E-Colleague

Brian Snider joined the university last week as a software engineer for the university’s analytics team. An alumnus of George Fox, he has worked the past two and a half years as a scientist and senior research programmer for BioSpeech in Portland, a company that specializes in creating biomedical applications for those with communication challenges. He has also worked the past four years as a graduate research assistant at Oregon Health & Science University, where he is a PhD candidate in computer science and expected to graduate in 2016. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from George Fox in 2008. He lives in Newberg with his wife Rebecca and their two children, Hannah and Daniel, and attends Family Life Church in town, where he is a board member and technical director.

Sherrie Frost (Mail Services) retired from the university in February after serving at George Fox for 30 years.

Rachel Powell (Nursing) left the university in February. She left to spend more time with her family and wished to thank the George Fox community for the enjoyable work experience.

Melodee Powers has been promoted to budget manager in the financial affairs office. She began her new position on March 9.

Jennie Harrop (Department of Professional Studies) gave a talk titled “The Mathematics of Language: The Simple Math of Writing Well” at the Oregon Women in Higher Education (OWHE) annual conference in Bend on Jan. 23. She presented the talk again on March 6 at the Oregon Association of Teacher Educators (ORATE) annual conference in Portland, and will present it at the Oregon Council of Teachers of English (OCTE) annual conference in Redmond on April 18. Jennie also served on a panel at Marylhurst University’s Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) conference on Feb. 27, where she spoke about George Fox’s process for extending university credit for prior learning.

Ed Higgins (English) published four poems – “Dürer’s Eve,” “Eve Redux,” “Job’s Faith” and “Because words are insufficient” – in the January 2015 issue of Triggerfish Critical Review, an online poetry ezine.

Paul Anderson (Christian Studies) preached at South Salem Friends Church and spoke at the Christian forum class at Reedwood Friends Church on “Discerning One’s Personal Vocation” in February. He also presented workshops on “Elton Trueblood” and “Following Jesus” at the national Summit Friends Leadership Conference in La Jolla, Calif., in December, and he has been invited to join the translation committee of the American Standard Bible. His foreword to Richard Cassidy’s The Fourth Gospel in New Perspective was published by Wipf & Stock in February, and his review of the CNN special on finding Jesus and the Shroud of Turin, “I Didn’t Know Jesus Was Lost,” was published as a featured blog post in the Religion section of the Huffington Post in early March.

Tanya Rooney (December) and Lecia Retter (February) were named Employees of the Month.

March 12          Theresa Schierman, Brent Weaver
March 13          Carol Brazo, Karen Buchanan, Sandy Cherachanko
March 14          Piper Parks
March 15          Caitlin Corning, Stephanie St. Cyr
March 17          Bryan Boyd, Saurra Heide, Taylor Martin
March 19          Marty Hunter
March 20          Heidi Cuddeford
March 21          Kim Towell
March 22          Terry Peters

Caroline Wildhaber joined the university in late January to serve as an administrative assistant in the School of Nursing. She arrives from the Dayton School District, where she was an instructional assistant in the alternative education program for the past eight years. In addition, since 2000, she has worked as the owner and manager of her own catering and event planning business. Caroline worked previously for Nike (1986 to 1999) as a global business process manager and general merchandise manager. She lives in Dayton with her husband of 25 years, Greg. They have two children: Grace and Luke, both of whom are students in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. The family attends St. James Catholic Church in McMinnville.

The artwork of Gary Buhler (Art and Design) is currently on display on the second floor of the Oregon State Capitol Building. The exhibition, titled “Urban Oregon,” is the latest installment as part of the Art in the Governor’s Office Program, designed to honor practicing and professional artists in Oregon. As it is an honors program, only a few artists are honored with an invitation to exhibit through a nomination process, which occurs on a biennial basis. A selection committee, consisting of representatives from the governor’s office and the Oregon Arts Commission, selects works for display either from nominations submitted or artists directly invited.

On “Urban Oregon,” Gary said, “The urban Oregon landscape is rich in story. I connect to these stories and flesh out the characters with color, shape, contrast, texture and composition. It is my hope that they speak to your stories in new and yet familiar ways.” The exhibit is up through Monday, May 4.

Sophia Tegart (Music), an instructor of flute, presented a recital of 20th-century masterworks for two flutes with her flute duo, Cherry Street, at the Florida Flute Association Convention on Feb. 1. Cherry Street also performed at Fox Flute Fest, held in Bauman Auditorium, on Jan. 24. The music department-sponsored Fox Flute Fest hosted Krista Jobson of the University of Texas-Pan American. George Fox flute students were able to perform for Jobson in a master class setting. Fox Flute Fest was attended by numerous high school and college students, as well as local community flutists.

Ed Higgins (English) published his poem “Too Far” in the Jan. 12, 2015, edition of FishFood Literacy & Creative Arts Magazine. In addition, his piece “Match Point” was published in the Winter 2014-15 issue of Red Wolf Journal.

Feb. 24          Corwyn Beals
Feb. 26          Pam Clem
Feb. 27          Joel Schutter
March 1         Andrew Fleming
March 2         Winston Seegobin
March 3         Joseph Clair, Trenton Corvino, Rhett Luedtke
March 4         Tyler Cuddeford
March 6         Chris Casey
March 7         Lecia Retter
March 9         James Oshiro

The university welcomes the return of Kayin Griffith, an alumna and former employee in the spiritual life office, to serve as the director of housing in the student life office. After graduating from George Fox in 2008, she joined the university as the assistant director of spiritual life – a position she held until early 2014. She spent the past year working as the director of advocacy and development at the international headquarters for Word Made Flesh, a nonprofit missional community based in Portland. She also co-owns Griffae Design, a graphics and web design firm, with her husband Cary, a web designer in George Fox’s marketing communications office. She and Cary live in Newberg with their daughter Anaya Rae.

Alexandra Rhizor joined the university in January as a custodian for the plant services department. This marks a return to George Fox for Alexandra, as she graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2012. Toward the end of her college years she worked for security services (2011-12). She lives in Beaverton, but she and her husband Alexander plan to move to Newberg. They attend Colossae Church in Tigard.

Jeff VandenHoek and Colleen Huffman (College of Business) left the university on Jan. 31 when their positions were eliminated.

Marcie Gowan (Nursing) has left the university.

Paul Otto (History) will spend his sabbatical next year at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., after being selected to be a fellow at the center for the 2015-16 academic year. Paul is the first George Fox professor to earn the distinction, and may be the first from a Council of Christian Colleges & Universities school. In fact, only 32 fellowships were granted this year out of a pool of 547 applications nationwide. Paul will work on his book Beads of Power: Wampum and the Shaping of Early America during the fellowship.

Paul was also one of 11 historians chosen to be part of Historic Huguenot Street’s newly formed Scholarly Advisory Board, a group of scholars who will help to ensure historical accuracy of the interpretive programming at the museum and National Historic Landmark while guiding interpretive goals for the future. Historic Huguenot Street is a nonprofit based in New Paltz, N.Y., that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres that was the heart of the original 1678 settlement, including seven stone houses that date to the early 18th century. In addition, Paul’s article “The Dutch, Munsees, and the Purchase of Manhattan Island” appeared in the January 2015 issue of the New York State Bar Association Journal.

Annette Nemetz (College of Business) published an article, “A global investigation of government and community stakeholder influences on large company engagement in sustainability,” in the International Journal of Business and Management. The piece addresses sustainability issues, social responsibility and strategic engagement in large publicly listed firms in 25 countries.

Ed Higgins (English) published a science fiction haiku, “Lost Ship,” in the October 14, 2014, edition of Clockwork Kiru: Steampunk Haiku. Another of his sci-fi poems, “The Visitors,” was included in the Oct. 24, 2014, issue of Red Sky: Anthology of Speculative Poetry.

Kevin T. Jones (Department of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts) had two essays recently accepted for publication. His article “Teaching Audience Analysis with Presidential ‘Victory’ Speeches” was accepted by Communication Teacher, a journal published by the National Communication Association. In his essay, Kevin uses presidential speeches to identify effective and ineffective audience analysis in developing a speech. President Bush’s 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech is used as an example of poor audience analysis, and Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign victory speech on election night is shown to be an example of good audience analysis.

Additionally, Kevin had a chapter titled “Diffusing Prejudice and Fear in a Gender Studies Classroom” accepted for publication in a book titled Communicating Prejudice: An Appreciative Inquiry Approach, to be published later this year. Kevin uses a narrative approach in the chapter to help teach colleagues how to navigate prejudice and fear in a college classroom.

Laura Gifford (History, Politics and International Studies) spoke to the Newberg Early-Bird Rotary group recently, making a presentation about Herbert Hoover and World War I.

Feb. 10          Debbie Cash
Feb. 11          Danae Allen, Alex Rolfe, Lynn Scott, Cindy Zablotny
Feb. 12          Paul Shew
Feb. 14          Johanna Schweitzer
Feb. 19          Sue Corbett-Furgal, Christina Schmitt, Jere Witherspoon
Feb. 20          Gina Braden, Scot Headley
Feb. 21          Jon Hall
Feb. 22          Mark Hall
Feb. 23          Jeongah Kim, Mark Weinert

Lynn Andrews (Advancement) recently left the university. She had this to say about her departure: “It is with much sadness that I let you know I am resigning for personal reasons … to slow the pace of my life and take better care of my health. It is my hope and belief that the advancement team will continue to build on the work we’ve accomplished together. Thank you for welcoming me with open hearts and minds. I know that God has a plan for each one of us, and I am very grateful He caused our paths to cross!” The university will seek a replacement for the position. In the meantime, Scott Philips is providing advancement leadership on an interim basis.

Sarah King (Enrollment and Marketing/Analytics) has left the university after seven years of service. She was hired by Nike to work as a senior planning business analyst with the company’s emerging markets team.

Keith Schneider’s (Student Life) last day at George Fox is this Friday, Jan. 30. A farewell reception for him is set from 3 to 4 p.m. today (Tuesday) in the Stevens Center’s Duke Atrium. He has worked at George Fox since the summer of 2007.

Ron Shaw (Plant Services) is retiring after 16 and a half years of service to the university. An open house in his honor will take place on Thursday, Jan. 29, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Stevens Center’s Duke Atrium.

Lori DeKruyf (Counseling) recently received the 2014 Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Publication Award in recognition of contributions made to counselor education and supervision literature. Among the contributions were collaborative pieces, with Richard Auger from the University of Minnesota, Mankato, and Shannon Trice-Black from the College of William and Mary, for a two-part special issue for Professional School Counseling, the flagship journal for the American School Counseling Association. Their co-editing culminated in 14 peer-reviewed articles contributing to the professional literature on the role school counselors play in meeting students’ mental health needs.

Chengping Zhang’s (Business) paper, “Incorporating Powerful Excel Tools into Finance Teaching,” was published in the Fall/Winter 2014 issue (Vol. 40, No. 3/4) of the Journal of Financial Education. The paper demonstrates how to effectively use Excel tools to teach key finance concepts, such as financial statement analysis, time value of money, stock and bond valuation, capital budgeting, portfolio theory and financial derivatives.

Ed Higgins’ (English) poem, “Poem for the betraying Lover and his new Love,” was published in the Pea River Journal (Vol. 3, Fall 2014). In addition, his flash-fiction piece “Couth” appeared in the recent online British journal The Short Humor Site on Dec. 26.

Saurra Heide (Education) was named the university’s Employee of the Month for January.

Jan. 29          Tabitha Becker, Leslie Wuest
Jan. 30          Belinda Creighton, Chad Stillinger
Jan. 31          Paul Shelton, Missy Terry
Feb. 1            Andrea Byerley, Bruce Owen, Tanya Rooney
Feb. 2            Dave Adrian, Emily Call, Maco Hamilton, Matt Hammar
Feb. 3            Mark McLeod-Harrison
Feb. 4            Kathy Campobasso, Kristie DeHaven, Gloria Doherty
Feb. 5            Barbi Doran
Feb. 6            David Kerr, David Pollock
Feb. 8            Stephanie Fisher, Marcie Gowan
Feb. 9            Bill Stevens

Erik Bay joined the university as an electrician apprentice this month. He worked in the same capacity for Compass Electric of Vancouver, Wash., over the previous three years, and prior to that was an electrician apprentice for Mr. Electric of Clark County in 2010-11. Erik earned bachelor’s degrees in youth ministry and biblical studies from George Fox in 2010 and, as a student, worked as a mail clerk in mail services from 2007 to 2010. He lives in Newberg with his wife Alison and attends Newberg Friends Church.

Elaine Smith (Nursing) retired from the university on Dec. 19 and plans to spend more time with grandchildren and family.

Tyler Robertson (IT) left the university in mid-December.

Jan. 13            Kim Rapp
Jan. 14            Jim Steele
Jan. 15            Janeen Dillow, Debbie Hawblitzel
Jan. 16            Kelly Ward
Jan. 17            Christine Austin
Jan. 18            Dwayne Astleford, Robin Baker, Matt Dyment, Dorothy Miranda
Jan. 19            Paul Fodge, David Liu
Jan. 20            Caroline Jovanovich
Jan. 22            John Smith
Jan. 23            Ted Allen, Bill Buhrow, Mike Foster, John Johnson, Kris Molitor
Jan. 24            Matt Stump
Jan. 26            Celeste Flachsbart, Matt Sargent

Ed Higgins’ (English) published his ghazal, “Momentary Snake,” in the December issue of the online ezine The Ghazal Page. A ghazal is a traditional Persian-Arabic poetic form composed of couplets, five or more, following a strict rhyme and rhythm pattern. He also published a flash fiction story, “Mom’s Blue-Green Eyes,” in a recent issue of Crab Fat Literary Magazine, a site dedicated to flash fiction, short stories and poetry.

Andrea Byerley (Registrar’s Office) was honored as the university’s November Employee of the Month.

Dec. 17            Gary Buhler, Viki Defferding, Joe Thouvenel
Dec. 18            Carol Huchinson, Katy Turpen
Dec. 19            Anderson Campbell, Kimberley Hergert, Phil Smith
Dec. 20            Jennifer Hanks
Dec. 22            Robin Ashford, Jenny Getsinger
Dec. 23            Rodger Bufford
Dec. 24            Jeong Ahn, Greg Allen
Dec. 25            Abby Burgess, Debby O’Kelley
Dec. 26            Jill Beals, Michelle Engblom-Deglmann
Dec. 28            Robert Simpson
Dec. 30            Cris Banton, Lori DeKruyf, Paul L’Esperance
Dec. 31            Sherrie Frost
Jan. 1              Bob Harder
Jan. 3              Julie Green, Sarah Marvin, Brianna Provoast
Jan. 4              Brenda Graf, Chris Koch, Dan van der Water
Jan. 6              Merrill Johnson
Jan. 9              Mary Cameron
Jan. 10            Grant Burns, George Byrtek, John Regier, Keith Schneider
Jan. 11            Ginny Birky
Jan. 12            Jeff Cameron, Tim Rahschulte, Shannon Scott

Jim Steele (Business) has been elected to a second three-year term on the board of directors for the Human Resources Certification Institute, the leading certification provider for the global HR profession with 135,000 HR professionals in 100-plus countries. In addition, he’s been named secretary-treasurer elect for 2015-16. The secretary-treasurer is an officer of the nonprofit corporation and also serves on its executive committee.

Randy Woodley (Seminary) wrote an article, “How to Acknowledge Native Americans this Thanksgiving,” that appeared in online issues of Time and The Tufts Daily in late November.

Kevin T. Jones (Communication Arts) presented seven papers at the National Communication Association’s annual convention in Chicago Nov. 20-23. He presented the paper “Walking on Eggshells: Exploring Creativity Versus Crisis Management as Pedagogy for High Anxiety in the Basic Course,” in which he shared the insights and activities he uses in the classroom to reduce communication anxiety. Next, Kevin presented “The Past, Present and Promising Future of the Undergraduate Capstone Course at Small Colleges and Universities,” which featured his research on the effectiveness of service learning in the senior capstone course. He followed that with a presentation on “Demonstrating Effective Audience Analysis through Analysis of Presidential Crisis Rhetoric Speeches,” using Ronald Reagan’s Challenger disaster speech and George Bush’s Columbia disaster speech to argue how Reagan used effective audience analysis to turn a negative event into a positive event while Bush engaged poor audience analysis and failed to move his audience.

Kevin then presented “Mortification and Apodiorizo: Re-framing Apologia,” in which he presented an image management theory he created based on Tiger Woods’ 2010 sex scandal speech. Next, Kevin served on a panel and presented “Who is Responsible for Student Learning,” in which he shared his pedagogical strategies to engage students more in the learning process in each course. He then presented the paper “The Presence of Communication Learning Outcomes in General Education Assessment.” Finally, as the former president of the Religious Communication Association, Kevin was invited to present a paper titled “Past Presidents’ Reflections for the Present and Future,” in which he shared his perspective on his tenure as president and what the future holds for the organization. Kevin was also invited to serve as the chair and respondent to a panel titled “Bringing Insights of Interpersonal Communication Theory into Conversation with Other Subfields.”

Dec. 3              Davida Brown, Brad Lau
Dec. 4              Alan Kluge
Dec. 6              Rodney Birch, Carlos Taloyo
Dec. 7              Marie-Christine Goodworth, Chris Morrissey
Dec. 8              Kerry Irish, Peggy Kilburg
Dec. 9              Patrick Kelley, Mike Wirta
Dec. 10            Carlisle Chambers, Jennifer McCollum
Dec. 11            Tatiana Cevallos
Dec. 12            John Bates, Isabelle Corneaux
Dec. 13            Steve Grant, Marcey Keefer Hutchison
Dec. 14            Janelle Olivarez
Dec. 15            Paul Corbett-Furgal, Rick Muthiah, Cliff Rosenbohm

The university welcomes the return of Adina Briggs McConaughey this month to serve as an executive assistant in the College of Engineering. For the past two and a half years she has worked as an executive assistant to the CEO at Medical Teams International in Tigard. Before that, she worked part time for the same company for two years as the executive assistant to the president and as an HR assistant. During a two-year span (2010 to 2012), Adina simultaneously worked part time as an admissions counselor for George Fox’s doctor of clinical psychology program, and in the 10 years prior to that worked in various admissions roles, including as the admissions counselor for the university’s adult degree completion program. Adina holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from George Fox. She and her husband Mike live in Newberg, and their daughter Amanda is a sophomore at George Fox in the school’s athletic training program. In her spare time, Adina is a registered yoga instructor and a Mary Kay consultant. The family attends North Valley Friends Church in Newberg.

An adjunct instructor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary the last three years, Jared Roth, joins the university in a part-time capacity this month as director of the Part-Time MBA program in the College of Business. In addition to his teaching at the seminary, Jared has taught on an adjunct basis at Life Pacific College the past two years while also working as the co-lead pastor at Evergreen Christian Center in Hillsboro, Ore., since 2009. He founded and ran his own business coaching enterprise for five years (2006 to 2011) and has traveled the last nine years as a denominational consultant and speaker. He also founded and serves as president of Turnaround Church LLC. Jared holds a doctor of education degree in organizational change from Pepperdine University (2011) and earned a master’s degree in leadership and church growth (1994) and bachelor’s degree in managerial leadership from Northwest Christian University (1993). He lives in Hillsboro with his wife Ann. They attend Evergreen Christian Center.