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Andy Saultz, PhD, interim dean of the College of Education, has received a $50,000 research grant award from the Spencer Foundation for the project “Innovations in Measuring, Analyzing, and Discussing Race and Racial Inequality in Education Research and Journalism.” Pacific will collaborate with the Northwest Evaluation Association on the project.

The Pacific MFA in Writing is thrilled to toast faculty writer Chris Abani on the selection of his collection Smoking the Bible as the 2023 UNT Rilke Poetry Prize winner, which recognizes a book written by a mid-career poet that demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision.

MFA faculty Chris Abani is among the finalists for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. This prestigious prize recognizes significant contributions to world literature and has a history as a lead-up to the Nobel Prize in Literature.

51���� Professor Erica Kleinknecht, who teaches undergraduate psychology, has been awarded the Western Psychological Association’s Outstanding Teaching Award. The award was conferred April 28, 2023 at  the association’s annual convention in Riverside, Calif.

Spanish-speaking people who have a problem curbing their impulses to gamble may soon benefit from a more culturally customized app being developed by Leo Bobadilla, a professor in 51����’s Graduate School of Psychology.

Nonfiction writer Kao Kalia Yang and poet Shara McCallum, both of whom teach in 51����’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program, each have been awarded 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships.

MFA Faculty Kao Kalia Yang and Shara McCallum Awarded 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships

51���� Choral Director and Professor Scott Tuomi was honored with The John C. McManus Distinguished Teacher Award in January by the Oregon Music Education Association. 

Public Health Assistant Professor Adelle Monteblanco has been recognized as one of 15 Emerging Scholars-nationally for 2023 in Diverse Issues In Higher Education. Learn more about her research, which focuses on inequality as it pertains to extreme heat and examining its health impacts on vulnerable populations.

Dr. Andy Saultz has been appointed interim dean of the 51���� College of Education starting July 1, 2023.

Professor Amy Coplen, the director of 51����’s School of Dental Hygiene Studies, was named the University of Michigan’s 2022 Dental Hygiene Alumna of the Year Award .

MFA faculty poet Shara McCallum's sixth book, No Ruined Stone, has won the 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award. The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation’s Annual Legacy Awards Ceremony honors the best in Black literature in the United States and around the globe.