Volume 35, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2017–18
THE
NEWEST AGGIE Gary May, UC Davis’ 7th chancellor
14 5 freshmen share what it’s like to come to UC Davis
20 Campus water experts help flood-ravaged Ecuadorian community
32 Alumni on the forefront of an evolving journalism field
Unrestricted
thinking.
Associate Professor Amber Boydstun believes if you care about the future trajectory of politics in our democracy, no topic is more important than media influence. She and her student research team study the interaction between media and politics, focusing on how different media portrayals of the same policy issue can prompt citizens and policymakers to react in different ways. Your unrestricted support of the Annual Fund helps Chancellor’s Fellows like Amber Boydstun in the College of Letters and Science respond to the most pressing challenges of our time. Photo taken at Newsbeat, downtown Davis.
chancellorsclub.ucdavis.edu
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UC Davis Magazine Editor
Jocelyn Anderson ’98
New in Town
Art Director
Russ Thébaud Cody Kitaura Photographers
Karin Higgins, Gregory Urquiaga Editorial Intern
Allyson Tsuji
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Gary May, UC Davis’ seventh chancellor, is focusing on the future as he determines the direction for the university’s next 10 years.
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
Writer
Meet the Freshmen
They were born at the end of the last millennium — now they are striking out on their own.
University of California, Davis Chancellor
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Dana Topousis
Published by the University of California, Davis, for members of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, members of the Aggie Parent and Family Association, and many donors and other friends of the campus. © 2017 by The Regents of the University of California, Davis campus. Persons wishing to reprint any portion of UC Davis Magazine’s contents are required to write in advance for permission.
COURTESY OF RISK MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, PREFECTURA OF BOLÍVAR PROVINCE, ECUADOR
Gary S. May
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Run of the River UC Davis researchers bring their water expertise across borders to help a region impacted by catastrophic floods.
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On Campus
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The Big Question
Wayne Thiebaud’s new exhibit at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
How will driverless cars change how we travel?
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30
Aggie Families
Discoveries
Research news from UC Davis, including pain management
Mother and daughter major in international relations together
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32
Young Achievers
Visualize This
The evolution of bike racks on campus
Inside the newsroom with our journalistic alumni
Here..........................................24
Office Hours..........................38
The Aggie Life....................... 34
Class Notes............................39
Sports......................................36
Alumni Authors.....................46
Looking Forward/ Looking Back.........................48 One of a Kind................... Back
Your legacy is our future. Through innovative research and quality education, UC Davis is building a smarter tomorrow. Your partnership with UC Davis will foster collaboration across disciplines and help solve the world’s most pressing problems, including how to use technology to ensure access to affordable, flavorful and nutritious food. Make a difference by uniting your legacy with UC Davis visionaries. Asul, College of Engineering, class of 2030, sits in a smart machine used to create virtual models of plants.
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on campus
teaching at UC Davis in the mid-20th century, he never dreamed there would be an art museum on campus. At that time, Thiebaud and his colleagues taught and made art on campus in whatever spaces were available, including the still-in-use TB-9. The artists hired by founding art department chair Richard Nelson — among them Thiebaud, Robert Arneson, William Wiley, Roland Petersen, Roy De Forest and Manuel Neri — exchanged art among themselves and exhibited at various museums, galleries and other venues in the United States. “I had imagined that we would get a Quonset hut way back in the sticks and that no one would ever come,” Thiebaud said jokingly in an interview conducted as construction of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
was nearly complete in 2016. “So this is a terrific joy.” Next up, the museum will unveil an expansive exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud: 1958-1968. The show opens Jan. 16. This exhibition of works from a pivotal period in the artist’s life brings together for the first time more than 60 celebrated paintings gathered from private collections and museums throughout the United States. Thiebaud joined the UC Davis faculty in 1960, when he began transitioning from the impressionistic style of his early period toward the representational paintings for which he became widely known. In conjunction with the exhibition, UC Press will publish a catalog with new scholarship on Thiebaud’s life and work, as well as press clippings and photographs from this period of his career. Museum founding director and
DOUGLAS SANDBERG | art © WAYNE THIEBAUD / Licensed by VAGA, New York
WHEN WAYNE THIEBAUD first started
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Campus museum to feature Wayne Thiebaud’s early works
Wayne Thiebaud. Pies, 1961. Private collection.
curator of the exhibition Rachel Teagle explained, “This exhibition is the first to explore a specific period of Thiebaud’s career, inviting viewers to return to the beginning, to see the artist anew, with an understanding of the explosive moment in art history when his signature style emerged.” — Karen Nikos-Rose
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After the Recreation Pool’s regular season came to a close, the venue hosted a ’50s-themed pool party to celebrate its closing for renovation. It will be transformed over the next year (including next summer) from a single, all-purpose pool into two: a seasonal one for recreation and a year-round pool for lap swimming, sport clubs and intramurals. The locker room building will be given a facelift, as it is brought up to code and a new gender-inclusive restroom and shower is added. Outside, a sand volleyball court is planned. The Rec Pool is scheduled to reopen in summer 2019.
Taking vet care to the next level UC Davis is raising $115 million to update and improve the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Center. Opened in 1970 to serve 3,000 patients per year, the hospital now sees more than 50,000 annually, causing significant constraints in space, layout and capacity, and impacting the speed at which clients receive care. The university has already raised $67 million in philanthropic support — more than half of the campaign goal. The class of 1992 had the foresight to support this project in 2012 as part of its 20-year reunion class gift. “I’m so happy that my class of 1992 is on the front edge of this fundraising initiative,” said Jon Klingborg ’87, D.V.M. ’92. “It is our vision that others will join us to help build the new Veterinary Medical Center.” The first phase will focus on three critical areas: the Livestock and Field Service Center, the Equine Performance Center and the All Species Imaging Center.
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UC Davis Magazine
Addressing housing on campus
The new Tercero 4 housing complex is part of the most ambitious housing construction program in UC Davis history. The $59.1 million complex of three residence halls and a community building opened to about 605 students in September. Each of the residence halls includes lounges and smaller gathering spaces. Nestled among mature trees, the buildings are named for species found on the campus: Cottonwood Hall, Redwood Hall, Madrone Hall and Olive Hall, the single-story community building. Reclaimed wood from Leach Hall, formerly on the site, is featured in Olive Hall. In the next two years, the campus plans to open a new 500-seat dining hall and a 400-bed residence hall to replace Webster Hall in the Cuarto area. Other housing projects planned for the near future would add about 200 two-bedroom apartments for students with families, 900 or more beds for single graduate students and 1,875 beds in apartments.
DAVID PHILLIPS / Flickr
Last splash at the Rec Pool
COURTESY
ARC undergoes expansion project
NURSING’S
NEW HOME
UC Davis recently hosted the grand opening of Betty Irene Moore Hall, the new home of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and graduate health sciences education at the UC Davis Sacramento campus. The building features common areas designed to spark collaboration, classrooms that foster communication and simulation suites that model reallife scenarios to educate future clinicians. A one-bedroom apartment serves as a home health environment.
The Activities and Recreation Center started a major expansion of exercise space in July. The space has grown crowded since the ARC’s opening in 2004, and the project is expected to last into 2019. “We are grateful for the opportunity to expand our main facility to help meet the needs of our growing student body,” said Deb Johnson, director of recreation. The roughly $15.9 million, 20,000-squarefoot expansion will occur mostly at the core of the building into what is now the courtyard, more space will be added to the second floor (and all cardio equipment will be moved upstairs), a dedicated boxing studio will be added and the cycling room will expand. But the main focus of the expansion is the fitness center, which will hold additional strength equipment including racks and benches. The growth there will feature indoor and outdoor areas dedicated to functional fitness — movements like those performed with kettlebells, TRX straps, medicine balls and battle ropes.
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC DAVIS
Digitize The Aggie archives Picnic Day goes on despite World War I. The campus becomes an army training facility during World War II. The Memorial Union opens in 1955. Students protest apartheid and fight for animal rights in the 1980s. The California Aggie, founded as The Weekly Agricola in 1915 when UC Davis was still the University Farm, has captured each chapter in the university’s history through the eyes of student reporters. This fall, the UC Davis Library, home of the University Archives, launched an effort to digitize the complete archive of The Aggie from its first issue through today and make it searchable online. The web interface will allow readers to flip through issues online or search the full text by keyword. Users will also be able to print and download individual articles or entire issues. To view historic front pages and learn how to support the project, visit library.ucdavis.edu/aggie. If you’re on campus, stop by Shields Library and check out the exhibit in the lobby, The California Aggie: A Century of Headlines.
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UC Davis Magazine
New center offers study and socializing The Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success, which opened in the Memorial Union on Sept. 27, is among new and expanding campus initiatives to support the recruitment and academic success of historically underrepresented groups and reduce the time necessary for all students to earn their degrees. Cirilo Cortez, director of the Chicanx and Latinx Retention Initiative and the center, said the center serves as a hub to provide academic support for Chicano and Latino students; empower their leadership, career
and personal development; and help them access campus resources. “We affectionately call it el centro, and it’s a place where students can find a sense of belonging and family, too,” he said. Students will be able to meet on-site with tutors and counselors, as well as academic and career advisors. The center will host cultural events, skills workshops and for-credit seminars to help students succeed in their transition from high school or community college.
Piloting seminar abroad programs UC Davis Study Abroad’s first journey to the Himalayan region will take place between fall and winter quarters, in a pilot project aimed at giving more students the opportunity for global experiences. The State Department is awarding the university a $40,000 grant to develop a blueprint for more such faculty-developed programs with intersession travel — Seminars Abroad — which require less time away from campus and have lower costs for students. Because they are scheduled between academic quarters and won’t require additional tuition, intersession programs are seen as a way to maximize participation by low-income and first-generation students; transfer students; and students whose majors entail heavy, sequential
course loads. “We are thrilled to offer this unique opportunity in the Himalayan region to our students, especially those who otherwise may have not been able to travel abroad for an extensive period,” said Joanna Regulska, vice provost and associate chancellor for Global Affairs. “This innovative effort is well aligned with the Global Affairs strategic plan to help every UC Davis student build their capacity for global engagement.” Global Education for All at UC Davis is an initiative currently championed by Global Affairs. “Nepal: Community, Technology and Sustainability” reached its maximum of 15 students the day enrollment opened for fall 2017.
discoveries
The Pain Problem PAIN IS A pervasive problem that the medical community has not yet addressed in a comprehensive way. That’s the dilemma facing an interdisciplinary group at UC Davis. The UC Davis Center for Advancing Pain Relief started in 2011 with the goal of transforming pain care. The Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine, reported in 2011 that 100 million Americans have chronic pain, costing approximately $600 billion a year. As the opioid crisis shines a light on the issue, it’s clear this is a big job, but UC Davis is already making progress. “The problem is at least in part due to the intrinsic fragmentation of medicine, science and higher education. In many ways, our center is an ‘un-center’ in that the goal is not to create another silo but just the opposite,” said Scott Fishman, director at the Center for Advancing Pain Relief and chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine. “We want to link all the groups that together would contribute to the future solutions for people in pain.” To that end, the team is addressing the issue through four main pillars: education, research, clinical care and policy. They have already created nationally and internationally endorsed competencies for educating healthcare professionals in pain management across all schools of health. And the group recently completed a review of the U.S. Medical Licensing exam, which
every physician must pass. Their intention is to change accreditation requirements for schools. For those who are already accredited, Project Echo Pain is a peer-to-peer video conference mentoring program designed to support primary care clinicians in California’s rural communities. And this year, they welcomed the first recipients of the Primary Care Pain Management Fellowship. Eighteen primary care physicians from all over California will spend a year (both in-person on weekends and virtually on a weekly basis) learning about chronic pain management. “The idea is that they will go back and be the trainers for their community of primary care doctors,” said Fishman. Next, the group would like to create a consortium with the other University of California medical centers. “Our work isn’t done until pain is alleviated,” said Heather M. Young, the center’s co-director, associate vice chancellor for nursing and founding dean at Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. “That takes many different projects, over time, working and influencing many people at the policy level, changing curricula and changing practice.” Added Fishman, “Our programs are basically pilots right now. We need to scale them to a national level. So these are big visions indeed.” — Jocelyn Anderson
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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Early adolescents’ grades were higher when they socialized with peers from other ethnicities, according to the findings of a UC Davis study that looked at the lunching habits of more than 800 sixth-graders in three states. The findings suggest that schools might look for ways to provide cross-ethnic interaction among students — outside of lunch — to take advantage of ethnic diversity, researchers said. “The great part about these findings is that the results were just as true for white students as ethnic minority students [African American, Asian, Latino/a and multiethnic],” said Adrienne Nishina, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology and study co-author. Even white and Asian students, who had significantly higher GPAs than members of other ethnic groups, appeared to benefit from daily cross-ethnic interactions, the study found. Students reported an average jump in GPA of one-third of a point, or the equivalent of going from a B-plus average to an A-minus average. And, the study said, the social skills gained in interaction among peers of other ethnicities might enhance students’ problem-solving skills, which can transfer into academic success. “It may also help later in life with career success, as individuals become increasingly comfortable and skilled at interacting with ethnically diverse peers,” said Jakeem Lewis, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student in human ecology.
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UC Davis Magazine
AIJUN WANG / UC Davis Health
Ethnic diversity may be good for grades
Puppy pair treated for spina bifida Two English bulldog puppies are the first patients to be successfully treated with a unique therapy — a combination of surgery and stem cells — developed at UC Davis to help preserve lower-limb function in children with spina bifida. At their postsurgery re-check at 4 months old, the siblings, named Darla and Spanky, showed off their abilities to walk, run and play to their doctor, veterinary neurosurgeon Beverly Sturges. “The initial results of the surgery are promising, as far as hind limb control,” said Sturges. “Both dogs seemed to have improved range of motion and control of their limbs.” The dogs’ procedure, which involved surgical techniques developed by fetal surgeon Diana Farmer of UC Davis Health together with a cellular treatment developed by stem cell scientists Aijun Wang and Dori Borjesson, director of the university’s Veterinary Institute Eat fat, live longer? for Regenerative Cures, A recent mouse study at the UC Davis represents a major step School of Veterinary Medicine sheds light toward curing spina on aging by demonstrating that a high-fat, or ketogenic, diet not only increases bifida for both humans longevity, but improves physical strength. and dogs. With additional eval“The results surprised me a little,” said nutritionist Jon Ramsey, senior author of the uation and U.S. Food and paper. “We expected some differences, but Drug Administration I was impressed by the magnitude we approval, Farmer and observed — a 13 percent increase in median Wang aim to test the life span for the mice on a high-fat versus therapy in human clinhigh-carb diet. But equally important, those mice retained quality of health in later life.” ical trials. Sturges and Borjesson would like Ramsey has spent the past 20 years to do the same with a looking at the mechanics that lead to aging, a contributing factor to most major diseases canine clinical trial. that impact rodents and humans alike. They hope the outcomes While calorie restriction has been shown in of their work help eradiseveral studies to slow aging in many cate spina bifida in dogs animals, Ramsey was interested in how a and humans. high-fat diet may impact the aging process.
DAMIEN GUIHEN / University of Tasmania
Engineers Alex Forrest from UC Davis and Nathan Kemp (in orange) from Blue Ocean Monitoring ballast the autonomous underwater vehicle Gavia, testing its stability in calm water for later deployment in Terra Nova Bay in Antarctica.
Beneath the ice in Antarctica
This barred antshrike in Costa Rica prefers wet forest habitat.
DANIEL KARP / UC Davis
Few expeditions have involved robots diving beneath polar ice shelves to characterize and measure them. UC Davis engineering professor Alexander Forrest recently returned from one of them.
Climate change and habitat conversion homogenize nature Climate change and habitat conversion to agriculture are working together to homogenize nature, indicates a study led by UC Davis. In northwest Costa Rica, the study’s authors surveyed birds and plants at 120 sites that included rainforests, dry forests and farmland to determine how habitat conversion and climate changeinduced droughts affect tropical wildlife. They found that different bird species thrive in drier versus wetter areas of forests. In farmlands, however, birds associated with dry sites were found everywhere, even in the wettest sites.
“Across Central and South America, we are seeing large areas being converted from native forest to agriculture, and droughts are becoming more frequent,” said lead author Daniel Karp, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “Both of these global pressures are favoring the same species and threatening the same species. This means we may be losing biodiversity faster than we previously thought when we were studying climate change and habitat conversion individually.”
Forrest led a six-member robotics team in Antarctica on the Western Ross Sea and Terra Nova Bay as part of an international expedition. Last January and February, they deployed two robots, or autonomous underwater vehicles. One dives beneath the sea ice to map the bottom of the Nansen ice shelf, from which two Manhattan-sized icebergs broke last year. The other, a glider with wings named Storm Petrel, patrols the front of the ice shelf for 10 days, looking for evidence of freshwater and capturing change over time. Ultimately, researchers hope to better predict how — and when — ice shelves collapse. “Ice shelves are melting,” Forrest said. “We know this. But we don’t know how fast they’re melting. To actually make on-site measurements is the next step. We’re trying to get a baseline understanding of what changes are happening in the Antarctic. As a global community, we don’t really understand what we’re losing.”
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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NEW
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST 100 DAYS
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UC Davis Magazine
IN TOWN
By Jocelyn Anderson
10 QUESTIONS FOR CHANCELLOR GARY MAY three-decade career at Georgia Tech, most recently serving as dean of the College of Engineering. It is the largest and most diverse among all engineering programs in the U.S. “We gave the most engineering degrees in the country, and we also gave the most degrees to women and minorities in the country,” said May. “We also were ranked No. 4 in the country [by U.S. News & World Report for Best Undergraduate Engineering Program]. I think I was proudest that I don’t think any other college of engineering in the country could make those claims [in terms of] quality, quantity and diversity.” At May’s investiture, longtime mentor G. Wayne Clough, secretary emeritus
beginning on his first day at work, Aug. 1. It’s part of the process to develop a strategic plan by 2018, an effort he’s calling “To Boldly Go” (an homage to his beloved “Star Trek”). The plan will lay out a blueprint for the university’s next 10 years. “The end goal is raising the profile of UC Davis and making us one of the handful of universities that’s on the tip of the tongue when you talk about the nation’s great public research universities,” May said. “That doesn’t mean we are far from that now — I think we are pretty close — but a lot of it is raising awareness.” May comes to UC Davis with ample experience. After earning his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, he enjoyed a nearly
AUG. 9 CHANCELLOR’S RESIDENCE DESIGN CONTEST DINNER
JOE PROUDMAN / UC Davis
AUG. 1 FIRST DAY: ICE CREAM SOCIAL
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
has said he’s the university’s head cheerleader and friend-raiser. Most important, he will set the pace for moving the institution forward. His focus on the future, May said, means forging past a turbulent chapter that saw the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi. May, a 53-year-old engineer, moved into the Chancellor’s Residence with his wife, LeShelle, at the end of July, vowing to be a visible presence on campus. (The couple has two daughters, Simone, 22, a senior at Purdue University, and Jordan, 20, who attends Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.) May’s first step has been to embark on a “listening tour” to meet with campus and community members,
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
GARY MAY, UC Davis’ new chancellor,
AUG. 22 WATCHING THE ECLIPSE AT LAKE TAHOE
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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of the Smithsonian Institution and president emeritus of Georgia Tech, highlighted the accomplishments of his mentee. “Be assured he’s been involved in the nuts and bolts of what it takes to make a university work, the experience to help get things done,” Clough said. The UC Davis faculty respect May’s decades of commitment to higher education, said Rachael Goodhue, professor of agricultural and resource economics and chair of the Academic Senate. “As our campus grows, faculty want to ensure we maintain a high-quality educational and campus-life experience for our students,” she said. “Similarly, faculty want to continue efforts to diversify both our student body and the faculty we recruit.” At Georgia Tech, May also helped create an innovation hub, called Technology Square, in Atlanta. The space has become a model for connecting the university with business communities, enabling startups and offering education opportunities. He’s exploring something similar in Sacramento. “If you have three pillars — the world-class university, the world-class city that Sacramento envisions, and an engaged and enthusiastic business community — those three things allow you to have a transformative impact on the community,” May said. An avid comic book collector (his
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UC Davis Magazine
SEPT. 25 NEW STUDENT CELEBRATION
collection numbers 13,000!), the new chancellor took some time to speak with UC Davis Magazine a month after taking the helm. You had 11 going-away parties at Georgia Tech and beyond. How difficult was it to leave? I’d been there my whole career, 26 years on the faculty and four years as an undergraduate, so of course I’d developed some really close friendships, and the hardest part about leaving was leaving those friends. I had a great experience there, very positive professional life, enjoyed the city. I had mixed feelings when I was leaving, but it was a tremendous opportunity here that I just couldn’t pass up, and so far, so good. What was it about Davis that persuaded you to come here? I have friends on the faculty here in engineering, so I knew about some of the good things happening there. And I visited the campus way back in my grad student days, so it wasn’t a complete mystery. I always said that if I was going to leave Georgia Tech it would have to be either a great location or a quality institution, and I happened to get both. You’ve been on a “listening tour.” Where has it taken you? I’m meeting all the Davis stakeholders and constituents to hear about what they
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
SEPT. 23 MOVE-IN DAY
OCT. 9 WELCOMING CLINTON TO CAMPUS
think is important, what they are proud of and what they think we need to do better. That’s students, faculty and staff here on campus, and also alumni, government leaders, media, donors, parents and those who have an opinion or a stake in what we’re trying to do. It’s been a whirlwind. What issues could take center stage on the strategic plan that you develop? Housing is a big one. We’re engaged in the free-speech discussion with other universities in deciding where we should stand and what limitations exist, if any, on quality and level of discourse on campus. There are ongoing issues of affordability and access for our students. We want to be able to serve the greatest number of California students that we can, subject to maintaining quality and housing and other constraints. One of the things that attracted me to Davis was the reputation for social mobility and public service. I want to be able to expand on those areas and try to get even more inclusive. How can the chancellor stay close to the student population? We have had meetings with student leadership, and we’ll continue those regularly. But also I have a couple of student liaisons who are my eyes and ears, and I meet with them regularly. They help me connect with other students and tell me about issues that are popping up.
Early on, you made a public statement in response to the summer protests in Charlottesville. What is the chancellor’s role in these discussions? The chancellor must set the tone. I thought it was important to give our community some words to rally around and express what I was thinking and feeling. I wanted to set a stake in the ground as to where we stand on these issues. We believe very strongly in free speech. We don’t, however, support inciting or provoking violence. We certainly don’t promote intolerance and won’t stand for it. You’re active on social media — why do you like that platform for interacting? I got on Facebook initially because my daughters were teenagers, and I wanted to keep an eye on them — make sure they weren’t getting into any trouble or posting things that they shouldn’t be. As it evolved, I started making friends with people who were connected to Georgia Tech in some way. I recognized that it was a good platform to make people aware of the good things that were happening on campus and brag. As it turned out, the more I did that, the more people got interested. It even led to some pretty significant philanthropic gifts because it was a platform for people to learn about the institution. Also, I think it’s fun. I like to joke around and have fun
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis (Oct. 13 and 27)
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
OCT. 13 BETTY IRENE MOORE HALL GRAND OPENING
OCT. 27 INVESTITURE
with it. On my personal page, I’ll talk about my family. People feel like they have access to me that they would not necessarily have otherwise.
from her, but she’s very proud. She’s followed all the news stories. She has friends who send her newspapers. My sister helps; she also lives in St. Louis.
As a child, did you always know you would go to college? My parents were very insistent that both my sister and I would get a good education and college was the goal, for sure. My mother was in the class of students that integrated the University of Missouri. And my father, although he didn’t go to college immediately, he eventually got his degree later in life, and both were very insistent on good grades and college. They made those opportunities available to us. They put us in good schools. Our lifestyle was pretty modest — my mother was a teacher and my father was a postal worker — we lived middle-class at best in St. Louis. But they put us in private school and spent a lot of their own resources to make sure we got the best possible education. So college was not an option; it was mandatory. It was going to happen. I’m grateful for their direction.
What does your typical day look like? There’s no such thing as a typical day. I usually walk to work from the residence. I often have a bunch of meetings on the calendar. There are trips to Sacramento, to the health system, as well as visits with government officials and media. There are ceremonial things and evening events. On top of that, there’s travel. I do try to have a little fun — the new comics come out every Wednesday, so I’ve been going to get them for three or four weeks now. ■
I ALWAYS SAID THAT IF
What does your mother think about your moving out to California? She’s not excited about me being farther away
I WAS GOING TO LEAVE GEORGIA TECH IT WOULD HAVE TO BE EITHER A GREAT LOCATION OR A QUALITY INSTITUTION, AND I HAPPENED TO GET BOTH. Fall/Winter 2017–18
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MEET THE
By Jocelyn Anderson ’98 and Cody Kitaura
FRESHMEN WHEN LAINEY Hauschildt started high
school, she wrote in her diary that she wanted to go to UC Davis. “It’s been my dream school since I knew about college,” said the 19-yearold Sebastopol native. The key factor? She wanted to bring her horse, Rio, a Holsteiner warmblood who had just been born at the time. (UC Davis is one of a few universities that offers on-campus boarding for horses.) Four years later, Hauschildt moved Rio into the UC Davis Equestrian Center, the day before moving into the Tercero residence halls herself. Hauschildt’s passion for horses started early. Her mom bred show jumpers and got her a pony at 2. Hauschildt bred Rio’s mother. When he arrived, she convinced her mom to let her keep him. She agreed, as long as her daughter paid for everything. “He’s taught me a lot about responsibility,” she said. “We’ve gone through so
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UC Davis Magazine
many ups and downs in training — many a tear shed. It’s been hard sometimes.” Indeed, her responsible nature meant she worked hard to earn “a lot of financial aid” and is paying for what’s left with money she saved. She also continues to support Rio. Academically, the first-generation student is taking classes in human rights, communication and Native American studies as she drills down her interests. She’s undeclared for now. As with any passion, conversation circles back to horses. At UC Davis, Hauschildt said she looked forward to tapping into additional resources for training, and maybe in the future, competitions. She added she hopes to join a team with Rio. “I have a lot of interest in things,” she said. “I hope to push myself to really explore to find out what is out there.”
LAINEY HAUSCHILDT
They arrived in September ready to conquer college. This year’s freshman class — born at the end of the last millennium — is among the best and brightest, as well as the most diverse. All told, UC Davis enrolled more than 9,000 new freshmen and transfer students in the fall (with total enrollment numbering nearly 38,000 that quarter). Here are a few of the newest Aggies.
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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KARIN HIGGINS / UC DAVIS
AS JAY MCFARLANE LOOKED at colleges, she found UC Davis had the trifecta: a chemical physics major, a diverse student body and an environmentally friendly philosophy. Still, when she arrived, the Chicago native went through a little culture shock. “This is a lot of nature in comparison to Chicago,” said Mcfarlane, 18. When she arrived, she hit the ground running. She attended the chemistry department’s open house, and joined several clubs, including BlackOUT, a support group for black LGBTQIA students, and the Queer Student Union. She is also a member of the First-Year Aggie Connections group for those who identify as LGBTQIA. She said she appreciated the many resources available at UC Davis. “Coming out with every life transition is rough,” she said. “But there is a lot of support here for first-gen students, for Latinas and for
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black people. There are things outside of academics here that are really important when you are trying to find your identity. I think I’ve gotten a lot more than I ever expected.” Eventually, she said, she’d also like to get involved in some research projects. Mcfarlane’s love of science goes back to fourth grade, when her teacher encouraged her to join his science club, where they conducted frequent experiments. “I thought that was really cool,” she said. At her high school, Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, she enrolled in the scholar’s program for high-achieving students. She took honors and AP classes all four years. And she discovered a love of chemical physics. “I just love that it’s all problem-solving. You can build on all the knowledge, and it’s about discovering new things and looking at things in different ways.”
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
JAY MCFARLANE
CHETHAN SWANSON
tennis lessons since he was 8. Now that he’s at UC Davis, he’s learning how to give it his full attention while balancing academics at the same time. “Even if you have a midterm or a paper, you have to be [at tennis practice],” Swanson, 19, said recently after one of his six days of practice in a week. At his high school in Folsom, he could just skip a day’s competition if he needed to study. Now at UC Davis on a partial athletics scholarship, he has to keep up with his fellow Division I athletes both on the court and in the classroom. “As a student-athlete, everyone around me is focused on academics,” he said. “It’s motivating to be around a lot of students who have a lot going on for them.” UC Davis is teaching him a lot about time management — his first tournament was two days after instruction started, and he’s at morning workouts while his roommate is still asleep. “It’s a good transition to adulthood,” he said. “It’s all up to you.” Swanson is inspired by his uncle, a second father figure who played tennis at the University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign. Swanson recently traveled to that university for a tournament, and reveled in text-messaging photos of various spots around campus to his uncle. As he settles into a routine at UC Davis, Swanson has some of his future already mapped out. He’s majoring in economics, which he aims to parlay into a career in finance or business, and he plans to pursue an MBA.
KARIN HIGGINS / UC DAVIS
CHETHAN SWANSON HAS been taking
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GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
ERICK FIERRO
ERICK FIERRO ALREADY had all the information he needed to
choose UC Davis — he grew up just 20 miles away in Vacaville. “It was close to home, so I figured I could see old friends, but also I’m here to make new friends,” said Fierro, 18. In fact, he said the transition has been relatively easy so far. He and a friend from home decided to be roommates. And he’s already picked a major: computer science. He said he hopes to channel an interest in video games to work in that industry after graduation. Fierro proved his commitment to academics in high school, earning straight A’s all four years. It was enough to be named valedictorian, a title he shared with six other students. “I just knew that I had to envision this goal in my head and keep working toward it,” said Fierro, who was also recognized
for his PSAT scores by the National Hispanic Recognition Program of the College Board, which identifies academically exceptional students of Hispanic and Latino descent. He received scholarships from La Raza Lawyers Association and Knights of Columbus. And though home is not so far away, his parents now live in Alexandria, Virginia, so that his dad, a senior master sergeant with the U.S. Air Force, could take a post at the Pentagon. An only child, Fierro said the change has accentuated his newfound autonomy. “I was independent before, but my parents would do a lot for me,” he shared. “I really appreciated it, but then I came here and realized how much I have to do that I didn’t even think about.”
UC DAVIS IS George Liao’s third university, and the last was nearly three decades ago.
KARIN HIGGINS / UC DAVIS
Not every new Aggie follows the traditional path to college, and Liao is a prime example. Now 54, he said he’s confident his time at UC Davis will be more successful than previous stints at Humboldt State and San Jose State universities now that he can better manage his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
TALES OF A TRANSFER
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He worked as a computer programmer, bouncing between jobs where he began to notice the wide wealth gap in American society. A job upgrading software for a county district attorney’s office inspired him to think he could
do something about it, and he now hopes to attend law school with a goal of working for nonprofits focused on defending individual rights or providing college-prep programs to low-income students. He attended Diablo Valley College before transferring to UC Davis, where he’s majoring in English and immersing himself in the student experience, rooming with a 20-year-old in a student apartment and eating at the dining commons. He’s optimistic, but keeping his expectations in check: “I think I’ll have a challenge ahead of me,” he said. “But I do see a path toward doing well.”
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
ALICE HUNG
FOR ALICE HUNG, the independence of college
is not new. The undeclared freshman grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, and lived at her junior high school for three years before moving to Shanghai to attend a competitive international high school. She lived with her mother, who was only home on the weekends. “I don’t have homesickness,” Hung said. “I have experience with this kind of life.” She came to UC Davis for its high rankings and moved sight unseen. When she arrived in September, she said she worried she would find an ugly expanse of agricultural land and cattle. “I thought it would be boring — actually, it’s not.” The 18-year-old described being selfconscious at home for not speaking English as fluently as her peers, but said she’s found her fellow Aggies to be welcoming. Within a month, she was close friends with a roommate
she’d never met, and a bicyclist spotted her peering at a map and stopped to ask if she needed directions. And though she’s still adjusting to the culture (a recent student protest inspired her to investigate why they were rallying), she expressed excitement over the prospect of making more of her own decisions. Sports were discouraged at her previous schools, which stressed academics, and she may start playing baseball again and join the badminton club. Other interests include poetry (she self-published a collection of her poems while in junior high), psychology, art and a book she’s writing — a guide for Taiwanese students hoping to attend college abroad. As she pursues those myriad interests, she’ll remain undeclared, at least for now. “I love too many subjects — it’s hard for me to choose only one.”
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UC Davis researchers bring water expertise across borders to help a region impacted by catastrophic floods. By Kat Kerlin
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fter a catastrophic flood destroyed lives, farmland and homes in a small Ecuadorian farming community, local residents reached out to UCÂ Davis water experts for help. Now the computer models those experts created may help the community restore their water rights and help protect them against future disasters.
SWEPT AWAY It was raining on March 19, 2015, when Cruz Ramiro Quinatoa got a call from his daughter, Carmen Quinatoa. She lived about 15 minutes away in the small community of San Pablo de AmalĂ. She told him the river was rising, and she was scared. He tried calling her back many times that night, but she never answered.
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF RISK MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, PREFECTURA OF BOLÍVAR PROVINCE (LEFT), EMILY CONRAD
The next morning, he ran down the mountain to check on her and his 8-year-old grandson, Mauricio Albuja. “They were swept away. Three houses: two friends’ houses and the house of my daughter. She went away with the water, and I couldn’t save her,” he said, choking back tears. His grandson also died in the flood. Overall, the floods that night along the Dulcepamba River took three lives — Carmen, Mauricio and their neighbor Glenda Cuji Pala — and destroyed 25 acres of farmland and 10 houses. UC Davis computer models have since indicated that the flood was not a natural disaster. Only an average amount of rain fell during the 2015 flood — an amount expected every five to seven years. The community and research suggest that the 2013 installment of an 8-megawatt, run-of-the-river hydropower plant put them at increased flood risk.
Above, left: Aerial view of the Dulcepamba River floodplain several days after a flood in February 2017. Above, right: Dulcepamba Project team members Rachel Conrad, Darwin Paredes, and his son, Jairo Parades, observe how the Dulcepamba River relocated to the only road out of San Pablo de Amalí. Downed power lines are in rapids where the road had been.
Its construction by multinational corporation Hidrotambo S.A. dynamited bedrock, deforested parts of the floodplain and moved the river’s channel 400 feet closer to San Pablo de Amalí, displacing the water toward the community.
OVERALLOCATED “The flood was devastating, but that was only half of it,” said Rachel Conrad, an onsite researcher leading an effort called the Dulcepamba Project who reached out to the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences for technical help. The models also show that the hydropower plant
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had gained a legal right to more water than exists in the watershed. Hidrotambo was allocated 69.2 cubic feet per second in the dry season and 229.5 cfs in the wet season. The company was also required to leave 37.4 cfs in the river for environmental flows. A computer model created by Wes Walker, a UC Davis graduate student at the time, shows there is insufficient flow for the allocation, environmental flow and water needs of residents on 69 percent of the days between 2010 and 2017. This includes most summer days, when residents need it most. This effectively stripped San Pablo de Amalí and more than 140 communities upstream of their water rights — leaving them without a legal right to use water during much of the year, while the facility’s infrastructure makes downstream residents more vulnerable to catastrophic flooding during the wet season.
SUSPENDED This community of unpaved roads, where hens and roosters outnumber people, had been fighting the facility since its first
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KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF EMILY CONRAD AND RACHEL CONRAD
Jeannette Newmiller
permit was approved in 2003, but their protests were met with violence and then deaf ears. Now that they have scientific results from UC Davis in hand, Ecuador’s water and human rights agencies are beginning to listen. When it came time for Hidrotambo to reapply for its water concession in fall 2016, the community used the models to make a formal complaint to Ecuador’s National Secretary of Water (SENAGUA).
Based on the UC Davis work, the water agency suspended Hidrotambo’s water concession and launched an in-depth investigation into the facility’s operation and its effects on upstream farmers and the aquatic life of the Dulcepamba River. This past May, UC Davis research engineer and the project’s principal investigator William Fleenor also met with the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C., to discuss the computer models. The commission is using the information to help decide what immediate actions need to occur for the communities’ safety. The commission will also take the analysis into consideration as it determines responsibility for damages and appropriate reparations. “This is the kind of modeling that helps our own communities in the United States be protected from catastrophic floods,” Fleenor said.
IN THE ABSENCE OF SCIENCE For the researchers involved in the project, it was a reminder of what happens when energy, water and other infrastructure projects move forward in the absence of science. Run-of-the-river hydropower facilities are not inherently harmful. They generate electricity from the force of water flowing from a high elevation to a lower one using the river’s natural flow. Increasingly common throughout the world, these relatively small facilities are viewed as clean energy alternatives to fossil fuel power. But they require proper planning and scientific modeling before their installation to prevent disaster and loss of human life and property. “The facilities themselves aren’t the issue, but the improper installation of them are,” said Jeanette Newmiller, a UC Davis graduate
For the researchers involved in the project, the catastrophe was a reminder of what happens when energy, water and other infrastructure projects move forward in the absence of science.
WATER WITHOUT BORDERS “This kind of thing happens all over the world, including in the United States,” said Nicholas Pinter, a flood expert and UC Davis professor of earth and planetary sciences who connected Conrad with UC Davis researchers. “In poor areas, with a lack of homegrown scientific knowledge and expertise, those communities fall victim to powerful outsiders.” Even when countries have strong regulations and water laws on the books, they often lack the resources, technology and expertise to carry them out. UC Davis researchers used freely available software to conduct their water modeling. Such software could help countries and municipalities without many financial resources conduct modeling before constructing similar projects. The work in Ecuador represents a broader effort by the Center for Watershed Sciences to establish a World Water Initiative, which could include a rapid-response capability to provide water-science expertise to underserved populations like San Pablo de Amalí around the world. “We’re definitely a collaborative group,”
Above, left: Residents of San Pablo de Amalí and upstream communities meet in July 2017 to discuss next steps after an on-site inspection with Ecuador’s National Secretary of Water. Above, center: The small farming community of San Pablo de Amalí sits on the western slopes of the Andes. Above, right: Manuel Trujillo, president of the Community of San Pablo de Amalí, stands by the Dulcepamba River in February 2017, after a second major flood affected the town.
Fleenor said. “That’s what you have to have to tackle a problem. At the center, we’re not just here for the science and research, but to supply the information to policymakers so they can make these policy decisions.”
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
student who developed the model that showed how water moves through the river. “To me this is a modern check of why we need sound science to better inform projects like this. We have an opportunity to do it right.” The results indicate the company is also unlikely to produce the amount of energy it initially expected when it made the investment.
IN THEIR HEARTS In Ecuador, Conrad said that for the first time in more than a decade, the residents of San Pablo de Amalí are hesitantly hopeful. “The community knew in their hearts and from experience that there’s no way the river had that much water in it,” Conrad said. “But the scientific results from UC Davis really legitimized their complaints. I also don’t think the Inter-American Commission would have taken the case as seriously without the data and subject matter experts to explain why the road was taken out, why houses were lost, why people died.” ■
Wes Walker
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UC Davis Magazine
Wine education and innovation starts
HERE
Viticulture and enology major Jordan Axe guides grapes out of the hopper during the annual grape crush in August.
Students learn firsthand the finer points of wine production in the winery at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. And every year at the grape crush, they study the whole process — from the crush to fermentation and processing. In August, 9 tons of fruit were crushed and barreled. Eventually, viticulture and enology students learn to evaluate the finished product according to the quality and complexity of the wine’s flavor and aroma. GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
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visualize this
Trace the evolution of bike racks at UC Davis. By Cody Kitaura
J
ust as improvements have been made to bicycles, advancements have significantly changed bike parking over the last 50 years. Thanks to new materials and design innovations, bike racks now do a lot more than early models that just held a wheel in place. Good cycling infrastructure can better guard against theft, help prevent damage, keep parking areas more “Everything that’s ever been organized and be an importtried has been tried here.” ant part of city planning. At UC Davis, bike parking is more than an afterthought of urban design. Our racks need to hold the estimated 20,000 bikes that come to campus every day. “UC Davis has been the test case,” Bicycle Program Coordinator Tim Bustos said. “Everything that’s ever been tried has been tried here.” And new innovations are on the way. Here’s a look back at some varieties that have been seen on campus.
Inverted U 1980s This design allows two bikes to share a single rack and secure their frames, but doesn’t do anything to keep bikes from falling over. A few were ordered as an “experiment” in the late ’80s and still sit in a corner of campus.
Concrete pods 1960s and earlier These so-called “wheel benders” don’t provide a way to secure the frame — so what if the rest of the bike could be easily stolen? They earned their nickname any time a passerby bumped into a bike, sending its owner to the campus bike shop.
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Grid racks 1960s and earlier These “playground” or “comb” racks focus on holding the wheel and claim better organization. But locking a bike’s frame to one is nearly impossible, so a rogue cyclist sometimes takes up an entire rack by parking sideways in an attempt to get a more secure hold.
Coat hanger 1990s The side profile of these racks — which inspired their name — shares the angle of most bicycle frames, making it possible for frames and wheels to be locked simultaneously. Still, bikes can easily topple over, turning the whole area into a mess of wheels and handlebars.
Lightning Bolt 1997 to present These racks provide a way to lock a bike’s frame and front wheel simultaneously and keep the front tire stable so bikes don’t topple over. They can be quickly installed in bulk — say, when a building becomes a temporary lecture hall.
Varsity Bike Dock 2008 to present These racks allow more bikes to fit into a parking area by staggering them and include rubberized loops to prevent metal-on-metal contact. They’re installed individually, which makes replacement cheaper if one is damaged.
. . . and in the future
Planners continue to seek new ways to solve issues that come with a growing population: preventing theft and finding more places to park bikes. At UC Davis, a parking garage now houses a secure cage where cyclists pay a fee for more peace of mind. And other universities are experimenting with double-decker bike racks (the top level swings down to make the lifting easier), which are expensive but provide for higher-density parking.
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the big question
How will
driverless cars change how we travel? by Jocelyn Anderson
THE IDEA OF a completely autonomous vehicle is exciting — and a bit
scary. As we envision future advancements on the road, many would like to know just how much driverless cars could change human travel. For answers, we went to Lewis Fulton, co-director at the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways program of Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. He and his team have plotted scenarios for what our transportation could look like in the future — and what needs to happen to receive the most benefits from new technologies like automation. Partially automated cars, he said, are becoming a reality. Some vehicles are already on the roads, as Google and Uber test fleets in the U.S. Tesla seems to be closest to a commercial option, with self-driving hardware now on all its cars. Though some hands-free driving is possible already on the highway, so far, the cars currently transition control back to a driver on other roads. Some analysts have predicted fully driverless cars will be available as soon as 2020. Others say they could be a decade away. “We don’t know when automakers will be ready to fully commercialize them, or when governments will be ready to allow them,” said Fulton. “There’s just a lot of hype right now. But the most important thing for me is that [people] realize this transition is not automatically going to provide massive benefits.” New technologies in transportation, he said, have the potential to impact everything travel-related — from traffic congestion to energy use and CO2 emissions.
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According to a recent report by Fulton and his team at STEPS, achieving three revolutions — automation, electrification and shared mobility — together could help achieve the greatest benefits. One revolution alone won’t cut it. In fact, the report estimates that a driverless vehicle world without electrification or trip sharing might not cut energy use or CO2 emissions at all, and might increase vehicle travel by 15 to 20 percent. Imagine: Some people could send their empty cars driving around the city rather than pay for parking while they’re at work or seeing a movie. Fulton calls this the zombie car phenomenon, and it could have disastrous effects on traffic. A two-revolution scenario — automation along with vehicle electrification — could save significant energy and emissions but may even exacerbate traffic impacts, because per-mile driving costs could be very low. And
ge
electrified automated vehicles will need to be deeply decarbonized to achieve emissions savings. The researchers ultimately found that shared mobility is the vital piece that can help guarantee big wins across the board — much lower traffic, energy use and emissions; freed-up parking lots; and even decreased transportation costs. The best-case scenario, with all three revolutions adopted concurrently, could reduce the amount of vehicles and carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent or greater worldwide. This scenario assumes that by 2020 ride sharing becomes a predominant means of travel in most of the world’s cities. “We do think the sharing piece is critical, but it’s also the hardest piece,” said Fulton. “And by sharing we don’t mean single-occupant Ubers; we mean a combination of people sharing those rides, along with more use of better quality transit systems, and more
walking and cycling where that makes sense. It’s the behavioral piece. “And it’s a huge challenge, because the automated vehicle world is one that is headed toward greater convenience, and the sharing piece says you should get in the car with a stranger and take an extra three minutes to get where you’re going because it will cut way down on the number of cars on the road. This may be a hard sell, especially when the unshared trips become very cheap.” With so many factors still in flux, exactly how automation will affect travel remains to be seen. And the report emphasizes that this “revolution” will take time: Retiring the current fleet of driven vehicles could take another 10 to 30 years. For his part, Fulton said he has been in an automated car that meandered through Stuttgart, Germany, with minimal intervention by its human driver. He said, “I’ve seen it. It’s real — and pretty amazing. And yet this will take time. But maybe it’s time we can use to plan the whole thing out in the best way possible.” ■
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aggie families
SIDE SID by
WHEN NAGELA CASTRO CAME to the United States 19 years ago, she had to leave her 1-year-old daughter in Brazil with her mother. She cleaned houses, learned English and tried repeatedly to bring her daughter to her new home. They reunited four years later, and their struggles with the immigration process inspired them to help others in similar situations. This fall, Castro By Cody Kitaura joined her daughter, Amanda De Castro, at UC Davis. They’re both juniors, both studying international relations. De Castro plans to work in immigration law, while her mother said she wants to continue to informally help others in her community.
Separate paths led mother and daughter to UC Davis
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Castro received her green card two years ago, and De Castro is working toward hers while receiving protection from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. They’ve become informal experts in their Bay Area community, sharing advice and referring friends to their immigration attorney. “Most people don’t know their rights,” Castro said. “Because I didn’t know, I spent many years struggling. Now I help others.” They said they are eager to help, in part, because they remember the difficult early years struggling to adapt to life here.
Nagela Castro, far left, with her daughter, Amanda De Castro
E
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
By the time De Castro finally arrived in the U.S., she didn’t recognize her mother and had difficulty transitioning. Her mother said fellow students refused to play with her because she didn’t speak English. Instead, Castro said, her daughter played with rocks in the schoolyard until she was quickly transferred to a different school. And while their early years here were more comfortable than the windowless “shack” Castro left in Brazil, they weren’t cushy, she said. Their first Christmas together, they relied on a $50 gift from their pastor to fill their empty refrigerator.
The prospect of paying international tuition rates kept Castro away from higher education, and she struggled to pay for two community college courses for her daughter during her high school years. That changed after they qualified for in-state tuition — Castro with her green card and De Castro under California’s AB540, a state law that treats most students as residents if they attended a California high school for at least three years and earned a diploma. They said they were overjoyed and made sure others knew they could take advantage of the lower rates. “We were going around telling everybody: ‘You qualify! You qualify!’” De Castro said. For all the advice the pair has given, Castro said she needed some encouragement from her daughter to convince her to go back to school — first to Contra Costa College, then to UC Davis. “She said, ‘Mom, you should go back to school — you have really good grades,’” Castro said. In community college, Castro applied herself and chided fellow students who didn’t take their studies seriously. She continues to run her home-cleaning business, managing five employees. De Castro said her mom will outperform her now that they’re both at UC Davis.
“She’s an overachiever,” she said. Castro said she’s just happy they’re both Aggies. “My dream is coming true, not only in my life but in hers.” While the two didn’t have any of the same classes in their first quarter together at UC Davis, De Castro said she likes the prospect of being close to her mom. The two talk often about politics, following the latest news regarding the Trump administration’s plans to end the DACA program. And De Castro is working part-time for the family’s immigration attorney. “I’m feeling a lot better about DACA as I’m learning more and more,” said De Castro, whose DACA permit was renewed this fall. The mother and daughter said they complement each other well and think similarly. Castro even encourages her daughter to take a day off for fun every once in a while. But there’s one thing they can’t seem to agree on. “She’s a millennial,” De Castro said. “No, I’m not,” her mother replied. Things are looking up for the pair, but they have their sights set on one more international challenge: Whether Castro’s parents — who looked after De Castro over that four-year period — can visit the United States to see their daughter and granddaughter graduate in 2019. “I think it would be special,” Castro said. ■
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young achievers
INSIDE THE NEWSROOM UC Davis alumni are at the forefront of an evolving journalism field. By Jennifer Ernst Beaudry
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ggies are a force to be reckoned with in the news world. In newspapers, radio, TV and on the web, UC Davis alumni are breaking news, winning major awards and making a difference. And at a time when the state of the news is a hot topic, these alumni have a front-row seat. We interviewed several who are taking on “fake news” and continue to play a critical role in delivering today’s headlines. Some are even being awarded for it. Investigative reporter Matthias Gafni ’98 and criminal justice reporter Angela Ruggiero ’10 are both on staff at Oakland’s East Bay Times and spent many months covering the disastrous Ghost Ship fire in 2016, when 36 people died during a concert held in a warehouse space that had been converted into a residential art collective. They exposed opportunities the city of Oakland failed to take to prevent the tragedy and won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting. Gafni said the award, which came as a shock, was also bittersweet. “It’s a nice feeling to be appreciated, but obviously, it’s incredibly sad. We knew a lot of the victims at that point,” he said.
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The recognition also reminded him of his mission: “We’re getting answers for the family members and the victims.” Michael Bott ’07 is an investigative producer with NBC affiliate KNTV Bay Area and part of the team that won a 2016 Peabody Award for the “Arrested at School” series that examined local school districts’ reliance on police to handle student discipline — and the far-reaching negative ramifications that reliance has on students, especially from minority populations. Like Gafni, Bott said the results of the work made it worthwhile. “We’re serving the interests of the community and the audience — that’s the important thing,” he said. “We give a voice to the voiceless, and I appreciate it when I can make an impact or change a law.” Several of the alumni we spoke with said they got much of their early journalism experience working for The California Aggie, UC Davis’ century-old student-run newspaper. “The Aggie definitely jumpstarted my professional career,” East Bay Times’ Ruggiero said. “Even those basic skills, like learning to take notes quickly enough and the rules of being a reporter, maybe other people would learn in a journalism class, but we were learning by experience.” Others credited their college education. Timothy Jue ’09, a producer and assignment editor at ABC7 News KGO-TV, said his undergraduate education enabled him to roll with the punches. “Having an interdisciplinary education helped prepare me for a lot of the changes and innovation that comes with being in such a technologically advanced market as San Francisco, and in an industry that sees constant change,” he said. Ignacio Torres ’10, a producer at ABC’s “Nightline” (where he won a 2016 Emmy for the “Brave Face” series that followed a face transplant recipient after his operation), said that his Latin American studies and Spanish classes shaped his professional life. “They taught me to be literate, and that’s crucial now more than ever,” he said.
JANE TYSKA/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
The writing skills Linnea Edmeier ’08 learned at UC Davis influenced not only her own career — they’ve shaped her criteria for new hires in her position as managing editor of news and information for Capital Public Radio in Sacramento. “I look for students who have an English background. They can think critically, and I know they understand the power of words,” she said. “My writing was what got me in the door [in radio, and] it’s really what I hang all my success on.” Being adaptable has been critical, alumni said, in keeping pace with a frequently changing field. Journalistic outlets have been challenged by long-term declines in subscribers, the move to digital and continuing consolidation of local organizations. Alumni writers and editors have been through rounds of layoffs, which meant seeing friends and colleagues leave, and picking up the slack created by their absences. The proliferation of social media has changed the news, too — not only does the need for content stretch 24/7, but the sheer number of sources can
COURTESY
UC Davis alumnus Matthias Gafni and fellow East Bay Times reporters Thomas Peele, Harry Harris, Erin Baldassari and David Debolt react as they learn of their Pulitzer Prize win for breaking news earlier this year; at right: Linnea Edmeier on the job with Capital Public Radio.
muddy the waters. “I always worry about a lot of that traditional reporting knowledge that gets lost” in the new age, said Sasha Lekach ’10, a breaking news reporter at Mashable.com. What’s needed now more than ever, she added, are reporters who are “able to discern what’s overblown, what’s hyperbole.” After certain situations involving reporters in her newsroom, Capital Public Radio’s Edmeier said she recently attended a critical incident stress management meeting to learn strategies to help support her team. “It was emergency medical service workers, the police and then me, a journalist,” she said. But the UC Davis alumni interviewed said the fraught atmosphere has upped the stakes in a good way, too. They say journalism has a new energy — and is more necessary than ever. “This is a very exciting time to work as a journalist,” Bott said. No matter how the field changes, “the job is still the same. We have that mandate to keep officials honest and hold their feet to the fire.” ■
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the aggie life
Why the
pomegranate is the best winter fruit by Allyson Tsuji
P
omegranates, which generally ripen during the winter months, are commonly known for their vivid color and superfood class. But, as UC Davis horticulturist Stacey Parker revealed, they are also a firstrate winter fruit. They are . . .
Drought tolerant “Once established, pomegranates are pretty tough. Most fruit trees aren’t like that — they need a lot of supplemental irrigation or nutrition,” said Parker. Pomegranates are also relatively pestand disease-free.
Nutritious Rich in antioxidants, the pomegranate is a healthy alternative to other holiday comfort foods. Pomegranates are also low in fat and are a good source of fiber and vitamins D and C.
How to cut a pomegranate 1. Cut off the top. 2. Score the pomegranate into six even sections. Cut just deep enough to go through the outer skin. 3. Place the pomegranate into a bowl of water. Pull apart the sections. 4. In the water, separate the seeds from the skin so that the membranes float to the top while the seeds sink to the bottom. 5. Skim off the membranes and pour the seeds into a sieve to drain the water. 6. Rinse the seeds and enjoy.
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Decorative With the holiday season in full swing, pomegranates make for fitting festive decor. Their magenta color is wellsuited for dinner tables and handmade wreaths.
Versatile Pomegranates can be sprinkled on flatbread, tossed into salad or squeezed into juice. Though pomegranates will last in a cool, dry place for up to three months, they can also be jellied or canned for further preservation. “Canning is a really great way to make the harvest last and also keep it from going to waste,” said Parker.
From the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
Healthy foods for happy dogs
Dogs may love mealtime, but not all foods are good for them. With obesity becoming more common in pets, maintaining a lean body mass is increasingly vital for keeping dogs healthy. “It’s actually the only thing that’s been shown to improve lifespan in pets,” said Jennifer Larsen, a professor of nutrition at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Here, Larsen shares her tips on healthy ways to feed your dog.
⊲⊲ Read the nutrition label. Most commercial dog foods have labels that tell consumers the estimated proper serving size for their pets. For details, Larsen recommends checking the Nutritional Adequacy Statement, which tells consumers whether the food is complete and balanced and the life stage for which the food is formulated. ⊲⊲ Certain human foods are good for dogs. “Fruits and vegetables allow you to give a lot of volume without a lot of calories,” said Larsen. Owners should watch out for grapes, raisins and meat- or sweet
potato-based jerky treats, all of which are known to cause kidney damage. Also avoid chocolate, caffeine, raw bread dough and macadamia nuts. ⊲⊲ Treats such as carrots and apples can help maintain a balanced diet for dogs as long as they do not provide more than 10 percent of the dog’s daily calorie intake. The other 90 percent should come from the regular diet, said Larsen. ⊲⊲ Ask your vet. Ultimately, veterinarians know what foods are best for your dog.
From the Student Health and Wellness Center
5 ways to fight insomnia 1. Start a regular sleep schedule. “Manage your time so that you go to bed when you need to,” said Emilia Aguirre, health promotion specialist at the UC Davis Student Health and Wellness Center. In the long run, waking up at the same time every morning, even if you pull an occasional late night, is best for your health. 2. Limit naps, which take away from regular sleep hours, to 20 to 30 minutes. Also avoid late-night food consumption, which fuels the body to stay awake, and phone or laptop usage before bed. “Being exposed to blue light from your screen can make it harder for you to fall asleep,” Aguirre said.
3. Improve your sleeping environment. A cool bedroom lowers your body temperature and makes falling asleep easier. Aguirre also recommended low noise and blackout curtains. 4. Use your bedroom only for sleeping. “If you’re using your bed for things other than sleep, it can mess with your rhythm,” Aguirre said. Avoid lying in bed for too long before and after waking up. 5. Change up your daytime habits. Exercising in the evening or late afternoon will tire you out before bed.
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sports
by Allyson Tsuji
Aggies are going to work for their alma mater. The UC Davis Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Associated Students of UC Davis have partnered to create four yearlong fellowship positions for recent graduates. Each position is geared toward providing skills and experience to sports-minded alumni.
GOOD FE Bryn Lutz ’17, Yonni Michovska ’17,
Communications Fellow
Development Fellow
Hometown: Carlsbad, California
Hometown: Napa, California
Major: Animal science
Major: Human development
Sports experience: UC Davis women’s water polo, 2012–2016
Sports experience: UC Davis women’s gymnastics, 2013–2017
Favorite sport: Water polo
Favorite sport: “Gymnastics. I really like to watch basketball.” Future career goals: Earn a master’s degree in sports management
Future career goals: “I would like to do something in the animal-related field. I’m still exploring options; I’m open to everything.”
Favorite sports memory: Getting a 9.9 out of 10 during a meet. “The pressure was on me to do really well, and I stepped up. That was so awesome — my biggest accomplishment, probably.”
Personal sports highlights: Beating UC Irvine on its Senior Day, and making a buzzer-beater to break a tie with Arizona State. “We became ranked fifth, our highest ranking that season.”
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ELLOWS Josh Gomez ’16, Aggie Stadium and Events Fellow Hometown: Concord, California Double major: Spanish and linguistics Sports experience: UC Davis men’s club soccer, 2012–2016 Favorite sport: Soccer
Katy Nogaki ’17, Communications Fellow Hometown: Orange, California Major: Human development Sports experience: UC Davis women’s gymnastics, 2012–2017 Favorite sport: Gymnastics (to compete) and water polo (to watch)
Future career goals: “I like the atmosphere of being in sports. I could definitely see myself doing this in the long run.”
Future career goals: “I plan to go to grad school in a healthcare field or pursue a career in sports.”
Favorite sports memory: Watching the U.S.-Mexico World Cup qualifying game in Mexico. “The passion that you see within so many people was on another level when I went there.”
Favorite sports quote: “You don’t inspire your teammates by showing them how amazing you are. You inspire them by showing them how amazing they are.” (Robyn Benincasa, world champion adventure racer)
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office hours
Stephen Robinson:
Aerospace musician
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
STEPHEN ROBINSON’S 36-YEAR CAREER at NASA
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included four space shuttle missions and three spacewalks, but before that, he was a musician. As an undergraduate at UC Davis, Robinson ’78 played the tuba in the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh! and later he always found time for music, even as a busy NASA scientist and astronaut and now as professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “I never stopped,” said Robinson. “The great thing about music is that you can take it with you wherever you go, you can participate as much as you want, and you can constantly learn. It’s a lifelong passion.” He’s been a member of folk group Bandella — made up of mostly retired astronauts — since its formation about 15 years ago. Its members have really gone the distance during that time — playing
UC Davis Magazine
together in space and even via radio in mission control when apart. As Robinson put it, “We’re often flung all around the globe and sometimes even off the planet.” Music has long been a unifier among space crews, added Robinson, who plays the guitar, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel, cello and upright bass. “Music itself is pretty technical, and exploring space requires a lot of creativity and ingenuity,” he said. “To me, it’s all the same subject: What more can the brain do?” Last summer four members of Bandella, including Robinson, reunited for a one-night gig at The Palms Playhouse in Winters. Next year, he said, the band will perform in Toronto, Canada, but may also return to Northern California. —Jocelyn Anderson
class notes
1970s
Howard Lind ’75 was selected for the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America. He is a partner with Oakland-based firm Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP. Chief marketing executive Robert Anstine ’77 rejoined Chief Outsiders, a nationwide fractional marketing consulting firm. Anstine previously left the company to work for a former client and returned in May.
1980s
Stunt pilot Vicky Benzing ’80 performed aerial stunts at the Freedom Fair in Tacoma, Washington, in July and
Douglas Girod ’81 was named the 18th chancellor of the University of Kansas in May. A surgeon, Girod joined the school’s medical center faculty in 1994, rising through the ranks, becoming executive vice chancellor in 2013. Douglas Adamson ’83, of Charlottesville, Virgina, has been named senior mortgage loan officer for Fulton Mortgage Co. Adamson was previously a wealth management lending officer for Bank of America. Donna M. Di Grazia ’83, M.A. ’86, received a 2017 Wig Distinguished Professor Award from Pomona College, where she holds the David J. Baldwin Professorship in Music. The Wig Award is the highest honor bestowed on Pomona College faculty and recognizes exceptional teaching, concern for students and service to the college and community. This is Di Grazia’s second Wig Award. Albany resident Christina Hutchins ’83 was selected as the 41st Dartmouth College poet in residence at The Frost Place. Since 1977, a poet has been chosen to live and work in the historic house where Robert Frost lived from 1915 to 1920.
GA/ UC Dav is
Michael Gillin, M.A. ’66, Ph.D. ’70, received the Marvin M.D. Williams Professional Achievement Award at the 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine annual meeting in Denver. This award recognizes an AAPM member for an eminent career in medical physics with an emphasis on clinical medical physics. Gillin is professor, deputy chairman and chief of clinical services in the Department of Radiation Physics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Gillin and Pamela Newberry, his wife of more than 25 years, have three grown children, three grandchildren, three cats and two dogs.
competed in the Reno National Championship Air Races in September. Benzing is retired and now flies full time.
GREGO RY URQ UIA
1960s
Margaret Lombard ’87 spoke at the newly established California Honey Festival in Woodland in May. The CEO of the National Honey Board, based in Colorado, is focused on promoting the honey industry and bee production research. Lombard joined the organization in 2015 after working in marketing for the supermarket industry. Las Vegas-based Patrick H. Hicks ’84 was recognized as one of the “100 Most Powerful Employment Lawyers” by Human Resource Executive Magazine and by Lawdragon in its 2017 annual rankings guide. He also recently was ranked Band 1, the highest distinction, in the 2017 Chambers USA guide, published by Chambers and Partners.
Hicks is an attorney with the Littler law practice. Michelle Skaggs Lawrence ’84, city manager in Oceanside, California, was nominated by San Diego Magazine as part of its 2017 Celebration of Women awards, which are given to local leaders in a variety of categories. Lawrence helped launch a master plan for the city,
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Alumni profile
COURTESY
Meet the mayor
including a sports complex, and has enabled businesses. TH Real Estate appointed Mike Jameson ’85 senior executive to its debt team, in a newly created role. Prior to joining, he was a managing director at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. South Dakota University named Daniel Scholl ’85, D.V.M. ’87, M.P.V.M. ’88, vice president for research and economic development. Scholl came to the school from the University of Montreal in 2011, and most recently served as the interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. René González-Mejia ’86, recipient of the 2015 Emil M. Mrak International Award, was selected for enshrinement in the Nicaraguan Sports Hall
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UC Davis Magazine
Steve Ly ’96 became mayor of Elk Grove last year — also becoming the country’s first mayor of Hmong heritage. “I discovered during my campaign that it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are — we all want same things,” said Ly, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Laos after the Vietnam War and became farmers in California’s Central Valley. “Working families want good schools for their kids, to have a home, to have the potholes filled.” Ly began as a community organizer in Sacramento. He got into politics as a way to effect change. Leading up to his current role, he served on the board of the Elk Grove Unified School District, then the city council, and then became vice mayor. Despite a population nearing 170,000, the mayoral job is only part time, and Ly continues his work with the Sacramento Board of Education, providing academic support to those in juvenile hall. “Nothing beats impacting a young person. If I can’t help them be successful, the next step is prison,” he said, stressing the importance of education. “The foundation of who I am today was built at UC Davis. Being an undergrad is so critical to developing who you are and the opportunities you could have.”
of Fame during a June ceremony. Earning top honors as an “All American” on the UC Davis varsity swim team, González-Mejia went on to positions of leadership, serving as chairman of the Nicaraguan Swimming Federation from 1991 to 2004, and as the head of the Nicaraguan swimming team to four Olympic Summer Games: Barcelona, Spain, 1992; Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000; and Athens, Greece, 2004. He currently serves as an honorary member of the selection committee of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Lilian Ferrer ’87 was appointed Mexico’s consul general in Sacramento. A career diplomat, Ferrer was last posted in Paris.
— Julie Davis Canter
PBS named Michael Jacobson ’87 vice president of human resources in June. Jacobson is responsible for leadership and management of all HR functions for the Arlington, Virginiabased organization. Houston Astros lead analyst Sigurd Mejdal ’89 acted as a development coach for the Class A affiliate Tri-City ValleyCats for the short season of June to September. Special counsel Barbara Wagner, Ph.D. ’89, has been selected to the Super Lawyers 2017 South Carolina Rising Stars list by Thomson Reuters for her work in personal injury at Barnwell, Whaley, Patterson & Helms LLC.
1990s
The Merck Veterinary Manual
named Scott Line, M.S. ’90, Ph.D. ’93, editor-in-chief. Also a doctor of veterinary medicine, Line previously served as a medical editor and veterinary behaviorist. Patrick Barr-Melej ’91, M.A. ’94, was recently promoted to professor of history at Ohio University. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. Brian Victor ’91 has been selected to the Super Lawyers 2017 California Rising Stars list by Thomson Reuters. Victor, who practices divorce and child custody law at the Law Offices of Brian A. Victor in San Diego, received the honor for the third year in a row. Richard Cartwright, Ph.D. ’92, was named director of the Cooperative Extension Service, part of the University of
GREGORY URQUIAGA/UC Davis
Katharina Ullmann, Ph.D. ’14, became the director of the UC Davis Student Farm in August. She most recently served as the national crop pollination specialist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, where she led efforts to help farmers ensure successful crop pollination.
Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. He had been serving as interim associate vice president since last year. He joined the division in 1992. Garret Murai ’93 has been named to the 2017 Northern California Super Lawyers list by Thomson Reuters. Murai is a construction litigation attorney with Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP, based in Oakland. The American Inns of Court selected Davis G. Yee ’93 to receive the 2017 Warren E. Burger Prize for Writing, given in October. Yee is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and is also a certified public accountant. Sarah Gray ’96 opened an emergency pet hospital in Ventura with Nancy Scott. Emergency
Veterinary Care offers urgent care for small animals. Ricky Shabazz ’99 was named president of San Diego City College. He previously served as vice president of student services as San Bernardino Valley College.
2000s
Angela Naef, Ph.D. ’00, vice president of global technology and innovation at DuPont Nutrition and Health in Copenhagen, was appointed chairperson of the American Chamber of Commerce in Denmark. She has lived in Denmark since 2014. Napa Valley’s Rutherford Wine Co. named Jay Turnipseed ’02 winemaker. He will oversee all winemaking and production of the company’s multibrand
portfolio. He was previously senior winemaker for Franciscan Estate in St. Helena and Mount Veeder Winery in Napa. Army veteran Jacob C. Smith ’03 has joined Reynolds Law LLP. He served four tours in Afghanistan with U.S. Army special operations and received two Bronze Star medals before earning his law degree from University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law in 2014. Annie V. Lam ’04, principal of the Lam Consulting Group, was named one of “40 Under 40” by the Sacramento Business Journal in October. Lam, an expert in public and nonprofit service, runs the organization that specializes in governmental affairs, organizational development and nonprofit management.
Timothy I. McCulloch, J.D. ’04, became a member in the Phoenix office of law firm Dickinson Wright PLLC. McCulloch focuses his practice in business and commercial litigation with an emphasis on the aviation industry. Tejal Pandya ’06 joined her father’s medical practice in Porterville upon graduation from the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program this spring. She will also continue to work part time at UCSF Fresno. Jennifer Tang ’06 has been named a 2017 Northern California Rising Star by Thomson Reuters. Tang is an intellectual property attorney with Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP, based in Oakland. Principal consultant of the California Senate Rules
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CHRISTINA HULTQUIST
Committee Ryan Harrison Sr. ’07 was named one of “40 Under 40” by the Sacramento Business Journal in October.
Alumni profile
Author on screen Lauren Kate, M.A. ’09, published two books the year she graduated from the creative writing program at UC Davis. The second, Fallen, topped the New York Times bestsellers, boasts more than 3 million copies in print and has been made into a major motion picture, released in September. The love story, part of a young adult series published by Penguin Random House, came to Kate in a religion class. Struck by a line in Genesis about fallen angels cast out of heaven for their adoration of mortal women, Kate said, “I wanted to write the story of the woman who would make that sacrifice worthwhile.” She worked closely with the screenwriter and visited the set in Hungary. “Overall, the movie distills the essence of the book in a way that makes me proud,” she said. The author of 11 books has two new works in progress — a war romance and a love story set in 18th-century Venice. But first, she went camping with husband Jason Morphew, M.A. ’08, and their children, Matilda, 4, and Venice, 3. “Parenting pushes me to do things I never would have done before, which is kind of what writing pushes you to do — go deeper than feels comfortable a lot of the time.” — Jocelyn Anderson
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Alvaro Reynoso ’07 was sworn in as a police officer in Woodland in June. He previously worked as a probation officer for Yolo County for 11 years. He is a graduate of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Academy. A. Tianna Scozzaro ’07 was elected to the Washington, D.C., Advisory Neighborhood Commission last fall. Scozzaro blogged about the experience of running for public office for Ms. Magazine in April. She is the director of the Sierra Club’s Gender, Equity and Environment Program, where she works to ensure climate and environment policies support women and LGBTQ communities. Kathleen A. Doty, J.D. ’08, is the new director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia Law School. Doty majored in Latin American studies at Smith College. Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, awarded tenure to Jimmy Franco, Ph.D. ’08. Franco is
associate professor in the chemistry and biochemisty department. Jeremy Ross ’08 joined the ADLI Law Group civil litigation practice in Los Angeles as an associate attorney. He specializes in commercial litigation, employment litigation, data privacy/cybersecurity issues and real estate litigation. Darren Minier ’09 was promoted to assistant director of animal care, conservation and research at the Oakland Zoo. In this position, he oversees the Animal Care Department and Welfare Research programs, as well as manages the construction of the 53-acre California Trail expansion. This is also Minier’s sixth and final year serving as chief information officer for the Animal Behavior Management Alliance, where he helped build career development and networking platforms. Tulin Gurer ’09, J.D. ’14, joined Downey Brand’s corporate law practice in Sacramento in April. She represents companies and nonprofits in mergers and acquisitions, securities matters and other corporate transactions. An accomplished violinist, she plays in symphonies and quartets in Northern California.
ONE WORLD. ENDLESS AGGIE ADVENTURES. Retired chair of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences Joe DiTomaso has been reconnecting with his heritage through immersion in Italian language, food, wine and culture for the last 20 years. Next September, he will share his expertise and personal experiences with other Aggies on a trip to Rome and Umbria, Italy. Through the Cal Aggie Alumni Association’s Aggie Adventures program, UC Davis alumni and friends experience communities around the world with the company of fellow Aggie travelers. Plan your next adventure with Aggies like Professor DiTomaso.
alumni.ucdavis.edu/travel
Alumni profile
COURTESY
Javier Avitia ’83, the son of Mexican immigrants who worked the fields of the Sacramento Valley, learned English from watching the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Today, he’s the executive vice president of Legal and Business Affairs at CBS Studios International, overseeing content licensing, format sales and foreign channel ventures for the network. He leads a team of 20 based in Los Angeles, New York, London and Amsterdam. American-born Avitia grew up in rural Gridley, California. “Getting out of poverty was my motivation,” Avitia said. “I didn’t want to be poor, but didn’t know what that meant other than go to college.” He applied to UC Davis as a result of the school’s outreach effort to Latinos. After graduating with a degree in international relations, he went on to Harvard Law School, and then took positions at international law firms Jones Day and White & Case and then at Univision. In 1997, he went to Paramount Pictures, ultimately moving to the division that became CBSSI. Avitia’s passion for international distribution deals has only increased with the rapid evolution of the media landscape. “I love this job,” he said, adding, “I still get a kick out of knowing that a Mexican kid from Gridley has become the head international lawyer for a major network.”
COURTESY
Deal maker
— Julie Davis Canter
2010s
Mark Ferrando ’11 performed as Electro and Spider-Man in the “Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes” tour this past summer, and told the Sacramento Bee that he will be in a feature film, The Greatest Showman, later this year. Siobhan Halloran, M.S. ’12, Ph.D. ’14, married Gregory Zulkie on Oct. 8, 2017. The couple resides in New York City, where Halloran is a life sciences consultant for Accenture, a management consulting company. Aldevron, a contract manufacturing firm for the biopharmaceutical industry, hired Justin Kerr ’12 as a quality control scientist in
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UC Davis Magazine
Fargo, North Dakota. He earned a master’s in biology from the University of St. Joseph in 2016 and previously worked in pharmaceutical research in San Diego. William Ramirez ’12 was selected in July as a fellow for the National Association for Latino Arts and Cultures 2017 Leadership Institute, a weeklong arts management and leadership development program for Latino artists, arts managers and cultural promoters. He received his master’s in Latin American and Caribbean studies from New York University in 2016. Information systems technician second class Rose Wilson ’12 was awarded the Navy and
Christina Johnson ’14 uses old UC Davis banners to create bags, wallets, dog coats and more as part of her business, Upcycle it Now. The design grad channels a passion for sustainability through the business, which she started with her mom in 2011.
Marine Corps Achievement Medal for professional achievement in superior performance as Blue Jacket of the Year for 2016 while stationed at United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, United States Forces Korea. A macro image of a hover fly, the work of Alexander Nguyen ’15, will appear in the Entomological Society of America’s 2018 “World of Insects” calendar. His photo is one of the 12 winning images chosen from 560 entries submitted by 133 photographers from multiple continents. Nguyen captured the image at the UC Davis Stebbens Cold Canyon Reserve in April 2017,
using his Canon 7D camera and an MPE 65-mm lens. Nguyen serves as an agriculture biologist/weights and measures inspector for the Department of Agriculture, based in Solano County. Will Cooper, Ph.D. ’16, became organist and choir director at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, Connecticut, in November 2016. He lives in Boston and commutes to the job, as he also works as a composer of opera and orchestral, chamber and choral music. Elizabeth M. Ridolfi ’16 and Shaun T. Cass ’16 were married on Dec. 18, 2016. They met as students at Placer High School. ■
in memoriam
Professor Emeritus Eric E. Conn, a noted plant biochemist who nurtured the UC Davis Arboretum’s acacias, died on Sept. 2, 2017. He was 94. An early leader of UC Davis biological science programs, Conn was recognized for his contributions to the understanding of plant metabolism. Sean Elliott ’09 was copiloting the KC-130T Hercules that crashed on July 10, 2017, in a farm field in western Mississippi, killing everyone aboard. He was 30. Elliott attended Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, between his junior and senior years at UC Davis, and after graduation was commissioned in a small ceremony in the center of the Quad. He rose to the rank of captain. His name will be added to UC Davis’ Golden Memory Book and Gold Star Aggies Wall. Jerald “Jerry” J. Fletcher, M.A. ’79, Ph.D. ’82, died of cancer
Sean Elliott ’09 on June 19, 2017, at the age of 68. He led a distinguished career as a professor at West Virginia University, where he was founder and director of the Natural Resource Analysis Center in the Davis College and director of the Department of Energy-funded U.S.–China Energy Center. Patricia Johnson Forgie ’70 died on May 4, 2017, at the age of 68. She taught college-level philosophy for many years and other accomplishments included completing three marathons, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and trekking in Nepal. James M. Frincke ’73, Ph.D. ’79, died on Aug. 11, 2016, at the age of 65. After graduating from UC Davis, he pursued a career in the biotech field. He was a pioneer in such fields as monoclonal antibodies, cellular and gene therapy, medical diagnostics, and the development of pharmaceuticals that addressed a variety of diseases, including HIV and cancer. Stanley Gordon Henry ’50 died on Dec. 10, 2016. He was 89. He enjoyed a ranching career in Oregon before retiring in the early 1980s and moving to Boise, Idaho. He leaves behind his wife, Lorraine Henry ’51, four children and nine grandchildren.
Rachel Krevans, J.D. ’84, died of cancer on July 19, 2017. She was 60. Krevans spent most of her three-decade career as a litigator at Morrison & Foerster, where she later served as head of the intellectual property practice. This year she won a unanimous jury verdict for UC Davis in a patent case involving strawberry breeders. Andrew Lackner, Ph.D. ’88, director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center since 2001, died at 57 in April 2017. Under his leadership, the center supported research in HIV/AIDS, malaria, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Zika, Ebola and more. Lesley McAllister, a distinguished scholar and educator, and an advocate for the rights of the terminally ill, died on Aug. 30, 2017, of lung cancer. She was 47. She joined the UC Davis School of Law in 2013, just three months prior to her cancer diagnosis. Patrick J. Mock ’79 died on Feb. 11, 2017, after a recent diagnosis of inoperable cancer. He was 59. He enjoyed a career in biological/environmental consulting. He is survived by his wife, Teresa Hilleary ’80, whom he met at UC Davis, and a son and daughter.
COURTESY
William Coates ’72, M.S. ’74, died at 66 in November 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was a pomology farm advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in San Benito County from 1976 to 2011. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and children Ryan (’09), Ashley (’14) and Darren (’14).
COURTESY
Robert E. Chason, retired CEO of the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and a former administrator in Student Affairs on the main campus, died on May 8, 2017, following a brief illness. He was 73. He held leadership roles at UC Davis for 27 years, retiring in 2006. He was credited with bringing together Sacramento region hospital systems.
Michelle Vo ’07
Melvin R. “Mel” Ramey, a civil engineering professor who also served as a UC Davis assistant track coach and the university’s faculty athletics representative, died on June 26, 2017. He was 78. He became the second African-American member of the UC Davis faculty in 1967 and enjoyed a decorated career in the College of Engineering. More recently, his colleagues and students established the Melvin R. Ramey Fund for Student Success and had the lobby of the Student Community Center named for him. Lawrence “Brick” Schneider ’35 died after a short illness on June 16, 2017, at the age of 105. For many years, he farmed on land north of Clarksburg. In 1967, he began working at UC Davis as a stockroom technician. After he retired, he enjoyed his flourishing vineyard, traveling with his wife, Ruth, and watching his family grow. Wilson K. Talley died at the age of 82 on June 16, 2017. He enjoyed a 28-year teaching career at UC Davis, helping start the Department of Applied Science when he arrived in 1963. In 1969, he was selected as a White House Fellow, and he quickly moved from his first appointment to another assignment helping to start the Environmental Protection Agency. Michelle Vo ’07 was among the victims of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival. A life insurance agent in Glendale, Vo, 32, inherited a fierce independence from her mother and could connect with anyone, said her sister, Diane Hawkins. She grew up in San Jose, and is survived by her mother, two sisters and a brother. ■
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alumni authors
Succession Story ALREADY KNOWN IN the literary world for his acclaimed Drone series, Mike Maden, M.A. ’85, Ph.D. ’90, is carrying on techno-thriller author Tom Clancy’s legacy with Point of Contact (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017) and Line of Sight, due in June 2018. Here, he discusses his new assignment with UC Davis Magazine Editor Jocelyn Anderson.
Jocelyn Anderson: You succeeded two co-authors who wrote under Clancy’s name after his death in 2013. What made you want to take on this assignment? Mike Maden: To have my name even associated with Tom Clancy’s is an honor and a privilege. It was offered to me, and of course it’s one of the greatest days of my literary life. But I hang up the phone and about 10 seconds later it becomes one of the most terrifying moments — now I have to do it. The great thing about this is that Tom Clancy has created some iconic characters and an amazing world, and so much of the structure is already in place for me to play with. I was allowed to let my imagination run wild within the context of established characters in an established story world. It was awesome. JA: What are the challenges of continuing a well-known series? MM: The guidance I was given was that the worst thing I could have done was try to step into Tom Clancy’s shoes. They’re just too big. You can’t imitate an original like Tom Clancy. So with great love and respect I was invited to write in my own voice and my own style, which I did. But always with an eye to remain faithful to the overall structure of the Tom Clancy universe.
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JA: At UC Davis, you focused your studies on political science. Did you always want to parlay your expertise into writing fiction? MM: Not at all. I always thought fiction writing was going to be harder than nonfiction because you have to make stuff up. In 2013, I published my first novel, Drone, and it turns out that my academic preparation was great preparation for a fiction-writing life. I still get to indulge my passion for history and conflict. But the difference is I’m also now able to root it in the realities of international politics. I’m also applying what I was taught at UC Davis about how to do research and pull things together and connect the dots. JA: As an expert in conflict and the role of technology, you write about robotics warfare and artificial intelligence. How do you bridge fiction with reality? MM: Quantum computers and artificial intelligence are completely transforming and disrupting not only military applications and security applications, but whole economies. Robots and automation are going to take away jobs. And there’s no question that the next big war is going to be AI generals and AI admirals fighting with drone fleets of tanks and planes and ships and submarines. To me, fiction is the perfect place to tell the truth. JA: What words of wisdom have influenced your writing style? MM: Alexander J. Groth, who is now professor emeritus in the political science department at UC Davis, was my dissertation chair. I’m so grateful for his mentoring. I remember on the first paper I wrote for him, he wrote, “Prolixity is no virtue.” Basically, quit running your mouth, write with concision and be precise in your language. He made me a much better writer with those four words. ■
Erin Dealey ’70, Cred. ’72, unveiled her latest children’s book, K is for Kindergarten (Sleeping Bear Press, 2017), a guide with enrichment activities for parents and kids toward the start of school. Susanna Janssen ’71 released Wordstruck! The Fun and Fascination of Language (Lexicon Alley Press, 2016), which has been named a winner in the humor/comedy category and a finalist in the education/ academic category by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for 2017. Robert Con Davis-Undiano, M.A. ’73, Ph.D. ’79, shows that those of combined descent are essential to U.S. national culture in Mestizos Come Home! Making and Claiming Mexican American Identity (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). Canine teacher Mark “Dogman” Castillero ’76 presents guidance for launching a career in dog training in More Than a Dog Whisperer: Making it Big in the Dog Training Industry (Black Card Books, 2017). Stephen D. Mikesell, M.A. ’76, contrasts two design processes and implementations in Tale of Two Bridges: The San Francisco — Oakland Bay Bridges of 1936 and 2013 (University of Nevada Press, 2017).
Essay collection After the Program Era: The Past, Present, and Future of Creative Writing in the University (University of Iowa Press, 2017), edited by Loren Glass, M.A. ’90, seeks to continue conversations started in a 2009 publication that provoked changes in the study of postwar literature. Elvira DiBrigit ’91, a farmer with Gettleshtetl Gardens and an educator with an interest in sustainable living, has compiled a collection of interviews with fellow farmers in Capay Valley: Why We Farm: Stories of Farmers from Capay Valley (Rumsey Press, 2017). Ruth Wiseman ’92 based her first children’s book, How The Moon Became Dim (Saturn’s Moon Press, 2017), on an ancient Hebrew text about the creation of the sun and moon. In this latest installment of the self-published Mingling in the CIA series, Annie Goes Overseas, Shelly Mateer ’97 gives her blundering protagonist her first assignment abroad.
Johann Steinke ’01 self-published the children’s book The Greatest Captain in the World (2017). A captain of tall ships, Steinke developed the story concept with Joel Ruud, and Andy Catling provided the illustrations. Paula Harrington, Ph.D. ’02, with Ronald Jenn, offers close readings of writings that have been largely ignored in Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity (University of Missouri Press, 2017). The co-authors help construct Twain’s identity as “the representative American.”
Sandhoff ’05 offers the accounts of 15 service members in Service in a Time of Suspicion: Experiences of Muslims Serving in the U.S. Military Post-9/11 (University of Iowa Press, 2017). Wendy L. Rouse, Ph.D. ’07, examines women’s empowerment in Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement (NYU Press, 2017). Rouse traces the movement’s roots to the Progressive Era at the turn of the 20th century, when women famously organized to demand greater freedoms.
The newest novel by Molly Winter, M.A. ’03 (as Molly Ringle), The Goblins of Bellwater (Central Avenue Publishing, 2017), is inspired by 19thcentury poet Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.” It details a magical realm in modern-day Bellwater, Washington. What does it mean to be Muslim, American and a uniformed member of the armed services in the 21st century? Michelle
Andrea Benjamin ’01 considers black and Latino political incorporation in Racial Coalition Building in Local Elections (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Former Aggie football player Scott Barry ’86 introduces his first book, The Greener the Grass (Happy Living, 2017). Barry recounts his journey to selfrealization as he transitioned from football player with the San Francisco 49ers to playwright, screenwriter and solo performer.
Fall/Winter 2017–18
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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS / UC Davis
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
looking forward, looking back
APPROACHING ITS 50th anniversary, Unitrans
in some respects looks much like it did on the day it began, Feb. 28, 1968: vintage double-decker buses from London, and enthusiastic drivers and conductors, carrying their fellow students to and from campus. And that’s how we like to think of Unitrans and its iconic red buses old and new — as our homegrown, small-town transit system, only bigger! Founded by the Associated Students of UC Davis as the University Transit System, Unitrans today has a fleet of 48 buses on 18 routes, carrying more than 4 million passengers a year, or about 22,000 a day. Despite the growth, said Jeff Flynn ’05, who took over as the general manager last summer, “Unitrans doesn’t have the feeling of an urban service. It’s a fun ride.” And he should know, after five years at San Francisco Muni, most recently as the chief transit officer. Flynn worked as a student driver and manager at Unitrans, and pays due respect to its history and “all the people who have made Unitrans what it is today.” Still, just like the managers before him, he’s got his
Former student driver takes Unitrans into the next 50 years
Jeff Flynn ’05 is now general manager of Unitrans; inset: one of the original doubledecker buses
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UC Davis Magazine
eye on the future — in particular, the fuel source for Unitrans buses. Most of the fleet today runs on compressed natural gas, and Unitrans is now working with campus administrative and academic units — Design and Construction Management, and the Institute of Transportation Studies — on an electrification plan in support of the university’s and city’s carbon neutrality goals. But don’t think for a minute we’re leaving the old double-deckers behind. Unitrans mechanics already converted one of the vintage buses to compressed natural gas, and Flynn said, “If we can do that, it’s not out of the realm to think about turning them electric.” Then there’s the question of self-driving vehicles, and what they might do to Unitrans as a place where students dream of working — one of the best jobs on campus, they say. Unitrans has more than 200 student employees, mostly drivers, but others who work on the business side like Flynn did. Flynn said he’ll let the engineers figure out autonomous vehicles, while doing whatever he can to ensure a place for students in the running of the bus system they started. “We wouldn’t be Unitrans if we didn’t have our student employees and customers. They make this such a great place to work, go to school and live.” — Dave Jones
They work hard. We open doors. Opportunity for all students.
Our society is strengthened by leaders of diverse perspectives and backgrounds. At UC Davis, we have people and innovative programs in place to help all students succeed — starting from grade school and extending beyond graduation. From those opportunities come great new leaders. We’re building the future together, one Aggie at a time. Learn more at 21stcentury.ucdavis.edu.
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Sure-Fire Training At any given time 15 students are a part of a UC Davis Fire Department program, responding to emergencies, living at the campus fire station and learning skills through hands-on experience. In two years, they get industry certifications, qualifying them to enter the workforce. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the only dedicated fire department in the UC system.
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
one of a kind