TRINITYADVANCE
14
Faculty
Compiled by Mark Jackson, Professor & Chair of Children, Youth & Family Studies
News Dr. Jan Fekkes, Affiliate Faculty in Biblical Studies, was selected for the 2012 Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. A longserving professor, Fekkes received numerous nominations from students who commented on his passion for teaching the Bible. Dr. Mark Williams, Missionaryin-Residence and Affiliate Faculty in Intercultural Studies, presented a paper at the March 2012 regional meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Roland Allen’s classic Missionary Methods. Williams also received the 2012 Faculty Award for Scholarship to recognize his speaking and writing endeavors in the past year.
Dr. Stuart Webber, Professor & Chair of Business, Leadership, and Management, this summer completed his Ph.D. through the Copenhagen (Denmark) Business School, capping several years of study related to international finance and economics. In November, he had an article published in Tax Notes International. Sue Houglum, Professor & Chair of Early Childhood Education, presented a workshop on the relationship between early learning and the outdoors at the Washington Association for the Education of Young Children’s annual conference in October. In March, she (along with several ECE students) will host the Evangelical Lutheran Education
Association’s regional conference on Trinity’s campus. The Rev. Dr. David Ellingson and Mark Jackson, professors in Children, Youth & Family Studies, together received the 2012 Faculty Award for Outstanding Community Service to recognize their work related to faith-based service learning. The pair is also designing a smartphone application for church youth groups to use in planning for and reflecting on service and mission experiences. Dr. Ellingson has been accepted into the GreenFaith National Fellowship Program. GreenFaith is an interfaith coalition that educates and mobilizes religious communities for environmental leadership and fellows are a mix of ordained and lay leaders from diverse religious traditions. Ellingson will travel to training retreats, participate in webinars, craft a personal eco-theological statement, and form a task force to create propose an environmental sustainability plan for Trinity.
Dr. Betsi Little, Professor & Chair of Psychology, has been working with Mind Matters Jury Consultants, using applied research on how juries make decisions to assist attorneys in preparing witnesses and arguments. Elsa Carlisle returns as an affiliate faculty member in January Term 2013 to teach the popular Oceanography course. Carlisle provides real-world connections between marine science and human ecology through several field trips and sharing anecdotes from her professional work as Senior Director of Restoration and Administration for Restore America’s Estuaries. Dr. David Schulz, Professor & Chair of Communications, was a presenter at the National Communication Association Conference in Orlando in November. His session was titled “The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control Then and Now: Studies in Honor of Donovan J. Ochs.”
Alumni Class Notes 1970s
Jim and Debbie (Nelson) Wilbanks (’70 & ’71) will celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary in December. They live in Manhatten, Mont., where Jim is retired from over 33 years in commercial construction, and Debbie will be retiring soon. They enjoy three grown children and three grandsons. Alumnus and former Board Member Gary Jensen (’74) is the pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, LCMS, in Snohomish, Wash., where he has served for 30 years. He has also been actively involved in public debates. On Dec. 10 at Everett Community College, he debated an atheist on the question, “Does God Exist? Where Do the Facts of Science
and History and the Insights of Human Experience Point?” Lucretia (Rausch) Snider (’75) and her husband Ray live and farm the family farm just north of Abilene, Kan., and have been married for 34 years. Lucretia is a homemaker and substitute teacher. They have four sons and three grandchildren. Gary Wells (’76) and his wife, Melanie, live in Fairbanks, Alaska. He authored the book The Silver Horn of Robin Hood, and he writes a stream of posts on Facebook, telling stories from his time at the LBI Greenwood campus.
1980s In June 2012, Phil Larsen (’81) became senior pastor at the
United in Christ Lutheran Parish in Fertile and Beltrami, Minn. He and his wife Darcey are thoroughly enjoying their new community. The Larsens have three sons, two of whom are in college. Steve Holmberg ('81) and Cynthia (Morford) Holmberg ('82) married in 1988 after traveling together on the Family Ministry Team for LBI. After living first in Fairbanks, Alaska, they moved to the Seattle area in 1992. Cynthia just celebrated her 20-year anniversary with Microsoft and Steve is in his 20th year of teaching Elementary Music (K-4th grade) for the Bellevue School District. Steve has also been active as a worship director and children's music director for several Lutheran
churches in the area. David Francis ('85) and Heidi (Smith) Francis ('84) celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary this past July. They have two children: Laura, currently working on her M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., and Daniel, a senior at Whitworth University graduating in May with a degree in business. David is a manager in retail marketing for United Parcel Service and Heidi owns her own business, Spread the Word, LLC, specializing in web design and marketing consultation for nonprofits and church related entities. Paula Richardson Friesen (’83), her husband, Murray, and their two teenage daughters live in Papua New Guinea. They work at