SOU Ashland alumni awards recipients

Four to receive annual SOU alumni awards

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(Ashland, Ore.) — This year’s Southern Oregon University alumni award winners will be a business lawyer who has conducted an investigation of Las Vegas city officials and managed litigation for a $4 billion real estate firm; a lifelong educator who has written three books and made more than 500 educational presentations; a former legislator who made a film documenting the Klamath River restoration; and an award-winning novelist whose short stories have been featured in various publications.

This year’s four award recipients were chosen by the SOU Alumni Association Board of Directors: Catherine Meulemans for the Distinguished Alumni Award; Sue Teele, Ph.D., for the Alumni Excellence in Education Award; Jason Atkinson for the Stan Smith Alumni Service Award; and Abbigail Rosewood for the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. The awards will be presented during a celebration at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 2, in the Schneider Museum of Art. RSVPs at (541) 552-6127 are required.

Meulemans
The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented each year by the university and the SOU Alumni Association to recognize someone whose personal and professional achievements have significantly benefited humankind and brought distinction to the university. This year’s honoree, Catherine Meulemans, graduated magna cum laude from SOU in 1985 after serving as an exchange student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She earned her law degree from Georgetown University, then co-founded a multi-state boutique law firm that specialized in complex business litigation, real estate and civil appeals. She conducted a high-profile investigation of several Las Vegas city officials on behalf of the Office of the Nevada Attorney General, and managed the litigation portfolio for a $4 billion privately held international real estate brokerage. Meulemans is now the utilities team co-leader in the San Francisco office of Frost Brown Todd, a firm with law offices across the U.S.

Teele
The Alumni Excellence in Education Award recognizes career achievement in education, service to community and commitment to SOU. Sue Teele, who will receive this year’s award, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands in Southern California, then received her teaching credentials from the University of Alaska before accepting a teaching position in Medford and enrolling in a graduate program at what was then Southern Oregon College. She received her master’s degree in 1969, taught at the junior high level for 11 years, then spent 36 years as a higher education administrator – first at California State University, San Bernardino, and then at the University of California, Riverside. She was responsible for 50 different educational certificate and state approved credential programs that served 12,000 educators annually while at Riverside. Teele has written three books on teaching and learning, and developed an assessment tool, the “Teele Inventory for Multiple Intelligence (TIMI),” which has been used in throughout the U.S. and in dozens of other countries to quickly identify how students learn.

Atkinson
The Stan Smith Alumni Service Award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the community and service to people. Jason Atkinson earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science at what was then Southern Oregon State College in 1992, then a master’s degree in business administration and public administration at Willamette University. He started a consulting business, then was elected to the Oregon Legislature – first the House of Representatives and then the Senate. He took a sabbatical to make the film “A River Between Us,” documenting the Klamath River restoration, and ultimately worked on the project for three decades before dam removals began in 2022. Atkinson has been recognized as one of the top 20 most influential fisherman of the West, served as a commissioner for the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, and was named a hero of conservation by Field and Stream.

Rosewood
The Distinguished Young Alumni Award is presented to a recent university graduate who has demonstrated distinction in career, civic involvement or both. Abbigail Rosewood received her bachelor’s degree at SOU in 2013, focusing on creative writing, then earned her master of fine arts degree in fiction from Columbia University in 2017. She won the Michael Baughman Fiction Award while at SOU. She has written numerous essays, reviews, articles and creative works for online and print publications. Her debut novel, “If I Had Two Lives,” was published in 2019 by Europa Editions and her second novel, “Constellations of Eve,” was published in 2022 by Texas Tech University Press. Her works have appeared in publications including TIME Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon, Elle U.K, Pen America, BOMB and Cosmopolitan. Rosewood has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best American Short Story 2020, and she won first place in the Writers Workshop of Asheville Literary Fiction contest.

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SOU's Sojka and de Vries co-author book on transgender experiences

SOU faculty members co-author book on transgender experiences

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(Ashland, Ore.) — SOU’s Carey Jean Sojka and Kylan Mattias de Vries – both faculty members in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program, and both previous recipients of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award – have co-authored a new book about the identity experiences of transgender people.

The book, “Transgender Intersections: Race and Gender through Identities, Interactions and Systems of Power,” was published last month by Polity Books, an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities – often on topics with general readership and that draw media discussion. The company has offices in Cambridge and Oxford in the U.K., and in Boston and New York in the U.S.

“While transgender lives are at the forefront of contemporary politics, what do we really understand about the complexity of trans experience?” the publisher asks on the new book’s webpage. “Trans people who go through various aspects of gender transition experience shifts not only in their gender, but also with regards to other categories of identity such as race, social class, sexuality, disability and more.

“Centering the stories of trans people and their loved ones, Sojka and de Vries investigate how intersectionality operates at various levels of social meaning – the individual, the interpersonal and the structural – in the experiences of transgender people.”

Reviews of the book say it effectively captures the breadth of trans experiences and social connections through the stories it shares of transgender people and their loved ones.

“In a time of hostile stereotyping of trans groups by right-wing politicians and media, it is refreshing to meet the reality, clearly presented: complex lives, shaped by the whole spectrum of differences and relations of power across the contemporary USA,” Raewyn Connell of the University of Sydney said in an online review.

Sojka is an associate professor whose research and teaching interests include transgender studies, embodiment, gender, sexuality, race, disability and fat studies. She conducts community trainings on LGBTQ issues in southern Oregon. Sojka earned bachelor’s degrees from Luther College in Women & Gender Studies and Sociology. Her master’s degree in Women’s Studies and doctorate in Sociology are from State University of New York at Albany.

de Vries is a professor with a joint appointment in the GSWS and Sociology & Anthropology programs at SOU. His academic interests include inequalities, transgender studies and social psychology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication at Antioch University Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree and doctorate in Sociology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Sojka received SOU’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020, and de Vries received the award in 2017. Sojka and de Vries co-chair SOU’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program.

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SOU's Noah Horstman on Golf Digest list

SOU’s Horstman makes Golf Digest list

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Noah Horstman, head coach for the SOU men’s and women’s golf teams, has been included in Golf Digest’s listing of “Best Teachers in Every State for 2026-27,” as voted by golf-instructing peers.

Horstman, who operates the Golf Garage in Phoenix in addition to his SOU coaching duties, is one of eight instructors included in Golf Digest’s list for Oregon. He was picked in 2022 to build the SOU men’s and women’s teams as the programs’ first head coach.

He graduated from South Medford High School and Pacific University – where he was an All-Northwest Conference golfer – and has earned a variety of awards for golf instruction. He is a recipient of the Pacific Northwest PGA Youth Player Development Award, and has been named a Top 50 US Kids Coach and a Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional by the Golf Range Association of America.

Horstman was head coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Willamette University from 2009-13, taking them from last place in their conference to top-25 teams at the NCAA Division III level.

He then served as the director of instruction and player development at Beechmont Country Club in Cleveland, Ohio, for six years – four times being listed as Golf Digest’s Best Teacher in the State and twice being named Northern Ohio Section PGA Teacher of the Year. He returned in 2019 to the Rogue Valley, where he chose Phoenix as the location for his Golf Garage – a membership instruction and fitness facility. It offers 24-hour key-card access, fitness coaching, Pilates, Oregon’s largest indoor putting green and golfing resources such as swing coaches and mental training programs.

Horstman is one of just two golf instructors from outside of the Portland area who were named to this year’s “Best Teachers” list for Oregon by Golf Digest.

SOU embraces energy resilience with new solar projects

SOU expands solar and energy resilience footprint

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University has embraced its role as an energy resilience leader in the region – supporting both the SOU community and the surrounding community – by completing two new solar arrays and installing its first battery system for energy storage. The moves edge SOU closer to its goal of generating 100% of the daytime electricity needed on campus.

The two most recent arrays – at Lithia Motors Pavilion and The Hawk Dining Commons – added a total of 402 kW (241.2 Lithia and 160.9 Hawk) of capacity and include SOU’s first battery-based storage system, providing both renewable generation and resilience benefits.

Battery storage for energy resilience at SOU AshlandThe projects were installed by Ashland-based contractor True South Solar as part of SOU’s first round of funding from the Oregon Department of Energy Community Renewable Energy Program. Additional support for the Hawk projects came from SOU’s Student Green Fund and a state sustainability allocation for its four technical and regional universities.

“It was great to work with local solar installer True South Solar on such significant project for SOU – the largest solar array in City of Ashland (on Lithia Motors Pavilion) as well as SOU’s first battery energy storage system,” said Becs Walker, SOU’s Director of Sustainability. “True South competitively bid for the contract and have installed a number of arrays on campus.”

Walker said the most recent projects “focus on strengthening emergency response infrastructure,” as SOU works with the city of Ashland, the Ashland School District and Jackson County to plan for potential disasters or crisis events.

“We are positioning SOU as a leader in energy and community resilience,” she said.

Walker, True South Solar representatives, facility management employees and economics faculty member Bret Anderson – who also serves as research director for SOU’s Institute for Applied Sustainability – conducted a recent test of the new solar and energy-storage facilities at The Hawk Dining Commons. External power to the building was shut down, and the dining hall’s basic components – lighting, one cooler and one cooking area – instantly powered back up by drawing from the solar array. The energy storage batteries will power the same essential components through the nighttime hours.

SOU now has 10 solar arrays on its campus, totaling 804.21 kW of capacity, in addition to one array on the Higher Education Center in Medford and six pole-mounted STrackers located on land leased to a nonprofit. Three of the on-campus arrays support net-zero buildings, underscoring SOU’s commitment to deep decarbonization and long-term energy savings.

SOU has been awarded $5.8 million in state and federal funding in recent years to support energy generation and energy resilience on campus – three $1 million grants from the state’s Community Renewable Energy Program, a $2 million congressional appropriation and $800,000 through an allocation from the Oregon Legislature for Sustainability Funding at Oregon’s Technical and Regional Universities.

Part of the $2 million federal appropriation will be used this year launch a new Community Resilience and Leadership (CRL) Student Fellows Program – the flagship curricular initiative of SOU’s Institute for Applied Sustainability (IAS). The fellowship program is being developed in partnership with academic programs and departments across campus to link the university’s solar infrastructure with its academic offerings around sustainability. It will prepare emerging leaders from all majors to strengthen communities and respond to the challenges of wildfire, extreme heat, smoke and other climate-related disruptions.

The year-long student fellowships will combine coursework, field experience and career pathways, and will offer mentorship, professional skill development, experience working on regional challenges and stipends to support students’ participation.

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Philanthropy accounts for second-highest total ever in 2025

Fiscal year 2025 among best for SOU philanthropy

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University continued its historic fundraising run in fiscal year 2025, raising $14.17 million.

The philanthropic total for FY25 is the second-highest annual total ever raised for the university; in fiscal year 2023, the university raised more than $19 million, including $10 million from Lithia Motors and Green Cars.

“We’re generating momentum for the future of the university, and we are seeing that play out each year,” said Janet Fratella, SOU’s Vice President for University Advancement and Executive Director of the SOU Foundation.

Strong engagement with SOU alumni and solid campus partnerships were two of the keys to success for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The year’s gifts increased support for SOU’s academic core, including projects for faculty, student affairs and athletics. More than $4 million is earmarked specifically for scholarships.

Projects that will be funded by recent commitments include a new kitchen at The Farm at SOU, scholarships and new mentors for students in the University Coaching & Academic Mentoring (UCAM) program, a new fleet of mountain bikes for the Outdoor Adventure Leadership program, a new international exchange program with a university in the African country of Ghana, a new piano lab and vocal isolation sound booth, marimba music performances, support for students in STEM summer research programs, and new faculty fellowships in SOU’s Education, Music and STEM programs.

SOU received gifts from more than 4,000 donors during FY25 – the first time that milestone has been reached.

“Our long-term goal is to ensure that all our donors have an exceptional experience and that they continue their support,” Fratella said. “Our SOU donors are pivotal to the success of the university, as philanthropy creates a level of excellence that state dollars alone cannot provide.”

Fratella also said that many donors are supportive of the university’s current efforts to “right-size” and rebuild the institution to be financially stronger and more capable of withstanding periodic budget issues.

“Our donors are standing by us,” she said. “Our goal is to reshape SOU to be a more resilient university.”

Fratella also noted that the SOU Foundation Board of Trustees – the separate, university-affiliated foundation – have been in lock-step in helping SOU achieve its goals.

“I commend the foundation trustees, who are personally giving of their time, talent and treasure to ensure that the university is well positioned for the future,” she said.

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