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CAPITOL MALL
Something about
Sacramento 11 alumni who are making their mark in the capital city
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They
dream big. You make it
happen.
After months or years of struggling to read, discouraged children can become avid readers.
Your support of the Annual Fund helps Chancellor’s Fellows like Emily Solari lead children to academic success and a lifelong love of reading.
chancellorsclub.ucdavis.edu
Photo taken at the Mary L. Stephens Davis Branch Library
Because reading is the foundation for every school subject, children who have difficulty with it fall behind their peers. At the School of Education’s Reading and Academic Development Center and in classrooms across the country, Associate Professor Emily Solari’s research helps children with learning and developmental differences improve their reading skills.
UC Davis Magazine Editor
Jocelyn Anderson ’98 Art Director
Russ Thébaud Writer
Cody Kitaura Photographers
Karin Higgins, Gregory Urquiaga
University of California, Davis
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Capital Ideas UC Davis alumni are helping transform Sacramento in a variety of areas — from politics and entrepreneurship to sports and the arts.
Interim Chancellor
Ralph J. Hexter
Interim Strategic Communications Lead and Executive Director of News and Media Relations
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. © 2016 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. To update your address: GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Online: alumni.ucdavis.edu/ get-connected/update-record Email: DEVARhelpdesk@ucdavis.edu Mail: UC Davis Magazine, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8687. All other email correspondence should be sent to magazine@ucdavis.edu. UC Davis Magazine is online at ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu. Phone: 530-752-9607 @UCDavisMagazine
22 A Matter of Rights
Equalizing Opportunity
One professor shares his efforts to help war refugees regain their access to higher education.
Programs support creating a more diverse faculty that more closely mirrors the state’s population.
Departments
recycled • recyclable
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On Campus............................... 2
College Town........................34
Alumni Authors.................... 46
Discoveries............................... 7
Young Achievers..................36
Here.........................................24
Sports......................................38
Looking Forward/ Looking Back....................... 48
The Aggie Life..................... 30
Office Hours..........................39
Aggie Families......................32
Class Notes.......................... 40
One of a Kind.................. Back
on campus
confirm Gary May as chancellor UC DAVIS HAS ITS seventh chancellor, Gary S. May, engineering dean at the Georgia Institute of Technology, confirmed by unanimous vote of the Board of Regents at a special meeting on Feb. 23. “When I was preparing for my interviews, reading the material that was prepared for me, describing Davis ... words like ‘sustainability’ and ‘diversity’ and ‘upward mobility’ and ‘social good’ [stood out], and these were all concepts and attributes that really spoke to my own spirit and really motivated me to want to be in this role,” May told the regents after the vote. May assumes his new position on Aug. 1. Ralph J. Hexter has been leading the campus on an interim basis since last April, and he will return to his former post, provost and executive vice chancellor, upon May’s arrival. In an email message to the campus community after the regents meeting, Hexter said he was “deeply honored” to continue on as interim chancellor, at UC President Janet Napolitano’s request. “I could not be more proud of how we have come together as a community after a challenging spring and summer,” Hexter wrote. “We have turned an important corner, and I am confident that Chancellor-designate May will have an extraordinary impact on this great institution.”
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The chancellor search began last summer and involved an advisory committee that included members representing faculty, students, staff, alumni, the campus foundation and regents. Making her recommendation to the regents, Napolitano said, “Gary May is a natural and dynamic leader who measures his own success by how well he helps others to succeed.” May did his undergraduate work at Georgia Tech, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1985, and continued his education at UC Berkeley, where he earned a master’s degree in 1988 and a Ph.D. in 1991, both in electrical engineering and computer science. The same year he earned his doctorate, he joined the faculty of Georgia Tech — and he has been there ever since, with a research focus on computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits. He has led the College of Engineering since July 2011. An avid “Star Trek” fan, May donned Capt. Kirk’s uniform for a photo shoot for the fall 2015 issue of Georgia Tech’s alumni magazine. “Kirk led by example, he empowered his crew, he was decisive when the time came, and he forged new ground,” May wrote in a blog post in September. “All leaders need to be a Kirk at times.” ■
KARIN HIGGINS / UC Davis
Regents
Professor helps redefine Sacramento public spaces JASON SPYRES / UC Davis
New designs for some of Sacramento’s well known but underused downtown public spaces are in the works, with a little help from a UC Davis professor and his students. Michael Rios, associate professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, has been instrumental in conceptualizing changes to Sacramento’s Capitol Mall and the Broadway Corridor.
With one week left in office, President Barack Obama on Jan. 12 designated historic sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina, as the first national monument to the Reconstruction Era. The presidential act culminated nearly four years of efforts by UC Davis historian Gregory Downs and colleagues. Downs helped edit the National Parks Service’s handbook on Reconstruction. He and two other Civil War historians urged the recognition of Beaufort in an op-ed in The New York Times in December. Reconstruction, running from the Civil War through the late 1800s, he said, is a crucial, but often forgotten, period in the history of U.S. democracy. (Downs spoke with UC Davis Magazine about his efforts in the spring 2016 issue.) “There are more than 70 [Civil War parks] where greater efforts to discuss slavery produce powerful responses among visitors,” he said. “Now, for the first time ever, we have a chance to do the same thing for Reconstruction.” — Kathleen Holder
Design scenarios for Broadway helped the city receive a $7 million grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to implement the first phase of the project. Next up, the city will move forward with Capitol Mall. The formal design process will help identify an official plan. Concepts focus on an adaptable, multiuse space that works for cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians. City council member Steve Hansen enlisted Rios on the project, adding, “The role of UC Davis in this is to bring a fresh look, new ideas and new energy to places that a lot of folks think could use improvement.”
COURTESY
Historian’s impact
“There’s an importance to enlarging the public sphere through a city’s public spaces,” said Rios. “Design can help stage positive interactions between people who are different from one another.”
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GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Workshop tackles how to teach the Holocaust
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
A SEMINAR DEVISED TO help high school teachers better approach the Holocaust is coming to an end. Started six years ago by a UC Davis faculty member, “The History and Memory of the Holocaust” workshop aims to help secondary English and history teachers better understand the Holocaust and then develop lesson plans on the subject. “The idea for the workshop came about when I offered to talk to my son’s 10th-grade world history class, and his teacher said she didn’t know how to teach the Holocaust. She felt that it’s too overwhelming,” said Diane Wolf, a professor of sociology and director of the Jewish Studies Program at UC Davis. Wolf partnered with the UC Davis History Audrey Momoh, a high school teacher in Project, which provides El Cerrito, reads a book at the Jewish Family professional development and Children’s Services Holocaust Center; above: Diane Wolf also at the center. for the region’s teachers, to develop an academic seminar that incorporates scholarly talks, films, reading and discussion. The group of about 20 also travels to the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco, where participants can explore the archive and speak with educators. They
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also hear from survivors. The program has been funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which contributes half the budget, and money raised by Wolf from private donors. The money from the Claims Conference is no longer available, which means the workshops will end. Laima Haider, a teacher at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, first attended the workshop in 2013 and has since returned to share her lesson plan with other participants. “I struggled with teaching the Holocaust for years,” she said. “How do I teach the future about something so important to remember? My old curriculum was overly simplified. With the help of [this program], I now have a detailed and telling study of the Holocaust for my students.” California has a mandate to teach the Holocaust in 10th-grade world history class, but how it is covered varies depending on the teacher, said Morgan Blum Schneider, director of education at the JFCS Holocaust Center. Connecting with teachers is vital. “With each teacher we estimate that 100 students are reached in a year,” said Blum Schneider. “And many teachers feel intimidated by the subject. They don’t want to teach it wrong. That’s where we come in. We want to try to provide the resources and help give confidence that they can do this in a really powerful way.” — Jocelyn Anderson
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Events June 16–18 Undergraduate commencements
MU reopens, more updates planned The UC Davis Memorial Union is back open after two years of construction — with a new look that harkens back to the building’s beginning. The $23.5 million project replaced divided rooms with open lounge space, and a two-story atrium has been added on the north side. “We’re going back and respecting the original architect,” said Greg Secor, senior project manager with Design and Construction Management. “This returns the intent to 1955.” A wall covered in reclaimed redwood is dedicated to Gold Star Aggies — those who died in military service to the United States — with a plaque bearing their names and a prominent display for the Golden Memory Book, which contains the names of all Aggies who have died in military service. Veterans services have also been moved into the Memorial Union.
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Next, the North Courtyard will be renovated starting later this year, and Freeborn Hall, closed since 2014, will receive seismic repairs and will be converted into an events and conference center.
Silo Union gets food service boost The Silo Union is in the midst of a makeover to its dining areas — inside and outside. A new driveway for four food trucks, along with a large canopy for diners, opened in April. The trucks will rotate in and out, depending on students’ likes and dislikes, as assessed via a website and social media. Food options will expand to the South Silo, with the Silo Market, serving sandwiches, salads and pizza, tentatively scheduled to open in June. Construction continues through the summer, as the main building gets an update and Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Carl’s Jr. move out and make way for a UC Davis-run burger spot, a new space for La Crepe and more seating. This work, and a facelift for the Gunrock Pub, will culminate in a September reopening.
Vet Med’s newest building offers greater efficiency The School of Veterinary Medicine swung open the doors to a new student services and administration center in March. The two-story, 34,000-square-foot building cost $27.9 million and is across the street from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and just north of the Arboretum Teaching Nursery. Designed to improve communications, collaborations and operating efficiencies, it brings together about 100 veterinary school leaders and staff members, previously housed in multiple locations. “We are proud that this new building, which completes the circle in our veterinary school campus, is fittingly dedicated to the support of our students,” Dean Michael Lairmore said. The center includes a new Scrubs Café, complete with a walk-up window for those with pets.
30 Spring exhibits end
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
July
16 Oregon Aggies at Alloro Vineyard
26 UCDC Summer Networking Event
Vapiano, 1800 M St., Washington, D.C.
August
5 UC Davis at the Sacramento Republic FC
September
2 UC Davis at the San Diego
29 Preservation Hall Jazz Band
State University Tailgate and Irma Thomas Mondavi Center
October
3 Recent acquisitions exhibition starts
7 UC Davis Brewfest
8 Barbara K. Jackson Rising Stars of Opera
11 Lambda Fall Welcome
11 Garrison Keillor
C.N. Gorman Museum Aggie Tailgate Field Mondavi Center
Buehler Alumni Center Mondavi Center
27 The 105th Pajamarino
28 Parent and Family Weekend
28 Homecoming: UC Davis vs. Cal Poly
29 Dorrance Dance
Aggie Stadium
Mondavi Center
November
1 Reduced Shakespeare Company
2 Mariinsky Orchestra
8 Aggie Diner
11 Charlie Bamforth in London
Mondavi Center Mondavi Center ARC Ballroom
Visit alumni.ucdavis.edu/rsvp for event details.
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JASON SPYRES / UC Davis
A rendering shows the weirs coming to the waterway; inset: duckweed and algae thrived on the water before a cleanup last year.
Arboretum waterway improvement begins by Dave Jones FIRST IT FLOWED EAST. Then it hardly
flowed at all. Soon it will flow gently to the west — making the campus waterway a more dynamic element of the UC Davis Arboretum. Construction underway now and through the summer will transform the east end of the arboretum waterway from a stagnant pond into a calm cascade over five weirs leading to Lake Spafford. This is phase one of the Arboretum Waterway Maintenance and Enhancement Project, which, among other things, is meant to keep the waterway from becoming stagnant and overridden by algae and weeds. Subsequent phases over the next four years call for similar improvements from Lake Spafford to Putah Creek Lodge. Then, from the lodge to the west end of the waterway, plans call for an emergent marsh, open water and riparian forest habitat, for the benefit
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of wildlife and visitors by way of a new boardwalk and viewing platforms. First, Valentine Corp. of San Rafael is dredging and regrading the channel in the east end — building a 15-inch drop in elevation that will at long last give the waterway the flow it deserves, to be achieved by recirculating water from below the last weir and back to the east end. The gabions (retaining walls made of rocks encased by chicken wire) along the waterway will be disassembled, and the banks recontoured into gentler slopes to the water. Alongside the waterway, the paths will be improved to bring them up to modern accessibility standards. The dredging is part of normal maintenance (and overdue, not having been done for 20 years). The flow is new — and desperately needed. Last summer the arboretum brought in a company to sweep out the green yuck.
The lack of flow owes to the fact the waterway is not a creek. It’s a remnant of a creek, the North Fork of Putah Creek, which flowed east and frequently flooded Davis — prompting the citizenry to divert the water to the South Fork of Putah Creek. The university eventually turned the old channel into the waterway that you see today — dammed at both ends. It collects storm runoff, and, at a certain level, the water drains over a weir at the west end and is pumped to the south fork. “This enhancement project gives us the best of both worlds,” said Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship, “a state-of-the-art water management system, and a more natural waterway that adds to the arboretum’s beauty.” ■
discoveries
Aging
gracefully Two research projects tackle getting older.
by Cody Kitaura INFORMATION ABOUNDS ON THE KINDS OF exercise that can keep your body strong, but what will keep your mind healthy? That’s a question researchers hope to answer with the Healthy Brain Aging Initiative, a long-term research project under development among numerous UC Davis departments. Charles DeCarli, a professor of neurology, and Kim McAllister, the interim director of the Center for Neuroscience, are leading the initiative, which will seek to better understand brain development and aging, then develop therapies to promote brain health. DeCarli said research already has shown that a robust, healthy brain will be able to better resist the degenerative effects of diseases like Alzheimer’s. But despite extensive research into those diseases, little is known about how brain health changes over the span of a person’s life or what a healthy brain looks like. “I believe we have to have a paradigm shift that leads scientists and society to view brain health across our lifespan as critically important,” DeCarli said, noting that the absence of disease might not be the best measure of a brain’s health. UC Davis is uniquely poised to tackle this topic, with experts in the Center for Neuroscience, the
Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the California National Primate Research Center and other departments in schools across the university, the initiative leaders say. Another long-term research project, Healthy Aging in a Digital World, investigates using technology to provide efficient care across a person’s lifespan. The initiative is led by Heather M. Young, associate vice chancellor for nursing and dean of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, and Thomas Nesbitt, interim vice chancellor of Human Health Sciences at UC Davis Health. They aim to create new technology and adapt existing devices. As people age, the vast majority want to continue to reside in their homes, and technology could be used to help them achieve that goal. For example, some home security systems alert the homeowner every time the garage door opens. A similar system could alert a relative if an aging parent hasn’t opened the refrigerator by breakfast time, indicating a possible problem. “We know that technology by itself does not solve problems,” Young said. “It is imperative that we work with individuals, families and communities to identify what technology provides the best value and most meaningful solution in the context of daily life.” ■
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“Think of it as going from something like a
Picasso painting that blurs before your
eyes and reorganizes into some kind of
Dali landscape.”
— Eric Post, a polar ecologist in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, on the rapidly changing Arctic landscape. His work has shown that such changes carry implications for the ecological structure of the region for years to come.
JOE PROUDMAN / UC Davis
Why pandas are black and white
Arabica coffee genome sequenced UC Davis researchers released the first public genome sequence for Coffea arabica, the species responsible for more than 70 percent of global coffee production. Sequencing of the C. arabica genome is particularly meaningful for California, where coffee plants are being grown commercially for the first time in the continental United States and a specialty-coffee industry is emerging. “This new genome sequence for Coffea arabica contains information crucial for developing high-quality, diseaseresistant coffee varieties that can adapt to the climate changes that are expected to threaten global coffee production in the next 30 years,” said Juan Medrano, a geneticist in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
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The scientists who uncovered why zebras have black and white stripes (to repel biting flies) took the coloration question to giant pandas. The study, a collaboration between UC Davis and California State University, Long Beach, determined that the giant panda’s distinct markings have two functions: camouflage and communication. “Understanding why the giant panda has such striking coloration has been a long-standing problem in biology that has been difficult to tackle because virtually no other mammal has this appearance, making analogies difficult,” said Tim Caro, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “The breakthrough in the study was treating each part of the body as an independent area.” The study found that most of the panda — its face, neck, belly, rump — is white to help it hide in snowy habitats. The arms and legs are black, helping it to hide in shade. This is needed because pandas eat a year-round diet of bamboo. The markings on the panda’s head, however, are not used to hide from predators, but rather to communicate. Dark ears may help convey a sense of ferocity, a warning to predators. Their dark eye patches may help them recognize each other or signal aggression toward panda competitors.
Tech drives rapid transportation changes Foster parents want to keep families together A UC Davis Center for Poverty Research survey found one of the strongest motivations for potential foster parents is the chance to help keep families together. The survey targeted Californians over the age of 25. When asked to consider the potential benefits of fostering, survey respondents were up to 10 times more likely to select responses that focus on benefits to foster youth and their biological parents than for any financial, social or emotional benefits for themselves. “I didn’t expect so many respondents to identify helping foster youths’ birth parents as a key benefit of fostering. It was encouraging to see California adults express an interest in supporting these parents rather than rushing to blame them for failing their kids,” said Jacob Hibel, an associate professor of sociology at UC Davis, who conducted the survey.
The future car is driverless, shared and electric. That’s according to a survey by the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis that polled 40 policymakers, researchers and representatives from government, nonprofit organizations and technology and auto industries. “For the first time in half a century, real, transformative innovations are coming to the world of passenger transportation,” said Dan Sperling, director of ITS-Davis. The 3 Revolutions Initiative addresses the big policy questions related to new technologies and the partnerships needed to bring the greatest social and market benefits. “This survey shows us that without thoughtful collaboration and community-facing policies, these changes would lead to increased inequities, vehicle travel and greenhouse gas emissions,” Sperling said. “We need to be creative in order to steer these innovations to the public interest.”
Energy-efficient cannabis growing If Colorado’s experience is any indication, energy use is expected to spike with the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in California, much as it did when data centers sprang up throughout the state. In anticipation of this new demand, a team of researchers from the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at UC Davis lab-tested equipment designed to reduce the energy demand of this rising industry. The researchers developed a model of a typical grow house and tested a new dehumidifier built by the New
York-based company MSP Technology. The scientists found the system could save 30 to 65 percent of the energy a grow house uses for dehumidification and cooling. It also reuses 100 percent of the water it removes from the air to water plants. “The technology we tested is one potential solution but not the only solution,” said Theresa Pistochini, senior engineer at the Western Cooling Efficiency Center. “We need to acknowledge this as a legitimate engineering problem that needs to be solved.”
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CAPITAL UC Davis alumni are leading Sacramento’s comeback from recession, helping give the city a new vibrance. By Jocelyn Anderson ’98, Kristin Burns ’96 and Cody Kitaura Photos by Karin Higgins and Gregory Urquiaga THEY MAY HAVE started out in Davis, but some successful alumni have gone across the Causeway to make their mark in Sacramento. As the region continues to stage its remarkable comeback from recession, a few UC Davis grads are helping propel the capital city forward. One of them won the mayorship last year. Another spearheads community impact for the Kings Foundation, which now calls a new arena home, bringing with it the promise of a renewed vitality downtown. Still others are growing small businesses, helping nonprofits and contributing to developing the local economy. Meet a sampling of the noteworthy alumni making waves in their fields.
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IDEAS
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Darrell Steinberg IN HIS FIRST 100 days as mayor of Sacramento, Darrell
Steinberg, J.D. ’84, didn’t have much time to rest. Since taking office in December, he promoted his initiatives, which include strengthening the economy, investing in youth and addressing homelessness. He revived the city’s package of ethics measures as part of an effort to increase transparency. He marched to the capitol alongside women and protested the travel ban at the airport in January. He traveled to Washington, D.C., twice to advocate for issues that are important to the community, including its status as a sanctuary city. It’s all part of one overriding theme that Steinberg likes to pose in the form of a question: When students graduate from UC Davis, will they choose Sacramento as the place they want to live and start their careers? “That really is the question because young people who graduate from top universities have a lot of choices,” said Steinberg. “We want to create a quality of life — a range of career and job choices, amenities, public safety and good schools — that allows that graduate to say, ‘I want to move to Sacramento.’” The city is off to a good start, eyeing economic
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growth targets and a more cosmopolitan existence, he said in an interview just three months after taking over as mayor. “Sacramento is a city that’s on the move and sort of changing some of its identity,” Steinberg said. “It has not disappointed me in the first 100 days.” Background: Steinberg has more than 20 years of experience serving the Sacramento community. He was elected to the city council in 1992. He later won a state Assembly seat and then served on the state Senate through his term’s end in 2014. Last year, he ran for mayor, winning with 59 percent of the vote. “I decided I wasn’t done; I still had more to give. That was the bottom line, very simple.” Vision for Sacramento: “We can no longer just be a government town. It’s not our future. We are proud to be a capital city, but we want to be so much more.” Steinberg pointed to opportunities in technology, innovation, arts, food and agriculture that could help shape Sacramento’s identity moving forward. “The modern economy is focused as much or more on private industry,” he said. A partner in UC Davis: “We want to bring more of UC Davis across the Causeway. When you think about farm to fork — the growing restaurant industry here — we could be the
center of everything food-related, and UC Davis could be the hub of our research arm and where we produce the talent.” Focus on youth: Steinberg is working with local businesses to create 1,000 paid internships for incoming high school seniors this summer. Fighting homelessness: “It’s a major quality of life issue. It’s an absolute shame on all of us that it has grown in the way that it has. And I think we can do better.” Steinberg’s approach involves outreach, case management, mental health and substance abuse services, and permanent housing. His goal is to get 2,000 people off the street in the next three years. Coming up next: Steinberg is focused on the areas of Sacramento that are brimming with potential, namely the riverfront and the railyards just north of downtown. The Railyards Project, a development plan for 244 acres of mixed-used space including a new stadium for Major League Soccer, has already been approved by the city council. “We want to make sure that as it develops, we have some signature public amenities. I love the idea of a public market like what they have up in Seattle.”
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Andrea Lepore WHEN THE PIZZERIA Hot Italian opened in 2009,
co-founder Andrea Lepore ’92 knew she was taking a risk with her midtown location. Until then, midtown’s restaurant activity was centered farther north. “When we opened at 16th and Q, we really were on the outskirts of midtown,” she said. “No one really wanted to claim us.” The risk paid off, and now Hot Italian is positioned among more restaurants, new luxury apartment developments and a just-opened coffeehouse. Background: Lepore turned a college internship with the Sacramento Kings into a successful career in media relations with the team. She briefly ran her own cause-related sports marketing agency before starting Lepore Development, a branding and development firm focused on urban revitalization projects.
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On attracting people in the early days: Hot Italian hosted special events, including a music series and an Italian film festival. “We had to be creative to come up with ways to draw people in — because we were an island over there.” Recent accomplishments: A Davis location opened in 2016. “UC Davis is the No. 1 ag school and we use all local ingredients, aside from some meats and cheeses from Italy, so it made sense to be in the heart of ag country.” Sustainably focused: All three Hot Italians (another is in Emeryville) are green-certified. The 6,000-square-foot Sacramento location is LEED certified. (Lepore earned a master’s degree in sustainable design from Boston Architectural College in 2016.) Coming up next: Lepore Development is working on opening Solomon’s Delicatessen on K Street, as well as The Food Factory, an incubator for small food producers in the Alkali Flats neighborhood.
Urijah Faber URIJAH FABER’S INTEREST in healthy living started well before his time as a professional athlete. When he got sick as a child, the treatment involved raw foods like ginger and wheatgrass juice. He’s never had more than a taste of Coca-Cola. Sacramento, and its farm-to-fork culture, provides the perfect backdrop for Faber ’03 — who in December retired from a career in the Ultimate Fighting Championship — to juggle a plethora of health-oriented businesses including a mixed martial arts gym.
Background: Faber’s career as a professional fighter started with an event at Colusa Casino that earned him $400, and ended with a sold-out win at Golden 1 Center. In 2004, he formed Team Alpha Male, which has produced professional fighters like UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. Faber has been featured prominently on “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality show on Fox Sports 1, and he and Garbrandt are coaches for the show’s 25th season, which will culminate in a July fight. Also in July, Faber will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Fitness in a fit town: Health and fitness are always on Faber’s mind. He’s co-owner of a café that serves acai bowls and smoothies, partners with a kombucha company (he has a tap in his kitchen) and hopes to inspire people — not just aspiring fighters — to get fit at his newly expanded gym, Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness, near California State University, Sacramento. “It all rolls into one arena, which is my lifestyle.” Building business sense: Faber’s father called his construction company Faber and Sons even when the two Faber boys were just kids, priming them for an entrepreneurial future. Faber continues to partner with his father and brother on construction projects like his gym renovation and home remodels. “I’m kinda wired like this,” he said. “The more I accomplish, the more I want to accomplish.”
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WITH THE APPROVAL OF a soccer stadium at
the Sacramento Railyards and a Major League Soccer bid for Sacramento Republic FC currently under consideration, this “indomitable city” is cementing its identity as a soccer town. That suits Warren Smith, president and co-founder of Sacramento Republic FC, just fine. With 130,000 registered soccer players in the city — more than baseball, basketball and football combined — Smith saw an enormous opportunity five years ago for “the beautiful game” to play a lead role in Sacramento’s evolution. He said giving Republic FC fans a sense of ownership — they chose the brand, crest and motto — allowed the team, currently in its third season, to develop strong relationships and community quickly. “Our fans have an unbelievable passion for the sport and the brand,” said Smith. On knowing people: Smith said the skills he learned in his psychology classes at Davis have helped him in his career, which includes serving as CEO of renewable energy business CleanWorld and co-founding the Sacramento River Cats. “Understanding human behavior is very much at the foundation of everything I do,” said Smith. A role model: Smith is a mentor for young fans interested in sports careers. He’s employed Aggie student-athletes on street teams, and to assist with sponsorships and game days. He speaks with kids on and off the field. “I try to impress on them that it’s a great first job opportunity, but we work long, hard hours,” said Smith. “It’s not a place to build wealth.” Diverse yet united: Players hail from all over the world, including Africa, Ireland, England and Mexico. The diversity of the team is mirrored in the region. “Our fans come to the field and share a common bond, a love of our team and for Sacramento,” said Smith. “That’s pretty exciting.” Do what you love: In considering his approach to life, Smith recalled the words of friend and fellow Aggie Ted Prenovost ’90, who passed away Feb. 10. “He would ask, ‘How do you spell love?’” said Smith. “And the answer was t-i-m-e. Spend time with the people you love, doing what you love. I thought that was perfect.”
Warren Smith
Cathy Rodriguez CATHY RODRIGUEZ ’99 SHAPED HER
career by building relationships and helping others. Now president and CEO of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Rodriguez recalled her first boss after college, who gave her the confidence to grow professionally. He encouraged her to apply for a new position, and her colleagues even reviewed her resume, conducted mock interviews and wrote reference letters. “Only later I learned that wasn’t the norm,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve done everything in my career — connecting and looking out for people — based on what they did for me.” Background: Rodriguez worked for the UC Davis School of Medicine, followed by a decade with The Sacramento Bee as community relations representative and public affairs manager. As leader of the SHCC, she serves as the voice and advocate of its 600 business members in the Sacramento region. Finding answers: Many of the SHCC’s members are small businesses seeking resources. Depending on the day, Rodriguez could be learning how a member can become credit-worthy to expand, offering marketing tips, hosting a networking event or figuring out how to best approach a city council with an issue. On success: In uncertain times, Rodriguez said Sacramento must hear how her constituents contribute to the vitality of the region. “Many of our members have been here for decades, remaining in the neighborhoods where they first started and supplying jobs and resources to the people who live there. To me, being successful in business and contributing back go hand in hand.” Proud moment: Last year Rodriguez helped the SHCC establish an endowment for scholarships. “Now we’ll always be able to support students.”
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Bret Bair BRET BAIR ’95 TOOK AN unlikely path
to his current career: From UC Davis, he headed to law school before dropping out to manage a rock band. His experiences ultimately brought him back to Sacramento, where he opened the music club Ace of Spades. Along the way, he’s also bought midtown bars B-Side and Goldfield Trading Post, and invested in others, helping to grow the area — and its music influence. “I’m honored to bring this to Sacramento,” Bair said. “It gives me a sense of accomplishment to put my little stamp on the city of Sacramento. When people would ask me why I was moving back to Sacramento, I would tell them it’s the land of opportunity.” With the band: Bair managed several major-label acts, including popular ’00s groups Papa Roach and Hoobastank, before returning to Sacramento (from Los Angeles). Acing Ace of Spades: Bair and a business partner secured the space for Ace of Spades in 2010, with a mission to bring live acts to the 1,000-person club. “We did wonder if Sacramento was big enough to support this music venue,” Bair said. “After a couple of years, we started getting more acts.” Over the years, the duo has booked Snoop Dogg, Imagine Dragons, Rob Zombie and many others. Opportunity knocks: Last year, Bair fielded competing offers for the Ace of Spades business, eventually selling to Live Nation for an undisclosed price. He and his partner stayed on and continue to book the acts. “We realized that Sacramento is growing as a market and it was only a matter of time before a competitor entered the market,” Bair said. Coming up next: Bair’s latest project is Holy Diver, an all-ages rock club set to open later this year in suburban Sacramento. He is also on the lookout for a second — and larger — location for a new Live Nation club. “We’re trying to make that happen as soon as possible.”
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Chris and Sarah Ferren-Cirino CHRIS AND SARAH FERREN-CIRINO, ’07 and ’09, have
always associated beer with exercise: Now husband and wife, they met on the UC Davis track team and would often drink beer with friends after a meet or an off-season triathlon. It only makes sense, then, that they would draw on that combination for their 15-seat Sac Brew Bike, which functions like a pedal-powered pub crawl around midtown. Background: When they lived in Portland, the pair would look forward to Fridays, when a brew bicycle would ride by their apartment. “We were seeing people having fun,” Sarah said. The pair started a similar venture in Sacramento in 2014, both leaving stable jobs, and eventually the business grew large enough to employ 18 people during the busy summer months.
Showing off local variety: Despite a 2016 law allowing alcohol on bikes like theirs, most of the drinking is done when the bicycle stops at local bars, which are chosen to match the interests of the group. “We have so many different types of bars,” Chris said. “Sacramento has it all.” Part of the culture: The raucous bicycles have been embraced by the community — they were even invited to participate in the Sacramento Republic FC’s 2014 victory parade. And one day, the pair heard an unexpected spot on a local radio station promoting the business. “It made us feel like we’re part of the pop culture of Sacramento,” Chris said. Coming up next: The Ferren-Cirinos have been helping satellite brew bike locations — which they own with other investors — get off the ground in San Jose and Reno. Business in Sacramento is picking up, too — they recently added a fifth bike.
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Scott Moak AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE
Sacramento Kings Foundation and vice president of community impact, Scott Moak ’95 spearheads programs and initiatives that champion health, education and sustainability in the region. He said his path was charted from experiences at Davis, when he worked jobs at summer camps and in local schools. As an intern with the Cal-Learn program at Sutter Health, he would make home visits to support teens who were pregnant or parenting. “I remember driving back over the Causeway from my internship and realizing this is what I want to be and do — helping people. It was never a challenge to do that kind of work every day.”
Chris Johnson
DESPITE HIS short-cropped hair, Chris Johnson ’02
takes a long time to get a haircut — because he’s busy giving his barber business advice. The entrepreneur, who built a bowl to cook ramen noodles in the microwave into a multimillion-dollar venture, alternates between expanding his business and helping others grow theirs. Background: Johnson got a taste of entrepreneurship at 16, charging admission to a party in his parents’ garage and later renting space and organizing dances. In 2012, he created his Rapid Ramen Cooker. He is also the founder and CEO of The Johnson Group, a corporate recruiting company. Thinking big: Johnson wants to instill an entrepreneurial drive in others, and jumps at the opportunity to speak at schools, especially those in an inner city. “They’ve never seen a guy like me, that looks like me, who has
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UC Davis Magazine
products in every Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreens in the country,” he said. Expanding across the nation: He struck a deal on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2013 and most recently added microwave cookware to bake brownies and cakes — bringing the Rapid Brands product line to 15 items. He’s continuing to forge partnerships with brands like Minute Rice (for a rice cooker) and Betty Crocker (for the cake cooker). “My goal is to have at least one product in every single U.S. household.” Building a legacy: His ultimate goal is to create a campaign called “Zero to a Billion,” which would help at least 1,000 people grow million-dollar businesses. “That’s the legacy I want to have.” Sharp advice: His barber is well on his way. Johnson said Sacramento-based Chuka Torres is on track to sell more than $1 million this year from a line of custom haircutting tools.
Background: Moak has spent his career committed to nonprofit organizations serving families and children in Sacramento, his hometown. Before joining the Kings, he served as director of nonprofit services at 3fold Communications, a Sacramento regional marketing firm. Giving back: The Kings Foundation’s motto is “do good.” “We specialize in moments that help families take their minds off hard circumstances. It might be a VIP experience where we host them for a game, they meet a player and get some swag. Or a school rally, like the one we planned for families affected by the Oroville Dam crisis.” Player power: The Kings Foundation works with more than 1,500 nonprofits and schools annually. “We hope to help students make good decisions. If kids look up to center Willie Cauley-Stein, and he visits their school and says that reading is important, it’s important to them.” His “night job”: That roaring voice you hear amping up fans at Kings games? It’s Moak. He’s been the team’s public address announcer since 2002. Hometown love: “I love watching Sacramento grow in a way a lot of us felt that it could, and I’m honored to be a small part of that renaissance.”
Liv Moe LIV MOE ’05 PLANNED TO become a professor when
she majored in studio art at UC Davis. Instead, she’s helping define contemporary art for Sacramento. Moe curates each exhibition as founding director of Verge Center for the Arts, a contemporary gallery and studio space in downtown Sacramento. “I get to shape the narrative about art in the region,” said Moe. “In terms of what people are going to get exposed to that wouldn’t have been seen here otherwise — I get to drive that.” Background: After UC Davis, Moe earned a master’s degree in fine and studio arts from California State University, Sacramento. She started out as a gallery sitter at Verge, eventually developing a year’s worth of programming and securing the top job. On art in Sacramento: “The thing I was really compelled to do when this all started was to bring things to this region that wouldn’t make it here otherwise.” Recent exhibits: Rutherford Chang’s We Buy White Albums (pictured), a celebration of the popular Beatles 1968 LP, made its way from New York to Liverpool to Sacramento. Coming up next: This summer, Verge will feature international artists who have recently had major exhibitions elsewhere. In September and October, the center presents a decades-long survey of the Guerilla Girls’ work.
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A MATTER
OF
RIGHTS
The burdens of war fall heaviest on young people and their human rights. By Keith David Watenpaugh
LAST YEAR, AT THE abandoned Idomeni train station in Greece, I spoke with
Kurdish sisters from Syria. They were living in a makeshift refugee camp on the nearby border with Macedonia. Just a week before, a small boat had carried them across the Aegean from Turkey. Back home, the women, both in their 20s, had studied health sciences at the University of Aleppo. The older sister did the talking. She explained that they worked 16-hour days in an Istanbul sweatshop to make money for their passage. Like thousands of others at that camp, their onward march along the railroad tracks was halted by the abrupt closure of the checkpoint. Soldiers, concertina wire and politicians riding a rising tide of xenophobia blocked their way. I later learned that they had slipped across the border with the help of a human smuggler. Facebook tells me they are in Vienna. I was at the station as part of a research program I lead, in collaboration with the Institute of International Education, which runs the Fulbright program and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation and the Open Society Foundations, to develop policy and tools that empower refugees to access higher education. In the course of that research, I have spoken with hundreds of young refugees about experiences of exile and hopes for themselves, their families and communities. Early in the Syrian war — whether at a camp in Jordan, a café in Beirut or a refugee ghetto in Turkey — they told me they wanted to go home. But as the war has continued into its seventh year, the
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young people have stopped talking about going home. I’ll never forget the one thing the younger sister did say: “I will not go back to Syria. I would rather have drowned in the sea.” I believed her. The burdens of war fall heaviest on young people and their human rights. human rights studies colleagues and I have set for M yourselves no less of a job than bringing the full force of UC Davis to bear on the world’s most pressing human rights problems, and especially on those that affect young people. We plan to make the “human rights idea,” the principle that all people have dignity and rights because they are human beings, an elemental pillar in the university’s global footprint, by cultivating research and innovation in human rights thought and action across the colleges. At the same time, through a lifetime-learning initiative we call the California Olive Tree Project, we are educating a new generation of those who will embody the “human rights idea” as they embark on careers in public service, humanitarian action, business, law and education. The UC Davis interdepartmental Human Rights Studies
from Greece with a better understanding of the I returned kinds of human rights violations driving young people
Program is the engine driving these initiatives. Established in fall 2015, the program coordinates and supports human rights research and outreach, and administers the human rights minor and a growing body of undergraduate and graduate courses including “Genocide,” “Human Rights in Latin America,” “Human Rights, Art and Architecture” and “Human Rights, Gender and Sexuality.” This year more than 500 students enrolled in human rights studies courses, and last year 33 graduated as human rights minors. Kristina Hanna ’15 took my “Human Rights in the Middle East” class in fall 2014. The daughter of refugees from Iraq, she wanted to learn, in part, the reasons why her family sought asylum in America. At the end of quarter, Kristina asked me to connect her to a nongovernmental organization that runs an afterschool program in a Beirut slum, where the following summer, she taught math and English to Syrian refugee children. Graduating with a human rights minor, she administers refugee resettlement and anti-human trafficking programs at the International Rescue Committee Sacramento office. She told me recently how human rights studies had helped her understand the history of violence and crimes against refugees from places like Bosnia, Congo, Iraq and Syria, countries the IRC assists. Human rights studies has prepared her, Kristina explained, for her own “efforts to make the world a slightly better place.”
like the sisters to make the dangerous crossing into Europe. Clearly, the violence of their homeland and horrible exploitation they faced in Turkey played the primary role in sending them on that path. They also had left in hopes of completing their undergraduate degrees. Attempts to enroll at a university in Turkey had been thwarted due to a lack of proper documentation and the cost of tuition. In Europe the women hoped to take advantage of scholarships, but they had little understanding of specific opportunities. Refugee students across the Middle East have shared similar stories with me: missing documents, long waits to hear about scholarship opportunities, and contradictory and confusing information about how to apply for admission. Still, getting these young people back into higher education is a global imperative. Education for all is a key principle of the “human rights idea,” and they are the people who will rebuild their society after the war ends or, what is the more likely case, help refugee communities integrate peacefully and successfully in those places where they have found refuge. To meet the need, we have developed a human rights tool called the Article 26 Backpack. Named for the article in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights that affirms education as a basic human right, it blends cloud-based technology with face-to-face counseling to help refugees store and safely share documents with universities and employers. It even provides them with a chance to have credentials translated and course equivalencies and core competencies determined. This fall, we will test the Article 26 Backpack with refugee students in Beirut and at Jordan’s Azraq camp. With it, I am confident refugee young people will have a better chance of resuming their education. Keith David Watenpaugh is a historian of the modern Middle East and professor and director of human rights studies at UC Davis. He is the author of Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Humanitarianism (University of California Press, 2015).
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Animal science education starts
HERE
UC Davis veterinarians, technicians and students provide vital zoo health care.
How do you provide health checkups to a flamboyance of flamingos? Stealth and silence to avoid alerting the skittish and fragile flock animals. The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine recently helped the Sacramento Zoo in its annual flamingo roundup, providing physical exams, blood draws, West Nile vaccinations and body measurements to almost 40 birds. Ray Wack, senior veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center and head veterinarian for the zoo, led the examinations while providing training to students. Their work helps ensure the wellness of the flamingos, among the most famous residents of the zoo. For 360° video of our vets in action, see go.ucdavis.edu/weekly360. GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
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Spring/Summer 2017
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EQUALIZING OPPORTUNIT Y By Cody Kitaura Photos by Gregory Urquiaga
Programs support creating a diverse faculty that more closely mirrors the state population.
S
ome of Rebecca Calisi’s first lessons in animal science came from her experiences growing up on a cattle ranch along the Texas-Mexico border. There she learned about the mix of cattle known for their dairy production and ability to thrive in sweltering heat — a great dual-purpose animal. Calisi, an assistant professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, previously had been afraid to talk about her upbringing in her lectures about animal behavior. “I was worried because I didn’t know how they would be received. But it’s important to be myself — to show students a mirror,” said Calisi, who started getting better student evaluations when she conquered those fears. Calisi is among dozens of professors hired at UC Davis in the last four Mariel Vazquez years as part of an effort to Professor of mathematics, and diversify the university’s faculty. The plan is aimed at microbiology and molecular genetics creating a faculty that better serves the state, inspires underrepresented populations to pursue science, technology, engineering and math fields (or STEM), and brings a variety of views to tackle research problems. “We thought we should be serving the majority-minority community in California,” said Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, the founding director of CAMPOS — the Center for the Advancement
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Maureen Kinyua Assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering
of Multicultural Perspectives on Science — and a professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. “All of these groups have had very limited participation in the STEM community.” The process is slow going, but the university is making progress. More than half of the faculty members hired since 2012 have been women, and the number of female faculty members has increased from 32 percent that year to 37 percent in 2017. UC Davis’ efforts have been funded, in part, by a $3.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation that led to the creation of UC Davis ADVANCE and CAMPOS. CAMPOS seeks to recruit faculty members who focus on building diversity in STEM, especially those who encourage and mentor Latina scholars. This is the grant’s final year. Going forward, the ADVANCE programs will be housed under and funded by the Office of the Provost. That buy-in from the university’s leadership is an essential part of success, de Leon Siantz said. “That’s what it takes at a major research-intensive university,” she said. “You need to have not only money, but support with a vision from the leadership at the very top.” UC Davis is hardly alone in seeking diversity. In recent years, calls for faculty diversification have swept across the
nation. The American Council on Education found that more than 80 percent of student protest groups that listed demands on an activism website in 2015 — the year of the Concerned Student 1950 protests at the University of Missouri — wanted greater faculty diversity. And universities around the country are making progress: The number of female faculty members at all postsecondary institutions rose from 39 percent in 1993 to 49 percent in 2013, according to the Institute of Education Sciences, the statistics and research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Still, the demographics of California’s top universities don’t match those of the state. Despite gains in diversity compared to a decade prior, the faculty of the University of California and California State University systems was predominately white and male as of 2015, according to data reported at a state assembly hearing last year. “That mismatch will scare people away,” said Mariel Vazquez, professor of mathematics, microbiology and molecular genetics, and a member of the first class of CAMPOS scholars. “It sends the message that diverse populations can’t succeed in science.” She said she’s thankful to be around fellow CAMPOS scholars, “women who are doing top science in their fields
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and at the same time sharing similar challenges.” New faculty scholars are hired each year under the CAMPOS program, and the six newest — including Calisi’s husband, a microbiology and molecular genetics professor — were welcomed in November. Chancellor Emerita Linda Katehi, the principal investigator of UC Davis ADVANCE, told a crowd at the welcoming event that she and the program’s other founders envisioned a network of women who could “bring with them their multicultural perspectives in science and be able to connect with each other and support each other.” To further this goal, as new faculty members are hired
through CAMPOS, they form a group that meets on a regular basis to share their perspectives and offer support. “I don’t have to censor myself anymore,” Calisi said, recalling past colleagues who warned her not to be a squeaky wheel. “I have a supportive group of women scientists who won’t ‘tone police’ me — they’ll amplify me.” They’re also acting as role models and inspiration for students. Assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering Maureen Kinyua, one of the newest CAMPOS faculty scholars, knows firsthand the impact of role models. She was confident she could become an engineer because Wangari
Measured improvement Hiring faculty is a slow process — a limited number of positions become available or are created in any given year — but UC Davis has made diversity a priority. Forbes named UC Davis a top college for women in STEM in 2016.
100%
75% Percent of ladder-rank faculty who are women
50%
25%
0
Percent of faculty who are underrepresented minorities
7%
10%
2012
2017
32%
2012
37%
2017
Rebecca Calisi Assistant professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior
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UC Davis Magazine
Cindy Rubio Gonzalez Assistant professor of computer science
Maathai, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize, is from the same Kenyan town where she grew up. Now at UC Davis for about a year, she stands out in her field: At a recent barbecue for a black engineering society, someone pointed out the rarity of black women in STEM fields and called her “a unicorn.” “I would like to stop being a unicorn,” she told the crowd at the November event, adding later that she hopes her presence inspires more black women to pursue engineering. Kinyua said she feels good when she meets a black, female engineering student and suspects those students feel the same way when they meet her. Cindy Rubio Gonzalez, an assistant professor of computer science, connects with students in a way other faculty members might not be able to. A third-year student once told her she was the first female professor she’d had, and some students prefer to speak with her in Spanish. “They tell you more about their lives because they have something in common with you,” Rubio Gonzalez said. California’s Proposition 209 in 1996 eliminated affirmative action in the state, so public employers like the University of California can’t give preferential treatment based on sex, race, color, ethnicity or national origin. The faculty members hired through CAMPOS stand on their own merits. The CAMPOS scholars have brought millions of dollars in grants to UC Davis — one earning a rare perfect score on a National Institutes of Health grant application — and two have earned tenure. CAMPOS and its various programs have proven effective in recruiting sought-after faculty candidates. Rubio Gonzalez said she had several job offers, but CAMPOS helped convince her to come to UC Davis. “It was only Davis that had a concrete plan” to increase
diversity, she said. “Everywhere else it was just talk.” UC Davis is also making itself more attractive to potential faculty members who want to have a family: New tenure-track faculty typically have to be promoted within their first seven years on the job to be granted tenure, but the university will pause that countdown when a faculty member has a baby or adopts a child. The university will also pay for an extra caregiver to accompany mothers who are breastfeeding when they come to campus for the two-day faculty interview process, and will allow extra breaks so they can feed their infants. Calisi said although some faculty members might not want the help, she’s thankful to have the option. “I was convinced this career was not possible for someone who wanted what I wanted, which was a life,” she said. “UC Davis and CAMPOS have shown me that’s not true. They welcome the perspective of a working mother and an underrepresented minority.” The university’s efforts also go beyond STEM fields. UC Davis ADVANCE provides training on recruitment to faculty search committees across campus to avoid implicit and institutional bias. Still, they know room for improvement exists and are setting their sights on the next hurdle: affordable childcare. “We will never have complete equality and access to professional success until we address this,” said Maureen Stanton, vice provost for Academic Affairs. As UC Davis continues to grow, more than 150 new faculty positions are planned by 2020. ADVANCE and CAMPOS will continue to play a role in their recruitment. The leaders of the programs say UC Davis is gaining attention for the initiatives. De Leon Siantz said: “We’re the envy of the nation right now.” ■
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the aggie life
How to start a
vermicompost Training for a marathon
Interest in endurance sports such as long-distance running is growing, and finishing a marathon was likely on many New Year’s resolution lists for 2017. “Running can help improve chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and it can enhance the body’s ability to burn fat,” said Brandee Waite, a physician with the UC Davis Sports Medicine Program. “But without proper planning and training, running can lead to injuries.” Here are Waite’s tips for safely running your first — or next — marathon. • Check first with your primary care doctor, especially if you have heart disease or another medical condition. • Carefully ramp up your mileage. Increase your running distances by no more than 10 to 15 percent per week. • Set incremental goals. Start by training for and running a 5K, then a 10K, then a half-marathon and then a marathon. • Join a running club to help you establish a training schedule and network of support. • Stretch after you run to help decrease the risk of certain injuries, reduce soreness, and improve flexibility and range of motion. • Never push yourself to the point of extreme pain or fatigue. — Karen Finney
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TRANSFORM YOUR FOOD WASTE into premium compost — using a bucket of worms? Vermicomposting — employing worms to break down food scraps — can provide top-notch fertilizer and help reduce landfill waste. “Starting your own vermicompost is easy,” said Mia Kawamoto, UC Davis student and compost piles director at the UC Davis EcoHub. “It’s also great if you don’t have a lot of space.”
1. Put a wide bucket in a warm, damp place. “I keep my bucket under the kitchen sink,” said Kawamoto. 2. Drill ventilation holes into the bucket and fill with 6 inches of moist, shredded newspaper. “Keep it fluffy so air can flow through,” suggested Kawamoto. 3. Add dirt or eggshells. “The worms don’t have teeth,” said Kawamoto. “They need to eat these to help their bodies break apart the [food] scraps.” 4. Spread red wiggler worms — available at most fish and game stores.
5. Add fruit and veggie scraps before covering with another 3 to 6 inches of newspaper. 6. Add food scraps continually. The UC Davis EcoHub suggests feeding the worms on one side of the bucket for a month at a time to make harvesting easier. The worms will feast on the side with food, leaving behind their castings — the fertilizer — on the empty side for you to gather. 7. Harvest the worm castings monthly and change the newspaper every few months or when the volume has decreased. — Jocelyn Young
Strawberry spinach smoothie
Build an owl box
Owls are adept at controlling pest populations — a skill you can use in your backyard while protecting owls from secondary poisoning caused by rodent killers. “A single adult barn owl may eat 1,000 rodents per year on your property,” said Michelle Hawkins, director of the California Raptor Center at UC Davis. “Establishing a barn owl box should draw these birds to your property, clearing the neighborhood of rodents naturally.” — J.Y. Drill air holes into the top of the nesting section.
Cut the main entrance — round or square — into the right side of the front slab.
12″
17″ 5″
6″
17″
17″
20″
17″
17″ 19″
(bottom)
Interior wall
Side walls
Ingredients: 6 oz. fresh spinach 8 oz. frozen strawberries
24″
Saw an opening for cleaning in the left side slab, opposite from the entry. Reattach the cutout to the side hole with a hinge and nails. Add a latch or hook to keep it from opening while baby owls are inside.
20″
Eating the recommended seven servings of fruits and vegetables per day can be difficult, but mixing them into a smoothie can help you reach that goal. This smoothie from the UC Davis Student Health and Wellness Center not only provides more than a third of your daily fruit and vegetable servings but also fuses all the health benefits of these nutritious foods into one glass. “They’re wonderful for improving your immune system and are great at boosting your energy levels,” said Ryann Miller, dietitian at UC Davis Student Health and Counseling Services.
17″ Nail the interior wall to the middle of the front slab, partially dividing the box into the entry and nesting rooms.
Assembly notes: • Roof dimensions are 26" x 21" • Bottom dimensions are 24" x 19" • Use 3/4-inch thick plywood for all parts. • Mount the box on a tall post or tree in a wide, open area. The box should be at least 5 feet away from any branches or ledges that predators might use to enter the box.
¼ cup honey 1-2 bananas 4-5 cups milk
Directions: Toss all ingredients (except for the frozen strawberries) into a blender and pulse until smooth. Add the frozen strawberries and mix until blended. — J.Y.
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aggie families
MAN
OF THE
by Jocelyn Anderson
Darius Graham stands with sister Dominique, dad Sebastian and mom Darlene.
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UC Davis Magazine
COUR
DARIUS GRAHAM ’17 MAY BE A master of time
GREG ORY URQ UIAG A /
UC Davis photo
URT
management. From a young age, he’s balanced busy school and basketball schedules. Now as a senior point guard for the UC Davis men’s basketball team — for which road trips take him away from school Wednesday through Sunday — and sociology major who also factors in time for community outreach, he’s worked hard to maintain that delicate balance. His close-knit family has been key. Dad Sebastian, mom Darlene and younger sister Dominique have all been part of his support system, establishing rules for success and cheering him on. “I am a reflection of this [family], so I just try to continue to make them proud, continue to push myself,” said Darius, who will graduate in June. Darius has juggled academics and basketball for as long as he can remember. The Sacramento native has been dribbling a ball since he was 4 and started playing organized games at the Salvation Army leagues soon after. To play in high school, Darius had to meet the high standard set by his dad: Achieve a 3.8 grade point average or don’t play. “It was 3.8, because I knew he would do well,” said Sebastian, a retired correctional officer who played football in college. He was right. Darius graduated from Sacramento Charter High School magna cum laude. At UC Davis, he was part of basketball coach Jim Les’ first recruiting class, earning a full scholarship, and over five seasons has become a star player. The 2014-15 season brought UC Davis its first Big West Conference championship, and the following year Darius was the only Aggie named a starter in all 30 games. This season, the men’s basketball team made the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time in school history. Still, the transition to college — and the quarter system — was tough. One particular calculus class led to a crisis of confidence and a telephone call home. “I just knew he needed to vent. He needed to say, ‘Hey, it’s hard,’” said Darlene, a real estate
agent. “And I was there to listen and say, ‘Yeah, it’s hard, but you can do it.’ That’s the bottom line.” Darlene said she and Sebastian always approached raising their children with the Sandwich Method, a three-step technique for providing feedback that positions constructive criticism between supportive statements. “It’s the bread, the meat and the bread,” said Sebastian. Added Darlene: “Darius now uses that when he talks to kids. Because he talks to kids a lot and it does seem to help.” Indeed, Darius has become a prodigious mentor. His extensive charitable involvement earned him a nomination for the 2017 National Association of Basketball Coaches Allstate Good Works Team award for Division I men’s basketball student-athletes. Among his efforts, Darius has taught summer basketball camps, read to elementary-aged children through the UC Davis Reading Program, helped organize food and toy drives, and visited classrooms. Coach Les said Darius has been exemplary as a player and leader. “Not only is he an excellent basketball player and the point guard for the winningest period in UC Davis basketball’s Division I era, he is also a very competitive student, and possesses high character,” said Les. “He leads us in his energy and enthusiasm, day in and day out.” In his family, Darius often tries to impart wisdom on younger family members. His experience has also guided his sister, who heads to college this fall, but at press time had yet to pick a campus. (She was accepted to every school she applied, including UC Davis.) “I know that college is nothing to play around with,” said Dominique. “He lets me know that. You need to be serious about it.” After graduation, Darius will keep his options open. He said he’d still like to pursue basketball and perhaps a graduate degree. Most of all, he expressed a desire to help people. “I’m just trying to seize the moment,” he said, “and then when the next one comes, conquer that, too.” ■
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college town
THE FIRST CENTURY H
ow did Davis become a city? Most people think it took half the town burning down to convince residents of what was then Davisville to incorporate 100 years ago. “It was this day that created public sentiment to become a city,” Bob Bowen, a spokesman for the city of Davis, told a crowd at a showing of historical photos on March 28, the anniversary of the city’s incorporation. The devastating blaze in 1916 destroyed half of downtown Davis, by Cody Kitaura burning unchecked because the city had no pressurized water supply or fire department. Davis residents could only futilely toss buckets of water on the inferno until a Southern Pacific train with a firefighting rail car arrived from Sacramento. Newspaper accounts from the time speculated the fire easily could have been stopped with proper water lines and a fire department — things that come with incorporation. Just four months after the 1916 fire, Davis residents voted to formally become a city (a
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1911 vote failed 92-103). Still, some historians say a pro-growth community spirit, and not a fire, convinced residents to vote to become a city. “People buy a simple notion, which is a fire scared residents into voting to tax themselves,” said Professor Emeritus Dennis Dingemans, a former Davis planning commissioner and the director of the Hattie Weber Museum. He cited burgeoning industry in the town (an almond-hulling machine developed in Marysville was being manufactured in Davis) and a community of steadfast supporters, led by Davis Enterprise Editor and Justice of the Peace William Scott. Professor Emeritus John Lofland, who has written several books about Davis history, wrote in 2004 that Scott was the town’s “booster-in-chief,” and cited one of his first editorials, which suggested people should always shop locally and never speak ill of their town. “We were a town of boosters,” Dingemans said. One hundred years later, city leaders say that spirit is still alive. “Davis still has many, many boosters — individuals who have the desire and ability to improve the community and usually have a project or vision that is shared by many others,” said Lois Wolk, who served as a Davis city council member and
ns, UC Dav is Library OOK / Special Collectio HAR RY HAZEN SCR APB
Left and above: Fire photos taken by UC Davis alumnus Harry Hazen after the November 1916 fire
mayor before terms as a county supervisor and state legislator. She said residents still strive to improve the town, citing as examples the 1993 construction of Sutter Davis Hospital and the regional water treatment plant completed in 2016. On a smaller scale, former city council member Bill Kopper cited volunteer-service organizations, community-supported art galleries and other efforts to help the less fortunate. “Davis is in every way still a town of deep citizen involvement in the community,” he said. “Everywhere you look people are volunteering to help.” This year, boosters and casual observers alike will mark the centennial. A week after the centennial date, Davis city council members donned period costumes to reenact the first board of trustees meeting, complete with proposing ordinances to form a fire department and outlaw littering. The 2017 Picnic Day theme, “Growing Together,” acknowledged the centennial, and its parade featured former council members. The city plans to dedicate a corner of Second and G streets as “Centennial Plaza,” with artwork and historical signs, and a time capsule is in the works. And not just history buffs are getting in the spirit: This spring Sudwerk Brewing Company developed a “centennial brew” as a limited-release beer. ■
The Varsity movie theater, circa 1951 SPECIAL COLLECTIONS / UC Davis Library
Library celebrates city’s centennial The UC Davis Library shines a spotlight on the city’s centennial with its new exhibition, Davis 1917–2017: Celebrating 100 Years of Community. The exhibit features archival materials from the library’s Special Collections that illustrate the history of Davis over the last century and runs through June 18 at the Peter J. Shields Library. Unlike most exhibitions, which highlight a single collection, the centennial display draws from more than 15 collections, ranging from professional and personal photographs to the institutional archives of The Sacramento Union and UC Davis. Davis history and culture also come to life through aerial imagery, promotional materials from three of Davis’ bestknown residential developments and personal papers from historical figures including Harry Hazen, a student at the University Farm (now UC Davis). UC Davis alum Norman E. Riley ’78 contributes photographs from 1982 to 2004. See the online exhibit here: library.ucdavis.edu/go/davis100 — Jessica Nusbaum
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young achievers
Music Man by Jennifer Ernst Beaudry
F
awzi Haimor ’05, M.A. ’07, takes over as music director of Germany’s highly regarded Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen in September, but the 34-year-old conductor is already living the dream. “When you want something so much, it’s really true: I’ve never worked a day in my life. I just enjoy every minute,” he said. Haimor loved music growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, but he intended to become a doctor. At UC Davis, he double majored in music and neurobiology. By the end of his undergraduate years, Haimor had decided to pursue conducting. He earned a master’s degree in instrumental and choral conducting at UC Davis and a second master’s in instrumental conducting from Indiana University Bloomington. Since graduation, he’s performed with some of America’s finest orchestras, serving as assistant conductor for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, then assistant conductor and later resident conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Today, he lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three
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daughters, who frequently accompany him on his travels. Earlier this year, he made his debut at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Other recent appearances include the New Mexico Philharmonic and Santa Monica’s New West Symphony. In July, he’ll make his debut at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago, conducting the Grant Park Orchestra in Haydn’s “London” and Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber,” as well as the Midwest premiere of Kareem Roustom’s “Ramal.” In September, he’ll begin a four-year engagement with the Württembergische Philharmonie and continue to guest conduct across Europe and the U.S. And Haimor said he plans to bring his perspective as a young conductor to his work. “I’m the 11th music director [at Reutlingen] and the youngest ever to have taken the post, and that’s my viewpoint with music as well,” he said. “You can’t just tailor it to the older group. We are fusing pops and classical and art and jazz and DJs and rock. Music is for everyone.” Haimor opened up about his love of Beethoven, conducting wish list and appreciation for silence.
PO RT
“I keep up to date with neurobiology. The brain and music are more related than some think. I’d love to incorporate some kind of musical program that involves the brain at some point. That’s still very much a part of my life.”
What I listen to when I’m not working:
KEVIN WINTER/WireImage.com via Grammy.com
WIKIPEDIA
KELLY NE W
What people might not know about me:
“It isn’t always classical — I think it’s sometimes assumed it’s always classical for conductors. But I listen to absolutely everything: hip-hop, Keith Urban, Metallica, Radiohead, Nirvana. My kids love Adele right now, so we listen to that a lot. Really, everything!”
before I die, one would be Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Gurre-Lieder.’ It’s a large piece, a cantata, with five singers, narrators, a chorus and a large orchestra. It’s so big and so moving, and you need a massive orchestra and choir and stage. You could have 100-plus people, so it’s hard to program. But it’s certainly a piece I would love to do.”
First CD I bought:
First piece I conducted:
“In high school, I conducted the spring orchestra in a piece I wrote, ‘The Vernal Heart.’”
What’s playing in the car:
The piece that moved me recently:
Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 4,” played by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under current music director Manfred Honeck.
First concert I attended:
Third Eye Blind, at The Fillmore in San Francisco.
AMAZON
“It’s a funny thing — I don’t always listen to music. Sometimes silence is great. It’s either the ABC alphabet song or listening to my kids or nothing. It’s nice to be able to reflect.”
Conducting wish list:
“Of the pieces I want to conduct
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9,” Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan. “I used to listen to it over and over and over. I still have that disc.”
How close does Emmy-winning TV show “Mozart in the Jungle” get to the professional orchestra experience?
“It’s pretty dang accurate.” Musician I’d most like to have met:
“Beethoven. He’s the reason I became a composer and a musician. He changed my life.” ■
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sports
about Dan Hawkins
In the news The men’s basketball team went to the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time in school history, falling in its second game to the No. 1 seed, University of Kansas. Women’s basketball finished the year with an overall record of 25-8, closing out the post-season in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The women’s gymnastics team closed the 2017 season ranked 42nd nationally with a 195.105 qualifying score. The team finished second at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. The head men’s water polo coaching position, currently held by Daniel Leyson, has been renamed as the Child And Meisel Families Director of Men’s Water Polo, the first endowed coaching position.
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D
an Hawkins’ career came full circle in November when he returned to his alma mater, taking over as head coach of the UC Davis football program. Hawkins ’84 was a fullback on the 1982 Aggie team that went to the NCAA Division II championship after winning the 12th of what would eventually reach a record 20 consecutive conference titles. He was then part of the staff the following three seasons under legendary coach Jim Sochor. Over the years, Hawkins made several stops, including Boise State, as an innovative and progressive head coach. He’s been a science teacher.
After his first coaching stint at UC Davis, Hawkins took a job at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, coaching football and teaching science. “The great thing about getting a degree from Davis is by the time you graduate you have so much science you are naturally a science teacher,” he said. “Coaching is good teaching.” He’s coached football in 11 different countries.
His first trip overseas was to coach in Australia, and Hawkins went on to positions in the Canadian league and in Europe, taking
him to Sweden, Germany, Austria and more. “It makes you a better teacher, a more complete teacher. You understand how much you don’t know,” he said of the experience. He loves music.
Hawkins said he likes all genres. “If I dropped my iPod, you’d have no idea the demographic of the guy who dropped it because I have rap, country, classical, opera,” he said. “But if I was stranded on a desert island I’d go with Van Morrison — not the popular songs, but the jazz/blues.” He’s jumped out of an airplane.
Hawkins’ daughters challenged him to do it. “I really believe that to make any gains, to grow, you have to get out of your comfort zone, so I look for those opportunities,” Hawkins said. “I’m not deathly afraid of heights, but I don’t particularly like them. It was great for my spirit.” He is a father of four grown children and a grandfather to seven.
“There are two things in life that are infinitely more intense than anyone could ever describe — one positive and one negative. The positive is being a grandparent,” he said. “The painful one is kidney stones.” ■
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
5 things to know
office hours
The Bannasches:
Dog trainers and farmers careers in veterinary medicine accumulate, Danika and Mike Bannasch retreat to their 40-acre slice of heaven, 15 minutes west of campus. At 5 Dog Farm, they are restoring the land to native vegetation, training an unusual breed of dogs and raising their 11-year-old son, Cameron. “We bought this place 12 years ago because it was an adventure,” said Mike. Both Bannasches work in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Companion Animal Health. Mike is a coordinator in the Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials, helping develop studies to evaluate better ways to diagnose, prevent and treat companionanimal health problems. He dreams of one day making 5 Dog a “beer farm,” growing hops, wheat, barley, oats and rye but for now is happy to have 2 acres almost ready for planting hops.
Danika trains the farm’s namesake — five Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers. Two-year-old Ritz is a grand champion and junior hunter just starting her working career, and 6-year-old Pint is a champion and the youngest master hunter in the breed. Pint is also a campus celebrity, having retrieved the plastic tee from the football field after every Aggie kickoff since 2012. Danika, a veterinary professor and geneticist, studies the genetic basis of various animal diseases and conditions. She and colleagues identified a gene mutation that causes a form of cleft palate in her beloved “tollers.” The discovery may help locate other genes relevant to the cause of cleft palate in humans. —Pat Bailey
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
WHEN THE PRESSURES OF dual
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class notes
1960s
Charles (Chuck) Francis ’61 and Barbara (Hanson) Francis ’61, Cred. ’62, received the 2017 Seventh Generation Lifetime Achievement Award on March 10 from the Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, Nebraska. They were recognized for major contributions to improving rural life and protecting our land and water. Barb teaches Spanish to Montessori preschool children and has been active in environmental groups and working with refugees in Nebraska and Norway. Chuck teaches agroecology, organic farming, land use and local food systems at University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
1970s
The National Council on Family Relations awarded its prestigious fellow status to Libby Balter Blume ’71, a professor of psychology at University of Detroit Mercy. Fellow status in NCFR is an honor awarded to 3 percent or fewer of members who have made outstanding and enduring contributions to the family field in scholarship, teaching, outreach or professional service. Harry Dorn ’71, Ph.D. ’74, has been reappointed the Dr. A.C. Lilly Faculty Fellow in Nanoscience at Virginia Tech. The professor of chemistry has held the position, which provides support to an outstanding faculty member in nanoscience, since 2010. Paul Fadelli ’72 was elected to the El Cerrito City Council
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last November. He is presently the manager of legislation and government affairs for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District in Oakland. Charles M. Rice ’74, a professor of virology at Rockefeller University, won the Lasker Award for groundbreaking work on the hepatitis C virus. The Lasker Award recognizes outstanding contributions to basic and clinical medical research. Rice, along with co-honorees Ralf F.W. Bartenschlager and Michael J. Sofia, developed a system to study the replication of the virus that causes hepatitis C, using it to revolutionize treatment of the chronic disease.
1980s
The Boldt Company’s William Lichtig, J.D. ’82, was elected to the National Academy of Construction. Lichtig, executive vice president for the Appleton, Wisconsin-based firm, is responsible for developing project opportunities, and for national health care and manufacturing projects.
Hayman Tam ’83 retired in 2016 from Lockheed Martin after starting there in 1984. He was most recently an engineering manager for spacecraft mechanical ground processing equipment. Career highlights include programs such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Lunar Prospector, Gravity Probe-B and a variety of communications satellites. He will now spend his time on photography, travel and a variety of volunteer activities. A. Scott Weber, Ph.D. ’83, became vice president for student life at the University of Buffalo on Jan. 3. Weber joined the faculty in 1983. Kathleen Meehan, J.D. ’85, was appointed to the California Fifth District Court of Appeal. Jeffrey M. Peters ’85, Ph.D. ’92, was appointed deputy director of Penn State Cancer Institute. He is a distinguished professor of molecular toxicology and carcinogenesis at Penn State.
After 33 years of teaching in Vacaville, Moira McSweeney ’82, Cred. ’83, retired earlier this year. McSweeney taught second grade and, for more than five years, was the president of the Vacaville Teachers Association.
James J. Eischen Jr., J.D. ’87, recently joined law firm McGlinchey Stafford’s Irvine office as a member and will practice within the health care and business transactions groups. He has nearly 30 years of experience in business, health care and real estate, and is a national authority and speaker within the direct/private medical law and communications fields.
Auto supply company ADAC Automotive named Gene Hawkins ’83 vice president of engineering in December. He will lead product design and development, program management and research and development for the firm.
National Honey Board CEO Margaret Lombard ’87 spoke at the inaugural California Honey Festival in Woodland in May. The event was co-sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute.
Technology company NVIDIA hired Tim Teter ’88 as senior vice president, general counsel and company secretary earlier this year. He is responsible for the Santa Clara-based firm’s legal activities. Debbie C. Thurmond ’88, M.S. ’92, was named City of Hope’s Ruth B. and Robert K. Lanman Chair in Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery Research. Thurmond is a professor in the organization’s Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute and is part of a team that aims to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes in six years. Timothy D. Bode ’89 was named chief medical officer for Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and Saint Thomas Health’s regional Tennessee hospitals. Network intelligence startup Kentik hired Mark Sarbiewski ’89 as chief marketing officer.
1990s
Ted Nasca ’90 joined Hunt Mortgage Group in Chicago as managing director. He is focused on sourcing opportunities for proprietary lending and conventional agency businesses, as well as providing financing to clients in the Midwest and Southern California. The County Engineers Association of California named a new president: John Presleigh ’90. He has headed the Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works since 2009. Eric Paul Shaffer, Ph.D. ’91, was promoted to associate professor at Honolulu Community College
Alumni profile
in August. He has also published his sixth book of poetry, A Million-Dollar Bill (Grayson Books, 2016). During the fall semester, he gave five readings on both O‘ahu and Maui.
A real winner José Quiñonez ’94 is a genius. That’s according to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which this past fall recognized him with a coveted no-strings, six-figure “genius grant” for his work bridging the gap between banks and low-income immigrants. Quiñonez leads Mission Asset Fund, nationally recognized for a program that provides zero-interest loans to immigrants who then can open bank accounts, build credit, pay down high-cost debt and increase savings. “We recognize that there is a rich tradition in the immigrant community of coming together to lend and save money, which is a phenomenal activity that happens the world over,” said Quiñonez, who was among 23 MacArthur award recipients in 2016. “So we are formalizing it, reporting on the payment activities so that can be part of their credit history and bringing them out of the shadows.” At UC Davis, Quiñonez was one of a handful of students who staged a hunger strike to establish the Cross Cultural Center. “I never thought I — that radical rabble-rouser who was always demonstrating and slept in front of Mrak Hall for six days — would be recognized in this way. It demonstrates that you don’t have to be a certain kind of leader. Leadership and innovation come in all forms, shapes and sizes.”
Debra (Taubitz) Kustic ’92 was appointed deputy executive officer for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy, which supports efforts that advance environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents. Elicia L. Watts ’92 became deputy director of the General Counsel’s Office of Appeals at the National Labor Relations Board. She helps investigate appeals by employers, unions and individuals who believe their unfair labor practice allegations have been wrongly dismissed by a regional office. Matthew Geisel ’93 and Timothy Thornell ’94 met at a recent economic development meeting in Hobbs, New Mexico. Geisel is cabinet secretary of economic development for the state of New Mexico, appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez in October 2016. Thornell is CEO of Lea Regional Medical Center,
COURTESY
In 2004, Kenneth Koop ’92 earned a master’s in business for veterans from University of Southern California. Koop became commandant at Oakland Military Institute in 2015. OMI is a public charter college-preparatory high school founded in 2001 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown to provide Oakland youth with quality education based on the precepts of academic achievement, leadership excellence and citizenship.
— Donna Justice
a 201-bed hospital in Hobbs, serving in that role since August 2011. He is also a board member of the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County. Laura Glynn ’93 was elected to the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Glynn is a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University. Garret Murai ’93 has been named a JD Supra Top Author for the second year in a row in its annual Readers’ Choice Awards. Murai is a construction
litigation attorney with Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP, based in Oakland. Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. appointed Boris Teksler ’93 president and CEO in December. Teksler is a 24-year Silicon Valley veteran with a career spanning research, product development and intellectual property commercialization. Jackson Lewis P.C. promoted Sacramento attorney Nathan W. Austin ’94 to principal. Austin’s practice consists of defending employment matters in state and federal courts,
arbitrations and administrative proceedings. He also defends management in litigation involving wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, wage and hour, benefits and other employment-related actions. Michael Casal, M.D. ’94, became director and supervising physician for women’s services in the Reno, Nevada, location of Well Care Group, a behavioral health and family clinic. In May, Andrew Jorgensen ’95 became chief medical officer at Outer Cape Health Services, an operator of community
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Alumni profile
Style maven Joyce Lee ’00 has been hooked on fashion since she was a kid. “Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around my obsession with clothing and accessories,” said Lee, who studied textiles and clothing at UC Davis. “Oftentimes, when I couldn’t convince my mom to buy me something at the mall, I would go home and try to make it myself.” Those early efforts led to a career in fashion that included stints at Levi’s, Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs. In 2015, Lee was named head of design at Madewell, the J.Crew sister brand known for understated looks. Prior to that, Lee had been at Madewell for seven years, most recently as head of accessories. “It has been a lot of fun thinking about our customers’ needs on a much broader scope,” Lee said of her new role. These days, Madewell is thriving even as other specialty apparel retailers falter. In fact, the brand recently expanded its line to include intimates. “I would love for Madewell to expand into more categories so we can reach our customer in more facets of her life,” Lee said. “And I would hope that my point of view guides Madewell into the future.” — Michelle Vames
health centers in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As a physician, Jorgensen is certified in pediatrics and internal medicine.
firm’s business and commercial litigation, entertainment, intellectual property and real estate practice areas.
David Chao ’96 recently joined BirdEye.com, a leading provider of customer experience and business reputation management software, as senior director of U.S. sales. He previously spent four years at Dimension Data, growing the software as a service revenue from $3.5 million to over $45 million for Dimension Data Americas.
Labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips in Sacramento hired Benjamin Ebbink ’97, J.D. ’00, as of counsel. Ebbink, a former chief consultant to the California State Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, will assist employers with navigating evolving legislative and regulatory landscapes.
Spencer Martinez ’96 has been elevated to partner at the law firm Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley. Based in San Francisco, Martinez is a member of the
Alexander Madani ’98 developed a mobile app for Android smartphones and tablets called EZ Notes — Fast Notes and Lists. After three years in
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COURTESY
development, the app is an organizer aimed at boosting productivity and efficiency. David I. Ashby ’99 was appointed judge in the Sutter County Superior Court in December.
2000s
Lorrell (Kenney) Walter ’00 was hired as vice president of marketing and member experience at Wyoming’s Western Vista Credit Union. Walter is an active member of her community, serving on the boards of directors for the Cheyenne Kiwanis Club and the Cowboy Chapter of the Air Force Association. She also volunteers on the public relations
and military committees for Cheyenne Frontier Days and as a Girl Scout leader. In 2016, she was a finalist for the Woman of Influence Award and the Women’s Leadership Award from the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce. Darren Pollock ’01 received his Ph.D. in historical theology from Calvin Theological Seminary in May 2016. After 15 vintages, Kale Anderson ’02 founded Kale Consulting, a boutique wine consulting firm in the Napa Valley. In addition to being the owner and winemaker of Kale Wines, Anderson collaborates with owners of premium
Alumni profile
BETH LABERGE / SFMOMA
Modern master
family wineries and vineyard estates to produce handcrafted, world-class wines. He recently received a 100-point wine rating as consulting winemaker for Pahlmeyer Winery by Robert M. Parker Jr. for the 2013 Pahlmeyer Pièce De Résistance Cabernet Sauvignon. He and his wife, Ranko (Nagai) ’01, celebrated their 10th anniversary last year. Special education teacher Megan Gross ’02 was selected as one of four finalists nationwide for the 2017 National Teacher of the Year award, given by Council of Chief State School Officers. Gross teaches at Del Norte High School in San Diego and facilitates social inclusion
and extracurricular activities. The winner will be selected in the spring. California Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Martha Guzman Aceves, M.S. ’02, to the California Public Utilities Commission at the start of the new year. Commissioners serve six-year terms.
Neal Benezra, M.A. ’78, has been active in the transformation of the modern art landscape in San Francisco. A native Californian who spent 20 years with museums in the Midwest and the East, he has been director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art since 2002. Most recently he spearheaded a building expansion that nearly tripled the museum’s exhibition space. Though construction shuttered the museum for three years, until May 2016, Benezra said, “We embraced it as an opportunity to connect with organizations in the Bay Area and beyond to present exhibitions and programming.” A spirit of collaboration has helped SFMOMA survive difficult economic times, he said. “The price of great works of art has challenged all museums in building collections,” Benezra continued, “and we have been able to co-acquire works with many great museums, most recently, a work by the great South African artist William Kentridge, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.” He is already looking ahead to envision what a contemporary art museum will be in the future. “One thing I love about our trustees and staff is there is no laurel-resting. No one is interested in what has been accomplished,” he said. “What is the next big idea?” — Julie Davis Canter
Optometrist Tiffany L. Chan ’05 joined Grass Valley family practice Drs. Chan, Moon and Associates. Chan, a former Aggie gymnast, has a special interest in helping patients with chronic vision impairment.
Rana Rand ’02 joined Sonora Regional Medical Center as a board-certified physiatrist, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician.
Stanford University named Jesse Pruitt ’05 assistant coach in men’s basketball last year. He most recently spent eight seasons on the staff at Santa Clara University, where his main responsibilities involved recruiting, player development and scouting.
Kira L. Klatchko, J.D. ’04, was appointed judge in the Riverside County Superior Court in December.
Ryan Shaw ’05 was appointed deputy director of water resources at Western Municipal Water District in Riverside.
Shaw is responsible for the dayto-day management of Western’s water supply projects. The 2017 edition of North Carolina Super Lawyers recognized Thomas Varnum, J.D. ’08, as a “Rising Star” for intellectual property. Varnum works for Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard in Wilmington. Robert Gower ’06, J.D. ’09, became a director at West Coast employee benefits law firm Trucker Huss.
2010s
Christopher Dietrich ’10, J.D. ’13, joined a long-standing
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Davis law firm as a partner, taking on the new name of Kopper Morgan & Dietrich. Sacramento-based Ellis Law Group LLP hired Alesya Nalbandyan ’10 as an associate attorney. Her practice will focus on litigating matters of business, commercial law and professional liability. Jacqueline Eng ’99, seen here analyzing bones of Kyang LIESL CLARK Cave, Nar-Phu Valley, Nepal, during a 2013 expedition, was featured among a team of researchers and climbers in an episode of the PBS series “Nova” in January. Eng, a faculty member at Western Michigan University, is interviewed in the “Secrets of the Sky Tombs” episode about the team’s efforts to understand human settlement in the Himalayas.
J. Ernesto Ortiz-Díaz, Ph.D. ’11, received tenure at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ortiz-Díaz joined the faculty in 2011 and is a professor of Hispanic and Latin American studies.
In summer 2016, Courtney King ’12 studied coral reefs, manatees, howler monkeys, jaguars and other wildlife while learning the methods communities are using to sustain them in Belize. King, an educator guide at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, lives in Carlsbad and took the graduate course in pursuit of her master’s degree from Miami University’s Global Field Program. Family law attorney Travis Schumer ’12 has joined Los Angeles-based Berenji & Associates as an associate.
China Connoisseur and Tibet Beijing, Lhasa, Chengdu, Xian, Guilin, Shanghai October 1–16, 2017 From $5,499 (airfare included from SFO)
Featured Trip:
India: Timeless Land of the Taj Mahal and Wild Tigers
Autumn Colors Chattanooga, Savannah, Dover, Clarksville, Nashville Set sail on a serene river cruise in autumn, a magnificent time of year when rolling landscapes are beautifully awash with a medley of rich colors. Begin your adventure in Chattanooga, Tennessee, America’s “Scenic City,” home to contemporary attractions like the Bluff View Art District. Then conclude your voyage in Dover, where beautiful scenery awaits along the Cumberland River and rich Civil War history comes alive at Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Cemetery. October 22–30, 2017 • From $1,999
Delhi, Taj Mahal, Bharatpur National Park, Jaipur October 6–15, 2017 From $3,295
Machu Picchu to the Galapagos Lima, Sacred Valley, Quito, Baltra, San Cruz Islands October 31– November 15, 2017 From $8,493 (including airfare)
For a full list of Aggie Adventures travel opportunities, trip details and discounts, visit alumni.ucdavis.edu/travel, call 530-752-4502 or email aggieadventures@ucdavis.edu
Price and dates are subject to change NOTE: Airfare not included unless otherwise indicated
In memoriam Vincent E. Petrucci ’48, M.S. ’51, died in December at the age of 91. Petrucci is credited with developing the winemaking program at California State University, Fresno, over a 45-year career there. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association in 1995.
COU RTESY
Richard J. Pettitt ’55, D.V.M. ’63, died in November at the age of 83. He ran his own veterinary practice in Bandon, Oregon, from 1966 until his retirement in 1994.
Clifford Stein, M.S. 95, Ph.D. ’98, won an Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement on Feb. 11. The Scientific and Engineering Award, given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored Stein (pictured with his wife, Melissa Aczon) and team’s Arnold Renderer software, a 3-D rendering application built for the demands of feature-length animation and visual effects developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Solid Angle SL.
Becky Mandelbaum, M.A. ’16, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for Bad Kansas, a collection of stories primarily set in that state. The book will be published by the University of Georgia Press in fall 2017. The prestigious award aims to encourage emerging writers by bringing their work to a broader readership.
Fellow alums James Touri ’16 and Alejandro Ramirez ’15 developed Meer Travel, a mobile app that allows users to enter a budget for getaway recommendations based on their social media profiles. Incubated in Boomtown Accelerator, a Denver-based 12-week program for startups, Meer Travel is now available for download. ■
Joe S. Gray ’57 passed away in December. After a successful law career, he was appointed to the Superior Court of California in 1989. Among his achievements, he helped automate and create a paperless system for the Sacramento Small Claims Court. He leaves behind his wife, Lynn ’57, and three children, including Katherine Hess, M.A. ’84. Jeffrey MacCabe ’64, Ph.D. ’69, passed away on Dec. 29. He was 73. He taught and conducted research in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for 33 years. Jose Antonio “Tony” Salcedo ’87 passed away in January following a two-year battle with brain cancer. He specialized in designing analog and mixed signal circuits, contributing to the design of seven patented chips at Exar Corporation. He leaves behind his wife, Kristen, whom he met at UC Davis, and two daughters, Lauren and Carina. Victoria Huang, D.V.M. ’04, died of breast cancer on Jan. 20 at the age of 43. She is survived by her husband, Dmitri Schoeman; daughter, Rachel; and twin sons, Eli and Joshua. ■
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alumni authors Gordon Theilen ’53, D.V.M. ’55, presents his autobiography, The Boy With the Wounded Thumb (EditPros LLC, 2017), which will be followed by a more scientific book of his life’s work at UC Davis, One Medicine War on Cancer, this summer.
A study of radical populism, Underground Petersburg (Northern Illinois University Press, 2016), by Christopher Ely, M.A. ’90, clarifies its place in Russian history and emphasizes its contribution to the history of terrorism.
Geoffrey Aggeler ’61, Ph.D. ’66, focuses on the rise and fall of Christopher Marlowe in his third novel, Horses of the Night (Endeavour Press, 2017).
Patrick Barr-Melej ’91, M.A. ’94, details Chilean history in the 1960s and ’70s, highlighting the youth, counterculture and politics in Psychedelic Chile (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).
A teenager goes missing and a police officer protagonist with a terrifying past is assigned to the case in Maris Soule’s ’61 newest novel, Echoes of Terror (Five Star Publishing, 2017). American Civil Wars (The University of North Carolina Press, 2017), edited by Don H. Doyle ’67, probes the U.S. Civil War from outside the national arena. Cheryl Woodard ’71 has self-published the first in what is to be a series of five books on hiking: Mariposa Hiking Adventure (as Chery Davis). This volume features information about 40 hikes within 40 miles of Mariposa, one of the closest towns to Yosemite National Park. Ken White, Cred. ’73, self-published his first children’s book, That Happiness Thing: A Hometown Fable (2016), a Christmas story that takes place in 1958 Modesto. His play, Migrant Mother, was staged by the Prospect Theater Project in January 2017, and a nonfiction book about his hometown of Modesto will be released in spring 2017. Berkeley Street Theatre (Wipf & Stock, 2017), edited by Jeanne C. DeFazio ’74, chronicles how improvisation and street theater emerged as a Christian outreach to the counterculture.
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In The Case of Rose Bird: Gender, Politics, and the California Courts (University of Nebraska Press, 2016), Kathleen Cairns, Ph.D. ’95, recalls the story of the first female chief justice of the California Supreme Court appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 1977 and ousted in 1986. Ben Lamorte ’95, with Paul R. Niven, offers a full-fledged reference guide in Objectives and Key Results: Driving Focus, Alignment, and Engagement with OKRs (Wiley Corporate F&A, 2016). Kate George ’96 self-published Bohemian Catastrophe (2017), her fourth novel and part of her mystery series centered on her trouble-finding protagonist, Bree MacGowan. Sweeping across six decades and two continents, Green Island (Knopf, 2016), by Shawna Yang Ryan, M.A. ’01, tells a story of love, betrayal and family in a changing 20th century Taiwan.
Lindsey Lindsey
Lindsey Lee Johnson ’03 paints a complicated picture of teen life in Marin County in her debut novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth (Penguin Random House, 2017). Christina Bueno, Ph.D. ’04, explores the great lengths that Mexico took to preserve and display its pre-Hispanic past in The Pursuit of Ruins: Archaeology, History, and the Making of Modern Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 2016). Flora Wong ’05 self-published her debut children’s novel, The Kreepton Chronicles (Flora Sulit, 2016), under her pen name, Renee Libra. In the world based on the popular game Minecraft, the heroes navigate their ways through mysteries and contraptions in effort to restore a fallen kingdom. B.H. James and Elizabeth James ’06 aim to empower school districts and teachers to create their own curricula to exceed expectations in Method to the Madness: A Common Core Guide to Creating Critical Thinkers Through the Study of Literature (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016). Willie Hiatt, Ph.D. ’09, traces the development of Peruvian aviation in his first book, The Rarified
Air of the Modern: Airplanes and Technological Modernity in the Andes (Oxford University Press, 2016). Stephen C. Cote, Ph.D. ’11, places petroleum at the center of Bolivia’s contentious 20th-century history in Oil and Nation: A History of Bolivia’s Petroleum Sector (West Virginia University Press, 2016). Eva Maria Mehl, Ph.D. ’11, follows exiles in Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World: From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765-1811 (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Chef, consultant and scientist Ali Bouzari, Ph.D. ’15, provides an illustrated guide to the major building blocks of food in Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food (Ecco, 2016).
Your legacy is our future. UC Davis student-athletes are tomorrow’s leaders. Across 23 NCAA Division I teams, they achieve excellence in athletics, lead their respective conferences in academics and participate in community service. Show your Aggie Pride by uniting your legacy with UC Davis’ future go-getters and team players. Leo, UC Davis Football, Class of 2031 Kaitlyn, UC Davis Softball, Class of 2032
plannedgiving.ucdavis.edu
looking forward, looking back
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS / UC Davis
tion, hundreds of thousands of women took to city streets across the globe to object to some of the new U.S. president’s most controversial promises. Since then, scientists, immigrant business owners and others have also protested. Students have organized in large numbers for politically charged demonstrations on both sides of the national debate. At UC Davis, activists this year have fought against the Dakota Access
Recent protests revive free speech debate Pipeline, policies like the immigration order, and for and against a local appearance by controversial former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopolous. Third-year political science and public service major Joseph Nuñez called upon his experiences with activism to help organize an event to examine ways to overcome the divide on campus. “I was inspired by the responses that followed the 2016 presidential election results,” said Nuñez. “It is not popular to be the person or group in the middle attempting to bring people together. Nevertheless, we are compelled to try.”
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UC Davis graduate and postgraduate students organized a Rally in Solidarity to support those affected by the travel ban in February; inset: a group gathers for peace in 1972.
GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
A DAY AFTER Donald Trump’s inaugura-
The effort to bridge division while respecting free speech on university campuses isn’t new. UC Berkeley saw the birth of the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s that fought for the right for students to organize political activity on campus. UC Davis took its own approach to the movement, as students and staff resolved to transform conflict into a platform for dialogue. Students and faculty collaborated to develop inclusive and ethical practices for free speech on campus with the hope that they would prevent the violence they saw elsewhere. Given the increasingly polarized nation, at the fall convocation Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter called for a new emphasis on fostering campus inclusion and understanding. The yearlong initiative featured more opportunities for dialogue among the campus community, including workshops and forums. Additional events like teachins and February’s Rally in Solidarity aimed to educate. University of California President Janet Napolitano also weighed in, encouraging more practices that promote academic debate. “The way to deal with extreme, unfounded speech is not with less speech — it is with more speech, informed by facts and persuasive argument,” said Napolitano in an op-ed published in the Boston Globe last fall. “We seek to make the world a better place for the next generation, and teaching the values and responsibilities of free speech is inextricably linked with this goal.” — Jocelyn Young
You experience. We educate. Continuing a legacy of artistic expression and collaboration.
Art has the power to educate. To move. To transform. At UC Davis, we believe in the power and possibility of the arts. Our tradition of artistic innovation took shape in the ’60s, led by artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson, and continues today in classrooms, museums, performance halls, design studios, and other centers of creativity across our university. Learn more at 21stcentury.ucdavis.edu.
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GREGORY URQUIAGA / UC Davis
Air Time LAX, JFK and ... EDU? UC Davis is the only University of California campus with an airport and, appropriately, its Federal Aviation Association identifier is EDU. Acquired in 1950, the University Airport operates as a general aviation airport and even provides a base for flight instruction for those who have always wanted to pilot a plane.