Search

high heels,” Wold said with a laugh. After taking a brief hiatus from work to travel with her first husband for his job, she was re-hired to work for NASA in 1997. Wold began working with the research and development side of NASA to track milestones, develop software, narrow the focus of research, and monitor expenditures. She became a vital part of the systems engineering career team and worked more closely with the researchers. “She knows how to get the best of out of them,” said Deanna Nowadnick

and Nelson was able to get financial aid and a scholarship to make the financial transition. Instrumental in her development of her passion for service was a psychology class with Professor Jon Grahe and working with children at Thompson Elementary in Parkland. “Working with those children, and in that program, it changed everything for me,” said Nelson, who graduated with a degree in psychology. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be a research scientist then.” The climate at PLU also encouraged

their current-day living,” said Cunningham. “Witnessing their passion as they tell their individual stories has changed my life. Specifically, I have been reminded of my freedom that I sometimes take for granted and re-focused on the struggle for equality that still remains both in Namibia and in America.” The film crew goes over script development in Namibia. (Photo: Maurice Byrd ’14) PLU’s Namibia Connections The filmmaking team is based for the month of June in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, a

of a robust development division. •    Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Joanna Royce-Davis, who previously served as Dean of Students in the Division of Student Life at the University of the Pacific, where she worked for 15 years. •    School of Nursing Dean Sheila Smith, who came to PLU from the College of Nursing at East Tennessee State University, where she was the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and a Professor of Nursing. Read Previous PLU Makes Strong Showing at

) Heath will be recognized with the 2015 Carl B. Allendoerfer Award, a national award sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, in August.The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is one of two major U.S. mathematics organizations and one of the largest in the world. MAA emphasizes teaching, professional development and expository writing, and its Carl B. Allendoerfer Award, established in 1976, is given to authors of expository articles published in Mathematics Magazine. Up to two of

NCAT-supported centers are designed to be life changing. “(Our goals) go beyond equipping students with specific skills, to empowering each participant to effect the change they want to see in their own lives,” Schouten said. Nguyen, who has 20 years of experience in Pierce County workforce development, agrees. “We can make our community better by providing access to arts and education,” she said. “It’s the key to rising out of poverty and having a better life — and that’s why this project is so

planning issues. Working alongside Pierce County Parks and Alta Planning & Design, Linde’s role with EnviroIssues is to support public outreach events and communications as the team develops a concept design for the trail. Here, she talks about the development of the project and how her time at PLU prepared her for the job. PLU: Please tell us more about your work with EnviroIssues and the Parkland Community Trail. What part of your work excites you the most? Linde: What drew me to EnviroIssues was the

provides current Amazon employees with the training necessary to transition into software development engineer roles at the company. Nguyen is often the person at the academy an employee speaks to if they are interested in the program. “I love that I get to see everybody through the application process,” she says. Read our full profile of April Rose Nguyen. Read Previous Karen McConnell embraces innovation as PLU’s first chief institutional effectiveness officer Read Next Wang Center Executive Director

and health care would be the ultimate goal, but then a couple of classes focused on plant development and global agriculture grew a new passion.“I have a family history of agriculture, my grandfather used to have apple orchards in Eastern Washington,” she said, explaining why her PLU biology classes resonated with her. “From that point forward, I began to pursue plant biology, as I had both personal and academic passion in the subject.” On her way to her degree, Davis completed a capstone project

Sustainability Development Goals and to illustrate how progress on one goal might influence the others. Their innovative solution—explained in a 23-page pulled together on the last day of the competition and summarized, “Network of goals; a forest of numbers; an ONION.; and in the end, poverty was the root of the problem”—earned them a top award from the Mathematical Association of America. Beyond being intellectually intense, the competition is also physically grueling; students usually sleep no more than