Jonathan Lashley (BA, 2008) earned a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Clemson University in 2019, accepted a position as Associate Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education that same year, and was recently appointed Chair of Idaho’s General Education Committee- the Board-designated group that coordinates general education policy and administration statewide.
(BA, 2014): Nick Thacker
Nick Thacker (BA, 2014) is pursuing an MA in Political Science at San Francisco State University. He is focusing on Marxist political theory and writing a thesis on the political thought of Pier Paolo Pasolini. The department awarded him the Wasserman Prize for the Best Graduate Paper in Spring 2021 for an essay on the Italian Communist Party and the Historic Compromise in the 1970s. He presented a paper on populism and the journalistic writings of Pier Paolo Pasolini at the 2021 meeting of the Western Political Science association.
(BA, 2015): Maddie Erickson
Maddie Erickson (BA, 2015) graduated with an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons University.
(BA, 1973): Art Blauvelt
Art Blauvelt (BA, 1973) is healthy and still working as lawyer and part-time judge. After Western attended University of Puget Sound Law School, practiced in Tacoma and then moved to Montesano, WA in 1981. Married to Linda (WWSC 1974), with two children and two grandchildren. Served 14 years on Timberland Regional Library Board of Trustees and just completing 10th year as Grays Harbor College Trustee. Loves hiking and touring Southwest Utah and New Mexico and traveling to Europe.
(BFA, 2017): Spencer Johnson
Spencer Johnson (BFA, 2017) graduated in May with his MFA in Fiction from Emerson College, and was hired on as Affiliated Faculty teaching Writing and Comp there as well.
(MFA, 2017): Joanna Roiggordon
Joanna Roiggordon (MFA, 2017) will be attending Indiana University, Bloomington’s Rhetoric & Composition PhD program in the fall of 2021.
(MFA, 2018): Rebecca Beardsall
Rebecca Beardsall’s (MFA, 2018) memoir My Place in the Spiral, a book started in Brenda Miller’s class, launched in January 2021. Visit the website at http://www.rebeccabeardsall.com/book/my-place-in-the-spiral/.
(BA, 2017): Riley Jessett
As of this last year, Riley Jesset (BA, 2017) is the director of the primary science lab at Carson Academy of Science, a public school in Milwaukee, WI. In this unique program, scholars as young as three years old and as old as ten spend two hours a week doing hands-on, culturally relevant science work. They completed their Master’s in Urban Early Childhood Education at Cardinal Stritch University in 2019.
(BA, 2008): Brittany Rogers (Young)
After 8 years working at Amazon.com in the Books category, Brittany Rogers (Young) (BA, 2008) joined Microsoft at the end of 2020 as a Senior Program Manager for Microsoft Office.
(BA, 2019): McKenzie Grenz
McKenzie Grenz (BA, 2019) started a new job at People For People, a non-profit that provides transportation to senior and disabled people, Meals On Wheels in Yakima County, employment and training programs, and 2-1-1 information and referrals.