David currently serves as the Senior Manager of the Procure to Pay team at Cerus Corporation, where he works at the global headquarters located in Concord, California. He lives in Martinez, California, which is conveniently close to his workplace.

David began his educational journey at Cal Poly Humboldt, graduating in 1983. He then pursued a Master of International Business at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, completing his degree in 1988. His background in geography provided a strong foundation for his specialization in International Trade Management, a focus that has been instrumental throughout his career.

Over the past 30 years, David has held managerial roles in global operations and processes across seven different companies within the Bio-Tech, Pharma, and Medical Devices sectors. His passion for geography has enabled him to make significant contributions to various projects and operations, including establishing new sites worldwide, sourcing materials globally, providing support to international customers, and managing export and import operations along with their associated regulations.

Throughout his career, David has undertaken two expatriate assignments: one in Paris, where he supported the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, and another in Singapore, overseeing operations in the Asia Pacific region. When not on assignment abroad, he primarily operates from an office in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information about his professional background, David can be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/davidwmackey.

Since graduating from Humboldt with a double major in Geography and Geospatial Science & Technology, Chris has been working as a Location Intelligence Analyst (GIS Analyst) at GHD, a global Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firm. He provides GIS support on a wide range of projects taking place across North America and sometimes other parts of the world. His day-to-day roles involve data management, spatial analysis, and figure/map production for contaminated site assessments, environmental permitting, transportation planning, utilities and infrastructure mapping, sea level rise impact assessments, and the list goes on. A recent and significant project that he had the opportunity to work on was a stormwater features data collection effort for Del Norte County, where they gathered the location of nearly 12,000 spatial features, including stormwater pipes, culverts, channels/ditches, junctions, outfalls, manholes, and drainage inlets with a high-accuracy GPS unit. Chris started at GHD's Eureka office as an intern but has since been promoted to a full-time role and relocated to their Concord, California, office in the East Bay Area. 

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-tuck-b47684283/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BDXlkvIq1Qc6%2BgYZi%2BmBZ7g%3D%3D

After graduation, Lowell stayed in Trinidad for a few years and ran the first private kayaking company there, North Coast Adventures. After leaving Trinidad, he worked as an environmental consultant in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, doing stormwater monitoring, sampling, and stream restoration on Caltrans, PG&E, and privately funded projects. Lowell moved to Folsom in 2019 and now works as a Senior Environmental Scientist for the Regional Water Quality Control Board for the State. There, he supervises two compliance and enforcement units, making sure construction and industrial sites are doing the right thing and not harming our most precious resource, water. He oversees about 2,600 permitted sites across most of the 22 counties and still gets into the field regularly with his teams. He says he really loves working for the Water Board, it's a very challenging but fulfilling job...and his company loves Humboldt Grads! They hire Environmental Scientists (Geography grads are especially welcome!), Geologists, Engineers, and anyone with a science background. He would love to hear from my old classmates or anyone else from the Geography Department - Cheers!

I attended HSU from 1973-1975, earning a degree in Natural Resources. Returning to Santa Cruz after graduation, I started my own small consulting firm, Kmetovic and Associates, primarily writing Environmental Impact Reports under CEQA criteria. I then moved to the Bay Area, working for larger firms, followed by a move to Portland to begin a family. My last position as a Project Manager was for Intel, managing design and construction of a large cryogenic nitrogen system. 

My time at Humboldt was inspiring, being in the presence of dedicated professors such as Stanley Harris, is something I still appreciate over 50 years later.

At Humboldt I also grew to love basketball, playing weekends in the old gym. At 73 I am lucky to still be running full court. I’ve written an appreciation piece that is planned to appear soon.

Adam Lodge is currently the Director of Solutions Delivery at Farallon Geographics, where he focuses on streamlining project management processes and managing key strategic client projects. Recently, he relocated to Encinitas, California, after spending many years in the San Francisco Bay Area following his graduation from HSU.

After earning a GIS certificate from San Francisco State University in 2000, Adam began his career as a GIS Analyst at San Mateo County, where he worked for six years. This experience provided him with a solid foundation for his transition into consulting at Farallon, where he has managed numerous projects involving GIS implementation, data development, and application development for local governments. One of the highlights of his career has been developing and implementing a software platform called Arches, which is designed to support the management of cultural heritage information. In recent years, Adam has shifted his focus away from technical work and concentrated on enhancing project management practices within his firm.

For more about his professional background, Adam can be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lodge-pmp-30651a13.

Joy currently holds the position of Senior Technical Support at H. T. Harvey & Associates, an ecological consulting company, where she essentially fulfills the role of an office manager. She resides in Arcata and has a deep affection for Humboldt County, having left several times only to return each time.

Since graduating, Joy's career path has included valuable experiences working in Sequoia National Park as well as various field jobs across California and Oregon from 2002 to 2007. However, in order to establish a more stable local job and embrace her role as a mother, she transitioned to an administrative position with the ecological consulting company in 2007, where she has continued to work through 2026.

On a personal note, Joy's husband also graduated with a degree in Geography from Humboldt State University (now known as Cal Poly Humboldt). The couple initially met during a Physical Geography field trip and has since been married for 19 years, raising two children together.

Since graduating from Humboldt State University (the last semester to be called HSU), Daniel was hired as a Surveillance Officer at Cher-Ae Heights Casino in Trinidad. He is currently one of five Gaming Compliance Officers, with his "slice of the pie" being Title 31 Compliance (anti-money laundering).  He tracks, monitors, and reports unusual monetary transactions to FinCen (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), which falls under the Department of the Treasury.  

Cody is currently working for Mendocino County DOT in the County Surveyor's office, checking maps, determining right-of-way, and operating remote sensing equipment on behalf of the municipal government. 

David moved to Arcata in the fall of 73, knowing virtually no one. He had been living in Santa Cruz and had just started playing some pick-up basketball, but had not developed many skills or instincts for the game. He started going to the gym at Humboldt on weekends (this was the “old” gym, which was new at the time), and her is very happy he did. Now retired at 73, after a career in the Environment field, and living in Portland, he's still playing. He's recently had some reflections on the importance of “play”, as it might relate to health and the evolutionary biology of our species.

He's attached the piece he alled “Keep on Playin’.

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Keep on Playin’

The Wednesday Night Payoff

“Nobody gets hurt, guys!” It’s the standing hope and  agreement in my Wednesday night basketball group. Two hours of fast, unpredictable, yet structured “play” among adults, some now in their seventies.

A father and son who somehow still compete without mercy. One retired guy, who stubbornly keeps trying a few old moves that aged well. Another who often  laughs when he dribbles, seeing angles the rest of us miss. We come from three different countries, different careers. For those two hours none of that matters.

Why do we do it? What makes us ensure our schedules are clear so we can immerse ourselves in this apparent mayhem?

It’s the week’s payoff, where everyday details, the news cycle, and anxieties fall away, are crushed into insignificance.

The Mismatch

Playing in a way that demands muscular and aerobic output, and which simultaneously requires a focus on rapid responses, seems to be one path toward maintaining lifelong health. 

Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman has written about how the bodies of hominids evolved to allow vigorous movement, yet we now live in an environment where very little is required of us. Many modern health problems may be traced back to that mismatch.

Of course we’re all aware one should “stay in shape“, and although many of us engage in activities such as walking, running, cycling, or strength training, these activities don’t really demand the same constant adaptation. None of these actions taken alone seem very similar to what it took to survive for so much of human history.

Are there modern activities we can adopt where we reinforce the mind/body connection that stimulates and reengages these ancient traits?

My experience says we can.

Adults at Play

This is where the role of sporting activities comes in. Tennis or basketball for example, require constant adjustment of position, awareness of physical obstacles, and eye hand coordination at a very rapid pace. Situations change quickly and we respond using skills sharpened over time. Hopefully, our reaction to being challenged only stimulates us to improve.

Psychiatrist John J. Ratey has written extensively about the link between movement and brain function. Sport, with its constant decisions and adjustments often made under pressure, may be one of the most natural ways to activate and strengthen those connections. Pickleball, soccer, basketball, they all answer that call.

Now, I can’t pretend that our Wednesday night full-court hoop sessions re-create ancient life on the savanna. But I also can’t ignore how “right” it feels, the sprinting, the scanning, the constant adjustments, as if some old circuitry is being exercised, not just my legs.

No time for deliberation, actions arise from the body itself, reinforced by decades of experience. It feels like a body-mind fusion where muscle memory takes over.

Sporting games that include a tangible measure of success by keeping score and noting metrics of personal performance (points scored, aces, rebounds etc.), give us inarguable measures of effectiveness. The more negative experiences such as having a shot blocked, might also build emotional resilience, through our need to quickly “shake it off”  and get back in the game.

Belonging

Another aspect of the utility of sports is that they are social activities. We are after all tribal creatures, and for most of human history coordinated effort has been a key to our survival. In the modern world we have sports, where we accept well established rules and agreements, a valuable and non-violent substitute for earlier forms of both conflict and cooperation. Instant feedback, gaining insight on clever strategies and the near constant need to adjust on the fly in a social or one on one context, all strengthen these abilities, which mostly lay dormant in modern life. 

My own experience is that a palpable bond has formed in my group that regularly meets to share in the love of our chosen form of play.

If it feels good…

People can have a strong attraction, even an addiction to the reward neurotransmitters our brains generate, and they seem to flow freely in the active play state. We all seek ways to feed our addictions, so to those like us who have discovered a sport they love, heading off to play never feels like a chore or workout task they must complete: we are only too eager to get back on the court again, and happily run ourselves ragged. After a week mediated by screens, the game feels less like exercise and more like necessity. And doing well for the team carries its own quiet reward.

Beyond just staying “in shape”

Whatever form it takes, playing sports, as a modern echo of more primal demands, just might play a role in maintaining the health of the whole mind/body system into the later years. And those experiences in every session, good,  disappointing, or physically painful, just give new feedback, strengthened over time.

Could the satisfaction we feel and the prospect of another helping of dopamine help us heal, recover and return?

Why stop?

“Ball in!”

The ball is checked after a foul.

Shoes squeak as one of us makes a quick cut to get open in the key. But he is a step slow this time and the pass is stolen. It’s getting late, we’re getting tired.

And of course our bodies do complain. Our group has watched players drift away after a surgery, losing the battle with a chronic condition, or simply the accumulation of years. Most never return. But for now, the lucky ones keep playing through adulthood.

The wrestling play we see exhibited by lion cubs builds essential strength and agility. Yet, just as with humans, play generally fades away as maturity and a more self sufficient life begins. 

Maybe we should never stop playing.

One more time!

We click off the lights to our creaky old gym and in sweaty good humor, head over to the bar for the last part of the night’s ritual, to finally relax. Our conversations over beer can range from the evening’s court antics to the evening’s MVP to the recent death of a parent. Rae, our bartender, looks up, grabs the pint glasses.

We settle in the corner booth and clink them in a quiet toast.

For what we keep building.

For another week.

And hey, nobody got hurt.

Reasons enough to keep on playin’.

Claudine is set to obtain a nonprofit leadership and management degree from Arizona State University (ASU) in May, which will complement her leadership studies degree program at Humboldt.