What’s happening at SPU? This is where you’ll find the latest news about research, events, activities, achievements, and milestones in the life of SPU and its people.
On July 1, Deana L. Porterfield became SPU’s 12th president and the first female president in the University’s 132-year history.
President Porterfield has more than 35 years of experience working in higher education, including nine years as president of Roberts Wesleyan University and Northeastern Seminary.
She was raised in Northern California and spent 30 years in Southern California before moving to Western New York. President Porterfield and her husband, Doug, who is a native of Washington state, have two married daughters and five grandchildren.
When animals and people cross paths, Todd Jacobsen '10, of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, maintains the peace.
Deep in the woods of rural Washington, a hunter and his son return to a 12-foot-deep sinkhole they discovered the previous year. To their surprise, an elk calf is trapped at the bottom of the pit. Springing into action, the hunter contacts the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which deploys Todd Jacobsen ’12. With the help of a tractor and dart gun, he lifts the elk out to safety.
It’s just another day’s work for Jacobsen, a wildlife conflict specialist for Klickitat, Skamania, and Clark Counties with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
In the latest SPU Voices podcast, meet Falcon athlete and NCAA Division II indoor track and field champion Vanessa Aniteye, who was nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award! She talks about being an athlete, getting married and having a son, and coming to SPU to resume her track and filed pursuits.
Juliet Williams is heading to Georgetown for law school after completing an internship in the Washington State Legislature. The fast-paced environment of the 105-day Washington State legislative session thrilled political science major Juliet Williams ’23. Heels clicked on the granite floors of the state capitol in Olympia. Senators hustled to pass bills. And interns answered constituent calls and emails. Williams’ 2023 internship made her long to experience another capital city: Washington D.C. The 2023 Seattle Pacific Univesity graduate is headed to Georgetown Law this fall.
At the tender age of 70, the Rev. Marilyn S. Hair was likely the most senior member of Seattle Pacific’s Class of 2023. Technically, Marilyn graduated summa cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in biology last November, but her participation in the June Commencement and the Ivy Cutting ceremonies was significant for her and her husband, Richard B. Steele, professor emeritus of moral and historical theology at SPU.
In an opinion piece for The Seattle Times, SPU Sociology Prof. Karen Snedker argues for the need to expand treatment courts to address King County’s fentanyl crisis. "As an expert on mental health courts, I argue for expanding treatment courts, especially co-occurring courts that are designed to address both substance abuse and mental illness."
The latest SPU Voices podcast features Prof. Emeritus Frank Spina talking about life after leaving SPU, failing retirement, his new book, and unpacks several well-known Bible stories. Frank was a professor of Old Testament at SPU for more than 45 years. He often heard from students that he had taught their parents — or their grandparents. Considered tough and fair, he was named Professor of the Year by these very students. Frank is an Episcopal priest, serving as interim priest at St. Aidan's in Camano Island. He speaks regularly in the Northwest and beyond and currently hosts a podcast called “The Bible You Thought You Knew."
Men's soccer player Tyler Speer, women's basketball players Hunter Beirne and Natalie Hoff, cross country/track runner Libby Michael, and volleyball player Lindsay Rosenthal all have earned a Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete Award for the fourth consecutive year, as announced on July 13, 2023, by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
They were part of an overall collection of 31 Falcons to make the list — and this one is a very elite list. Getting onto it takes a cumulative grade-point average of 3.85 or higher.
"While thrilled with their accomplishments in competition, we are even more proud of the academic achievements of our SPU student-athletes," interim athletic director Dan Lepse said. "The fact that so many Falcons sustained grade point averages above the lofty 3.85 level is remarkable. Receiving this FAR recognition is a tribute to their diligent work and time management along with the strong support from their coaches and staff."
A new research study by a Seattle Pacific University professor gives global and historical evidence that women participated and continue to participate in subsistence hunting as much as men. “There is not a 'man the hunter' and 'woman the gatherer' dichotomy in most cultures,” says SPU Professor of Biology Cara Wall-Scheffler, co-author of the study with four SPU undergraduate students and colleagues. The study was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers analyzed data from foraging societies around the world as well as archeological research and found that women hunt in at least 79 percent of these societies, opposing the widespread belief that men exclusively hunt and women exclusively gather.
The study has been covered extensively by national, international, and science media.
Esther Williamson graduated from SPU in 1998 with a double major in theatre and English, then earned her master’s of fine arts from the Academy for Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Now she’s an actor and a teaching artist based in Brooklyn, New York.
A proud member of Taffety Punk Theatre Company, Esther has been praised by The Washington Post and numerous local critics for her deft handling of the heightened text and her grounded, soulful onstage presence. With Taffety Punk, she has performed over half of Shakespeare’s canon, as well as several new and classic works. She’s also acted and taught with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Opera House Arts in Stonington, and many, many others.
Dr. Christopher Jones ’94 hopes the families in his medical practice never need to ask: “Is my kid sick enough that I should pay for a doctor’s visit?” Medical director of HopeCentral, a nonprofit health center, he and his team have adapted the concept of concierge medicine to a diverse Seattle neighborhood.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Leland Saunders earned a $10,100 Graves Award in Humanities for his research project, “The Structure of Moral Judgement: Philosophical Perspectives.” His research responds to recent arguments that human beings’ concepts of morality are just a quirk of evolution and don't connect to anything deeper.