Student and Alumni Profiles

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Frank James 1973

Dr. James is active in teaching, research and medical practice. His interests focus on health promotion and disease prevention. He is currently the Health Officer for San Juan County and Health Officer for the Nooksack Indian Nation. He has been a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health since 1992.  Dr. James also serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Institute for Village Studies, Responsible Development, and Jhamtse Gatsal (as school in India on the Bhutan/Tibet border region).

 

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Gary Washington 2012

Gary Washington graduated from Fairhaven College in 2012 through the upside down degree program.  Gary's concentration was visual communications with focus on social justice. After graduating Gary remained in Bellingham to work at a non profit organization and hone his skill set further through creative interactions with the Bellingham Community.

 

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Anna Ellermeier 2012

Anna received the honor of being elected President of the Associated Students of WWU 2011-2012. She worked with the six AS vice presidents and the university administration and was a strong advocate for students,  effectively and faithfully representing their needs and their voices. Video

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Max Romey 2017

Max is in his Junior year at Fairhaven, working towards an interdisciplinary concentration in filmmaking, at which he is already quite accomplished, having recently premiered his documentary 3022 Ft.  Max is interested in environmental changes, running and the technology that will help him capture and illustrate these complex subjects. He have been fortunate enough to have traveled a lot which has given him a unique perspective on his culture and life. His goals through his work are to illustrate complex or hard to explain situations, inspiring viewers to action.

 

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Raina Ballard 1975

Raina Hanson Ballard graduated from Fairhaven College in 1975 with a B.S. in Chemistry.  Following graduation, she worked as a research technician in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Washington.  After taking eight years out of the workforce to be a full-time mom for two daughters, she returned to school and trained in ultrasound technology. Raina worked for many years as a diagnostic medical sonographer at Northwest Hospital in Seattle and is now retired.​

 

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Jane Carten 2001

(’01, Fairhaven Interdisciplinary Concentration) was already an Internet start-up entrepreneur when she was a student at Fairhaven, where she developed a concentration in Internet Entrepreneurship. After graduation, she worked in her family’s investment firm, Saturna Capital, building the company’s website and leading marketing efforts. Meanwhile, she learned the investment side of the business and became the company’s director and president in 2009. She also directs Saturna’s continuing education program and the philanthropic efforts of the firm.

 

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Ethan Glemaker 2013

Western Washington University's Associated Students president for the 2012-2013 academic year."To be elected AS president is an honor to which I can hardly assign words. I feel incredibly grateful and simultaneously empowered by the amount of confidence and support I have received from Western's student body." Read more about Ethan Glemaker.

 

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Kristen Corning Bedford 1995

Kristen received a MA from Antioch University in Whole Systems Design and a BA from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University in Film Studies and Production. Her most recent position as Vice President of Community Philanthropy at The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation allowed her to explore opportunities for non-profit sustainability, collaboration, and innovation while managing the grantmaking process and donor education initiatives. She is the co-founder of The Ruby Room in Seattle, Washington, for which she received the NW Girls Coalition’s Outstanding Community Leadership Award in  2004. She is a founding member of the investment club Women Investing in Tacoma and serves as the board president of ArtsEd Washington. Currently, Kristen is developing Philanthro∙be, a business dedicated to encouraging and nurturing philanthropists.

 

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Joaquin "Kenny" Torre 2016

“The Law Diversity and Justice program provided me a platform from which I could interrogate the ways through which identity is simultaneously contingent and contested by structures of power. Throughout my years at Western, the LDJ program was a consistent highlight of my college experience; the faculty are immensely knowledgeable, humble, and genuinely care about their students.”

 

 

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Roy Hanson 1975

Roy Hanson ’75, (center) came to Western sight unseen, with a sense of adventure that has continued to fuel his success as chairman and CEO of Hanson Research Corp., a world leader in dissolution test technology for the pharmaceutical industry. Hanson was drawn to the experimental nature of Fairhaven College and its focus on interdisciplinary studies. His favorite memories include learning about China from the late John McClendon. Hanson has traveled to China more than 50 times in his career and now conducts business there. Hanson Research Corp. now sells testing equipment to major pharmaceutical manufacturers around the globe. In addition to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Hanson is a guitarist who plays blues rock, folk and traditional Irish music.

 

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Danica Kilander 2013

Danica, Associate Director of the IDEA Institute at WWU, graduated from Fairhaven College with an Interdisciplinary Degree in Social Entrepreneurship in spring 2013.  With a personal devotion to creating more equitable and sustainable systems, Danica splits her time between training community members at a local gym, continued development of education programs for future social entrepreneurs and volunteer activities in the community.  Her interests range from biodynamic gardening to playing music to practicing mixed martial arts.

 

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Miriam Lewis 1993

Since moving from Bellingham to San Francisco in 1982, Miriam Lewis has followed a circuitous route ultimately leading to a career as a theatrical costume designer and teacher of costume-related subjects. Miriam has been involved with theater from an early age both as a performer and a costumer. As a designer, she seeks to create the world in which characters can come into being, exist and evolve. She finds inspiration in social history, ephemeral and fine art, and in her abiding fascination with the exuberant visual parade of everyday life. Miriam received her MFA in Theatrical Design from San Francisco State University where she designed shows including Floyd Collins and City of Angels, directed by Barbara Damashek and Juliet, directed by Mark Jackson. In addition to costuming numerous shows in San Francisco, Miriam is now a lecturer at SFSU and teaches costume design, illustration, construction and patternmaking.

 

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TJ Martin 2005

TJ Martin is the co-director, co-editor and co-cinematographer of the feature length documentary, UNDEFEATED. The film won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary making Martin the first director of African American descent to win an Oscar for a feature length film. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Black Reel Awards and has won numerous film festivals. In 2012 Martin was listed on Ebony Magazine’s Power 100, alongside President Barak Obama. Martin and his directing partner, Dan Lindsay, continue to produce and direct films, commercials and documentaries in Los Angeles. TJ graduated from Fairhaven College in 2005.

LaShawn Morgan 1995

LaShawn graduated from WWU in 1995, from the Law & Diversity Program, Fairhaven College. She had a particular passion around Human Resources and Diversity work, and did two internships before graduating, one at the City of Bellingham in their HR organization, and the other for the WWU Provost of Diversity (at that time, it was Dr. Larry Estrada).  That experience eventually led her to build her career in HR and she has been thrilled ever since.  Currently, LaShawn is a senior Staffing Consultant with Microsoft, and has been there for almost 7 years.

 

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Fred Moody 1973

Fred Moody graduated from Fairhaven in 1972, with a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. After getting his AMLS degree from the University of Michigan in 1974, he worked for six years at Ardis Publishers, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was a writer and editor for the Seattle Weekly for 18 years, and is the author of six books, including Seattle and the Demons of Ambition and Unspeakable Joy. He and his wife Anne (Fairhaven '72) live on Bainbridge Island, and are the parents of three daughters.

 

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Yoko Shimomura 1996

Yoko graduated from Fairhaven in 1996 with a concentration entitled "20th Century Ethnic American Studies; Resistance to Racism." After graduating she traveled abroad for several years and eventually settled down in Seattle. Yoko spent over a decade at Washington Mutual Bank where she was a Vice President in Corporate Services.  In 2010, she was given an amazing opportunity to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Workplace Resources division.  Outside of work, she continues her involvement with communities of color and spends her free time enjoying her 6 year old daughter.

Diane Sigel-Steinmann 1977

Fairhaven Class of 1977, BA in Business through Western. Diane spent over 30 years as CEO/CFO of Duffle Bag, Inc, a small chain of retail stores located along the I-5 corridor. She married Allan Steinman in 1980 and had a daughter, Esther, born in 1983. Diane is an active member of several boards for local and national non-for-profit organizations dealing in social services, the arts, education and leadership development. Since retiring in 2010, she has travelled extensively around the world to such places as Tanzania, Tibet, Cuba and Antarctica with India on the books for 2014.

 

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Ann Simons 1988

Ann graduated from Fairhaven College in 1988 with a concentration titled, “The Exploration of the Human Condition through Political Economy, Women’s Studies and Literature.” During her senior year at Fairhaven she was asked to work as an “intern” Lobbyist, which transformed into the work she still does today. For the first 18 years she had her own lobbying firm, created a woman’s health advocacy organization, and now works in “Public Policy and Advocacy” for an international pharmaceutical. Her passion is health care policy with a specific focus on vaccines, women’s health, bio-technology and global health. She currently serves on the Board of Advocates for the Friends of the United Nations Family Planning Association.

 

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Thomas Thornton 1978

Tom Thornton ’78 started Cloud Mountain Farm in Everson soon after graduation. Since then he and his wife Cheryl (Huxley ’78) have built it into a thriving center for sustainable farming practices. For over 30 years the farm built a business around crop development trials and sharing that information and experience with the regional farming community. In 2011 Tom and Cheryl turned their business into a nonprofit educational farm center with the goal of providing hands-on learning opportunities to the next generation of farmers as well as providing regional information to the gardening community. Tom has participated in numerous NP boards including the Whatcom Land Trust, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement and was a founding board member for the Whatcom Community Foundation. He currently sits on the boards of Whatcom Farmers Coop and Northwest Agricultural Research Foundation.

 

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Rose Vogel 2011

Rose earned her B.A. in Law, Diversity and Justice from Fairhaven College and was a student intern at the Washington State Attorney Generals Office. Later, she was employed full time at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office as a bilingual consumer protection analyst.  In 2011 she returned to school and in 2013 she earned her double Masters degree from Antioch University in Conflict Analysis and Engagement (CAE) and Human Resources with a concentration on labor relations. Currently Rose is the HR Director for ecigexpress.

 

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James Winchell

James Winchell, Ph.D., was a member of the first full class of freshmen matriculated at Fairhaven College in 1968. His career there was interrupted by the two years of Alternate Service stipulated by the US Selective Service for Conscientious Objectors during the Viet Nam era. He subsequently returned to school at the UW, where he completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1988. He has taught French at Stanford University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and in 1998 helped to create a new four-year secondary curriculum in English/Humanities at The Northwest Academy in Portland, OR. He has published a wide range of articles on literature, film and philosophy, and currently teaches French language and literature at Whitman College in Walla Walla.

Rachel Malia Newkirk 2019

Rachel Malia Newkirk graduated June 2019 with a BA in Sociology, Minor in Film Studies, and from Fairhaven and the WWU Honors College. She is passionate about representation in film, radical liberation and community-oriented politics, and feeding herself and the people she loves.

After graduation, Rachel has done social media, marketing, and film programming for different film festivals across the country. She makes a wide range of video content. Rachel currently lives in Seattle and is excited to play pool and do more festival work once the world opens back up again.