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Lecturer - Saxophone | Music | steighev@plu.edu | 253-535-7602 | Praised by the Tacoma News Tribune for his “effortless lyricism” as well as his “smooth tone and fluid virtuosity,” saxophonist Erik Steighner has performed with ensembles including the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Federal Way Symphony, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony, and Symphony Tacoma.

Assistant Professor of Nursing | School of Nursing | kayla.harvey@plu.edu | 253.535.7672 | After many years of experience as a pediatric nurse practitioner in the critical and acute care setting, I have expanded my practice into research in order to better understand and support families during a pediatric hospitalization.  I enjoy sharing my clinical experience and researcher insight as faculty working with nursing students at PLU. Education  PhD: University of Washington, Doctor of Nursing Science Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN): University of California, San Francisco, Pediatric Primary Care/Critical Care Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN): University of Florida, Gainesville, BSN Teaching Areas Lead faculty for NURS 360, Nursing Research course, Baccalaureate program, School of Nursing, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. Lead faculty for NURS 702, Nursing Informatics course, Doctoral program, School of Nursing, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. Pediatric clinical instructor NURS 380, Baccalaureate program, School of Nursing, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. Scholarly Interests  My current research interests include exploring the psychological sequelae of the pediatric medical traumatic stress of a hospitalization on parents and young children and examining the function of the attachment system in the presence of a life-threatening event.  Current Practice Part-time faculty for the BSN and DNP programs at PLU.

Nonfiction | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | Brenda Miller edited the anthology The Next Draft: Inspiring Craft Talks from the Rainier Writing Workshop. Her most recent collection of her own work is A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form. She is the author of five more essay collections, including An Earlier Life, which received the Washington State Book Award for Memoir, and she is the recipient of six Pushcart Prizes.

Associate Director of Clinical Operations / Director of Training / Counselor | Counseling Services | jfadden@plu.edu | 253-535-7206 | I am very excited to be back on the PLU campus!  I graduated from the PLU MFT program in 2012, and am looking forward to assisting the PLU community through our amazing counseling services. I have over 12 years of experience as a therapist, along with an extensive professional history within the social work and social justice field.  I have guided many people throughout the years, and feel it is my calling to be present for those who need support through this grand adventure called LIFE! My main goal is to help you cut through the minutiae of your own mind, implement tools that will help you take back the authority of your life and propel you forward on the path of your choosing.  I believe in creating “brave spaces” within the therapy room.  My style of therapy is a little different as I believe therapy does not have to be a long drawn out process, nor a deep dive, in order to make significant changes in your life.  Sometimes, you just need a place to breathe, focus and figure out your next steps.  I combine various therapy techniques, in order to challenge you, keep you focused and allow space for you to discover your authentic self.  Humor is also an important element of the process! If you are ready for deep and lasting change, then contact PLU Counseling Services and let’s get started! .

Poetry | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017).  Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, Waxwing, and elsewhere.  Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Hodder Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship.  She has also received awards and scholarships from the Blue Mountain Center, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo.  She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program.

Poetry, Nonfiction | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | Brian Teare, a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of seven critically acclaimed books, including Companion Grasses and Doomstead Days, winner of the Four Quartets Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle, Kingsley Tufts, and Lambda Literary Awards. His most recent publications are a diptych of book-length ekphrastic projects exploring queer abstraction, chronic illness, and collage: the 2022 Nightboat reissue of The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven, and the fall 2023 publication of Poem Bitten by a Man. After over a decade of teaching and writing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and eight years in Philadelphia, he’s now an Associate Professor of Poetry at the University of Virginia.

Nonfiction, Poetry | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | Lia Purpura is the author of eight collections of essays, poems, and translations, most recently, Rough Likeness (essays) and It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful (poems).  Her honors include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, National Endowment for the Arts and Fulbright Fellowships, three Pushcart prizes, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Nonfiction, and the Beatrice Hawley, and Ohio State University Press awards in poetry.  Recent work appears in Agni, Field, The Georgia Review, Orion, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Best American Essays.  She is Writer in Residence at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and teaches at writing programs around the country, including, most recently, the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference.  She lives in Baltimore with her family. Mentor.

Mental Health Counselor | Counseling Services | guizare@plu.edu | 253-535-7206 | My name is Evelia Guizar; I am a 4th-year student in the Doctorate in Psychology (PsyD) program at Northwest University in Kirkland, WA. My passion for psychological well-being started early in my teenage years as I navigated the complexity of integrating my cultural identity as a first-generation immigrant.  Before becoming a graduate student, I worked in the field of Logistics, focusing on person-to-person interactions and professional relationships. I believe in a holistic approach to therapy to understand the whole person and how life experiences, environments, and situations impact a person’s well-being.  I embrace and respect diversity in cultural values, which make each client unique in their perspectives and experiences.  I believe that we all experience moments in our lives where a therapeutic relationship helps promote healing and emotional strength as we navigate challenges in our daily life. .

Professor Emeritus | Music | Born in 1956 in Beirut, Lebanon, Gregory Youtz received his B.M.

Clinical Instructor of Nursing | School of Nursing | guptilje@plu.edu | 253-535-8422