1958
Frank Werny ’58 reports that he is “still hiking and publishing hiking guides for the Plymouth, Upper Cape Cod, and South Shore” areas of Massachusetts.
1960
Actress Jaclyn Carmichael Palmer ’60 had a busy spring, writing in to share that in the span of a few weeks, she worked on the TV show I Met My Murderer Online, played a vampire in the movie Staycation, and did a medical commercial.
1968
After 51 years as an occupational therapist, Starla Sorensen Sweda ’68 has retired. She specialized in pediatric occupational therapy and finished her career with Home Health Pediatrics, learning how to hold Zoom meetings with her young patients. Career highlights include working at local schools and starting a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant program. Sweda lives in Selma, Texas, with her husband. Her two adult children live nearby.
1971
Robert Brady ’71 recently retired from the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., following 13 years at George Washington University and a full career—nearly 30 years—with the U.S. Air Force. “My work was always with human resource development and equal opportunity. I think I made a difference in a good way these past 52 years,” he says. “Thanks, UPS, for the great start!”
1975
Emmy Award winner, broadcaster, and comedian Ross Shafer ’75 co-authored his 10th book, Rattled, with veteran reporter Allison Dalvit. The pair share stories of their darkest (and brightest) times to entertain and inspire. Find Rattled: Crazy A** Stories of Extreme Resilience To Help You Go From Shook to Solid at rossshafer.com or wherever books are sold.
1978
Beverly Conner ’78 retired from Puget Sound’s English department in 2019, and has recently published her second novel, Falling From Grace. The story begins when retired professor Jud Mathews falls 35 feet from a tree in a Pacific Northwest forest. Airlifted to a Seattle trauma center, he begins an unpredictable journey of healing from a traumatic brain injury. Conner also is the author of Where Light Is a Place and has been awarded two residencies at Hedgebrook Writers Colony.
1980
Michelle Reid ’80 was named superintendent of Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools in April. Known nationally for her strong instructional leadership, Reid was named 2021 National Superintendent of the Year by AASA, the School Superintendent Association. Fairfax County Public Schools is the 11th largest school district in the U.S., with nearly 200 schools and centers, and 180,000 students.
1981
Reyne Athanas MFA’81 moved from Oregon to Bethel, Alaska, in 1973, and taught art in Bethel-area schools until 1997. She also served as an instructor at University of Alaska Fairbanks Kuskokwim campus from 1974 to 2018, offering ceramics, fiber arts, printmaking, and watercolor classes. Her artwork has been featured in the Anchorage Museum for History and Fine Arts Earth, Fire, and Fiber shows, and in numerous shows and galleries across the country. A member of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Bethel Council on the Arts, and Kuskokwim Arts Guild, she was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020 and received the Alaska Governor’s Award for Arts Advocacy in 2021. In recent years, Athanas worked to merge the Kuskokwim Arts Guild and Bethel Council on the Arts, a goal accomplished in January, with the formation of SWAAG, the Southwest Alaska Arts Group. She continues to create art and advocate for the arts for everyone.
1983
NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education recognized W. Houston Dougharty ’83 with the 2022 Scott Goodnight Award for Outstanding Performance as a Dean. Dougharty is vice president of student affairs at Hofstra University and currently serves NASPA as a James E. Scott Academic Board member and as faculty director of the 2022 Institute for New Vice Presidents for Student Affairs. The Goodnight Award honors Dougharty’s sustained professional achievement in student affairs, innovative response in meeting students’ needs, effectiveness in developing staff members, and leadership in community and college affairs.
Doug Doxsie ’83, P’14, a 1996 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, has begun his third and final year on the PGA of America Board of Directors. He represents the Pacific Northwest and Southwest PGA sections comprising more than 2,500 PGA members and associates. Doxsie is currently in his 27th year as the PGA head golf professional at Seattle Golf Club. In 2021, he was recognized for his mentorship, leadership, volunteerism, and charitable work within the community as the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Section PGA Bill Strausbaugh Award. He also received the award in 2017, and has been honored throughout his career with three Gold Professional of the Year awards for the Pacific Northwest Section PGA.
1985
Devil’s Chew Toy, the debut novel by Rob Osler ’85, was published in February. Osler describes the book as a “mystery featuring a rainbow of kickass amateur sleuths.” The story follows Seattle teacher Hayden McCall, who ends up the prime suspect in the disappearance of his new crush. Learn more at robosler.com.
1986
Stan Sorensen ’86, P’19 recently was appointed to the Intermountain Healthcare Utah Valley Philanthropy Board. The board supports Intermountain’s Primary Promise campaign, raising $250 million “to build the nation’s model health system for children,” including a new primary children’s hospital in Lehi, Utah. Sorensen and his wife, Mary Morrow Sorensen ’88, P’19, moved to Utah in 2016. Mary is a design strategist for global engineering and architecture firm Stantec. Stan is chief marketing officer at Alta- bank, Utah’s largest community bank, and also sits on the board of trustees for Utah Symphony and Opera.
1990
Kris Luethy McRea ’90 recently presented her workshop “Courageous Nonprofit Cultures” at the Washington State Nonprofit Conference and the ELEVATE 2022 conference through the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. She is a nonprofit consultant, leadership coach, and certified facilitator for Dare to LeadTM, based on the research, curriculum, and book by Brene Brown. McRea facilitates the Puget Sound Nonprofit Consultants Coffee and
is a board member of the Shoreline Public Schools Foundation and Wellspring Ensemble. She also serves on the advisory board for the Customer Experience Certificate Program at the Tombolo Institute at Bellevue College.
1995
Corynn Marcum Gilbert ’95 completed her PhD in educational leadership at Northwest Nazarene University this spring with a dissertation titled “Alumni Role Identity Among Recent College Graduates.” She serves as the director of development at Bushnell University in Eugene, Ore., and is a faculty member in the university’s Master of Arts in Leadership (Higher Education) online program.
2001
Michele Collins ’01 recently celebrated 20 years in the Department of State, currently stationed in Merida, Mexico, with her 5-year-old son, husband, and Rocky, their 15-year-old Jack Russell terrier.
Recently, Maxine Cram McReynolds ’01 shifted roles from senior environmental counsel to associate general counsel–environment, safety, and health (ESH) for Los Alamos National Laboratory. The ESH Practice Group provides legal counsel to management and lab organizations regarding compliance with federal and state ESH requirements, and represents the lab in federal and state regulatory and court proceedings. In the past year, McReynolds was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to serve on the New Mexico Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors. She and her family live in the Jemez Mountains, at the boundary of the Santa Fe National Forest, and enjoy hiking and local skiing. They often visit the Puget Sound region and look forward to reconnecting with friends in the area post-pandemic.
2002
Rebecca Thorndill Rucker DPT’02 recently opened Physio Movement & Performance, a physical therapy and fitness company in Tacoma, and was featured in an interview with Shoutout Miami. Check out the full interview at pugetsound.edu/physioshoutout.
2004
Andrew Miller ’04, MAT’05 completed his doctoral degree (EdD) in educational leadership from University of Southern California. He has been living in Singapore since summer 2019, and currently serves as the director of curriculum and instruction at Singapore American School.
2006
Breanna Trygg ’06 joined Voyageurs Conservancy as its new outreach and education director in November. The position is an outgrowth of the Voyageurs Classroom Initiative, a joint initiative between the conservancy and the National Park Service, launched in 2020. Trygg will help build and expand the initiative through education and community programs in the park, classroom, the state, and beyond.
2007
Alex Dunn ’07 recently partnered with Color-Red Music to release his sophomore album, Southern Star. Based in greater Seattle, Dunn creates music steeped in a sense of place, reflecting the many lives he’s led, from his youth along the border of Colorado and Wyoming to the quiet moments aboard commercial fishing vessels in the remote waters of Southeast Alaska. Check out Southern Star at alexdunnmusic.com.
2012
Peter Bittner ’12 was selected to serve in the Fulbright U.S. Student Alumni Ambassador Program. Bittner received two Fulbright fellowships to Mongolia, one in 2013–14 as an English teaching assistant, and the other in 2018–19 as a Fulbright U.S. Student in filmmaking. Fulbright alumni ambassadors serve as representatives
of and recruiters for the program, presenting at conferences and campuses, writing articles, participating in video and podcast interviews, and more, assisting applicants and sharing what a Fulbright grant is really like.