The SPU Voices Podcast

Professor Mischa Willett talks about SPU's Ascent Program, which is a cohort-based model that helps students build relationships and navigate challenges they may encounter during their undergraduate years. Stream now or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Rick Newell '93 shares his journey through personal struggles early on in his tech career. After hitting rock bottom, he felt called by God to "wake up," and moved to Seattle where he began working at the Rotary Boys & Girls Club in the Central District. Through his interactions with young men at the Club, he saw the hardships they had to overcome and came to firmly believe in t...

The holiday season ushers in many time-honored traditions — wrapping gifts, sending out greeting cards with the latest family photos, unpacking beloved tree ornaments we haven’t seen for a year. But what many most anticipate is gathering around the table with those special dishes that truly mark the arrival of the season. The celebrations might include turkey and stuffing, but in our multiethnic S...

Allie Roth had an established career in teaching but in 2013, when she discovered that one of her elementary students had lived in three different foster homes in as many months, her life changed. Allie tried to find resources for her student, but she grew discouraged after realizing that resources for kids were hard to find. That is when she decided to start With Love, an organization in Portland...

Dr. Katie Kresser is Seattle Pacific University's resident art historian, and she says great art teaches us empathy, unveils human nature, and forces us to think outside the box. Visual art can reveal the thought processes of people living far away or in our distant past, and for her, art history has been an unparalleled journey of the imagination. If art can help us understand the past, it c...

Chris Baron is passionate about visual storytelling. Over the past 15 years, he's worked as director and cinematographer on many television and documentary productions, including the Emmy-winning documentary series Intervention and the Oscar-nominated documentary Food Inc. Chris is uniquely adept at storytelling thanks to years of experience collaborating with some of the best storytellers in...

Jackson Stava joined Seattle Pacific as the athletic director in July 2016, and is the school’s fifth athletic director since Seattle Pacific began sponsoring intercollegiate sports in 1946. In this episode of the SPU Voices Podcast , Jackson shares inspiring stories about his atypical educational and professional path toward college athletics. He also walks us through the moment that the COVID-19...

We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success. Dr. Julieta Altamirano-Crosby came to the U.S. with limited English and faced incredible hardship by the language barrier. Once she improved her English speaking skills, she became an advocate for others. Altamirano-Crosby now works in bot...

Kevin Ticen, a staff member on the Seattle Pacific University Advancement team, shares stories about writing his new book, When It Mattered Most , which tells the forgotten story of America's and Seattle's first Stanley Cup champions and the war to end all wars. Kevin is a former catcher on the University of Washington baseball team and played professionally in the Anaheim Angels Minor L...

Upon receiving his B.A. from Seattle Pacific University in 1992, Broel spent the next six years gaining insight and experience through travels around Southeast Asia and as the patineur for the Walla Walla Foundry. Near the end of 1997, Broel left the Walla Walla Foundry to open Broel Studio. Employing his education, knowledge of art history, and experience as patineur, Broel is painting and sculpt...

After spending a semester abroad studying art history in Italy, Ashley Rodriguez fell in love with food and decided to make it her passion. Now she’s the creative genius behind the award winning food blog Not Without Salt , author of bestselling cookbooks, and host of a YouTube series called Kitchen Unnecessary.

Michelle Lang-Raymond is the co-founder and executive managing director of Acts on Stage Theater, a theater company that serves various artistic communities within the Pacific Northwest while increasing access and opportunity to artists of color and activists of faith. This artistic project is a culmination of Michelle's years of work combining her gifting in the arts with her commitment to h...

Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director of the emergency department at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, and a University of Washington associate professor of emergency medicine, shares about his non-traditional path to becoming a doctor. The SPU alumnus describes what it’s like to care for people in a remarkably intense time while also balancing his own self-care. Dr. Mitchell also talks about th...

Tech veteran Shauna Causey founded WEEKDAYS in 2019 while she was a Partner at Madrona Venture Labs and pregnant with her second child. Frustrated with the lack of childcare options in her neighborhood, she started working on the early stages of WEEKDAYS. Months later the pandemic hit and the entire industry was upended. The demand for micro-schools has accelerated and today WEEKDAYS is on the for...

As a student, John Glancy served as a two-sport athlete and a double major scholar. After graduation, he spent most of his career within the Seattle Pacific University community, holding no less than six distinct roles, including two director positions. He is affectionately known as "Mr. SPU" and now, though retired, John has a new project that will serve the University for years to come...

Tim Stuart '02 received a degree in business finance from SPU.  While at SPU, Tim started as an intern at Microsoft, and after various promotions and 19 years is now the CFO of Xbox. Under Tim's supervision, Xbox released the Xbox series X and S, acquired gaming titan Bethesda, and re-imagined the way that video games are purchased through their game pass system.  

Annie Jameson '14 is one of the founders of Eden Por Salud, an all-natural wellness company based in Guatemala. The company sells products handcrafted by local entrepreneurs. Eden Por Salud provides accessible income opportunities to people with disabilities throughout Guatemala. Annie got her degree in special education at Seattle Pacific University and has spent her entire career serving an...

Shannon Huffman Polson is the author of The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World, and the founder of The Grit Institute, an institute committed to whole leader development with a focus on grit and resilience. As one of the first women to fly an Apache helicopter in the US Army and to lead line units on three continents, Shannon now s...

SPU doctoral student Glenda Shepard has spent decades caring for patients as both a labor and delivery nurse and as a hospice/palliative care nurse practitioner. After overcoming childhood obesity, she wanted to bring holistic well-being to her family and to all of her patients. Now a competitive bodybuilder, wellness coach, and proud mother of two grown daughters, Glenda has dedicated her career...

Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director of the emergency department at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, and a University of Washington associate professor of emergency medicine, shares about his non-traditional path to becoming a doctor. The SPU alumnus describes what it’s like to care for people in a remarkably intense time while also balancing his own self-care. Dr. Mitchell also talks about th...

Pam Marmon graduated with her master of business administration from SPU in 2012. She's the CEO of Marmon Consulting, a change management firm that provides strategy and execution services, to help companies transform. Pam is also the founder of Threefold Tribe, a consulting firm that helps growing churches multiply. From fortune 50 to startups, Pam brings unparalleled change expertise and in...

With more than 30 years experience at Seattle Pacific University, recently retired Dean of Multi-Ethnic and Wellness Programs Susan Okamoto Lane is someone who has seen big changes. As the diversity of the student body grew, the need for every student, faculty, and staff member to increase an understanding of what it means to be reconciled to God, and to one another, grew as well. As we learn to m...

Megan Swanson Chao '09 is the U.S. executive director and co-founder of Hope for Life in Rwanda. Her organization helps Rwandan children escape homelessness and back into healthy families through outreach, rehabilitation, and reintegration. Her role as the ministry’s U.S. executive director and co-founder, Megan was recognized as Seattle Pacific’s GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) 2018 Alum...

Jeffrey Overstreet is recognized in The New Yorker , TIME , The Seattle Times , Image , and Christianity Today for his writing on cinema, Overstreet, an assistant professor of English and writing at Seattle Pacific University, teaches creative writing, English literature, academic writing, and film studies. He earned his bachelor's degree in English literature and his master of fine arts in c...

Provost Laura Hartley oversees undergraduate and graduate faculty and academics working with President Dan Martin to establish and champion an academic and faith-based vision for Seattle Pacific. Prior to stepping into the role, she was the associate provost for student academic success and Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at George Fox. And in the classroom, Provost Ha...