In 2003, Susan Pierce stepped down from the Puget Sound presidency to care for her husband, Ken, who had had two strokes. “After Ken died [in 2006], I realized that I was happily seeing my daughter and the kids every day, and I was too young to stop working,” she says. “So I thought, I’ll stay in Boca and do a little consulting and a little writing.”
This summer, Dr. John Johnson joined the University of Puget Sound as interim vice president for institutional equity and diversity. A native of Philadelphia, Johnson earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Penn State, a master’s degree in educational psychology from Ball State University, and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. This year marks his 30th year in higher education.
Established in 1944, the University of Puget Sound’s School of Occupational Therapy is one of the oldest OT programs in the region and is continually ranked as one of the top programs in the Pacific Northwest. One distinctive feature of the program is its on-site teaching clinic. The clinic includes a simulated apartment, activity spaces, and a 4,000-square-foot outdoor mobility park.
In the early morning hours of a warm summer day, the tide in Puget Sound recedes, revealing glistening tide pools filled with an array of sea creatures. There, University of Puget Sound students Vincent Wills ’27 and Bea Moldow ’28 find themselves knee-deep in mud, placing PVC quadrats through the eelgrass beds and counting stalks by hand. They measure each stalk, record its length, and note the density of the plants around them, working methodically before the tide returns to reclaim the shore. It feels a world away from the lecture halls of Tacoma.
Logger Athletics had a banner year in the 2025–26 season, with several teams and individuals reaching the conference and national championships, including women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s track and field, and women’s crew.
The University of Puget Sound recently hosted the Washington State Special Olympics Spring Games, bringing soccer, swimming, and track athletes to campus alongside the vital FUNfitness health screening program. Backed by thousands of volunteers, including Puget Sound students, this marks the second year the university has hosted the games — a partnership that Liz Corwin, FUNfitness clinical director and Puget Sound assistant professor, said has transformed the experience for both Puget Sound students.
The defining variable in the rapid rise of autonomous artificial intelligence may not be a background in computer engineering, but rather the critical thinking skills obtained by a liberal arts education, according to a panel of industry experts convened as part of the recent University of Puget Sound Business Insights event.
Following the Washington State Legislature’s recent decision to uphold significant cuts to state student aid programs, the University of Puget Sound has announced it will reallocate institutional funding to ensure affected students can continue their education without additional financial burden.
The move reaffirms Puget Sound’s long-standing dedication to making a world-class liberal arts education affordable and accessible to all scholars, regardless of their financial background.
The University of Puget Sound recently held the Puget Sound Symposium on AI & Privacy, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to address the ethical and legal challenges posed by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. The event successfully fostered critical dialogue across different sectors about how AI impacts personal data, influences governance models, and redefines the boundaries of mental privacy.
