
Five Questions: Stephanie Johnson, Dean of the College of Liberal Studies
What does liberal studies mean to you? To be liberally educated quite simply means to be educated broadly and generously, without restriction and the College of Liberal Studies is at the heart of this education at PLU. The foundation of liberal studies extends back to…

Inspired by Students to Serve
As Amy Siegesmund sat in her office in the Rieke Science Center, the gray and drizzle of a Washington December afternoon hanging over the day, she couldn’t help but feel joy. Across from her sat two students who had just finished her “Intro to Microbiology”…

Wellbeing Services & Resources: The Living Room at the Heart of Student Wellbeing
In many ways, WSR’s cozy living room is the center of it all: a space where needs surface, support shows up, and no one has to figure it out alone. “We act fast, like the Avengers,” says Eva Frey ’95, PLU’s dean of students and…

How I built my life while fighting for it
It all started with a golf ball-sized bump on my neck. During winter break of my freshman year, I was travelling to Mexico to visit family when I noticed I couldn’t move my neck. The discomfort was excruciating. I thought it was a knot. I…

ResoLute Fall 2025 Opening Note
“Educating for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care, — for others, for their communities, and for the Earth.” My guess is you started reading that and you immediately were brought back to a favorite memory of your time at PLU. Lutes know the…

Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Brice Johnson ’99 finds vocation in Red Cross leadership. Two neighborhoods in St. Paul, Minnesota share streets and a zip code. Interstate 94 runs down the middle, and since the freeway’s construction in the 1950s, the life expectancy between Summit Hill and the historically Black…

Committed to Kuleana
Cheri Souza’s philanthropy leadership is motivated by the responsibility she feels to serve her Hawaiian community. When Cheri Souza ’01, MBA ’03 first stepped onto campus at Pacific Lutheran University, the undergraduate from Hawai‘i could not have imagined her future would include redefining philanthropic efforts…

Parkland’s Advocate
Jani Hitchen ’96 has lived in Parkland for more than 30 years. “I moved here to go to PLU and never left,” she says with a chuckle. Hitchen majored in education and enjoyed a long career teaching in Lakewood’s Clover Park School District and Spanaway…

Parkland’s University: PLU and Parkland share history, common bonds and a vibrant future
PLU President Allan Belton is a morning person. He’s frequently among the first employees to arrive at the Hauge Administration Building, but not before his morning cup of joe. His favorite coffee stand is on South Tacoma Way, the seven-mile arterial that is the economic…

From Eastvold to Broadway: Justin Huertas ’09 and Kiki deLohr ’10 debut on musical theater’s biggest stage
It’s 11 a.m. in Harlem. Justin Huertas ’09 and Kiki deLohr ’10 are feeling loose, relaxed — even a bit silly — as they sip coffee outside Sugar Hill Café. In a few short hours they will make their off-Broadway debuts in a musical written…

The People’s Librarian: Brian Bannon’s passion for democratizing information led him to the New York Public Library
In 1997, Brian Bannon was a PLU senior. An exemplary student, he wrote for The Mast, and was a double major researching social justice through the lens of queer rights movements. One afternoon, Bannon found himself in the office of history professor Beth Kraig, discussing…

Saving the World with a Starship
On day one of PLU Professor of Mathematics Daniel Heath’s Designing a Starship class, students have no idea what they have signed up for — and that’s exactly how Heath wants it. The course is part of PLU’s International Honors Program (IHON), which means it…