Class Notes Archive 1931-2014
Class Notes are searchable back to our spring 2000 issue. You can browse the notes by decade (click on a decade to view its class notes):
Class notes from the 2000s
| 2002Cesilio Mercado, a combat medic with the U.S. Army Reserve, returned home to Dixon after a year of service in Baghdad. As a civilian, Mercado is a firefighter with the UC Davis Fire Department. He and his wife have a 3-year-old child. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Nicole Rabaud, Ph.D., and husband Mike Webb, Ph.D. ’04, announced the arrival in December of Sophie Caroline, who joins an older sister, Chloé. The family lives in Durham, N.C., where Nicole is a full-time mom and Webb is a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Emily Kerr married Matthew Bianconi in Maine in August. The couple lives in the Boston area where Kerr works as a nurse practitioner at a pediatric office, and Bianconi is the information technology communications director at a community health center. (appeared in the Fall 2008 issue) • Becca Deal and Gavin Stavis were engaged in September and plan to be married in late 2009 or early 2010. Stavis is a real estate appraiser with McBride-Stavis Appraisers, and Deal is a physical therapist at two independent clinics. They live at Donner Lake in Truckee. (appeared in the Winter 2009 issue) • ROBERT SLATT married Jenene (Roberto) Slatt in July 2008, and the couple was expecting their first child this May. Since graduating, Slatt has been working as a commercial mortgage banker and is currently the vice president at Newmark Realty Capital in San Francisco. He and his wife live in San Francisco. (appeared in the Summer 2009 issue) • Christopher Kwan is a proposal writer at Computer Sciences Corporation in Falls Church, Va., and has started a dual master’s degree program in government and business at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Washington, D.C. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Becca Deal and Gavin Stavis married in September in Incline Village, Nev. Deal is a clinical director at North Tahoe Physical Therapy in Incline Village, and Stavis is a real estate appraiser with McBride-Stavis Appraisers in Carnelian Bay. They live in Truckee. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • Leslie Allison Heinz and Kyle Michael Phelps ’04 were married in October in Central Park in New York. Heinz is currently the marketing manager at Markon Produce Cooperative in Salinas and Phelps is an account manager at Strongwood Insurance Holdings in Monterey. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • Meredith Branstad, Bart Van Der Zeeuw ’03 and Alyssa Lindman were the winning team selected in November by the American Society of Landscape Architects California Sierra Chapter for their renovation design for Fremont Park in Sacramento. Their design focuses on integrating art, community and sustainability throughout the park. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Sheryl Shook, Ph.D., recently co-wrote Integrated Medicine for Neurologic Disorders (Health Press) with Sidney Kurn. Drawing from Shook’s doctorate in neuroscience and her background in herbal medicine, the book integrates alternative and mainstream treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Emily Kerr Bianconi and her husband welcomed their daughter, Liliana, in January. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Nancy Gutierrez, Cred., principal of Clyde L. Fischer Middle School in east San José, received a Rising Star Alumna of the Year Award from the UC Davis School of Education in April. She had also been named 2009–10 Santa Clara County Middle School Principal of the Year for her leadership in turning around what was once the lowest performing middle school in the Alum Rock Union School District. In 2004, she co-founded the Renaissance Academy of Arts, Science and Social Justice, which under her leadership became Alum Rock district’s highest scoring middle school and a California Distinguished School in only two years. She was recently accepted into Harvard University’s new Educational Leadership Doctorate program. (appeared in the Summer 2010 issue) • Nicole Guthrie was featured as an alumni spotlight in the winter 2010 edition. Nicole Guthrie By Elizabeth Stitt Occupation: Manager of data and management services at HopeLab in Redwood City. Tween-tested, Obama-approved: For the past three years, Nicole Guthrie, M.S. ’02, has been working behind the scenes to test and develop the her intention, the gDitty, a device and website that gets sedentary kids moving. Over the summer President Obama put gDitty center stage, highlighting Guthrie’s creation as an innovative way of addressing one of the nation’s worst health problems—childhood obesity—by fighting the trend toward sedentary behavior in middle-school-aged kids. Hearing Obama talk about the gDitty seemed surreal, Guthrie said. “I’m almost in disbelief…. It was pretty cool to see a gDitty in the White House.” Gearing up: The gDitty monitors the user’s physical activity, which is translated into points when the device is connected to the gDitty website, where they can save up for rewards like music and gift cards. So far Guthrie has gotten positive feedback from tweens involved in the development and testing. After a six-week trial conducted by Guthrie and HopeLab, she found that kids who used the gDitty were 30 percent more active than those who did not. HopeLab is now gearing up for a larger-scale impact study for 2010 and hopes to see it on the market by 2011. Davis-influenced: Before attending UC Davis, Guthrie could relate to the tweens she’s now trying to help. “I, myself, do not have a history of being an athlete,” she said, “and being in a town where biking is faster than driving a car, it helped me increase my physical activity.” While at Davis, she was heavily influenced by nutrition professors like Liz Applegate who emphasized the importance of staying active along with eating well. “I left Davis with the idea of helping [the field of] nutrition in a whole different way.” Growing up in a home where her family wasn’t able to afford extracurricular activities, Guthrie hopes the gDitty can help show kids who lack access to team sports, private lessons or safe places to that they can still be healthy. “For kids that don’t have those opportunities, I feel passionate about showing them that there are ways they can be active and have fun doing it, even if it’s dancing in their room to their favorite song.” “I get to do things I never thought I could do. I’m constantly able to work at the edge of my knowledge. It’s almost like I’m getting another degree.” (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • Tim Lee By Elizabeth Stitt Occupation: Comedian Evolution of a comedian: After receiving his doctorate in ecology, Tim Lee decided to do something a little different with his degree. Instead of writing books, he wrote jokes. “I spent six years at UC Davis grinding out my Ph.D., so obviously I’m a masochist,” he said. “Once that was finished, the only way to keep up that level of mental pain was to start over in comedy.” For the past six years, Lee has been a touring comedian known for blending science and laughs and has shared the stage with the likes of Robin Williams and Dave Chapelle. The science of funny: According to Lee, science and comedy have a lot in common. “In both, you create ideas and test them,” Lee said. “In science your ideas are reviewed by an audience of your peers. In comedy it’s an audience drinking beers. The comedy audience is easier to please, but more violent when disappointed.” Originally afraid of public speaking, Lee has performed in front of audiences of up to 7,000 and large festivals like the Las Vegas and DC Comedy festivals—a long way from his first show in a San Francisco laundromat. “Telling jokes in front of a crowd is a real thrill,” Lee said. “You can see their skepticism when you take the stage and hopefully their smiles when you leave.” On the laugh track: Lee’s career has taken him to places all over the country, including Hawaii and Washington, D.C., and his next performances will be in Mill Valley and Seattle in October. As he becomes more involved with the world of comedy, Lee proves you can’t take the science out of the trained ecologist. “I just finished a script for a film about an awkward scientist who learns how to meet women by studying animal behavior.” For videos of Lee and further information, visit www.powerpointcomedian.com. “The worst part about being a comedian is lonely nights in quiet hotel rooms. The comedians with kids will tell you that’s the best part.” (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Maria Mercado and Anthony Nguyen ’05 were married in September in Southern California. The two have been living in Redondo Beach for the last 5 years and fondly miss the UC Davis bike trails. Nguyen is an information technology support specialist with an aerospace company and Mercado is a senior analyst with the federal government. (appeared in the Winter 2011 issue) • Eric Faulk, died in August after a car accident in Sacramento at age 33. He lived with his wife, Heather, in Lodi, where he was an active athlete. He completed the Santa Rosa Vineman Triathlon with Heather two weeks before his death, and they competed in the California International Marathon in Sacramento last December. He enjoyed the ocean and was an underwater photographer. Along with his wife, he is survived by his brother, David; parents, Becky and Jim; and mother-in-law, Linda Nelson. (appeared in the Winter 2011 issue) • Katherine Dennis will begin her doctoral studies at Texas A & M University in August after two years teaching science classes at the Smithsonian Institute. She previously received her master’s degree at the University of Maryland. (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) • Rick Mitchell is a producer and an on-air cast member of TMZ on TV. He is also a stand-up comedian and comedy writer based in Los Angeles. For clips of his work, visit www.effinfunny.com/rick-mitchell (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) • Justin Sedell was named a 2010 Washington Rising Star Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine. He is a senior associate with McKinley Irvin in Seattle, focusing on family law. (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) • Novelist SPRING WARREN, M.A., recently wrote The Quarter Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year (Seal Press, 2011), about raising animals and growing most of their family’s food in her backyard. Her book and garden were the subject of a May Sacramento Bee article. Son Jesse, 27, drew illustrations for Quarter Acre Farm, under the name “Nemo.” Warren lives in Davis with her husband, Louis Warren, a UC Davis history professor, and son Sam, 17. (appeared in the Summer 2011 issue) |