Marie Pak, Ph.D., professor, began teaching at PUC in 1999. She specializes in biochemistry and spent six years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland. Dr. Pak enjoys reading, going to state fairs, and watching movies.

Laurie Parson, DNP, RN-BC, Associate Professor, has worked in healthcare for over 25 years starting as a certified nursing assistant. She has experience in medical/surgical acute care, long-term care, and nursing education. She holds ANCC Board Certification as a medical/surgical nurse and as a gerontological nurse and NLN Certification as a Certified Nurse Educator. Some of her favorite pastimes include, hiking, camping, reading, and traveling with family.

Before entering academia, Damaris was a hospice social worker for the top provider in the United States for 4 years. Before entering the world of hospice, she  served as a bilingual therapist, case manager and intake coordinator at a Federally Qualified Healthcare center in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the sole Spanish-speaking therapist on staff, Damaris primarily worked with the Latino and Hispanic population. She provided psychosocial services to survivors of domestic violence, facilitated parenting groups and therapy to individuals, families, and children. Her first work after graduate school was providing services to over 100+ dialysis patients at the #1 Dialysis provider in the United States.  

Damaris' research interests include the correlation of medical ailments and emotional health. One of her greatest passions is empowering social work students and advancing the field of Social Work. Her goal is for her students to be better social workers than her. As Field Placement Coordinator, Damaris is responsible for placing each senior Social Work major in a local community internship where they provide a minimum of 420 hours of work. Popular placements include Domestic Violence shelters, schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and Foster Care. Most PUC social work graduates continue pursuing their education by obtaining a Master's degree. Many gain employment in for and non-profit agencies.

andra Ringer, MSN, RN, known as Sandy to most, began her career as a Medical-Surgical nurse in Chattanooga, TN. Her clinical experience includes adult medical-surgical nursing, specializing in oncology, gastroenterology and community health. Sandy worked in home health as an IV nurse for 9 years before switching focus to community health. She worked as an RN and lead RN for a preventative medicine clinic in Pennsylvania. She then transitioned into the coordinator for employee wellness programs, working with a team of health professionals to develop employee wellness programs and health screenings for businesses in the greater Reading, Pennsylvania area. She also worked with a clinic that provided healthcare for patients without insurance at no cost. Her most recent clinical experience was with gastrointestinal patients on a medical-surgical unit.
When not working, Sandy loves to cook, travel, camp, watch HGTV and spend time with her husband, David, and their adult sons, Mark and Jonathan and daughter-in-law, Janelle.
Sandy's desire is to share her passion for the nursing profession and Jesus with her students.

Jim Roy, professor, specializes in secondary education. His doctorate studies focused on the ideas of William Glasser, a renowned leader in the field of Choice Theory and non-coercive leadership practice. As a result of his studies, Roy was chosen as the authorized biographer of Dr. Glasser. He also served 22 years within the K-12 system as teacher, principal, and associate superintendent, with eight of those years as principal of Foothills Elementary School, just down the hill from Angwin. Roy frequently travels to conferences or schools around the country to speak or give workshops on how to implement the ideas in his 2005 book Soul Shapers: A Better Plan for Parents and Educators. His interests include the TLC4 Sabbath School class, which is devoted more to action than talking; developing and nurturing fellow Soul Shapers; writing; Goldwing trips; and golf; though that one's hanging by a thread!

Cliff Rusch, M.F.A., associate professor of art, specializes in graphic design. Rusch worked as a staff designer at Pacific Press Publishing Association and as a senior designer at Lauren Smith Design in Palo Alto, California, before coming to PUC in 1987. He enjoys photography, mountain biking, and camping.

Vicki Saunders, M.S. R.D. Instructor of Nutrition at Pacific Union College since 2009 and Nutrition Educator and Registered Dietitian for St. Helena Hospital's Recovery Center, has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who for showing dedication, leadership and excellence in nutrition education. Professor Saunders has performed nutrition intervention and education to a broad spectrum of individuals and groups in the lifestyle change programs at St. Helena Hospital Center for Health since 1979. These include teaching nutrition classes, conducting healthy cooking classes, overseeing menu and recipe development, clinical assessment and counseling for cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, weight loss/risk factor reduction, smoking cessation, chronic pain management, alcohol and drug rehab, patients with eating disorders, and collaborating with a team of experts in the fields of medicine, psychology, exercise physiology, recreation and stress management to address patients' unique needs and goals. She is a presenter at the annual Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference presented by Harvard University and the Culinary Institute of America. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association, and past--president of the Seventh-day Adventist Dietetic Association. A member of Cambridge Who's Who, Ms. Saunders was honored with inclusion in its "Top 101 Industry Experts" book in 2010 and selection as a VIP member in 2009.

L. Jean Sheldon, professor, specializes in Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. She has worked as an instructor of religion at Hong Kong Adventist College, a graduation analyst for PUC, and a religion professor. Recently she has been working on "Mother Versus Child: A Feminist and Comparative Look at Exodus 21:22-25," in preparation for publication in a book to be published by Phoenix Sheffield. She enjoys writing, gardening, music, and cat psychology.

Dr. Backil Sung has been at PUC since 2012. He has degrees in medicine (M.D.), physiology (M.S.), and medical biotechnology (Ph.D). He has authored or co-authored 39 scientific papers in neuroscience, mainly in the area of pain mechanisms. He has also authored two book chapters, and frequently goes on medical mission trips. He teaches Neurobiology, Microbiology, Medical Microbiology and Biological Foundations.

Catherine Tetz specializes in transatlantic literature with an emphasis on women and gender studies. Her work focuses primarily on women writers in the early twentieth century, and she is particularly interested in how künstlerroman and roman á clef genres were reappropriated by women writers at the height of literary modernism. She has presented work at the Modernist Studies Association’s annual conference, as well as the International Virginia Woolf conference. She teaches classes in poetry, fiction, and both American and English modernism.

Professor Lynne Thew came to Pacific Union College in 2005 as an adjunct professor and joined the faculty in 2007. She teaches the journalism courses within the Pacific Union College Department of Communication.

Professor Thew has ghostwritten eight business and medical books, including the bestselling Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations (Doubleday).

During the course of a twenty-year career in Washington, D.C., and New York, she interviewed a range of notable figures including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, General Electric CEO Jack Welch, former senator and U.S. ambassador to China James Sasser, futurist Alvin Toffler, and Nobel Prize-nominee Ranjit K. Chandra. In addition to the business of writing and editing books, she has written copious amounts of catalogue copy and more book proposals than she cares to remember.

Her greatest regret in life is that she ever threw away a book. She is passionate about journalism and a well-turned sentence.

Tamara Tirado has worked in healthcare since 1998, as a Certified Nurses Aid and Registered Nurse in rehab and acute care. She has also been a medical clinic manager, diabetes coordinator, public health nurse at a tribal health clinic, and a family nurse practitioner. She loves music, hiking, biking, scuba diving, traveling, and spending time with family.

Marcia Toledo, associate professor, started teaching at PUC in 1984. Marcia enjoys hiking, photography, and quilt making.

Katy Van Arsdale is the Special Collections Librarian and Archivist at the Nelson Memorial Library. Katy collects, organizes, and preserves PUC’s rare books, historical documents, photographs, museum objects, and more. She also answers reference questions and enjoys teaching research skills. Before coming to PUC, Katy worked in archives at historical societies, museums, and research libraries. She even taught high school English and History for a while, which was a lot of fun. Now that she’s in California, she enjoys spending her free time to travel, hike, camp, and explore. Someday she’ll visit every national park.

Robin E. Vance, Ph.D., professor, has taught at PUC since 2001. He specializes in physiology and neurobiology. Dr. Vance's research interests include Antimutagenesis & Anticarcinogenesis, and he advises in the areas of biology and medicine. He taught at Union College for twelve years and chaired their Division of Science & Mathematics from 1996 to 2000. He enjoys tennis, walking and snorkeling.

Jim Wibberding specializes in Applied Theology and Biblical Studies. He is passionate about building up the God-created potential in others. Jim served as a pastor for seventeen years in Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Washington before joining the faculty of the Theology Department in 2017. While pastoring, he enjoyed training lay pastors, serving a term as Chaplain of the Idaho Senate, acting in Bible and Reformation stage plays, and finding innovative ways to translate the Adventist Message to our changing world. Jim also serves as Adjunct Professor to the Doctor of Ministry Program at Andrews University. In his recreational time, you might find him playing outdoors with his three children, chatting with his wife Laura about a new intellectual curiosity, working on his ’55 Chevy Station Wagon, or building a stringed instrument from reclaimed wood.

Robert L. Wilson, Ph.D. specializes in analytical and inorganic chemistry. His graduate research focused on the lipid and protein organization within the cell membrane. He currently teaches general, analytical, and inorganic chemsitry and laboratory glassblowing. He enjoys playing boardgames, making glass beads, and camping.