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February 2014
FACULTY & STAFF NEWS
Career Counselor Follows Own Advice
BY WANDA LAUKKANEN | June
Dressler not only counsels Pacific University
students about career development, she’s
proof that career development advice works.
Now associate director of the Career
Development Center, Dressler came to the
university in 1992 as a temporary program
assistant with University Relations and then
with the President’s Office.
Since then, she has completed her
bachelor’s degree in business management
from George Fox University in 1993, earned
a master’s degree — magna cum laude — in
counseling from George Fox in 2004, and
is now in her fourth year working on a
doctorate in counseling from Oregon
State University.
In the meantime, Dressler has worked
Photo by Wanda Laukkanen
June Dressler serves as associate director of the Career Development Center.
From the beginning of her first job at
encourager … . She said, ‘You are capable,
full time for the Career Development
Pacific, “I realized I really wanted to work
you’re already doing career counseling. Just
Center, serving as the program coordinator
with the students,” Dressler said.
go back and get your master’s.’”
from 1993 to 2000, then working as
Among those who influenced her
In earning her master’s degree, Dressler
assistant director beginning in 2002. She
decision to get into career counseling was
completed a practicum internship at the
has been an associate director since 2005.
Ellen Hastay, former head of the Center for
Washington County Jail for a year while still
Her job involves a variety of activities,
Civic Engagement.
working full time at Pacific.
including managing major career events,
teaching career courses, advising students
and alumni, and supervising the university’s
work study program.
“I blame her for my addiction to higher
education,” Dressler said with a laugh.
She said Hastay “was a real influence on
me, as a role model for counseling and as an
“Because time was so precious, I
needed to find a site where I wouldn’t get
cancellations … and inmates don’t cancel
See DRESSLER, page 3
pacificu.edu/marcom/pacnews.cfm |
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MFA Faculty Produces Variety of New Books
Seaside residents and Pacific University
master of fine arts in writing students were
treated to the opportunity to hear from a
plethora of professional authors this month,
as Pacific University’s MFA faculty offered
public readings during the program’s annual
winter residency at the beach.
The low-residency program pairs students
with a passion for writing fiction, nonfiction
and poetry with professional author mentors.
Students work closely with the authors
to develop their own writing throughout
the two-year program, and all students
and faculty come together twice a year for
intense residencies that include readings
and workshops.
If you missed out on this winter’s
readings, don’t worry — the authors will be
back in Forest Grove for the June residency.
In the meantime, you can pick up some
of the latest works by Pacific’s renowned
author-faculty members:
BURNING FENCE: A WESTERN
MEMOIR OF FATHERHOOD
CRAIG LESLEY | DECEMBER 2013
Novelist Craig Lesley puts his storytelling
to the test in this memoir of his own
difficult relationship with his father and his
efforts to raise a foster son. Set in Eastern
Oregon, the book pairs a gut-wrenching
tale of fathers and sons with the landscape
of the West.
VULGAR REMEDIES: POEMS BY
ANNA JOURNEY | AUGUST 2013
Anna Journey’s poetry has been called
“magical” by film director David Lynch and
has received rave reviews elsewhere. Vulgar
Remedies is her second collection of poetry.
DUPPY CONQUEROR: NEW AND
SELECTED POEMS
KWAME DAWES | MAY 2013
Acclaimed poet, novelist and playwright
Kwame Dawes combines the best of several
previous volumes of poetry with new works
in this latest anthology. With a title based on
a Bob Marley song, the collection showcases
spirituality, political engagement and history
in an homage to reggae music.
RED MOON: A NOVEL
BENJAMIN PERCY | MAY 2013
Benjamin Percy’s literary thriller takes place
in a parallel world where werewolves are
part of today’s society: as ordinary people
afflicted with an unusual disease. Percy uses
the horror/thriller genre to tell a characterdriven saga that speaks to prejudice,
terrorism and social justice.
LIGHT WITHOUT FIRE: THE
MAKING OF AMERICA’S FIRST
MUSLIM COLLEGE
SCOTT KORB | APRIL 2013
With degrees in theology and literature,
nonfiction writer Scott Korb has explored
religion throughout the world and history.
THE OBITUARY WRITER: A NOVEL
His latest book follows students and
BY ANN HOOD | OCTOBER 2013
Ann Hood’s latest novel links the lives of two teachers through the founding of America’s
women living in different times in a mystery first Muslim college at a time when antiand love story that examines marriage, love, Islam sentiments have run high.
the roles of women, and emotion. She also
VIVID AND CONTINUOUS: ESSAYS &
recently edited Knitting Yarns: Writers on
Knitting, a collection of essays celebrating
knitting and knitters, which was published
in November 2013.
EXERCISES FOR WRITING FICTION
JOHN MCNALLY | MARCH 2013
The author of multiple novels, story
collections and essays, as well as a versed
creative writing instructor, John McNally
now brings this series of humorous and
practical essays on the writing process.
LETTERS TO BORGES
STEPHEN KUUSISTO | FEBRUARY 2013
Stephen Kuusisto’s most recently published
book of poems explores the relationship
between seeing, blindness and being in
poems addressed to blind poet Jorge Luis
Borges. Kuusisto himself has been blind
since birth.
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS
CHRISTINE SNEED | FEBRUARY 2013
Christine Sneed’s second novel received
kudos from a critic in a New York Times
Book Review piece titled A Star Circle. She
has published numerous short stories.
Her first fiction book, Portraits, won the
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
Grace Paley Prize in 2009 and was a finalist
for the Los Angeles Times book prize in the
first-fiction category.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME
PAM HOUSTON | JANUARY 2013
Pam Houston’s latest book is a collection
of essays celebrating her real-life adventures
on five continents. Houston has previously
two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are
My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and her
stories have been selected for several wellknown anthologies. She also has published
two novels.
IF NOT FOR THIS
PETE FROMM | FALL 2014
Pete Fromm, a four-time winner of the
Pacific Northwest Book Sellers Literary
Award, will have his new novel, If Not
For This, published in the fall of 2014. A
previous novel, As Cool As I Am, published
in 2003, and was adapted as a feature film
released in June 2013.
pacificu.edu/marcom/pacnews.cfm |
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Faculty & Staff Highlights
GAIL AAMODT, and PAM KAWASKI, DHS, were
both installed into leadership positions at the Oregon Dental
Hygienists Association’s fall 2013 conference. Aamodt is now
the ODHA president-elect and will be installed as president
of ODHA at next year’s conference. She was also elected to
serve as a delegate to the 2014 ADHA Annual Session in June
in Las Vegas. Kawaski was installed as the ODHA treasurer.
JACK DRISCOLL, MFA, gave a talk about his newest
book, The World of a Few Minutes Ago, at the Peter White
Public Library in Marquette, Mich. in November.
ISAAC GILMAN, Library, is traveling this fall to Australia
as part of the 2014 Endeavour Executive Fellowship offered
through the Australian government. The six-week fellowship
will take him to two universities to apprentice with their
library-based presses: Sydney University Press and Australian
National University E-Press. The award provides professional
development opportunities for high achievers in business,
industry, education or government.
NANCY ANN NEUDAUER, Mathematics and
Computer Science, spent three weeks in December and
January this year teaching graduate students at the African
Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, South
Africa. Her experience was made possible through a Fulbright
Specialist Award. The institute prepares African students for
research and teaching careers in the mathematical sciences.
Pacific Welcomes New COE Dean
LEIF GUSTAVSON has been named
dean of the Pacific University College of
Education.
Gustavson comes, most recently,
from Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa.,
where he was an assistant professor, then
associate professor. He served as chair of
the Education Department from 2010
to 2012 and as interim dean starting in 2012. As interim dean,
he oversaw the transition from a department of education to a
school of education.
He is a strong proponent of K-12 and university
partnerships, developing three such partnerships at Arcadia.
He also initiated a semester-long global teaching fieldwork
experience for Arcadia students.
Gustavson also taught for seven years at the middle school
level, worked extensively with K-12 schools in designing
curricula and wrote on how youth learn.
Gustavson begins his tenure July 1, succeeding Mark Ankeny
as dean of the College of Education. Ankeny will continue as
vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, a
post he has held since September 2012.
Dressler: Pacific Alumni Inspire Course of Research
Continued from Page 1
on you,” she said. “And, they’re actually
anxious to get out of their cells.
“I learned a great deal from a lot of these
young women and young men,” she added
Dressler taught a class on parenting skills
to the inmates, as well as parenting classes
for parents on probation.
“It’s such a reminder of the importance
skills, the less likely they are to offend. That
the workplace,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a
connection is a big one.”
pattern where they just don’t have that skill
Now in her final two years of earning
a PhD, Dressler is researching “career
set to manage conflict in a positive way.”
Among those who influenced Dressler’s
resiliency and how to foster learning and
studies were the late Eva Krebs, former dean
skills that assist young adults to enter, excel
of students at Pacific University, as well as
at, and exit the world of work with dignity.”
university attorney Monica Marvin and
Career resiliency, she said, is a relatively
CDC Director Brian O’Driscoll.
new area of study. Her interest in it “grew
Students, though, motivate her most.
out of my experience working with alumni
“My favorite part is really when students
of education,” she said. “Those people
who either were fired or quit or were
are able to say, ‘Oh, I had no idea there was
who have more education, more career
miserable in their job because of conflict in
so much information out there.’”
pacificu.edu/marcom/pacnews.cfm |
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February
Birthdays
May Birthdays
1 Brock Laster
1 Lori May
1 Carole Londeree
1 Shilpi Banerjee
1 Heidi Garner
1 Richard Whiteley
2 Sylvia Aust
2 Stephanie Manning
2 James Swain
3 Lindsey Blem
3 Brandy Peer
3 Monica Marvin
3 Joseph Hromco
4 Lesley Hallick
4 Ashley Kemper
4 Amanda Duncan
5 Shelley Washburn
7 Monique Grindell
7 Ken Schumann
7 Alison Santoro
9 Ken Eakland
9 Rick Wilkes
9 Thomas Oommen
9 Heidi Hanson
43%
of Pacific faculty
and staff gave to
Pacific so far in the
2013 fiscal year,
as of Jan. 22. Your
gift supports the
university and our
students. Consider
9 Kari Hunt
9 Sruthi Rothenfluch
9 Jennifer Hockema
9 Lidia Rodriguez
9 Karen Hall
9 Edwardo Rojas
10 Lindsay
Zaborowski
10 Deon Logan
11 Bob Thomas
12 Melissa
Shillingburg
13 Jerod Gibson
14 Alec Webster
14 Jimmy Short
14 Kazuko Osada
15 Jerry Lesch
15 Andy McClouskey
15 Pamela Jacobs
15 Robin Fatafehi
15 Shelley Smolnisky
17 Jessica Kersey
17 Sally Hess
17 Windy Stein
17 Shay Mooster
17 Bradley Coffey
18 Leslie Crandell
Dawes
18 Sasha Antman
18 Milo Holden
18 Alex Bove
18 Leslie Crandell Dawes
19 Lara Vesta
19 Rick Brandeburg
19 Kim Short
19 John Barnes
20 Joshua Bateman
20 Victoria Chinn
20 Craig Bowen
20 Karli Kondo
21 Kevin Rogers
21 Kevin Faulk
21 Leslie Green
21 Daniel Woods
21 Whitney McKinley
22 John Siemsen
22 Tiffany Braukman
23 Michelle Cowing
23 Jana Gay
23 Molly
Westmoreland
23 Adam Rafalovich
24 Ronald Narode
24 Kim McAuliffe
24 Susan Boucher
24 Gyorgyi Nyerges
24 Roxana Ciochina
24 Ann Gibney
25 Lisa Rowley
25 Brad Fujisaki
25 Ingrid Unterseher
26 Charles Bentz
26 Marisela Mejia Gaona
26 Debby Friscia
26 Rita Barton
27 Bruce Hepler
27 Jim Brazeau
27 Mark Lakeman
28 Yoko Sakurauchi
28 Gregory Blaisdell
29 Ben Chavez
FEBRUARY 2014
Office of Marketing
& Communications
Editor | Jenni Luckett
Associate Editor |
Wanda Laukkanen
Send your news to
news@pacificu.edu
STAFF SENATE TO MEET FEB. 19,
MONTHLY BOXER BOOST SLATED
Friday, Feb. 21, in the Stoller Center. Boxer sport gear
The next Staff Senate meeting will be from 3 to 5 p.m.
Pacific University Bookstore.
Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Berglund 200, Forest Grove
Campus. Meetings are open to all staff and comments
and suggestions are welcome. Correspondence can be
sent to staffsenate@pacificu.edu. Staff Senate also hosts
the monthly Boxer Boost takes place on Thursday, Feb.
20 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the University Center Alumni
Room at the Forest Grove Campus and in HPC2 Room
is available at the Boxer Nation Store online or at the
NEW DEGREE PROGRAMS OFFERED
Two new degree programs will be offered beginning
in the fall of 2014. The Board of Trustees approved a
bachelor’s degree in music therapy and a master of social
work degree at its December 2013 meeting.
The bachelor of music therapy will be an intense five-
430 at the Hillsboro Campus.
year program for students to earn board certification in
deduction today.
COME HELP BOOST THE BOXERS!
professions. The master of social work will be based at
pacificu.edu/giving
Sport your Pacific University gear and cheer for both
the Eugene Campus. It will feature a two-year course of
the men and women’s basketball teams as they take
study and hands-on training.
a gift or a payroll
the growing field that incorporates music with health
on Linfield College at Boxer Nation Spirit Night on
pacificu.edu/marcom/pacnews.cfm |
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