Submissions to PURE Insights are the original work of at least one undergraduate student with at least one WOU faculty mentor.
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2026 Managing Editor’s Letter
This year marks the fifteenth issue of PURE Insights, which began featuring undergraduate research at Western Oregon University in 2012. The original Managing Editor was Camila Gabald, and her Assistant Managing Editor was Robert Monge. Dr. Paula Baldwin took over as Managing Editor in 2018, and I took the reins in 2020. It has always taken the concerted efforts of several dedicated individuals to produce this journal, and the fact that we’ve been able to showcase so much of our student research over such a long period of time is remarkable. I want to thank all my predecessors for their work on the journal and for their support when I took over.
I also want to thank my Assistant Editor, Sasha Pillutla, who is a student here at Western Oregon University. She has designed and implemented a new style guide and template for future issues of PURE Insights, and has been instrumental in not only raising awareness of the journal via advertising, but also in the timely publication of this issue.
Once this issue is published, we will celebrate the past and present authors, artists, mentors, editors, and support staff at a reception. I always like to have a release party for the journals–though it isn’t always possible–because publication is a big deal, and academic publication is a very big deal. The pieces in this journal are peer reviewed, revised, and copy-edited within an inch of their lives. Sometimes fewer than half of the submissions actually make it into the journal because of the scrutiny each piece receives. This is a fact of academic publishing: it is always better to have high standards, even if that means we publish only a few good pieces.
Here is to another fifteen years of PURE Insights! Here is to supporting undergraduate research at WOU by publishing it and sharing it with the world.
Masthead
Managing Editor
Maren Anderson
Assistant Editor
Sasha Pillutla
Editor
Samantha Morgan
Reviewers
Charles Anderson
Robert Winningham
Melissa Cannon
Editorial Support Staff
Stewart Baker
Submission Management Architect
Camila Gabaldón
PURE Student Workers
Jose Francisco Aguilar Rojas
Ivan Villamizar Alvarado
Lyrik Lewis