Whitworth chemistry major awarded full-tuition scholarship from Woodrow Foundation

Rebecca Johnson, a junior at Whitworth University, has been awarded the prestigious Woodrow Foundation Scholarship. The $29,280 scholarship covers Johnson's tuition and books for the 2009-10 academic year.

"Winning this scholarship is very significant to continuing my education as a pre-med student," says Johnson, a chemistry major on the biochemistry track with a minor in music. "I have many more years of education ahead of me in medical school, and this scholarship has given me confidence to keep going when the classes become even more difficult."

Originally from West Linn, Ore., and now a resident of San Diego, Johnson plans to study osteopathic medicine. She's considering pursuing the field of infectious disease, both in her research and her work with patients, which led her to work at an AIDS camp last summer. Johnson says she's not sure whether she will pursue her dream locally or internationally, and says that her main goal is to help those who are forgotten or overlooked by their societies.

During her years at Whitworth, Johnson has been active in Good Deeds for Trees, Cup of Cool Water, the Bonner Leadership Program, and the Whitworth Wind Symphony, and she has served in a leadership position at En Christo. She credits the organizations, specifically those that aim to help the homeless, with providing a large part of her off-campus education. In Oregon, she worked at an assisted-living facility and volunteered at Doernbecher Children's Hospital, in Portland.

"Volunteering with the poor and homeless has changed my worldview," Johnson says. "It's not about giving people a lunch as much as it is about loving people for who they are, having conversations with them, and letting them know that they are important and have a purpose."

Kerry Breno, assistant professor of chemistry at Whitworth, says Johnson's diverse interests and demonstration of campus leadership make her highly qualified for the scholarship. As Johnson's professor and adviser, Breno describes her as a well-rounded student who is organized, efficient and dynamic.

"Rebecca is highly qualified for the scholarship," Breno says. "She has tremendous potential for success in all her endeavors. I am very pleased that she is the winner of this year's Woodrow Foundation Scholarship."

The Woodrow Foundation Scholarship is awarded each academic year to one student at Whitworth University. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have a 3.75 or higher GPA, demonstrated leadership skills, and high financial need. Students are nominated by an academic department; the nominations are reviewed by a university committee that selects five finalists. The final selection is made by US Bank, which serves as the trustee for the Leon Woodrow estate.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Nancy Morlock, assistant director/scholarship coordinator of financial aid, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4378 or nmorlock@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Jazz legend Lee Konitz to perform Nov. 7 with Whitworth Jazz Ensemble at the Fox Theater

Concert part of 20th anniversary celebration of Whitworth's thriving jazz program

Alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, winner of the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award—our nation's highest award in jazz, will perform in concert with the award-winning Whitworth Jazz Ensemble on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. at the Fox Theater, in downtown Spokane. Admission is $17. For tickets, call TicketsWest at (509) 325-7328 or purchase online at http://www.ticketswest.com/. Tickets also can be purchased at the Fox Theater's box office.

Konitz will conduct a free jazz clinic for Whitworth students, Spokane-area students, and the general public on Friday, Nov. 6, at 5:15 p.m. in the Music Building's Recital Hall. For more information about the concert or clinic, please call (509) 777-3280.

"This fall, Spokane will have hosted two of the most important living jazz musicians—Dave Brubeck, who performed at the Fox in September, and now Lee Konitz," says Dan Keberle, professor of music and director of jazz studies and the jazz ensemble at Whitworth. "Not only will the Whitworth jazz students learn from hearing Konitz perform, but they also will have the rare opportunity to spend time with a jazz musician who has been playing with all of the jazz greats since 1945. Konitz is a walking jazz history book, as well as a supreme musician."

The concert will be part of a weekend of events, including a reunion for alumni of the jazz program, celebrating the 20th anniversary of jazz studies at Whitworth. To register and find a complete listing of jazz reunion events taking place Nov. 6-8, please visit http://www.whitworth.edu/Alumni/Reunions/Jazz/Index.htm. For more information, please call (509) 777-4250.

During the concert at the Fox, Konitz, who helped launch the "Cool Jazz" movement, will play expanded jazz band arrangements of tunes from the landmark jazz album, Birth of the Cool, which he recorded with Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan, et al., in 1949 and 1950. The album represented a major development in post-bebop jazz and was significant to the history of cool jazz, which is a style of jazz music that rose to prominence after World War II, when predominantly white musicians from California mixed with mostly black bebop musicians from New York to form a smooth, composed sound that include improvisation.

Konitz has been playing jazz music for more than 60 years, during which he has produced more than 50 albums. A few contemporary artists in whom his influence can be seen include West Coast alto saxophonists Art Pepper, Bud Shank and Paul Desmond

In his youth, Konitz studied alto saxophone with several teachers in Chicago. As a teen in the early 1940s, his jazz style began to mature as he studied under noted pianist Lennie Tristano. Their recordings together include the 1949 releases Intuition and Digression, which represented the first free improvised recorded music.

After working with Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool, Konitz went on to play with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker's prominent band and then in Stan Kenton's big band. Since then, he has mainly led his own small groups and toured abroad. In the 1960s, he took a break from the music business but continued to cultivate his unique sound; during that time he worked with musicians including Paul Bley, Martial Solal, Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau. He also worked as a private teacher, conducting lessons by tape with students worldwide. In the mid-1970s, he toured Europe with Warne Marsh, and in the 1980s he formed his own nine-man group and performed regularly.

In 1992, Konitz won the prestigious Danish JAZZPAR Prize. Over the past decade, his recordings have included Lee Konitz & The Axis String Quartet: Plays French Impressionist Music of the 21st Century (Palmetto, 2000) and One Day with Lee (2004), for which he joined with the Mark Masters Ensemble. Other releases include Inventions, featuring the Spring String Quartet (Omnitone, 2006); New Nonet (Omnitone, 2006); and Portology, featuring Orquestra Jass de Matosinhos (Omnitone, 2007). His newest CD, released earlier this year, is Parallels (Chesky Records).

Konitz represents the most prominent guest artist in a long list of internationally-renowned jazz musicians who have performed with the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble over the years. These artists have included Terence Blanchard, Bob Mintzer, Joe Lovano, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Kenny Garrett, Phil Woods and Gene Harris.

The Whitworth Jazz Ensemble performed at the 2008 Washington Music Educators All State Conference and won first place at the 2008 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival; the ensemble has won first place seven times since 1994. The 18-piece ensemble performs several concerts each year on campus, as well as at jazz festivals, in public schools, at civic events, and on annual tours throughout the United States. In January 2008 the ensemble traveled for the seventh time to Rome, Italy, for several performances with leading Italian jazz artists. In January 2006 the ensemble traveled to Sao Paolo and Salvador, Brazil, for concerts at two music festivals. In 2004 they traveled to Rome, followed by a performance trip to Hawaii. Other performance residencies in previous years have included trips to Havana, Cuba, two trips to Munich, five others to Rome, and nine performances in Australia, at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and in the surrounding area. This January, they will embark on a tour of New York City and New Orleans.

The ensemble has produced eight CDs; the most recent is Travelin' Light, released in 2008. For more information on the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble, please visit www.whitworth.edu/jazz.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Joan Lack or Loree Swegle, program assistants, music department, Whitworth University (509) 777-3280, or music@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Whitworth professor elected a vice president of the American Journalism Historians Association

Jim McPherson is best known on the Whitworth campus as a professor of communication studies and advisor of the student newspaper, The Whitworthian. Some also know him as an author and lecturer, as well as a former newspaper reporter, editor and public relations professional. This week, McPherson assumed a new role when he became first vice president of the American Journalism Historians Association.

McPherson was elected second vice president at the 2008 AJHA national convention, in Seattle, and became the first vice president at the 2009 convention in Birmingham, Ala., held Oct. 7-10. His primary duty is to oversee the program for next year's convention in Tucson, Ariz., where he will assume the position of president.

"I'm happy to be able to serve an organization that has done so much for me," McPherson says. "My two books, my four book chapters, and various other projects have come as a direct result of contacts I made in AJHA."

David Sloan, professor of journalism at the University of Alabama, founded the AJHA and has served as the organization's president. Sloan nominated McPherson for the position of vice president, which he says he would not have done if McPherson weren't exceptionally qualified.

"Like most of the other people who have served as AJHA president/vice president, Jim has the interest of the organization and of history at heart, rather than his own personal benefit," Sloan says. "People throughout the organization appreciate him for those qualities and think very highly of him."

Sloan says McPherson is an excellent and creative historian who is dependable, personable, hard-working and committed to the AJHA.

McPherson joined the AJHA in 1994 and has served on the board of directors, as co-chair of the history in curriculum task force, and as a member of both the publications committee and the oral history committee. He organized and hosted the 2008 AJHA national convention and also was the editor of the association's newsletter, The Intelligencer, for six years.

A member of the Whitworth faculty since 2000, McPherson received the university's 2007 Academic Challenge Award. He also is the author of several media-related articles and book chapters. His two books, published in 2008 and 2006, respectively, are The Conservatism Resurgence and the Press: The Media's Role in the Rise of the Right and Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-Present. He also has experience in various newspaper positions, has been a freelance writer, editor and photographer, and once hosted a news-talk radio program on Whitworth's KWRS station.

Founded in 1981, the American Journalism Historians Association seeks to advance education and research in mass communication history. Through its annual convention, regional conferences, committees, awards, speakers and publications, members work to raise historical standards and ensure that all scholars and students recognize the vast importance of media history and apply this knowledge to the advancement of society.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Jim McPherson, associate professor of communication studies, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4429 or jmcpherson@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq to discuss foreign policy lessons during Oct. 21 lecture at Whitworth

Whitworth faculty also to conduct panel discussion about U.S. involvement in the Middle East

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As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rage on and tensions boil over in the rest of the Middle East, Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to that region, will present a lecture, "A New Foreign Policy? Lessons from Iraq," on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall at Whitworth University.

On Thursday, Oct. 22, Whitworth Academic Dean Michael Le Roy will lead Whitworth faculty members in a panel discussion about U.S. foreign policy opportunities and challenges in the Middle East. The panel will include Professor of Sociology Raja Tanas, Associate Professor of Sociology Jennifer Holsinger, Professor of Political Science John Yoder, and Professor of History Dale Soden. The discussion will take place at 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall. Admission to both events is free. For more information, please call (509) 777-4263.

Crocker, a Spokane Valley native, recently retired from a 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service that included appointments as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq (2007-09), Pakistan (2004-07) and Afghanistan (2002-04). His accomplishments earned him the Medal of Freedom, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the State Department Award for Valor. When President George W. Bush awarded Crocker the Medal of Freedom, he called him America's Lawrence of Arabia for his deft handling of U.S. diplomatic relations in that tumultuous part of the world. Prior to that, Bush also conferred on him the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest position in the Foreign Service.

"Ryan Crocker combines a profound commitment to the best of American values with a broad knowledge of history, strong language and cultural skills, and a sophisticated understanding of non-Western political systems," Professor Yoder says. "He will draw on his experiences in the Middle East to help the audience understand the guiding principles of a sound foreign policy."

Crocker grew up in an Air Force family, attending schools in the U.S., Morocco, Canada and Turkey. He holds a B.A. in English and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Whitman College, in Walla Walla, Wash. Since joining the Foreign Service, in 1971, he has had assignments in countries such as Iran, Qatar and Egypt. He was assigned to the American embassy in Beirut during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the bombings of the U.S. embassy and military barracks in 1983. He served as deputy assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs from 2001-03. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the National War College, where he was the international affairs advisor.

Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Contacts:

Julie Shanholtzer, program assistant, Speakers & Artists Series and psychology department, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4263 or jshanholtzer@whitworth.edu.

Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or eproffitt@whitworth.edu.