PHOTO: 1956 Students are working behind easels in an art class, University Historic Photograph Collection
1950s
Eldon Dunn (B.S., ’50) leads a portion of a church service each Sunday with a responsive reading, community prayer, and announcements for a Samoan congregation in Hacienda Heights, California, at age 93.
Donald MacKendrick (B.S., ’50), professor emeritus at Colorado Mesa University, 95, is a sustaining alum who makes an annual contribution to the history department.
Sally Clements (B.A., ’59) currently lives in Tempe, Arizona, and remembers her university experience fondly, both as Colorado A&M when she started and CSU when she graduated. She recalls outstanding professors and being the only woman in her speech class.
1960s
Joe Martinez (B.A., ’62; CERT, ’63) was inducted into the CSU Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was honored with an advance celebration at CSU’s Canvas Stadium. He played at Pueblo Junior College, now CSU Pueblo, and was the school’s first All-American football player in 1957. Martinez then came to Colorado A&M in Fort Collins and played football while earning a commercial art degree and teaching certificate. He graduated as a first-generation college student. For about 30 years, he taught elementary art, physical education, and Spanish in the Poudre School District, while coaching a variety of sports; he was honored as the district’s 1989 teacher of the year. He and his wife, Sandy Martinez (B.M., ’82), have made their home in Fort Collins and raised four daughters; she was a longtime school librarian and worked for years to complete her degree in music education, ultimately graduating along with daughters Beth Martinez Humenik (B.S., ’82; M.S., ’01) and JoLynn Martinez Troudt (B.S., ’82).
Lillian Greene-Chamberlain (B.S., ’63; CERT, ’63)
was featured in a national initiative called “Lift Every Voice,” led by Hearst media and promoted by Oprah Winfrey, that pairs young Black journalists with older Black Americans to tell their stories. Greene grew up in New York City and came to CSU in Fall 1960 to help start the University’s intercollegiate women’s track team. The first Black female athlete at CSU, she earned the first women’s athletic scholarship, the Lillian Greene Scholarship. She became the first U.S. national champion in the 440-yard run indoors, as well as the first Black woman to represent the United States internationally in 400-meter and 800-meter races. After graduating from CSU, she earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Fordham University. Greene-Chamberlain became the first director of the Physical Education and Sports Program for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in Paris, France; in the UNESCO role, which she held for a decade, she developed physical education curricula for more than 160 nations around the world. Among other honors, Greene-Chamberlain was inducted into the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame and accepted the 1994 William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award.
Janet Noland (B.S., ’64) has retired from her career as an occupational therapist. She treated patients and clients in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado in hospital and nursing home settings for several years and finished her work in home health at Alamosa County Public Health.
Bruce Frye (B.S., ’67) became a great grandfather to twins born Feb. 15, 2021, and sends congratulations to his granddaughter, Kyley Dalton, and her husband, Mike Dalton, of Provo, Utah.
Bill Hammerich (B.S., ’69) retired from his longtime post as chief executive officer of the Colorado Livestock Association. In the role, Hammerich represented the state’s livestock industry in public dialogue and legislative initiatives and is a well-respected advocate for an industry that is critical to the Colorado economy is a cornerstone of Western heritage. Hammerich was named 2017 Livestock Leader by the CSU Department of Animal Sciences.
1970s
Ronald Druva (B.S., ’70) served in U.S. Army Airborne & Ranger Schools from 1971 to 1974. He then went on to teach U.S. economic history for Chapman College and work as an economist/planner for the Bureau of Land Management and the state of New Mexico. After going on to become an analytical chemist for the New Mexico department of health, a martial arts instructor, writer, and illustrator, Druva is now retired.
Sue McHenry (B.S., ’71) spent more than 30 years in resource management with the Colorado State Forest Service, U.S. Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Forest Service. She retired in 2004 and moved to Summit County, Colorado. She currently volunteers with six local organizations and travels extensively.
Rich Ulery (B.S., ’71) was elected to the Continental Elementary School Governing Board in southern Arizona for a four-year term.
Teresa Boynton (B.S., ’73; M.S., ’89), a certified occupational therapist from Loveland, Colorado, won the 2020 National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy Innovation Award in recognition for her work in developing, validating, and implementing the Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool.
Al “Bubba” Baker (attended 1974-1978) majored in social work and was a standout defensive lineman for the Rams football team; he went on to play professionally for four NFL teams over 13 seasons. In July 2021, Pro Football Reference named him the NFL’s unofficial single-season sack leader of all time – with 23 confirmed sacks during his sensational rookie season with the Detroit Lions in 1978. He and his wife later founded a popular catering business and sports-themed restaurant called Bubba’s-Q near Cleveland, Ohio, where he had played with the Cleveland Browns. Baker, who is 64 and a member of the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame, said the widely reported confirmation of his sack record brought him to tears.
Phil Martin (B.A., ’76) published his second book, Take the Stage: 64 Essential Leadership Lessons Learned from Theatre.
Jim Barta (B.S. ’77) and his wife of nearly 40 years retired and now live in Pebble Beach, California. Jim worked in education for more than four decades, including shop teaching in rural Alaska, helping special needs students in the U.S. and abroad, serving as a professor at several universities and leading faculty as a dean. He continues his work in ethnomathematics, particularly with students and teachers in Native American communities.
Mark Callender (B.S., ’77) was named the 2020 Farm Manager of the Year by the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Mark is an accredited farm manager with Farmers National Company, managing farm and ranch properties in eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
Patricia Mulcahy-Ernt (M.Ed. ’77) has been inducted into the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Association’s prestigious Fellows program. Selection as a fellow represents the highest honor conferred upon professionals in learning assistance, tutoring, and developmental education.
Steve Gabel (B.S., ’78) was inducted into the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame during the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville. It is the most recent of many honors for Gabel, owner of Magnum Feedyard in Wiggins, Colorado. Gabel, a member of the Board of Governors of the Colorado State University System, is a longtime coach for the Weld County livestock judging team, has served in state and national leadership roles representing the cattle industry, and was named 2015 Livestock Leader by CSU’s Department of Animal Sciences.
Mark Gaffney (B.S., ’78) released his book, Deep History and the Ages of Man, in September 2020. The book presents evidence in support of Charles Hapgood’s theory, first proposed in the 1950s, that the Earth’s crust can move and has done so many times in the remote past. Gaffney presents multiple lines of evidence that before the end of the Pleistocene the North Pole was located on Baffin Island, Canada.
Tim O’Hara (attended 1978-1982), a professional photographer based in Fort Collins, co-founded the 2021 Ashes to Art benefit auction to generate more than $26,000 for the Poudre Canyon Fire Protection District and Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department. The fundraiser arose to support the volunteer agencies that helped respond to the Cameron Peak Fire, which began in August 2020 and grew to be the largest wildfire in recorded state history.
Luke Brennan (B.S., ’79) and his wife, Judith, retired and moved to their new home in South Fork, Colorado, having lived in upstate New York since graduating from CSU. His degree enabled his successful career in medical and scientific instrumentation sales. He also spent 23 years as Medical Service Corps officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, completing his service in 2014 as a major. The couple spend their days fishing, hunting, skiing, camping, and enjoying southwest Colorado.
Glenn Haas (Ph.D., ’79) wears multiple hats as a retired CSU professor turned pizza purveyor – and is patriarch of a family with six university degrees. Haas earned his doctorate, then became a CSU faculty member and, later, head of the Department of Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism. While working at CSU for more than 25 years, he also served as director of the Environmental Learning Center. Since retiring in 2005, Haas and his wife, Marcella Wells (Ph.D., ’95), have actively consulted in their shared field. He advises Caribbean island nations that seek to generate tourism revenue to support, manage, and protect natural and cultural resources. With his son Nate Haas (B.S., ’05), he shares ownership and helps manage Krazy Karl’s Pizza of Fort Collins, which has grown with additional locations in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Longmont. The family of Rams includes three other alumni: Claudia Farfan-Lorono (B.A., ’05) and Ashley (B.S., ’04) and Gary (B.S., ’04) Haas.
John Winters (M.Ed., ’79) was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the National College Baseball Foundation and Hall of Fame. Winters retired from Bacone College and recently accepted a visiting associate professor position at Langston University, Oklahoma.
1980s
Daniel Genova (B.F.A., ’80) exhibited a major art retrospective entitled “The Cumulative Weight of Existence” in the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Gallery. The exhibit featured more than 200 multimedia works spanning 30 years in the historic pre-Civil War building.
Burt Rutherford (B.S., ’80), former senior editor of BEEF magazine, has formed his own writing, editing, and PR consulting firm, Rangeview Strategies. Publication of BEEF was suspended with the January 2021 issue due to COVID-related economics, allowing Rutherford to begin the next adventure.
Jim Trotta (B.S., ’80) retired from his second career as quartermaster for the Elsmere Fire District, where he carried out the duties of procurement, care, issuance, and inspection of firefighter turn-out gear and equipment for the past 10 years. Before that, he served as a New York State trooper for 30 years.
Glenn Fay (M.Ed., ’81) published Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator (The History Press, 2021) about a lesser-known relative of Ethan Allen and life during the American Revolution in New England.
Sharon Nealey (B.S., ’81) retired from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a national bank examiner and team leader in Charlotte, North Carolina, after 36 years of federal service.
Millicent Eidson (D.V.M., ’83) has published the debut novel in an alphabetical series about diseases from animals. In Anthracis: A Microbial Mystery, the protagonist is a new trainee with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who battles Arizona anthrax.
David Peters (B.S., ’83) is enjoying the tail end of a 40-year career in federal service with the USDA Forest Service as a ranger in the Little Belt Mountains on the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.
Jackie Brown-Griggs (B.A., ’84) joined GBSM in Denver as senior counselor. A former communications executive before a 20-plus year consulting career, Jackie understands the unique reputational pressures facing the C-suite. She specializes in strategic communications, issues management, public relations, and branding, and has represented some of the largest organizations in the Rocky Mountain West.
Sandra Browning Windsor (M.Ed., ’84) published her second book, Fractured, a novel. In 2016, she published her memoir, FBI Wife, which became a Colorado Authors League award winner.
Tom Leahy (B.A., ’85) was named chief operating officer of Midland Industries in December 2020. Midland Industries is a manufacturer and distributor of brass fittings, valves, hose, and clamps in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ellen (Trask) Schulte (B.S., ’85), after living on her boat for two years, started Brite Boat Services with her husband doing custom canvas and repair. They also set up a Plastic-Free Gift Shop with the motto, “Keep the Sea Plastic-Free,” in the idyllic town of Coronado, California.
Teresa Larada Horner-Miller (B.A., ’86) self-published her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, which describes her spiritual journey during the pandemic and invites readers to reflect on their own experiences. Horner-Miller was an educator for nearly three decades, then dedicated herself to writing. Most of her books have centered on life in the Southwest, and two have been finalists in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.
Jodi Peterson (B.A., ’86) became chief editor at the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands in 2021. Peterson is thrilled to be working for her alma mater and looks forward to helping the group improve its reports and proposals. Most recently, Peterson was news director for KVNF community radio, and before that she was an editor at the award-winning nonprofit media outlet High Country News, and a technical communicator at Hewlett-Packard.
Kent Barnes (B.S., ’87; M.S. ’89) accepted the position of manager of the Oppenheimer Family Equine Center at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo after spending 30 years in the thoroughbred industry in Kentucky. In addition to running the center and working with the animal science students, he is pursuing a Ph.D. researching mitochondrial chaperone proteins in the horse.
Curtis Miller (B.S., ’87) and his wife announced that they are the proud parents of a new Ram. Their daughter, Olivia, started her CSU journey in the fall.
Randal Lapsley (B.S., ’88) was promoted to vice president at RS&H, a national consulting engineering firm. Lapsley manages the Denver office transportation group, which provides engineering design services to CDOT, cities, and counties throughout Colorado and across the U.S.
Patrice Engle Spyrka (B.S., ’88) published her middle-grade book, Tales of a Young Rider, about a little girl’s adventures growing up in the mountains of Colorado (Christian Faith Publishing, 2020).
Lisa A. Fortier (B.S., ’89; D.V.M., ’91), a leading veterinary surgeon, researcher and editor, became the new editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Journal of Veterinary Research in June.
1990s
Michelle Detry (B.S., ’90) transitioned her veteran-owned small business, Keystone International, Inc., to a women-owned small business last summer. Detry serves as president and she and five other women are majority owners and hold the organization’s key leadership roles.
Betsy Smith (M.Ed., ’90) recently joined the Right Question Institute as executive director. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization that builds people’s ability to ask better questions and participate in decisions that affect them, helping advance a democracy where all people can learn, make their voices heard, and advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Steven Brier (B.S., ’92) moved back to his home state of Colorado after a 21-year stint in the Washington D.C. area, and currently serves as the head of marketing for the Regional Transportation District in Denver. He’s also proud to share that his daughter started attending CSU in the fall.
Craig Huffhines (M.S., ’92) has worked for years as a leader in the equine and beef-cattle industries and returned to CSU last fall to serve as director of CSU Equine Sciences and Elite Bovine and Equine Genetics. He also holds the Wagonhound Land and Livestock Chair in Equine Sciences.
Robert James (B.A., ’92) was appointed district court judge in Colorado’s 13th Judicial District (Morgan, Logan, Washington, Sedgwick, Yuma, Phillips and Kit Carson counties) by Gov. Jared Polis on Aug. 19, 2021.
Amy Daly (B.A., ’95) has been appointed director of communications for NextFifty Initiative, a Colorado-based private foundation dedicated to funding mission-driven initiatives that improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers. Daly is responsible for sharing compelling stories about the work of NextFifty Initiative and its grantees, as well as positioning the organization as a leading voice and influencer on topics related to aging and longevity. She joins NextFifty from the Denver nonprofit Project Angel Heart, which provides nutrition for people with life-threatening illnesses.
Dawn DiPrince (B.A., ’95; M.A., ’12) stepped into the role of executive director of History Colorado last September. The Denver-based nonprofit promotes statewide history, culture, community vitality, and human connections through programming at museums and historic attractions across the state. DiPrince has worked for History Colorado since 2012, recently as chief operating officer and earlier as chief community museum officer and director of El Pueblo History Museum in Pueblo, Colorado.
Alexander “Sander” Snowden (B.A., ’95) was raised in Memphis and returned there to raise his children, Taylor and Charles, with his wife, Holly. After graduation, Sander joined the Marine Corps and has risen to the rank of colonel, where he currently serves in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as part of the Selected Marine Corps Reserves. In his civilian career, he is the Area Vice President for WishBone Orthopaedics. Sander has earned many personal decorations as well as an M.B.A. and Masters of National Securities & Strategic Studies.
Brad Laird (B.S.M.E., ’96) has been appointed vice president of engineering for NXT Communications Corp., a Georgia-based satcom antenna innovator serving the defense, aerospace, and other mobile-connectivity markets. He oversees all aspects of technical development of NXTCOMM’s electronically steerable antennas for several defense and commercial mobility applications.
Lori Poloni-Staudinger (B.S., ’96) was named interim dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Northern Arizona University.
Matt Wittman (B.S., ’97) is founding principal of Wittman Estes, which received a 2021 AIA National Housing Award for the multifamily project, Tsuga Townhomes. The Seattle-based firm was the architect, developer, and general contractor for this three-unit multifamily urban infill housing community with a single home and a two-unit duplex.
Justin Caruso (B.S., ’99), a civil servant for more than 20 years and former employee of the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, started his mechanical engineering career working for the U.S. Navy in submarine maintenance and modernization for nine years at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Moving to U.S. Naval facilities, he worked for NAVFAC Hawaii and NAVFAC Europe Africa Southwest Asia where he lived abroad with his wife and son in Naples, Italy. He’s now relishing fair winds and following seas with the United States Coast Guard as a professional engineer for the Civil Engineering Unit Honolulu and was recognized as the 2020 federal employee of the year by the Honolulu-Pacific Federal Executive Board.
Jessica (Denham) Kirby (B.S., ’99) was one of three people to receive a 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Award. This year’s recipients have earned the highest commendation for innovation and leadership in wildfire mitigation.
Alexa Lamm (B.S., ’99; M.Agr., ’00) earned the 2020 Borlaug CAST Communication Award from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. The prestigious international award recognizes professionals who excel at communicating the impacts of agricultural science in the public and policy arenas. Lamm is an associate professor of science communication at the University of Georgia. Her research and teaching focus on how we most effectively communicate about agricultural and environmental science innovation, addressing issues such as water conservation and quality, climate change, and food security.
Carla Thorning (B.A., ’99) had an interior design project featured in the Nov./Dec. 2020 issue of Mountain Living magazine. Carla owns the design + build firm ICON with her husband and fellow alum, Zeph Thorning (B.S., ’00). The project is located in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana.
Michael Woodbridge (B.A., ’99) became district ranger for the Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District on the Routt National Forest in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He recently returned to Colorado from the Tahoe National Forest in California.
2000s
Alli Shircliff (B.S., ’00) published The Smoothie Book!, a recipe book with 100 plant-based recipes, including seasonal smoothies, savory smoothies, smoothies without bananas, and green smoothies.
Julie Artz (M.S., ’01) wrote the short story, “The Wending Way,” which was published by Glimma Publishing in its speculative anthology, Beyond the Latch and Lever. It features stories from eleven emerging authors with ties to the Pacific Northwest.
Autumn Bernhardt (B.A., ’01) was named 2020-22 Fort Collins poet laureate by Wolverine Farm Publishing, a nonprofit literary and arts organization. In the role, she hosts workshops, readings, and other community events. Bernhardt has served as an instructor of environmental and social justice in CSU’s Department of Anthropology and Geography, drawing on her Indigenous background and her professional experience as an attorney working in Native American and environmental law.
Dallas Davis (B.S., ’01) serves as director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and recruiting for the Colorado Rockies. He has worked for the baseball club for 16 years, much of that time developing educational and community programming. As part of the Colorado Rockies Make an Impact program, Davis has visited hundreds of schools; he also has worked with players and their families on charitable activities and with the club’s youth baseball camps and clinics. While at CSU, Davis played with the Rams football team as a wide receiver and return specialist.
April Pergl-Lanotte (M.A., ’01) started a new position with NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as the STEM Integration Lead. First an education fellow with them in 2011, then a part-time contractor until 2021, she now works with internal and external partners finding ways to bring aeronautics-based content to students in the U.S. and internationally.
Joshua Beser (B.S., ’02), has joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in the firm’s New York office as a corporate partner. He is a member of the emerging company’s practice, representing early- and growth-stage consumer brands and technology and life sciences companies in corporate matters and will also serve as outside general counsel.
Jason Borges (M.S., ’02) recently relocated to Ohio to become the director for student housing at the University of Akron.
Stefanie Posavec (B.F.A ’02) recently co-published I am a Book. I am a Portal to the Universe., meant to engage the reader and present science in a new and exciting way. The book has been shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize.
Stephanie Spindler (M.F.A., ’02) has earned her Ph.D. from the University of the Arts London, Chelsea College of Art. After receiving her M.F.A. from CSU in 2002, she moved to Scotland as a practicing artist and then to England to pursue a higher degree in fine art practice-led research. This project was interdisciplinary using a sculpture installation and feminist theory investigating how sexual difference is integral to subjectivity. She and her partner Adam Bell are relocating to Fort Collins in April.
Richelle Carlstrom (B.A., ’03) and Brady Carlstrom (B.S., ’00) welcomed their first child, Caden Leo Carlstrom in October 2021.
Dr. Charles “C.J.” Riley (M.S., ’03; Ph.D., ’09), professor of Civil Engineering at Oregon Tech, received the 2021 Outstanding Teaching Award from the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Jennifer Miller (B.S., ’05) was hired by Freese and Nichols, Inc. to expand and lead its Stormwater Services projects in Georgia and the southeast U.S. Miller is a senior environmental scientist who works with metropolitan communities to address challenges related to urban development and has spent more than 20 years managing and supporting a variety of storm water, water quality, permitting, and water management projects.
Melanie Calderwood (B.S., ’06) was hired by the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix to work with the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, the Rural Health Professions Program, the Primary Care Scholars, the Service and Community Health COD program, and the Community Health Initiative-Phoenix.
Ben Griffiths (B.S., ’07) captured a snowy scene of curious sheep at the Littleton Historical Museum that won second place in the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s 2020 Best in Show Photography Contest. It was also featured in a calendar produced by the city of Littleton. When he isn’t taking photos, Griffiths works at Lockheed Martin as a survivability and systems engineer.
Sherry Hunt (Ph.D., ’08) was one of 29 finalists for this year’s Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (the Sammies), otherwise known as the “Oscars” of government service. The Sammies recognize the unsung heroes in our federal government who have made phenomenal contributions to the health, safety and prosperity of our country.
Rendi Murphree (Ph.D., ’09) of Mobile, Alabama, was recently honored for her public health leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Murphree is an epidemiologist and director of the Bureau of Disease Surveillance and Environmental Services within the Mobile County Health Department. The department recognized Murphree for leading efforts to reduce illness and death in the community.
2010s
Amy Liefer (B.A., ’11; M.S., ’17) was recently promoted to General Manager for VITAS Healthcare in St. Louis, Missouri. In her new role at the nation’s largest end-of-life care provider, Liefer oversees operations for hospice and palliative care services throughout St. Louis City and surrounding counties.
Staci McDermott (B.A., ’11) and Tyler Dermott (B.S., ’12) welcomed their first child, Roman Jackson McDermott, in October 2021.
Jason Rosenholtz-Witt (M.M., ’11) accepted a position as visiting professor of music at Oxford College of Emory University.
Gabriel Armstrong (B.S., ’12) is putting his degree in hospitality management to use as owner of The Crooked Cup, a café and bakeshop that has grown from one to three shops in Fort Collins and Cheyenne. Armstrong established a commercial kitchen as a related enterprise to supply bakery items for his coffee shops and other food outlets. He is now sharing what he’s learned with current CSU students: Armstrong is an instructor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, where he earned his degree.
Brittni Paris (M.S., ’13) lives in southern California with her husband, Hunter (M.S., ’14), where both work for the Sports Medicine Department at Pepperdine University: she as an adjunct instructor and he as an assistant professor. Brittni is also a partner (with two other CSU alumni) of a small wellness coaching business called Smart Fit Womxn.
Samantha Buck (B.S., ’14) married Sarah R. Davis and started a new career at Invitae as a bioinformatics data scientist in 2020. Since graduating, she received her master’s degree in clinical epidemiology, became a certified medical laboratory scientist, trained as a computer scientist, and has now come full circle as a data scientist for a genetic testing company.
Daniel (M.S., ’14) and Madeline Haddad announced the birth of a son, Rex Daniel Haddad, born on Feb. 2, 2021, in Waco, Texas.
Angelina Howard (B.S., ’14) is a senior product manager at Amazon. She has launched multiple media products and owns the domain/roadmap across seven marketplaces for video game customer discovery, including the customer shopping journey from search, product detail page, and checkout. She has served as president of Amazon’s Black Employee Network, an employee resource group that advocates for diversity and inclusion. She was named to the Forbes 2021 30 Under 30 list in the category of consumer technology.
Kate Allevato (B.A., ’15) was promoted to digital director of KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas, where she manages a team of talented digital journalists and works closely with the station’s investigative team on special projects.
Aimee Henderson (B.S., ’15) was admitted to the Global Field Program at Miami University last summer. As part of Henderson’s first Earth Expeditions course, she traveled to Baja Mexico and studied desert and marine landscapes through ecological and social methods.
Hope Cornelis (M.S., ’17) is the program coordinator for SART Peers, an acronym for Sexual Assault Resource Team. It is a school-based sexual violence prevention program with a peer-educator model and is part of the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, run in partnership with the Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center. Cornelis trains high school student leaders to educate their peers about sexual violence prevention.
Riley Erekson (B.S., ’17) is a research and development scientist at Atomo Coffee, which recently launched the first-ever molecular cold brew to the online U.S. marketplace in an effort to combat the climate crisis.
Jenica Sounart (B.S., ’17) is a 25-year-old with a lifelong love of cooking. She spent eight months in culinary school in Florence, Italy, through a CSU study abroad program and came back to a job as a dishwasher at Restaurant 415 in Fort Collins. Within two years, she was sous chef. In 2019, she left Fort Collins for Los Angeles, where she took a cooking gig at Warner Brothers and then began working as a personal chef. The pandemic closed her L.A. dreams and brought her home to Fort Collins, where she launched a personal chef business in Denver called Chef Jenica.
Richard Wagner (M.S., ’17) began working as a guidance, navigation, and control engineer for Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems in February 2021. He creates flight simulations and control systems for Kratos’ aerial targets and unmanned tactical aircraft, which are used by military organizations around the world. He is currently living in Tehachapi, California.
Lindsey McLain (M.C.L.M., ’19) was named the new director for Sloss Metal Arts in Birmingham, Alabama.
2020s
Shelby McClelland (Ph.D., ’21) recently became a climate change and soil health scientist with American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that works to conserve agricultural lands as a strategy in battling climate change. She was a featured scientist during 2020 World Soil Day; in promotions, McClelland described her farming background as the basis of her appreciation for healthy soils and her interest in their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Laura Studley (B.A., ’21) has been awarded the 2021 Reveille Seven College Press Freedom Award for the excellent reporting around sexual assault allegations against a former professor and its aftermath.