The SPU Voices Podcast

Fern Donaghy found theater early in life and came to SPU to study Theatre Education, hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow alum and Roosevelt High School Theatre teacher, Ben Stuart. But when COVID made student teaching more difficult than ever, Fern leaned in to passion for working behind the scenes in wardrobe and costume. Now, only a year and a half out of college, Fern works for Pacific...

When Paige Johnson ’15 first started exploring job opportunities for hospital dietitians, she was amazed by the demand for different dietetic specialties and services. Johnson started her career at Seattle Children’s Hospital’s milk lab, mixing formulas or fortifying a mother’s breastmilk, then moved to pediatric oncology. After four and a half years working at Seattle Children’s, Johnson recently...

Dr. Deana L. Porterfield was elected in January of 2023, to be Seattle Pacific University’s next president. Porterfield is the 12th president in the university’s 133-year history and its first female president. She assumed her duties on July 1, 2023. With more than 35 years of experience in Christian higher education, including almost nine years as president of Roberts Wesleyan, Dr. Porterfield is...

Cami Ostman began her career as an English teacher. Then, after getting her master's in Marriage and Family Therapy from SPU in 2000, spent the next 20 years as a therapist. Upon writing a successful memoir and seeing first-hand the transformational power of writing one's own story, she started The Narrative Project : providing everything you need to get your book done. Now, after watchi...

Alexia Estrada, class of 2020, is the granddaughter of farm workers and director of operations at Semillero (Nursery) de Ideas , a nonprofit centering around farm workers as the leaders of innovation. She spent her summer running an innovation challenge, speaking with farm workers about their ideas of how to make the cherry harvest safer and more efficient for themselves and the growers. In August...

We took a look at three generations of Noel with the long lost Christmas poem by JRR Tolkien written in 1936, the song Cry of a Tiny Babe by Bruce Coburn written in 1990, and a spoken word piece written in 2020 by our own Philip "Sharp Skills" Jacobs. Enjoy these readings by SPU alumni and podcast guests. Merry Christmas! 

After 18 years serving as a probation officer with the Lewis County Juvenile Court, Lee Montgomery ’89, saw how easily kids without a strong support system found themselves getting into trouble. He had to do something to help slow the cycle of poverty and incarceration, so he started the Lewis County Youth Mentorship Program with a mission to inspire youth through meaningful relationships to make...

Tod Yansomboon, currently in his final quarter at SPU, is an international student from Thailand. Tod left his home at the age of 15 to attend high school in the US in pursuit of his overarching goal: to understand business and how business can help others. After three years of high school in three different U.S. states, Tod arrived on the SPU campus to study business administration and found his...

2020 grad Jacoby Miles describes herself as a business administrator, lover of the arts, apologetics enthusiast & lover of people. At the age of 15, she was paralyzed from my chest down due to a gymnastics accident. She has worked hard to gain her strength back but is still confined to a wheelchair with limited mobility. She says her life has never been the same after the accident, but it has...

Rev. Dr. Katie Douglass, Associate Professor of Educational Ministry and Practical Theology at Seattle Pacific, and her team have recently received 1.3 million in grants for the Faith Formation Project . The project is all about partnering with congregations and families in the Pacific Northwest to help kids grow in faith. If you are a parent, you know today’s fast-changing world is making your jo...

Cara Wall-Scheffler is a Professor and Co-Chair of Biology at SPU. Her research focuses on the evolution of how men and women differ physically, particularly in the context of balancing body temperature and long-distance locomotion. She has been working on this problem for over 20 years and has published numerous papers along with her students. Her work shows very clearly how different selection p...

Pastor Rebecca Worl was born and raised as a missionary kid in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After returning to the states, she finished school in Bellingham and went on to receive her undergraduate degree in Theology from Seattle Pacific. Becca then earned her Masters in Theological and Biblical Studies from Fuller Seminary, and subsequently served as Associate Pastor on staff at Cedarcre...

Dr. Hedman, SPU class of ’95, served in a joint appointment for the departments of English and Theatre at High Point University, teaching courses at the intersection of performance and literature. He now serves as director of the honors program as well. Nathan recently returned from advising a group of students studying abroad in Prague.

Professor Brent Ruby graduated from SPU in ‘89 with a degree in Exercise Science. He now serves as a professor at the University of Montana where his research includes the physical and mental toll fighting wildland fires has on the people who battle these blazes. Being away from loved ones can also weigh on firefighters, which led Ruby to write a children’s book called “Wrango and Banjo: On the Fi...

When Vanessa Aniteye’s indoor track season started in December of 2022, she was a decorated 400-meter runner moving up to the 800 meters. At that point, she had raced the 800 just three times in her life. Three months later, in March of 2023, Vanessa became a national champion at that distance. Then a senior at Seattle Pacific, she brought home a first-place win, clocked the fastest time of the se...

Dr. Frank Spina was a professor of Old Testament at SPU for four and a half decades. Dr. Spina often heard from students that he had taught their parents — or their grandparents. Considered tough and fair, he was named Professor of the Year by these very students. Dr. Spina is an Episcopal priest, serving as associate priest at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Bellevue, Washington, he speaks reg...

Esther Williamson graduated from SPU in 1998 with a double major in Theatre and English, then earned her Masters of Fine Arts from The Academy for Classical Acting at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Now, she’s an actor and teaching artist based in Brooklyn, New York. A proud member of Taffety Punk Theatre Company, Esther has been praised by The Washington Post and numerous local...

Michael Henry is a retired pastor and missionary. Michael’s ministry included serving as a missionary in Mexico, where he encountered intense spiritual warfare, and planting and pastoring churches in Washington state. Now retired, Mike pursues writing novels, screen plays, and film production- including an award-winning documentary film entitled “Kidnapped Redemption.” The story of missionary Phyl...

Phyllis Sortor had served as a missionary with Free Methodist World Missions in Nigeria for 10 years when she was kidnapped by a terrorist group hoping to end her work with the Fulani, an indigenous nomadic people group. A new feature-length film has recently been released documenting her kidnapping and time in Nigeria. She immediately returned to Nigeria and built Schools for Africa, an organizat...

Bob Ekblad took a break from his studies at SPU to travel. Though he would return to graduate, his call to share with and gain insight from other cultures would steer the rest of his journey. Bob with his wife Gracie, 2014 SPU Medallion Award winners, are founders and co-directors of Tierra Nueva in Burlington, Washington and New Earth Refuge, a home-based retreat center in the Skagit Valley. Thes...

Gabrielle Turner graduated Seattle Pacific University in 2017 with a degree in Music, but she was just beginning to find her voice. Building on her general music degree, she immediately began working on her vocal strength and building up her courage as a soloist. Now she is the Seattle Sound Music Awards Best Female Vocalist.

Peter Choi '17 came to SPU as an international student from Korea to study journalism. His career took off immediately after graduation, working as an international correspondent for the Korean National News during the pandemic, which left Peter and his new wife quarantining on opposite sides of the globe. They were recently reunited when Peter became a local multimedia reporter for KXLY in S...

Nansi Carroll recently visited SPU as a guest lecturer and brought a new original piece for our choir. She is a composer who has written over 300 vocal, choral, and piano works in her positions as Music Director of St. Augustine Church in Gainesville, FL, Artistic Co-Director of A Musical Offering, and as a faculty member at the University of Florida, Stetson University, and The Walden School. Car...

George Scranton taught theatre at Seattle Pacific for more than four decades. Dr. Scranton has written or adapted a dozen plays, five of which received national awards. He enjoyed an academic and professional acting career and directed more than 90 plays in both educational and professional venues. Yet one of his most exciting achievements involves the hospitality he and his wife shared with both...

Rev. Dr. Rah is a Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary and was the founding senior pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Cambridge. He has degrees from Columbia, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Harvard; Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Duke. He is a nationally recognized speaker and author of several books, including his most recent publication, Unsettling T...