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Class Notes Archive 1931-2014: Winter 2010

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1995Tamara St. Claire, Ph.D., was appointed vice president of global business development at the Palo Alto Research Center. Her duties include managing the company’s commercial innovation portfolio, driving international partnerships and exploring new markets and industry engagements. She was previously the general manager and vice president of commercial operations at a healthcare subsidiary of Oxonica.
1996Robin (Delman) Ekiss, M.A., wrote The Mansion of Happiness (University of Georgia Press), a collection of poems. In 2007, she won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for Emerging Women Writers.
1997Ray Galan received the James E. Ferrell Chairman’s Award—given to only 10 employees nationwide each year—from Ferrellgas Partners, a propane retailer based in Reno, Nev. He has been working for Ferrellgas for 13 years and is currently the California and Northern Nevada region manager. • Karin Jaffe, M.A., Ph.D. ’02, is a tenured associate professor and chair of Sonoma State University’s anthropology department. She received the 2009–2010 Excellence in Teaching Award, given annually to teachers at Sonoma State who make an outstanding contribution to the education of students. • Lucy Okumu was selected to be a 2009 American Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund. She will spend 24 days in Europe traveling to cities such as Brussels, Belgrade and Copenhagen and attend the 2009 Marshall Forum on Transatlantic Affairs in Berlin. Okumu is currently a policy and political strategist for Strategic Counsel in Los Angeles. • Dana Ann Gong, M.S., died of lupus in March in Salinas. She was 38. She lived in San Ramon with her family and worked as a food technologist and eventually a senior project leader at the National Food Laboratory in Dublin for 14 years. She was also a member of the Northern California Institute of Food Technologists. She enjoyed music and had been in many choirs since graduating from high school. She is survived by her husband, Lester; daughters, Natalie and Naomi; parents, Clarence and Marsha Wong; sister, Sharon Wong; and grandmother, Ellyn Lowe.
1998Jennifer Hardy Moreno and her husband, Daniel, welcomed their second child, Katherine, last April.
2000Frank Kobayashi received his Ed.D in educational leadership from UC Davis. He currently works at West Valley College in Saratoga as the director of contract education. • Shannon Seed-Hardwicke was featured in the September issue of Inside East Sacramento in an article “Giving Back to East Sac.” She practices community development in the area served by Theodore Judah Elementary School. • Matthew Westoby and Michelle (Modrich) Westoby welcomed their son, Tyler Davis, in September. Matthew works for a biotech company and Michelle is in commercial real estate. They live in Carlsbad. • Jeffrey Maurer of El Portal died in August after falling while rock climbing in Yosemite National Park. He was 47. For the past three years, Mr. Maurer worked at Yosemite as a wildlife biologist and specialized in raptors. During his time at UC Davis, he was a lecturer as well as a researcher, studying lead poisoning in California condors. He also taught with the Yosemite and Sierra institutes. A memorial blog has been created at http://yosemite-jeffmaurer.blogspot.com.
2001Mike Reilly made the independent film Road to Victory, which was selected to be a part of more than 10 international film festivals and has won six awards. The film, which was recently released on DVD nationwide, follows a college football player’s relationships and steroid drug usage.
2002Becca 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. • 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. • 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.”
2004Adam Davis and Amy Johnston ’05 recently celebrated their first year of marriage. Davis is a mechanical engineer and Johnston works in communications and public relations. • Tom Koehnle, Ph.D., was given the Paul E. Martin Award in October for his outstanding contributions to the academic program and educational life at Hiram College in Ohio. He is an assistant professor of biology and has been a leading faculty member in their neurosciences program. • Michael Kurland received a master’s degree in educational psychology and instructional technology and has started the doctorate in education program at USC, where he is also an academic adviser. • John McCoy became the director of alumni relations for Holy Names University in Oakland in September. He previously worked as a senior event marketing representative and development consultant for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
2005Christopher Chua and Eileen Sabangan were married in September in Milpitas. April Fortun ’04 and Mike Liwanag ’06 were maid of honor and best man respectively. Bridesmaids included Janine Fiel ’06, Liezel Caliva, Katherine Soong ’06, Tiffany Centeno ’06 and Noren Caliva ’04. Groomsmen included David Salomon ’07, Jason Arcibal ’06, Mike Molano ’05, Eric Abad ’06 and Hamilton Pingol.

1995Tamara St. Claire, Ph.D., was appointed vice president of global business development at the Palo Alto Research Center. Her duties include managing the company’s commercial innovation portfolio, driving international partnerships and exploring new markets and industry engagements. She was previously the general manager and vice president of commercial operations at a healthcare subsidiary of Oxonica.

1996Robin (Delman) Ekiss, M.A., wrote The Mansion of Happiness (University of Georgia Press), a collection of poems. In 2007, she won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for Emerging Women Writers.

1997Ray Galan received the James E. Ferrell Chairman’s Award—given to only 10 employees nationwide each year—from Ferrellgas Partners, a propane retailer based in Reno, Nev. He has been working for Ferrellgas for 13 years and is currently the California and Northern Nevada region manager. • Karin Jaffe, M.A., Ph.D. ’02, is a tenured associate professor and chair of Sonoma State University’s anthropology department. She received the 2009–2010 Excellence in Teaching Award, given annually to teachers at Sonoma State who make an outstanding contribution to the education of students. • Lucy Okumu was selected to be a 2009 American Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund. She will spend 24 days in Europe traveling to cities such as Brussels, Belgrade and Copenhagen and attend the 2009 Marshall Forum on Transatlantic Affairs in Berlin. Okumu is currently a policy and political strategist for Strategic Counsel in Los Angeles. • Dana Ann Gong, M.S., died of lupus in March in Salinas. She was 38. She lived in San Ramon with her family and worked as a food technologist and eventually a senior project leader at the National Food Laboratory in Dublin for 14 years. She was also a member of the Northern California Institute of Food Technologists. She enjoyed music and had been in many choirs since graduating from high school. She is survived by her husband, Lester; daughters, Natalie and Naomi; parents, Clarence and Marsha Wong; sister, Sharon Wong; and grandmother, Ellyn Lowe.

1998Jennifer Hardy Moreno and her husband, Daniel, welcomed their second child, Katherine, last April.

2000Frank Kobayashi received his Ed.D in educational leadership from UC Davis. He currently works at West Valley College in Saratoga as the director of contract education. • Shannon Seed-Hardwicke was featured in the September issue of Inside East Sacramento in an article “Giving Back to East Sac.” She practices community development in the area served by Theodore Judah Elementary School. • Matthew Westoby and Michelle (Modrich) Westoby welcomed their son, Tyler Davis, in September. Matthew works for a biotech company and Michelle is in commercial real estate. They live in Carlsbad. • Jeffrey Maurer of El Portal died in August after falling while rock climbing in Yosemite National Park. He was 47. For the past three years, Mr. Maurer worked at Yosemite as a wildlife biologist and specialized in raptors. During his time at UC Davis, he was a lecturer as well as a researcher, studying lead poisoning in California condors. He also taught with the Yosemite and Sierra institutes. A memorial blog has been created at http://yosemite-jeffmaurer.blogspot.com.

2001Mike Reilly made the independent film Road to Victory, which was selected to be a part of more than 10 international film festivals and has won six awards. The film, which was recently released on DVD nationwide, follows a college football player’s relationships and steroid drug usage.

2002Becca 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. • 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. • 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.”

2004Adam Davis and Amy Johnston ’05 recently celebrated their first year of marriage. Davis is a mechanical engineer and Johnston works in communications and public relations. • Tom Koehnle, Ph.D., was given the Paul E. Martin Award in October for his outstanding contributions to the academic program and educational life at Hiram College in Ohio. He is an assistant professor of biology and has been a leading faculty member in their neurosciences program. • Michael Kurland received a master’s degree in educational psychology and instructional technology and has started the doctorate in education program at USC, where he is also an academic adviser. • John McCoy became the director of alumni relations for Holy Names University in Oakland in September. He previously worked as a senior event marketing representative and development consultant for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

2005Christopher Chua and Eileen Sabangan were married in September in Milpitas. April Fortun ’04 and Mike Liwanag ’06 were maid of honor and best man respectively. Bridesmaids included Janine Fiel ’06, Liezel Caliva, Katherine Soong ’06, Tiffany Centeno ’06 and Noren Caliva ’04. Groomsmen included David Salomon ’07, Jason Arcibal ’06, Mike Molano ’05, Eric Abad ’06 and Hamilton Pingol.

< Previous Showing 41 to 60 of 66 Next >