Professor Veronica Brock

“This is where I grew up,” says Professor Veronica Brock from her office in O’Connell Sports Complex on Clark’s main campus. “My dad was a professor here, teaching physics and astronomy. I was a student here. I grew up with ‘Penguin blood,’ as we like to say.”

Brock, who recently marked 20 years of teaching at Clark, didn’t intend to follow in her father’s footsteps. After graduating from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania with a Master of Science degree in cardiac rehabilitation and primary prevention, she remained on the East Coast working in cardiac rehabilitation. But gradually she began to realize that she didn’t love the clinical aspects of her work as much as she did teaching patients about their health.

“I’ve always just followed my heart when it came to career and jobs,” Brock says. “Every job I got, I’d say, ‘Oh, I like this aspect of the job—let’s do more of that.’ When I worked in cardiac rehab, I realized my favorite part of my job was the educational element.”

Brock began teaching health and physical education, and when she decided to move back to the Pacific Northwest, taking a position at Clark seemed like a natural fit. “It was a good match for my heart, with this job’s teaching and learning focus,” she says. “And I love the idea that, as an open enrollment institution, we provide an opportunity to everybody. That’s such a cool idea: If you want an education, you can get an education.”

Brock—who teaches health, physical education, fitness trainer, and health and physical education classes—says she loves seeing the changes her students make as they learn to develop new approaches toward their own health.

“In our curriculum, we don’t just want students to change their behavior during the class,” she says. “We want to teach lasting change, and that requires motivation. Motivation is two things: importance and confidence. You have to be able to define why it’s important for you to be doing this, and you have to be able to believe you can do it. If you don’t have motivation, you’re probably not going to stick with any exercise or health practice long-term.”

Brock’s certainly shown long-term motivation to make Clark a stronger institution. She has invested much of herself into Clark—professionally, personally, and financially. She has served on numerous committees, including the Healthy Penguin Nation Committee to promote employee health, and is a regular donor to the Clark College Foundation.

Brock says she began donating to the Foundation when her two children, now teenagers, were enrolled in the college’s Child & Family Studies program as preschoolers, making her family third-generation Penguins.

“My kids are the amazing people they are today because of that program,” she says. “So that really prompted me to give—I could see the program needed support.”

Since then, Brock has donated regularly to the Foundation, which supports capital improvements to the college as well as scholarships and programs to promote academic excellence.

“I like putting my money toward solving problems,” Brock says. “Education is a solution; if you educate the world, the world can change. It’s a very direct way to say, ‘I believe in what I’m doing and I believe in our students.’”

Read Veronica Brock’s Top 10 Tips for a Healthy Lifestyle.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Does getting healthy feel so overwhelming to you that it doesn’t seem worth bothering to start? Health and Physical Education professor Veronica Brock has good news for you. “Just because you’re not eating carrots and walking a treadmill every day, that doesn’t mean you’re not healthy,” she says. “I’d love people to erase all the guilt they have about this, and to have an awareness that health is more than being physically healthy.”

Brock counsels those interested in developing healthier habits to start small. “Focus on baby steps to get to your end goal,” she says, adding that it’s important to clarify what that goal is. “Focus on why it’s important to you. Do you want to play with your grandkids more, or keep up with your own kids? Stay focused on that.”

Top 10 Tips

1. Get adequate amounts of sleep. The exact amount varies from person to person, but eight hours is the average.
2. Drink plenty of water (and no, sugary sodas are not an acceptable substitute).
3. Eat whole, unprocessed foods.
4. Eat primarily plants.
5. Eat mindfully. Be aware of when you’re hungry and not hungry, and don’t just eat on autopilot.
6. Be active at least 150 minutes a week.
7. Don’t sit for more than 30 minutes at a time. “Get up from the keyboard and take a quick walk,” Brock advises.
8. Be grateful. “Research shows gratitude helps with happiness,” Brock says. “Actively look for things to be grateful for in your life.”
9. Cultivate meaning and purpose in your life.
10. Cultivate healthy relationships. “Belong to something. Join something,” Brock advises. “Social connections help us stay healthy mentally, emotionally, and even physically.”

Dolly England

Clark College is pleased to announce that Dolly England, Diversity Outreach Manager, was recently appointed to the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs by Gov. Jay Inslee. As a commissioner for Southwest Washington, England will help shape policy and understanding regarding African-Americans in Washington State.

“Dolly England’s appointment to this important commission is a wonderful example of the important roles Clark College employees play in serving our community,” said Clark College President Robert K. Knight. “I am sure she will bring a wealth of insight and energy to the commission, just as she has done here at Clark.”

England, who has more than 15 years of experience working in community health and is the former vice president of the Vancouver NAACP, joined Clark College in January to help guide the college’s efforts to attract and retain diverse employees. Creating the Diversity Outreach Manager position is just one step in Clark’s effort to ensure the college continues to attract the best and brightest employee candidates. As part of this role, England is leading several efforts to expand and modernize the college’s outreach to potential new candidates. Some highlights of these new outreach efforts include:

• Members of the Clark’s Human Resources staff have begun attending regional community events and career fairs—totaling more than 15 by the end of 2015.
• Human Resources staff will attend national career fairs during the key faculty recruitment period of November – January.
• The college has recently contracted with social recruitment vendor CareerArc to strategically expand its job postings into the realm of social media.
• The college has set an ambitious new goal of ensuring the candidate pool for each new job opening is at least 25 percent diverse, a description which includes race, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, creed, and veteran status.
• Clark College is a participant in the newly formed Southwest Washington Community Human Resources Group, which was developed by local employers to share and develop strategies to diversify recruitment both within their respective organizations and in the region as a whole.

“This is an exciting time for Clark College,” says England. “By expanding our reach and using some of the same tools Fortune 500 companies use to recruit the best and brightest candidates from across the country, we can ensure that Clark is building a workforce that will maintain its high reputation for decades to come.”

Clark College employs 1,600 employees. As a nonprofit Washington State institution, Clark College offers faculty and staff the opportunity to serve the community by guiding individuals to achieve their educational and professional goals. The college also offers many attractive benefits for potential employees, including its location in the heart of the Pacific Northwest; its beautiful, 101-acre campus; access to discounted classes; fitness center membership; on-site child care; ample opportunities for professional development; high-quality teaching facilities; and teaching-focused faculty.

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Professor Michiyo Okuhara helps members of the Japanese Club teach children in Clark’s Child & Family Studies program about kimono in advance of the 2014 Sakura Festival.

Professor Michiyo Okuhara is well aware that students who enroll in her Japanese courses probably have a limited understanding of her home country’s culture.

“They see it in pop culture—anime, manga, Hello Kitty—or sometimes traditional things like samurai,” she says. “In class we don’t focus on animation or comic books. We try to inspire them to learn the language, but also a more complete sense of Japanese culture.”

Ironically, for someone who now teaches Japanese, Okuhara originally came to the United States to learn English. “I studied English in Japan, but I wanted to use it and live it,” she explains. She earned her master’s degree at Portland State University, also getting a certificate to teach Japanese as a foreign language from that institution, and in 1999 began teaching at Clark.

“At the time, the program was very small,” she remembers. “I had four classes a year, just Japanese 101 to 103.”

Today, thanks largely to Okuhara’s efforts, Clark offers two years of Japanese study. The college’s Japanese Club, which Okuhara helped found, is a vibrant and visible presence on the main campus. Okuhara has also been a key organizer of the college’s annual Sakura Festival, and has helped incorporate children from the college’s Child and Family Studies (CFS) program into the event—something she started after her own son, Anthony, graduated from the program’s daycare. (Okuhara’s daughter, Sakura, also has a Clark connection, having earned her associate here before transferring to Western Washington University.)

Okuhara, who received tenure in 2013, says she appreciates the partnerships she’s been able to develop at Clark. “We have great colleagues, great collaboration,” she says. “Like with CFS, and also International Programs are a great support for us. Or when we had a Japanese theater troupe visiting and needed a performance space; [drama professor] Gene Biby offered to let us use his stage. We’re a small department, but with other people’s help, we can do things we cannot do alone.”

This year, Okuhara received 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Award. “This instructor goes above and beyond, helping students outside of class and outside of her office hours,” wrote one student in her nomination. “She not only teaches the language, but she puts forth an extra energy to relate our lessons to Japanese culture. Her knowledge is not only shared to the class, but to the Clark community as well.”

Many of Okuhara’s former students return during Sakura to visit “Okuhara-sensei,” as they call her. Others write her from Japan to tell her about working there. Okuhara cherishes those stories, but feels that teaching world languages helps students even if they never leave their hometown.

“Not everyone gets to major in Japanese or work in Japan,” she says. “But part of what they learn is empathy for other cultures, and maybe patience with people from other countries who don’t speak English. I really enjoy seeing students learn. When they say Japanese is fun—that’s what I hope for.”

Learn about other recipients of the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Awards.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Bakery instructor Alison Dolder shows off some of her students’ work.

Alison Dolder has got to have, hands-down, the best-smelling classroom at Clark College. The Bakery instructor and interim department head spends much of her time guiding students as they work in the program’s lab, which is also a fully functional bakery. Racks of pie shells and biscuits stand by the doorway, and the air is thick with the aromas of butter and sugar. Students in chef’s whites stand at tables, making croissants and baguettes to be sold in the college’s retail bakery in Gaiser Hall.

“The training here is very different from some culinary schools,” says Dolder. “Our students come in, and the very first day they’re put in their station and they’re forming, they’re cutting—everything they’ll be doing for the next two weeks till they switch stations. It’s as close to a production bakery as we can get. When they get out and enter the job market, they don’t require as much training [as other new graduates] because they’re used to the fast pace. They’re ready to jump right in.”

It’s that combination of practicality and enthusiasm—combined with empathy and support—that prompted students to nominate Dolder for the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Award. “I joined the baking program on a whim and it has come to be the greatest decision of my life,” wrote one student in her nomination. “I feel like I can be not only the best baker or the best businesswoman around, but I can be the best of myself at all times, and for that I am grateful. Ms. Alison is so encouraging at times, she is tough at times, she is compassionate at times, and she can challenge you daily.”

Dolder encourages her students to express their creativity, whether it’s through experimenting with whole-wheat croissant dough or designing a steampunk-inspired layer cake.

Dolder came to baking almost by accident. She’d started college as a zoology major, but didn’t enjoy the math and chemistry courses and decided to leave school to regroup. “My husband was going to school full-time and working full-time, and so just as something to do, I took a cake-decorating class,” she says. “It turns out I was really good at it.”

Dolder worked in bakeries and taught cake decoration for more than a decade before deciding to return to school to learn her craft in-depth. Ironically, what appealed to her most was the chemistry involved. “I love how you can take all these ingredients and turn them into something else, something delicious,” she says.

Dolder graduated from Clark’s bakery program in 2000 and quickly landed a job at the nationally known Pearl Bakery in Portland. But while she loved the work, she realized it wasn’t compatible with having two young children. “I was really lucky to work with [former Pearl head baker and current Little T owner] Tim Healea, but it was 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” she says. When a teaching position opened up at Clark, she decided to apply.

Dolder makes sure her students understand the realities of life as a professional baker. “I tell them, ‘Don’t believe everything you see on TV,’” she says. “You know, there’s that illusion that ‘I’m going to start baking cakes and get my own show and be famous.’ Baking is hard work.”

Dolder is happy to have returned to Clark to share her love and knowledge of baking with today’s students. She’s looking forward to doing so in the college’s soon-to-be-remodeled Culinary Arts wing. “It’s so exciting,” she says. “I’m looking forward to introducing a new cohort model for our program in a shiny new facility.” A shiny new facility that, in short order, will probably once again turn into the best-smelling classroom on campus.

Learn about other recipients of the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Awards.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

English instructor Matthew Gallaher.

Matthew Gallaher’s English Composition is winding down for the day. “If you have any last-minute questions, I’ll stick around,” the instructor tells his students, who are broken up into groups to “workshop” their papers with their classmates.

Gallaher sits down near one slump-shouldered student. “How are you doing?” he asks the student. “Do you have questions?”

“No,” sighs the student. “I just wish I had more time.”

“You do have time,” Gallaher responds with a smile. He points to the student’s paper. “This is only a first draft. You’re still going to do a second draft, and then revise it again before handing it in. Don’t give up on this!”

Imagine every possible permutation of the word “encourage,” and it shows up in students’ nominations of Gallaher for the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Award, along with words like “fun,” “sincere,” and “enthusiasm.”

“The largest impact that Matthew has had on his students, and on me personally, is his ability to make students feel important, and that their individual success is valuable,” reads one. “He goes above and beyond to help others, and is encouraging to his students to continue to develop and share their skills.”

Gallaher’s enthusiasm and support led him to be recruited as advisor for Alpha Sigma Phi, the Clark College chapter of the international honor society Phi Theta Kappa that blends academic achievement with public service. After two years in that position, Gallaher is stepping down to focus on teaching, but he says he enjoyed mentoring students as they developed new ways to help their community, including annual food drives and a campaign to reduce and reuse electronic waste.

“I was in Boy Scouts as a kid and an Eagle Scout, and it kind of reminded me of that,” says Gallaher, who earned Phi Theta Kappa’s Paragon Award for New Advisors in 2013.

Much of Gallaher’s work at Clark contains echoes of his early years. “My whole family got their associate degrees,” he says. “My parents both came from working class families and could never have afforded college without community college. I went to community college as a high school student, St. Petersburg College in South Florida.”

Gallaher, who earned his bachelor’s degree from University of South Florida and his master’s in English from Portland State University, says he appreciates the diversity of students he encounters teaching at a community college. “You never know what kind of students you’re going to have,” he says. “There are vets from the last two conflicts, and there are students who have only been in this country a few months. There are older students and students who are still in high school. You get all these people together, and they don’t agree almost ever, and it’s kind of great to hear them get riled up as they hear opinions and viewpoints they’ve never been exposed to before.”

Gallaher says he was honored to discover students had nominated him for the award, especially because he is an adjunct instructor, teaching part-time at Clark and part-time at Portland Community College. “It was surprising and humbling,” he says. “Being an adjunct can be lonely. You don’t quite feel part of the community. Phi Theta Kappa really helped me feel more a part of Clark. And now this is just another way of saying, ‘Hey, you love Clark—and Clark loves you, too.’ That feels good.”

Learn about other recipients of the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Awards.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Biology professor Steven Clark in his office.

Steven Clark’s office is full of animals. There’s the “Cats Against the Bomb” calendar; the poster of the grizzly bear; the woodblock print of a turtle; the vintage Audubon Society birdwatching chart; photos of bees, rodents, spiders, his dogs. The effect is something like walking into a natural history museum that’s been shoved into a filing cabinet.

“This room is reflective of my interests,” says Clark, glancing over at an illustration of wildflowers above his desk. And, indeed, a conversation with Clark is likely to take you through the intricacies of parasitic wasps, the difficulties involved in attaching radio monitors to pond turtles, and a startlingly accurate imitation of a pika—a small, rabbit-like creature whose populations in the Columbia Gorge Clark has been helping to monitor for years.

It’s hard not to look around this room and assume that Clark was destined to be a biology professor. But Clark, who received his Master of Special Education for the Hearing Impaired from Lewis & Clark College in 1986, began his career teaching almost everything but biology at the Washington School for the Deaf.

“I was attracted to the idea of teaching an underserved population,” he says. Eventually, however, Clark found himself drawn to the sciences, and in 2000 he left the School for the Deaf to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Sciences and Resources at Portland State University. For four years, he worked as a field biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife while also teaching mathematics and biology at Clark as an adjunct instructor.

For Clark, teaching at a community college still fulfills that urge to help underserved populations. “There are great teachers at all colleges, I know that, but I think the mission of the community college—to teach the rank and file of our community—I like that,” he says. “My mother never got to go to college. But I used to think that if my mom had gone to college, she would have gone to a community college.”

Professor Clark at a STEM demonstration in 2015.

Clark, who received tenure in 2014, currently teaches the biology sequence for life sciences majors, a three-quarter series that has earned a reputation as a daunting academic challenge.

“It’s funny, because I think of myself as a warm person, but I know my class is often perceived as … rigorous,” Clark says, smiling and pausing as he searches for the right word. “I think some students get nervous at first when I explain the work load. But the reason I talk about it from the very beginning is that I want them to understand what they’re getting into. I invite students from the past year to talk about what worked in getting them to be successful. I’ll tell students to show me their notes so I can see where they’re missing something. And you know, I think by the middle of winter quarter, their [study] habits have gotten better and they’re starting to have fun.”

Clark’s theory is backed up by the many students who nominated him for a 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Award. “Biology may very well be the study of life, but without an enthusiastic instructor it can seem completely lifeless,” reads one nomination. “Steven Clark has somehow managed to maintain a strict and efficient authority over his classroom, while also making it incredibly fun and intriguing. I can honestly say that I have never seen those two concepts, authority and fun, incorporated into a class so well together. … He truly cares for his students, that is abundantly apparent.”

For Clark, his classes’ rigor is one of the ways he shows that he cares. “I like my students to know that they did all their hard stuff at community college, where the focus is on teaching and the tuition is lower and there’s more room to recover from mistakes,” he says. “The best thing for me is when former students email me and say, ‘I’m at Washington State University right now, and me and the other Clark students are in the top tier.’”

Learn about other recipients of the 2014-2015 Exceptional Faculty Awards.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Professor Donald Appert conducts the Clark College Orchestra in 2015 at the end of his 25th year of teaching music at the college.

The award-winning Clark College Orchestra concluded its 2014-2015 season with its annual spring concert on June 14—an event that also served to celebrate Clark Orchestra Director and Conductor Donald Appert’s 25th anniversary at the college. The concert was held at the Royal Durst Theatre in the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics.

Dr. Appert receives a “memory box” full of messages from friends, colleagues, and former students at his 25th anniversary of teaching at Clark. The box was presented by Dean Miles Jackson.

Featured on the program was pianist Renato Fabbro performing the U.S. premiere of Maestro Appert’s Piano Concerto in Mi. In addition the orchestra performed “Buckaroo Holiday” from Rodeo by Aaron Copland and Scheherazade by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.

Clark College Band Director Richard Inouye, Music Department Program Coordinator Shelly Williams, Orchestra Director Donald Appert, and Vocal Music Program Director April Duvic gather to celebrate Prof. Appert’s 25th anniversary of teaching at Clark.

Dr. Appert was honored by the musicians, music department faculty, and college administration for his quarter-century of work at Clark College. Social Science and Fine Arts Dean Miles Jackson paid tribute to Appert after the concert for building the orchestra into a “fantastic program that keeps getting better and better each season.” He also applauded Appert’s commitment to the students in the classroom and in private instruction.

Clarinetist John Gibson, who played at Prof. Appert’s first Clark concert in 1990, returned to perform with him at his 25th anniversary concert on June 14, 2015.

Following the concert, Dr. Appert was further honored by long-time orchestra supporters and friends, as well as by the orchestra’s musicians, in a reception. Among those congratulating him were Kirsten Hisatomi Norvell and John Gibson, two musicians who played in the Clark Orchestra at Dr. Appert’s first Clark concert, which was held on December 5, 1990. Both Norvell and Gibson have played concerts with Dr. Appert throughout the years and performed in the June 14 concert.

Dr. Appert’s programming, which has won national awards through the years, is one of the artistic strengths that has built his reputation at Clark. In addition to programming standard orchestral repertoire, Appert has introduced Clark musicians to rarely performed works by lesser-known composers; premiered new works by contemporary composers; and performed a number of his own compositions. Dr. Appert also has a long history of bringing local, national, and international soloists and guest conductors to enhance the artistic experience of Clark College musicians. The 2014-2015 season featured baritone soloist David Wakeham (Australia) and guest conductor Paolo Biancalana (Italy) in addition to Fabbro, who teaches at the University of Portland.

Music Department Program Coordinator Shelly Williams contributed this article.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Kathleen Fockler smiles after receiving the news that she has received the 2015-2016 Community College President’s Scholarship.

About a month ago, Kathleen Fockler was on the way to a Beaverton testing facility to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), the exam each nursing student must pass before officially becoming a Registered Nurse.

She was ready. It had taken her 20 years to reach this point, but she felt confident that the rigorous coursework of the Clark College Nursing Program had prepared her for the exam. Finally, after years of struggle, she was going to achieve her long-held dream of becoming a nurse.

And then her car broke down.

In the middle of the Route 26 tunnel.

During morning rush hour.

It could have been a disaster. But Kathleen Fockler, age 47, is not someone to submit to defeat. When the tow truck arrived, she persuaded the driver to take both her car and herself to the testing site. She had driven there the week before just to be sure of the route—“I didn’t want to get lost,” she explains—so she was able to direct him there swiftly.

“I got there just a couple minutes after the exam began, and when I explained my situation, they let me go ahead and take the test,” Fockler recalls.

From the beginning, Fockler’s road to becoming a nurse has been beset by unexpected detours and daunting challenges. And each time, Fockler has been able to overcome these roadblocks with a combination of preparation, persistence, and support from those around her. During the 2015 Commencement ceremony, her persistence was rewarded when Clark College President Robert K. Knight announced that she was the recipient of this year’s Community College President’s Award in honor of Val Ogden. This scholarship provides full tuition and fees for two years to a Clark graduate completing their bachelor’s degree at Washington State University Vancouver.

“I still can’t believe it,” Fockler says. “This is an incredible opportunity. A door has just been opened right up for me.”

Fockler began taking pre-nursing courses at Clark in 1994. However, her plans were derailed when her then-newborn son, Gabe, began experiencing seizures and developmental delays. “The timing was not right,” Fockler says. She decided to leave school and concentrate on supporting her son and her daughter, MaKenzie, who was born three years after Gabe.

Fockler held onto her dream even while spending many years working as a paraprofessional assistant in the Evergreen School District Early Childhood Center, helping support children with developmental delays. It was only when Gabe entered Clark through the Running Start program that Fockler felt the time was right for her to return to school as well.

At first, the experience of returning to school after 20 years was intimidating. Courses required online registration—Fockler didn’t even own a computer. But she quickly found the support she needed at Clark.

“The resources that Clark has are tremendous,” she says. “There’s a math lab, there are computer labs, there’s a retention specialist in the nursing department. There’s just so much in place to help the student.”

Fockler is quick to point out another resource that helped her on her journey: the college’s scholarships office. “When I applied to nursing school, I thought, ‘How am I going to do this?’” she recalls. “At the time, I was working two jobs, and I’d heard how demanding the nursing curriculum was.”

But Clark’s scholarship specialists quickly went into action, finding Fockler potential scholarship opportunities and encouraging her to apply. “[Outreach/Scholarship Coordinator] Lizette Drennan was like my cheerleader,” she recalls. “There was a postcard of the scholarship staff that I found, and I stuck it in my binder to remind me about the people who were supporting me. I had a picture of my family, and Lizette’s smiling face.”

2015-2016 Community College Presidential Scholarship recipient Kathleen Fockler takes a moment to hug and thank her nursing professors at commencement.

Fockler also found support from the nursing faculty, who encouraged her to keep going. Fockler gained confidence after working in the program’s state-of-the-art simulation lab, which helped her develop clinical skills before she even began her internship.

That internship proved to be another challenge. From the beginning, Fockler had set her sights on becoming a pediatric nurse working with medically fragile children, a goal formed through her experiences sitting in hospitals with Gabe early on. But Clark’s nursing program had only one pediatric internship opening per cohort.

A faculty member suggested Fockler volunteer at the Center for Medically Fragile Children (CMFC) at Providence in Portland to gain experience. Clark didn’t have an internship partnership set up with the CMFC; these agreements are labor-intensive and highly competitive. But Fockler so impressed the CMFC staff as a volunteer that they decided to create an internship partnership for her. Now, Clark has a regular internship opening at the center.

Throughout her studies, Fockler has shown a tireless work ethic. She went over notes while waiting in her children’s doctor offices. She reviewed cranial nerves while sitting beside her mother’s hospital bed after a surgery. And when Fockler herself had to undergo thyroid surgery, she didn’t skip a class, deciding to simply attend the evening lecture rather than her standard morning one.

“Each day, I try to learn everything I can,” she says.

On top of all that, Fockler found time to regularly volunteer with the Evergreen School District, the CFMC, SHARE House, and the Student Nurse Association of Clark College.

Despite her talent and perseverance, however, Fockler knew there was another huge hurdle standing between herself and her goal. In order to work in a specialized hospital setting like the CMFC, Fockler would need to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. Fockler—who lives in Vancouver with her children; husband, Bunnell; and mother-in-law, Beth LaViolette—has begun working with an in-home nursing care service for medically fragile children. Even so, she couldn’t see how she could afford university tuition for both herself and MaKenzie, who is entering the University of Washington in the fall. Receiving the Community College President’s Scholarship means her way is now clear to continue her education.

Fockler is effusive in her thanks to all the organizations who have provided scholarships to her, including the Clark College Foundation, Vancouver Rotary, and 40 et 8.

“I guess it really does take a village to raise a nurse,” says Fockler, who hopes one day to be able to fund her own nursing scholarship. “The community supported me tremendously, and working hard is my way of paying them back.”

Additional Scholarships

Through the support of the Clark College Foundation, two other finalists for the Community College President’s Scholarship were awarded $3,000 scholarships to continue their education. President Knight announced the scholarships to Julie Mercado and Melanie Brawley during the Commencement ceremony as well.

Photos: Clark College/Hannah Erickson (top) and Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Three outstanding women working in different fields, but with a similar commitment to improving the lives of others in Southwest Washington, are the winners of the 2015 Iris Awards, honoring women of achievement in Southwest Washington.

The awards will be presented to Lisa Schauer, Senior Vice President for Business Development at Mackay Sposito; Lori Pulliam, Director of Transition at the Washington State School for the Blind; and Victoria Bradford, owner of Comfort Interiors and a member of the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors.

Schauer, Pulliam, and Bradford will be honored on March 5, 2015 in Clark College’s Gaiser Student Center. Following a 5 p.m. reception, the awards ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.

Tickets are on sale through the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce at www.vancouverusa.com. The cost is $35 per person; a table sponsorship, which includes six tickets, can be purchased for $250. Seating is limited.

Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps. Anyone needing accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at (360) 992-2314 or (VP), or visit Penguin Union Building room 013, by February 27.

The Iris Awards are a continuation of a tradition of honoring women in Southwest Washington that began in 1985 with a photography exhibit at Clark College. Over the years, the annual event has developed into an official awards ceremony, with a nomination process open to all members of the local community.

The Iris Awards are supported by Clark College, the Clark College Foundation, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and the Vancouver Business Journal, which publishes the “Women in Business” directory, the only Portland/Vancouver metro area directory of businesses that are owned, directed or managed by women. The Iris Award winners will be featured in the 2015 “Women in Business” directory.

The 2015 Iris Award Recipients

Lisa Schauer

Lisa Schauer, standing, goes over spreadsheets at MacKay Sposito.

Lisa Schauer is a Senior Vice President for Business Development at MacKay Sposito. She was the first female partner in the regional engineering consulting firm. As a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee, she is currently responsible for strategically positioning the firm’s business development and marketing efforts. Schauer is well known throughout MacKay Sposito and in the industry for her commitment to people and mentoring, including launching the company’s Veteran’s Council, in 2013 to recognize and support veterans.

Schauer is equally well known through her involvement in the community. She is on the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Center and was a Founding Board Director and is currently the Chair of H-RoC Political Action Committee, a non-partisan group formed to advance women leaders in Southwest Washington. She has served on many other boards and leadership positions.

Lori Pulliam

Lori Pullman working with a member of the LIFT program.

Lori Pulliam has been teaching at the Washington State School for the Blind for 32 years, and currently manages the residential department which provides residential services and education to our middle and high school students, and the LIFTT program, which teaches young adults with visual impairment skills of independent living. Throughout these 32 years she has taught students with deaf-blindness, worked with students from WSSB who were taking classes in the local public schools, taught career education and worked with students in community based work experience placements.

Lori has helped develop programs to improve employment prospects for blind students. She was part of a team that developed the Youth Employment Solutions (YES), a summer career education and work experience program for students with visual impairment. She has been a long time staff member for a summer course for public school educators. Lori has served on boards and commissions in the state. Currently she is serving on the Disability Transition Task Force. Locally she is a member of the Fort Vancouver Lions Club and has given her time to coaching soccer and participating in efforts like the Walk and Knock Food Drive.

Victoria Bradford

Victoria in her interior design shop, Comfort Interiors.

Victoria Bradford is the owner of Comfort Interiors. She bought the interior design business in 2000, and under Bradford’s ownership, the company has won awards in both the Vancouver Parade of Homes and the Portland Street of Dreams.  She is also one of the founders of Pomeroy Equitable Solutions, a company created to give businesses the opportunity to partner with schools to fund needed programs.

Beyond her full-time duties as a business owner, Bradford has served on the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors for the past 15 years. Bradford has served four times as Board President and Vice President, as well as the legislative representative and federal liaison for both the EPS District and the Washington State School Directors Association. The Evergreen Public School District is the fourth-largest school district in the state, and the third-largest employer in Clark County, with more than 27,000 students and an annual budget of over $240 million.  She has been a leader during highs and lows in the district, from the budget cuts of the late 2000s to the opening or remodeling of 15 schools.  A signature achievement was her instrumental role in researching and establishing Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) High, a bioscience and healthcare high school, in the district. Bradford is also a founder of the Quality Schools Coalition of SW Washington.

Bradford is a member of the Vancouver Downtown Association. She is on the Development Committee at The Fort Vancouver National Trust and has parlayed her love of ballroom dancing into best dance honors at the Trust’s 2012 Dancing with the Local Stars competition.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley