When Jena Burkhart DPT’24 stepped into her first class for her doctorate in physical therapy at the University of Puget Sound, she was on leave from active duty in the U.S. Army. While deployed to Afghanistan just eight months before, she had written down a New Year’s resolution: go to school for physical therapy. 

In August 2021, that goal became a reality, though the transition wasn’t easy. Not long after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Burkhart found herself adjusting to a new pace of life and a different kind of classroom. 

William “Bill” Neukom P ’94, a University of Puget Sound trustee emeritus and philanthropist, died July 14, 2025, in Seattle. He was 83.

Greater, We Ascend is a podcast from the University of Puget Sound about Loggers reaching to the heights. Subscribe today.

Students in Dr. Alexandria Drake’s Connections 490 course aren’t just learning about the history of pandemics, they’re stepping into the shoes of the people who faced them. From the Plague of Athens to the opioid epidemic, students in Bring Out Your Dead: How Past Outbreaks Informed Modern Public Health & Medicine at the University of Puget Sound are learning about the evolution of public health as a discipline and how it impacts our lives every day.

University of Puget Sound chemistry major and Logger football quarterback Hayden Teeter ’26 has earned a nomination for the 2025 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. The award recognizes college football student-athletes for their commitment to community service and leadership off the field.

The COPE Health Scholars Program offers pre-healthcare students access to direct patient care and hospital administrative areas at partnering hospitals. Participants become valuable members of the care team, working alongside nurses, physicians, and allied health professionals while earning completion certificates through the University of Puget Sound.

Greater, We Ascend is a podcast from the University of Puget Sound about Loggers reaching to the heights. Subscribe today.

Several Logger faculty and alumni will be featured at the upcoming Art Party Festival in Darrington, Washington. The outdoor festival includes 24 hours of art installations, dance, music, workshops, theatre, readings, and interactive experiences. The festival is co-produced by Professor and Chair of Theatre Arts Jess K Smith ’05 and includes work by Assistant Professor of Art & Art History Dr. Mare Hirsch, and Jordan Moeller ’15. Participants are invited to take in the many forms of art, camp on site, join in a festival-wide meal, and dance the night away.

Inside a red brick building on Tacoma’s Hilltop, the Neighborhood Clinic opens its doors twice a week, offering free medical care to those in need. It’s here that Cecilia Turetzky ’26 turned a community need into action — launching a mobile blood pressure clinic and earning recognition from Washington’s governor.