51�Թ�

Mikaila Way ’12 is working to help Indigenous Peoples reclaim, reestablish and reconnect the food systems integral to their cultures, health and ways of life. It's all part of her job as the first Indigenous peoples’ liaison for North America with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.

There’s no telling where an art degree will take you. Just ask Heidi Nielsen ’96.

Cameron Broome MAT '20 had a calling to be a teacher; to help, educate, support and encourage others as he had done throughout his whole life. 

When he attended Pacific, Jeremie Murfin didn’t necessarily see himself as an entrepreneur. First he was a teacher, but as opportunities emerged, he seized them, and then persevered through various business challenges and setbacks. He now finds himself as part owner of a Hillsboro, Ore.,-based music business that has thrived even during a pandemic.

Joshua Pearl' 19 learned about the therapeutics of music in the hardest possible way: He was afflicted with an autoimmune disease that caused him severe pain. He turned to the piano as a form of treatment, and it helped lessen the need for painkillers he had been prescribed. Recognizing that music could do for others what it did for him, Pearl became a music therapist.

“I wanted to be competitive in the market and earn that edge that others might not want to pursue,” said Zade Al-Khatatbeh MBA '18. He saw earning an MBA as a way to help develop the skills needed to advance a career goal of finance or consulting management.

A kindergarten teacher's extra effort set Lillian Wolfe '20, MEd '22 on the path to teaching.

Andy Haugen ’11, MAT ’13 loves seeing his students’ “ah-ha” moments. “You always get a different group of students every year, and you never know what their background or thought processes are,” he said. “It’s always fresh, it’s always unique.” Haugen is a history teacher at Valley Catholic High School, a private school in Beaverton, Ore., where he also is the school librarian.

A first-generation college student, Garcia Angeles started his life in a farming community in Mexico. At Pacific, he became a teacher who would support other English language learners like him.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jessie Wachter ’03 suddenly found herself without a job for the first time in nearly two decades. She has used this break in her career to launch a small business. 

A team led by 51�Թ� alumna Ali Osbrink ’19 and including Pacific Biology Associate Professor Christopher Templeton is having a paper on songbird cognition published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a prestigious UK-based scientific journal. 

51�Թ� is well represented in the current Oregon legislative session, thanks to the first-time elections of a Republican senator and a Democratic representative.