2022 Alumni in the News

Benjamin Quanah Parker PhD ’21 became the first Indigenous student to earn a doctorate in mathematical sciences at Portland State. During the early days of the pandemic, Parker (Squaxin, Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, Cree, Shoshone-Bannock) started a list of Indigenous master’s and Ph.D. students to motivate himself for the final push of graduate school and drew inspiration from from the site indigenousmathematicians.org started by Kamuela Yong. After defending his dissertation in November 2021, he accepted a job as a software research and development engineer at Intel.

Spring 2022

Sara Jean Accuardi ’06 wrote an audio drama, Landscape, which was presented by Portland’s Theatre Vertigo as part of the Fertile Ground Festival. Accuardi’s 2019 collaboration with Theatre Vertigo, The Delays, won a Drammy Award for outstanding original script.

Jeff Allen ’89, principal scientist for European software giant SAP, has championed corporate social responsibility projects for Haiti for decades. His public release of Haitian Creole language data helped lead to the inclusion of the language in Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate and more.

Sasha Bassett MS ’16 accepted a position as an adjunct instructor in sociology for Pace University in New York City.

Keren Brown Wilson PhD ’83 and Michael DeShane MA ’71 PhD ’77 capped off Portland State’s $300 million Campaign for PSU with a gift to the PSU Institute on Aging. Their contribution will expand career pathways for students interested in supporting Oregon’s elders.

Adam Carlin MFA ’18 was named director of learning and engagement at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York.

Bryant Carlson PhD ’18 began work as a senior instructor in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health.

Aaron Clausen ’20 and Nolan Gold ’21 are working as junior assistant camera and junior grip, respectively, on Wendell and Wild, a Netflix stop-motion animated feature starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.

Scott Cline ’72 MA ’82 published Archival Virtue: Relationship, Obligation and the Just Archives with the Society of American Archivists press. Cline is a distinguished fellow of the Society of American Archivists and served as founding archivist and director of the Seattle Municipal Archives from 1985-2016.

Carol J. Pierce Colfer ’66 co-edited the book Adaptive Collaborative Management in Forest Landscapes: Villagers, Bureaucrats and Civil Society, published by the Earthscan Forest Library. Colfer is a senior associate with University of Washington’s Center for International Forestry Research.

Jason Duika MM ’10 was featured in the January issue of Classical Singer magazine. See his website.

Ryan Farwell ’07 joined the Ocean Beach Wellness and Rehabilitation Center in Ilwaco, Washington as an occupational therapist.

Janna Ferguson MArch ’17 was made partner of her architecture firm in Boulder, Colorado, now called Ferguson Pyatt.

Steve Forrester ’71 co-wrote and edited the book Eminent Oregonians: Three Who Matter about Richard Neuberger (of Neuberger Hall fame), Abigail Scott Duniway and Jesse Applegate. Forrester is president and CEO of his family’s company, EO Media Group, and former editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian.

Madeline Frisk MS ’21 is now Portland State’s coordinator of student government relations and adviser to Greek life. As a graduate student, Frisk served as a senator and academic affairs director for the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) and is excited to help new student leaders at PSU.

Corinne Gould MA ’16, previously a recruitment marketing manager for PSU’s School of Business, accepted a new position as associate manager of advertising and promotions for MIT Press.

Mike Grant ’16 MSW ’17 published his debut creative non-fiction memoir, (Re)Making a Sandwich: An Addiction Case Study, available from Amazon.com.

Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem MFA ’20 was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Covenant Foundation to start the Social Practice Institute at the Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina (where Adam Carlin MFA ’18 is co-curator). She also directs a new fellowship for contemporary Jewish artists in Portland called Art/Lab.

J. Bryan Henderson MS ’06 MS ’08 is an associate professor of science education at Arizona State University and the creator of Braincandy, a free technology designed to make classroom participation more equitable and authentic. He is a National Academy of Education/Spencer Fellow, and Program Chair of the American Educational Research Association SIG for Science Teaching and Learning.