Two from Everett on 25-member search advisory committee
EVERETT, Wash. – Oct. 14, 2015 – Washington State University is taking the next step in choosing its 11th president and wants North Puget Sound community input. Students, staff, faculty and community members are invited to one of two community forums at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett, on the Everett Community College campus. The Oct. 27 forums will take place in Gray Wolf Hall room 156 at 7:30 and 10:30 a.m.
“Our goal is to ensure this search is well informed and that all WSU community members and stakeholders have an opportunity to share their thoughts,” said Mike Worthy, chair of the search advisory committee and a member of the WSU Board of Regents.
WSU wants attendees to consider topics like current and future opportunities for the next president, challenges the president may face and ways to measure the president’s success.
Two Everett community leaders, The Daily Herald publisher-emeritus Larry Hanson and Associated Students of Washington State University Everett (ASWSUE) president Hayley Statema, are on the 25-member search advisory committee. That committee will help identify and recommend finalists for the position to the Board of Regents.
“The entire team is very strong. We have a lot of different perspectives from throughout the state,” said Statema. “In our kickoff meeting on Oct. 7 we worked very well together to start defining the role of the new president in our statewide system.”
Hanson is among the Snohomish County community leaders who partnered with University officials to establish WSU North Puget Sound at Everett and currently is a member of its coordinating and policy board. He served for eight years on the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board and was a member of former Governor Booth Gardner’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Education Reform and Funding.
Statema completed Running Start courses and attended community college in her hometown of Everett before enrolling at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett. She is majoring in integrated communication and intends to become a nonprofit event organizer and public relations specialist, working specifically with awareness of the Autism spectrum. As the first ASWSUE president, Statema is working to create Cougar culture on the Everett campus.
Contact: Randy Bolerjack
EVERETT, Wash. – Oct. 8, 2015 – The founding dean of Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine recently met with several dozen regional leaders at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett to gather input on the new medical school and its impact in this community.
“This is your medical school,” said Dr. John Tomkowiak, the medical school’s founding dean. “As a community-based medical school we partner with the community and our local affiliates to give our students the experience and training they need.”
The medical school will combine a traditional academic education with a community-based clinical model. For their third and fourth years of clinical work, students will be assigned to WSU campuses in Spokane, Everett, the Tri-Cities or Vancouver, with the opportunity to spend significant amounts of time in rural healthcare settings. The regional campuses will have their own deans and staff and rely on clinical faculty in those areas to teach students.
“One of the unique things about being in Everett is that there is an urban population, so it provides medical education professionals a lot of resources, but there are also needs and opportunities in the rural areas that surround Everett,” said WSU North Puget Sound at Everett dean Paul Pitre.
“We have an amazing opportunity here,” said Tomkowiak. “We know that the future of healthcare is collaborative, team-based care. We know that the future of healthcare is looking at populations and assessing their risks and trying to intervene in their health before they get sick. We know that’s a better way to take care of people, so we are going to build a medical school that teaches our students to be clinicians in that future.”
Tomkowiak most recently served as the dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. In addition to this and his other administrative duties, he is a professor of psychiatry who holds a Masters of Organizational Leadership degree from Gonzaga University. He has experience helping medical schools in Florida, New York and Illinois achieve accreditation. He says helping WSU through the accreditation process will be his top priority.
The meeting in Everett signals that the accreditation process for the medical school is moving forward. College staff and administrators are finishing the first draft of the massive document they must submit to the accrediting agency (the Liaison Committee on Medical Education). That document addresses questions such as future funding and spending for the medical school, the curriculum that will be taught to students and the infrastructure in place to support them.
That document must be submitted to community scrutiny in the four cities where the university will assign medical students for clinical training (Spokane, Everett, Tri-Cities and Vancouver). Those in attendance were given copies of the college’s draft accreditation document and asked to review it over the next few weeks and send back their comments and suggestions.
To learn more about the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, visit the website at www.medicine.wsu.edu.
Contact: Randy Bolerjack
Everett, Wash. – September 25, 2015 – Washington State University administrators, educational partners, community leaders and legislative champions broke ground on a new academic building at the Everett University Center on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The event signaled a new era in higher education for Snohomish, Skagit and Island counties.
“WSU’s engagement in Everett reflects our land-grant mission, bringing a practical education to the working class,” said WSU interim president Dan Bernardo. “Together, we’re going to significantly increase educational attainment in this region and supply our industries with a trained workforce.”
The 95,000 square foot building on the Everett Community College campus will house classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices and services for students working toward degrees in STEM education fields. Construction is expected to be completed by spring of 2017.
“This groundbreaking is the culmination of two decades of hard work, creativity and courage,” said Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson. “Expanding access to four-year baccalaureate and advanced degrees in Snohomish County has been a shared vision championed by the City, Washington State University, Everett Community College, the University Center partnership and a broad coalition of our region’s business and community leaders.”
“The success of our students will become the success of our community,” said WSU North Puget Sound at Everett dean Paul Pitre. “We will provide students with access to higher education and research of the highest quality in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, which will, in turn, support the economic development of our region and innovation within our region’s most demanding industries.”
“This is a big, big deal,” Stephanson told The Daily Herald before ceremonial shovels turned dirt in North Everett. “For anyone who’s ever had any doubt of Washington State’s commitment to Everett, this should erase any doubts. We really can plant the WSU flag right now.”
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett offers in-demand degree-completion programs in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, hospitality business management and integrated communication. Software engineering and data analytics programs are planned for fall 2016. WSU North Puget Sound at Everett leads the Everett University Center, a consortium of seven universities offering more than 20 degree-completion programs. About 530 students are currently enrolled in Everett University Center programs.
EVERETT, Wash. – September 8, 2015 – This fall, WSU North Puget Sound at Everett welcomed 81 new students. Of those students, 50 are studying engineering. The current total number of WSU North Puget Sound at Everett students is 158. The mechanical engineering program has graduated 39 students since opening.
The students come from a variety of backgrounds: community college graduates; military; college transfers; and college graduates earning a more in-demand degree. They come from as close as three blocks from campus, north of Arlington or as far south as Kent. All are taking the next step for their careers with WSU North Puget Sound at Everett.
“We are delighted to provide students with an array of hands-on baccalaureate programming that fits the needs of the North Puget Sound region,” said academic dean Dr. Paul Pitre. During orientation, Pitre told students, “We are bringing the best programs that WSU has to offer to Everett, starting with engineering, business and communications. We have an excellent cadre of faculty and staff who you see here right now.”
“I was on a bus ride to the University of Washington for class when I realized I wanted to open my own coffee shop,” said 20-year-old UW and Everett Community College transfer student Caity Kilgore, who lives in Marysville. “I love my hometown. I want to create a sanctuary for the people of Marysville in the form of a local, hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. I want to give back the best that I am able to – through hospitality.”
“Over the course of a year, I transferred to EvCC and applied to WSU to learn about business. I’m so glad I made the leap and I can’t wait to start my career,” said Kilgore, who will work to earn her degree in hospitality business management.
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett offers in-demand degree-completion programs in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, hospitality business management and integrated communication. Software engineering and data analytics programs are planned for fall 2016. WSU North Puget Sound at Everett is part of the Everett University Center, a consortium of seven universities offering more than 20 degree-completion programs.
Founded in 1890 in Pullman, Washington State University provides world-class education to more than 26,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students statewide.
Contact: Randy Bolerjack
EVERETT, Wash. – WSU North Puget Sound at Everett interim chancellor Bob Drewel today announced a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of the Everett University Center on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 4:30 p.m.
“This ceremony represents the success of more than 30 years of work by this community to bring access to high-quality, in-demand baccalaureate degrees to the North Puget Sound region,” said Drewel. “We are excited to share this important milestone for WSU North Puget Sound at Everett and our Everett University Center partners with the community.”
Everett University Center Groundbreaking
Tuesday, September 22, 4:30 p.m.
Everett University Center (future site)
911 North Broadway
Everett, WA 98201
The Washington State Legislature recently approved $54.6 million for the new, four-story Everett University Center building, as well as funding for new WSU North Puget Sound at Everett degree-completion programs in software engineering and data analytics. The 95,000 square foot building is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2017 and ready for students that fall.
“We are delighted to provide students with an array of hands-on baccalaureate programming that fits the needs of Snohomish, Skagit and Island counties,” said WSU North Puget Sound at Everett academic dean Dr. Paul Pitre. “We are bringing the best programs that WSU has to offer to Everett.”
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett currently offers degree-completion programs in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, hospitality business management and integrated communication. WSU North Puget Sound at Everett is part of the Everett University Center, a consortium of seven universities offering more than 20 degree-completion programs from Gray Wolf Hall on the Everett Community College campus.
Washington State University provides world-class education to more than 26,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students statewide. Founded in 1890 in Pullman, WSU is Washington’s original land-grant university.
Media: Everett University Center High-Resolution Renderings
Contact and RSVP: Randy Bolerjack