CASEY POWELL
Assistant Director of Athletics for Facilities
Former Wildcats baseball star and assistant coach Casey Powell is in his second year as Assistant Director of Athletics for Facilities.
Powell lettered four years in baseball as a student-athlete at Linfield. Playing second base, he hit .405 and added 17 stolen bases as a junior, earning Northwest Conference Player of the Year honors that season. The following year, he hit .397 from the leadoff position on the way to receiving another first team all-NWC honor.
Following graduation, Powell launched his career as an assistant under retired Linfield Hall of Fame coach Scott Carnahan for three years from 1999 until 2002. The following spring, he landed in Walla Walla, Washington, taking the reins of the Whitman College baseball program for six seasons from 2003 to 2006. Powell then seized an opportunity to elevate to the Division I level three years later as an assistant in the Seattle University baseball program for four years from 2009 until 2013. From there, he gravitated back to Central Oregon, eventually taking over as general manager of the Bend Elks baseball club.
Additionally, he filled a seasonal coaching role with USA Baseball in 2019 and served as director of athletic facilities at Pacific University for two years in 2017 and 2018.
Most recently, Powell has focused raising his family while running his own small business. He and his wife Jen, a 1996 Linfield graduate and former Wildcats track and field athlete, are raising two daughters. Morgan, 20, is a junior at the University of Oregon. Cailyn, 17, is a senior at Summit High School.
As the primary manager of Linfield’s athletic and recreational facilities, Powell looks forward to not only enhancing day-to-day operations within the Health, Human Performance and Athletics department, but also contributing to several big-picture facilities projects that loom on the horizon.
JESSICA HOLLEN
Assistant Director of Athletics
NCAA Compliance Officer and Senior Woman Administrator
Jessica Hollen is in her second year at Linfield as assistant director of athletics, NCAA compliance coordinator and senior woman administrator.
A standout softball coach for 16 seasons at nearby George Fox University, Hollen is making the transition to a full-time administrative role at Linfield. During portions of her tenure at George Fox, she served as the athletic department's NCAA compliance officer and senior woman administrator.
Hollen is a four-time NWC Coach of the Year, receiving the honor following stellar seasons by the Bruins in 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2021. She compiled an overall record of 350-286 while leading the Bruins to a share of the program's first NWC championship in 2021.
In 2009, she took over a softball program that finished 3-29-1 the season prior and hadn't posted a winning record since 2001. Hollen eventually led the Bruins to a pair of NCAA Division III regional playoff berths in 2016 and 2021 and nine NWC Tournament appearances.
Hollen began her softball career as a player at North Salem High School where she first took an interest in coaching. She assisted her high school pitching coach with private lessons by working with the younger pitchers. In college, she played for a season at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, then transferred to Chemeketa Community College in Salem where she earned Junior College All-America honors as a sophomore.
Hollen's coaching career began in 2004 with a year as an assistant softball coach at Chemeketa. She served as the varsity softball coach at Stayton High School while completing a bachelor's degree in history at Western Oregon University in 2006. The following spring, she returned to Chemeketa as co-head softball coach.
Hollen attended Willamette University College of Law and spent a year as a law clerk with the Marion County District Attorney's office before deciding to return to coaching when the George Fox position became available.
Jessica is married to former Corban University baseball player John Hollen, who has served alongside her as an assistant on the Bruins softball coaching staff.
The Hollens live in Newberg where they are raising two daughters, Riley and Kinley.
CHASE FISK
Sports Information Director
Chase Fisk enters his first year as Linfield sports information director in 2025-26.
Fisk, who comes to Linfield after two years as assistant SID at fellow Northwest Conference institution Pacific Lutheran, takes over day-to-day leadership of the sports communications office.
An award-winning sports communications professional in his two years at PLU, Fisk earned six College Sports Communicators Creative & Digital Design citations, including consecutive titles in recognition of the top Signing Day Package for Division III. During his time in Tacoma, Fisk covered four Northwest Conference championship teams which also competed in the NCAA Division III Tournaments.
A native of Tumwater, Washington, Fisk returned to the Pacific Northwest after spending three years developing his sports communications tool kit at Division II University of Wisconsin-Parkside where he served as a graduate assistant for External Relations and Marketing and was the primary media contact for the Rangers men's golf team and nationally-ranked wresting teams.
A three-year golf letter winner at UWP, Fisk graduated in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in Sports Management, earning Academic All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors and All America Scholar recognition from the Golf Coaches Association of America. He went on to complete a master's degree in Sports Management two years later.
Prior to attending UW-Parkside, Fisk competed on the men's golf team at Bellevue College, where he earned the Northwest Athletic Conference's Sportsman of the Year in 2020.
He and his wife, Marissa, reside in McMinnville with their dog, Sadie, and cat, Loki.
LEE BAKNER
Faculty Athletics Representative
Psychology professor Dr. Lee Bakner starts his 19th year as Faculty Athletic Representative(FAR).
Since coming to Linfield in 1992, Bakner has distinguished himself as an exemplary member of an already strong faculty.
He has been honored with the Samuel H. Graf Faculty Achievement Award and Northwest Conference Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Bakner was a Visting Scientist in Behavioral Neuroscience, School of Medicine, at Oregon Health & Science University (1999-2000, 2008-2009, 2018-2019), has developed a research program evaluating drug influences on brain and behavior, and teaches a variety of courses in psychology and neuroscience at Linfield.
Dr. Bakner received a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (1987) and earned a master’s (1990) and doctorate (1992) in experimental psychology with a specialty in biopsychology from Kent State University.
He resides in McMinnville with his wife Tonya, and they have two grown children, Erika and Kaelah.
MARYJO NICHOLS
Administrative Support Coordinator
MaryJo Nichols is in her seventh year as a member of the Linfield Athletics administrative team.
In her role as Administrative Support Coordinator, Nichols provides administrative support for the athletic department, assists with scheduling events, coordinates receipt and deposits of athletic donations, and reconciles monies received from program, concessions and game-day ticket sales.
A native of McMinnville, Nichols was raised in McMinnville. She spent more than 35 years working for an international helicopter company until they relocated to southern Oregon.
She enjoys sports, outdoor activities and spending time with family and her yellow lab rescue dog, Sarge.
Nichols resides in Dallas with her husband, Ed.
