Jeanne Firstenburg to Speak at WSU Vancouver Commencement

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Jeanne Firstenburg, chief operating officer and senior vice president of First Independent Bank, will give the keynote address at Washington State University Vancouver’s 16^th commencement ceremony Saturday, May 14.

The 2 p.m. ceremony will be at the Amphitheater at Clark County. Public access to the amphitheater will begin at noon.

Firstenburg joined First Independent Bank in 2002. As CEO, she has executed a plan which directs, administers and coordinates the activities of the organization in support of policies, goals and objectives established by the bank’s president and the board of directors. 

Before First Independent Bank — founded in 1910 and family-owned and operated since 1936 — Firstenburg worked for the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, where she was a bank regulator. She has also worked for a regional accounting firm. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting, magna cum laude, from St. Martin’s College in Lacey. 

Firstenburg serves as a board member for the WSU Vancouver Advisory Council and the Southwest Washington Medical Center’s Foundation.
 
WSU Vancouver will grant more than 700 degrees this year, including 167 master’s degrees. Nearly 40 percent of the undergraduates have achieved honors distinction. WSU President V. Lane Rawlins and WSU Vancouver Chancellor Hal Dengerink will present diplomas during the commencement program, with WSU representatives also in attendance. Jayme Cox, a business undergraduate this year, will sing the national anthem.

The ceremony will also include a number of student, faculty and community awards.

The Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement will be presented to Melissa Huse, who exemplifies a commitment to excellence both in the classroom and in her dedication to her career and family. While pursing a bachelor’s degree in human development, Huse distinguished herself in classes as a student with a high capacity for learning and achievement and will graduate from WSU magna cum laude. She was instrumental in establishing the WSU Vancouver chapter of the national honor society, Kappa Omicron Nu, for students in family and consumer sciences. Aside from being a strong student with natural leadership abilities, Huse has been able to balance the demands of numerous responsibilities. Last fall she was raising a toddler, delivered a second child, finished her undergraduate degree with honors, established an honor society chapter, served as its president and worked a management job for a national retail chain.

The student body will honor Paul Thiers, College of Liberal Arts associate professor of political science, with a Student’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Each year the Associated Students of WSU Vancouver present an award to a faculty member who has made outstanding contributions to student learning, who has taken time out of his or her schedule to help students, has demonstrated an enthusiasm for the subject matter and instills enthusiasm in students. Thiers has demonstrated these things by being accessible to students, whether through e-mail or his offering to drive in on a day off. He is able to explain complicated issues in a way students can understand. Thiers’ brings expertise and enthusiasm to his classes. Respectful of all students and individual beliefs, he teaches without personal bias and shows an interest in the success of his students.

Clayton Mosher, WSU Vancouver faculty member and associate professor of sociology, will receive the 2005 Research Excellence Award. The Research Excellence Award recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement over the past year by a member of the WSU Vancouver faculty. Mosher earned a doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1992 and joined the faculty at WSU in 1995. His research interests include the interactions between race, crime and criminal justice outcomes, inequality in the criminal justice system, and the sociology of drugs and drug policies. He conducts research on the use of torture in the war on terror and researches racial profiling for the Washington State Patrol and Vancouver Police Department. He has published two books, “The Mismeasure of Crime” and “Discrimination and Denial,” and is completing another on drug policies. Mosher has also published widely in sociology and criminology journals.