Portland State Magazine Spring 2016

SPRING 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 . Dave Kruse ’63 received the 2015 Robert Moore Award from the West Linn City Council in February for his decade-long volunteer work beautifying Mary S. Young Park in West Linn. Fritz Bartsch ’74 writes that he is a co-chair of the Community Promise Campaign for Albertina Kerr, an Oregon agency that offers services for children and families facing mental health and developmental challenges. Bartsch was a manager with US Bank before retiring in 2010. Enid Traisman MSW ’86 is celebrating her 30th anniversary of founding the Pet Loss Support Program at DoveLewis, the 24-hour emergency animal hospital in Northwest Portland. Jodi Watson ’88 is the first-ever senior vice president of Petco Direct, the e-commerce division of the pet supply national retail chain. Lana Veenker ’98 is founder of Cast Iron Studios in Portland. Her company has cast actors in NBC’s Grimm , TNT’s Leverage and The Librarians , and the movies Twilight, Wild and The Road , among others. Mitchell Jackson ’99, MA ’02 won a prestigious $50,000 Whiting Foundation award for emerging writers. Jackson, author of the autobiographical novel The Residue Years , was the subject of our cover feature in the spring 2014 Portland State Magazine . Andrew Mayer MPA ’01 writes that he was recently appointed the daily media reporter for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s Strategic Outreach Division, an Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy that oversees foreign military finance, training and diplomacy. Virginia Chambers ’04 has won an educator-of-the-year honor for 2015 from the American Association of Medical Assistants. She is a full-time instructor and program chair for Portland Community College’s Medical Assisting Program. Adam (Hamilton) Cornett ’04 and his partner Tilia Kimm placed first at the Argentine Tango USA Championship held in San Francisco in March. They won the salon division and will compete in the world cup held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August. They teach tango in Boston. John Hillan MS ’09 was named Oregon Music Educator of the Year in January by the Oregon Music Education Association. He teaches in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Brad Richardson MA ’15 was recently promoted to curator of the Clark County Historical Museum in Vancouver, Washington. Adam Cornett Virginia Chambers Mitchell Jackson Jodi Watson Fritz Bartsch