1940s
Charlotte Wirth (’48 Phys. Ed., ’55 MAT) and Marda McClenny (’74 Phys. Ed.) were inducted into the Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame. McClenny coached the Walla Walla girls basketball team to three state tournaments and Wirth coached Walla Walla prior to Title IX. Wirth is also known for working to get equal practice time and equipment for the developing girls sports programs during the 1960s and 1970s.
1950s
Paul C. Anderson (’55, ’60 MA Poli. Sci.) taught political science at Yakima Valley College from 1961-94 and then retired to Port Townsend. He was a Delta Chi and lettered in golf at WSU in 1953-54. Paul was president of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association in 1989, and also taught school in Yelm and Tacoma.
1970s
Chief marketing officer for PEMCO Insurance Rod Brooks (’75 Comm.) was inducted into the Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Hall of Fame in April.
Greg Gillespie (’78 Agro.) was named chancellor of Ventura County Community College District. He will begin this summer. Gillespie has been the president of Ventura for four years.
President and CEO of Swire Coca-Cola, USA, Jack Pelo (’78 Acc.) was honored by Utah Business Magazine with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Pelo has led Swire Coca-Cola, USA for about 20 years, but he began working summers in the industry as a kid growing up in Walla Walla.
Terry Jones (’79 Mktg.) was named the 2017 Distinguished Alumna for Pierce College. Jones was a student at Pierce College while it was still called the Fort Steilacoom Community College, and then transferred to WSU. Jones is president of US Bank’s South Sound Market, serves as board member of both Tacoma-Pierce County’s Economic Development Board and Chamber of Commerce, and sits on the board for Junior Achievement of Washington.
1980s
Anna Anderson (’80 HBM) was recently hired as general manager of Halcyon, a hotel in Cherry Creek, Colorado. She has more than 25 years of industry experience opening and managing lifestyle hotels across the nation.
Burien City Council voted to hire Brian Wilson (‘80 Crim. Jus.) as their new city manager. He most recently was the commission chair for the Corral Springs Water District in Douglas County, and before that worked for Federal Way as chief of staff, city manager, police chief, and deputy police chief.
Marty Heimbigner (’81 Acc.) was named chief financial officer by Seattle digital media startup theMaven Inc. He has many years of financial leadership experience with software and professional service businesses, such as BSQUARE Corporation and Tatum, LLC.
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. has announced Curt Hogge (’82 MS Geol.) as the chief geologist of a technical team to explore its Rochford Gold Project located along the Homestake Gold Belt in South Dakota.
Steven McCulley (’83 Crim. Jus.) is Atherton’s new police chief. He was a Washington State Patrol trooper for 27 years, where his jobs included criminal investigations detective, criminal information and technology section commander, statewide bomb squad commander, and rapid deployment force commander. He firmly believes in the motto that no call is too small for a police officer.
Guy Williams (’83 Comm.) is the new human services manager for the city of Renton. Williams has more than 20 years of experience working within the public sector including various health and human services positions, education director at Seattle Public Schools, and worked most recently with Casey Family Programs.
Puget Sound Bank announced that Tony Chalfant (’84 Fin.) will continue as chief credit officer and is being promoted to chief operating officer. He has been with the bank since its inception, and has 25 years in commercial banking.
Maia Tihista (’84 Comm., Busi.) joined e-learning company OnCourse Learning as its new chief marketing officer. Tihista recently served as vice president of marketing for Flexera Software. She also has held marketing positions with LexisNexis, Sony, Hitachi, and Panasonic.
Central Washington University named Kremiere Jackson (’86 Comm.) as its new vice president of public affairs. In her more than 20 years of communications experience, Jackson has worked for Microsoft, Puget Sound Energy, KXLY in Spokane, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and the Washington State Senate.
Animal scientist Matt Doumit (’87 Ani. Sci.) has been named the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences associate dean and director of academic programs. He has experience in both teaching and research and is scheduled to start at the end of July.
Adrienne Gemperle (’87 Comm.) has been named chief people officer of the company Plated after gaining over nine years of experience in senior human resource jobs with Starbucks and Restaurants Unlimited, Inc.
After many years as a research engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, Eric Nyberg (’89 M.S. Materials Science & Engineering) is now director of programmes at the newly constructed Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology with Brunel University in London.
1990s
Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc. appointed James Baumgartner (’92 PhD Biochem.) as its new CEO in May. Baumgartner will work toward federal approval for new drugs derived from cannabis. Phoenix Life works on products designed to treat pain, cancer, psychological, gastrointestinal, autoimmune, neurological, and sleep disorders.
Curt Freed (’92 Psych., ’16 PhD Higher Ed. Admin.), previously the vice president for instruction at Whatcom Community College, has become the new president of Morgan Community College in Colorado.
Yong Wang (’92 MS, ’93 PhD Chem. Eng.) has been awarded the American Chemical Society’s annual Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Division fellow award. Wang works with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and has a joint position at WSU as the Voiland Distinguished Professor.
Esterline Corporation selected Joe Baddeley (’93, ’94 MS Mech. Eng.) as president for its interface technologies business group. The company is a specialty manufacturer primarily serving the aerospace and defense markets.
The family law firm of Goldberg Jones welcomed attorney Robert Bennett (’93 For. Lang. and Lit.) to their Seattle team. Before turning his attention to family law, Bennett practiced international commercial arbitration abroad for seven years. He is also a decorated veteran of the Gulf War.
Don Miller (’93 MBA), CEO of Gesa Credit Union, has been honored with the WSU Tri-Cities Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award in recognition of his service, career achievements, and dedication to the promotion of educational excellence. He also serves on the board for Junior Achievement of Washington in the Tri-Cities.
Tim Timmerman (’93 MFA), an art professor at the George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, for 14 years, received George Fox’s Faculty Achievement Award for Undergraduate Teaching. Timmerman teaches painting, sculpture, mixed media, contemporary art forms, drawing, and art history. He also oversees the university’s art collection and gallery.
Will Hoenike (’97 Comm.) joined the College of Idaho in April as a website strategist. Previously he worked in marketing and advancement for the College of Western Idaho, as director of media and community relations at Idaho Sports Properties, and as a reporter and anchor at KIVI-TV.
After 20 years in sports management, Mike MacCulloch (’97 Mktg.) was named vice president of business and baseball operations for Consolidated Sports Holdings International. He is currently responsible for upper level strategic support, planning, and operational management for eight sports franchises: four baseball teams and four hockey teams in Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, Iowa, and Texas. MacCulloch also coached baseball at the collegiate level and internationally.
Bennie Seltzer (’97 Socio.), a former Cougar standout on the basketball court from 1990-93 and 20-year coaching veteran, returned to Pullman to join WSU men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent’s staff as an assistant men’s basketball coach. Seltzer spent the last two years at Loyola Chicago as an assistant men’s basketball coach. He was inducted into the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor in 2015.
Carlos Daniel (’98 History) was hired by University of Connecticut as director of men’s basketball strength and conditioning. Daniel has more than 17 years of experience in athletic development and fitness at both the collegiate and professional levels.
CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, named workflow automation company Nintex’s Jaana Linsenmayer (’99 Busi.) to its 2017 Women of the Channel list, the third year in a row for her to receive the honor. Linsenmayer joined Nintex in 2015, and serves as global director of field and partner marketing.
Clark County District Court Commissioner Kristen Parcher (’99 Socio.) was sworn in as the county’s newest judge. The Brush Prairie resident succeeds Judge Vernon L. Schreiber, who died in April. She previously worked as a civil attorney and criminal defense attorney in Vancouver.
2000s
John Munro (’01 MIS) has been appointed as vice president of national markets at BlackStone Discovery, a forensic and attorney review services company in California.
Lori Selby (’01 PhD Ed.) joined Epic Trust Investment Advisors in Kennewick as vice president. She is a former vice chancellor for WSU Tri-Cities and worked at Utah State University as executive director of administration.
Holly (Wysaske) Jones (’02 English) published her first young adult novel, I Want Everybody to Like Me, inspired by her own upbringing. The book is available online. Jones is also the mother of future Cougs Victor, Ricker, and two-year-old Irene Jean Jones.
North Mason School District recognized Ray Mow (’02 Arch., ’06 Const. Mgmt.), an architect with Erickson-McGovern Architects in Tacoma, with a community leadership award. Mow, a graduate of North Mason High School, is a member of the North Mason Scholarship Foundation, local PTA, and lead architect of the new North Mason High School.
Kim O’Neill (’02 Ag. Ed.) has been promoted to the position of associate vice president of development in advancement at the University of Idaho. She has worked at UI since 2005. O’Neill is also on the Moscow Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Latah County Fair Board, and Farmers Market Commission.
Kevin Reed (’02 Civ. Eng.) was named operations manager for the west region of global engineering and professional services organization WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff. Reed will manage the firm’s civil, structural, traffic, planning, environment, and inspection services in the region, which includes Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
Brian Dotter (’03 DPH Pharm.) has been named interim senior director of pharmacy at St. Luke’s Health System, where he will oversee the Treasure Valley Pharmacy operations. He joined St. Luke’s in 2015, and has more than 14 years of experience in hospital pharmacy.
Jeremy Miller (’05 Wildland Recreation) was selected for a city council seat in Grand Coulee. He graduated from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in 2000 and worked as a law enforcement officer with the National Park Service in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area for 12 years. Currently he works in the Grand Coulee Dam Power office.
Valerie Rasey (’05 Nursing) now works for Trios Medical Group as a pediatric hospitalist. She works primarily in the Family Birthing Center and Special Care Nursery at the Trios Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Kennewick. Rasey has over 20 years of experience working in neonatal intensive care units and caring for high-risk infants.
Mark Hurley (’06, ’07 MAR Arch.) is a principal associate at TCF Architecture in Tacoma and specializes in public industrial projects. He manages projects for Kitsap County and the cities of Tumwater, Shoreline, and Moscow, Idaho.
Katie Cahill (’07 Poli. Sci.) joined the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy as the new associate director. She will primarily be in charge of the Leadership and Government Initiative, which oversees student programs. Her research focuses on the effective implementation of public health programs in developing countries, including routine child immunization.
Stefaney Giordano (’09 Comm.) is currently a guest host for the Home Shopping Network and runs a blog called “A Host of Things” focusing on DIY and home entertainment. Her journey began with a special events internship at the Smithsonian during President Obama’s Inauguration events, and she has since worked for Disney Cruise Line in entertainment, opened a live entertainment show in Hawaii, and hosted cooking shows and classes on Holland America cruises.
2010s
Gary McGarvie (’11 MED) will be a new associate principal at Washougal High School next year. McGarvie is dean of students at Cascadia Technical Academy, and he previously worked as the athletic director and dean of students at Union High School.
Dane Lawson (’12 Busi., Econ., ’14 Master of Health Policy and Administration) was hired by Dingus, Zarecor & Associates P.L.L.C. as a document production specialist.
Tsillan Cellars in Lake Chelan recently welcomed three Cougs to their winery. Alexa Hammond-Vick (’14 Psych., Women’s Studies) was appointed tasting room manager for Tsillan Cellars’ new Woodinville Tasting Room in the center of the Woodinville wine country. Devon Griffith (’16 Ag.) will manage the winery tasting room and work with Tsillan Cellars’ longtime winemaker Shane Collins and vineyard foreman Bal Flores. Carrie McGuinn (’02 HBM) has been Tsillan Cellars Wine Club director for the last seven years and will now take on the position of office administrator in addition to her role as Wine Club coordinator.
Amanda Roley (’14 Comm.) joined KREM 2 News in March as a reporter. Previously she worked in Montana where she won the 2016 E.B. Craney award for hard news coverage.
Katie Harmon (’15 English) joined the marketing team at Stemilt Growers as a marketing communications coordinator at their Wenatchee headquarters.
The Moses Lake School District has hired Carole Meyer (’15 EDD) as its next assistant superintendent. Meyer was previously the principal of various schools throughout the Spokane area for a number of years.
Cooper Elliott (’16 History) was hired as the new marketing executive assistant for the Town Toyota Center, which hosts entertainment and sports events in Wenatchee.
Two-year WSU football starter Shalom Luani (x’16) was drafted by the NFL’s Oakland Raiders in May. Luani finished his Cougar career as an All Pac-12 first team selection, with 159 tackles and eight interceptions. His selection makes this the fifth consecutive year that WSU has had at least one player selected in the NFL draft.
WSU receiver Gabe Marks (’16 Socio.) signed as a free agent with the New York Jets in May. He finished his college career as the Pac-12’s all-time career leader in receptions. Marks also holds WSU’s career records for receptions (316), touch-downs (37) and receiving yards (3,453).