WSU Tri–Cities Welcomes New Faculty, Staff as Academic Year Begins

TRI-CITIES, Wash. — Washington State University Tri-Cities has welcomed nine new faculty and staff members this fall.

The new faculty members include Douglas Gast, assistant professor in the fine arts department, and Chayanin Boonpongmanee, assistant professor of nursing.

Gast was most recently an assistant professor of communication and theatre arts at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where he taught both video art and studio design. Boonpongmanee previously served on the nursing faculty at Prince of Songkia University in Southern Thailand.

Also joining WSU Tri-Cities are Todd Garlic, instructor in electrical engineering and computer science; Deborah Seifert, accounting instructor; and Joan Dixon and Annette McClendon, both clinical instructors in nursing.

Eileen Sweeney has joined WSU Tri-Cities as an agriculture research technologist in the viticulture and enology program. Traci Roth is new to campus as an assistant in the mail and copy center. Judith Cox has taken over as Cougar Connections coordinator; her offices are on the Columbia Basin College campus in Pasco, where she was coordinator of early childhood development programs.