PSU Magazine Spring 2001

ALUM NOT E S Khanh Pham MEd '98 is a teacher at Boise-Eliot Elemen– tary School in Portland. Tani Swan is an instructor at Chemeketa Community Col– lege in Salem. Swan also has taught botany and horticulture to inmates at two prisons in Salem for the past five years. Shawn Willard is vice president at Needham & Company, an inve tment banking firm in Portland. John Coverstone MS '00 i owner of and vice president of information and technology at Involution Inc., a management services consulting firm in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Regan Ertle MBA is a financial adviser with AllMerica Invest– ments, a financial services and estate planning firm in Bend. Elizabeth Kyle is human resources coordinator at Maryl– hurst University. Kyle lives in West Linn. Nicolle Landwehr owns her own investment advisory firm in ea ide. Patricia Lee MSW is a child and fami ly outpatient specialist at Unity Inc., Delaunay branch, a social services facility in Port– land. Eric Lepire writes, "After grad– uation, went to work at Oregon Health ciences University as computer lab manager and later on to doing networking for the information technology group. After OH U, worked as ystems engineer for the higher educa– tion sales team at Apple Com– puter. I now work as IT manager for an advertising group called NERVE in Port– land. Recently I won a Rosey Award for the design and devel– opment of the new Oregon Bal– let Theater Web site. I am married with a daughter and another baby on the way." Keith Nichols is credit manager for Jubitz Corporation in Port– land. Nichols is also pursuing a law degree at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College with an expected grad– uation date of May 2002. YEAR AGO, ARTS WRITER for The Oregonian D. K. Row called Elise Wagner '95 "a name to be aware of," while fellow critic Randy Gragg referred to her as "a painter to watch." But no one, Wagner says, could have predicted that 2001 would be such a breakthrough year for her. Wagner, whose work is featured in the online gallery Nextmonet.com., is an execu– tive assistant in the PSU School of Fine and Performing Arts office-at least for now. She was profiled on OPB's Oregon Art Beat on May 3, the same day she opened a joint art show (with Mel Katz, profe sor emeritus of art) at the Laura Russo Gallery, 805 NW 21st Avenue, Portland. The show will continue through June 2. In addition, Wagner has been invited to art shows later this year in Seattle and Hou - ton, and she al o won a fellowship to study at the Vermont Studio Center in August. The four-week residency will allow her to meet internationally known artists while having four weeks of uninterrupted studio time. Wagner paints in encaustic, an ancient medium that mixes molten wax with pigment and fu e it with heat. In 26 P U MAGAZINE SPRING 200I Garett Smith works in market– ing communications at SYSCO Food Service of Portland. William McClintock i a part– ner at Green, Newhouse & Associates, L.L.P., a certified public accounting agency in Pendleton. McClintock has been with the firm since 1997, and his experience includes auditing, income taxation, estate and gift taxation, and computer consulting. Jason Roehm MEd '00 teaches American Sign Language and is a football coach at Sam Barlow High School in Gresham. Roehm was a linebacker on the Viking football team while at p u. Paul Baumeister i marketing re earch manager for Worth Media, publisher of Worth Magazine in New York City. Edward Esco Bell MPA is director of public works and county engineer for Pacific County, Washington. Erin Cunningham MA '00 teache at Portland Community College, Clackama Community College, and Portland State. Cunningham has worked abroad as a technical writer and has been a regional journalist. She is also a playwright and novelist. James "Jim" Deady MS '98 is a science teacher with the Reynolds School District in Portland. Catherine Hay is a computer specialist and technical lead with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Portland. Scott Kaden MURP is pre i– dent of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association. Kaden formerly was an associate at SE Group Inc., a ski resort de ign firm. He and his wife, Jennifer, live in Hood River and wel– comed their first child, Ben– jamin, born December 27. Kaden served as assistant direc– tor of alumni relations from 1993 to 1995. Unoda Moyo PhD is a human resources consu ltant for the Oregon Department of Correc– tions. Moyo lives in Salem. the Portland-area art community, very few painters are competent with this unusual technique. She teaches one– day workshops in the medium at Art Media and at 333 Studio , an artists cooperative workspace in northeast Portland. Katz, who has known Wagner for more than a dozen year , describes her as a great role model who moved up the rank with persistence, believing in herself, and tak– ing risks. "Elise is doing significant work," he says. "She's a very exciting talent who is extending contemporary visual ideas with skill and intelligence." For Wagner, after working her way through school, leeping in her studio for three years, and at times, living on food stamp and selling pla ma for art supplies, the success is especially sweet. Acknowl– edging the many sacrifices and the disci– pline required in pursuing the visual arts, she is cautiously optimistic about her future. "The key for me has been to expect nothing but the feeling painting gives me," she says. "Art has always been my refuge." -John Rumler '90