On Her Toes
BY AUDREY WILSON
While helping students contact Athletic Director Jason Kelly and answering the phone, new Executive Assistant to the Head of Athletics Alyxis Trujillo shows track and field coach Jeff Lachman how to sign his coach’s contract and appropriate forms. Trujillo is no newcomer to juggling many different things at once. She holds the position formerly held by Shauna Altieri who is now Assistant Director of Communications Division. When Trujillo is not busy handling the majority of the department’s scheduling, budgets, coaches’ contracts and CIF regulations, she is traveling around to University of Southern California’s football games. Trujillo moved to California just four months ago to be with her fiancé, USC defensive tackle Claude Pelon. With her fiancé’s football career and an athletic family history with siblings playing football and baseball, sports play a major role in Trujillo’s life. “I knew I wanted to stay within the athletics department,” Trujillo said. “I’ve been in it for a long time, enjoy it, love it and began looking for positions. Harvard-Westlake came up, I looked into it and was very interested, and here I am.” Prior to her time here, Trujillo worked in her home state of Arizona at Mesa Community College in the athletics department and in the Tempe elementary school district. Trujillo’s own athletic achievements started at The Alma Dolores Internation-
al Dance Center. “My mother grew up in that dance studio with the same director that I grew up with,” Trujillo said. “Later I became a teacher there.” Trujillo practiced almost every style of dance from ballet and tap to Tahitian, salsa and hip-hop. “In my time frame we ended up opening about four different studios under that name,” Trujillo said. “I was able to co-own one and then manage another, so the studio is really home for us.” Just last month, Trujillo went to watch her studio competed at the Show Stoppers National Dance Finals at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. When she does return home, Trujillo teaches workshops, holds private lessons and trains with younger girls. Despite holding the position for only two months, Trujillo looks forward to contributing to the change around campus, specifically with the school’s new mission statement, and the Athletic Department’s plan to rewrite its philosophy. “I’m still fresh here,” Trujillo said. “It’s a new look on Harvard-Westlake, but I will say that coming to all the openings and hearing all the speeches, especially from [Rick] Commons, is just exciting.” Trujillo has the school’s new mission statement posted on her refrigerator. “It’s very motivating,” Trujillo said. “I am very excited, and I can’t wait to see what evolves from this.” AUDREY WILSON/BIG RED
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BIG RED FALL 2014 • 3