WWU staffers bring home seven CASE District VIII Awards

The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VIII recently released the winners of its annual awards contest, and staff members from WWU's University Advancement division took home seven of those awards, tying the University of Washington and University of British Columbia for most awards for 2025.

CASE District VIII encompasses the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, including the states and provinces of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon.

The winning entries:

On the Map: Western on the Peninsulas Micro-Site, by Web Communications Technologies (WebTech) and University Marketing

Western on the Peninsulas spans three campuses — Poulsbo, Port Angeles, and Bremerton — each with distinct offerings. The challenge? Unifying them under a single digital presence while making program discovery seamless for prospective students, especially 2+2 transfer students, which proved to be a solvable dilemma for WebTech Director Max Bronsema and Elizabeth Lambert's staff in University Marketing.

The new microsite replaces three disjointed location-based pages with one centralized hub, featuring a custom-built program filter that allows users to explore offerings across all locations or focus on a single campus. This innovation streamlines the search process, providing clear pathways to enrollment while reinforcing Western’s commitment to accessibility and student success.

Since launching in February 2024, the site has driven a 416% increase in engagement time, jumping from an average of 36 seconds per visit to over three minutes. It also has resulted in a notable increase in new users, significantly improving visibility for Western on the Peninsulas.

Developed entirely in-house with zero external costs, the project was completed in three months through collaboration between Web Tech, Marketing, Admissions, and Peninsula program staff. This microsite is more than a website — it's a model for how universities can use strategic, resourceful digital solutions to enhance recruitment and engagement.

Social media/short videos: 'Hoa Hoa Season'

WWU Assistant Director of Digital Engagement Strategy Caitlyn Daniels and Visual Journalist Luke Hollister partnered to create the Twilight-inspired “Hoa Hoa Season” video, which taps into the series’ atmospheric aesthetic, pairing fog-draped pine forests with the viral “hoa hoa” audio — a sound that resurfaces on social media whenever temperatures drop.

This 40-second video was crafted to maximize Western’s social reach while showcasing the Pacific Northwest environment that defines our campus.

On the grayest day of winter, our videographer captured students navigating misty pathways and campus landmarks, culminating in a striking drone shot of Mount Baker emerging through the fog. Set to the trending Twilight sound, the video paired evocative visuals with a caption linking Western’s landscape to the series’ Washington setting.

The result: nearly 40,000 views on Instagram, 3,000 on TikTok, and a strong connection between Western’s natural beauty and a moment of cultural relevance.

Promotional videos (short): WWU’s Richard Hodges: 'Opera can be just about anything'

Director of Visual Media Production Sean Patrick and Visual Journalist Luke Hollister created this video profile of Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Voice Studies Richard Hodges. The video shows the positive impact Hodges brings to our university and the region by sharing their teachings and journey as an opera singer. Patrick and Hollister filmed Hodges in the class, on stage and during rehearsals for an opera premiere in Seattle.

Their work helped to expand the reach of a talented professor whose story hopefully inspires all who hear it. The video also highlighted the importance of opera in this modern age. The most visible goal achieved through this project was the media attention Hodges received after our story was published.

Story: "Joining the Major Leagues of Voice"

Senior Director of University Communications John Thompson also rode the wave of "Hodges-mania," winning a CASE award for this profile story on the Music faculty member.

Hodges is an opera singer who has recently performed on opera's biggest stages. Soon after he performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and just before he was to perform with the Seattle Opera, Hodges spoke with Thompson about his work and the powerful mentoring relationships that fuel his teaching and art.

The story highlights two of our strategic storytelling themes: the impact of transformative educational experiences, and our outsized contributions to the culture and economics of the state of Washington.

Story: "Drawn to the Ocean"

John Thompson wrote this profile of MACS graduate student Joyce Block, a retired K-12 teacher who is pursuing a second master's degree at Western while researching the invasive European green crab.

Block grew up about as far from the ocean as you can in this country, in a tiny town in South Dakota - but was always drawn to it, often from the pages of National Geographic or her family's copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. After a career as an award-wining K-12 teacher in Wenatchee, Block returned to Western to continue furthering her loves of education, science, and the ocean.

The story illuminates several strategic story themes, including Western's high-impact academic experiences, our outsized contribution to the state's scientific work, our leadership in sustainability and environmental innovation, and our strength as a driver of educational access and inclusive success.

Story: "Decoding the Sounds of the Rainforest"

Thompson won this award for the profile of Linguistics and Computer Science alumnus Neal Digre and his work with the $10 million X-Prize-winning Limelight team, tasked with finding and cataloging the incredible biodiversity of the rainforest.

Neal leveraged his machine learning and linguistics skills to design and build a computer model to analyze and identify the tree-dwelling birds, insects, and other creatures of the rainforest.

The story fits nicely with our strategic storytelling themes highlighting the impact and achievements of Western's academic programs, illustrating our outsized economic and scientific impact on the state of Washington, and our leadership in sustainability and environmental innovation.

Story: "Making space for 90 million people"

Thompson's final award is for "Making Space for 90 Million People," about WWU theatre alumna Alison Luhrs, who has landed a dream job of chief storyteller for the massively popular Destiny 2 videogame.

This story illuminates several of our strategic storytelling themes, including academics and achievement, our outsized economic and cultural contributions to the state of Washington, and Western's strength as a driver of educational access and inclusive success.

It's a story that gaming insiders would enjoy and introduces non-gamers to the complex artistry of this booming field. All the while, the story also illustrates (through Luhrs's words and experiences) how her theatre work at WWU was a closer connection to the video game industry than one might think.

The story was immensely popular. It was the year's most-clicked story on the magazine's website and proved quite popular with students and prospective students. Most importantly, "Making Space" helped boost readership of a massive email to prospective students during a critical time in the admissions cycle.