Our Vision
Our Mission
Our Team
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Ruth Wardwell, Director of Communications Lana Brown, Associate Director of Communications Sarah Abdurrahman, Communications Officer/Photographer Chris Bishop, Publications Design Manager Travis Congleton, Publications Designer
Mike Garvin, Mailing Assistant |
Betty Linke, Mailing Services Manager Lenel Parish, Senior News Service Officer Keith Raether, Writer Aubrey Stone , Printing Services Assistant Philip Silouan Thompson, Web Content Specialist Amber Woodworth, Communications Operations Manager |
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Ruth Wardwell |
Ruth Wardwell joined Whitman as director of communications in June 2005 after nearly 14 years as director of public relations and news services for Chapman University in Orange, California. Ruth, who is a Chicago native, earned her bachelor's degree in special education from Western Illinois University in Macomb, and for 10 years she worked with mentally and physically disabled individuals. In 1989, after embarking on a second career in public relations, she earned a certificate in marketing communications from the University of California, Irvine, and shortly after that joined the staff at Chapman.
Office: (509) 527-5768 |
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Associate Director of Communications |
Lana Brown serves as editor of Whitman Magazine as well as associate director. She came to Whitman in 2005, after 20 years working at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. At the U-B she was an editor and worked on everything from ad production to page design. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. Her husband, Bob Brown, is the warehouse manager for his family's apple growing and packing operation, Earl E. Brown & Sons, in Milton-Freewater. Their daughter, Stephanie, is a freshman at Weston Oregon University in Monmouth and son Christopher is an eighth-grader at Central Middle School. The family is heavily involved in AAU basketball and other sports activities.
Office: (509) 527-5169 |
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Sarah Abdurrahman |
Sarah Abdurrahman joined the Whitman community in November 2007, bringing skills and experience in design, layout, photography, digital image processing, film production, and working with students. She holds a master's degree in media studies (minor in photojournalism) as well as dual bachelor's degrees in RadioTV/film and middle eastern studies, all from the University of Texas at Austin. As a film student, she developed a keen eye for compelling images, and through the study of photojournalism, she gained expertise in many different facets of photography, from location and studio shooting to digital and darkroom processing.
Office: (509) 527-5969 |
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Chris Bishop |
Chris Bishop '79, publications design manager, serves as lead designer of Whitman Magazine and oversees other major campus publications, including admission, development, and alumni projects. A lifelong local resident, Chris graduated from Whitman with degrees in studio art and education. During the 1980s she worked as a graphic artist and later was director of Carnegie Art Center. Chris and husband Larry Bishop '76 live on a wheat ranch in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. For recreation, Chris practices figure skating and hones her softball skills. Nominated by her colleagues, Chris is a 2005 recipient of the Janice Abraham Award, which recognizes the significant contributions and outstanding service of Whitman staff members.
Office: (509) 527-5769 |
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Travis Congleton |
Travis Congleton, Publications Designer, joined Whitman in March, 2006. He assists Chris Bishop in the design of campus publications and spends most of his time working on posters, brochures and handbooks for the college. Travis graduated from Walla Walla College in 2006 with a major in Graphic Design and loved the Walla Walla area so much he decided to stay. He is originally from Battle Ground, Washington. Travis' hobbies include music, painting, photography, and coffee. On most weekends he can be found downtown drinking coffee with his friends.
Office: (509) 527-5181 |
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Mike Garvin |
Mike Garvin, distribution assistant at Boyer House since 2002, is a Chicago native who considers Walla Walla his hometown. Mike, who retired from the U.S. Post Office after 32 1⁄2 years, brings a world of expertise to his work in distribution services, which handles all of the college's outgoing mail, including FedEx and other special mailings. He and his wife, Burna, have a son, James, and three grandchildren, Kristin, Andrew and Kayla. In his spare time, Mike enjoys reading biographies and other non-fiction books, playing hearts online at Yahoo, and doing crossword puzzles.
Office: (509) 527-5266 |
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Betty Linke |
Betty Linke, manager of distribution services, is a Walla Walla native and Wa-Hi graduate who has worked at Whitman since 1977 and received the Janice Abraham Award for exemplary service to the college in 2004. Betty's career prior to Whitman included several collegiate secretarial jobs she took after studying secretarial science at Eastern Washington State College. Her positions ranged from colleges in Florida to Colorado to Walla Walla, and her most memorable job was as head secretary to the faculty at Florida's Valparaiso College, located in Al Capone's original “compound” by the sea. Betty spends as much time as she can on Oregon's beaches, but when she's at home she enjoys playing golf and working in her rock garden. She and her husband, Don, have a blended family that includes four children and six grandchildren.
Office:(509) 522-1546 |
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Lenel Parish |
Lenel Parish, senior news service officer, gathers and disseminates news and information about the college in a quest to make Whitman a household name from coast to coast. Born in North Hall (many years ago when it was General Hospital), she grew up in Prescott, Washington, majored in journalism at Washington State University, and edited that college's newspaper The Daily Evergreen. She now lives in Walla Walla where she and husband Dewey own and operate the “Zip Zone” on 9th Street. Lenel and Dewey have a blended family of four young adults, and they spend their “spare time” playing with grandson Anthony.
Office: (509) 527-5156 |
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Keith Raether |
Keith Raether, writer in the Office of Communications, came to Whitman in July 2006. He grew up in Pasadena, Calif., and studied English literature at Boston University and the University of California at Riverside, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He worked at newspapers in Albuquerque, Denver, Seattle and Oslo, Norway, and recently received an M.F.A. in writing from Bennington College. He and his wife, photographer Teresa Tamura, are currently collaborating on a book, Made in Minidoka, about the internment in Idaho of Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Office: (509) 527-4917 |
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Aubrey Stone |
Aubrey Stone, printing services assistant, is experienced in customer service and clerical duties as well as in the graphic arts. She is a native of Texas, raised in the countryside near Ft. Worth, and now lives in Dayton with her “beautiful and independent” daughter who attends Berney Elementary School in Walla Walla. Mother and daughter enjoy outdoor activities that include fishing, camping and hiking. Aubrey has traveled the West extensively, and enjoys reading, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends.
Office: (509) 527-5185 |
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Philip Silouan Thompson |
Philip Silouan Thompson came to Whitman in 2004 with a range of Web expertise as well as experience in marketing communications. Phil serves as the primary coordinator of Web-based communications, providing Web development and content posting as well as leadership and strategic planning for existing and future content. In his spare time Phil seeks the perfect cup of Ethiopian Harrar.
Office: (509) 522-4412 |
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Amber Woodworth |
Amber Woodworth, communications operations manager, keeps the Office of Communications running smoothly. From her office in Boyer House, she maintains the department's budget, oversees outsource printing, gathers data and completes numerous surveys about the college, and helps to plan Commencement week and other major events. Amber lives in a farmhouse outside Dayton with her husband, Val, an aerial applicator, and their two teen-age sons. Amber is active in volunteer work in the community, including providing literacy tutoring to adults and running adopt-a-family programs at Christmas.
Office: (509) 527-5160 |
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