Submitted: February 21, 2020
After graduating from HSU, Shannon Whaley, Psychology, 2001, moved to Seattle to pursue a career as a domestic violence counselor as well as a chemical dependency professional. After leaving the social services in 2005, she became a hairstylist for seven years, working at the top salon in Seattle. In 2013 she moved to the Cayman Islands to figure things out and became a credentialed coach through the International Coaching Federation. In 2015, Whaley opened her own business and began working as a business and marketing coach. She became a coach trainer and eventually the head of admissions for a coach training company. In 2017 she moved to Italy and met and married her husband, where they live with three cats.
Submitted: February 14, 2020
Michael O'Boyle, Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1971, spent 16 years with the USDA Soil Conservation Service, and ended up as a district conservationist. He then served in New Mexico and California. Afterward, O'Boyle completed 20 years with the Madera County Animal Control Department in California, retiring in 2010.
Submitted: February 14, 2020
Aneesh Kumar, Fisheries Biology, 2014, is currently working as Project Scientist at Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology. Their area of research is Eco-morphology of deep sea fishes and Otoliths.
Submitted: January 29, 2020
Since graduating, Aaron Louis Cobas, Politics, 2016, has been trying to acquire his dream position that he has wanted since the age of nine years old. Last December, that dream came true. Cobas has accepted a full-time position as a Park Ranger for New Mexico State Parks. Ever since he was little his fondest memories have been going up into the Sierras, as well as Yosemite and Joshua Tree, looking at the majesty that is our public lands. Because of the education and training he received at HSU he has an exciting new chapter in life and the new adventures that come with it.
Submitted: January 28, 2020
After earning her degree, Julianne Fernandez, Oceanography, 2014, interned with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District in Illinois. As a Physical Science Technician in Water Quality she assisted in monitoring the upper Mississippi River. Fernandez worked on her M.S. in Geology at the University of Cincinnati, where her research focused on methane emissions from Lake Erie. Fernandez completed her M.S in 2017 and soon decided to pursue a PhD. She’s currently a Marie Slodowska-Curie Postgraduate Research Assistant in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. She studies urban methane emissions from London and other European metropolitan areas.
Submitted: January 18, 2020
Barbara Muskat, Art, 1975, has been teaching in a public school setting for the last 26 years. She taught as a secondary art teacher and for the last 15 years taught kindergarten where she includes the arts in many ways. Muskat will be retiring at the end of the 2020 school year.
Submitted: January 13, 2020
A few years ago Michelle Gienger, History, 2007, transitioned from a Federal Investigator at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to a Management and Program Analyst with the US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. In this position, she is on a team that conducts reviews of DOJ programs for the DOJ, Congress, and public.
Submitted: January 13, 2020
In 2019, after 28 years with the U.S. Forest Service in a position as a timber sale administrator, Janelle Thompson, Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1993, was promoted to Tahoe National Forest, Sierraville Ranger District Timber Management Officer. Thompson began her career in 1987 as a temporary employee on the timber marking crew at Sierraville. She received a permanent career appointment in 1991 as a forester with an emphasis in timber sale administration. During the last 20 years she has also worked as a support dispatcher (EDSD) for major wildland fires and other incidents across the United States. September of 2022 Thompson will be eligible to retire with over 31 years with the U.S. Forest Service.
Submitted: January 10, 2020
David Justice, Fisheries Biology, 1995, was promoted to CEO of Alta Vista Credit Union in Redlands, California in November of 2019. Justice married a College Professor who teaches Geography and they have two adult boys who are off to college next year.
Submitted: January 8, 2020
Judith Stone-Hulslander, Biological Sciences, 1992, was promoted to partner at the law firm Lathrop GPM. With approximately 20 years of intellectual property experience, Stone-Hulslander focuses her practice on patent preparation, prosecution and client counseling in all areas of biotechnology. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and prior to obtaining her law degree, she worked more than five years as a technical specialist and patent agent. Stone-Hulslander has particularly strong patent experience with therapeutic antibodies and antibody-like molecules for a variety of disease indications.
