrossFit Open.

The most important lesson I took from my professors at WWU is that people may not remember what you said to them or how many drills you made them do, but they will always remember how you made them feel. That’s what the Health and Physical Education faculty demonstrated for me. They made me feel happy and showed me that exercise can really be a lot of fun if you make it that way for people. Through them I realized that I didn’t just want to be an athlete but that I wanted to share my passion for fitness with the world.

Invest in our students with your legacy gift.

Legacy gifts make a tremendous difference for students by:

•Establishing new scholarships to benefit deserving students.

•Creating new chairs and professorships to strengthen teaching and learning.

•Enhancing academic and cocurricular programs.

•Strengthening unrestricted resources and the unrestricted endowment.

Legacy gifts that benefit Walla Walla University include:

•Gifts providing income to you or other beneficiaries, such as gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts, with the remainder going to the university.

•Future gifts from your estate including bequests through your will or trust, or designation of your IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or life insurance.

See you there!

June 9–11

The class of 2017 will join the auspicious ranks of WWU alumni during commencement weekend. Events will include consecration vespers Friday evening, baccalaureate and dedication services on Sabbath, and commencement at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Find the complete schedule of events at wallawalla.edu/grad

April 10

Kneller or Tupper for president-elect?

Cast your vote for new alumni association o icers! Look for the insert in this issue of Westwind. Mail your ballot postmarked by April 10 or vote online at wallawalla.edu/alumvote.

April 20

George Yancy, professor of philosophy at Emory University, will be the keynote speaker for the first annual WWU Donald Blake Center Academic Conference. Join us at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center auditorium. Learn more at wallawalla.edu/ DBC-conference.

April 27–30

Celebrate the WWU 125th anniversary during Homecoming Weekend 2017.

We have fun events planned to celebrate! Learn more and register at wallawalla.edu/ homecoming

May 12–14

Special events for moms and daughters are planned during AGA Mother’s Day Weekend. A vespers program will take place Friday at 8 p.m., and a reception is planned for Sabbath afternoon at 3 p.m. Learn more at wallawalla.edu/AGA.

July 12

Root! Root! Root! for the home team during Alumni Night at the Walla Walla Sweets. Gates open at 6 p.m.; game starts at 7. WWU alumni will throw out the first pitch and sing the national anthem. Tickets for $3 include admission, popcorn, and a soft drink. Sign up at wallawalla.edu/sweets or call (800) 377-2586