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Dennis Littlefield returned to George Fox to serve as executive director of Tilikum Center for Retreats and Outdoor Ministries this month. Since 1998, he has been associate director of Twin Rocks Friends Camp in Rockaway Beach. Before that, he was a program director at Tilikum for 12 years. Dennis earned an MBA from George Fox in 1995 and a bachelor’s degree in business/economics from the university in 1984. He is married to Joan and the couple has two children, Elizabeth (21) and Andrew (16).

Angela Doty begins as associate director of Career Services this week. She comes from Northwest Christian University in Eugene, where she has been the director of career development and an academic advisor since 2005. She also received her education at Northwest Christian, earning an undergraduate degree in psychology (2000) and a master’s degree in professional counseling (2005). In addition to her current duties, Angela has been an admissions counselor, a counseling intern and an instructor. She holds the Global Career Development Facilitator credential and is currently serving as the president of the Oregon Career Development Association. She lives in Wilsonville.

Dee Small (Seminary) was named the university’s Support Staff Person of the Year, while Sheila Abercrombie (IT) was chosen Administrator of the Year. The awards were announced at the university’s end-of-semester awards ceremony on May 4.

Rodger Bufford and Nancy Thurston (Graduate Psychology) joined George Fox PsyD students in presenting posters at the Western Psychological Association’s annual meeting in Portland April 25-26. Both professors presented “Are shame and depression related? Understanding their dynamics” and “Evaluating the relationship between empathy and shame.” Rodger also presented “Supervision and the APA ethical code: Remediating an oversight.” He also participated in the American Psychological Association Committee on Accreditation’s site visitor training workshop in Portland.

In addition, Rodger and Mary Peterson (Graduate Psychology) presented “The role of spiritual/religious practices in moderating stress among adolescent residential treatment staff” at the annual meeting of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies in Orlando, Fla., April 2-4.

Paul Otto (History) presented a brown-bag talk, “It is the manner amongst us Indians: Wampum and the Origins of Frontier Diplomacy,” at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif., April 28.

Ed Higgins (Writing/Literature) published two poems, “on bad days” and “open window,” in the May 2009 edition of Danse Macabre, a Nevada Arts Council-winning online literary journal.

Dave Covington (Graduate Admissions/Boise Center) received the Dean’s Award for graduating at the top of his class at Corban College, where he earned an MBA on May 2.

Randy Pitts (Plant Services) and his wife Rebecca welcomed their second child, Samuel, on May 2. The baby weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces and was born at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He joins big brother Elijah.

Kendra Weddle Irons (Religious Studies) is leaving George Fox and moving to Texas. However, she still plans to teach two courses at the university through the Internet and by spending three weeks on site. She also will be teaching at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas.

Clark Campbell (Graduate Psychology) is leaving the university to take a position as dean of the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University. Clark arrived at George Fox as an adjunct professor in 1990 and began full time in 1991. He is a former chair of the Department of Psychology and has been director of clinical training for the Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology for the past eight years.

Diane Wood (Education) is leaving George Fox to work on a national research project related to higher education governance and systems, and to complete her doctoral work at Oregon State.

David Meyer (Political Science) is leaving George Fox to take a position at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

Kim Colantino (Writing/Literature) is leaving the university, as she is expecting a baby in October. She plans to work as an adjunct for a local community college starting next January.

Eric Funasaki (Mathematics) plans to leave the university to pursue other opportunities.

Polly Peterson (Writing/Literature) plans to go from full-time to adjunct status in the fall so she can spend more time with family.

Mark Benjamin (Spiritual Life) is leaving the university on May 22 to move with his family to Georgia this summer and eventually to North Carolina to help plant a church. A farewell/open house event is planned from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at the Spiritual Life House.

Martha Wood (Student Life) is leaving George Fox on May 24 to continue her graduate education.

Jan Lefebvre (Development) was promoted to executive assistant of development.

About Our People
Melanie Springer Mock (Writing/Literature) received the university’s Faculty Achievement Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and Mary Peterson (Graduate Psychology) was selected recipient of the Faculty Achievement Award for Graduate Teaching. Also honored was Chris Koch (Psychology), named winner of the Faculty Research Award.

The following faculty members are on sabbatical for the full 2009-10 academic year: Michael Everest (Chemistry), Scot Headley (Education), Mark Ocker (SPS), Larry Shelton (Seminary) and Tim Timmerman (Visual Arts). Three faculty members – Viki Defferding (Spanish), Craig Johnson (Management) and Don Powers (Biology) – are on sabbatical for the fall semester, and Daniel Sweeney (Graduate Counseling) is on sabbatical for the spring semester.

Lori DeKruyf, Keith Dempsey and Michelle Cox (Graduate Counseling) attended the American Counseling Association’s 2009 conference in Charlotte, N.C. Michelle, along with students Emily E. Hazel, Annette Korkeakoski-Sears and Debra Richards, held a poster session titled “Faith Maturity in Older Adults: Factor Structure of the Faith Maturity Scale (FMS).” Michelle and student Brandi Walters held a poster session titled “Depression or Insomnia?: Diagnostic Complexity among Baby Boomers.” Keith co-presented with Dr. Manivong Ratts on “Advocacy Competencies Self-assessment Survey: A Tool for Measuring Advocacy Competence.” He also co-presented with Dr. Kent Butler to local mental health professionals on working with African American male clients. Lori co-presented with Dr. Manivong Ratts on “Multicultural and Advocacy Dimensions Model: Connecting the Multicultural Counseling Competencies and Advocacy Competencies.”

Several Writing/Literature faculty members presented at the West Region Conference on Christianity and Literature, hosted at George Fox April 16-18. Laura Simmons presented “The Wimsey Papers: Dorothy L. Sayers Speaks Truth to the Government”; Melanie Springer Mock, Ed Higgins, Polly Peterson and Kendra Weddle Irons presented “Channeling the Inklings: A Dialogue About Writing Group Success”; Kim Colantino presented “A New Liberation Theology: Jesse Jackson”; and Abigail Rine (adjunct) presented “Words Incarnate: Michele Roberts’s Creative Dissent.” Kathy Heininge participated as a convener for some sessions. Students who presented included Adrienne Swenson, Kohleun Adamson, Karith Magnuson and Margaret Diepenbrock.

Paul Anderson (Religious Studies) presented a review of recent Jesus scholarship over the last decade, “No Marginal Treatment of Jesus — Meier’s Project and Corollary Jesus Research Trends,” at the New Testament and Hellenistic Religions Section of the Pacific Northwest AAR/SBL/ASOR meetings at Pacific Lutheran University April 24-26. His review of the John, Jesus, and History Project (of which he is co-chair) and his outlining of his own theory of the origins and relations of gospel traditions were invited by the editors of ZNT and published this month in the Zeitschrift für Neues Testament 23 (April 2009) as “Das ‘John, Jesus and History’ Projekt — Neue Beobachtungen zu Jesus und eine Bi-optische Hypothese.”

Tamara Cissna (Marketing Communications) was named the university’s Employee of the Month.

Melissa Thomas (Registrar’s Office) and her husband Webb welcomed a daughter, Leigh Anderson Thomas, on Monday, April 13. The baby weighed 9 pounds and measured 20 ½ inches. She was born at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland.

Shari Scales, former executive director of Providence Newberg Health Foundation, joined George Fox as the vice president of advancement this month. During her eight years at Providence, she successfully led a $5.2 million capital campaign to help fund the construction of Providence Newberg Medical Center. Before that, Shari served as assistant director of development for the Society of Jesus – Oregon Province for three years. She began in the advancement profession in 1992, when she served with the Legacy Health System in Portland as director of development for three foundations. She also has served as a fundraising consultant for The Black United Fund of Oregon, Portland Rescue Mission and several other nonprofit clients. Shari earned a bachelor’s degree in communications/public relations from Marylhurst University in 1995 and holds the designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). She lives in Tualatin with her husband, Dwayne, and two sons, DL (6) and Diego (2). The family attends Tualatin United Methodist Church.

Ed Higgins (Writing/Literature) published two poems in April. His “There is nearly always” was published in JMWW, an online journal that publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction pieces, and his “her plum-black hair” was published in Haiku Reality, a dual-language international haiku journal from Serbia. Haiku Reality printed the poem in both English and Serbian.

From Bonnie Jerke (Career Services): “My family in Montana and I wish to extend sincere and heartfelt thanks to President Robin Baker, his wife Ruth and the George Fox community for sending the lovely plant for my father’s funeral on April 2. This expression of sympathy will always be a reminder of the goodness of God’s people and his tender mercies in the healing process. As a progressive farmer, Albert Jerke loved the land and all that went with that miracle of God’s provision for the common good.”

The following faculty members were granted tenure at the university’s recent board of trustees meeting: Lori DeKruyf (Graduate Counseling), Bob Hamilton (Engineering), Kendra Weddle Irons (Religious Studies), Rhett Luedtke (Performing Arts), Lisa McMinn (Sociology), and Gary Spivey (Engineering).

The board also approved promotions. Promoted from assistant to associate professor were Corey Beals (Religious Studies), Melanie Hulbert (Sociology), Sue O’Donnell (Psychology), and Mary Peterson (Graduate Psychology). Also, Judy Keeney (Education) was promoted from instructor to assistant professor.

Joel Perez (Student Life) presented a workshop, “Hard Lessons to Learn: Dealing with Racial Incidents on a Christian Campus,” at the SCORR (Student Congress on Racial Reconciliation) conference held at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., in February.

Kathy Heininge’s (Writing/Literature) book Buffoonery in Irish Drama: Staging 20th Century Post-Colonial Stereotypes is now available from Peter Lang Publishing. Generations of Irish playwrights have tried to assert the reputation of the stage Irish figure as other than comic, but each effort was in its turn assailed as buffoonery. Using post-colonial and performative theory, Heininge’s book demonstrates the ways the Irish struggled to create a sense of identity in a colonial structure and explores the distortion and appropriation of that new identity that elicit further calls to eradicate negative stereotypes. Demonstrating the pervasiveness of the reclamation efforts, Buffoonery in Irish Drama covers a wide range of well-known and obscure plays to show the trajectory of 20th century drama that brings us into a globalized 21st-century Ireland.

Ed Higgins’ (Writing/Literature) poem “We two” was published in the March 2009 issue of Earthshine, an online poetry journal. In addition, the current online issue of Tattoo Highway features his poem “Polyphemous Remembers the Taste of Greeks.” Ed recently attended the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco, participating in an all-day “Writing Teachers Writing” workshop in which he read some of his own creative nonfiction and poetry.

Fred Gregory was hired as the special assistant to the president in February. He is a 1966 graduate of George Fox, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology/sociology, and the University of Oregon, where he earned an MS in education in 1970. Fred is a seasoned executive with more than 40 years of experience in the private, not-for-profit and public sectors. He is experienced in executive leadership, financial management, personnel management and fundraising in locales all over the world, including Asia, China, East Africa and Central America. He was with World Concern for 12 years, the last eight as president. He worked for Mercy Corps from 2005 to 2008, serving in Guatemala, China, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. He also worked as country director for the U.S. Peace Corps in Uzbekistan and Bangladesh (2002-2004). Most recently, he was executive director of PeaceTrees Vietnam, an organization that removes and destroys live unexploded ordnance and replaces them with trees. Fred lives in Newberg and has four grown children living in Washington, Colorado and Texas. He attends 2nd Street Community Church in Newberg.

Linda Miller has joined Career Services to serve as interim associate director though May 1. A graduate of George Fox, where she earned degrees in both psychology and sociology, Linda has worked in the career development, business and nonprofit sectors. Among other jobs, she has served as the director of career development at Northwestern College in Iowa, as the CFO at DRM Consultants of Succasunna, N.J., and as the coordinator of recruitment and student development at Kingdom Building Ministries of Aurora, Colo. Linda’s permanent home is in Denver.

Matt Noble, a part-time security officer, left the university on Feb. 22.

Brielle Deppe left her full-time position of guest services coordinator at Tilikum on March 1. She will continue working there on a part-time basis for a few weeks.

Meredith Dougherty (Student Life) is no longer temporary but working in the full-time position of student transitions coordinator.

Jeff VandenHoek (School of Management) is now on the Newberg campus as director of the full-time MBA program. Previously, Jeff oversaw the MBA’s executive track.

Amber Russell (School of Management) is now director of the Portland professional track MBA part-time program.

Tom Head (School of Management/International Studies) spoke Feb. 19 at the Women’s Shipping Club of Portland on the topic of “The Role of the World Trade Organization in the Global Economy.” The club is designed to promote a better understanding among its members and the public about the maritime shipping and warehousing industry.

In addition, Tom, Debra Worden (Economics) and John Gorlorwulu (Economics) heard Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman lecture on “The Global Economy” at the World Affairs Council in Portland on Jan. 29. Tom had the opportunity to visit with Krugman before the event and to introduce his George Fox colleagues to him afterwards.

Don Powers (Biology), along with research collaborator Bret Tobalske, were featured in an Oregon Field Guide segment that aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting on Feb. 26 and March 1. The episode discussed hummingbird flight bio-mechanics and energetics. It was entitled “Hummingbirds aren’t just fun to watch, scientists are discovering they still have a lot to learn from them.”

Ed Higgins’ (Writing/Literature) poem “Desk Drawer Labyrinth” is featured in the February 2009 quarterly issue of The Centrifugal Eye, an online Canadian literary journal.

Eric Mortinson (Marketing Communications) won a first-place award in the Los Angeles Film Studies Center’s annual student film festival. Mortinson, who will graduate this spring with a degree in cinema and media communication, won in the “Best Comedy” category for his crime/buddy/road comedy Battery Acid. The film was screened at the Directors’ Guild Theater in Los Angeles on Feb. 28. The LAFSC Awards are designed to recognize students from CCCU colleges who “integrate a robust spirituality with excellent cinematic storytelling.”

Jared Ocker (IT) and Dee Small (Seminary) were selected as the February employees of the month.

Eric Mortinson joined Marketing Communications as a video producer in January. Eric will graduate from George Fox this spring with a bachelor’s degree in cinema and media communication (video production concentration). He has won numerous awards for his projects, including best short documentary at the City of Angels Film Festival in 2007. He also has won awards at the annual George Fox Film Festival. He will produce videos for George Fox primarily focused on student recruitment and fundraising. He lives in Newberg and attends Grace Baptist Church.

Sandy Cherachanko joined Student Financial Services as a student accounts specialist in January. She worked previously for 13 years as a project coordinator with WHPacific Inc., a professional consulting firm, at its Portland/Salem offices. Sandy lives in Sherwood with her husband of 23 years, Paul. They have two children, Sasha and Marissa, and attend Sherwood Friends Church.

Ed Higgins’ (Writing/Literature) poem, “we two,” was published in the latest edition of the online poetry journal Earthshine. Ed also published the poem “Ida’s Parmesan” in a January issue of Haibun Today, an online poetry site.

Paul Anderson (Religious Studies) spoke at the “Search for Meaning: Pacific Northwest Spirituality and Theology Book Festival” hosted by Seattle University on Feb. 7. Paul shared his work “The Christ of Faith, the Jesus of History, and the Gospel of John” at the event, designed to celebrate the best regional works on issues of spirituality, faith, church-state matters, and theology.

Jesse Dillow (Plant Services) and wife Liz had a baby girl Friday, Feb. 6. Janie Elisabeth was born at Providence Newberg Hospital. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Mary Cameron joined the Newberg campus library staff as a library assistant II this month. She has worked at St. Anthony School in Tigard since 2003, serving as an intermediate assistant and substitute teacher for grades K-8 the past year. Before that, she was a kindergarten assistant for five years. Mary also managed the Family Treehouse Preschool in Newberg from 2000 to 2003. She attended Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mary lives in Sherwood with husband, Brian, and their two children, Nicholas and Jennifer. The family attends St. Anthony’s Church in Tigard.

Becky Greenwood recently went from temporary status to full time as site coordinator of the Salem Center. For the past two years, she’s worked as a residential counselor for the Youth Guidance Association of Portland. Before that, she spent five years as a receptionist for  the Christian & Missionary Alliance organization in Portland. Becky earned a certificate in intercultural studies from Western Seminary in 2008 and earned a bachelor’s degree in religious education and cross-cultural studies from Prairie Bible College in Alberta, Canada, in 1988. She lives in Beaverton and attends Village Baptist Church in Beaverton.

Debora Sepich and Tim Rahschulte (Management) co-wrote an article, “Educating Entrepreneurs: A Realistic Approach in a Complex World,” that was published in the January issue of CDTLink, a publication produced by the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Theresa Schierman joined Student Financial Services as a financial aid counselor in December. For the past year, she worked as the student loan market manager for U.S. Bank Corporate in Minneapolis. Her position served all universities and colleges within the state of Oregon. Prior to that, Theresa was employed at the University of Portland as a financial aid counselor (2000-07), a student loan processor (1995-99), and a student loan coordinator (1992-94). She is an active member of the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Theresa lives in Portland with husband David, and they have seven children and five grandchildren. She is a member of St. Anthony’s Church in Tigard.

Christa Hill joined the university this month to work as an administrative assistant II at the Portland Center. She comes from Cascade College, where she was an administrative assistant to the teacher education department and college faculty for the past three years. Before that, she served at Cascade as an assistant to the dean of students (1998 to 2004) and an administrative assistant for student services (1996-98). Christa earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Cascade College in 2002. She lives in Portland with husband Jason.

Lissa Forbes joined undergraduate admissions as an administrative assistant this month. Since 2007, she has worked at Tilikum on a part-time basis. Before that, she was a nursing assistant at a family health clinic in Pennsylvania in 2006-07. Lissa earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from George Fox in 2004 and lives in Newberg with her husband, Nate Forbes, the Day Camp manager at Tilikum. They attend Rock Harbor Church in Sherwood.

Brendon Connelly (Graduate Admissions) left the university in December to be director of finance and development for Northwest Yearly Meeting. Brendon had worked at George Fox for six years.

Bruce Strom (SPS) left George Fox last month to join the faculty at Argosy University.

Gayle Denham (Student Financial Services) retired from George Fox in December to spend more time with family and in ministry.

Tiffany Tangen (Library) left the university in December to continue her education in the MAT program at the University of Portland.