Alumni Updates

Find classmates by name, major, or year of graduation

Dana Wisseman, Anthropology and Communication, 2012

Submitted: January 23, 2014

Dana Wisseman, 2012 Anthropology and Communication, volunteered at the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office while earning her bachelor’s degree. Wisseman is currently pursuing a Master of Forensic Science Degree at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Wisseman completed an internship at the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office during the summer of 2013. In addition, she completed a continuing education class at the Forensic Investigative Research Station in Grand Junction, Colorado, covering the topic of human decomposition. Wisseman is currently working at the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) in Omaha, Nebraska.

Samuel M. Navarez, History, 1975

Submitted: January 10, 2014

Samuel M. Navarez 1975, History, is getting ready to retire after 38 years of teaching history and other social science classes. Navarez has taught for the last 25 years in the Gilroy Unified School District at both the middle school and high school levels. He is currently teaching at an early college high school, called Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, since it opened in 2007. Navarez has been married to a wonderful lady for the last 34 years and together they have three grown children, Crystal, Michael and Aaron; two are married to wonderful people. Navarez and his wife, Sally, are also raising their 5-year-old grandson.

Nicole (D'Virgilio) Josselyn, Nursing, 1996

Submitted: January 7, 2014

Nicole (D'Virgilio) Josselyn, 1996 Nursing, graduated from UCSD/SDSU's nurse-midwifery program. Josselyn currently runs a small, home-based practice, Exodus Homebirth Service. She lives in Iowa on 21 acres of grass with her husband, (who works for Deaf Missions as a video producer) and five home-educated children, two of which were adopted from Liberia. She and the family are learning how to sustainably grow their own food and love their cows and chickens.

Aquila Flower, Geography, 2004

Submitted: January 3, 2014

Aquila Flower, 2004, Geography, lived out of a backpack in New Zealand and South America, in a coffee shack in Hawai'i, and on a tiny sailboat in the San Juan Islands after graduating. Flower then moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where she completed a Master of Science in Geography and worked as a geospatial and statistical analyst at a climate change research institute. She fell in love with teaching and with dendrochronology research, and is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Oregon. Flower has accepted her “dream job” as Assistant Professor of Geography at Western Washington University in Bellingham, where she teaches Physical Geography and geographic information systems.

Mark D. Childress, B.A. in German and Political Science, 1985

Submitted: January 2, 2014

Mark D. Childress. 1985, German and Political Science, is terminology manager in the language services team at SAP, the world's largest enterprise software company. SAP's multilingual term management approach is well-regarded, resulting in invitations to teach and lecture in places as diverse as Ireland, Poland, Russia, South Africa, India, and Kazakhstan. Although Childress is a native-English speaking American, he was elected president of the German Association for Terminology (Deutscher Terminologie-Tag), a non-profit organization that promotes the use of the German language in terminology work and provides consulting on best practices in term management. Childress lives near Heidelberg, Germany, with his wife and their two teenage children.

Ali R. Chaudhary, Sociology, MA-2009

Submitted: December 24, 2013

Ali R. Chaudhary, 2009 Sociology, went on to earn a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Davis. In 2013, Chaudhary advanced to candidacy and started dissertation research on migrant-serving non-profit organizations in London, Toronto and New York. While conducting fieldwork, Chaudhary has been hosted as a visiting scholar at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the University of Toronto and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In fall 2013 Chaudhary was a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford's International Migration Institute. Chaudhary’s first sole-authored, peer-reviewed journal publication will appear in the International Migration Review in summer 2014.

Owen Jacob Krebs-Grimsich, International Studies, 2013

Submitted: December 20, 2013

Owen Jacob Krebs-Grimsich, 2013, International Studies, took his first International Studies class with Professor Suzanne Pasztor and was hooked right away. International Studies has enabled Krebs-Grimsich to travel and experience places in the world he would have never imagined. Krebs-Grimsich also became fluent in Spanish as part of the major’s foreign-language component. Krebs-Grimsich recently accepted an invitation from the Peace Corps to travel to Mozambique in 2014, where he will work on HIV Education/Prevention—an opportunity he credits to his experience in the International Studies program.

Cynthia (Cindy) Rawlings (formerly Rawlings Rohde), Art, 1983

Submitted: December 15, 2013

Cynthia Rawlings (previously Rawlings Rohde), 1983, art, received Citizen of the Year recognition from the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce in 2013 for organizing the Downtown Coos Bay Wine Walk. Since 2007, the event has earned over $130,000 to support local non-profit organizations including Coos Art Museum and the Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association. Rawlings has lived in the Coos Bay-area since 2001 and has worked at The World newspaper for nearly 8 years. She was president of the Bay Area Rotary club in 2010-11.

Bridget McGraw, International Studies, 2012

Submitted: December 14, 2013

Bridget McGraw, 2012, International Studies, began at Internews Network, an international non-profit organization. At the organization’s headquarters in Arcata, McGraw is subgrant analyst focusing mostly on a new project promoting independent media in South Sudan. McGraw writes, “Every day at work I use the skills and experiences I gained at university.”

Deanna (Wade) Carpenter, Environmental Resources Engineering, 1997

Submitted: December 14, 2013

Deanna Carpenter, 1997 Environmental Resources Engineering, (née Wade) is married to Mark Carpenter ('98, Wildlife Management) and was recently promoted to the rank of Commander with the U.S. Navy's Civil Engineer Corps in Newport, R.I. Carpenter is currently serving as chief staff officer of the Seventh Naval Construction Regiment.

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