Advisory Board & Scholarship Committees

Ryan Booth specializes in the history of the US in the nineteenth century and early twentieth up to World War I. His two primary interests are in Indigenous and military history. Dr. Booth teaches the early US history survey to 1877, Civil War & Reconstruction, US military history survey, and courses for history majors. He is also part of the WSU Native Programs faculty and teaches a special course for the Tribal Nation Building Program, which focuses on the training of future tribal leaders. As a PhD student, he spent most of the 2019-2020 academic year as a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow based in Kolkata, India. Dr. Booth (Keahu) is a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe in NW Washington.

Kimberly Carper is Adjunct Faculty in the School of Hospitality Business Management and a human relations consultant at KC HR Consulting, LLC. She was was a Fulbright teaching assistant in 1991-1992 in the Herault region of France. She was placed in two schools along the Mediterranean, teaching middle schoolers English and American culture. After having spent much of her career in strategic HR positions with Hyatt Hotels, Washington Mutual (now Chase Bank), and Expedia, she now serves as a human resources consultant to small firms that cannot afford a full-time HR employee. She hires the police and fire departments for the City of Pullman and works with individuals on résumés, cover letters, interviewing skills, and other job search techniques. In addition, Ms. Carper has taught in the Carson College of Business and is a frequent guest speaker for the WSU Alumni Association.

Until his retirement in September 2026, Larry Clark served as the Associate Director for Content Development for Washington State University’s central communications and marketing division, as well as the editor of the award-winning Washington State Magazine, the alumni, research, and general interest magazine for Washington State University. He has additional experience working in public relations, political communication, and policy analysis.

Colin Criss is an Associate Scholarly Professor in the Honors College. He has a degree in sociology from Harvard and an MFA in poetry from Washington University in St. Louis. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, the Irish Times, and in many other places. Colin is the Fellowships Advisor for the Honors College, and is Faculty Editor of the Palouse Review.

William Davis serves as the Vice Provost for Accreditation and Education Policies and is an Associate Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences. Dr. Davis has been a member of the Fulbright Campus Review Committee since 2020. In addition, he has participated in multiple sessions designed to help WSU applicants become more competitive as they consider nationally competitive awards. He earned his Ph.D. at Northwestern in Chemistry and was the Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at Technical University of Munich from 1999-2001.

Lisa Gloss, an Associate Professor in the WSU School of Molecular Biosciences, has a breadth of experience in research, teaching, and mentorship. She was interim and then dean of the WSU Graduate School for five years. Dr. Gloss has published 38 peer-reviewed publications and four highly cited reviews, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH), the American Cancer Society and the American Chemical Society. In addition to mentoring students in her lab, she strives to bring innovative approaches to the classroom in teaching over 1000 undergraduate and graduate students in 28 years at WSU. Gloss’ academic credentials include a B.S. degree in microbiology from Michigan State University, an M.Phil. in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and post-doctoral research in biophysics at Pennsylvania State University.

Jaclyn Gotch serves as the Program Coordinator for Washington State University’s Office of Undergraduate Research. Prior to this role, she was the Administrative Assistant in an academic department at the University of Idaho, served as the Editorial Assistant for the NASSP Bulletin, and was a Career Advisor with Career Services at WSU. In addition, she served as a Board Member with the Friends of Neill Public Library for over 12 years.

Lauren Hudson graduated from WSU in 2022, with degrees in biology and French and was selected as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) to Vietnam for the 2022-23 academic year. In 2023, she was the first individual in the Vietnam ETA cohort to be invited to return for a second year. In 2023-24, Ms. Hudson was placed in Hanoi, still teaching, but also working with the American Center and Fulbright programs.

Elizabeth (Becky) James is the Assistant Director of Research Development within the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. James supports grant proposal applications across the college, from initial preparation to final submission. She has eleven years of experience with the CAS Grant and Fellowship Support team and previously with the Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships. She has served on the WSU Fulbright Campus Review Committee since 2021.

Holly LaHann is an Advisor for the Distinguished Scholarships Program.

Dr. Nicholas Lovrich is the Regents Professor Emeritus and Claudius O. and Mary W. Johnson Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. Dr. Lovrich served as the director of the Division of Governmental Studies and Services for more than three decades. In recent years, he has assisted with multiple interview preparation sessions for WSU distinguished scholar applicants.

Dr. Keri McCarthy is Professor of Oboe and Music History at Washington State University, and has cultivated an international reputation as a chamber musician, soloist, teacher, and clinician. In 2011, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Bangkok, Thailand, researching connections between Thai traditional and contemporary music, commissioning Thai and Malaysianf composers, and performing new works with professional oboists in the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. A tireless advocate for Fulbright programs, Dr. McCarthy serves on the WSU Fulbright Academy, the Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho Fulbright Association Chapter and has participated as a Fulbright Campus Review Committee member for several years.

Julia Pomerenk recently retired after a 40-year career as an administrator in higher education. Julia served as University Registrar at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), Washington State University, and the University of Oregon. Throughout her career, Julia enjoyed active participation within her professional associations, at the state, regional and national level. She served on the AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) Board of Directors and as President of PACRAO (Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers). Julia’s favorite professional experience was leading the PACRAO Leadership Development Institute as its inaugural dean. Julia earned her bachelor’s degree in English from PLU and her master’s degree in English from The Ohio State University.

Travis Ridout is the Director of the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at Washington State University. He has been named Claudius O. and Mary W. Johnson Distinguished Professor and is considered one of the country’s leading authorities on the topic of political advertising. Dr. Ridout serves as co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which studies and tracks political advertising. In 2023, he served as a Fulbright Scholar at Monash University in Melbourne.

Rachel Sanchez serves as a Teaching Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Composition with the WSU Department of English. Ms. Sanchez has taught both composition and technical and professional writing courses. She has worked as a specialist at the Writing Program and has served as a member of the Fulbright Review Committee for six years.

Petie Schill is an International Student and Scholar Advisor, helping the WSU international community navigate U.S. immigration regulations. Her background spans foreign languages, international relations, and immigration work, including working for an Italian language study abroad program in Rome and researching Uganda’s refugee framework for the U.S. State Department. Petie has lived in Spain, Italy, and Romania and served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Kenya, where she taught high school classes, led workshops on technology and democracy, and initiated a school library. She has also served as an application evaluator for the State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship.

Jill Shafer has been in the field of higher education since 2000. Before coming to WSU Pullman in January 2018, she taught and advised at the University of North Dakota in Multicultural Education and English Language Learner coursework. She has worked in Uzbekistan and Rwanda and carried out trainings in Malaysia, Philippines, Ethiopia, and the DRC. Dr. Shafer now serves as an academic advisor for the WSU program in Data Analytics and holds a Ph.D. in Adult and Extension Education from Texas A&M University, College Station, an M.S. in Health Care Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Richard Shafer is an Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota and taught for WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication before joining the staff of the Graduate Writing Center. He has served as a visiting journalism and mass media professor and consultant worldwide since his first Fulbright fellowship in 1989. He has lectured and conducted workshops and seminars for the U.S. State Department and numerous international foundations in more than 40 countries and worked at more than 100 international universities as a journalism and research writing instructor. Most recently he was a visiting professor in Rwanda and Ethiopia, and he serves as a College Board Advanced Placement essay exam reviewer for US History. Dr. Shafer received a second Fulbright Fellowship in 2021 to establish a writing center in western Uganda.

Sydney Smith is a Political Science PhD Candidate with the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at Washington State University and was a Fulbright Schuman Student Researcher to the European Union in 2025-2026, based in both Croatia and Slovenia. While in Zagreb, Croatia she was affiliated with the University of Zagreb and while Ljubljana, Slovenia she was affiliated with the University of Ljubljana. Sydney is a member of the Gender Equality Policy in Practice Network (GEPPN) and is an editor for KADEM Journal of Women’s Studies.

Dr. Raymond Sun, Associate Professor of History, has a long history of supporting campus-wide Fulbright efforts and the Distinguished Scholarships Program. A Fulbright recipient himself, Dr. Sun serves as the current President of the Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho Fulbright Association Chapter. This is his fifth year serving on the Fulbright Campus Review Committee.

Since 2006, until her retirement in summer 2025, Karen Weathermon led the WSU First-Year Focus living-learning community program and developed and directed the university’s Common Reading Program. Both focus on learning experiences for first-year students within and beyond classrooms. Dr. Weathermon pursued her graduate education at WSU, earning her M.A. and Ph.D. in English with emphases in composition, rhetoric, and American literature. In recent years, she has assisted with interview preparation sessions for WSU distinguished scholar applicants, lending her insight, thoughtfulness, and thoroughness to the process.