Outstanding Graduates 2024

Master of Arts, Speech-Language Pathology

Throughout her graduate studies, Jada has demonstrated excellent engagement and subsequent application of what she has learned in creative and thoughtful ways within her clinical experiences. She showed a thirst for acquiring additional knowledge and skills and regularly volunteered for complex and challenging clinical opportunities. Jada has gained experience in multiple pediatric settings, which has prepared her to succeed as a pediatric speech-language pathologist. Her sunny personality shines throughout the department. She has been her peers’ greatest cheerleader, and she always had a ready wave and smile when passing in the hallways. Jada’s strong academic, time management, and organizational skills will support her goal of one day pursuing a PhD.

Master of Professional Accounting

John is intelligent, industrious, disciplined, and driven. He has a very pleasant personality and was well liked by his professors and peers. Throughout the program, he demonstrated great perseverance and initiative. John was not only motivated to learn the material but put a great deal of work into developing his own ideas about each topic we discussed.

Master of Science, Biology

Investigating the Role of ER-Associated Degradation in an Olfactory Neuron in the Nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans

Heino has done terrific work as a graduate student and stands out for his research, publications, and generosity in the pursuit of meaningful, collaborative science. Heino has been a mentor in the laboratory and helped revised the teaching materials for an introductory lab. He also volunteered his time in the community, making him a leader and role model for the next generation of biologists. Heino’s research as a graduate student focused on the cellular repercussions of the loss of genes that maintain protein homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum of the roundworm, C. elegans. He is continuing his research at the University of Washington, where he studies neurodegenerative disease.

Master of Arts, Rehabilitation Counseling

The RC faculty have unanimously nominated Sarah to be our 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student. She has shown a lot of growth in both the academic world and in her professional role over the three years that she has been in the program. Sarah is a strong cohort member who has a deep passion for working with and advocating for individuals with disabilities. Over the last three years, faculty have observed the effort and excellence that Sarah has put into each of her courses. She is a compassionate and patient member of her cohort and often helps first-year students. Sarah currently works as a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the WA Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Clinical Doctorate in Audiology

Jessica Mendiola is an exceptional graduate student, leader, and role model in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. While working on her Doctor of Audiology degree, she balanced coursework, clinical experience, service to the WWU Student Academy of Audiology (locally and at the WA state legislative level), and a capstone project that went above and beyond expectations, all while raising a family. Jessica is a U.S. Navy Veteran and completed her capstone project “Evaluating gamified auditory training in Veterans with hearing complaints,” which was presented at the American Auditory Society meeting in March 2023. Jessica is completing her 4th year externship at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and we look forward to her working as a licensed audiologist beginning summer 2024.

Master of Science, Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Abby is steadfast in support of her cohort and clients alike. Abby's clinical judgement is solid, and she assesses and conceptualizes clients and clinical decision making accurately and reasonably. Abby is also a creative thinker and has developed skills in holding space both for her analytic mind and her authentic emotional experience--Abby does this for everyone else too, which makes her a strong, validating and healing presence for her clients and colleagues.  

Master of Arts, Anthropology

Excavating Archaeological Knowledge: An Archaeological Ethnography of Indigenizing Practices Within a Collaborative Field School Landscape

Isabella Pipp was born and raised in Wisconsin on the traditional lands of the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Menominee Dakota, and Ojibwe peoples. After receiving her BA in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Isabella joined the WWU anthropology graduate program with a focus on collaborative and community-based archaeological practice. Her thesis, Excavating Archaeological Knowledge: An Archaeological Ethnography of Indigenizing Practices Within a Collaborative Field School Landscape investigated the community-based participatory field school program undertaken in partnership between the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians and Western Washington University, was far different than a traditional archaeological research project. She employed ethnographic methods to help facilitate the development of a Tribal-led collaborative fieldwork program: The Stillaguamish-WWU Collaborative Archaeological Field School. This work was not only a valuable contribution to scholarship on the power of community-based participatory research as a means to promote institutional change in the field, but her work actively helped facilitate understanding and exchange of ideas during the early phases of this program that will form the foundation for what is hopefully a long-term partnership. Bella is not only a talented researcher and scholar, but also a kind, sincere, ethical, and generous person who engages in this work for the right reasons. 

Master of Science, Environmental Science

Enhancing the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration process through Bayesian networks: A case-study on the Little Mississinewa River, Indiana

I would like to nominate Ms. April D. Reed for the outstanding graduate student award for this academic year. Over my career I have had the pleasure of working with a number of creative and industrious graduate students. Ms. Reed is in the top group of these individuals. Her research topic is “Bayesian networks as flexible and comprehensive tools for use in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Recovery Process." While the research has been funded by the BLM and Department of Interior, the NRDAR process is also part of CERCLA, RCRA and the Oil Protection Act. The goal of the process is to effectively and fairly account for environmental injury and later, the legal damages to be recovered from the responsible parties. The assessment of injury involves toxicology, ecology, economics, working with stakeholders, interacting with multiple federal, state, and tribal trustees, and the technical teams--in other words, what we take for granted as members of the College of the Environment for effectively managing the environment. 

In order to accomplish her thesis work, April took advantage of her skills in data analysis, GIS, toxicology, risk assessment, and communication. Developed at WWU, the Bayesian network relative risk model was the method adapted to calculate injury as probability distributions. The pilot site is the Little Mississinewa River CERCLA site in eastern Indiana. Essentially it extends from the Ohio state border to the Wabash River. PCBs are the contaminant and the focus was on the injury sustained to the various key fish populations in the Little Mississinewa and the Mississinewa River watershed. A result is a description of injury as defined under NRDAR throughout the region using probability distributions as calculated using Bayesian networks. The final grant report contains the details. To my knowledge this is the first time that Bayesian networks have been applied in this manner. It can be seen in the output how injury changes over time and space within the extensive site of interest.

Master of Science, Geology

Connections between eruption style and magmatic reservoir evolution: Insights from Augustine Volcano, Alaska, USA

Mahina completed her MS degree in geology in summer 2023. Her thesis research focused on geochemical analyses of minerals and volcanic glass in pumice erupted from Augustine Volcano, AK, to better understand the drivers of eruption hazard changes. During her time at WWU, Mahina was awarded a Geological Society of America grant, presented her research at national conferences, including the Geological Society of America (Denver, CO) and American Geophysical Union (San Francisco, CA) meetings, and collaborated with volcano observatory scientists in California and Alaska. She also made valuable contributions to the WWU and geology communities, evidenced by winning an award for “Best TA” in 2022, taking a leading role in Compass 2 Campus and GEAR UP outreach events, and contributing immensely to the Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences group. She is currently preparing her thesis work as a manuscript to be submitted to the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. Her stellar research and community service contributed to her acceptance to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where she began doctorate degree studies in fall 2023 continuing research in volcanology and geochemistry!

Master of Education, Language and Literacy

Karina is an exemplary 3rd-grade teacher at Parkview Elementary School in Bellingham. She graduated from Western Washington University in 2009 with a teaching degree. During her master's program, Karina excelled and earned a certificate in media and digital literacy, consistently surpassing expectations in her coursework. She also completed the multilingual learner education program, obtaining an English-language learner (ELL) endorsement from Washington State. As part of her master's project, Karina is seeking certification in literacy: reading/language arts from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, showcasing her dedication to continuous improvement in her teaching practice and her commitment to meeting the highest standards of education.

Karina's nomination for Outstanding Graduate comes from both faculty and her peers in the cohort. Students praise her for her unwavering support and encouragement, highlighting her humility, trustworthiness, expertise, hard work, and kindness. Faculty commend Karina's deep understanding of educational content and her exceptional ability to apply her learning in the classroom with creativity and thoughtfulness. Her reflective practice and dedication to her students make her a standout educator.

Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing

Way Back Machine

Ally has not been a loud presence in our program, but she has been an absolutely essential one—showing up in seminars, as a teacher, in her writing, and as a union organizer in powerful ways that positively challenge the people she’s talking to, change minds, reground discussion in the urgent issues at hand, and—with subtle, empathetic engagement—get people excited. Through her work with WAWU in particular, Ally has dedicated her time to future cohorts, and she will leave our program better than she found it. As a poet and scholar, Ally deftly moves between trenchant and deep critical readings and wildly creative experiments. Her poems and other writings are surprising, strange, and brilliant.