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Fiction | MFA in Creative Writing - Low Residency | April Ayers Lawson is the author of Virgin and Other Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times and Vice, and a Best Foreign Book of the Year by Spain’s Qué Leer Magazine.  Virgin and Other Stories has been (or will be) translated into German, Spanish, Norwegian, and Italian.  She has received The Plimpton Prize for Fiction, as well as a writing fellowship from The Corporation of Yaddo.   Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Die Welt, ZYZZYVA, and Oxford American, among others, has been cited as notable in Best American Short Stories, featured by Huffington Post, and anthologized in The Unprofessionals: New American Writing from The Paris Review.  Her nonfiction has appeared in Der Spiegel, Granta, Vice, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung Magazine, and been named a Most Popular Read of the Year by Granta.  She has taught in the creative writing programs at Emory University and the University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and now teaches at Clemson University. Mentor.  Workshops and classes in fiction. Statement: “The most important thing your writing can be is interesting.  And by that I mean interesting to you, because when you’re deeply engaged in the process, the work sparks alive.  This level of engagement involves writing into places you didn’t expect and opening to the risk of surprise.

Professor of English | Department of English | marcusls@plu.edu | 253-535-7312 | Lisa Marcus joined the English department after completing a PhD in English at Rutgers University in 1995.  She has been active in campus-wide diversity education and advocacy; she chaired the Gender, Sexuality, and Race Studies program for many years, and is a founding member of PLU’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program.  She is deeply committed to first year education and regularly teaches a popular writing seminar on Banned Books for the First Year Experience Program.  Her constellation of courses in the English department include:  The Holocaust in the American Literary Imagination; American Literature 1914-45: Race, Sex, and War; Anne Frank as a Holocaust Icon; a senior seminar on History & Memory in US Slavery and Holocaust texts; an English Studies course on Gendered Literacy; Feminist Approaches to Literature; Women Writers and the Body Politic; and a first-year seminar on Holocaust Literature developed with Professor Rona Kaufman.  Lisa also regularly teaches courses in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Gender, Sexuality, and Race Studies Programs. Her current research project is Snapshots of a Daughter:  A Feminist Genealogy, a critical exploration of letters between Marcus’s mother and the poet Adrienne Rich, 1979-82. You can read a poem she published about visiting Auschwitz here.     .

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.

Associate Professor & Instruction and Reference Librarian | Library | rarteaga@plu.edu | 253-535-7505 | Roberto is an Instruction and Reference Librarian at Pacific Lutheran University.

Associate Professor | Department of Computer Science | caora@plu.edu | 253-535-7409 | My research interest is mainly focused on developing and applying machine learning and data mining techniques to solve biomedical problems, such as human genome data analysis and protein structure predictions.

Contingent Faculty of Marriage and Family Therapy | Marriage and Family Therapy | youngsy@plu.edu | | I have been a part of the PLU family since 2008, where I provide supervision to Master Degree students at the PLU Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic.

School of Business | facciamm@plu.edu | Maureen Faccia, MBA, is a Visiting Professor at PLU School of Business since 2016 teaching graduate level courses.  Maureen brings over 25 years of industry business experience in marketing, product and brand management, business strategy and operations leadership in a variety of sectors from consumer packaged goods and building products to non-profit human services and healthcare.   At PLU, Maureen has taught Marketing Management and Healthcare courses and is passionate about providing mentorship to students.   Maureen holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Delaware and a Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in healthcare from Pacific Lutheran University. Currently, Maureen is an Administrative Director of Women’s Careline at MultiCare Health System, the largest system of its kind in the state.  She has oversight of 23 ambulatory clinics, Women’s Health virtual programs, and Family Childbirth Education programming. In other professional roles, Maureen led the marketing and product management of Milgard Windows & Doors, a subsidiary of Masco Corporation.  In this role she created a product roadmap and led the development of a cornerstone product for the Manufacturer.  She also led a major brand refresh including an award winning website, selling tools for dealers, and a national marketing campaign. Maureen lives in Gig Harbor with her husband of 20 years and daughter.  She is a passionate advocate for children and seniors, and has held positions on the Boards of United Way of Pierce County and Franke Tobey Jones in Tacoma.   She enjoys water sports including kayaking and paddleboarding, as well as hosting creative Maker events at her home. Education: Masters in Business Administration, Healthcare                  Pacific Lutheran University Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering                                        University of Delaware Professional Certifications: Certificate of Executive Leadership, Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute of University of Washington Certified Trainer, Participative Leadership Areas of Emphasis or Expertise: Marketing, brand and product development Developing strategic business and operating plans Healthcare Ambulatory Operations Professional Memberships/Organizations: American Marketing Association (AMA) Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) .

Master of Business Administration | facciamm@plu.edu | Maureen Faccia, MBA, is a Visiting Professor at PLU School of Business since 2016 teaching graduate level courses.  Maureen brings over 25 years of industry business experience in marketing, product and brand management, business strategy and operations leadership in a variety of sectors from consumer packaged goods and building products to non-profit human services and healthcare.   At PLU, Maureen has taught Marketing Management and Healthcare courses and is passionate about providing mentorship to students.   Maureen holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Delaware and a Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in healthcare from Pacific Lutheran University. Currently, Maureen is an Administrative Director of Women’s Careline at MultiCare Health System, the largest system of its kind in the state.  She has oversight of 23 ambulatory clinics, Women’s Health virtual programs, and Family Childbirth Education programming. In other professional roles, Maureen led the marketing and product management of Milgard Windows & Doors, a subsidiary of Masco Corporation.  In this role she created a product roadmap and led the development of a cornerstone product for the Manufacturer.  She also led a major brand refresh including an award winning website, selling tools for dealers, and a national marketing campaign. Maureen lives in Gig Harbor with her husband of 20 years and daughter.  She is a passionate advocate for children and seniors, and has held positions on the Boards of United Way of Pierce County and Franke Tobey Jones in Tacoma.   She enjoys water sports including kayaking and paddleboarding, as well as hosting creative Maker events at her home. Education: Masters in Business Administration, Healthcare                  Pacific Lutheran University Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering                                        University of Delaware Professional Certifications: Certificate of Executive Leadership, Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute of University of Washington Certified Trainer, Participative Leadership Areas of Emphasis or Expertise: Marketing, brand and product development Developing strategic business and operating plans Healthcare Ambulatory Operations Professional Memberships/Organizations: American Marketing Association (AMA) Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) .

Philosophy Department | College of Liberal Studies | menzelpt@plu.edu | Taught philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University from 1971 to 2012, having been educated at Wooster, Yale, and Vanderbilt.  Teaching widely in philosophy and cross-disciplinary curricula, he has also published specialized scholarly work in health care ethics, including two books on moral questions in health care economics, numerous articles on health system structure and health care reform, and a recently co-edited volume (2012) on the tension between treatment and prevention in health policy.  Courses in the last decade of his teaching include Biomedical Ethics, Human Identity and Bioethics, Health and Social Justice, Business Ethics, Human Rights, and The Nature of Human Well-Being. He also served Pacific Lutheran University in various administrative positions, including Provost.  He retired to Professor Emeritus in summer 2012. .

Benson Family Chair in Business and Economic History | Department of History | halvormj@plu.edu | 253-535-8258 | Michael Halvorson teaches business and economic history courses in the Department of History at PLU, as well as classes on innovation and the history of technology.