Class Notes

1950s

STANFORD OKEN (’52), a former Fresno County supervisor, received the Fresno Chamber of Commerce’s Leon S. Peters Award for service to the community.

1960s

DICK BRUICH (’69) was inducted into the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Hall of Fame after 43 years in education and 32 years as head football coach. He led his teams to a combined 20 league championships and one national championship.

CARLOS MUÑOZ, JR. (’67), professor emeritus of Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Berkeley, received the University of California 2015-16 Edward A. Dickson Distinguished Emeriti Professorship.

JEANNETTE OAKES (’69 M.A.), senior fellow in residence at the Learning Policy Institute, was nominated by former President Barack Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences.

TOM RIVERA (’62, ’68 M.A.) was reappointed to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.

GILBERT VASQUEZ (’64), managing partner at Vasquez and Company LLP, was named Latino Business of the Year in the small private company category by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

1970s

DUANE M. CARTER (’79), owner of Centerpoint Music and director at Dinc Multimedia, has published his first novel, No Promises.

JAIME ESCALANTE (’73, ’90 Doctorate of Humane Letters) was posthumously honored by the United States Postal Service with a Forever Stamp. He was the subject of the critically acclaimed 1988 film Stand and Deliver.

STEVEN GELLATLY (’78) is the pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in West Milton, Ohio.

ALAN HELLER (’72) is president of Duarte’s Public Access Channel, DCTV.

GARY ROBERT JOHNSON (’76 M.A.), a wildlife artist, had several of his artworks on display at the 11th annual ArtWalk @ Liberty Station in San Diego.

ISAAC LARIAN (’78), chief executive officer of MGA Entertainment, has launched a line of STEM-focused dolls. Larian was featured in the Los Angeles Times and was honored as a keynote speaker at Cal State LA’s 68th Commencement Ceremonies.

JADEANE (JADY) VON DER LIETH (’78 M.A.) retired after 45 years with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

JANE LYON (’75) was inducted into the Chino Valley Unified School District’s Richard Gird Educational Hall of Fame for her exceptional service.

ANDREW MANLEY (’76) wrote his second book, Urban Bully. The novel explores the rationale for the bullying epidemic in inner-city schools and its effects on the larger society.

ARMANDO MUNIZ (’71), a retired professional boxer, owns Armando Muniz Bail Bonds. Muniz was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team and made his professional boxing debut at the historic Olympic Auditorium. After boxing, Muniz taught for more than 20 years at Riverside Rubidoux High, where he also ran a youth boxing program.

PAUL PITINO (’72) is the mayor of Arcata.

GEORGE PLA (’72), president and CEO of Cordoba Corporation, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2016 Latino Business Awards. He was also honored with the 2016 Joe Shapiro Humanitarian Award during the 19th Billie Jean King & Friends Gala.

MARTIN B. SAKLAD (’71) marked 20 years as president and CEO of HMC Inc., an electronic manufacturers’ representative firm that serves markets in California and Nevada.

MITCHELL THOMAS (’76, ’78 M.B.A.) is chief financial officer for Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital.

GLENN THURKOW (’73) is board chair of the South Coast Education Services District in Coos Bay, Ore.

DIEMLAN “LANNIE” TONNU (’79) is chief financial officer for Orthopaedic Institute for Children.

1980s

JEAN CARANDANG (’87) has been named chief financial officer at Suncrest Bank.

JULIAN GOMEZ (’88) received an Emmy nomination in the outstanding picture editing for reality programming category for his work on CBS’ The Amazing Race.

ONDINE GROSS (née GREER LITZ, ’81 M.S.) is a nationally certified school psychologist. Her book, Restore the Respect: How to Mediate School Conflict and Keep Students Learning, was released by Brookes Publishing Co.

EDWIN HORTON (’87), camera operator, won an Emmy Award for his camerawork on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Horton has amassed a total of 11 Emmy nominations and four wins for various shows, including American Idol, The GRAMMY Awards, and The Oscars.

VICKEN KASSARDJIAN (’86) is energy manager at the Imperial Irrigation District.

KATHERINE KLEINE (’89) was appointed president of the Tournament of Roses Foundation in 2015.

JOHN LYNCH (’81) is head of production and operations for Amazon Studios, which won a 2016 Golden Globe for its comedy series Mozart in the Jungle.

ARA MALOYAN (’84) is the new director for Pasadena’s Public Works Department.

SAMSON MENGISTU (’88, ’94 M.S.) is deputy executive director for administration at Los Angeles World Airports.

JEFFREY C. MYGATT (’87), director of photography at Entertainment Partners, received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Cal State LA’s Department of Television, Film, and Media Studies.

ADRIANA OCAMPO (’83) was named the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year by Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry. She has worked 40 years as an engineer with NASA and is now the lead scientist exploring Venus.

JOSEPH PEILA (’88), a high school math teacher and water polo referee, was selected to referee in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

ROBERT J. PEREZ (’87), former CEO of Cubist, joined the board of directors for Flex Pharma and was appointed as a senior advisor to PureTech Health.

KAREN PRICE-GHARZEDDINE (’89 M.S.) is chief executive officer at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center.

DAVID QUAN (’89) is senior director of music publishing at Angry Mob Music.

MOHAMMMAD RASIAN (’83) has been appointed to senior vice president of underwriting at Bibby Financial Services.

SALVADOR RIVERA (’84), a professor of history at the State University of New York (SUNY), has published a book, Latin American Unification: A History of Political and Economic Integration Efforts.

NOELIA RODRIGUEZ (’86) is managing director of communications for the Port of Long Beach.

BARRY RONDINELLA (’87) is the director of Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.

ANITA ROSENFIELD (’83, ’87 M.A.) has published a book, Flame: A Cautionary Tale.

VICTOR THOMPSON (’88 M.A.) is director of student support services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education and president of the Association of Los Angeles County Office of School Administrators.

CHRIS UNGAR (’85 M.A.), a retired school speech pathologist and a trustee for the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, was elected to serve as president of the California School Boards Association for 2016.

FRANCES WEISSENBERGER (’84), principal of Hamilton Elementary School, has been named Elementary Administrator of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators Region XV.

A.C. WOOLNOUGH (’82 M.A.) is vice chair of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation’s People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council.

1990s

CASSI ALTER (’95 M.A.), a certified speech language pathologist, is founder and owner of LA Speech Therapy Solutions.

HECTOR BECERRA received the Distinguished Journalist award from the Society of Professional Journalists. At the Los Angeles Times, Becerra is morning assignment editor for the California Section and was part of the team of reporters that covered the city of Bell corruption scandal and the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, both of which won a Pulitzer Prize. Becerra was editor of the University Times in the 1990s.

JAMES A. BELL (’97) has been elected to Apple’s board of directors. Bell is the former chief financial officer and corporate president of The Boeing Company.

CARMEN CUBA (’94) was casting director for The Martian, which won Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for the movie’s star, Matt Damon.

MICHAEL C. FLORES (’96 M.A.) was elected to the board of trustees of the Ontario-Montclair School District.

JULIO GALLUD (’91) is senior vice president, director of information technology and information security officer at Preferred Bank.

CHAD GHOSN (’95) is vice president of IT infrastructure and security for Wayfair, Inc.

FRANCES GIPSON (’98 M.A.), chief academic officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, delivered the keynote address at Cal State LA’s 55th Honors Convocation.

RUBEN C. GONZALEZ (’91) performed in a one-man play, La Esquinita, USA, at the Alisal Center for the Fine Arts, where he depicts the former residents of a robust black and Latino town in decline after a big factory employer leaves for China.

DEBRA HAMMOND (’94 M.A.), executive director of the University Student Union at CSU Northridge, was recognized by the CSU Board of Trustees with the Wang Family Excellence Award.

RICARDO LEMVO (’94) and his band Makina Loca performed at UC Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center.

SUJATHA LOWENTHAL (’96 M.B.A.) served as councilwoman for Long Beach’s 2nd District from 2006 to 2016.

GINA OROZCO-MEJIA (’91) , vice president of gas operations at Southern California Gas Co., was honored as a “Latina Corporate Pillar” by the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce for being one of the highest-ranking Latinas at a Fortune 500 company.

DAVID MONTOYA (’92), a composer and high school music teacher, brought his five-movement “Magdalene” to Sing Napa Valley for its California premiere.

ANN OUELLETTE (’96 M.B.A.) is vice president and general manager of WCCO, the CBS-owned station in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

GARY FRANCIS POWERS, JR. (’91), founder of The Cold War Museum, was appointed president of the Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce in Tysons, Va.

MARIO RUEDA (’91) is chief of the Verdugo Cities Fire Command, overseeing the three independent fire departments in San Gabriel, San Marino and South Pasadena. For the last 15 years, Rueda served as deputy chief with the Los Angeles Fire Department.

JOE SHAW (’94) is associate director of the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Neb.

EDWARD KEITH TOMES (’94 M.A.) is the superintendent of Trona Joint Unified School District.

ARADHNA TRIPATI (’96) appeared as a guest on CNBC to discuss climate change at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. Tripati is an associate professor in UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences.

KIRK WELLS (’90) retired after 31 years of service as division chief for the Orange County Fire Authority.

LING-LING WU (’93) is executive director and chief financial officer of Asia Cement (China) Holdings Corporation.

DR. TIMOTHY YEH (’96) made partner at Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park in the Department of Family Medicine.

2000s

SULTAN AHMED AL JABER (’01 M.S.) is the United Arab Emirates minister of state and chairman of Masdar, a company that specializes in renewable energy. He was honored by USC Viterbi School of Engineering with the Global Leadership in Engineering Award.

DANIEL BAGBY (’03 M.A.) is principal of Eugene Field Elementary School.

ERIC G. BARBER (’01 M.A.) is an insurance partner in the litigation practice group at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP.

JONATHAN P. BELL (’02) is on the board of directors for the California Association of Professional Employees.

BRADY BLAIR (’09) is executive assistant to the president at the California Association of Community Managers. Blair also works as an operations management consultant for Advantis Law Group.

STEPHANIE L. CHAN (’08) is a post-production coordinator at Fox 21 Television Studios. Chan worked on the second season of TNT’s Legends.

RICSON CHUDE (’08) is an engineer at Southern California Edison.

CRISTIN EMBREE (’07), an archaeologist, is working with a team on a large prehistoric site in Elgin, Texas, that contains artifacts that date back 10,000 years.

SAYDA FINK (’07) is a second-year resident at the Yuma Regional Medical Center.

MARY FORNEY (’06) is executive director of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC). She served as director of operations since 2004, and has worked in the California horse racing industry for more than 30 years.

WENDY KARSTEN (’06 M.A.) is chief executive officer of Care N’ Care Insurance.

JOSEPH LILLIO (’05) is the finance chief for the city of El Segundo.

DAVID LINNEVERS (’07 M.B.A.), director of admissions at Cal State Monterey Bay, was awarded the Joseph P. Allen Human Relations Award from the Western Association of College Admissions Counseling for his efforts to increase student diversity during recruitment and admission.

STEPHON LITWINCZUK (’05) is a senior video specialist at Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

JANET L. MITCHELL (’00 M.A.), an associate adjunct professor at Pasadena City College and an adjunct at Citrus College, was selected as Professional of the Year 2015 by Strathmore’s Who’s Who.

GERARDO (ROD) MUNOZ (’05) is a technical supervisor at Dish Nation.

ALYSIA ODIPO (’03 M.A.) is the assistant superintendent of instructional services for the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

MAURICIO ORTEGA (’01) is the principal of Goleta Valley Junior High School.

FELIZA ORTIZ-LICON (’09 Ed.D.), senior director of K-12 education for the National Council of La Raza, serves on the California State Board of Education.

LAMONICA PETERS (’02 M.A.) is a reporter and video journalist for Time Warner Cable News in Buffalo, N.Y.

ANGELICA RUBIO (’08 M.A.) represents the 35th District in New Mexico’s House of Representatives.

CARLOS SAMANIEGO (’02) is director and founder of Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles (Rainbow Mariachi), which bills itself as the world’s first LGBT mariachi band.

LUIS TRETO (’05), general assignment reporter at KVEA 52 (Telemundo), received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Cal State LA’s Department of Television, Film, and Media Studies.

ANHVINH WRIGHT (’04 M.S.) has launched Kraftlove, a charity that delivers crafting kits to hospitalized children.

2010s

YASH AHUJA (’14) is a software engineer at Google.

SOPHIE AVEDIKIAN (’14), ARIEL RICHARDSON (’14), CANDICE CLASBY (’15 M.F.A.), and KIRBIE PUESTOW (’15) were cast as supernumeraries in the LA Opera production of Pagliacci.

ARSINE BAGHDASARIAN (’15) is a cognizant system engineer at AECOM’s Hanford Nuclear Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in Washington. She is the lead author of a 2015 American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference paper.

MELINE BAGHDASARIAN (’14, ’14 M.S.) is a cognizant system engineer at AECOM’s Hanford Nuclear Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in Washington. She is an author of a 2014 article published in Physics of Fluids.

NADINE BEDROSSIAN (’14) is a human resources and production administrator at the LA Opera.

JOAQUIN BELTRAN (’10) is chief executive officer and co-founder of the Awemaze app.

JEREMY BLAIRE (’14) is a flight systems development engineer at Millennium Space Systems.

JULIA BUDNIAK (’13 M.S.), assistant track and field coach at Cal State LA, finished third in the 31st annual Los Angeles Marathon.

STEPHANIE COFFEY (’15 M.A.), a high school science teacher at Downtown Magnets High School, was chosen by the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation as a member of its 2016 cohort of teaching fellows.

ELVA CORTEZ-COVARRUBIAS (’15 Ed.D.) received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Education Research Association Hispanic Research Issues Special Interest Group.

ALANNA DEDEK (’14) is pursuing graduate studies in sustainable design and construction at Stanford University.

GENNELLE DEDEK (’14) is pursuing graduate studies in structural engineering at Stanford University.

KEVIN DEEGAN (’11), co-founder of Hope4Hollywood, received a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary. He works as a chaplain for Providence TrinityCare Hospice.

FANSHEN COX DIGIOVANNI (’13 M.F.A.), writer, producer and actor, received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Cal State LA’s Department of Television, Film, and Media Studies.

RAHUL DOSOAR (’10) is senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

MARICELA GUZMAN (’12, ’14 M.S.), a Navy veteran who served overseas from 1998 to 2002, was honored in the state capital by Assemblyman Chris Holden (AD-41), as the 41st Assembly District’s “Veteran of the Year” for 2016.

CECILIA LARA (’11), a teacher with the Glendale Unified School District, received Sigma Delta Pi’s Gabriela Mistral Award for her academic achievements and for her leadership and initiative within her Sigma Delta Pi chapter.

SARNICA LIM (’10) was cast as Pilita Santos in the world premiere of the play, As Straw Before the Wind, at Ruby Theatre’s The Complex in Hollywood.

RICARDO MEJIA (’14) is a veteran specialist at Veterans Community Services.

MAYRA MOLINA (’15 M.S.) was selected as a California Sea Grant State Fellow.

SEAN MORAN (’12) is a noise abatement analyst at Hayward Executive Airport.

DAGOBERTO MORENO JR. (’12), a former U.S. Army staff sergeant who served in Afghanistan and as a squad leader in an infantry rifle platoon in the U.S. Army, was honored in September as the Military Hero of the Game at a Los Angeles Dodgers-Arizona Diamondbacks game at Dodger Stadium.

STELLA MURGA (’10 M.S.) received the 2015 Racial Justice Award from the YWCA of Pasadena-Foothill Valley.

AARON NAKAMURA (’14) is manager of business operations and vice president for finance at Milo Adventist Academy in Oregon.

CHINGASIYENI (SANDRA) NDUNA (’12, ’15 M.A.) is a contract administrator at Dick Clark Productions. Nduna founded Zimbabwean Child, which provides educational materials to underprivileged schools in Zimbabwe.

VIMAL PATEL (’11 M.S.) is scientific director for large molecule bioanalysis at Eurofins Bioanalytical Services.

JESS PELÁEZ (’10 M.S.), chief executive officer of the nonprofit Blueprint Earth and fellow at The Explorers Club, can be seen in the Discovery Channel’s survivalist science series Trailblazers.

BRADLEY PIERSON (’11 M.M.) is director of choral activities at the University of Toledo Department of Music.

CAITLIN REARDEN (’10) joined Arkansas’ KARK/KLRT news team as a reporter. She previously worked as a reporter and anchor in Spokane, Wash., and Bakersfield.

STEPHANIE RUIZ (’12) was selected as “Young Careerist for 2016” by East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women. Ruiz is a program coordinator at MERCI, a nonprofit that assists people who are developmentally disabled. 

MICHAEL SONKSEN (’14 M.A.), poet, author, and educator, hosted the “Three Generations on a Stage” poetry performance in Venice.

CHRISTOPHER SORENSEN (’13) released an anti-bullying music video, “Balloon.”

YESSENIA TOSCANO (’14) is a design engineer at General Motors.

TANYA TUNG (’13) is international recruiting coordinator at Internet Brands.

LEA M. URPA (’11) completed the International Master of Translational Medicine at the University of Helsinki. She has been accepted to the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Finland (FIMM), where she plans to get an International Ph.D. in molecular medicine and bioinformatics.

SALVADOR ZÁRATE (’10 M.A.) was awarded a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to fund a research project with Mexican and Central American domestic workers and gardeners in Orange County.