Class Notes

Janis Olson Peterson, BAE, elementary education, and Wes Peterson, ‘51, technology education, and ’58, M.Ed., elementary education, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on June 21, 2022.

Colton Rasanen-Fryar, B.A., journalism-public relations, was promoted to assistant managing editor of the Wahpeton Daily News in North Dakota.

Isabel Vander Stoep, B.A., communication studies, was promoted to assistant editor of the Chronicle newspaper in Chehalis. Isabel began at the paper as an intern and was soon promoted to full-time reporter.

Irina Reinhardt, B.A., communication studies, became a business administrator for the solar energy company Unico Solar Investors.

Karlee Foster, B.A., theatre, is an actor and theatre artist in the Los Angeles area and a member of the Wallis Studio Ensemble at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. She recently performed in the ensemble’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Karlee is also on the technical crew at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

The University of North Texas Press just published “There Is Only Us,” a short story collection by Zoe Ballering, MFA, creative writing, who won the university’s 2022 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. In 2021, Zoe’s short story, “Double or Nothing,” won the Rougarou Fabulism & Speculative Fiction Contest.

Daniel Hovander, B.S., is in dental school at the University of Washington and will begin his residency this year at Neighborcare Health Dental Clinic at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.

Jacob Dodrill, B.A., Spanish, wrote “Poetry for Me,” a volume that includes poems influenced by Latin American poetry classes Jacob took at Western. It’s available from Dorrance Publishing Co.

After spending four years conducting research at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Anna Marie Yanny, B.S., behavioral neuroscience, is in graduate school at University of California, Santa Cruz, studying science communication.

Nora Selander, B.A., history and political science, is Western’s new director of Government Relations. She came from The Evergreen State College, where she served as Government Relations Director.

Zoë Fejeran, B.A., art history, is the Western Gallery’s new museum educator. Before returning to Western, Zoë completed a master’s degree in art education at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kayla Adams, '16, B.A., theatre, is a theatre artist based in Chicago who recently returned to campus to direct “what the Gods gave me,” written by Eryn Elyse McVay, B.A., theatre. Eryn is working toward an MFA in playwriting at Ohio University, where “what the Gods gave me” premiered last fall.

Kayla Adams, B.A., theatre, is a theatre artist based in Chicago who recently returned to campus to direct “what the Gods gave me,” written by Eryn Elyse McVay, ’18, B.A., theatre. Eryn is working toward an MFA in playwriting at Ohio University, where “what the Gods gave me” premiered last fall.

Jason Smith, superintendent credential, is head of the International School of Arizona and was recently selected to attend an intensive, two-week Heads of School Program at the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership at Columbia University.

Jen Monnier, B.A., philosophy, completed a master’s degree in journalism at New York University and is now a freelance writer based in Seattle, specializing in the sciences, business, arts and entertainment, and profiles. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Bloomberg, Medscape and the Los Angeles Times. She is also a book fact-checker.

Anna Nakae, B.S., environmental science and certificate in global information systems, is the projects coordinator for the Eagle River Watershed Council in Gypsum, Colorado. She recently joined the Eagle Open Space and Recreational Advisory Committee.

Carly Roberts, B.A., political science, graduated in May 2022 from Gonzaga Law School, where she was a Thomas More public service scholar and editor-in-chief of the Gonzaga Law Review. Carly was sworn into the Washington State Bar in November and is completing a judicial clerkship in Seattle.

Savannah LeCornu, B.A., theatre, is the production manager for Western’s Department of Theatre and Dance, and the lighting designer/manager for Mount Baker Theatre. She’s also a visual artist whose work is drawn from her multi-tribal background of Tsimshian, Haida and Nimiipuu (Nez Perce). Savannah’s painting, “Still Here” WWU Variant, hangs in Parks Hall. She was also accepted into her first artist residency as the Spring Native American Fellow for the Visual Arts at Wyoming’s Ucross Foundation.

Debbi Kenote, BFA, studio art, completed her MFA in 2016 from Brooklyn College and is a contemporary artist based in New York. Her paintings were included in several exhibitions in 2022 in Beijing, Montreal, Seattle, Oakland and Connecticut.

Cumulus, led by Alexandra Lockhart, B.A., communication, recently released its third album, “Something Brighter,” whose songs carry a theme of “gratitude and the bittersweetness of learning from the past,” according to the band’s website.