As far as the Ph.D. going at the end of the name, that is not the practice within academia–at least, not among any of the people with whom I interact professionally, even in the PNW. It might be true for someone in academia interacting with someone outside of academia.
One of my colleagues was heckled for several years, because he had signed a letter X Y, Ph.D. within the University. (Technically, I suppose it was just teasing, but it came across as heckling.)
In academia, the normal sign-off for a letter would be:
Name (first name if you know the person well, full name otherwise)
Title–e.g. professorial rank, not Dr. or Ph.D.
Department/University/whatever
Other contact info
At conferences, the speakers are normally introduced just as First Name Last Name, without any titles. It is true that grad students sometimes speak at conferences, but in my field not very often.