Winter 2022 Class Notes

Colin Kersey, B.A., English and ‘70, BAE, recently released his second novel, “Swimming with the Angels,” through Atmosphere Press. His first novel, “Soul Catcher,” was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1995.

Gary, B.A., English and Suzi Harrod, BAE, ’72, history-secondary, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Oct. 9, 2021.

Betty Cobbs, certificate, and ’76, MAE, school administration, recently received the Trustee of the Year Leadership Award from the Washington State Association of College Trustees. Betty, a Distinguished Alumna of Woodring College of Education, is the chair of Everett Community College Board of Trustees and principal of Woodside Elementary in Bothell.

Gary, B.A., English and Suzi Harrod, BAE, ’72, history-secondary, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Oct. 9, 2021.

Thomas Moak, B.A., Spanish-special education, retired from Mid- Columbia Libraries after 41 years as a librarian and manager. He continues to serve as a Port of Kennewick commissioner and previously served on the Kennewick City Council and in the Washington state House of Representatives.

Duncan Wilson, B.A., business administration, has served as town administrator for Friday Harbor since 2012 and recently announced his plan to retire in January.

Debora Juarez (Fairhaven Interdisciplinary Concentration) was elected to the Seattle City Council. Juarez is a former King County Superior Court Judge, former director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs and a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation.

Kim Studeman, BAE, business education, is a business teacher at Clover Park High School, where she has taught for 35 years.

Susan Connelly Maury, B.A., English, just finished her Ph.D. in music psychology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her husband, Matthew Maury, ’89, B.A. international business, is the CEO for Tearfund Australia, a faith-based international relief organization that works with local groups in 20 countries around the world to deliver community development projects in areas where poverty is most extreme. The Maurys settled in Australia after more than 15 years living and working in several African countries doing community development work with groups such as Habitat for Humanity.

Susan Connelly Maury, B.A., English, just finished her Ph.D. in music psychology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her husband, Matthew Maury, ’89, B.A. international business, is the CEO for Tearfund Australia, a faith-based international relief organization that works with local groups in 20 countries around the world to deliver community development projects in areas where poverty is most extreme. The Maurys settled in Australia after more than 15 years living and working in several African countries doing community development work with groups such as Habitat for Humanity.

Christine Hamp, B.A., public policy administration, a division chief and volunteer firefighter with Spokane County Fire District No. 9 in Nine Mile Falls, was recently elected vice president of the National Grange at the organization’s 2021 convention in Wichita.

W. Houston Dougharty, M.Ed., student personnel administration, is vice president of Student Affairs at Hofstra University and recently received the 2022 Scott Goodnight Award for Outstanding Performance as a Dean from NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

Siobhán Ní Dhonacha, B.A., Fairhaven interdisciplinary concentration, is an assistant faculty specialist at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she is an academic advisor for the Honors Program and a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Fellow.

Elizabeth Hovde, B.A., journalism, has left newspaper life and is now a policy analyst for Washington Policy Center, an independent, nonprofit think tank that promotes public policy based on free-market solutions.

Aaron Pritchard, B.A., Fairhaven interdisciplinary concentration, was recently named chief of staff for the Port of Seattle commission.

Candace C. Fleischer, B.S., and ‘07, M.S., chemistry, is the director of the Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta. She recently received a $1.5 million New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. Her research includes the development of magnetic resonance-based methods for identifying inflammatory biomarkers in malignant brain tumors. She and her colleagues are also studying ways to noninvasively measure brain temperature, which is important for people who have suffered a brain injury.

Kristen Deptula, B.A., general studies, owns Canalside Inn in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which was named “Best Bed and Breakfast Inn” by Delaware Today magazine in 2020 and 2021.

Dan Erickson, ’07, B.A., creative writing, is the creator and an executive producer of “Severance,” a series that debuted Feb. 18 on Apple TV+. The workplace thriller is directed by Ben Stiller and stars Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette and John Turturro.

Eric Robison, B.A., Fairhaven interdisciplinary concentration, became the city of Spokane Valley’s housing and homeless coordinator.

Dario Ré is an singer-songwriter whose new solo album, “Holy Moon,” will be released May 6. Later in May, Dario and his seven-piece band Heat Speak are starting their West Coast tour in Bellingham.

Ryan Shay, B.A., political science, recently became a director with Faegre Drinker Consulting in Washington, D.C. Previously, he worked as a legislative director for U.S. Rep Susie Lee of Nevada and has also worked on legislative issues for Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep André Carson of Indiana.

Rashawn Nadine Scott, theatre, is an actress and comedian who has appeared on “Empire” and “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” After several years with Second City in Chicago, Scott recently moved to Los Angeles to perform in the 2019 CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase and will be a part of the upcoming Comedy Central series, “South Side.”

Brent Bode, B.A., urban planning, completed his M.Ed. in adult and higher education in December 2020 at Western, where he’s the assistant director of Admissions.

Dan Langager, B.A., creative writing, became the technical communications manager for the Northwest Horticultural Council. Previously, Dan was a broadcast reporter in the Wenatchee Valley and the media relations manager for Yakima Valley Tourism.

Brent Bode, B.A., urban planning, completed his M.Ed. in adult and higher education in December 2020 at Western, where he’s the assistant director of Admissions.

Will Chen, MBA, was recently elected to the Edmonds City Council. He runs a CPA practice in the city.

Megan Dechaine, B.A., theatre, recently became the production stage manager for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Co. and New York Live Arts in New York City.

Anna Wulfekuhle, B.A., theatre, and Dylan Gervais, ’15, B.A., theatre, performed in Tennessee Williams’ “Battle of Angels” with the physical theater ensemble Blessed Unrest in September 2021. The show ran for a weekend in New York City at The New Ohio Theater before traveling north to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to headline the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. Anna and Dylan met Blessed Unrest’s Artistic Director (and director of this play) Jessica Burr through workshops at Western and at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, which WWU theatre students attend annually.

Anna Wulfekuhle, B.A., theatre, and Dylan Gervais, ’15, B.A., theatre, performed in Tennessee Williams’ “Battle of Angels” with the physical theater ensemble Blessed Unrest in September 2021. The show ran for a weekend in New York City at The New Ohio Theater before traveling north to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to headline the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. Anna and Dylan met Blessed Unrest’s Artistic Director (and director of this play) Jessica Burr through workshops at Western and at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, which WWU theatre students attend annually.

Kendall Uyeji, B.A., theatre, is a senior producer at Pork Filled Productions, which recently staged “Resilience! A 24-Hour AAPI Play Festival” featuring seven 10-minute plays all conceived, written, rehearsed and performed within 24 hours by teams of Asian American writers, directors and actors.

Kendall Kracke, B.A., Chinese language and culture, is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese language education at Portland State University and teaches Chinese at a local secondary school. She’s also the global champion of the 20th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.

Meredith Runestrand, 94, a talented painter and homemaker in a large family that included 10 WWU alumni among her children and grandchildren, on Oct. 23, 2021.

Keith E. Stearns, 91, a Vancouver resident, on April 27, 2021.

Marion Norma Seelye, 95, who went back to school after having five children and became a junior high school math teacher in South Kitsap, on Feb. 22, 2020, in Anacortes.

John Garber, 75, a Marine Corps veteran who worked in the aviation insurance industry, on Aug. 24, 2021, in Spokane.

Theodore Bestor, 69, Distinguished Alumnus and Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and Japanese Studies at Harvard University, on July 1, 2021, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research specialized in contemporary urban Japanese society and culture, particularly the Tsukiji fish market of Tokyo. The Japanese government awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun in 2017 for his contributions to the study of Japan and scholarly exchange between Japan and the U.S.

Jonathon Appels, 67, a longtime adjunct professor who taught in a wide variety of areas at Fordham University, including English, anthropology, dance, history, African and African American studies, theology, comparative literature and urban studies, on Nov. 28, 2021, in Manhattan.

Ethel Lee Mitchell, 89, retired area manager of the Juvenile Diversion Program of King County Superior Court and a tireless advocate for justice and equality for Black people, on Aug. 24, 2021.

Donald Gene Slone, 65, retired clinical psychologist for Western State Hospital, on Sept. 25, 2021, in Lakewood.

Linda Streitz, 69, a Seattle resident, on April 25, 2019.

State Sen. Doug Ericksen, ’95, M.A., political science, a Republican who represented Whatcom County’s 42nd Legislative District for 22 years, died Dec. 17, 2021, at age 52. Sen. Ericksen served six terms in the state House of Representatives before he was elected to the state Senate in 2010, where he served as a ranking member on the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee and the Environment, Energy and Technology Committee. His support for Western included funding for the extensive renovation of the Carver building.

Michael Seal, 84, founding director of Western’s Vehicle Research Institute, on Oct. 29, 2021. In his 35 years teaching at Western, Seal was the force behind the institute’s innovative research in car design and a series of experimental vehicles that students took to competitions around the country.

Larry Richardson, 86, a 1957 graduate and Western’s longtime debate coach and forensics director, beginning in 1970, on Nov. 22, 2021. The Larry and Marilyn Richardson Endowment at Western supports debate scholarships.

Lee Maracle, 71, former Distinguished Professor of Canadian Culture at Western and a celebrated writer, poet and advocate for Indigenous women and children, on Nov. 11, 2021, in Surrey, B.C. Maracle’s time at Canada House is chronicled in Professor Emeritus Don Alper’s “Bridging the Longest Border.”

Beatrice A. Gilfilen, ’72, BAE, home economics, and Robert Jewell, on Oct. 3, 2021, in Bellingham. Mrs. Jewell writes that she and her new husband started first grade together, graduated high school together in 1946 and are now in their 90s.

Kimberly Connelly, ’00, BAE, anthropology- elementary, and Kevin Weeks on Sept. 11, 2021, in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Kellyn McCullough, ’11, B.A., psychology, and Louis Tibbs IV on July 9, 2021, in Seattle.

Chloë Cudaback, ’16, B.A., anthropology, and Keaton Toscano, ‘17 B.A., creative writing, on Oct. 9, 2021, in Orting.

Chloë Cudaback, ’16, B.A., anthropology, and Keaton Toscano, ‘17 B.A., creative writing, on Oct. 9, 2021, in Orting.