E-Colleague

July 17            Kasondra Silva
July 18            Corey Haverda
July 19            Matthew Williams
July 21            Gordon Aarness, Brittany Baker, Jeff Houck, Daniel Kang, Vicki Piersall
July 22            Carl Anderson, Courtney Elrod, Luann Foster
July 23            Donna Kestek, Mark Stone
July 25            Muh Bi Lin
July 26            Bob Dexter
July 27            Randy Woodley
July 29            David Hansen
July 30            Dale Isaak, Ron Mock, Liz Simmons
July 31            Lindsay Knox, Gary Spivey
Aug. 1             Jason Brumitt, Rob Westervelt
Aug. 3             Nancy Thurston
Aug. 4             Jered McConaughey, Nick Whitaker
Aug. 5             Michelle Shelton, Linda Warberg
Aug. 6             Elizabeth Anderson

The university has hired Megan Adams to work on a part-time basis as an assistant Serve Day coordinator. Megan is a 2018 graduate of George Fox, ​from which she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. During her time as a student, she worked as an assistant area coordinator in 2017-18 and, before that, as a resident assistant from 2015 to 2017. Also, since 2016, she has been a parent relations intern for the university and a school counselor intern in the McMinnville School District. Megan lives in Newberg with her new husband, Austin, and attends Countryside Community Church.

Charles Allen, who has worked on the Newberg campus since March as a server for Bon Appetit, has been hired by plant services as a groundskeeper. Previously, he worked as an area coordinator at Willamette University (2017), as a temp data entry technician at George Fox (2016-17) and as a graduate assistant hall director at Taylor University in Indiana (2014-16). He also served as a residence life coordinator for commuters at George Fox in 2013, and since May of 2017 he’s done independent work as a transcription editor for audiovisual projects. Charles earned a master’s degree in higher education and student development from Taylor University in 2016 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from George Fox in 2013. He lives in Newberg and attends Newberg Christian Church.

Tom Samek has been hired on a temporary basis to serve as director of plant services, as longtime director Clyde Thomas is set to retire at the end of this month. Tom, husband to provost Linda and a former director of plant services at Corban University, is scheduled to work in his new position for six months.

Jim Jackson, a former full-time employee who left the school in 2012 and was rehired as a temporary gift officer in February, has been hired on a part-time basis. When he left six years ago, Jim had worked at George Fox for 32 years. He also works as a real estate agent in the area.

Alyssa Rands (Theatre), Jocelyn Stein (Honors Program), Ann Lunt (Art and Design) and Josh DeGraff (Plant Services) have left the university.

Theresa Schierman (Financial Aid) retired from the university earlier this month.

Patty Findley is making the transition from her role as an administrative assistant in athletics to an administrative assistant position in the Department of Health and Human Performance. Beginning in August, she will work half time on a nine-month contract for the department.

Ryan Dougherty (Admissions) and his brother, Kevin, teamed up to write an article, “Football, Recruitment, and Retention at U.S. Christian Colleges,” published in the Christian Higher Education journal (Volume 17, No. 3). Kevin is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Baylor University.

Ed Higgins’ (English Faculty Emeritus) poem, “July heat,” was republished in an annual best-of anthology, Selections: Plum Tree Tavern Volume Three (May 2018). Also, his piece “fog swirl” appeared in the February/March 2018 issue of Haiku Presence, Britain’s foremost haiku journal, and his poem “Homonyms Explicated” is in the inaugural edition of the literary-art journal Brine (May 10, 2018). In addition, in May The Magnolia Review published an online interview with Ed on various aspects of his creative writing process.

Tom Head (Business) wrote an introduction to the book Quakers, Politics, and Economics: Quakers and the Disciplines Volume 5, published in May (Full Media Services). Paul Anderson (Christian studies) serves as an editor for the book, part of the Quakers and the Disciplines series. Tom’s chapter can be downloaded in George Fox’s Digital Commons.

June 12            Tiona Cage, Beronica Salazar
June 14            Brian Snider
June 15            Jennifer Lichtenberg, Gary Tandy
June 17            Neal Ninteman
June 18            Sherri Moore, Donna Webb
June 19            Mark McMinn, Kristi Wheaton
June 20            Janet Herron, Angeleen Umfleet
June 21            Jamie Johnson, Susanna Thornhill
June 22            Penny Martin, Dinah Steig, Daniel Sweeney
June 23            Rachel Thomas
June 24            Terri Crawford, Catherine Kacalek, Christina Kiefiuk Yates, Patty Vanier
June 25            Natalie Turner
June 27            Darby Thiessen, Debby Thomas, Kipp Wilfong
June 28            Michael Meek, Dan Schutter
June 29            Mary Peterson, Nathan Slegers
June 30            John Heitz
July 1               Nancy Fawver
July 3               Allie Duncan
July 5               Makenna Wimmer
July 8               Jesse Dillow, Sue Richie, Linda Samek
July 9               Eloise Hockett, Sidney Tafflinger, Kenn Willson, Anna Sophia Ziton
July 10             Laurie Fair
July 11             Spencer Hadduck, Jillian Sokso
July 12             Chris Pulver
July 13             Jordan Nelson
July 14             Mckenna Tillotson, Rebecca Yazzie
July 16             Megan Fisher

Alumnus Jordan Moody has joined the student accounts office as a student accounts specialist on the Newberg campus. For the past year he has worked as a substitute teacher in the North Clackamas School District, and the year before that he was a teacher candidate at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie. While a student at George Fox, Jordan was employed in the music department as a theory assistant, working with fellow students to assist them in their academic pursuits. He earned both a bachelor’s degree in music (2015) and a master of arts in teaching degree (2017) from George Fox. Jordan lives in Newberg.

The athletic department has hired Craig Inglesby to develop the Bridge Network Leadership Program, a mentorship initiative for student-athletes. He arrives after serving 20 years with Young Life, a parachurch outreach ministry. He spent 19 years at the Washington Family Ranch assisting in the restoration and renovation of the former Rajneesh compound in Central Oregon. His Young Life career allowed him to do roles that incorporated recruiting, fundraising, camp operations, risk management and mentoring. During the summer of 2017, Craig and his wife Kathi moved to Newberg with their family to establish a Young Life presence on the George Fox campus. Craig brings a passion to invest in students, experience in developing leaders, and a heart to work collaboratively.

The plant services department has hired Louie Olivares as a painter. For the past five years, he’s worked as a merchandising execution associate for Home Depot in Sherwood. In addition, since 2010, he has served as director of school ministry at Countryside Community Church in Sherwood. Louie worked previously as an assistant teacher and substitute teacher for the Community Action/Head Start program in Washington County, Oregon (2009-10). Previously, he was a missionary to Costa Rica with Alternative Missions International in the mid-2000s. He attended Marylhurst University in the mid-1980s and holds a certificate in youth ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary (2001). Louie lives in Tualatin with his wife, Evenia, and daughter Lea. They attend Cedar Creek Church in Sherwood.

Chuck Rouse has joined Plant Services as a groundskeeper. He arrives with more than 20 years of experience in the landscape and construction fields, including everything from project labor to site management. He most recently worked as a mechanic at Bailey Nurseries in Yamhill, Oregon (2018) and, before that, was employed as a foreman at American Sprinkler Repair in Spokane Valley, Washington (2016-17). He also worked for eight years (2008-16) as a mechanic and shop manager for Pohl Spring Works of Spokane. He attended school at Spokane Community College. Chuck lives in Newberg with his wife of 31 years, Karolee. Chuck’s son and his family also live in Newberg.

After seven years at George Fox, Paula Hampton (Christian Studies) is leaving the university on May 15. She plans to continue working as a freelance editor and looks forward to a slower schedule and regaining some balance in life and health.

The following faculty members are retiring this spring/summer or leaving George Fox to pursue other opportunities: Beth LaForce (Education), Charlie Kamilos (Library), Patrick Allen (Education), Bob Simpson (Counseling), Rand Michael (Counseling), Tom Head (Business), Byron Shenk (Athletic Training), Juliette DeSoto (English), Arden Schellert (Sociology) and Laura Simmons (Seminary). Juliette will return to teach at the university on an adjunct basis.

Kristie DeHaven has transitioned to the admissions office, where she is now an enrollment counselor for the adult degree program at the Portland Center.

Tiona Cage has transitioned to the Portland Center, where she is now associate director of the Portland Seminary’s masters programs.

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.

May 16            Britny Scholz, Trevor Woods
May 17            Paul Anderson, Nichole Drew, Cory Hand, Yongqiang Zheng
May 18            Gregg Boughton, Paul Otto
May 19            Cristi Miles
May 20            Gabe Haberly, Teresa Lamm
May 22            Clifford Berger, Janet Ellis
May 23            Chuck Conniry
May 24            Brenda Morton
May 26            Michelle Berg, Elise Trask
May 28            Beth LaForce, Steve Sherwood
May 29            Steven Classen, Kandie Comfort, Juliette De Soto, Mike Magill
May 30            Stephen Bearden, Amy Dee
May 31            Jessica Hollen
June 3             Paula Hampton, Jamison Loop
June 4             Nadine Kincaid
June 6             Keisha Gordon, Joyce Staats, Alan Thurston
June 8             Jeannine Graham, Adam Haldorson, Shannon Stueckle
June 9             Mark Terry
June 10           Tim Goodfellow, Carlos Ordonez
June 11           Jing Hao, Ty Sohlman

Chris Low has joined the marketing communications department as a photographer. He has worked in the photography industry in the Portland area since January of 2010, and before that he worked for more than three years in Atlanta while attending photography school at the award-winning Portfolio Center. Chris has worked for a wide range of clients in the athletic, lifestyle and editorial fields, including Nike, Adidas, Columbia, Costco, Walgreens, Territory Run Co., and Competitor magazine. He has a varied work experience in the profession, serving as a photographer’s assistant, a digital tech and the photographer on assignments. Previous to his degree from Portfolio Center, he earned a bachelor’s degree in communication media and broadcast from George Fox in 2002. Chris is an avid runner and enjoys spending time with family. He lives in Beaverton with his wife of 14 years, Caitlin, and their 4-year-old boy, MacLaren (Mac). The family attends Colossae Church in Tigard.

Danae Allen (Adult Degree Program) is leaving the university April 25. She has accepted a position as an operations manager for a small private equity firm in Tigard.

Karen Jorgenson Murphy (Adjunct, Christian Studies) is publishing a book, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics on Becoming a Christian, through Brill.

Mark Allen Eaton (Adjunct Theatre/Communication/Humanities) traveled to New York City March 29-31 to see the one-act adaptation of his play, Pilate, performed at Theatre 315, the Salvation Army’s Off-Broadway black-box theatre. The performance was directed by Chuck Goodin, produced by Carol Jaudes, and starred Ian Evans as “Pilate” and Kathryn Higgins as “Claudia.”

Paul Anderson (Christian studies) participated in an initial accreditation review of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. He also had his tribute to John Punshon published in Oxford’s newsletter The Brazen Nose 2016-2017, and his essay, “The Johannine Riddles and their Place in the Development of Trinitarian Theology,” was published in The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology. Finally, his “Celebrating Forty Years of Celebration of Discipline: An Interview with Richard Foster,” was published in Quaker Life (April) and posted on the Renovare website, as was his essay, “The Lord’s Prayer as a Transformative Pattern.”

April 25             Terri Beecroft, Valerie Sherwood, Richard Silver
April 26             Emma Glennen
April 28             Danny Cross, Sunggu Yang
April 29             Jeff Woods
April 30             Chris Cleaver
May 1                Patrick Allen, Emily Sallee
May 2                Beth Hampton, Dwayne Worden
May 4                Sarah Reid
May 5                Robert Bonner, Emily Davis, Tai Harden-Moore
May 7                Ryan Forbes
May 8                Molly Hickok, Brent Wilson, Deb Worden
May 10              Heidi Duckworth, Chris Meade
May 11              Katherine Morland
May 12              Megan Hills, Mark Smith, Marla Sweningson
May 13              Jenny Elsey, Rob Leslie
May 14              Kathi Becker, Don Powers

Alumna Makenna Wimmer recently joined the university’s marketing and communications office as a web designer. Since last August she’s worked as a graphic design coordinator for the National Psoriasis Foundation in Portland, where she developed operation plans for projects, helped create event branding, and designed brochures, event pieces and web content. Previously, she worked the summer of 2017 as a graphic designer at Ashley Lippard Design in Newberg. Makenna also gained office experience while a student at George Fox, working as an office/professor’s assistant in the College of Christian Studies (2015-17) and as a graphic designer for the IDEA Center (2015-16). She earned a bachelor’s degree in art and design from George Fox in 2017. She lives in Newberg.

At the university’s board of trustees meeting in March, the board voted to award tenure and promotion to the following candidates effective with their 2018-19 contracts. Tenure: Glena Andrews (PsyD), Muh Bi (Toby) Lin (Social Work) and Josh Sauerwein (Business); promoted to professor: Kelly Chang (Psychology), Muh Bi (Toby) Lin (Social Work), Roger Nam (Seminary), Paul Shelton (Business), Nathan Sledgers (Engineering), Jillian Sokso (Art and Design), Jim Steele (Business), Cindy Zablotny (Physical Therapy), Chengping Zhang (Business); promoted to associate professor: Karen Bowdoin (Art and Design), Joseph Clair (Christian Studies/William Penn Honors Program), Isabelle Corneaux (French), Todd Curtis (Engineering), Marcey Keefer Hutchison (Physical Therapy) and Paul Shew (Physical Therapy).

Brent Wilson (Computer Science) and many of his students helped the Oregon Computer Science Teacher’s Organization (OCSTA) host its Oregon High School Programming Contest and SuperQuest Teacher Conference on campus on March 17. The programming contest included nearly 40 teams with approximately 120 high school students. At the concurrent SuperQuest Teacher Conference, about 100 teachers from across the state, the largest group ever for the event, participated in a total of 17 separate classes and workshops focused on computer science education. OCSTA is committed to increasing and improving the computer science and digital literacy educational opportunities in the state’s K-12 schools.

Terry Huffman (Education) published his book, Tribal Strengths and Native Education: Voices from the Reservation Classroom, through the University of Massachusetts Press. Basing his account on the insights of six veteran American Indian educators who serve in three reservation schools on the Northern Plains, Terry explores how Native educators perceive pedagogical strengths rooted in their tribal heritage and personal ethnicity. He recounts their views on the issues facing students and shows how tribal identity can be a source of resilience in academic and personal success.

Ed Higgins’ (Faculty Emeritus, English Department) poem, “were you still here now,” was published in the March 12, 2018, issue of the journal Furtive Dalliance Literary Review. He also had two poems, “Mermaid Tale” and “Disposable Pleasures,” appear in Raw Journal of Arts, Issue II (March 29, 2018) and a micro-flash story, “Searching for Mr. Bharath Seshardi,” get published in the February/March 2018 issue of WORDPEACE.

Paul Anderson (Christian Studies) delivered presentations on the theological, historical, and literary riddles of the Fourth Gospel at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Salem for three Sunday evenings in March, and his essay on “John: The Mundane Gospel and its Archaeology-Related Features” was translated into Spanish and published in the April issue of Arqueología e Historia as “Juan. El evangelio terrenal y la arqueología.” Paul also served as an external evaluator for a PhD viva at the Radboud University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and delivered lectures at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Leuven (Belgium) on “John Among the Gospels – A Bi-Optic Approach” and “The Spirituality of Jesus – An Inclusive Quest.”

Gary Tandy (English) published an article, “C. S. Lewis’s Ambivalence toward Rhetoric and Style,” in The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society. The article uses research into Lewis’s literary criticism and letters to argue that Lewis had concerns that an overemphasis on rhetorical technique and literary style could overshadow more important concerns about content and truth and that Lewis, in his later writings, preferred imaginative, fictional presentations of the gospel over argumentative/apologetic approaches.

Don Powers (Biology) cowrote a paper, “Integrating morphology and kinematics in the scaling of hummingbird hovering metabolic rate and efficiency” that was published in Royal Society Proceedings B. The work was done in collaboration with Ken Welch (University of Toronto) and Bret Tobalske (University of Montana).

April 10              Cheri Hampton
April 11              Janelle Freitag
April 12              Dylan Harris, John Shaw
April 14              Jekabs Bikis, Kathy Rosenbohm
April 15              Mike Campadore, Katie Mastropaolo
April 17              Sonia Legg
April 18              Judy Deale
April 19              Rebecca Williams
April 20              Kacy Hughson
April 21              Stephanie Bugas
April 22              Michael Underriner
April 23              Connie Holland

John Regier, formerly associate director of masters programs at the seminary, is now the associate director of graduate admissions.

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.

March 27           Ryan Ingersoll, Yune Tran
March 28           Kathy Harris, Charles Kamilos, Jeremy Lloyd, Steve Petzold
March 29           Vetta Berokoff, Sydney West
March 30           Tyler Welker
March 31           Melodee Powers
April 1               Cesar Calderon, Trevor Daimler, Jen Klapp
April 2               Lu Anderson
April 3               Steve Delamarter, Melissa Ramos
April 5               Maddie Lowen, Vicki Tschan
April 8               Joel Kelley

Darla Tillman-Samuelson (Seminary) has left her full-time position at George Fox. She will continue to fulfill her adjunct teaching role for the seminary this semester and is looking forward to new opportunities.

Adam McGuffie (Seminary) has left the seminary. He plans to expand his independent consulting work in web design, social media and photography. He is also continuing to teach in the university’s adult degree program.