at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif., where she contributes to the hospital newsletter and serves in public events hosted by the hospital. JANE MCKAY, 1990 Art, recently completed her bachelor’s of science in nursing and is currently enrolled in a nursing master’s program. She was named clinical supervisor of hospice at Signature Hospice in Portland, Ore. LARRY STEPHENS, 1990 Forestry, has been working for the California Department of Fish and Game for 12 years, enforcing hunting and fishing laws in the mountains of Southern California.
Bruce Jackson:
Submitted Photos
Space Bound
NOT TOO LONG ago, space travel was reserved for a select few: trained astronauts or those wealthy enough to charter a private trip to space. But in recent years, a growing number of companies have started offering commercial space travel to the paying public. Bruce Jackson (’84, Political Science) is among those leading that effort at Virgin Galactic, a company started by British businessman Richard Branson in 2004 that plans to launch sub-orbital flights to space in the next couple years. As Vice President of Trade Controls and Export Strategy, Jackson is responsible for ensuring that Virgin complies with federal export and technology control requirements that apply to its aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, and its sub-orbital spacecraft SpaceShipTwo. It’s a unique responsibility that includes applying for export licenses and meeting with officials at the State Department, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. Working on export strategy is familiar territory for Jackson, who spent the past 27 years in international trade, with a focus on export control laws and regulations. After receiving a degree in political science from HSU, Jackson interned with a U.S. congressman. Then, after a stint at the International Trade Administration within the Department of Commerce, he took a position as an international trade consultant with a law firm in Washington, D.C. He worked on global export compliance for a company in Germany and at a startup that was later acquired by JP Morgan before joining Virgin Galactic last April. Jackson says that Virgin plans to launch space flights from its future headquarters at Spaceport America near Las Cruces, N.M., in the next couple years. Each trip will carry six passengers and two pilots and include several minutes of weightlessness. During that time, passengers will be able to unbuckle their seatbelts, see Earth’s curvature and float around the cabin. The cost? $200,000 per person. It may seem like a hefty price tag, Jackson says, but for many, it represents the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. About 500 people have already signed up. “Space travel is something a lot of people have dreamed of since childhood and to be able to be a part of making that happen is really exciting,” he says. 42
Humboldt magazine
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Spring 2012
JANA RIVERS-NORTON, 1991 English, taught both full time and part time at several public and private institutions of higher learning including the University of New Mexico, SUNY, Alfred State College, the DeVry Institute and National University from 1991 to 2011. In 2005, Rivers-Norton received a Story Fund Grant from the California Council for the Humanities to conduct and publish an oral history project titled “Told From the Heart: Stories of California’s Native Women.” She most recently served as the associate dean of instruction at The Art Center Design College in Tucson, AZ. COLEEN SHADE, 1991 Natural Resources, is a principal planner and Tahoe office manager for R.O. Anderson, an engineering, planning and surveying firm in Nevada and California. Her work is mainly concentrated in the Tahoe basin and in the Sierra. Shade is married to David Fournier, who is a forester with the U.S. Forest Service. They have two daughters, Larissa,16, and Sarah, 12. CHRISTINE (TINA) SHOYS, 1991 Liberal Studies, is currently retired and living on the central Oregon coast, where she is an actively involved in community associations. She has recently taken up mosaic art as a creative outlet. KEN FARNSWORTH, 1992 Social Science and 1996 Geography, is now doing freeform metal artwork on his ranch in Willits, Calif. M. SCOTT GRABAU, 1992 Theatre, Film, & Dance, joined the Irvine Valley College Theater Department as fulltime faculty for the Spring 2011 semester. His professional design credits include: “‘da Kink In My Hair” (NAACP Award), “Don Quixote,” “Ain’t Misbehavin,” “The Goat,” “Long Story Short,” and “Superior Donuts” (San Diego Repertory); “The Sound of Music,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Dreamgirls” and “Annie Get Your Gun.” He received his master’s of fine arts degree from UC San Diego. DONALD (DONNY) TRIPLAT, 1992 Sociology, is starting a native landscape business after 12 years of research forestry, five years of environmental restoration, five years of arborist work, and 10 years of service in the food industry catering and working in fine dining restaurants. He and his wife are creating the Truckee River Sanctuary, where they grow food, raise poultry and have built a kiva to share with their community. MATTHEW DANIEL MASON, 1993 History, earned a Master of Arts in 1994 and a Ph.D. in 2008 from the Department of History at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, as well as a Master of Arts degree with a major in Archives Administration from the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2003. In fall 2004, Mason began tenure as an archivist at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, where