Alumni

Celebrating WSU authors

Three speakers, including a history alumnus and an English faculty poet, kicked off the WSU Libraries’ “Crimson Reads” event in March 2022. The annual showcase highlights the diverse publishing activity and achievements of WSU authors who have authored, co-authored, or edited a book, including e-books, within the past year. This year’s theme, “Reflections of Home: […]

Alumnus establishes lecture series

A one-time political foe of the late Tom Foley is helping enhance efforts at WSU to promote their shared commitment to public service and productive discourse. Former U.S. Congressman George R. Nethercutt Jr., a Spokane Republican who in 1994 famously defeated Foley, a Democrat and speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has joined

From the verge of suicide to a life of purpose

People look up to former WSU and NBA basketball player James Donaldson (’79 Sociology) in more ways than one. That’s what his first book is about. Standing Above the Crowd explains his strategies for success in athletics, business, and more. A few years after its 2011 publication, though, a series of stressful events changed his outlook. […]

Advancing nutrition for exotic animals

Building on experiences gained at Washington State University, alumnus Troy Tollefson helps black rhinos, giraffes, maned wolves, and other exotic animals live healthier lives in zoos and sanctuaries as an animal nutritionist. After earning a trio of degrees at WSU—bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology in 2002 and 2004, followed by

Getting the ratio right

A high protein diet appears linked to kidney disease and shortened lifespans for captive polar bears, a relationship similarly suspected in humans, according to a review led by WSU wildlife biologist Charlie Robbins. “Zoos made some assumptions in the past about the nutritional requirements of polar bears because their diet is almost exclusively

Book Review: Sugar Birds

When Agate “Aggie” Hayes, a spirited and outdoorsy 10-year-old who sketches birds and climbs trees too high, unintentionally causes a devastating fire, she flees in an inflatable boat and hides out in the backwoods, riddled with guilt, dodging bird dogs, and evading rescue. She survives on cattails, salmonberries, and her own instincts and resourcefulness⁠—until someone […]