Portland State Magazine Fall 2016

FALL 2016 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 27 P S U A L U M N I A S S O C I A T I O N FOR MORE ALUMNI NEWS follow us @PSU_Alums on Twitter and PortlandStateAlumni on Facebook. 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, go to www.pdx.edu/alumni/contact . Michael DeShane MA ’71, PhD ’77 and Keren Brown Wilson PhD ’83 will receive the PSU Foundation 2016 Simon Benson Award for Philanthropy on November 3. The couple have devoted their lives to helping people with limited means age with dignity. Tom Fink ’71 will receive the PSU Foundation 2016 Simon Benson Award for Alumni Achievement on November 3. President of Magnacorp Financial Group, Fink serves on the boards of youth services organizations and has supported PSU for more than 30 years. Paul De Muniz ’72 received an honorary degree and spoke at the University’s morning commencement ceremony June 12. De Muniz is a former Oregon Supreme Court chief justice. Nancy Goldman ’76 had her Portland garden featured in the July issue of Gardens Illustrated , a British magazine. Rita Collins EdD ’92 after a long teaching career is trying her hand at a small business venture: a traveling bookstore. She mostly stays in her home state of Montana, but was in Portland and New York in September. Read about the business at www.saintritasbooks.com . Veronica Ervin ’95, MBA ’13 was named senior vice president/chief compliance officer of Oregon’s OnPoint Community Credit Union in July. Lynn Peterson MURP ’95, MS ’08 received the Nohad A. Toulan Urban Pioneer Award for Public Service at PSU in June. The former Washington (state) Secretary of Transportation is senior transportation policy advisor for Smart Growth America. Vishnu Shivaji Rao MS ’00 is director of software services and platforms for NanoLumens, a manufacturer of LED displays based in Norcross, Georgia. Rao is a renowned development specialist in smart TV and mobile platforms and holds numerous patents on user interface, connected platforms, big data and server technology. Robert Visser MIM ’02 is director of international business development for Barenbrug USA, a grass seed company based in Oregon. He speaks fluent Dutch and Mandarin and is studying Russian. Renae Davis MBA ’06 was promoted to partner from senior manager in the Portland office of Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services firm. Sergey Bogza ’09 assumes leadership of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, this fall. After PSU, Bogza earned a master’s and doctoral degree in music. Jeff Swanson ’09, MS ’12 was selected city manager of Battle Ground, Washington, this spring. He was previously Clark County’s director of economic development. Emma Bailey ‘14 was recently appointed museum educator at the Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Her mother, Lynn Demuth Averbeck ’85, EMPA ’13 is on a rotational assignment as environmental program and policy advisor at the Oregon Department of Transportation. Renae Davis Vishnu Shivaji Rao Lynn Peterson Paul De Muniz Tom Fink