WSU Vancouver Faculty Receive Promotions

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Washington State University Vancouver has promoted six faculty members to administrative positions. 

Jane Cote, associate professor of accounting, has been named interim director of business; Dawn Doutrich, associate professor of nursing, has been named interim director of nursing; Candice Goucher, professor of history, has been named director of undergraduate studies; Suzanne Smith, associate professor, has been promoted to associate chair and director of the human development department; Steven Weber, associate professor of anthropology, has been named interim assistant director of liberal arts; and Amy S. Wharton, professor of sociology, has been named interim director of liberal arts.

Cote has been a member of the WSU Vancouver faculty since 1993. Her primary teaching interests are managerial accounting and governmental, not-for-profit accounting. Her research emphasizes financial and nonfinancial performance measurement and the issues that arise in interorganizational relationships. Cote has served on various boards and committees for the Clark County YWCA for the past 11 years and is the 2004 recipient of the Athena Foundation Award, presented by the not-for-profit group Women in Action. 

Doutrich teaches in the community masters program. Her research interests include cultural competence in nursing, workforce diversity and cross-cultural nursing ethics, specifically in the area of values differentiation. She is involved in the Nurse Educator Grant and in a collaborative research project called “Professional Values of Hispanic Nurses Practicing in the U.S.”  She is also performing a collaborative research study with local nursing leaders to explore the current and future curricular competencies related to nursing leadership in practice.  

Goucher is a lead scholar of the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting multimedia project “Bridging World History,” which prepares secondary- and higher education teachers to teach history more effectively and from a global perspective. The 26 videos and interactive Web site integrate chronological and thematic approaches to world history, creating a framework that allows for a better understanding of different cultures and nations through the ages.  

Smith’s research covers parenting and family relationships, as well as the effect of chronic illness on the ability to parent. She has studied the role of grandparents as primary caregivers and is conducting field research on the family and parenting patterns of the Hutterites, an Anabaptist religious group that live communally throughout North America. Smith is a past recipient of the Student’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She speaks nationwide about her research and classroom pedagogy. 

Weber has worked on archaeological excavations in the United States and abroad for nearly 30 years. He is working on projects in South Asia and in Vancouver (Wash.). His recent research has focused on the Indus Civilization of India and Pakistan, an urban culture that existed circa 2600 B.C.  His latest book on this work, “Indus Ethnobiology: New Perspectives from the Field,” came out in 2004.  Much of Weber’s research focuses on subsistence strategies in relation to material culture and settlement systems.

A WSU faculty member since 1987, Wharton’s interests include organizational demography, gender and racial stratification in the workplace, emotional labor and the intersection of work and family. She is the author of “The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to Theory and Research” and the editor of “Working in America:  Continuity, Conflict, and Change.”  Wharton is also editor of the social science journal “Social Problems.” 

Additional information on WSU Vancouver faculty research can be viewed online at http://www.vancouver.wsu/research/overview.htm. WSU Vancouver offers 15 bachelor’s and eight master’s degrees in more than 35 fields of study. The campus is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205.