| 1992Tina Chin-Kaplan has opened her own practice in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in San Francisco www.needlesandtea.com. She graduated in June from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, giving a commencement speech and receiving the Wally Walker Memorial Award for leadership potential and service to the student body. She resides in San Francisco with her husband, Kory Kaplan. • Hollee King started her own land use and environmental planning consulting firm, SitesPacific Inc., in January. She lives in Ventura with her sons Bradley and Drew. • Kenneth Koop recently returned from a yearlong deployment with the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, where he commanded the California Army National Guard Liaison and Monitoring Teams working with military forces, nongovernmental organizations and Kosovar communities. He now serves as the deputy director of environmental programs for the California National Guard, and has been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel. |
| 1993Leamon Crooms III was made chief strategy officer of the Providence Service Corporation in February. He has been a strategic planner for 15 years, advising such companies as Federal Express, General Electric and Hewlett Packard. His most recent job was president of Strategic Growth Advisors, a firm he founded. • Jiyon Choe Yun became a partner at Archer Norris law firm, in Walnut Creek in January. In October, she spoke at the International Association of Korean Lawyers’ Conference in Seoul, South Korea, and moderated a panel of three other female speakers on the topic of women in the legal profession. She lives in American Canyon with her husband, Peter, and their sons, Ethan, 3, and Ryan, 1. • Kevin O’Connor, a wildlife specialist, died in January in a helicopter crash in Madera County while tracking deer. Two colleagues and the pilot also died in the accident. Mr. O’Connor was 40. As a senior wildlife biologist for the Fresno office of the California Department of Fish and Game, he was responsible for wildlife management in nine counties. He joined the department in 1997, and previously worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Central and Northern California, where he conducted field studies of animals such as pine martens, spotted owls and fishers. He is remembered for his enthusiasm for his work and his love of nature—he once saved a bear’s life by giving it mouth-to-snout resuscitation. He is survived by his wife, Keri of Clovis, and children, Kayleigh, 11, Michelle, 11, McKenna, 8, and Aidan, 5. |
| 1994Shane Loomis recently became an associate for Marron Lawyers in Long Beach. He practices business litigation, labor and employment and family law. He and his wife, Jodi, a substitute teacher, live in Aliso Viejo with their daughter, Taylor. • Luis Rios Jr. is a contributing writer for Hablando bien se entiende la gente (Santillana USA), a Spanish language reference book. |
| 1996David Chao and his wife, Patricia, welcomed a son, Dawson James, last October. He joins sisters Phoebe and Tatum. David is a national sales manager at Cisco/WebEx and Patricia is a recruiter for Xyratex. David’s blog can be found at www.davidchao.typepad.com. • Henry Wofford joined Comcast SportsNet’s show “Authentic Bay Area Sports” in January as an anchor and reporter. He previously served as a sports anchor and reporter at WTHR in Indianapolis and WZZM in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is a member of the National Black Journalists Association and the Radio Television News Directors Association. He and his wife, Yasmin, have two children, Emet and Cyrus. |
| 1997Neal Presa earned his doctorate in liturgical studies from Drew University in Madison, N.J. He serves as pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex, N.J. In February he traveled to the Vatican as part of a delegation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to meet with the Pontifical Council for promoting Christian unity. He and his wife, Grace, have two sons. |
| 1999Sheila Arkee is the creator and co-publisher of the beauty blog, Painted Ladies, www.painted-ladies.com. Launched last August, the site features other bloggers, reviews, contests, interviews with professional makeup artists and tutorials. • Larissa Parecki was appointed chief operating officer and interim director of the Sacramento-based nonprofit, CaliforniaALL, focusing on closing the achievement gap and enhancing student success. • Dave Quintana and Troy Wright ’02 spent three years working on a piece of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s new eastern span. Their project culminated last Labor Day weekend when a 50-foot section of the old span was moved aside and a replacement piece slid in place. A video of the work can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp0wVTDTOqk. Quintana was the lead project engineer on the east tie-in for the Caltrans team, and Wright was the lead project engineer with the CC Myers team. |
| 2000Sheila (Romero) Lewis and Sean Lewis married in Oak Hills last April. She earned her master’s degree from the University of London in 2004 and now works for the city of Los Angeles. Gloria Ng and her partner, Dapo, welcomed their firstborn son, Ayotunde. Gloria continues her blog as the “Feng Shui Gal.” |
| 2001Kelly Covello is manager of industry relations for the Almond Board of California, where she is responsible for communications to growers and handlers. She and her husband, Mark, have a 2-year-old daughter, Chloe Anne. |
| 2002Meredith 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. • 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. |
| 2003Gary Hess, M.B.A., was recently promoted to vice president of innovation at Lastar in Dayton, Ohio. His duties include defining products, markets and positioning for the cabling and connectivity company. He spent the past five years at Lastar in product management. |
| 2004Lauren Robertson Junker
By Elizabeth Stitt
Occupation: “Chief Tubular”—owner, designer, sewer, sales and marketing rep of Totally Tubular Design.
Another woman’s treasure: Lauren Robertson Junker ’04 has made a career out of taking people’s trash. “I think the best thing to do is repurpose. Take something you already have and do something else with it. It’s using what we have instead of going to get something to be happy,” Junker said. Currently based in Santa Cruz, Totally Tubular Design takes tossed-out inner tubes from bike shops and creates something completely different—bags. “The best part is watching someone get a kick out of our product. It’s something that would have gone in the trash can.”
Upholstery, tires and purses: In 2009, Junker’s company used about 300 inner tubes, 100 tires and an endless supply of car and drapery upholstery. “I’ve always liked making something out of what other people consider to be nothing,” she said. Since 2006, she has been designing, sewing and selling her bags with the help of only one to two other people working at Totally Tubular. Her products can be found at www.totallytubebags.com, and in stores as far away as Canada, Japan and Ireland have began promoting her bags.
LA girl: Junker got her first exposure to the bike culture when she joined the UC Davis triathlon club her sophomore year. During this time she was exposed to more green issues, and she became less wasteful. “Davis is a really easy place to recycle and be excited about the environment,” she said. “It sort of opened the LA girl’s eyes to being eco-friendly, and it helped mold me to be the person I am today.”
She currently lives with her husband and “vice tubular” of Totally Tubular, Scott Junker, in Santa Cruz, and she continues to participate in triathlons.
“The environment is our home. We need to remember to take care of it for our own wellbeing and the happiness of those around us.”
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