Footnotes: News
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1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | Emeriti and Friends
1953
DORIS BROUGHAM LLD ’91 is a missionary to Taiwan and international director of Overseas Radio and Television. At the age of 86, she visited Seattle in March with ORTV’s Heavenly Melody Singers, performing in a number of venues including the Evangelical Chinese Church. The English magazine and radio program she founded have been instrumental in Taiwan’s English education. In 2002, Doris received the Order of the Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon, Taiwan’s highest non-military decoration, from President Chen Shui-bian. He called her “Mother of Taiwan’s English” and presented the award in recognition of her love for and contribution to the nation.
AGNES CUNNINGHAM LAWLESS ELKINS helped her husband, Richard, publish his missionary tales of life among the Western Bukidnon Manobo people. Dick Elkins died in April 2012, but his legacy as a Bible translator lives on in Time and Again: God’s Sovereignty in the Lives of Two Bible Translators in the Philippines (WestBow Press). As a result of his work, many Manobos turned from worshiping spirits and embraced the Christian faith. An author and copy editor, Agnes lives in Snohomish, Washington.
1961
DAVID QUALL MA ’74 was appointed to Washington state’s Charter School Commission by House Speaker Frank Chopp. A former Democratic state representative who served eight years as chair of the House Education Committee, Quall will serve on the nine-member commission to guide and manage the charter school system. He lives in Mount Vernon, Washington.
1969
LARRY SHARP is the founder and director of strategic partnerships for International Business and Education Consultants. Following his time at SPU, he earned a doctorate from the University of Calgary. He works with emerging businesses in developing countries and spent 21 years in Brazil, including 15 years as teacher and headmaster of the Amazon Valley Academy and six years as president of Missão Cristã Evangélica do Brasil. He and his wife, VICKI BIEDERMAN SHARP, have four children, including TREVOR SHARP ’01. The Sharps live in Sisters, Oregon.
1976
FRANK HALFERTY, middle school band director and music department head, is the 2013 Shoreline Teacher of the Year. Last year, he was elected to the Washington Music Educators Hall of Fame. Also the district music coordinator for Shoreline Public Schools, Frank holds two bachelor’s degrees from SPU, one in music education and one in music theory and literature. He holds a master’s degree in music composition degree from New Mexico State University. With more than 200 compositions and arrangements in print, Frank has 38 years of experience teaching instrumental music at all levels, 14 awards from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and is his district’s nominee for 2014 Washington State Teacher of the Year. He lives in Kenmore, Washington.
1977
MICHAEL “MIKE” DOWNS MA ’82 retired as head coach of the boys basketball program at Bellevue Christian School. He will remain a sixth grade teacher at the middle school. Mike’s teams won 493 games and brought home two state championships in his 32 seasons. He lives in Bellevue, Washington.
1978
CHRIS HIGHLAND was an interfaith chaplain for 25 years. He is now writing, teaching, and managing cooperative housing for independent elders in the San Francisco Bay Area. His latest book, Nature Is Enough, is a collection of essays that follow his six-book “Meditations” series launched in 2001 with the publication of Meditations of John Muir: Nature’s Temple (now in its 11th printing). Chris has also published a novella, Jesus and John Muir, and a collection of stories from his years as a chaplain, My Address Is a River.
A Bright Light in Boston
Aumnus' Kind Act Makes Headlines
As regional director of Alaska Young Life, Brent Cunningham ’91 ministers to high school students in an extremely remote setting, far from urban life. But when he qualified for the Boston Marathon last year, he knew it would be worth the intense training, travel, and big-city pressure.
On April 15, 2013, Brent and his wife, Karin Warne Cunningham ’89, were heading back to their hotel after the race when the bombs went off on Boylston Street. As they passed through the crowd, they noticed a runner sitting on the curb, alone and crying. They asked the woman if she was OK, and Brent saw she was not wearing a medal. When he asked if she had gotten to finish her race, she shook her head.
“I knew how hard she must have trained, and in that moment, she needed the medal more than I did,” he says. “I wanted her to know, ‘You’re worth it.’ I put my medal around her neck, and we walked away.”
Karin started crying, and she told Brent: “That was the nicest thing I’ve ever seen you do!”
Less than 24 hours later, the runner’s Facebook post about Brent’s good deed zoomed across social media channels. By day’s end, the two met and told their story to ABC News. Brent’s generosity overwhelmed his fellow runner, Laura Wellington, and a nation hungry for good news.
“With everything that happened, our world is looking for hope,” says Brent. “What motivated me to do that? It’s like it says in 2 Corinthians 5 — Christ’s love compels me.”
Brent and Karin live in Sitka, Alaska. The older of their two daughters, Kailee Cunningham, is a junior at Seattle Pacific University. HOLLY HARRIS WOOD ’07
1985
SAIF AL-GHAIS, a marine ecologist, is executive director for the Environmental Protection and Development Authority in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. He holds a doctorate in marine biology from the University of Liverpool and is an associate professor at United Arab Emirates University. The Fulbright Exchange Visitor is also an adjunct professor at Huxley College of Environmental Sciences, Western Washington University. In April 2013, he lectured at SPU on “Environmental Challenges and Sustainability in the Gulf Region.” While in the United States, Saif lives in Bellingham, Washington.
1988
JODY KAMMERZELL CONRAD’S When Goliath Doesn’t Fall (Beacon Hill Press), based on the
prayer of Habakkuk, is about worshipping God in the midst of loss and the “strangely hopeful worship” of a man who exalted God even as he watched his country fall apart. “It is a powerfully unconditional worship,” says Jody, who played on the SPU women’s basketball team and was a work-study student for Response magazine. She lives in Colfax, Washington.
SHERYL CALCATERRA KENNEDY is the new principal at James Geisler Middle School in Walled Lake, Michigan. She taught nearly two decades before becoming a middle school assistant principal, a position she held for three years before being named principal. In 2011 she completed a doctorate in educational leadership from Oakland University, and her research appeared in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education in 2012. Sheryl and her family live in Davison, Michigan.
Out and About
Alumna Leads Eco-Adventures
Wendy Worrall Redal ’83 has explored the jungles of Nepal by elephant and the Mongolian steppes on horseback. She has snorkeled with sea lions in the Galápagos Islands and sat face to face with a silverback gorilla in the Congo. But in her adventures in 50 countries and all 50 states, the only time the 1983 graduate felt afraid was as a teenager in a canoe on a Canadian backcountry lake, trying to out-paddle a sudden storm with her dad.
Wendy is an expedition leader and editorial director for the adventure travel and ecotourism firm Natural Habitat Adventures of Boulder, Colorado. Faith motivates her passion “to foster creation care in a world where fewer people, especially kids, spend time in nature.” She believes that only through direct contact do people learn to love the planet. “Only when we love it will we do what is necessary to protect and sustain it.”
And people’s eyes do get opened when in Wendy’s company. “You can’t come nose to nose with a polar bear,” she says, “and not care about climate change.” She shed tears of wonder with one client when touching a gray whale in Baja’s San Ignacio Lagoon.
For Wendy, who holds a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in media studies, “the perfect trifecta” is combining her love of writing, travel, and the natural world. “My commitment to Jesus Christ informs every dimension of who I am,” says the former researcher and program coordinator for the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. Her husband is Leif Redal ’83, a family physician. The couple and their two children live in Boulder. CLINT KELLY
1994
SARAH NELSON FRIESEN owns and operates Gig Harbor Home Management, a company specializing in the maintenance, protection, and organization of a home. In addition to providing home watch services for snowbirds, she offers vacation rental management for property owners. Her line of services also includes home-maintenance oversight, home cleaning, home organization, and household emergency preparedness. Sarah, who has also worked with nonpro!ts and personnel recruitment, resides in Gig Harbor.
JEFF MASON teaches Cisco Networking at Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington, and has a well-used passport. Each winter break, some of his students travel with him to other countries to install donated computer labs and networks in schools, libraries, hospitals, and other institutions. In February, he and a team of students went to Antigua not to vacation but to work. Jeff and his wife, CHRISTINE LILJENBERG MASON, live in Newcastle, Washington.
1995
KIMBERLY WHITTAKER SHIRE is in graduate school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa studying for an MFA degree in directing for the theatre. Formerly the executive artistic director for Christian Youth Theater Vancouver/Portland, Kimberly and her husband, Andrew, have three children and live in Honolulu.
1996
DREW GOODMANSON is founder and CEO of Monk Development Inc., a web development and software-as-a-service company based in San Diego, California. His company created Ekklesia 360, a website development product used by more than 5,800 church plants, established churches, and parachurch ministries worldwide. Drew, who has led, built, and grown organizations for nearly 20 years, serves as board chair for the GCM Collective, helping facilitate discipleship and mission outreach. He has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered, and in USA Today, and was recently asked by the Kiwanis Clubs of San Diego to speak at their Laurels for Leaders luncheon for high school student body presidents. Drew lives with his wife and two sons in San Diego.
1998
JOSHUA RAMEY is visiting assistant professor of political theory at Pennsylvania’s Haverford College. In September 2012, Duke University Press published The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal, Joshua’s book on the Western esotericism of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Joshua resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2000
NATHAN “NATE” DALIGCON has been hired as assistant coach of the Seattle University Redhawks men’s soccer program. The two-time All-American as a Falcon helped SPU win the 1993 NCAA Division II national championship. In post-SPU play, he helped bring home three A-League titles for the Rochester Rhinos and one for the Seattle Sounders. A former head coach for several local Seattle soccer clubs, he had been an assistant men’s soccer coach at SPU since 2009. Nate, who is married to ERIKA BOTHA DALIGCON ’98, former Falcon head cross country coach, lives in Seattle.
MEGAN TAUSCHEK LIERMAN is a principal with RIM Design in Anchorage, Alaska. With the company for almost 11 years, she is also the president of the Alaska chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. Among her design projects with RIM are Credit Union 1 headquarters and branches, and the National Park Service headquarters building. In her free time, she develops gluten-free and other allergen-free recipes and shares them via Facebook. Megan resides in Eagle River, Alaska.
Our Local Bookseller
Alumna Helps Relaunch Queen Anne Store
On Halloween 2012, Seattle’s Queen Anne community said goodbye to their beloved independent bookstore, Queen Anne Books. By January 2013, the empty storefront was leased, and the new
owners hosted the grand opening of Queen Anne Book Company in early March. The new ownership/management team includes Janis Segress ’87, who, after almost 30 years away from the Queen Anne community, says she feels like she’s coming home.
As former head buyer for Eagle Harbor Book Company on Bainbridge Island, Segress has spent some time in the business world since her time at Seattle Pacific University. Graduating with her degree in marketing, she began in healthcare marketing from there began two business start-ups — the first a communications company and the second a database management company. Her bibliophilic nature led her to a career in the book industry.
Segress had always hoped to own her own bookstore. “It’s like I’ve been prepared for it my whole life,” she says of her coownership and management of the store.
Queen Anne Book Company is continuing to prosper since its opening, with author signings, book clubs, and an inventory that includes both print and e-books.
Segress attributes much to her Seattle Pacific education, especially the values she learned from the School of Business and Economics. “Accountability and ethics, and melding those with a sharp business sense are the things I remember daily,” she says. Spending up to 16 hours each day at the store, she can be found helping a customer, managing inventory, or keeping up with the latest book trends.
“I plan on being here for the next 40 years,” Segress says, smiling. “So dig in!” KALIE NELSON
2003
KATIE YOST KAVULLA blogs about raising her three kids and contributes to several national and local online parenting publications. She placed third for “Best Parenting Blog” in the KING 5 Best of Western Washington Awards. Her husband, JOSH KAVULLA ’02, works with Hargis Engineers on projects both local and worldwide. Katie’s blog, Being5, lives online, while Katie, Josh, and their brood live in Seattle.
2006
JESSIE ROBERTS won the Girl Scouts of Western Washington Cookie Recipe Contest with her Savannah Smiles Lemon Lavender Bars. She made her prize-winning treat on KING 5 TV’s New Day Northwest. A well-known food blogger at “Jessie’s Kitchen Chronicles,” Jessie, who resides in Lynnwood, Washington, admits she has a thing for frosting and dessert.
EMILY SPENCER STEWART and her husband, Tim, have spent four summers with the English summer institute for Russian English teachers in St. Petersburg, Russia. The seed of the idea was planted in 2004 when Emily participated in a SPRINT mission trip to “St. Pete.” Two years later, she taught English in St. Petersburg for Teach Overseas. There she met Tim and they married in 2008. Following trips to Russia in 2008 and 2009, they led a summer institute for Russian English teachers in 2010 and 2012, which expanded to include a youth program through Evangelical Free Church of Canada Missions. The couple welcomed a daughter in 2011 and are expecting their second child this July. The Stewarts live in New Westminster, British Columbia.
2008
HANNAH SPENCER BRYANT married in 2011 and immediately left with her husband, David Bryant, on a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia. They went looking for opportunities to work alongside local people to learn from them and help them as they had need. For the next nine months, the couple volunteered in Thailand with a group of village women gaining a livelihood from making and selling beautiful bags. They taught English to students and adults at a learning center in the hills of Northern Thailand. In Laos they taught at a local English center while living with a Laotian family of 15. In Taiwan, they volunteered with a church working in local schools. Hannah wants to serve in a refugee and immigrant community in Calgary, Alberta, where she lives. One day, the Bryants hope to return to Southeast Asia for an extended period.
ASHLEY DOMRES is vice president of project development at Linthicum, builders of custom residential, commercial, and golf properties within the islands of Hawaii, the mountains and deserts of California, and throughout Arizona. Ashley is responsible for corporate marketing and business development, industry relations, and community involvement. Previously, she was director of Linthicum Custom Care property management services. Her major at SPU was interior design, her minor business administration. Ashley lives in Phoenix.
ANGELA “ANGIE” JONES MOREHOUSE works in visual communications at Sister Schools, provider of school supplies to children in need through partner schools in the United States. Sister Schools, founded by TERRY MCGILL ’82, has delivered more than a half million pounds of supplies donated by U.S. school children to children in Uganda. Angie, a Seattleite who was a biology major, also leads low-tide beach walks for the Seattle Aquarium and hopes one day to work in public health.
2010
LESLIE VAN LEISHOUT MED is the recipient of the 2012 Golden Apple Award for outstanding teaching. A drama teacher at River Ridge High School in Lacey, Washington, Leslie was honored with the prestigious state educational recognition during the 20th annual Golden Apple Awards show on KCTS-9 in February. She was also named to the Educational Theatre Association Hall of Fame. Her theatre classes explore social justice themes, present anti-bullying performances for elementary school students, and tackle the costs of drinking and driving. The mother of six lives in Olympia, Washington.
2011
RYAN CLOSNER is a software engineer, entrepreneur, and a fellow with Code for America working with the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. He was one of just 28 individuals chosen from a pool of 550 applicants for an 11-month fellowship underwritten by corporate and foundation donors. The nonprofit Code for America helps make city governments more open and efficient. Through focus groups and project team research, Ryan will assist in the development of applications that help the city operate more efficiently and succeed in its downtown revitalization efforts. The launch of those applications will take place in September. Ryan has also been selected as an advisor to the Department of Justice, consulting with them on the uses of mobile technology in ensuring gun safety. Additionally, he is working on a project with a nonprofit, Thorn, which will help photo-sharing companies identify and remove child pornography content more quickly and effciently. Ryan, from Portland, Oregon, currently lives in San Francisco, California.
CATHY WARNER MFA is an author, literary editor for Image journal’s “Good Letters” blog, and provider of a writer’s retreat on Washington state’s Bainbridge Island. She calls it Bainbridge Island Ink, a place where she can offer her experience as workshop leader, editor, and host in a creative environment. Cathy and her husband are remodeling a home on Bainbridge Island with a studio apartment for writers in search of inspiration.
2012
NATALIE NOBBS is a personal trainer for Pro-Motion Physical Therapy and Functional Fitness in Yakima, Washington. She graduated from SPU with an undergraduate degree in exercise science and a minor in entrepreneurship. Natalie resides in Harrah, Washington.
AVA VAN spent March and April 2013 at an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, helping care for several hundred children who cannot be adopted out of fear they would be exploited. Her days were filled with feeding, bathing, and playing with the children. A writer and photographer, Ava as an SPU student wrote and took photos for The Falcon newspaper and interned with KING TV, where she helped to produce Evening Magazine. The former Miss Seattle Teen USA plans a career in television and resides in Seattle.
KATIE VERCIO is a financial planning and investment analyst with Seattle-based Synergetic Financial Management LLC. She supports the company’s market and economic research as well as the firm’s financial planning process. At SPU, she studied abroad in China and was a financial analyst intern with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. A founding member of SPU’s student investment club, she is currently a candidate in the Certified Financial Planner program.
Emeriti and Friends
DAVID MCKENNA has published Christ-Centered Education: Memory, Meaning, and Momentum for the Twenty-First Century (Cascade Books, 2012) and Christ-Centered Leadership: The Incarnational Difference (Cascade Books, 2013). SPU president from 1968 to 1982, David is past president also of Spring Arbor University and Asbury Theological Seminary, and has been called one of the “tribal leaders” of the Christian college movement. Now retired, he has written 36 books and lives with his wife, Janet, in Kirkland, Washington.