Alumni - 1990-1999

What do Humboldt political science alumni do? They work for – and start-up – non-profit groups that tackle social, environmental, and cultural challenges. They lead state and local governmental agencies. They join the Peace Corps. They succeed in outstanding graduate and law schools. They teach high school. They become college professors and administrators. They staff Congressional and the State Legislative offices. They become leaders in international organizations. They practice law. They establish businesses and consulting firms. They manage political campaigns. They get elected to public office. They remain active and engaged citizens who make their communities and our world a better place.

Meet our featured Alumni

Graduates: join your fellow alumni on Facebook.

1990s

Matthew W. Paquette (1990) is a Software as a Service (SaaS) term negotiator for Marketo, Inc. Previously he worked 16 years in the Visa Legal Department.

Antonette Goroch (1990) is the Owner and Agent of La Estrella Group, which provides customized services for independent artists and record labels, including strategic planning for tours & new releases. Previously, she worked for more than 15 years as an analyst in the field of digital media and technology, Internet, mobile and pay TV content and digital copyright.

Ed Higgins (1990) works as an attorney for the Montana Legal Services Association.

Eri Hillyer is a Production Assistant and Public/Media Relations Facilitator for CBS. He has a career history focused on news reporting and professional photography related interests.

Andy Jensen (1990) is a Regional Manager for Partnership HealthPlan of California. Previously he held the position of Practice Administrator at Eureka Internal Medicine and as Physician Recruiter at St. Joseph Hospital.

Antonette Goroch (1990) is the Owner and Agent of La Estrella Group, which provides customized services for independent artists and record labels, including strategic planning for tours & new releases. Previously, she worked for more than 15 years as an analyst in the field of digital media and technology, Internet, mobile and pay TV content and digital copyright.

Matthew W. Paquette (1990) is a Software as a Service (SaaS) term negotiator for Marketo, Inc. Previously he worked 16 years in the Visa Legal Department.

Adam Cepeda (1991) is a retail jewelry Sales Manager at Helzberg Diamonds, a Berkshire Hathaway company.

Carla Lohi (1991) is a Certification Specialist for the Florida Certification Board, where she is responsible for assisting applicants pursuing certification in addiction and mental health professions. She was previously on the Annual Report Team at Corporation Service Company, a business and legal services organization that provides matter management, corporate compliance, and trustee services for companies and law firms.

Amy Skonieczny (1991) is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University in the International Relations Department. Her research interests include Populism and Foreign Policy, Narratives and US Trade Politics, and the study of national identity and foreign policy discourses. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She holds an MA in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a BA in Political Science from Humboldt State University.

Donna Dunning (1992) is the Vice President of Marketing for VitaminProz.com.

Gareth Elliott (1992) is a Partner at Sacramento Advocates, Inc., having previously worked for over 20 years in public service in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento in both the Legislative and Executive branches. Immediately preceding his work with Sacramento Advocates, Inc., Gareth served for four years as Legislative Affairs Secretary to Governor Brown, as a top advisor and his chief liaison to the Legislature. Appointed recently by Governor Brown, Gareth also serves as a Member of the University of California Board of Regents for a term that expires on March 1, 2025.

Jeff Patterson (1992) is pursuing a career as a firefighter. Jeff resides with his wife Diane in San Diego, CA.

Satina (Chiricosta) Pitcher (1992) currently holds the title of Engineering Team Lead and Assistant Director of Counseling and Programs at UC Berkeley. She collaborates with UC Berkeley’s faculty and staff to create innovative engineering projects for students currently enrolled in UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. She has been a Career Counselor at CSU-East Bay, and a program and policy analyst at UC Berkeley. She earned a Master’s in Education from the University of Maine.

Robert Schmeltzer (1992) is currently attending Portland Community College as a student of Multimedia Arts.

Mark Sheppard (1992) received his master’s of public administration from California State University, San Bernardino. Mark resides with his wife Penny in Redlands, CA.

Alan Tecker (1992) has had a number of different positions at Equinix, a leading provider of network technologies in the San Francisco Bay area. He is currently a Senior Engineer for network service delivery.

Joseph Edward Williams (1992) is a Major in the U.S. Army and an instructor in American Politics, Policy, and Strategy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He earned an MPA from Cornell University, where he received the Professor Leonard P. and Evelyn H. 
Adams Leadership Award from the Institute of Public Affairs.

Larry Withers (1992) is a Case Management Supervisor at the Far Northern Regional Center, an organization that provides services to developmentally disabled individuals in Chico, CA.

Maan Alyagout (1993) is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Safir International Kuwait in Kuwait City.

Charles Arnold (1993) is Chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee for a local Presbyterian church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

James Byles (1993) has been the President of multiple advertising and media organizations. He is currently part of the team at Washingtonian Custom Media.

Timothy T. Charters (1993) is Vice-President for Governmental and Regulatory Affairs for the National Stripper Well Association in Washington, D.C. Prior to working at the Association, Tim served nearly seven years as Staff Director for the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and has previously worked for several members of Congress as professional staff both in California and Washington, D.C. He resides in Fairfax Station, VA, with his wife Helena (Blue) Charters (Humboldt Biology-1994) and their children, Kyra, Kylie, Krystal, Ryan and Jayden.

Amber Eckert (1993) is the Dean of Student Affairs at The Art Institute of San Diego. Prior to her current position, she was the Director of Career Services at DeVry University. She received an M.Ed. in College Student Personnel, University of Southern California.

Jon W. Hardesty (1993) is the Executive Director of Human Resources at Froedtert Health. Previously, he was the Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Cleveland Clinic.

Kellie Johnson (1993) is an Assistant Disciplinary Counsel for the Oregon State Bar, where she analyzed citizens’ complaints against lawyers and ensures the accuracy of State Professional Responsibility Board reports. She has been a Deputy District Attorney for Multnomah County. She received her J.D. from the University of Oregon School Of Law. She is an Instructor for the National College of District Attorneys and has served in leadership positions in the Oregon Women Lawyers Association, the Oregon Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program, the Oregon State Bar Leadership College, the Lane County Human Rights Commission, the Lane County Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee, the Lane County Domestic Violence Counsel and Womanspace.

Andrew Koponen (1993) is currently an Off-Duty Security Officer for Security Industry Specialists, Inc. Prior to his current position, he was a self-employed actor for a number of years as well as a police officer for the City of Oakland, and also served as a machine gunner/mortarman in the Army National Guard.

Diana Lundin (1993) is a Partner at Phillipson & Lundin PLLC, where she specializes in administrative hearings before the Department of Licensing. She earned her J.D. from UCLA.

Leo Monroy (1993) is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Imperial County Office of Education. Previously he was a Coordinator of Academics and Instruction for the Calexico Unified School District.

Kanji Watanabe (1993) is an assistant professor and coordinator of the international affairs program at Cottey College in Missouri.

Nathan Wolfson (1993) is a Senior Director of HR Services at VMWare. He has had a diverse history working as an HR Business Partner for Yahoo! and Applied Materials.

Shannon Arnold (1994) has had a long history with FedEx Ground and is currently a Managing Director for HR in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Wendy Belding (1994) is a Research Therapist for the Veterans Medical Research Foundation. She provides psycho-therapy to veterans with PTSD in the Greater San Diego area.

Ian Blair (1994) works for the U.S. Secret Service. He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Ruthanne Cecil (1994) is Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Economic Development. She has a J.D. from University of California’s Hastings College of Law.

Katrina Hagen (1994) is Deputy Director of Operations for the California Department of Human Resources, as well as an adjunct instructor in the College of Business and Professional Studies at University of San Francisco. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

Dave Kind (1994) is a Territory Manager at Ecolab, where he works closely with the sales team to meet market expectations and build customer relations.

Jason Kirpatrick (1994) is a Director and Writer for Black Helmet Productions, where he contributed to the film Spied Upon. His previous career experience includes consulting as a Campaign Advisor for Non-Governmental Organizations such as Greenpeace, Heinrich Boell Foundation and BUND (Germany). At one time, he was elected to the Arcata City Council and served as vice-mayor.

Tamar Kurlaender (1994) is the Associate Director of School-Based Healthcare at the Native American Health Center in Oakland, CA. Previously he held the position of Program Director for School-Based Healthcare Centers at Alameda Family Services.

Katrina “Katie” S. Hagen Radlick (1994), Politics and French, was appointed by Gov. Brown as the Chief Deputy Director of Operations at the state Dept. of Human Resources in March 2015. Prior to this appointment, Radlick served as the Chief of Human Resources at CalPERS, the California Public Employee Retirement System. She is also an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of San Francisco teaching Human Resource Administration.

Seth Rafkin (1994) is a partner in the law firm of Cooley LLP. He earned his J.D. from University of California-Davis.

Amy Skonieczny (1994) is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University. Her interests include social construction of US trade politics, societal influence on US foreign policy, and social theory and narratives in global political economy. She received her Ph.D in Political Science from University of Minnesota in 2008.

Radaniel McCoy (1995) is an Operations Coordinator for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Previously he worked as a Principal and Assistant Principal for the LAUSD, and was an Instructional and Technology Coordinator for a number of years between these roles.

Eric Mitchell (1995) is a Senior Software Engineer for LightStream, a division of SunTrust Bank. He provides front-end web development assistant and client-side programming in javascript, jQuery, handlebars, CSS and web optimization. He has also been a software engineer with Chariot Software in San Diego, where he developed web applications for educators.

Dorsey Precht (1995)* is the Associate Director for Clinical Services Development at NELCSU, a non-profit organization based in England that provides support and advice to clinical health commissioners in London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedford, Luton and East Anglia.

Viktoria Crummey (1996) teaches economics at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe. She earned her M.A. in International Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden and intends to pursue her Ph.D. in development studies, particularly the political and economic effects of marginalized ethnic groups.

Tesilya Hanauer (1996) is an Acquisition Manager for a publishing company named New Harbinger Publications.

Jennifer Ise (1996) completed an M.A. in Marine Affairs from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is currently working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a Senior Fisheries Policy Analyst in the Sustainable Fisheries Division.

John McDonald (1996) is an Environmental Specialist for NW Natural, a natural gas utility company based in Portland, Oregon. Previously he was the GIS Specialist at NW Natural where he provided extensive support in map production services.

Ted Muhlhauser (1996) is a Legislative Affairs Consultant for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Previously he held the position of Legislative Consultant for Senator Christine Kehoe and was the Chief of Staff for California Assemblymember Betty Karnette.

Megan Zavieh (1996) is a Defense Attorney for the California State Bar. Previously, she was a Litigation Associate and Senior Staff Attorney with Dechert LLP, and was a Litigation Associate for K&L Gates and Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP.

Laura Barrera (1997) is the president and owner of a start-up that specializes in business strategies in Los Angeles, known as LB Consulting. Previously, she was the Special Assistant to State Controller John Chiang, and has been the community affairs manager for La Opinión, the nation’s largest Spanish language daily newspaper.

Steven Carne (1997) serves as the Senior Pastor at Hamilton Baptist Church in Northern Virginia. He earned his M.A. in Political Science from Duke University and his M.Div. and Th.M. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Jason R.R. Conger (1997) is an attorney in private practice in Bend, Oregon. He earned his J.D. from Harvard University.

Christopher Franco (1997) works as an Administrative Assistant for Keehn Law Group, APC, based in San Diego.

John Kors (1997) is a Territory Manager for Gensco, Inc., where he works to develop and expand market share for HVAC equipment.

Jessica Shadian (1997) is the Nansen Professor at the University of Akureyri, Iceland, and a Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, based at the University of Toronto. Her academic and private sector work focuses on the historical, legal and political aspects of Arctic development and sustainable resource management. She earned her Ph.D. in Global Politics from University of Delaware.

Melinda Vásquez (1997) (minor in Speech and Psychology) of Rancho Peñasquitos was appointed to the San Diego Housing Commission in 2021. Vasquez is an attorney specializing in real estate, labor, and family law and is the current chair of the San Diego Housing Coalition, where she represents a collective of community members, organizations, and housing advocates who have been directly impacted by the housing crisis. She is also a commissioner on the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls for San Diego County. She has been the President of the Rancho Peñasquitos Democratic Club (PQDC), PQ Town Council, and a member of the SD County Democratic Party. She was a 2016 candidate for State Assembly in District 77. She earned her juris doctorate from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

Ryan Zinn (1997) is the Organic & Fair Trade Coordinator at Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. Previously he has been a Campaign Director with the Fair World Project and the Organic Consumers Association.

Kevin Aron (1998) works as an Internal Marketing Consultant for a number of organizations. Using Google Analytics, he improves business revenue through efficient use of keyword searches.

Michael Caudill (1998) is the Founder and President of Driven Communications. He also serves as an auto industry expert and spokesperson and makes routine appearances on KTLA-Channel 5 as their automotive expert.

Stephanie Di Alto (1998) received her Ph.D. in political science at UC Irvine. She is a Curriculum Specialist at Saddleback College.

Ian Hodur (1998) is the Program Manager for San Francisco Health Plan’s Care Management software system, Essette. He has had a number of years of experience as an HR Compliance Specialist at Kaiser Permanente, and spent two years as a Software Engineer for Motorola.

Robert Jeffers (1998) is an Education Pioneers Graduate Student Fellow working for the Los Angeles Unified School District, following a position as a Fellow at America Achieves. He has also had experience as a teacher for the LAUSD and Susan Miller Dorsey High School.

Heather Schuetz (1998) is a Claims Senior Service Specialist (Recovery Coordinator) for Encompass Insurance, an insurance agency that covers identity fraud, automobile, boat, motorcycle, and homeowner insurance. Previously she worked at Franklin Templeton Investments as a Shareholder Services Senior Associate.

Troy Donoghue (1999) is a Home Inspector for Liberty Home Inspections, where he manages visual inspections of real estate prior to occupancy.

Samara (Smith) Foster (1999) is a resident academic advisor at UC-Santa Cruz and finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in Education Policy, with an emphasis in political theory. She received an M.A. in Social Science from Humboldt.

Darcie Harvey (1999) is a Policy Analyst for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Tim Overton (1999) is a Litigation Attorney for Steptoe & Johnson LLP, an international law firm. Previously, he was an attorney and shareholder at Gallagher & Kennedy, a law firm based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jason Schwarz (1999) is a Child Support Enforcement Agent for Multnomah County. He has had a diverse background as a Paralegal Attorney.

Nicholas Tomb (1999) is a founding member of Global Majority, a non-profit organization that promotes non-violent conflict resolution education, negotiation, mediation and advocacy. His primary employment is with the Africa Program at the Center for Civil-Military Relations in Monterey, CA, where he works as a Program Manager. He formerly served as President of the Arcata/Camoapa Sister City Project. He received an MA in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Jennifer Wells (1999) is a Research Associate at Portland State University, where she serves as the Principle Investigator for Project Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Outreach (NANO). She was previously a Program Director at Portland State University for a number of years, and also provided Science Education Consulting as a freelance agent from 2011 to 2014.