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Mark your calendar for the annual Cougar Cheer & Gift Gear event
📅Date: Wednesday, Dec. 3
🕓Time: 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
📍Location: Hilton Vancouver Washington
301 W 6th St. Vancouver, WA 98660

This family and pet friendly celebration is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season with Cougar pride. Enjoy a free photo opportunity with WSU’s mascot, Butch T. Cougar, who will alternate between his classic Santa Butch and Holiday Butch costumes every 30 minutes throughout the evening. Don’t miss your opportunity to snap a photo with one or both! Browse and shop for a variety of Cougar gear at the popup shop to find perfect gifts for the season.

You are also encouraged to support the Cougar Food Pantry by making a cash donation or bringing nonperishable food items. To learn what’s most needed, .

For Events
If you have questions, contact Maddy Juul at 360-546-9600 or madelyn.juul@wsu.edu.

For event accommodations, call 360-546-9739 or email van.accomodations@wsu.edu.

Cougs Connect offers a dynamic platform for Cougs to network with fellow alumni across the country. From personalized career consulting and job listings to a comprehensive business directory and specialized groups, the platform provides numerous ways to engage and connect with the Coug community.

Explore all the opportunities and start connecting today:

You did it! Congratulations on graduating from Washington State University Vancouver. You and your fellow graduates—759 in all—have shown incredible resilience and determination throughout your college journey. We are so proud of your accomplishments and the strength you've demonstrated. You are now among nearly 20,000 91�ԹϺ����� alumni and almost 240,000 Cougar alumni worldwide.

To network with Cougs nationwide, consider signing up for . From mentoring to job listings to reconnecting with those with whom you've shared common experiences, Cougs Connect can help broaden your networking circle.

Make sure you stay in touch.  by June 13 and you will be entered into a drawing for 91�ԹϺ����� swag. And let us know about your accomplishments. We love hearing about the amazing things you are doing.

Check out photos from the 91�ԹϺ����� Commencement and view a recording of the ceremony .

As many of you know, I retired as chancellor on May 30. I will continue to support the transition to our third chancellor and serve WSU for the next several months. I want to take this last official opportunity to thank our alumni and our donors who have made 91�ԹϺ����� such a special place. Your support has meant the world to our campus—your campus. When I started 13 years ago, I didn’t imagine that Southwest Washington or WSU would be the last stop in my 44-year career in higher education. It quickly became clear to me that 91�ԹϺ����� and this region are special places. I have so enjoyed being a part of this community, and I will miss the day-to-day interaction with students and other members of our community.

So, thank you for the many ways you have supported 91�ԹϺ����� over my tenure. I am grateful that our paths crossed and that we had the opportunity to work together to make our region and our state better.

Mel Netzhammer
Chancellor, 2012 – 2025

Bryan Stebbins, MPA, 2020, Public Affairs
Bryan Stebbins grew up in Vancouver, Wash., then left to attend college in Seattle. “I didn’t always feel like I could share my truth with others,” he said. “In Seattle, pride flags were everywhere and I felt like I could breathe.” He returned to Vancouver in 2015 for a job opportunity and began exploring graduate school programs. “After meeting with Paul Theirs at 91�ԹϺ����� for an hour, I knew I had found the right program for me, so I quickly applied to the Master of Public Affairs program (may it rest in peace) and I was fortunate to get in,” he said. For helping him through his greatest academic challenge, he is especially grateful to his thesis committee members Thiers, Laurie Drapela and Susan Finley.

Throughout college, Stebbins held work-study jobs, was a barista at Starbucks and served as an outreach director for a member of Congress. After graduation, he found “the perfect match” in a job with PointNorth, a minority, woman-owned consulting firm based in Vancouver and doing business in Oregon, Washington and Colorado. The company provides strategic communication, community engagement, organizational development and marketing/creative services. As the public affairs manager, Stebbins works on one of the largest infrastructure projects in the nation—.

His boss, Lisa Keohokalole Schauer, encourages the staff to give back, and Stebbins serves on the Board of Trustees for the Clark County Historical Museum, the board of the Love and Justice Alliance (a political and lobbying sister organization of the Southwest Washington Equity Coalition) and the Equity Team for the City of Vancouver’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan update. He said “it has been really enjoyable to sit in community with likeminded individuals and rethink and imagine how to make Vancouver more equitable in how we plan and deliver infrastructure and services. The City’s planning staff are phenomenal, and I feel fortunate to live in a city that isn’t backing down from adhering to our values, especially when it may be politically expedient to do so.”

As for goals and aspirations, “I just want to be able to give back to my community and make life better for the next generation. I want our stories to be shared and I want queer youth, especially our trans siblings, to feel like they can live openly and authentically without fear for their physical and emotional safety. We have a long way to go.”

Stebbins has fond memories of life at 91�ԹϺ�����. “You get the small, private university experience but the resources of a large, state land grant, Tier 1 research institution. It really is the best of both worlds,” he said. “Being a part of a small graduate program enabled me to quickly get to know the other students and the phenomenal professors. Choosing to complete my graduate studies at 91�ԹϺ����� has paid dividends in too many ways to count because of all the experiences and connections the campus offers students and alumni. This place made my life as a student and as an alumni richer, and I’m grateful for it.”

Cougs seem to be everywhere, he said, “and while I’m not a fanatic, I do like to randomly shout out ‘Go Cougs’ at a passerby in WSU gear because it makes my husband roll his eyes. He knows I do it just to bother him, and I like finding opportunities to make him squirm.

“91�ԹϺ����� is a rare gem because it has beautiful spaces and trails,” he continued. “I have fond memories of walking around campus with family, friends and my dogs during the summertime where you can hear the buzz of insects and smell of berries baking in the sun.”

Stebbins enjoys giving of his time, talent and treasure. He is especially pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to a scholarship fund for LGBTQ+ students. His friend Michael Blankenship started the LGBTQ+ Empowerment Scholarship a few years ago. “It has been a dream of his to make it an endowed scholarship so that the opportunity exists in perpetuity to assist our queer siblings in affording college,” Stebbins said. “It gave me so much joy to help him realize his dream by playing a small part in helping it become the first-ever endowed scholarship for LGBTQ+ students throughout the WSU system. I’ll continue to advocate for this scholarship and give to it as I can so that eventually, someday, maybe it can provide a full-ride to someone who needs it most. Education has transformed my life and I want others to have the same opportunity and pathway open to them.”

And his advice for current and future Coug students? “College isn’t just about learning transferrable skills for some dream job,” Stebbins said. “It is also an experience to help you reflect and identify who you are and who you want to be. It is a journey. It will be hard. It will be challenging. Most of all, it will be rewarding. There may be times you might want to give up but I hope you choose to keep going because you are making an investment in yourself.”

Alex Brink, EForce Sports
B.A., WSU Pullman 2007, Sports Management
Alex Brink owns , which he founded in 2015.

What made you want to go into this business?
My passion for sports and working with young people. As a former three-sport youth athlete, I wanted to provide programs that could help athletes develop holistically and reach their goals.

Tell us more about your business.
EForce Sports operates athletic training facilities and sport programs in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Our mission is to holistically develop the total athlete—physically, mentally and emotionally—by providing individualized, comprehensive training programs rooted in the Long-Term Athlete Development Model. EForce Sports is committed to cultivating well-rounded individuals prepared for success both on and off the field. We work with youth (starting at age 7), high school, college and pro athletes of all sports—male and female.

What do you want WSU alumni to know about your business?
EForce Sports provides a fantastic opportunity for young people in Oregon and Southwest Washington to improve their physical, mental and emotional skills. We have four physical locations; Vancouver in Washington; and Beaverton, Milwaukie and Bend in Oregon. A handful of athletes we work with have gone on to play sports for WSU.

What is your favorite thing about being a Coug?
Washington State University is all about family. The people and experiences I had in Pullman are some of the most important in my life. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to go to WSU and experience Cougar Pride.

What do you think about 91�ԹϺ����� being a part of the Southwest/Washington/Portland metro community?
I love that 91�ԹϺ����� is a part of this community and can wave the flag for Washington State University. It means so much to me and all the former alumni to have this campus so close by.

What is the strangest or furthest place you’ve traveled where you randomly met a Coug or heard a Go Cougs?
Florence, Italy.

Please share a favorite memory working on the job or a fun memory of your time at WSU.
It was an honor to play football for WSU and beat the Huskies three times!

91�ԹϺ����� presented its 2025 awards for equity, research, student achievement and teaching excellence at this year’s Commencement ceremony. Each of the following received a Chancellor’s Medallion:

Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity
Praveen Sekhar has devoted his career and his life to ensuring that access and opportunity are recognized, celebrated and advanced on campus and beyond. His commitment to diversity pervades everything he does as teacher, scholar, research scientist, board and committee member, and mentor. He embeds community engagement into his engineering courses. In his research and academic writing, he collaborates with and mentors a wide variety of scholars. He stresses the importance of outreach to make sure more students can pursue STEM degrees. He is an executive board member of iUrbanTeen, a national organization that encourages underrepresented middle and high school students to pursue STEM careers. Sekhar also received the Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence this year.

Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence
Each year, 91�ԹϺ����� gives its highest research honor to recognize a faculty member’s exemplary research quality and quantity as well as positive influence on the broader community. Kristin Lesseig has earned a national reputation in such areas as mathematical argumentation, teacher learning and equity, and her work has influenced how mathematics is taught. Her goal, broadly, is to make math more approachable and help students not to fear it but to become more confident in using math in their everyday lives. Her research also aims to diversify and strengthen the mathematics teacher workforce to better meet the needs of today’s students—a great need in Washington state and elsewhere.

Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement
To her teachers, Faith Yang is a model student, an active class participant who is always prepared with incisive questions. To her mentor at Woodburn Elementary School in Camas, Wash., where she did her student teaching, she is becoming a model teacher as well. Yang grew up in Vancouver and enrolled at 91�ԹϺ����� in 2022, after studying at Clark College and Whatcom Community College. She felt called to become a teacher. True to her calling, Yang displays a curiosity for learning and regularly visits her professors to ask critical questions. She has maintained high grades and is seen as a leader among her peers. In short, her teachers say, Yang is the kind of student who makes classes better.

Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence
Students recognized Praveen Sekhar for this award because of his adaptive teaching style, genuine compassion and unwavering dedication. Students praise his extraordinary commitment to their success and meaningful communication—whether addressing academics or simply ensuring each student receives the support to thrive both inside and outside the classroom. He cultivates an inclusive learning environment, tailoring his approach to each student’s needs with kindness, empathy and mentorship.