Archive: stories

Jenifer Walke, assistant professor of biology, has been researching the microbes (the bacteria and fungi) associated with honey bees and the impact they have on their health. Walke, a new faculty member to Eastern Washington University, has been working with the local beekeeping community, who provided samples for her research. Together, they have been working…

Eastern Washington University’s role as the primary tenant in the innovative Catalyst building will result in a $5 million gift from the two companies behind the innovative project in Spokane’s University District. The planned Catalyst building is funded by Avista Development and South Landing Building A, LLC, which includes two long-time McKinstry executives. As part of…

A by-no-means-complete guide to Eastern alumni working to make every hour happy. This story has been fermenting for a while. We scoured and searched to compile a list of EWU alums paying the bills by making our beer.

For nearly four years, Eastern Washington University graduate students have been working side-by-side with faculty at the University Hearing and Speech Clinic, learning how to help restore the voices of those with Parkinson’s disease. Students in the communication sciences and disorders (CMSD) program and faculty work with patients in the LOUD Crowd group, a maintenance therapy…

Being inducted into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame is a tremendous honor. Former Eastern volleyball coach and current Senior Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator Pam Parks is one of just a handful of former Eagles to achieve this claim to fame, and only the third to be honored as a coach. She’s in…

I’ve always wanted to write a celebrity interview. You know, the kind that appears in Harper’s Bazaar: “On a clear Saturday afternoon, Sandra Bullock, dressed in a bright pink sundress, met me in the lobby of a Beverly Hills hotel. She’s as witty and self-mocking as a fan might expect.” I finally got my chance…

It would be easy to assume that baritone Thomas Hampson has moved on from his eastern Washington roots. The Eastern alumnus doesn’t need anyone new to mention that he’s distinctly gifted, naturally expressive, charismatic or good-looking (opera buffs call him “Thomas Handsome”). Audiences love him. Hampson (’92 BA government) packs opera houses on both sides…

Shawn Vestal ’08, ’05, MFA creative writing, BA interdisciplinary studies, won the Washington State Book Award for fiction for his debut novel, Daredevils (Penguin Press, 2016). The award, given by the Washington Center for the Book, honors “literary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality.” Winners were announced in Seattle in October. Vestal’s novel, set in the 1970s, tells…

Shannon Kellam is full-time engineering student at EWU, president of the Rocketry Club, and a single mother to a fifth- and third-grader. As if she weren’t busy enough, Kellam also helped to build a 3D-printed prosthetic arm for Spokane Public Schools fifth-grader Isaiah Strom. A team from EWU’s Engineering Department, which included Kellam, engineering tech Frank De…

Last week, a team from EWU’s Engineering Department presented a 3-D-printed prosthetic arm to a fifth-grader at Spokane Public Schools. Rob Gerlick, PhD and assistant professor of mechanical engineering, engineering tech Frank De Abreu and engineering student Shannon Kellam visited Isaiah Strom’s classroom last Wednesday to custom fit his device and teach him how to use…