About Our People
Leah Payne and Erica Ramirez (Seminary) published an article in the March 21 edition of The Washington Post’s online “Perspective†section: “The Christian sect that has always cheered for Donald Trump: Why Donald Trump’s biggest Christian champions love him so much.†Leah was also a plenary speaker at the Foursquare Education Symposium held at Life Pacific College in San Dimas, California, March 19-21.
Brenda Morton (Education) and Anna Berardi’s (Counseling) book chapter, “Creating a Trauma-Informed Rural Community: A University-School District Model,” in R. Martin Reardon and Jack Leonard’s book Making a Positive Impact in Rural Places, is their third publication detailing their work helping school districts shift to trauma-informed school programming. Morton is currently a Fulbright scholar teaching trauma-informed school programming to educators at the University of Tartu in Estonia. Berardi and Morton are continuing to teach Trauma Response Institute courses as part of the Trauma-Informed School Initiative with a cohort of K-8 educators in the Tillamook School District. Deep into the implementation process, the educators are now gathering data on the process and efficacy of their trauma-informed transformation process.
Greg Allen (Adult Degree Program) had the opportunity to serve as a faculty consultant for the American Council of Education in association with the Department of Defense earlier this month. Faculty consultants provide an independent assessment of the course materials to establish whether the professional military education is equivalent with university-level scholarship and thoroughness. The virtual review consisted of five courses concentrating on leadership skills and operations management for officers and enlisted Marines preparing for deployment.
Mark McMinn (PsyD) was interviewed on the topic of positive psychology and his recent book, The Science of Virtue, by ORBITER, a Templeton-funded online magazine that explores the intersection of science and meaning. The interview and a short video of Mark are featured here.
A number of employees received “shout-out†recognition at the all-employee meeting on March 19. The following were honored: Belinda Creighton (Finance) for her helpfulness and kind heart in doing her job; Carol Jaquith (Undergraduate Psychology) for her hard work in supporting so many departments and programs; Courtland Sherreitt (Media Production Services) for his work in helping create an inviting atmosphere in chapel; Darla Norgren (Portland Center Coordinator), for her enthusiasm and care for the employees and students at the Portland Center; Dinah Steig (Student Accounts), for being a “rock star†in helping sophomore students participate in Tent City and register for Juniors Abroad trips; Janet Herron (Financial Aid), for assisting an ADP student who was worried about a failing grade having an impact on her aid; Kim Rapp (Social Work), for her work in coordinating the recent Field Fair event; Kipp Wilfong (Graduate Admissions), for taking on EdD admissions and PsyD admissions while down a team member; Matt Sargent (Registrar), for his thoughtfulness and help in the retrieval of data; Molly Hickok (Health and Counseling Services), for her dedication and for work as an advocate of students at the Health and Counseling Center; Sonia Legg (Plant Services), for covering the office single-handedly with multiple people out sick; Tyler Susmilch (Data Analytics), for curating an apples-to-apples data set of census-day enrollment history spanning about 15 years.