Portland State Magazine Fall 2014

FALL 2014 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 25 Ron Talney ’60 wrote the dedication poem for Portland’s Portlandia statue in 1985. The poem was listed as the 42nd reason to love Portland and reprinted in the May issue of Portland Monthly. The last line of the poem, “This is how the world knows where we are,” was featured in a massive fan tifo at the Portland Timbers’ 2014 season opener. Carolyn Gage ’82, MA ’84 was one of six featured playwrights for the 53rd World Theatre Day (UNESCO sponsored) held in Rome during March. The theme was Violence Against Women, and excerpts from her plays were read in English and Italian. Gage is a playwright and actor living in Portland, Maine. Miguel Southwell ’86 was named general manager of the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in May. He joined Atlanta’s aviation department in 2013 after a 12-year stint with Miami- Dade aviation department in Florida. P S U A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N RAMON TORRECILHA ’84, MA ’86 will receive the 2014 PSU Alumni Achievement Award at the Simon Benson Awards Dinner on October 23. Now a professor of sociology at California State University - Dominguez Hills, Torrecilha first came to Portland State as a farm worker who spoke little English. He eventually went on to earn a Ph.D. Torrecilha still remembers a conversation with a PSU professor that he recalls as a turning point in his schooling. “She said, ‘absolutely, you can do what I do.’ And that day my life changed because I had somebody that really saw potential in me.” Medeiros is a high school language arts teacher at Kauai High School in Kauai Sally Cross MPA ’03 is director of planned giving for the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, which supports community grants and scholarships in three counties in New York state. Sonia Marie Leikam MEd ’06 has left her position as executive director of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center for a yearlong Carl Wilkens Fellowship program that started in August. She will work alongside national leaders to create and strengthen the permanent anti-genocide constituency in the entire Pacific Northwest. You can follow her journey at www. workingtowardneveragain.com . Robyn Pierce MPA ’06 is receiving a 2014 Women of Vision Award from the Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon in September for her work in the building industry. Pierce is a facilities manager for the new Collaborative Life Sciences Building, which provides classrooms and laboratories for health and science students of PSU, OSU, and OHSU. Bryan Henderson MS ’0 8 is joining the faculty at Arizona State University this fall as a tenure-track assistant professor in education and learning sciences. He earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in science education. Matthew Haussler ’12 creates award- winning art mazes and has several maze puzzle books coming out for children through MindWare, Inc. He has also partnered with British actress and model Lily Cole to promote her “gift economy” site impossible.com .  Paul Travis ’95 is executive director of the Flathead Land Trust, a nonprofit that has preserved more than 10,000 acres of land in Flathead Valley, Montana. Nova Newcomer ’99 was named executive director of Friends of Baseball, a Portland area nonprofit. She has been a member of the organization’s board of trustees since 2010. Jen West Brotherton MA ’01 is the new principal at Boston Harbor Elementary School in Olympia, Washington. The post is half time; she will also serve half-time as the Olympia School District’s staff development coordinator. Jonathon Medeiros MS ’02 was selected as a Hawaii State Teacher Fellow with Hope Street Group, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding economic opportunity and prosperity in America. FOR MORE ALUMNI NEWS follow us on Twitter@PSU_Alums . Have news you would like to share? Email psu a lum@pdx.edu or mail your information to Portland State University, Office of Alumni Relations, PO Box 751, Portland OR 97207-0751. To submit your own alumni news online, register for AlumniNet at alumni.pdx.edu . Alumni