Portland State Magazine Spring 2008

Ruth Ann Brown '04 has esrabl ished a special arciscs' stipend project called Courure ar her Southeast Portland gal– lery, New American An Union. Using $80,000 of her own money, Brown has awarded 10 anises $8,000 each to produce and exhibit rheir most challeng– ing work at New American. Natalie Gunn MM '04 sang with che Oregon Moza rt Players in December. Gunn has also performed with the Pordand Baroque Orchestra, rhe Colum– bia Symphony Orchesrra, and che Portland Scace Opera The– ater. She has won several awards during her career, including the Narional Opera Associatio n first-place awa rd for her perfor– mance in PSU's Don Giovanni. Ryan Hunter MURP '04 is an assisrant planner for the Jefferson County Department of Community Development in Washington state. He lives in Pore Townsend, Washington. Alisha Moadab '04 is a practic– ing intern at the Narural Healrh Cencer in Portland. Moadab is in her fourth year ofsrud- ies at the National College of Narural Medicine in Portland. Nannette Luomanen My- ers MS '04 is a marriage and family counselor, chemical dependency counselor, and lead counselor for an in-paciem drug and alcohol rreacment center operared by Lifeline Connec– tions in Vancouver, Washington. She lives in Vancouver with her husband, Brian, whom she married in December. Kori Barnum MA '05, BS '06 is a forensic scientist ar the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory in Clackamas. Barnum, who firsr scarred ar che lab as an intern in 2003, analyses evidence from crime scenes. She lives in Portland. Nikki Costa MPA '05 is a Washougal, Washingcon, city councilor. Cosca is also a work center facility commander at the ALUMNI NOTES A lawyer in the making CALL SABA AHMED '04 precocious. She completed high school equivalency at age 15 and at 19 finished Portland State with a double major in electrical engineering and physics. She married at 20 and will complete her law degree at Lewis & Clark College next spring. At 23 years old, the Portland resident is a manager for Imel Corp., which she joined in her third year at PSU, and where she continues to work part time. As if work, school, and marriage are not enough, Ahmed was in her native Pakistan in December with a group of American attorneys and law students to monitor elections in that troubled country. She was a few blocks away on the day opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. "I was so scared," admits Ahmed, who also was shocked at how "people are so used to bombings and suicide attacks." Ahmed started life as a member of an upper-middle-class family with high expectations of its children. Her father was a mathematics professor, her mother a chemist. Ahmed says that she, her two sisters, and brother were given two career options: medicine or engineering. Law, she explains, doesn't carry the cachet it does in America, and it is not a profession Pakistani women usually enter. But in her final two years at PSU, Ahmed met two Portland patent lawyers. "They motivated me to go to law school," she says, after they talked about the 8exibility and family-friendly time commitment of that specialty. Ahmed settled on that path in her senior year, but chose to con– tinue working for Imel and take a break from school. Today, she enjoys law school and is working as an Saba Ahmed was in her native Pakistan in December with a group of attorneys and law students monitoring elections. extern for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Virginia Linder, which she calls "very excit– ing." Ahmed is glad she visited Pakistan, where she had hoped to live in the future, but returned sobered about its prospects. "Portland is a great city," she says, "and I am very fortunate to be here." ■ BY CLIFF COLLINS Clark County Jail Work Cencer in Vancouver, Washington. She has a nine-year-old son. Katie Harman Ebner '05, crowned Miss America while a PSU srudent in 2002, lives near Malin, Oregon, with her husband, Tim, a nd their young son, Tyler. Harmon srill sings professionally and travels about twice a month for rehearsals and shows. Andrew Epstein MPH '05 is the school policy coor– dinator for the American Lung Association of Oregon. Epstein lives in Portland. Mathew Dennis Green- wood '05 is an estimator and safety coordin ator foe Valley Pacific Construction in Donald, Oregon. He reports chat his brother, Thomas Eric Green– wood '06, is a first lieutenant placoon leader in the U.S. Army and is starioned in Iraq. Sarah Heinicke MURP '05 is a sustainability adviser in the Portland office ofBrighcworks, a company chat helps developers and ochers integrare principles of sustainabi lity into their work. Heinicke advices cliems who are developing green buildings. SPRING 2008 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 27