About Our People

Rachel Thomas (Archives) presented two sessions at the Northwest Archivists Conference in Warm Springs, Oregon, on April 26. Collaborating with other archivists from across the Northwest, she presented “Internships 2.0” – an analysis of the use of interns in the archival setting – and “Get Certified! Leveraging Organizational Resources for Professional Gain,” a session on strategic, low-cost professional development that featured her success in bringing free digital archives webinars to Oregon archivists.

Corban Harwood (Mathematics) helped SIMIODE (Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations) host its SCUDEM (Student Competition Using Differential Equation Modeling) event and led the accompanying faculty workshop on campus on April 21. SIMIODE is committed to support active learning of real-world mathematics through competitions, workshops and journal publications. George Fox joined 88 other host sites around the world, with nearly 400 total students participating in this inaugural competition. The George Fox team took second place locally for its “Optimization of Sorting Recyclables,” with team members taking first and second place in the MathBowl trivia portion of the competition.

Corban is also part of a team of mathematicians from George Fox, Manhattan College, Southwestern University, Virginia Wesleyan University and SIMIODE, Inc. who received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to improve undergraduate STEM education. Corban will run a series of national workshops, starting in Manhattan, New York, to develop supplemental curriculum supporting real-world project-based teaching. The grant project, “Building Community Through Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations,” is funded at $450,000 over three years. Corban was also invited by Linfield College’s Math Club Seminar to talk on “Foundations of Numerical Partial Differential Equations” on May 10.

Benjamin L. Hartley (College of Christian Studies and William Penn Honors Program) received two travel grants to conduct archival research for two writing projects. The Rockefeller Archive Center awarded Ben $2,000 to defray travel/lodging costs to visit its New York archive to study the contributions of John D. Rockefeller in early 20th century world mission initiatives. Ben also received a $1,000 Racial/Ethnic History Grant from the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church to do archival research on early Oregon Methodist mission (1830s) among Native Americans.

Nathanael Ankeny (Music) performed April 8 with the Clock Tower Wind Orchestra, a professional wind ensemble made up of faculty from Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and other musicians from around the region. He has also been performing regularly at The Allison Inn and Spa in Newberg with pianists Randy Porter, Seth Ahnert, David Goldblatt and Clay Giberson.

Christianity Today recently published Leah Payne’s (Seminary) article, “Wild Wild Country Hits Close to Home,” a piece about the new documentary about Rajneeshpuram, which is now a Young Life camp.

Kenn Willson (Music) was honored by the Bösendorfer piano company, Classic Pianos of Portland and the Yamaha Corporation of America as a “Distinctive Artist and Champion of Viennese Culture.” He was awarded a plaque to commemorate the honor prior to the university’s Spring Concert in April. Kenn previously was recognized with the title “Bösendorfer Educational Artist” in 2006.

Paul Anderson (College of Christian Studies) and the university as a whole were featured in a recent blog piece, “George Fox University Uses The Saint John’s Bible to ‘Pique Our Social Conscience,’” on The Saint John’s Bible website.

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