Lewis & Clark College

After finishing his Portland-area service in the armed forces, Sam Macon toured colleges around Oregon before eventually settling on Lewis & Clark. He based his decision on the beauty of the campus, enthusiasm expressed by the school’s football coach, and a negative experience while taking the SAT at University of South Carolina. Macon lived on campus for a total of three and a half years on the third floor of Platt Hall. He is a four year letterman and an avid fan of the Pioneer athletic program. Macon studied Health and Physical education with a minor in Speech. During his time at Lewis & Clark he met his wife, to whom he has remained married. As one of the few African-American students at the time, Macon fondly remembers Lewis & Clark as a prejudice-free haven.

Oral history interview of Lewis & Clark alumnus Sam Macon, conducted by Lucas Trimble on April 14, 2014. History Department, Spring Semester, 2014.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deborah Sue Schallert grew up in Littleton, Colorado, the daughter of a businessman and a
registered nurse. After attending Arizona State University for her first semester, she transferred
to Lewis & Clark, where she took mostly psychology and biology classes and worked as a
Resident Advisor.. She graduated in spring of 1975, and then moved to Chicago to work at the
National Runaway Hotline. She returned to Lewis & Clark a few months later to become the
Resident Director of Akin Hall, which was then all-female. Deborah went on to work for Oregon
Parks and Recreation and Portland General Electric, and she now sits on Oregon’s State
Advisory Committee for Historical Preservation. She currently lives in Portland with her
husband Michael, the brother of one of her fellow Resident Directors.

2019-10-10

Margaret “Margi” Brown was born in Portland, Oregon, and was raised in a Presbyterian family
in Lebanon, Oregon, until they moved to Laguna Beach, California, where she attended high
school. In Lebanon and Laguna, her father kept an optometry practice, and her mother was his
office manager, having gotten only a little bit of higher education before marrying. After
returning to Portland in 1960 to attend Lewis & Clark College as an undergraduate, Margi
graduated with the class of 1964 with a degree in elementary education. At Lewis & Clark,
Margi was active in her sorority and in the college’s theater department in her senior year, even
putting on a play in the city’s Rose Festival. She returned to Laguna immediately after
graduating, where she met her husband Don Brown, who was a parole officer for the California
Youth Authority. They had two daughters, born in 1968 and 1970. In 1971, their new family
picked up and moved back to Portland. There, Margi began to get involved in the desegregation
of Portland public schools through the Desegregation Monitoring Advising Committee (DMAC)
as her daughters were entering middle school in the early 1980s. She has since been extremely
active in the Presbyterian church for twenty-five years of her working life, and is also an active
member of the Democratic Party. Margi and Don now live in Northwest Portland. Their two
daughters are grown, and living in Portland and Florida respectively.

2019-10-01

Paul Barker was born in Toledo, Oregon, and grew up on the Oregon Coast in a town called Newport. His father was a doctor, while his mother was heavily involved in volunteer work in their local community, which included being an active member of the county school board. Paul became interested in the Middle East as a young adult, and cultivated this interest during his time at Lewis & Clark when he took part in the college’s first overseas trip to Iran in 1968. After graduating from Lewis & Clark in 1971, Paul spent several decades in international aid organizations throughout the Middle East and Africa including: the Peace Corps Iran, Israel, the Westbank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. He also spent several years working with the organization CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) in Ethiopia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Palestine, establishing various programs aimed at the betterment of life for the populations the organization served. Although now retired, Paul remains an active participant in the Peace Corps Iran Association Advocacy Bulletin as its editor, in order to promote awareness amongst former volunteers about issues affecting the country.

2019-02-19

David Lee Harris Sr. is a native Oregonian, born just outside of Portland in Beaverton,
Oregon. He attended grade school and high school in Beaverton and completed two years of
community college before transferring to Lewis & Clark College for his junior and senior years,
between nineteen seventy-two and nineteen seventy-four. He was a college student toward the
end of the Vietnam War, but was able to escape the draft using a full-time student exemption.
During his time at Lewis & Clark college he majored in business, earning a degree from the
business school and going on to work at a local Fortune 500 company recommended to him by a
professor. Following his time at said company, he went to work at his father’s petroleum
distribution company, which sparked his interest in environmental activist endeavors, leading
him to craft policies incentivizing both public and private organizations to reassess their own
environmental practices.

2018-10-26

Alan Masden was born in Valdosta, GA, and moved often due to his father’s job
as a fighter pilot and flight trainer for the United States Air Force, mostly living in
California. Masden attended Lewis & Clark College from the fall of 1964 until the spring
of 1969, when he graduated with a BA in History. At a time rife with student protest
movements against the Vietnam War, Alan describes himself as an “anarchist” who had a
lot of respect for those in service in Vietnam, and who frequently found error in the ways
of the anti-war movement that defined his college years. After his graduation, Alan got
his Masters Degree in Counseling from Western Kentucky in 1974, the same college that
his father had attended. Inspired by his own lifelong struggles with Attention Deficit
Disorder and other chronic psychoses, Alan pursued a career in social work at the urging
of those around him. After working as a supervisor for various hospitals in the Pacific
Northwest for many years, he retired, and today lives with his wife, Becky, in Vancouver,
WA. He still meets with three friends from Lewis & Clark weekly to have coffee and
argue together.

2018-10-12

Jimmy Brown was born in Portland, Oregon. Since then, Jimmy has lived,
studied, and worked in many different communities throughout the Portland area.
He grew up in northeast Portland where—in 1970—approximately ninety percent
of Portland’s African American population lived. Jimmy began school at Lewis &
Clark college in 1970, and graduated from there in 1974 with a degree in
psychology. At Lewis & Clark he was one of very few African American students,
a fact that greatly impacted his experience on campus and in classes.
Throughout his time at Lewis & Clark Jimmy followed his passion for the social
services and participated in the University Year for Action program during his
junior and senior years. After college, Jimmy chose to stay in Portland and he
continued his work in the social services. He is married to Kathleen Brown who
was also a student at Lewis & Clark college.

2018-10-10

Ed Curtis is a Portland native and grew up in the Northeast section of the city. Neither of
his parents attended college. His mother was a secretary for a local school district, and his
father was a carpenter and later a weights and measures Inspector for the State of Oregon.
Ed attended Lewis & Clark starting in 1969 and graduated in 1973. He was involved in
forensic debate in his time there, as well as enjoying employment as an RA in Juniper. He
described his most significant courses as his Communications (now Rhetoric and Media
Studies) and German classes. In his senior year, he was encouraged by one of the German
faculty members, Angela Young, to participate in the inaugural Year in Munich program.
Around fifteen Lewis & Clark students, as well as students from other various
institutions, attended the program. It ran from August 1972 to July 1973. On January
25th, 1973, a protest organized by students at Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen
against the Bavarian Higher Education Law took place in the main square of the
University, the Geschweister-Scholl-Platz. Ed and other Lewis & Clark students were
explicitly told not to participate, in fear that Lewis & Clark trustees would defund the
new study abroad program. After the protest, classes on the LMU campus were canceled
for a week. Ed had many insightful comments about the German education system, the
history that the protest drew on, and German militarization. After he graduated from
Lewis & Clark, Ed stayed in the Portland area, with his wife, who was also a Lewis &
Clark alumna. He was a high school teacher for 37 years.

2018-10-09

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

Susanne Carlson was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon. She
lived in Lake Oswego until she left home for Willamette University where she entered a pre-med
program. Though it was not common during the 1960s, Susanne’s parents encouraged her to
pursue an education and a professional career. Though misogynistic conceptions of women’s
ability barred her from entering medical school, Susanne instead enrolled in Lewis and Clark
College where she earned a Master's degree in health, physical, education, and biology in 1971.
During her time at Lewis and Clark, Susanne participated in the women’s movement, fighting for
the right to abortion, birth control, and economic equality. Susanne also stood against the United
State’s war in Vietnam and even volunteered for the Red Cross at anti-war protests. Susanne is
currently a healthcare practitioner in Portland, Oregon and is married to Bruce Odekirk, an
applied physicist. Susanne and Bruce have five children together; two biological and three
adopted. To this day, Susanne remains passionate about her activism and considers it just as
relevant today as it was during the 1960s and 1970s.

2018-10-08

Ann Stuller, formerly Ann Baudin, was born and raised in Portland, OR, and lives
in the area to this day. She grew up visiting the Lewis and Clark campus for church
picnics and fell in love with the college. She started going to school here in 1957 and
graduated in 1961 with a Foreign Languages degree, with a focus in French. She chose to
continue her education at Lewis and Clark and received a Masters Degree from the
graduate school in education, specifically teaching Foreign Languages. She married Ed
Stuller in 1967 and became the mother of his two daughters. In the mid-1990s, she
became involved in disability activism regarding the closing of the Fairview Training
Center, a state-run facility for people with disabilities, where her elder daughter, Mary,
was housed. During the process of closing Fairview, she continued to be active in the
disabled community, serving on a committee to ensure quality control for people leaving
Fairview, and seeing the benefits and drawbacks of new ideologies coming to the
forefront of care for the mentally-handicapped. She and Ed now live in King City, OR.

2018-10-08

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

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

Susan G. Reese was raised in White Salmon, WA. Valedictorian of her high school class, she
chose Lewis & Clark for its beautiful campus, academic rigor, and location in Portland, OR. As a
student here, she was heavily involved on campus through both employment and her work with
student government. Notably, she participated in a takeover of President John Howard’s office in
the Manor House to protest the US involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as some of
President Howard’s actions on campus. She was also an active member of the PPAC and the
NAACP in Portland. After graduating from Lewis & Clark in 1974, Susan pursued a number of
vocations before returning to school to get her Masters in English from Portland State University
and her MFA in Poetry from Pacific University. She teaches in the English department at PSU
and remains politically active. She lives in West Linn, OR.

2018-03-22

Randel Webb was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He grew up primarily in Long Beach
California, but moved around frequently because his father was in the Marine Corps. After high
school Randel joined the National Guard and he completed his six-year obligation to the Guard
in 1969. Following his time with the Guard, Randel attended Mt. Angel College in Oregon,
where he met his wife, Jan. However, Randel left Mt. Angel for his last year and went to Lewis
& Clark College because Mt. Angel was losing its accreditation. Randel studied music at Mt.
Angel and Lewis & Clark. He graduated from Lewis & Clark in April, 1973. Randel was
recruited to the Marine Corps while at Lewis & Clark, and he served in the Marine Corps from
1972 to 1993. He continued to serve as a US Marine Corps civilian from 1993 to 2014. While he
was never deployed, he was involved in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the war in
Afghanistan. He and his family lived in many beautiful coastal locations around the world and
eventually settled in Quantico, Virginia. He and Jan are still happily married.

2018-03-20

Bryan Harold Laycoe was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1942 and is the son of famous
hockey player Hal Laycoe. After frequently moving between cities in Canada and the United
States, Mr. Laycoe eventually settled in Portland and attended Cleveland High School. Upon
graduation, Mr. Laycoe enrolled at Lewis & Clark College for track and graduated in 1968
following a pre-med pathway. After Lewis & Clark, Mr. Laycoe studied medicine at Oregon
Medical School and had a doctoral internship at the University of Oregon. In 1973, Mr. Laycoe
volunteered to serve in the United States Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor for two years.
Upon completion of the Vietnam War, Mr. Laycoe worked as a practicing orthopedic surgeon for
40 years. For the past ten years, Mr. Laycoe has been involved with the American Legion, an
organization that serves veterans and contributes to the community. Today he and his wife raise
show horses in Washington.

2018-03-19

Although he started his college career at Portland State University, John Newton Hickox transferred to Lewis and Clark College in the August of 1962 amidst of the Vietnam War. During his initial year as a sophomore on campus, John declared as an economics major and served as the president of the business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi. His time on campus connected him with Bob Pamplin Jr,who motivated John into a committed effort to avoid the war time draft. After his graduation in 1965, John Hickox gradually became more politically active,and would go on to serve as a chaplain in the Portland Veteran Affairs office. He then committed himself to humanitarian work abroad via religious seminary studies in 1994.

2018-03-18

Jerry A Miller was born in Portland, Oregon in 1946 and was raised in The Dalles, Oregon. He
enrolled at Lewis & Clark in 1964 and graduated summa cum laude in May of 1968 with a
double major in math and physics. He was involved in demonstrations against the Vietnam War
in front of the Manor House during his time at Lewis & Clark. After he graduated, Mr. Miller
served in NOAA Corps for three years as an officer on the ship Oceanographer (OSS 01). After
his service, he earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
He worked for General Electric for thirty-four years performing startup tests in nuclear power
plants and later working with company mergers and acquisitions. Jerry is now retired and lives in
Snohomish, Washington. He enjoys traveling overseas.

2018-03-14

Christopher E. Jay was born and raised in Milton-Freewater, OR in the Walla Walla Valley only
7 miles from Walla Walla, WA. His parents were farmers and craftsmen, and he is one of four
boys. He attended Lewis and Clark from 1968-1972 and graduated with a degree in Political
Science. He was very active in student government and ran and won student senator in the spring
of 1971 He was in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) for two years, studied in
Washington D.C., and was a Resident Advisor (RA) during his time at Lewis & Clark. He has
been married for the past 37 years to Mardra M. Jay, and has three kids and three grandkids.

2018-03-09

David Sellers grew up all over the continental United States as his father often moved for better business opportunities. He attended Lewis and Clark College beginning in 1951 for three years until he was drafted into the Army in 1954. After basic training he was assigned to be a clerk-typist, and because of his ability to speak French, was assigned a position in Europe instead of in Korea or Japan. He was assigned to a position in Germany, where he spent the majority of his two years of service in the army. After being discharged he returned to Lewis and Clark to receive his degree in Psychology in 1957. He then worked with the Central Intelligence Agency until his retirement. He now lives in Whidbey Island, Washington.

2018-03-09

Fred Viehe was born in Phoenix, Arizona to a mother who was a violinist and father who
was a self-taught electrical engineer who was never employed in that capacity. In Los
Angeles his father worked as an Inspector for the LA Department of Public Works. He
grew up in Los Angeles and volunteered for the Vietnam War in 1965, serving as a
paratrooper in the 82 nd Airborne Division, and applied to Lewis and Clark College in
1967 when he finished in the army. Upon his acceptance, he traveled to Portland with his
wife, Dianne, and began taking History and Religious Studies courses. While still
attending school, he became increasingly involved in campaigns for both presidential and
city council elections and participated in both the Lewis and Clark and Portland
Moratoriums for the Vietnam War. He graduated as a History major in 1971 and now
works as a professor of American Urban History at Youngstown State University.

2018-03-07

"Violet Watson was born in Honolulu, HI during the Second World War. Violet’s father was from
Portland, OR and her mother was of Japanese descent but native to Hawaii. Violet grew up on
multiple military bases, attending a total of nine schools before graduating from high school,
though her family often relocated back to Honolulu. Her father served in WWII and the Korean
War, and his military career was a large influence on Violet’s life. She came to the mainland to
leave Hawaii permanently, and enrolled at Lewis & Clark to be close to her father’s family. In the
“little pink bubble,” Violet was a Theatre and Art double major, taking six years to complete her
Bachelor’s. Often in a scramble to pay tuition at Lewis & Clark, she worked up to three jobs at
once, while also performing in Theatre Department productions and being active in Theta Kappa,
a service sorority she belonged to. Shortly after graduation, Violet married a Lewis & Clark
graduate, and they attended the University of Oregon to pursue Master’s Degrees in theatre. Due
to an “uninformed” marriage, the two divorced and returned to Portland. Violet, to help pay her
student loans and continue her education, began working at Marshall High School while also
continuing her Master’s in theatre at Lewis & Clark. Obtaining her degree in 1972, she continued
teaching at Marshall before taking a year off. Violet then began teaching at Barlow High School
in Gresham, where she would teach theatre for twenty-one years. Bringing a progressive
perspective into a conservative community, Violet directed thought-provoking shows in a
sometimes hostile environment. After retiring, she tried her hand at small-scale farming in Sandy,
which did not work out. Now, she is active in the theatre community in Oregon, often judging
competitions and seeing performances of students she taught twenty years before."

2018-03-06

Clifford Jenne was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1925 where he lived with his mother, father, and
sister. He worked for the railroad company in Portland as an engine operator before joining the
military at 18. After completing basic training at Aberdeen, Maryland and briefly working in a
military chemical plant in San Francisco, he participated in World War Two in the Pacific
theatre. He arrived in Japan after the surrender, and was present for the American occupation
following the war. After returning home and finishing high school, he began studying at Lewis
and Clark in 1946. During his time at Lewis and Clark, he met his wife at a Presbyterian youth
group in Portland. He graduated in three years with a business degree and began working for the
Oregonian as a photo developer. After a short time there, he moved with his family to
Willamina, OR to work for the Union Oil Company, which would be his primary career for the
remainder of his adulthood. During his retirement, Jenne worked for Trimet training future
drivers. He is now fully retired in Portland, OR.

2018-03-03

Frances Hart was born in Long Beach, California in 1954 and raised in Orange County. At 13,
her grandparents took her on a trip through Europe and the Middle East. They reached Cairo
only days before the outbreak of the Six-Day War. Frances was still abroad when war was
officially declared. The summer going into her Senior year of high school, she went on a student
exchange program to Afghanistan, where she studied the Dari language. She came to Lewis and
Clark in 1972 and canvassed for presidential candidate George McGovern.. She did not graduate
from Lewis and Clark because an Anthropology major was never offered, so she transferred to
UC Santa Cruz and graduated in 1977. Frances now lives in Portland, Oregon.

2018-02-27

2017-11-18

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

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

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

Diane Norwood-Watson was born in Chester, Chestershire, England in 1956, and attended a
private grade school, followed by an all-girls high school where she participated in a German
Exchange Program. She and her parents immigrated to the U.S. in September 1974. Upon
moving to the U.S., Diane immediately started her freshman year at Lewis & Clark College.
Diane majored in German, took education classes, and was always involved in the international
student scene during her time at Lewis & Clark. She participated in Lewis & Clark’s Munich
Study Abroad program during her sophomore year. Diane got her Master of Arts in Teaching at
the Lewis & Clark Graduate School in 1980, and taught German for five years in Oregon before
moving to Germany and staying there for forty years. When she moved back to Portland in 2011,
she got married, and has since been taking classes in interior design. She got her American
citizenship in August 2017. Diane continues to stay in touch with many international student
friends from places such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

2017-10-25

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

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

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

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

John Tess graduated in 1977 with a degree in History and went on to found his own historic preservation consulting firm. John transferred from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukie after his sophomore year to Lewis & Clark. He chose Lewis & Clark because of its beautiful campus and the scholarship money that he received for attendance. An avid bike racer from the Midwest, John enjoyed Lewis & Clark's vicinity to prime cycling territory, often training on what is now the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. While still a student at Lewis & Clark, John interned at the Mcloughlin House in Oregon City, which sparked his interest in historic preservation. John mentioned that Historical Materials as well as the incredible support of the professors gave him the tools necessary to succeed in his field.

2017-03-23

Originally from Camas, Washington, Janet earned her bachelor's degree in History from Lewis & Clark in 1976. Interestingly enough, she only applied to two places: Lewis and Clark and Western Washington University. She ultimately chose Lewis & Clark over the latter. She did her senior research project on the Japanese Internment Camp at the Expo Center during WWII and was subsequently published in a quarterly review. While a student at Lewis & Clark, Historical Materials was her favorite class. Janet graduated in three years with a sterling GPA. While a student at Lewis & Clark she read for leisure and took piano and organ lessons and, as an Akin resident, was able to practice quite frequently in the nearby chapel. Janet received a Masters in Librarianship at the University of Washington in 1978. After earning her master's degree, she went to the University of Oregon and earned a second bachelor's in Computer and Information Science. Gaining another master's in Applied Information Management from the University of Oregon later in life, Janet remarked on her interest in managing information and information systems. As a 4th generation Oregonian, she is somewhat troubled by the rapid growth of Portland but still calls this place home.

2017-03-13

Steve West is originally from Seattle, Washington but moved to Portland to attend Lewis & Clark where he met his wife; he has lived here ever since excluding extended stays abroad. Steve was attracted to the overseas studies programs at Lewis & Clark and went to Greece his sophomore year. Despite his love for the beautiful campus, Steve did mention that the school was somewhat isolated during his time spent here. Steve was a History major at Lewis & Clark with a focus on modern Chinese history. His favorite history class was Czarist Russia and discussed the excellence of the department and its professors. After college Steve worked in the Peace Corps and then moved to Greece to teach for a living before moving back to Portland. Steve is also a graduate of the Lewis & Clark Law School where he took evening classes later on in his life. Despite how much the physical appearance of the college has changed over the years, Steve still enjoys walking around the campus grounds with his wife on the weekends.

2017-03-11

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

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

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

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

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