Dylan Karl, Wildlife, 2016, completed two years of service as a Peace Corps environment volunteer in Guyana, South America. Karl volunteered as a community conservation promotor. Now that his service is complete, he is looking into going to Bowling Green State University for its Leisure and Tourism program.

Christine Messer (Orlowski), Wildlife, 2013, worked for the California Department of Food and Agriculture before deciding to continue her education. She obtained a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from California State University Fullerton in 2017. While completing her graduate degree she simultaneously worked for the County of Santa Barbara in the Sustainability Division. She currently works for the City of Lompoc as the city’s recycling coordinator. She married Kirk Messer (’11, Biology, Zoology) in October 2017. They live in Santa Maria, California and recently returned to HSU for a visit after five years away.

Gene Blankenbaker, Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1977, is retiring in January 2019 after over 41 years of service with the federal government. He spent approximately 2 years with the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resource Division as a groundwater hydrologist, and over 39 years with the U.S. Forest Service in a variety of locations in California, Washington D.C., Arizona, Wisconsin and New Mexico, in positions that included hydrologist, forester, district ranger, forest supervisor, deputy regional forester, and deputy director of human resources for the agency.

Zachary Haitkin, International Studies, 2010, is currently residing in the city of San Francisco working at the headquarters for the rideshare company, Lyft. He began his career here over 4.5 years ago by making the transition from a Lyft driver to customer support associate. Since then, he has worked on the Operations team and led the effort to build a Competitive Intelligence network in an effort to improve Lyft’s visibility into what competitors are doing at a market level. Most recently, he has moved over to Lyft’s Growth team as a Project Manager to help lead the charge in the localization of the Lyft platform into Spanish and other languages.

Thomas F. Wuenschell, Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1974, studied Forestry 1972-1974 at Humboldt and got his BS in Idaho later. He retired in 2016 as a forester after more than 30 years with USFS. He has always been a supporter of Save The Redwoods League and is currently on board of directors of his Audubon chapter.

Vicki Bugbee-Reed, Psychology, 1974, retired in 2009. She taught in Australia, right from HSU for three years and taught in Oregon most of the remaining years (almost 30 total) before retirement.  She sailed a sailboat for six years from Newport, Oregon to Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Steven Steward, Politics, 2001, currently works as a deputy district attorney for the Humboldt County Office of the District Attorney.

Janine Silvis, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, 2012, is the Coordinator for Residential Education for College Ten at UC Santa Cruz. After graduating, Silvis served four years as a student affairs administrator at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of Oregon and then obtained a Masters of Education in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration at the University of Vermont. Silvis applies their experiences and education to formulate interdisciplinary approaches to ending campus sexual assault, developing residential curriculum, and supporting minoritized students in higher education. Silvis has recieved several awards and recognition for national conference presentations and has published in scholary journals.

Michael William Raftery, Oceanography, 1996, worked for Lockheed Martin Technical Operations as a Satellite Engineer (1996-2000), Loral Skynet as a Spacecraft Orbit Analyst (2000-2004), Stevens Institute of Technology as a Research Engineer (2004-2012), received a Masters Degree in Ocean Engineering (Stevens 2009), and is the sole inventor on US Patent 8093736B2 (Wave Energy Harnessing Device) own by Stevens Board of Trustees. He’s currently working for Martin & Ottaway in Tinton Falls, New Jersey working to commercialize the SurfWEHD based on US patent 8093736B2.

Gregory Gottlieb, Politics, 1976, retired in 2017 from the U.S.Agency for International Development as Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance. He’s now a professor at Tufts University, and Director of the Feinstein International Center, which does research on international humanitarian assistance.  We welcome all Lumberjacks.