Sam Bowman
Basketball Star Continues Development Down Under
Samantha Bowman can hardly believe she already has three years of professional basketball experience under her belt. But even though the 2023 NCAA Division II National Player of the Year has been tearing it up in Australia’s NBL One league since she graduated, she is nowhere near being satisfied.
“My goal is still to make it to the WNBL,” Bowman said, referring to Australia’s top professional league. “I’m probably not big enough to play in the post, so I’ve been working on my agility so I can match up better with the quicker forwards.”
Bowman, who earned a BS and MS in Nutrition from Central, has quickly made her mark in the second division, posting solid numbers in each of her three seasons. In her most recent campaign with Townsville, the 6-foot-2 center averaged 19.3 points, 12.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
That high level of play mirrors what she did with her first NBL One club, Rockhampton, in 2023 and 2024. Even more than her individual contributions, she is proud of what her teams have accomplished.
“We won the NBL One North championship in my second year, and my new club did pretty well this year, so that definitely adds to the fun,” Bowman said. “I love playing in the Aussie, and I can’t wait to return next year.”
In the meantime, Bowman is living and training in Ellensburg. She’s also been working as an assistant soccer coach for the Wildcats — an unexpected opportunity that has been a perfect fit.
“They brought me on last winter as a mental preparedness coach who could help the players learn what it takes to play at the highest level,” she said. “I’m really enjoying it, and I’m so glad I found an opportunity to work at Central.”
Kevin Bremer
Engineering Alum Builds 30-Year Career at Boeing
Electrical engineering alumnus Kevin Bremer enrolled at CWU in the late 1980s, becoming the first member of his family to go to college.
Today, he is the Executive Director, Chief Engineer of Electrical Design for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where he manages a team of 900 employees across four continents, overseeing and implementing all electrical wiring systems in Boeing-manufactured airplanes.
“There are a lot of technical challenges in this industry, and our team has to make a lot of major decisions,” said Bremer (’91), who started his career at Boeing in 1996. “But in all of my jobs here, I have always felt like I was up to the challenge thanks to the technical foundation I built at CWU. It’s something I have leaned on for my entire career.”
Bremer experienced what most CWU students and alumni say about their time at Central. The small class sizes and one-on-one attention from his instructors was exactly what he needed as a young adult.
“I learned so much from the faculty,” he said. “They made the difference for me. The small class sizes and personal approach ended up being what I needed to learn.”
As a member of the Engineering, Technology, Safety and Construction department’s advisory board, Bremer works with CWU faculty to help raise the program’s profile.
“I want to help my old program,” he said. “The more we can get Central’s name out there, the better.”
J Shah
Biology Alumna Living Out Her Passion
For J Shah, the landscapes of Central Washington are both workplace and inspiration. A biologist by training, Shah (’15, ’22) has built her career around helping people see the overlooked connections between land, water, and the creatures that depend on them.
“I’m passionate about the shrubsteppe, because it feels like a forgotten, beautiful, diverse biome that is fragile, but important and resilient,” Shah said in a recent High Country News article. “So many individual species have evolved over thousands of years to be able to survive in an arid environment where nothing else can survive.”
Alongside CWU Biological Sciences Professor Dr. Clay Arango, Shah’s graduate research broke new ground by examining how microplastics move through the Yakima River system.
“I really wanted to look at microplastic distribution in the Yakima River, and I was really interested in how microplastics were entering the aquatic food web,” she explained.
Her thesis measured microplastics from the headwaters to the mouth of the river, analyzing not only water samples but also biofilms and macroinvertebrates. The study was later featured in CWU’s “Plastic Runs Through It” exhibit at the Museum of Culture and Environment.
Today, Shah’s professional life is rooted in the shrubsteppe as an Area Habitat Biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Yakima County. She works with landowners, agencies, and communities to ensure fragile habitats are protected.
Shah also brings her work beyond technical reports and regulatory reviews. Through her “Wandering Central Washington” column for the Yakima Herald-Republic, she is able to share field-born reflections that blend science with a sense of wonder.
Bryson Fico
L&J Graduate Taps Into His Altruistic Side
CWU Law and Justice alumnus Bryson Fico (’21) recently hit the two-year mark of his nonprofit initiative Pages of Redemption, in which he collects used and unwanted books and donates them to jails around the state.
After years of performing volunteer work, Fico decided to take his community service to the next level in September 2023.
“Over the first five months, I donated more than 700 books to the Kittitas County Jail,” said Fico, who now works for a therapeutic court in Eastern Washington. “That first book donation in Kittitas County really helped get things off the ground, and it’s been building momentum ever since.”
Fico continued to build his network on the west side, partnering with a local Friends of the Library organization to secure additional book donations, leading to agreements with four Puget Sound-area jails: Kent, Des Moines, Enumclaw, and Marysville.
Last summer, Fico signed an agreement with the Wenatchee Public Library that he hopes will help him rebuild his book inventory. Washington-based author J.A. Jance also agreed to donate some of her books.
Once he is able to restock his donated book collection, Fico hopes to start pitching his idea to jails east of the mountains. He believes the benefits of Pages of Redemption will eventually become apparent to other jails in Washington.
“Every donation I make to a jail has the potential to change thousands of lives,” he said. “Those books are going to have an effect on inmates for years to come.”