1969
After earning her degree in English from Puget Sound, Gina Soule Hietpas ’69 spent several seasons as a backcountry ranger at Olympic National Park, an experience that shaped her deep connection to wilderness. Her observation of the natural world and 40 years of marriage impacted by chronic health issues have resulted in a collection of poetry, TERRAIN, published by Blue Cactus Press in Tacoma. “Creative expression in all its forms helps us thrive and find joy in small, everyday occurrences,” she says.
1970
Dennis Fulton ’70 writes in to share that he is currently board chair for Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, a medical school located in Yakima, Wash. He enjoys working with the university community, especially the stu-dents. “They are amazing,” he says.
1975
Tom McCarter ’75 retired Aug. 7, after working as the meeting planner for the David & Lucile Packard Foundation. “I loved the job and the work the foundation did,” he says. “Every day, I got to go to work knowing I was making a positive difference in the world.” While a student, McCarter organized dances at the student center and large, off-campus parties. He’s still connected to more than 100 Loggers from his time on campus—“and we still like to party!”
1980
Michelle Reid ’80 was named 2021 Superintendent of the Year by the Washington Association of School Administrators in November, according to Woodinville Weekly. As superintendent for Northshore School District, Reid counts racial and educational justice for all students among her top priorities.
1983
W. Houston Dougharty ’83, vice president for student affairs at Hofstra University, was named to the board of the James E. Scott Academy by NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The James E. Scott Academy provides advice and thought leadership on critical issues in student affairs and higher ed, and its board comprises 20 accomplished vice presidents for student affairs who lead divisions at a wide variety of institutions. The two-year role will begin in March. Over the past 30 years, Dougharty has served NASPA in numerous roles and was previously named a NASPA Foundation Pillar of the Profession (2018) and an Outstanding Senior Student Affairs Officer, NASPA Region 4-East (2013).
1986
Thomas Quinlan ’86 was elected to serve as a superior court judge for Pierce County, Wash. His term began in January. Washington Superior Courts have jurisdiction over felony criminal matters, real property rights, family and domestic relations, and estate, mental illness, juvenile, and civil cases. In addition, the Superior Court hears appeals from courts of limited jurisdiction. Quinlan brings a broad-based legal practice spanning three decades to the bench. He also served as judge advocate general in the U.S. Army Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.
1987
Last summer, Susan Bladholm ’87, P’16 was awarded a $300,000 Murdock Trust grant for her efforts to develop a ferry system between Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore. She was inspired to start the project, called Frog Ferry, while chairing the Class of 1987 30th reunion, when she would fly over the “relatively empty Willamette and Columbia rivers” on her way to planning meetings in Tacoma and Seattle, where, she says, “a much busier water transit infrastructure [was] fully activated.” Learn more about Bladholm’s efforts at frogferry.com.
1992
Maria Kolby-Wolfe ’92 has been appointed president and CEO of the Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF), a Seattle-based women’s collective grant-making organization Through their collective giving model, WaWF leverages the resources of individual women to make large-scale, high-impact grants, benefitting nonprofit organizations throughout Washington state. “I am excited to help realize the new direction of Washington Women’s Foundation,” says Kolby-Wolfe. “I envision an organization grounded in equity, which is openly and whole-heartedly antiracist, can boast of a diverse and inclusive membership of many kinds of people who identify themselves as women, and whose philanthropic support will be profoundly effective in the long term for those who have been the most marginalized in our society.”
1995
Scott Moers ’95 was hired as senior director of business development for Abelson-Taylor, one of the world’s premier health and wellness advertising agencies. He graduated from Puget Sound’s Business Leadership Pro-gram and has more than 20 years of agency experience.
1998
Katheryn Cordero Norris ’98 was named 2020 Family Medicine Educator of the Year by the Washington Academy of Family Physicians. Norris is program director at Sollus Northwest Family Medicine Residency, part of the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. The award recognizes her outstanding teaching and leadership.
1999
In September, Deborah Read ’99 was named 2020 Ergonomics Professional of the Year by the Puget Sound Human Factors and Ergonomics Society at the organization’s annual Human Factors and Ergonomics Symposium. Congratulations, Deborah!
2000
The events of 2020 prompted Lisa Poole ’00 to live boldly and embrace her entrepreneurial spirit. She shares that her new growth agency, LinkMe LLC, allows her to do what she loves best: connect people, ideas, and opportunities. She’s helping Loggers—and others!—fulfill their hiring needs in construction, commercial real estate, and insurance, and tackles business development consulting projects, professional development coaching, and insurance/risk management audits and claims support. “I want to thank all of those involved with BLP from 1996 to 2000, from teaching me to learning with me,” Poole says. “The education you all gave me have prepared me well for this new adventure!” Learn more about LinkMe at linkmellc.com.
2002
Anya Vernon-Wentworth Hartshorn ’02 shares that she and her family are back home in Redmond, Wash., after a globe-trotting adventure spanning 2019–20. “Michael Hartshorn ’03 quit his job in early June of 2019, and our family of six set off for an around-the-world trip, spending time in 41 countries over the course of nearly 16 months,” she writes. “It was the best decision we have ever made, and we loved every minute of it!” Some of the family’s favorite memories include snorkeling in the Silfra fissure (Iceland); a safari in Tanzania; hiking to the monasteries of Meteora, Greece; learning about the Siege of Sarajevo; the New Year’s Eve lantern festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand; a motorbike tour in Hoi An, Vietnam; 11 weeks in Edinburgh, Scotland; and driving 10,000 miles around Western Europe. The family kept a blog of their travels at harts-hornhopscotch.com. At home, Michael is looking to re-enter the workforce as an actuary, Anya is continuing her life as an at-home mom, and their four sons attend The Bear Creek School.
For the past seven years, David Jones ’02 has served as a director of the Emergency Medicine Education Scholarship Fellowship program at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore. In July, he was promoted to associate professor of emergency medicine at the university. At the same time, he took on the role of emergency residency program director, becoming responsible for the education of 33 emergency medicine residents in the program.
2003
Fannie Lou Hamer: America’s Freedom Fighting Woman, a new book by Maegan Parker Brooks ’03, was released in March by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. In the biography, Brooks recounts Hamer’s life, including the story of her riveting testimony before the 1964 Democratic National Convention’s Credentials Committee, in which she laid bare a scathing indictment of a deeply divided America.
2006
In November, composer Scott Ordway ’06 released Girl in the Snow, his 40-minute song cycle inter-weaving his own lyrics with texts by African philosopher and theologian Augustine. The recording features mezzo-soprano Julia Dawson and pianist Anna Naretto. Preview the recording at scottordway.hearnow.com.
2014
Marissa Friedman ’14 received her M.A. in history, with an emphasis in public history, from University of California, Riverside, in 2017, and her M.L.I.S. from San Jose State University in May 2020. After years of interning and working in museums, archives, historical societies, and public and special libraries, she now works as a digital project archivist at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Friedman also continues to pursue her interests in community archives and the intersections between digital collections and archival activism, serving as a Pro Arts Commons Fellow for The Community Self-Defense Archive.
2020
Jennifer Flonacher M.A.T.’20 was selected by the Knowles Teacher Initiative as a member of its 2020 cohort of teaching fellows. One of 34 promising high school math and science teachers awarded the Knowles Teaching Fellowship, she began her first year of teaching at Tacoma Institute of Industrial Design, Engineering, and Arts during the 2020–21 school year. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, she graduated from, instructed at, and designed curriculum for the Air Force’s Weapons School—an elite program designed to train expert instructors in critical thinking, problem-solving, integration, and systems employment. The fellowship is an intensive five-year program supporting early career, high school math and science teachers in their efforts to develop teaching expertise and lead from the classroom.