Southwestern Oregon Community College welcomes seven new faculty members, Oct. 13

Southwestern Oregon Community College is happy to welcome seven new full-time faculty members to campus. All seven began their new full-time teaching positions at the start of fall term. Please meet the new members of the Southwestern family: Chelsea Clemens, Tenure Track Welding Instructor – Chelsea Clemens is from the Coos Bay area and most recently was employed at Sause Brothers. Chelsea earned her associate’s degree in welding and fabrication from Southwestern and we are very proud to be hiring one of our own Lakers! During her student years here, she was a welding program assistant. In addition, Chelsea also completed five terms at Portland State University. Chelsea is an accomplished horsewoman as well as skilled welder. Edward Russell Cole, Adjunct Anthropology Instructor – Russell Cole grew up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. He attended Lafayette College where he graduated cum laude. He was awarded an assistantship from the sociology program at the State University of New York at Albany. He completed his PhD in 2010. Russell lives with his and girlfriend, Shannon, and his one-year-old border collie, Weber. Robin S. Finney, Visiting Rural Health Aide/Nursing Assistant Instructor – Robin, along with her husband and five children, has lived in Coos Bay for over ten years and is a native of Southern California via Denver, CO. She graduated from the nursing program at Southwestern in 2007 with an Associates in Nursing, completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Linfield College and is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Nursing at the University of Mary, ND. She has worked as a RN at Bay Area Hospital for the last eight years and maintains an on-call position there currently. She has also recently completed national certification as a wound nurse specialist. Robin has been working as part-time faculty at Southwestern teaching clinical rotation with the nursing program since 2012 and is very excited to be at the College full-time. Tasha Livingstone, Tenure Track Forestry Instructor – Tasha Livingstone has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in forestry from Oregon State University, along with two years of forestry teaching experience at OSU and Southwestern. She also taught internationally and has four summers work experience with the Bureau of Land Management. Livingstone was on the job this summer, teaching high school students in the Summer Bridge program, a partnership with the Coos Watershed Association, Ford Family Foundation and Pacific Power. She grew up locally, graduating from North Bend High School, and in her spare time is writing a sci-fi fantasy trilogy. Karen Pederson, Tenure Track Medical Assistant Instructor – Karen Pederson has been a non-traditional nurse for 35 years, working in industry and in the medical field. She holds a Bachelor’s in Nursing and Minor in English Literature from Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, IL. Much of Karen’s nursing and work experience has been based on quality assurance no matter what aspect of nursing she happened to involved in at the time. So whether it was on a hospital unit, home care, evaluating a nursing home, or evaluating how a medical device or drug was being used in the US vs. a developing country, it was based on quality control: setting standards, identifying what was wrong and creating new systems to improve and correct the system. Karen and her husband Ken moved here from Wisconsin, land of rolling gentle hills and lots of delicious cheese. They have recently added a rescue dog, Abbie, to the household. Tony Peters, Tenure Track Fire Science Instructor – Tony relocated to Coos Bay from Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he has spent the last two years working on curriculum development for fire protection publications. He brings three years of teaching experience at the Dept. of Defense Fire Academy in Texas. Tony also served as a firefighter at Fairchild AFB for four years. He is a proud Air Force veteran. He is originally from Coos County and is happy to come home to Oregon. His wife, three children, and two dogs will join him later in the year. Tony is an avid cyclist and will be exploring the coastal trails of Coos County. Mike Thomas Springer, Chemistry Instructor – Dr. Springer grew up in Reno, Nevada and attended the University of Nevada, Reno where he obtained bachelor’s degrees in the fields of philosophy, biology, and chemistry. In 2014, Mike graduated with a Ph.D. in Materials and Nanoscience and a College Teaching Certificate from the University of Colorado at Boulder. His doctoral dissertation describes the design and synthesis of novel materials for flexible solar cells. Dr. Springer was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA before accepting a position at Southwestern Oregon Community College. In his free time, Mike enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his wife, Camille, and son, Felix.