1960s
The Marrowstone Island Community Association named Vigo Anderson (’67 Busi.) the Marrowstone Island Citizen of the Year for 2018. Anderson has lived on the six-square-mile island with his wife Paula since 2007. After graduating, he served two years with the Marines in Vietnam, then worked for Caterpillar in Alaska.
Former Canadian Football League record-breaking kicker for the BC Lions Ted Gerela (x’67 Ed.) was inducted into the Powell River Sports Hall of Fame in British Columbia.
1970s
After 13 years at the Spokane County Interstate Fair, including the past eight as fair director, Rich Hartzell (’71 Ani. Sci.) is retiring. He plans to move to the family dairy at Skyhart Farms in Monroe.
Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Fred Jarrett (’71 Fin.), recently retired King County senior deputy executive and former state representative, to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Greg Stewart (’71 Ag.) is retiring after 48 years as president and general manager of the Central Washington State Fair in Yakima. He’s active in community service in addition to his work with the fair.
Cary Kopczynski (’73 Civ. Eng.) was elected vice president of the American Concrete Institute. A recognized expert in the design of reinforced concrete and post-tensioned concrete building structures, Kopczynski is CEO and senior principal of Cary Kopczynski & Company, a structural engineering firm with offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
During its convention in February in Florida, the Southern Conference on African American Studies awarded Howard Jones (’75 PhD Amer. St.) for his extraordinary vision, exemplary loyalty, and unwavering commitment as the organization’s founder and executive secretary and treasurer from 1979 to 2017.
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse (’77 Ag. Econ.), a Republican from Sunnyside and a hops and grape farmer, was named cochair of the bipartisan Congressional Wine Caucus, which represents the interests of wine growers, vintners, and merchants.
1980s
The Auction of Washington Wines announced Scott Williams (’80 Ag. Eng.) of Kiona Vineyards as its 2019 honorary grower. Williams and his wife, Vicky, moved to Red Mountain in 1984 to help his parents in one of the area’s first vineyards.
Carl Jameson (’83 Comm.) coauthored The Illustrated Field Guide to Vintage Trailers, a one-stop identification reference with hundreds of photos and detailed illustrations of trailers. He’s also a producer and director at Craftmaster Productions, a full-service video production company in Portland, Oregon.
Erin Nuxoll (’83 Forest & Range Mgmt.) has been promoted to senior vice president of human resources at Boise Cascade Company. She worked at the company for 23 years, took another position for 10 years, and rejoined Boise Cascade in 2016.
WSU Extension Pacific County director Kim Patten (’84 PhD Hort.) retired from WSU in April, after 30 years helping cranberry farmers and oyster harvesters at the Long Beach Research and Extension Unit. Patten also received the William P. Stephen Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pacific Northwest Pollinator Summit & Conference in February.
Avista President Dennis Vermillion (’85 Elec. Eng.) was elected CEO by the energy company’s board of directors. Vermillion joined Avista in 1985 and has held a number of staff and management positions. He also serves as a board member for Western Energy Institute, American Gas Association, and for the Avista Foundation.
The Auction of Washington Wines named industry veteran Jamie Peha (’86 Hotel & Rest. Admin.) its interim executive director. Peha’s career highlights include building Taste Washington into a nationally recognized event, serving as interim director for both Woodinville Wine Country and the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, and heading up the Auction’s “Private Barrel Auction,” which raised money for projects such as WSU’s wine science research.
Bioagriculture company NewLeaf Symbiotics added Mark Warner (’86 Chem. Eng.) to the organization’s scientific advisory board. Warner has extensive experience in sustainable agricultural solutions.
Brad Rawlins (’87 Comm., Spanish) became the interim director of the School of Media and Journalism at Arkansas State University. Rawlins has served in several administrative roles for Arkansas State, as president of the Association of Schools in Journalism and Mass Communication, and as a committee member of the Accrediting Council for Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is also on several editorial boards of journalism and communication scholarly journals.
Pacific Lutheran University’s Board of Regents has appointed Allan Belton (’88 Busi.) as PLU’s fourteenth president. Belton has served in the role as interim president for the past two years. He first moved to PLU four years ago as senior vice president and chief administrative officer. Prior to joining PLU, Belton enjoyed a 25-year career with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served most recently as managing director in global treasury management for higher education, government, and nonprofit organizations.
Tom Schwilke (’88 Busi.) has been named president of the Dallas division of retail and supermarket company Kroger. He previously worked in management for Safeway.
Sammie Jo Thirtyacre (’88 English), a U.S. Air Force veteran and education advocate, was selected to serve on the Eatonville School District Board of Directors.
Don Carrell (’89 Ag. Econ.) has been named chief executive officer of Kwik Lok Corp. in Yakima. Carrell joined Kwik Lok in 2017 as chief operating officer. Before that, he was general manager at Rainier Plastics, Inc., vice president at Shields Bag and Printing Co., and senior logistics manager at Kaiser Aluminum Trentwood Works.
NBA team Memphis Grizzlies have hired Rich Cho (’89 Mech. Eng.) as its new vice president of basketball strategy. Cho is the former general manager of the Charlotte Hornets and the Portland Trail Blazers. He was the first Asian American general manager in NBA history.
Weber Shandwick, a global communications and marketing solutions firm, announced Will Ludlam (’89 Poli. Sci.) as president of Weber Shandwick West, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Seattle. Ludlam joins from the public relations firm Edelman, where he led the Pacific Northwest business unit.
Child psychologist Todd Sosna (’89 MS, ’91 PhD Psych.) is the chief program officer of Children’s Institute in Los Angeles, which offers trauma-informed early education, as well as behavioral health and family strengthening services. He oversees a budget upward of $70 million and a staff of 800.
1990s
Shawn Woodward (’91 Elem. Ed.), who has led the Lake Pend Oreille School District in Sandpoint, Idaho, for the past seven years, has been named superintendent of the Mead School District in Spokane.
CourseCo, the management company for WSU Pullman’s Palouse Ridge Golf Course, received the President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship, given by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Palouse Ridge is run by Todd Lupkes (’92 Agro.).
Bridge Bank opened a new office in Seattle with technology banking veteran Tom Reimer (’92 Fin.) as senior vice president. He has over 20 years of experience working with venture capitalists, attorneys, and CPAs.
Kim Riggs (’92 Busi.) joined the business development team at Orion First, a small business commercial finance firm in Gig Harbor. Riggs has been active in the industry for over a decade.
Ron Banner (’93 Phys. Ed., ’95 Ed.) was selected as superintendent of Clover Park School District in Lakewood. Banner has 24 years of experience in public education and started at Clover Park schools in 2003.
Meketa Investment Group in Boston expanded its employee ownership, including David Sancewich (’96 Busi., ’00 MBA). He is a consultant to public funds and Taft-Hartley clients.
Rick Gore (’98 PhD Busi.) received the Roger Peters Distinguished Professor Award at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, for the 2018-19 academic year. The award honors career excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.
Todd Pisarczyk (’98 Busi.) has been named the new head coach of King’s Way Christian School baseball program in Vancouver. He was previously on the school’s board and also is owner and founder of Sustainable Wealth Management.
Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort hired Johann Runarsson (’98 Hotel & Rest. Admin.) as director of food and beverage.
The Northern Wyoming Community College District selected Walter Tribley (’98 PhD Biochem.) as its new president. Tribley had been serving as the superintendent and president of the Monterey Peninsula Community College District in California since December 2012. He previously worked at Seminole Community College in Florida, the University of Florida, and Wenatchee Valley College.
2000s
Skanska USA has promoted Trevor Wyckoff (’00 Const. Mgmt.) to vice president and project executive. Since joining Skanska 20 years ago, he has focused his career on delivering health-care and educational projects throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. He’s now leading teams building the Elks Children’s Eye Clinic at OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute as well as the new Sherwood High School. He was named Project Manager of the Year by the Daily Journal of Commerce in 2019.
Carrie Parker (’01 Soc. Sci.) has been named senior vice president of client services at the Eldermark contact center. She has more than 18 years of senior housing leadership experience, including Prestige Care’s vice president of sales and marketing, regional vice president of operations at Atria Senior Living, and senior regional director of operations at Assisted Living Concepts.
Jeff Kraayeveld (’02 Kinesio.), athletic trainer at Skyview High School in Vancouver, was nominated for the Newell Award and National Athletic Trainer of the Year.
Concerto HealthAI, a data and artificial intelligence company focused on oncology and other key therapeutic areas, hired Vivek Vaidya (’02 Comp. Sci.) as senior principal scientist. In 2018, Silicon India magazine named him one of India’s top 10 data scientists. Previously, he worked at GE Global Research where he led teams in building a deep learning accelerator platform, recently released as Edison AI. He has filed 20 patents on a variety of technologies.
Clark College in Vancouver has hired Kelly Love (’03 Hum.) as chief communications officer. Love previously worked as a public relations specialist at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center and Legacy Cancer Institute, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and as U.S. Representative Brian Baird’s district director from 2005 to 2010. She began her career as a broadcast news reporter at KGW TV in Portland.
Brad Porter (’03 Hosp. Busi. Mgmt.) has been promoted to senior sales executive with Healthcare Management Administrators. He is also a producer licensee with the Washington State Insurance Commission, a certified self-funding specialist, and a member of the Employee Benefits Planning Association and Washington Association of Health Underwriters. He plans to complete an MBA in healthcare later this year.
Taryn Perry (’04 Comm.) has joined ALLWEST Testing & Engineering in Lewiston, Idaho, as the vice president of business operations. She had worked at Trindera Engineering for 13 years.
People’s Bank has hired Aldi Kllogjeri (’05 Busi.) as vice president and commercial banking officer at the Skagit/Island Commercial Banking Group based at the Burlington office.
TVA Architects in Portland, Oregon, has promoted John Jamiel (’06 Arch.) to senior associate. Jamiel is working on the Portland Diamond Project MLB stadium, a condo tower in Vancouver, a high-end office building in Eugene, and an office addition to the University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena.
Andrew Miller III (’06 Psych.) has been promoted to director of financial planning and analysis for Abbott Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc., a global restaurant and hospitality company, appointed Tyler Loy (’07 Fin.) as chief financial officer. Loy has served as vice president of strategy at The ONE Group since September 2018. Prior, he was the vice president of finance for Pacific Bells, a large Taco Bell and Buffalo Wild Wings franchisee.
Kimpton Canary Hotel appointed Ben Thiele (’08 Soc. Sci.) as general manager of its luxury downtown hotel in Santa Barbara, California. In the role, Thiele will lead day-to-day operations, guest relations, and business development for the property. He has worked for Kimpton Canary for 15 years, starting as a valet at the Hotel Monaco in Seattle during summers in college.
Washington State Department of Transportation selected two artists, including Mary Welcome (’08 MFA) to serve in the country’s first statewide agency artist-in-residence program. The residency, based in Olympia, will run for one year with both artists working on improving community engagement, supporting alternatives to single occupancy vehicle transport, creating healthier communities, and enhancing safety and equity.
The Providence St. Mary Foundation in Walla Walla has appointed Lindsey Oldridge (’09 Busi.) as its chief philanthropy officer. She has been with Providence for 10 years, organizing events such as the Providence St. Mary Birth Center campaign.
2010s
Michaela Miller (’10 Comm.) joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Realty in Burien. After four years in mortgage servicing, she’s excited to experience the real estate market as a licensed realtor. Miller also received her master of arts from Gonzaga University in 2013.
Ashley Mahan (’11 Busi.) will leave her position as chief operating officer of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance when a new executive director is named. She has served as the alliance’s top administrator since 2017. Previously, Mahan worked as a Tillamook Cheese brand ambassador as well as advertising coordinator for the Tillamook County Creamery Association.
Jingze Jiang (’13 PhD Econ.), associate professor of economics at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, was selected to cochair the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s 2019 undergraduate research competition.
Oswego Health welcomed family nurse practitioner Tyanna Bergeron (’15 Nursing) to its PrimeCare Fulton office. Before joining Oswego Health, she was a registered nurse in a variety of settings, including a pediatrics practice and a hospital emergency room.
Thomas Spotteck (’15 Vit. & Enol.) became head winemaker at the Lenz Winery in Peconic, New York. After serving two tours in the U.S. Marine Corps and studying at WSU, Spotteck worked at wineries in the Columbia Valley and under pioneering American vintner Zelma Long in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa before moving to Long Island.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League have signed running back Jamal Morrow (’17 Sport Mgmt.). He ranks third in WSU history with 4,219 all-purpose yards.
Andre Dillard (’18 Soc. Sci.), outstanding offensive lineman at WSU, was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. He was the twenty-second pick overall.
Tumwater School District named Sean Dotson (’18 EdD), the former associate superintendent of Cheney Public Schools, as its new superintendent.
Miriam Fernandez (’18 PhD English), assistant professor of English at California State San Bernardino, received the 2019 Conference on College Composition and Communication James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award for her dissertation “Tropes of the Nation: Tracing the Colonial Origins of the Matriarchal Figures of Mexican Nationalism.” Fernandez teaches composition and rhetoric at CSUSB.
Devayn Henning (’18 Civ. Eng.) joined PBS Engineering and Environmental as a civil engineer in its Issaquah office.