Being at the forefront of the success of the Linfield women’s tennis program, Nicole Ralston is a three-time first team all-Northwest Conference honoree. As a sophomore in 2002, she helped the Wildcats win the conference championship, beginning a string of seven consecutive NWC women’s tennis titles.

Today, Ralston is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Portland. Ralston is married to Linfield men’s tennis alumnus Justin Greene and the two now reside in the Portland area with their two children, Jack, 7, and Penny, 3. 

In this edition of the Where Are They Now series, Nicole Ralston shares her life after Linfield and how she remains connected with many of the people she played along with at Linfield. 

What have you been doing since graduating from Linfield? 

I graduated from Linfield what feels like very long ago now, in 2004. I had started working at Evergreen Aviation locally in McMinnville as an intern and in part-time roles in 2003 and transitioned to a full-time role as the Insurance Administrator after graduation in 2004, where I stayed for a year before quickly realizing I should have pursued education instead of finance at Linfield!

In 2005, I joined Teach for America, which took me to Las Vegas to teach in elementary classrooms and to receive my master’s degree in education from University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). In 2006, fellow Linfield tennis player Justin Greene (’03) and I got married.

Wanting to continue my education, we then came back to the Seattle area where I pursued my doctorate at University of Washington (UW) while working in elementary schools all around the region in various teaching, research and instructional coaching roles. Finally, I graduated in 2013 with my PhD, about two weeks before our son, Jack, was born. 

In 2014, we moved again, finally back to Oregon. I’m now an Associate Professor (I received tenure earlier this year in 2020) at the University of Portland, teaching and researching in the School of Education. Our daughter Penny, came along in 2017 and we also have a pup, Blaze.  Of course, Justin and I have been attempting to instill a love for tennis in Jack and Penny; but so far Jack is much more interested in basketball.  

What qualities did you learn at Linfield that have helped you prosper in your life after college? 

Dr. Scott Chambers in finance was the first person who planted this idea of pursuing a doctorate in my head. And while I think he hoped I’d pursue that degree in finance, I appreciate his mentorship so much and totally thank him (and Linfield!) for where I am today. Ironically, a finance January Term travel abroad trip in 2003 took us to visit the Tokyo stock exchange and other businesses, but we also visited a local elementary school, and that was also the first time where I started to question my finance career choice and begin to think about education and teaching.   

What are your long-term career goals? 

I love where I’m at right now. At University of Portland, I co-direct the Multnomah County Partnership for Education Research (MCPER), where we support the local community by conducting district-driven research. I love getting to give back to the community as part of my job! I’d love to continue to do my current work better: deepening my research work, broadening the partnership’s outreach and impact, and improving my teaching are constantly on my mind. At some point down the road I’d love to write a book!