Distinguished Alumni and Emerging Leader

2018-2019 | Frank So ’97 For more than a decade, Frank So ’97 has headed up humanitarian and development projects in some of the most impoverished and war torn nations in the world. His humanitarian work includes over four years working in Sudan and Darfur with the United Nations and with USAID, leading post-earthquake reconstruction efforts in Haiti. Frank served in Honduras as USAID Advisor for Justice and Human Rights. He is on the advisory board of the Red Sweater Project, an organization dedicated to developing quality, sustainable, and accessible schools for East African children. He is also advisor for VIDES+USA a Catholic Volunteer Missioner Program.

2017-2018 | Jesyca Durchin Schnepp ’87 has been an entertainment professional since 1991. She worked for Mattel Media, where she produced many of the successful Barbie Software titles, before founding her own companies: Nena Media and Digital Playspace. Her clients have included Mattel Entertainment, Walt Disney Imagineering and Paramount Digital.

2016-2017 |Kelly Fox ’86 graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in nursing. She received a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Washington, is an adjunct professor at the University of Portland, and will complete her doctorate in nursing practice from Yale University in 2017.

2015-2016 |Father Jeff Meeuwsen ’95 is currently pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Aloha, Oregon. He has served at parishes across Oregon and studied at Gonzaga University, Mount Angel Seminary and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

2014-2015 | Marlene Schmidt Duyck ’59 was honored for spending “her entire adult life devoting herself to her family and the church.”

2013-2014 | Dr. Richard Church ’95 was honored for his work as a physician at the University and Memorial campuses of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

2012-2013 | Pamela Martes Olberding ’62 established the Mike Olberding Education Fund in memory of her husband. The fund supports the educational needs of nurses, technicians and other employees at Providence Newberg Medical Center.

2011-2012 | Valley Catholic honored the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon (SSMO) who graduated from the SSMO campus schools.

2011-2012 | Pat Roshak Joyaux ’54 is secretary and registrar at Valley Catholic. Since joining the staff in 1978, she “has helped thousands of students and parents on a daily basis…simply being a posi­tive, helpful person who knows the answers to all the possible questions that come through her office.”

2008-2009 | Mariel Zagunis ’03 is a two-time Olympic champion in women’s sabre.