Since Spring 2014 students in History 300 (Historical Materials) have been interviewing alumni, faculty and staff for the Lewis & Clark College Oral History Project. The interviews document and celebrate the rich history of the college through the collection of spoken memories. This is a joint venture of the History Department, Alumni and Parent Programs, and Watzek Library's Special Collections and Archives.
Brian Street works as a Foreign Service Officer in Belgium as the refugee liaison for the United States, specifically, he works in communications and public policy. Growing up, his father was also a Foreign Service Officer, so Brian moved around the United States and abroad many times before coming to college. When he first came to Lewis & Clark, he struggled to fit in with the popular culture because he had been abroad for so long but also did not feel at home with the international students. After time though he joined the track team, met his future wife, decided to major in International Affairs, and felt more at home in Oregon. After graduating in 2001, Brian got his law degree and worked on many two-to-three year Foreign Service Officer jobs.
2022-03-30
Maureen Bradley took part in the Lewis and Clark college study abroad program in the fall of 1980, when she lived and studied in Poland for a semester. She graduated that spring from Lewis and Clark with a bachelor's in English Literature. She then worked for several years as a consultant and campaign manager for the Oregon Health and Sciences University Foundation and moved to Scripps Health in San Diego in 2006. In 2010 she then worked at Legacy Health as the Senior Vice President and was promoted to President in 2015. Legacy Health is a non-profit health care system in Portland Oregon.
20220311
Dr Michael Holtzclaw (Lewis & Clark BA ‘88, The Ohio State University MA ‘93 &
PHD ‘97) was born in Grants Pass, Oregon and began at Lewis & Clark in 1984. Dr Holtzclaw
spent much of his time at Lewis and Clark overseas going on four trips for a total of six
trimesters overseas. These trips included Costa Rica, Hungary, The USSR and Indonesia. After
his graduation Dr. Holtzclaw went to The Ohio State University to pursue a Masters and PHd in
Geography. He has worked in higher education for over 27 years including time as the assistant
dean of admissions at Lewis and Clark. He worked as a professor at Central Oregon Community
College then spent time in leadership and administration in California community colleges. He
has also spent time on the Lewis & Clark board of Alumni and now serves as the Chancellor of
University of New Mexico-Los Alamos.
20221104
Noël Jackson grew up in Geneva, Illinois, and graduated from Lewis and Clark College
with a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs in 1989. Jackson was on the swim team all four
years at Lewis and Clark, and worked at the Rusty Nail cafe, as an RA, and as the wedding
coordinator at the chapel. In 1987, during her sophomore year, Jackson went on a Spring
semester overseas trip to the USSR, which is the topic of this interview. The trip was a cultural
exchange program and saw Jackson’s group take language courses, interact with Russian
students, and visit museums, monuments, and other heritage sites. The trip greatly affected
Jackson’s worldview and spurred a continuing interest in Russian culture, politics, and history;
this will be elaborated further in the interview. Today, Jackson lives in Portland with her
husband–who is also an alum of Lewis and Clark College–and works as a realtor.
20221104
William “Bill” James enrolled in Lewis & Clark College in 1970, as a biology major. As
his spring semester of his sophomore year approached, he was offered the opportunity to join the
school’s study abroad trip to Afghanistan. The program lasted from that spring to the summer
leading up to his junior year, in 1972. After Bill concluded his time at Lewis & Clark College, he
went on to study at Oregon State University. It was there that he studied genetics, and received
his masters degree, which led him to work for various poultry operations across the Western
United States. In 2010, Bill retired, and now resides in California’s Bay Area.
20221107
Erik Jensen is a graduate of Political Science from Lewis
and Clark. In 1979, he traveled to the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR). The following interview contains Mr. Jensen’s
memory of that trip to the USSR, including his visits to Kiev,
Odessa (Ukraine), St. Petersburg, Moscow (Russian Federation),
and Tbilisi (Georgia). After Lewis and Clark Jensen started Jensen
Strategies, a company that charges itself with helping organize
policy and development strategies for private and public
companies. Below is a transcript of the first twenty minutes of the
interview.
20221103
A.J. O'Connor graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 1987. He double majored in Political
Science and History. After working in an organization for some time, he returned to Lewis and
Clark to earn his Master’s degree in Public Administration. He was in the last class of Public
Administration. Mr. O’Connor is currently working as a Director Intelligent Transportation
Systems in Trimet, Portland, OR.
20220407
Andrew Futerman was born and raised in New Jersey with a brother and a sister. He was involved in music and theater growing up. He spent some time at a school on the East Coast, but nearly failed out. He then decided to join the U.S. Army and after training in Georgia and Colorado, shipped out to Iraq in late 2007. On his first tour, he was stationed near Baghdad, and fought in the Battle of Sadr City. An injury cut his first tour short, but he recovered and returned for a second tour. This time he worked as a sniper in Basra, southern Iraq. After returning to civilian life in 2011, he studied forestry and ecology at Oregon State University, and is now studying environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School.
20160301
Dwight Mears is 38 years old, and grew up in Corvallis, Oregon. He studied at West Point from 1997 to 2001, where he earned his B.A., and went on to become an attack helicopter pilot with the 25th Infantry Division. He deployed to Iraq in 2004, where he was seriously injured in a helicopter crash near Baghdad. After being transferred to military hospitals in Germany and Illinois, he returned to Corvallis to recover with his parents’ assistance while still on active duty. It was there that he began to have difficulties with the military healthcare system, which due to a filing error, initially refused to pay for his care and rehabilitation in Oregon. He later earned his M.A. in history from the University of North Carolina, taught at West Point, and returned to complete his doctorate. He is currently a student at Lewis & Clark’s Law School.
20160229
Christian Huettemeyer was born in Mission Viejo, California, and grew up in the Los Angeles area. Both of his parents are German immigrants and Christian is a first-generation American. His father worked as an engineer and his mother was a nurse. Christian joined the military at eighteen and attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating from West Point, Christian became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He completed tours in South Korea, at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Kosovo, and Iraq. Christian’s duties as a helicopter pilot included everything from troop transport to flying soldiers on missions. During his military service, Christian became interested in the law; he recognized that lawyers were involved in nearly every military decision. After serving for 20 years in the United States Army, Christian left military service and moved to Portland with his wife and daughter to attend Lewis & Clark Law School. Christian is currently in his second year of law school, having started in 2014. He is involved in moot court, a mock courtroom extracurricular activity, as well as the Food and Wine Law Society and a conservation group on campus. Christian and his family live in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
20160226
Soon after Alia Al-Hatlani was born in Houston, Texas, her and her family moved to Saudi
Arabia and lived there until she was six years old. They then moved to Bahrain, where Alia went
to elementary and middle school, and eventually emigrated back to Houston when Alia was
fourteen years old. Alia proceeded to attend high school in Houston and later decided to come to
Lewis & Clark College in 2010. She majored in Rhetoric and Media Studies and minored in
Studio Art, lived on campus for three and a half years and then commuted from her parents’
home in Portland for her second semester of senior year. While attending Lewis & Clark, Alia
was able to create lasting friendships as well as develop strong relationships with her professors,
such as Professor David Campion and Professor Bryan Sebok. She cites these connections as the
main reasons why she is extremely grateful for her experience at Lewis & Clark. After
graduating from Lewis & Clark in 2014, Alia spent another year in Portland concluding her
internship with Portlandia and then moved to Seattle, where she now works as a cake decorator
at a specialty cake shop and attends pastry school at the Seattle Culinary Academy.
2017-10-30
Maya McOmie grew up in Tokyo, Japan with a Japanese mother and an American father.
Maya was raised bilingually speaking Japanese and English. She lived in California for
one year when she was in sixth grade and frequently visited family on the West Coast as
a child. Maya attended international schools while living in Tokyo including Yokohama
International School for high school. Maya started her first semester at Lewis and Clark
College in the fall of 2008 and graduated in the spring of 2012 with a major in English
and a minor in art. She went abroad to Siena, Italy in the spring of 2011 where she
studied art and art history. Maya currently works and resides in Portland, Oregon.
2017-10-21
Shelley Zhao was born and raised in Nanjing, China. She attended a public high school there, and her mother encouraged her to apply to college abroad. She decided to attend Lewis & Clark because the school gave her the biggest scholarship. While at Lewis & Clark, she was part of the international student government, ISLC, where she helped organize the International Fair every year. She was an RA in Forest, and was also part of the Math Club. She graduated in 2010 with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. She attended UT Austin for Actuarial Mathematics. She then began working in that field in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to work and live today.
2010
Hongda Jiang was grew up in Beijing, China and immigrated to Reno, Nevada with his parents when he was ten years old in 1992. Although highly educated, his parents worked in the casinos with several other Chinese immigrants while Hongda went to school. After graduating from high school in Reno, Hongda decided to join the military in 2000. He was in the army for four years and served in Iraq and Kuwait. In 2004 he attended Lewis & Clark college on the G.I. bill. He majored in International Affairs and was involved in the Model U.N., the gaming club, Russian club, Chinese club and ISLC. During his time at Lewis & Clark he learned how to speak Russian and studied abroad in Vladivstok during his senior year. After graduating in 2008, he spent some time abroad in Russia and China before deciding to pursue a graduate degree in business and environmental science and sustainability at Ross University and the Erb Institute in Michigan. Hongda currently lives in Hillsboro, Oregon and works for Intel.
2017-10-18
Biljana Risteska Guchereau was born and raised in Ochrid, Macedonia. She moved to Portland,
Oregon, in 2000 to attend Wilson High School for her junior year, on a George Soros
Scholarship. She was accepted at Lewis & Clark without a high school diploma and enrolled in
her first year at Lewis & Clark in 200. She graduated in 2005 with a degree in math and
computer science. Biljana was commuter student, international student and was also active in the
international studies community. During her time at Lewis & Clark she worked as an intern for a
money management company and an actuarial consulting company. She now works as an
actuary for Milliman. She married Jason Gushra, another Lewis & Clark alum, and they live in
the Portland neighborhood of Burlingame just a few miles from Lewis & Clark Campus.
2017-10-16
David Campion was born in Madrid, Spain and moved to New York City when he was four years old. He attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and obtained a B.A. in History and English while maintaining his role in his university’s ROTC program. After he finished his undergraduate studies, he spent four years in the navy working as a managing engineer. During his time in the navy, Campion visited a variety of places ranging from Saudi Arabia to Nova Scotia. After completing his service, Campion attended the University of Virginia where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History with a focus on Indian and British studies. He is currently the department head of the Lewis & Clark College History department, where he has been teaching since 2002.
Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark faculty David Campion, conducted by Taylor Knudson on March 10, 2016. History Department, Spring Semester, 2016.
20160310
Viktoria Salnikova-Leeper was born in 1978 and grew up through the dissolution of the
USSR in Ulan Ude, Siberia, near today’s northern border of Mongolia. Her father was an
engineer at a local car part factory and her mother was a school teacher. Before her
undergraduate education at Lewis and Clark College, at age 15, Viktoria took part in an overseas
program to the U.S., where she lived in Hillsboro with a host family and graduated from Glencoe
high school. Before returning to live with her American host family in Portland, she studied
foreign languages and linguistics for a few years at Buryat State University in her hometown.
Upon visiting the annual Lewis and Clark international fair in the late 90s, she decided to apply
as a transfer to Lewis and Clark, and transferred at the age of 19. Graduating in 2000, she was an
economics major, part-time working student, and RA on the Russian floor of the Copeland
dorms. After LC, Viktoria started her career in healthcare analytics and went to grad school to
get her masters. She and her husband now have three children and live nearby in the greater
Portland area.
2017-10-31
Ruxy Lazarescu was born and raised in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania. Her father was a pediatric
psychiatrist and worked in orphanages. Ruxy volunteered as a translator at these orphanages and
during this time she became friends with a visiting psychiatric nurse from San Diego. At this
friend’s invitation, Ruxy visited San Diego when she was sixteen and decided then that she
wanted to come to America for college. After first spending a semester at a university in
Romania, she transferred to Lewis and Clark. She was a French/ International Affairs double
major which led her to study abroad in France. After graduating from Lewis and Clark she
moved to Washington D.C where she met her husband. She currently lives in Portland with her
husband and children.
2017-10-23
Michelle Chao was born in the mountains of Thailand and fled to a refugee camp in Laos
when she was one-year-old with her parents and two brothers. She immigrated to the United
States when she was three in 1981. Her and her family worked as laborers all throughout her
childhood while living in Portland. She went to Madison High School in Portland. She started
school at Lewis and Clark College in 1996 and graduated in 2000. She lived on campus for
her first year at school and after that moved in with her fiancées family. After school she
worked at US bank in the loans department for thirteen years, before going back to school at
Lewis and Clark Law School. She now works as a real estate agent with the goal giving back
to local communities because of all the people who helped her achieve her goals.
2017-10-20
Karolina Stepkowski was born in the town of Pułtusk, near Warsaw, Poland, in 1975. Her family
soon left for the Netherlands, where she lived until the age of sixteen, to escape the Communist
regime. The Stepkowskis then moved to the United States and spent six months in New York
before settling in Boise, Idaho and then finally Portland, Oregon. While in Boise, Ms.
Stepkowski attended Capital High School and Boise State University, and then transferred to
Lewis & Clark when her family moved to Portland. While attending Lewis & Clark as a
commuter student, Ms. Stepkowski contributed to the Lewis & Clark Literary Review and
majored in English. After graduating in December of 1998, Ms. Stepkowski began working for a
health insurance company, where she still works today. She also met her partner, Chris, in
Portland, and they are engaged to be married next year.
2017-10-28
MG Devereux attended Lewis & Clark College from 1990 to 1994. MG was a double major
in political science and history. The defining factor of his Lewis & Clark experience was
being a member of the Speech and Debate team. MG dedicated most of his time to
practicing and competing for the College’s Speech and Debate team and sculpted many
other realms of his life around the lessons he learned while a member of the team. MG went
on to pursue a master’s degree at Portland State University in Public Administration (MPA)
from 1997 to 1999. He now works as the Deputy Director at Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department. Before attending Lewis & Clark, MG had lived in Missouri, Idaho, Colorado,
and Connecticut. However, after coming to the Pacific Northwest, he quickly became fond
of Portland and is here to stay.
2017-03-03
Eric Taussig grew up near Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area. He
decided he wanted to go to a small, liberal arts college and chose Lewis & Clark
after visiting the Pacific Northwest. Eric entered Lewis & Clark with a strong
desire to travel and intended to major in history, english, or international affairs.
He decided on a history major after an influential study abroad trip to India during
his sophomore year. His participation in study abroad fostered a strong interest in
Asian history. Eric graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 1991 and went on to
graduate school at the University of Chicago. After studying Chinese and more
traveling to Asia, Eric attended the Wharton School of the University of
Philadelphia for business. Eric now owns and operates a global technology
services business, running at the international level. Eric currently resides in Lake
Oswego, Oregon with his family but travels often for business.
2017-03-09
Having relocated to different cities in the state throughout her childhood, Rebecka Rivers is an Oregon native. She has lived in Portland since 1996. She attended Lewis & Clark to continue her Chinese studies and to take advantage of the smaller size of the student body. Rebecka was a member of the Photo Club, Yearbook, Newsletter Organization, IA Symposium, Ski Team. Her time spent working as a DJ for KLC, which allowed her to discover new genres of music without spending money on vinyl. Rivers was an International Affairs major and a History minor during her time spent at Lewis & Clark. Although she was interested in taking business classes at the start of her freshman year, all of these classes were full; as a result, Rebecca took some International Affairs classes and never looked back. Additionally, she took a 400 level history class her freshman year, which got her interested in studying history long term. Rebecka studied abroad on two separate occasions: in Victoria for a Canadian Government class and at the University of Edinburgh in Great Britain.
2017-03-10
Kelly L. Burke was born in Riverside, California but moved to the Sacramento area
when she was really young. She currently resides in Southeast, Portland with her wife, Dolores,
and her two kids Avery and Evan. During her time at Lewis & Clark, Kelly helped start the first
Queer Student Union, which at the time was called “Homophiles.” Since being at Lewis & Clark, Kelly participated in a lawsuit against the state of Oregon to help fight for herself and
other domestic partnerships to have the same rights as heterosexual couples.
2019-10-23
Wendy Hilliker grew up in a rural area of Redmond, WA in a home with acreage and farm animals. She attended Lewis & Clark from 1986 to 1990 and graduated with a major in political science and a minor in Eastern European studies. Wendy was primarily attracted to Lewis & Clark for its overseas programs and ended up participating in the 1987 abroad program in Hungary during the fall of her sophomore year. Hilliker was a Resident Advisor in Stewart Hall during her junior year. After returning to Hungary through the Peace Corps immediately after college, Hilliker ended up contracting with Peace Corps and participating in additional programs in Ukraine and Albania in 1993-94. Hilliker currently lives in Seattle and works for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a grant manager. She is still in contact with friends from Lewis & Clark, including her freshman roommate and her fellow participants on her abroad program.
20151119
Van Hare grew up on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. His father was a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His mother owned a men’s clothing store in Honolulu. He went to high school at Kamehameha High School in Honolulu. Hare arrived at Lewis and Clark in 1986, and graduated in 1990, with a major in International Affairs and a minor in Political Science and Central European Studies. He studied abroad in Hungary in the fall of 1987. He met his wife Zoe at Lewis & Clark. She majored in English and went on to the Graduate School at Lewis & Clark; they have now been married for eleven years. Hare went to Humboldt State University for graduate school where he specialized in natural resources management. He currently lives in Multnomah Village, OR, and works for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
20151014
Keith Woodard graduated in 1989 with a degree in history. He started in 1968 at Lewis & Clark, took an extended leave of absence to pursue his athletic career at the professional level, and eventually returned to finish his degree. Keith is very interested in Northwest American history partly because his grandfather wrote a history on Native Americans in the Northwest. Although he was born in Washington, Keith moved to Portland when he was six and grew up in the area. Despite the fact that many colleges were eager to recruit him in high school, Keith ultimately choose Lewis & Clark for its small class size among other factors. At Lewis & Clark, he was a track and field athlete, and this passion for running helped to nurture his future career: coaching. Although he enjoyed both positions immensely, Keith remarked that he feels that he has had more success as a coach than as an athlete. Keith worked as a coach and later director of the Cross Country and Track & Field programs at Lewis & Clark, his alma mater, until he retired in 2019.
2017-03-02
Serena Cruz Walsh was born in Seattle, Washington, and moved to California temporarily before moving to Eugene, Oregon. She graduated from North Eugene High School and enrolled in Lewis & Clark in 1985. During her first term, she lived in Stewart before moving to Copeland, and during the first term of her senior year, she lived with Ray and Sheryl Warren prior to moving into an apartment with friends. Mrs. Cruz Walsh was involved in a variety of committees at Lewis & Clark, including acting as the SAAB vice-president during her freshman year, and participating in the SUACA. After graduating from Lewis & Clark with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and a minor in economics, Mrs. Cruz Walsh remained involved at Lewis & Clark, working as the dean of admissions in 1989. Mrs. Cruz Walsh attended graduate school and law school at the University of California, Berkeley as well as at Harvard. In 1997, she acted as the commissioner’s assistant in Portland, and later went on to become the Multnomah County Commissioner. Currently, Mrs. Cruz Walsh is working as executive director at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation.
20150309
Brendan Peterson grew up in San Francisco to a mother and father who were both writers. The influence of his parents would drive him to pursue writing himself by working for the Wallenberg High School newspaper while he was a student there, writing movie reviews, a hobby he continues to this day. After high school, he continued his academic career and attended Lewis & Clark College. Here, he pursued a communications major and was heavily involved with the KLC radio on campus. During his time at Lewis & Clark College, he participated in the study abroad trip to Hungary in the fall of 1987. He graduated in the year 1989 with a degree in communications, and continued his passion in radio for a little while after graduation. He eventually moved on to pursue his lifelong passion for writing, writing training books, as well as fiction on the side. He currently lives in his hometown of San Francisco with his family.
20151019
Sally Mudiamu was born and raised in Northeast Portland, Oregon to a working-class family. Though originally attending Reed College, Ms. Mudiamu transferred to L&C and graduated in 1989 with honors. Ms. Mudiamu was drawn to Lewis & Clark for its International Affairs Symposium and its abroad programs. She studied for two terms in the Unite Kingdom,and attended graduate school at the London School of Economics. Post-graduation, Sally worked as a research intern at the Library of Congress and even lived in Germany for a time after the Berlin Wall came down. Ms Mudiamu currently works at Portland State University as the director of Transnational Programs and as the associate director for the Office of International Partnerships.
2016-11-04
Matt Bolte was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He came to Lewis & Clark College to
play baseball and because it was a small, liberal arts college located in the city of
Portland. He majored in history and minored in Latin American Studies. Matt’s historical
research and senior thesis focused on the history of Native Americans in the Pacific
Northwest, on which he received guidance from his advisor and history professor Dr.
Stephen Dow Beckham, who is now retired. During Matt’s junior year, he studied abroad
for two trimesters in Écuador, which he described as an incredibly influential experience.
After working for various retail companies at locations in Denver, Boston, and New
York, Matt eventually took a job at Nike so his family could relocate to Portland. Matt
has worked as the Vice President of Global Merchandising for Nike since October, 2013.
2017-03-03
Nicole Aas-Rouxparis was born and raised in Algeria. She was an exchange student during her senior year of high school in Albany, Oregon, and when the Algerian War for Independence ended she moved to Portland to attend Portland State. There she got her undergraduate degree. In her final semester, she began working at Lewis and Clark as an adjunct French professor in 1989. She sees the creation of the Senegal study abroad program as her legacy at Lewis and Clark. She has two daughters and one son; two of her children attended LC while she was a professor. Although having officially retired three years ago in 2011, Nicole enjoys coming back to LC to teach one class a semester, attend basketball games, music and theatre performances, and to play tennis with other professors.
Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark alumnus Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, conducted by Francesca Sparaco on October 21, 2014. History Department, Fall Semester, 2014.
20141021
Sonia Highet, maiden-name Fredrickson, was born in Mt. Vernon, Washington. Her family encouraged her education and musical abilities throughout her childhood, and she chose to attend Lewis & Clark for its well-rounded academics. As a student Sonia served on the board of KLC radio and played on various sports teams. During her senior year, Sonia traveled to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland and Romania on a two-semester study abroad program. Upon returning to Lewis & Clark, she graduated with a communications degree in ’88. Sonia worked in radio broadcasting as a recent college graduate, and eventually transitioned into internet news sourcing and software manufacturing. She currently lives in Washington State with her family.
20151216
Peter Edwards was born in Seattle, Washington. His mother was a teacher and his father was a banker. He decided he wanted to go to a small liberal arts college, so he chose to go to Lewis and Clark College. He originallythought he was going to be a Business major, but quickly decided that he would rather be an International Affairs major. In his junior year he decided to be a History major as well. While at Lewis and Clark, Mr. Edwards was active in the rowing club, going on to coach the team after he graduated in 1988. He also wrote an opinion column for the Pioneer Log his senior year. After graduation, Peter decided he wanted to go to graduate school to become a professor. He worked for a couple of years before applying, and then decided to become a teacher instead. He currently teaches History and Social Studies at Beaverton High School. He has a wife and two children, and he still volunteers with local rowing clubs.
2017-02-27
Brent Soo Hoo was raised in Arizone and Hawaii before coming to Lewis & Clark in 1982. Going into college, his mother encouraged him to study what he loved, so Brent decided to pursue a double major in history and Sociology/Anthropology. He did two thesehis senior year, one on British naval policies during the interwar period, while the other was on heavy metal music. During his time at college he worked extensively in the library. His proudest accomplishment was his senior year when he manned the 11pm-8am shift, making sure that students ad access to Watzek before it became a 24-hour library. After college, he spent twenty years working at a research company until starting his own business, Soo hoo Inc.
2016-10-20
Ben Scully grew up in New Jersey and London, England. He applied to Lewis & Clark at
the suggestion of his father. His experience living abroad, and travels with his parents sparked
an interest in other cultures early in life, and study abroad was a defining feature of his Lewis &
Clark experience. In his first year of college, Ben participated in a Lewis & Clark semester
program in Russia. As a Junior, he spent a year in Egypt, one semester through a program
associated with Lewis & Clark, and the second at the American University in Cairo. Ben
graduated in 1986 with a degree in History and a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. He currently
works for Converse at their offices in Zhongshan, China.
2017-03-09
Daena Goldsmith grew up in Redmond, OR. Her father was a lineman for the power
company and her mother worked with the school district. After being recruited to the Lewis &
Clark debate team in 1982, Daena graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in
Communication. She met her husband, Michael Alberty, through speech and debate, and Daena
got both her masters and doctorate at the University of Washington. Daena specializes in inter-
personal communication is currently a professor here at Lewis & Clark in the Rhetoric & Media
studies department. Her current research focuses on the mothering of autistic children, which
introduced her to the neurodiversity movement, for which she is now a proud advocate. She
currently lives in Tualatin with her husband, Michael, and their son Graehm.
2018-10-05
Mike Teskey was born and raised in Beaverton, Oregon. His mother emigrated from
Germany, and Mike grew up speaking German as his first language. Mike graduated
from Lewis & Clark in 1985 with degree in History and German, as well as a teaching
certificate in Secondary Education. During his junior year, Mike studied abroad in
Munich and travelled to parts of West and East Germany. Following graduation, Mike
worked at Beaverton Public Schools before moving to Boston to work for an
international publishing company and pursue his Master’s in History. He served as the
Alumni Director at Lewis & Clark from 1997 to 2001 before moving to Reed College to
work as Alumni Director. He continues to work there today and manages to integrate his
loves of history, education, and travel.
2017-03-07
John Moshofsky was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, within walking distance from the University of Oregon. John eventualy left Eugene to to attend Lewis & Clark, where he studied history and education, skills he would go on to utilize in his current career as a seventh grade Social Studies teacher. he also studied abroad in the Soviet Union while studying at Lewis & Clark.
2016-11-01
Jim Frank is a financial advisor lviing in the Portland area with a buiness in Lake Oswego. He began his career as a financial advisor in 1997 with Smith Barney, and moved to his current employment in 2009. He attended Lewis & Clark College from 1981-1985 where he majored in history and 'minored' in business administration. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on campus, ran the school forum series, and studied abroad in Scotland for two quarters.
2016-10-20
2017-11-18
Byron Monohon grew up in Washington, attending high school in Tacoma before coming
to Lewis and Clark. Encouraged by his family to attend a school in the Pacific Northwest, both
he and his sister attended Lewis and Clark at the same time. Originally a music major, Byron
went through several changes in major before settling on history. During his time at Lewis and
Clark he played in the jazz and wind ensembles and took classes in Music, Communications, and
English as well as History. After graduating in 1984, Byron did a variety of community service
work, including several years as a director for the Pacific County museum. He later returned to
school and received a degree in pulp and paper engineering from the University of Washington
and went to work in the paper industry. He has since moved to Forks, Washington, where he
became an active member of the community and was elected mayor.
2017-03-09
Brian Lindstrom was born in Portland, Oregon in 1961 and graduated from Lewis & Clark as a
communications major in 1984. Lindstrom attended the University of Oregon for his freshman year of college and transferred to Rutgers University for his sophomore year. Deciding he wanted a more personalized education, Lindstrom transferred to Lewis & Clark in 1981 and began his education in media studies and filmmaking under professor Stuart Kaplan. He received his BA in communications in 1984 and his MFA in screenwriting and film directing from Columbia University in 1989. Since then, Lindstrom has made many films surrounding themes of social justice centered in Portland, such as Finding Normal (2007), Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse (2013), and Mothering Inside (2015). Lindstrom works and lives in Portland with his wife, Cheryl Strayed, and their two children.
2018-10-04
Bettina Chew was born in Portland, Oregon in 1928. She began attending Lewis & Clark College in 1945 and attended for two years before dropping out to take a course in medical tech at a local hospital. During those two years, she worked to pay for her schooling and was part of a sophomore organization called Sacagawea, headed by Morgan Odell’s wife. She married Weldon Gedrose, a Lewis & Clark student himself, soon after becoming a medical tech. Upon his death, she married Norman Chew. During the course of these two marriages, she had four children, lived in Canada for a while, and then in Indianapolis, before coming back to Oregon. She returned to Lewis & Clark after the death of her second husband and completed her degree in international affairs, which allowed her to volunteer at the World Affairs Council after graduation.
20150303
Harold Schleef taught economics at Lewis & Clark College from 1983 to 2013. He grew up in the state of Illinois. After receiving a bachelor’s degree, he was drafted into the army and served in the Panama Canal Zone during the Vietnam War. After his service, he completed his master’s degree, and then a Ph.D. His first teaching position was at the University of Oregon. He came to Lewis & Clark as a member of the Business program, which was then replaced by the Economics department. During his time at Lewis & Clark he served as Dean of the Social Sciences Division in addition to his faculty role. In his retirement, he is currently serving as the school board president of the Portland Lutheran School.
Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark Professor Harold Schleef, conducted by Jacob Fong-Gurzinsky on October 28, 2014. History Department, Fall Semester, 2014.
20141028
Scott Wolff grew up in SE Portland, Oregon. Mr. Wolff's father was a professor of Elementary Education at Lewis & Clark College, influencing Scott's own decision to attend the school in the years between 1978-82, except for one year in which he attended the University of Oregon (1979-1980). In the second semester of his freshman year, Mr. Wolff took Historical Materials with Stephen Dow Beckham, which eventually led him to become a history major. While at Lewis & Clark, Mr. Wolff was involved with the Pioneer Log newspaper, serving as the editor-in-chief for his senior year, and was also a member of KLC radio. After graduating, he briefly worked at a newspaper before attending art school in San Francisco, in order to pursue his interests in graphic design. He now works in corporate marketing, living in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with his wife Concetta, a fellow L&C alum that he met during his time here.
2016-10-27
Edgar Reynolds grew up in Oakland, California, and he attended his first two years of higher education at Whittier College. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin for his junior and senior years, as a theatre major. He got his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, though before that he worked as a professor at Stanford. There he taught through the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s. After receiving his Ph.D., he taught at a number of universities, including the University of Colorado, Northern Arizona University and Oregon State. In 1980 he came to Lewis & Clark to teach Theatre Studies. He stayed for fifteen years, before retiring in 1995. Since retiring, he has directed plays in Vietnam and appeared on television series such as Leverage and Grimm. Professor Reynolds described his time at L&C as the “crown of his career,” and he still keeps in contact with many of his former students.
Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark Professor Edgar Reynolds, conducted by Julia Hernandez on October 15, 2014. History Department, Fall Semester, 2014.
20141015
Margaret Butler was born, grew up and continues to reside in Portland, OR.
Margaret attended Franklin High School in Portland and entered Lewis & Clark in
the fall of 1975 with her twin sister Gillian. Margaret was a history major and graduated
with the class of 1980. She traveled to Kenya as part of LC’s overseas program in 1978
and returned to the United States wanting to help build African socialism. During a
year off from college after her sophomore year, Margaret started work as a switchboard
operator for the Multnomah County Library, where she joined the staff’s unionization
campaign. Her job at the library soon led to employment with Pacific Northwest Bell and
then the Communication Workers of America, as labor organizing grew into a career.
Margaret helped build Portland Jobs with Justice (JWJ), which has been influential in
struggles for workers’ justice, and served as JWJ’s executive director for sixteen years
before stepping down in 2012. In 2015 she was hired as executive director of the
American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Oregon. Margaret is currently
trying to figure out what’s next for herself and is involved with various projects
documenting the history of Portland Jobs with Justice.
2018-10-08
Megan McMorran was born in Boulder, Colorado in 1953. Her mother was a political activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Her father served in the US Navy during the Korean War. She eventually left Colorado to study at Lewis & Clark College at the age of eighteen. There, she majored in history and went abroad to France for the spring and fall of '78 where she researched various Basque uprisings in Spain that were going on at the time. She also interned at several correctional facilities in Oregon until she graduated from L&C in 1979. Post-graduation, she worked at Willamette Week as an editor, then did public relations for the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. She then proceeded to work for a nonprofit called Portland Arts and Lectures for fifteen year until finally landing in her current position as the director of the Action Center at Mercy Corps outreach in downtown Portland, which she's held since 2009.
2016-11-01
Reed Elwyn was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, eventually leaving to attend Lewis & Clark College. Elwyn studied abroad in Egypt, running into various "adventures" including: hepatitis, a major bus crash on the Suez Canal, a trip to Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall in the height of Soviet Rule. Elwyn was a history major at L&C who took historical Materials. Post-grad, he taught mathematics at the middle and high school levels.
2016-11-03