Pepperdine Magazine Vol. 9, Iss. 3 (Fall 2017)

Land of Opportunity | 14 40 Over 40 | 18 Across the YouNiverse | 30 Volume 9 Issue 3 Fall 2017

MATERIAL

From Marilyn to Nehru, photographer Lawrence Schiller (’57) was on the scene to capture the greatest moments of some of the most fascinating people in modern history | 26

Purpose, Service, and Leadership

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Volume 9 Issue 3 Fall 2017

FEATURES 14 Land of Opportunity

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During a summer internship program in Israel, a group of students explores the rich politics, culture, and history of the Middle East

18 40 Over 40

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This group of 40 alumni over the age of 40 are distinctly and successfully demonstrating the University’s mission through their personal passions and professional accomplishments

26 Material Witness

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40 Fall 2017

From Marilyn to Nehru, photographer Lawrence Schiller (’57) was on the scene to capture the greatest moments of some of the most fascinating people in modern history

30 Across the YouNiverse

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Alumnus Robert Kyncl (MBA ’97) is devoted to digital evolution at one of the world’s most dynamic, creative, and disruptive entertainment destinations

COMMUNITY

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Accepting Applications Creation Care Showing Some Backbone Weight Listed The Making of a Museum From Russia With Love (and Laughter)

DEPARTMENTS

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2 Letters 4 Perspectives 6 News 12 Snapshot 34 Alumni 48 In Focus

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letters LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

C

onfession Time: A few weeks ago I found myself channel surfing at 4 pm in true “lazy Sunday” fashion and thought I would amuse myself by checking the Health app on my iPhone to see how many steps I had accrued on my jaunts from couch to kitchen and back again.

Staring down at the alarming number—33!—I felt a panic set in: I hadn’t been productive all day and had only a handful of hours to make the most of the fading weekend.

As my head hit the pillow that night—a mere six hours later—I drifted into dreamland satisfied that my bathroom had never been cleaner, my car had never shined so brightly in the moonlight, and three healthy meals had been prepared for the week. In those six panicked hours, I had managed to accomplish more than I had all weekend—or any weekend for that matter!

As an editor, I know my best work is inspired by the threat of impending deadlines. It is the curse of the creative. But what moves us to make progress in life when we are not bound by the quarterly editorial schedule? Is it the thrill of competition? The fear of missed opportunity? The ominous passing of time? The George Eliot quote, “It is never too late to be what you might have been,” comes to mind when we consider the enduring spirit demonstrated by those who are featured in this issue.

On page 26, George Pepperdine College alumnus Lawrence Schiller, our cover story, who at 80 years old is still curating exhibitions (at the Smithsonian, no less) and being recognized for his six decades of journalistic work that includes intimate moments with the most extraordinary figures in history, reminds us that “nothing is too late if you have a good idea.” Laurie Nelson, who has broken a world record by performing incredible physical feats that many men and women more than half her age would find challenging and even impossible, has clearly taken that advice to heart. And in our list of 40 remarkable alumni over the age of 40, we meet individuals of all stripes who are challenging their limits, disrupting established industries, and reinventing themselves far beyond what society considers their prime.

Indeed, this may be the “Never Too Late” issue, and we at Pepperdine Magazine recognize it’s always a good time to celebrate those who continue to accomplish incredible things through every stage of life.

As for me, I continue to be inspired by those who are compelled by their own fire and harness their experience, confidence, and perspective to throw known limits out the window.

GAREEN DARAKJIAN editor

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310 9 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS 52 OLYMPIANS 199 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS ALL-AMERICANS

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TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL CHAMPIONS PepperdineWaves

@PepperdineWaves

@PepperdineWaves

PepperdineAthletics

CHEER ON THE WAVES AT THE NEXT HOME GAME! pepperdinewaves.com

editor

Gareen Darakjian

senior designer

Courtney Gero

writers

Sara Alamdar, Sarah Fisher, Doug Gillett, Carly Pippin (’07), Noelle Seybert

graphic designers

Mallory Bockwoldt (’16), Ryan Kotzin

photographer

Ron Hall (’79)

copy editor

Vincent Way

production manager

Jill McWilliams

interactive developer

Kimberly Robison (’10)

PUBLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS chief marketing officer and vice president for public affairs and church relations Rick Gibson (MBA ’09, PKE 121) associate vice president for integrated marketing communications Matt Midura (’97, MA ’05) director of communications and brand development Nate Ethell (’08, MBA ’13) creative director Keith Lungwitz director of digital media Allen Haren (’97, MA ’07) senior director of operations Ed Wheeler (’97, MA ’99) director of digital marketing Mauricio Acevedo Pepperdine Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 3, Fall 2017.

Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. It is published quarterly by the University’s Public Affairs division.

Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California, 90263 Pepperdine Magazine is produced with guidance from an advisory board representing a cross-section of the University community. Send address changes with publication name to: Office of Advancement Information Management at Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California 90263

818.702.1409 All material is copyrighted ©2017 by Pepperdine University, Malibu, California 90263.

Pepperdine is affiliated with Churches of Christ, of which the University’s founder, George Pepperdine, was a lifelong member.

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Connect with Pepperdine

Other information and queries should be directed to the editor:

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perspectives

Pepperdine’s Place

in the New World of Legal Education This is an epochal moment in legal education.

The legal profession has yet to fully recover from the 2007–08 financial crisis as technology disrupts law firm business models. Law schools, in turn, facing a declining applicant pool, have responded by reducing the size of their entering classes to maintain the academic credentials of their students and equip them to pass the bar exam and obtain meaningful professional employment after graduation.

By Paul L. Caron

Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law, School of Law

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In the midst of these challenges, the University has asked the School of Law to recommit to becoming what we have long aspired to be: the nation’s premier Christian law school, combining academic and research excellence with an everdeepening Christian faith while being welcoming to all.

With the University’s assistance, we reduced the size of our entering class by 25 percent this fall and increased our median LSAT (to 160) and UGPA (to 3.62). This reduced class size will enable us, over time, to continue to increase our students’ academic credentials and fuel our efforts to continue to increase the rates of our students’ bar passage and job placement.

The University is supporting our efforts to right-size the law school in the face of the new realities of legal education and legal practice. To provide a stable financial foundation with a lower JD enrollment, we are ramping up our fundraising efforts and expanding our non-JD programming in two areas of our greatest strength.

First, to leverage our world-class Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (ranked number one by U.S. News & World Report this year and for 12 of the past 13 years), we have expanded our LLM degrees, master’s degrees, and certificates offered through Straus. We have also launched this fall new LLM and certificate programs in entertainment, media, and sports law to capitalize on the University’s partnership with AEG and the abundant opportunities for our graduates in these industries in Greater Los Angeles.

I fervently believe that Pepperdine School of Law has the right plans and people in place to thrive in this new environment. The great strength of Pepperdine—what makes it unique and what inspired me to seek the deanship—is its faith-fueled caring community. As we approach our 40th year on the gorgeous Malibu campus, we celebrate the many achievements of the law school’s storied past and are hard at work writing new chapters in Pepperdine’s drive to become the nation’s premier Christian law school.

Our faculty and staff are committed to recruiting the strongest possible students, providing them with a transformative educational experience, and launching them into rewarding careers. Each one of us is dedicated to pursuing ambitious and accountable excellence in everything we do. We seek to build a community in which all students, staff, and faculty are loved, nurtured, and challenged to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually.

The end result will be a law school proud of its past, excelling in the present, and confidently setting its sights on an evergreater future.

The great STRENGTH of Pepperdine—what makes it UNIQUE and what inspired me to seek the deanship—is its FAITH-FUELED caring community.

Second, to capitalize on our faculty’s historic strength as teachers (as reflected in our annual ranking among the top 10 teaching faculties in Princeton Review’s national survey of 40,000 law students, along with Boston University, the University of Chicago, Duke, Stanford, and the University of Virginia, among others), we launched this fall a new online master of legal studies program. We are particularly excited about the potential of this program as we expand the reach of our faculty far beyond Malibu.

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news PRESIDENT ANDREW K. BENTON Elected Chair of NAICU Board of Directors Pepperdine University president Andrew K. Benton has been elected to a 19-month term as chair of the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

President Benton, who was NAICU board vice chair, replaces Christopher B. Nelson, president of St. John’s College, who retired on June 21. The NAICU board voted on the transition during their regular spring meeting. He will complete the seven months remaining in Nelson’s one-year term before starting his own one-year term.

Board members set the association’s agenda on federal higher education policy, actively encourage support of association priorities and initiatives, and oversee the organization’s financial administration.

“NAICU is most fortunate that Pepperdine University president Andrew Benton has been elected as the next chair of our board of directors,” said NAICU president David L. Warren. “Andy brings 17 years of presidential leadership experience to the NAICU Board chairmanship, including a term as chair of our Accountability Committee. His knowledge of private higher education is unparalleled and will be of great assistance to the association.

As new opportunities and challenges arise over the next 18 months, the association will be well positioned for success with our new leadership team.”

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Photo: Committee on Education and the Workforce, US House of Representatives

With over 1,000 member institutions and associations throughout the United States, NAICU serves as the unified voice of private nonprofit higher education and reflects the diversity of independent higher education. Since 1976 NAICU has represented private nonprofit colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government, including those related to student aid, taxation, and government regulation. NAICU’s member institutions include major research universities, church-related colleges, historically black colleges, art and design colleges, traditional liberal arts and science institutions,

women’s colleges, two-year colleges, and schools of business, engineering, law, and medicine.

“This seems to be an especially important time for all institutions of higher learning to work closely together and, perhaps, especially those in the independent sector,” said President Benton. “Our work is noble, aimed at the very future of this nation. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve, and I simply cannot imagine finer colleagues with whom to do so.”

Learn more about President Benton’s role with NAICU: newsroom.pepperdine.edu/naicu

Pepperdine School of Law Announces $8 Million Endowment of SUDREAU GLOBAL JUSTICE PROGRAM The School of Law announced in September the endowment of the Global Justice Program made possible by the generosity of alumna Laure Sudreau (JD ’97). The $8 million contribution is the largest single endowment gift ever to the School of Law and will help advance the profound impact of the Global Justice Program, which, since 2007, has operated within the Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics at the School of Law. The newly named Sudreau Global Justice Program will support and enhance current programs while envisioning new and innovative initiatives that will create a lasting impact in the lives of the Pepperdine Law community and those experiencing injustices in the world’s most vulnerable places.

“The world law students are entering is no longer about people being the center of things,” said Sudreau.

“It is a world that is about community. I am so proud to be associated with this effort and all of the important work the Sudreau Global Justice Program does on behalf of people in the developing world.”

Read more about the Sudreau Global Justice Program: newsroom.pepperdine.edu/sudreau

Longtime Finance Executive Named to BOARD OF REGENTS

DAVID HUNT Named Head Coach of Waves Men’s Volleyball

Nancy De Liban, executive vice president of Athene Asset Management, L.P. (AAM), has been elected as a new member of the Pepperdine University Board of Regents.

Longtime assistant coach David Hunt has been promoted to head coach of the Pepperdine men’s volleyball program, making him the eighth head coach in the program’s history.

AAM is a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, LLC, a leading private equity firm that specializes in alternative asset management and capital investing.

Throughout her relationship with University, De Liban, whose daughter, Julia, is a senior at Seaver College, has made gifts in support of the Youth Citizenship Seminar and various other Seaver College initiatives.

De Liban is a member of the board of directors of Aris Mortgage Holding Company, LLC, a correspondent lending platform whose principal business is acquiring residential mortgage assets from its origination clients.

The 40-member Board of Regents is the legal governing body and chief policy board of Pepperdine University. The University administration works with the Board of Regents to shape policy and direction for the University.

Since December 2007, Hunt has assisted the program in many capacities, including as video coordinator and volunteer assistant. He was elevated to the role of assistant coach in 2010 and promoted to associate head coach in 2014. In his first season with the squad, the team ranked number two nationally after an appearance in the NCAA Championship match against Penn State. Throughout Hunt’s decade of service as a Waves coach, Pepperdine has finished in the American Volleyball Coaches Association final rankings top 10 on nine occasions and in the top five six times.

“I want to thank everyone in the Pepperdine community for their support through this transition,” said Hunt. “I am excited to continue the tradition and live up to the standard Marv [Dunphy] has set as the men’s volleyball coach at Pepperdine. I look forward to sustaining the culture of excellence that has been set by those who have come before me.”

Read more about David Hunt’s career highlights: newsroom.pepperdine.edu/david-hunt

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news Pepperdine Honors 2017 ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME Inductees

Olympians, All-Americans, and a long-time administrator were inducted into the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame on October 15.

KCET Airs Broadcast Television Premiere of REMAND DOCUMENTARY On October 18 KCETLink Media Group, a leading national independent nonprofit public broadcast and digital network, debuted the broadcast television premiere of the award-winning Revolution Pictures film Remand as part of KCET and Link TV’s documentary series LINK VOICES. Narrated by Angela Bassett, Remand tells the firsthand account of how Pepperdine School of Law professor Jim Gash (JD ’93) and Ugandan teenager Tumusiime Henry met and worked together to inspire justice reform for an entire country.

This past summer Remand was also the featured film at the African Film Festival awards night in Dallas, Texas. In May the documentary won the Best of the Month award at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards and will be honored during a special ceremony next March at Raleigh Studios Hollywood.

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The class of 2017 inductees include Vilma Charlton (’69, MA ’73), women’s track; Paul Faries (’87), baseball; Angela Lawrence (’99), women’s tennis; Jesse Smith (’05), men’s water polo; and Michael Zapolski (’85, MBA ’00), administration.

“The annual Hall of Fame ceremony is always one of my favorite events of the year,” said Athletics Director Steve Potts (JD ’82). “We are very pleased to be able to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of these five remarkable alumni who contributed so much to the success and legacy of their programs and the department.”

This year’s group will join 120 individuals, 14 teams, and 8 special achievement recipients that have already been enshrined since the establishment of the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame in 1980.

Meet this year’s inductees: newsroom.pepperdine.edu/2017-hall-of-fame

Graziadio School of Business and Management Hosts SUMMER 2017 COMMENCEMENT A commencement ceremony celebrating the summer 2017 graduates of the Graziadio School of Business and Management was held on the Malibu campus on August 12.

The event honored Cedric L. Watkins II (MBA ’80) as the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. Giuseppe “Joey” Nespoli (’04, MS ’17) served as the student speaker at the ceremony.

Watkins is the managing partner at the Watkins Group & Associates LLC, a familyowned estate planning firm based in Los Angeles. With 30 years of experience as a business owner and financial expert,

he frequently speaks nationwide on topics related to financial literacy.

Watkins has also lent his leadership and wisdom to the Graziadio School as a member of the Board of Visitors, the Executive Board, and the board of the Black Alumni Council.

Nespoli served as an advancement officer at Pepperdine University from 2010 to 2017, raising funds to benefit scholarships, research, international partnerships, and financial training programs. He also teaches a course at Seaver College on financial development for nonprofit organizations.

Pepperdine Community Honors the Life of LARRY DONNELL KIMMONS The Pepperdine community gathered at Payson Library on September 20 to honor the life of Larry Donnell Kimmons, who, on March 12, 1969, was fatally shot at age 15 by chief security guard William Charles “Charlie” Lane on the George Pepperdine College campus. Kimmons, a junior varsity basketball captain at nearby Washington High School, often visited the South Los Angeles campus with friends after school to practice in the gymnasium.

Attendees witnessed the rededication of a refurbished portrait of Kimmons first commissioned in 1971 and heard from various members of the Pepperdine community who reflected on the magnitude of the event.

Speakers included David Humphrey, associate dean of student affairs for diversity and inclusion; Tabatha Jones Jolivet (’97, MA ’03), former Pepperdine

associate vice president and Title IX coordinator for students; Candace Jones Mitchell (’99, MA ’03), an alumna and former Pepperdine professor who dedicated her master’s thesis to Kimmons; Eric Wilson, Pepperdine associate chaplain; Rod Wright (’73), Kimmons’ childhood friend; and President Andrew K. Benton, who closed the service with prayer. Seaver College students also read statements written by George Pepperdine College alumni who were students at the time of the incident.

“This event is momentous,” said Humphrey in his message. “I am convinced that our willingness to sit in a place of discomfort, grief, and pain will be the catalyst to uprooting the wells of bitterness and hate that furnish the gardens of oppression and ignorance and isolation in fear.”

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news Pepperdine School of Law MOOT COURT PROGRAM Receives High Rankings

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION Opens at Lindhurst Theatre

The moot court program at Pepperdine School of Law has been ranked number two in California and number 11 in the United States for the 2016–2017 moot court competition season by the Blakely Advocacy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center.

The Blakely Advocacy Institute ranks law schools annually based on the results of moot court competitions in which teams receive scores. Pepperdine Law advocates earned top scores at the American Bar Association NAAC Regional Competition, Asylum and Refugee Law Competition, Chicago Bar Association Competition, Stetson International Environmental Law Competition, Traynor Moot Court Competition, Tulane Sports Law Competition, and UCLA Cyber Crimes Competition.

As a result of its high ranking, Pepperdine Law has been invited to compete in the 2018 Andrews Kurth Kenyon Moot Court National Championship, which determines the “best of the best” moot court program. The championship competition will take place in Houston in January 2018.

The Seaver College Fine Arts Division Theatre Department presented Annie Baker’s play Circle Mirror Transformation at Lindhurst Theatre in Malibu from October 3 through October 7.

A beautifully crafted diorama, Circle Mirror Transformation captures the social wars and heartbreaks that arise when four lost New Englanders enrolled in a six-week-long community center drama class begin to experiment with harmless theatre games.

Pepperdine assistant professor of theatre Hollace Starr directed the student cast, which featured Sarah Barney, Chris Bozzini, Will Craig, Christine Galyean, and Isabel Klein.

THIRD ANNUAL CALIFORNIA TEACHERS SUMMIT Addresses Bullying, Diversity, and Critical Thinking On July 28 thousands of teachers from across California gathered at 35 locations around the state, including Pepperdine’s West Los Angeles Graduate Campus, for Better Together: California Teachers Summit. Hosted by the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, the event featured TED-style EdTalks presented by local educators who shared strategies and lessons learned in their classrooms and Edcamp breakout discussions led by teachers for teachers.

This year’s theme, “Now More Than Ever,” emphasized the value of teachers convening together to exchange ideas,

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experiences, and potential solutions for the unique issues encountered in educational settings. The day’s sessions focused on timely and prominent topics ranging from addressing bullying in the classroom to celebrating diversity to teaching students to be open-minded, critical thinkers.

Dr. Jill Biden, former second lady of the United States, presented the keynote address reflecting on her 35 years of service to public education at high schools and community colleges, as well as at an adolescent psychiatric hospital.

“Being an educator is about bridging divides, coming up with creative solutions, and finding a way forward, even when it’s tough,” said Biden. “When I think about the challenges we face as a nation and as a global community, teachers are the people who give me the most hope.”

PEPPERDINE VOLUNTEERS Serve Local Communities on Step Forward Day

WEISMAN MUSEUM CELEBRATES 25 YEARS with California Dreaming Contemporary Art Exhibition The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art will display the exhibition California Dreaming: Contemporary California Art from the Weisman Art Foundation until December 10.

The exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the Weisman Museum at Pepperdine, dedicated on September 12, 1992.

Businessman and art collector Frederick Weisman believed in supporting the arts in his own city and during the second half of the 20th century became an important patron to many of the region’s up and coming artists. The work on view reflects his deep personal relationships with many of these artists and chronicles the period when Los Angeles emerged to become one of the nation’s leading art centers.

The pieces on display showcase key works of California art from the 1960s to the present, with an emphasis on seminal historic movements such as California Pop Art, Fetish Finish, and Light and Space. Artists include such key figures as Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, Chuck Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, Mary Corse, Ron Davis, Joe Goode, Robert Graham, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Ed Moses, and Ed Ruscha.

More information on the exhibit: newsroom.pepperdine.edu/california-dreaming

On September 9 Pepperdine University students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends joined together for the 29th consecutive year to participate in Step Forward Day, the University’s annual day of service. Nearly 1,400 Pepperdine volunteers, including over 300 alumni, joined partner organizations across the country to serve their local communities.

Local organizations included the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu, Koreatown Youth and Community Center, Shane’s Inspiration in Burbank, and Hope Gardens Family Center in Sylmar. Members of the Los Angeles Waves alumni chapter pitched in locally by partnering with the Surfrider Foundation to clean Santa Monica State Beach.

Alumni around the country also served their respective communities through their alumni chapters. In the nation’s capital, the DC Waves partnered with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington to clean emergency shelters operated by the Catholic Charities social services agency, and the Portland Waves and Bay Area Waves partnered with local food banks to sort, label, and package food to distribute to those in need.

“By engaging with our surrounding communities and fostering those relationships, we inherently strengthen the bonds within our own Pepperdine community as well,” said Libby Bucci, Seaver College senior and special events director at the Pepperdine Volunteer Center. “Our goal is to learn more about these organizations and people, engage with them and accommodate their needs, and encourage participants to take interest in social justice throughout our own community and beyond.”

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snapshot

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Swiss Bliss

Since 2007 Pepperdine students living in the Maison du Lac facility in Lausanne, Switzerland, have stood in awe of the magnificent 180-degree views of Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps dotting the horizon.

Now a decade after its launch, Pepperdine’s popular Lausanne international program averages around 80 students during the academic year and is the home of the largest University campus abroad.

Photo: Moises Barba

feature

Land

of

During a summer internship program in Israel, a group of students explores the rich politics, culture, and history of the Middle East

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Opportu Each summer since 2010, a small group of students representing Pepperdine’s five schools travels to Tel Aviv, Israel, to fulfill two-month internships made available through the University’s Brenden Mann Internship Program coordinated by the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies. Through custom-selected opportunities based on their areas of professional interest, students are connected with global businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and law firms to take advantage of the engaging, challenging, and eye-opening experiences that the city’s booming economic, cultural, and spiritual offerings provide.

Upon their return to the United States in August, five students shared how this once-in-a-lifetime journey shaped their approach to international business practices and informed their perspectives of one of the most dynamic countries on earth.

nity

By Sara Alamdar

I didn't know much about the conflict in the Middle East prior to going, so it was extremely impactful to gain a firsthand understanding of the complications involved.

– Anna Goodman

ANNA GOODMAN

SCHOOL OF LAW | Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center) are being held accountable … to me, that was such a meaningful and powerful experience,” she says.

Determined to pursue a career in international law, and with just a few months of law school experience under her belt, Anna Goodman eagerly signed on to assist the staff at Shurat HaDin—a nonprofit law firm that works with victims of terror attacks and manages civil litigations on their behalf.

“When you realize you’re working on behalf of families whose loved ones have been killed or those who have been physically maimed or disabled, and that you’re standing up for their rights and making sure that the people responsible

At Shurat HaDin, Goodman worked alongside eight other law school interns from the United States to research regional terror attacks, write briefs and responses, and help prepare the firm’s attorneys for cases currently in court—a substantial amount of legal labor for a first-year law student.

Goodman’s internship also connected her with cabinet members serving under Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, members of Israeli intelligence organization Mossad (formally named HaMossad leModiʿin uleTafkidim Meyuḥadim), as well as American FBI agents, all of whom widened her perspective of the region’s unique sociopolitical disagreements.

“I didn’t know much about the conflict in the Middle East prior to going,” Goodman admits, “so it was extremely impactful to gain a firsthand understanding of the complications involved. It seems like everyone on both sides is trying to find a solution, and many people genuinely have hope that there can be peaceful coexistence.”

Through interactions with Israeli residents, Goodman also sensed an undeniable presence of community, security, and openness among the nation’s communities. “Israel faces so many external threats that they have become much closer as a culture,” she notes. “There is such a high level of responsibility that internal crime is almost nonexistent.”

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feature SEAVER COLLEGE | Peres Center for Peace and Innovation

CHAD DEBOE

organization that engages in several different sectors to improve coexistence between groups commonly divided by geopolitical tension—founded by former prime minister and president of Israel, Shimon Peres. At the Peres Center, DeBoe was in charge of editorial and Chad DeBoe grew up in a household that administrative tasks to advance a special frequently emphasized Israel’s pertinent program funded by the United States role in history, religion, and global Agency for International Development—a politics. So when the political science and soccer program that brings Israeli, Arab economics major first entered college, he Israeli, and (West Bank) Palestinian girls resolved to actively broaden his knowledge together to play and interact with one of the nation and its people. In Tel Aviv’s another. “They bring girls of opposing and neighboring city of Jaffa, DeBoe interned often contentious narratives together to in the peace education department at the foster a human connection through sports Peres Center for Peace and Innovation—a and education that may not be possible as nongovernmental, nonpolitical, nonprofit they get older and cynicism creeps in,” he

AMELIA DAL PRA (’17)

SEAVER COLLEGE | Peres Center for Peace and Innovation As an intern at the Peres Center’s public relations department, Dal Pra was primarily assigned to writing press releases—some of which were published in the Times of Israel website and Jerusalem Post newspaper.

During her junior year at Seaver College, Amelia Dal Pra (’17) nurtured a newfound passion for Judaism by taking courses through the Glazer Institute and expanding her knowledge of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. To supplement her academic studies, she also routinely attended Shabbat dinners at Jewish friends’ homes around Los Angeles to learn more about their religion and customs. Moving to Tel Aviv for the summer to catch an even closer glimpse of Israel’s daily spiritual practices, social etiquette, and corporate operations seemed like a natural next step.

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says of the program. “It allows the girls to challenge themselves and see each other as human.” DeBoe, who also nurtured his love for sports outside of work by playing beach volleyball and running alongside the shore at Frishman Beach, further explains that without such programs, members of these three communities might never have the opportunity or inclination to seek these types of intercultural friendships.

“These girls have matured in ways that a vast majority of people never will,” he contends. “Living in Israel and [interning] at the Peres Center has not only sparked an intrigue in these anthropological [issues], but has also challenged me to take a step back and reflect on how I personally [would] tackle these same issues.”

While fine-tuning her global communication skills at the office, Dal Pra was surprised to find that social discussions of controversial topics were not avoided and, often, even encouraged.

“Religion and politics are immediately the first things they talk to you about,” she reveals. “So you learn how to have real, authentic conversations with people.”

While strategic communication was a primary objective at work, Dal Pra also spent silent, “surreal moments” overlooking Israel’s breathtaking

landscape and thinking back to all of the biblical stories she had heard as a little girl that had taken place in those exact physical locations.

As Dal Pra explains, “I always imagined as a kid that Jesus walked for days in these really spread out lands and vast areas.

But when I got there, I saw that I could stand in front of the Sea of Galilee and almost touch Capernaum, Tiberias, and Magdala. I could stand in the areas where 80 percent of the events in the Gospels took place.”

“You can walk through the ruins of Capernaum and imagine—in the simplicity of it all—this seemingly insignificant place where Jesus spent a lot of his time. These simple experiences in the quiet were very spiritual and moving for me.”

ENRIQUE NAVARRO-DONNELLAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY | International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, to discuss and determine national policy.

Excited to visit a part of the world he had never seen before, Enrique NavarroDonnellan spent his summer at ICT researching and documenting acts of terrorism in the Middle East with special focus on airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

Administration at ICT also granted him access to attend the Herzliya Conference, an annual gathering of domestic and global political leaders, including Israel’s former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon

ANTHONY CARDENAS

Sponsored by Israel’s Institute for Policy and Strategy, the Herzliya Conference presented Navarro-Donnellan with the coveted opportunity to learn more about the complexities of interregional cooperation and domestic terrorism issues, as well as diplomatic strategies from a vast array of internationally known government officials, including former United Kingdom prime minister Tony Blair.

“After seeing the impact the speakers had on influencing world affairs, [the conference] reaffirmed the value I see in the career path that I want to

At Alpha Bull, Cardenas was responsible for identifying investments in the global equity markets, analyzing the international segmentation of Tel Aviv’s initial public offering market, and building predictive models for various equities and currency pairs in order

Now back in Malibu, Navarro-Donnellan highly recommends that other Pepperdine students take advantage of the Brenden Mann Internship Program.

As he puts it, “The program opened the door for me to be in the presence of [world-renowned] government leaders.

It was an invaluable experience.”

GRAZIADIO SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT | Alpha Bull to estimate potential threats to, and opportunities for, the company.

Having just discovered his Sephardic roots, along with the prospect of interning at preeminent global financial services company Alpha Bull, MBA candidate Anthony Cardenas jumped at the opportunity to visit the land he describes as “a bastion of freedom and liberty in a place otherwise known for authoritarianism and intolerance.”

take,” Navarro-Donnellan shares. “It reminded me that international politics is remarkably personal. There are human interaction elements that are important to master, [and those elements] may be even more important than the professional training that is involved [in terms of] resolution-crafting and success.”

“The relationship I built with the CEO of Alpha Bull was not only my best experience in Israel, but one of the best in my life,” he shares about Yacov Harpaz, a renowned financier who has worked on Wall Street, managed some of the largest banks in Israel, and is responsible for spearheading the deployment of Israel's structured financial products.

Cardenas was also involved in Alpha Bull’s investment endeavors in a Tel Aviv-based medical research startup—a project that landed him a remote position as the startup’s investor relations consultant back in Los Angeles.

Most recently, he has teamed up with Alpha Bull’s chief technology officer to launch another startup company, this time targeting commercial and industrial equipment markets.

“Pepperdine does better than most business schools in solidifying a sense of global community and local purpose in the classroom,” Cardenas explains. “This makes it easy to handle a wide variety of backgrounds and personalities in a professional setting, and I can’t think of a more diverse place in the world than the Middle East—specifically Israel.”

“The analytical arsenal and interpersonal skills provided by the Graziadio School are second to none,” he continues, “and I rightfully attribute my success in Israel to the experiences in and outside the classroom at Pepperdine University.”

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Long after they have left the hallowed halls of their alma mater, Pepperdine graduates continue to pioneer groundbreaking advancements in their careers, promote goodwill and fellowship within their communities, and inspire the ever-growing global community of alumni to follow these same traditions while creating new ones of their own. Selected from hundreds of nominations, these 40 alumni over the age of 40 are distinctly and successfully demonstrating the University’s mission of purpose, service, and leadership through their personal passions and professional accomplishments.

The following excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

See each honoree’s full responses: pepperdine.edu/40over40

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1. Marisa Ala (‘95, JD ‘98)

3. James J. Balla (BSM ‘84, MBA ‘94)

5. Alan Beard (‘94, MPP ‘99)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I had the opportunity to argue a residential construction case before the Colorado Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of my client—a significant victory for builders and developers in the state of Colorado that may stimulate the growth of new residential multi-family home construction.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I have had the opportunity to both share and lead in the development of Pacific Clinics—a behavioral healthcare nonprofit organization that provides life-changing services to approximately 25,000 clients annually. This has been accomplished through implementing critical business strategies, adapting to a healthcare delivery system in transformation, and ensuring access to quality care for underserved populations.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I founded social media agency McBeard along with fellow alumnus Alec McNayr (‘00) and hired dozens of amazing Pepperdine alumni.

Owner, The Ala Firm Highlands Ranch, CO

Chief Marketing Officer, Fullscreen Thousand Oaks, CA

President/CEO, Pacific Clinics Los Angeles, CA

Who or what inspires you?

My 12-year-old daughter, Ariel, who entered the foster care system at only two months old. She fights her history every day. She gets up and tries again, tries to be good, tries to do the right thing and still has empathy for others.

What’s next for you?

I plan to grow my estate planning practice. After living through my own family’s struggles with the passing of my grandparents, I have developed a passion to help people protect the wealth they have worked so hard to build.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

My service in the US Marine Corps was profoundly meaningful. I would have enjoyed a continuing role in the military. The character and spirit of my fellow Marines was uplifting, and the purpose of defending our country and its principles is awe-inspiring.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

Making a Difference Takes Responsibility

2. Tiffany Baker (MBA ‘09)

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Oracle Denver, CO

4. Tamalani Barnett (‘99, JD ‘02)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I traveled around the world to market Oracle Cloud to top business leaders and IT influencers at events including Oracle OpenWorld—the premier annual event attracting over 50,000 attendees in the IT industry from over 123 countries.

Are you where you thought you would be in life when you were in college?

Beyond my marketing career at different Fortune 500 companies, I am also an entrepreneur, which is something I fantasized about in the Entrepreneur 101 class. I own and operate a medical service business on the side that generates a six-figure revenue annually.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

The Girl with Gumption. As a teenager, I interned for a local county judge in Montgomery, Alabama, and had to own up to a mistake. Instead of firing me, the judge said, “You’ve got a lot of gumption. Don’t screw up again.” From that moment on, I’ve never been afraid to admit when I’ve made a mistake.

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Founder/Executive Director, RaisingHOPE, Inc. Thousand Oaks, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

As a lawyer, I had the opportunity to advocate for children who were vulnerable to continued abuse and bring to light the abuse that nobody else noticed. Helping children feel less alone and afraid is one of the greatest privileges I have ever had.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine set a standard for the person I wanted to be and helped me move toward being that person. I was inspired to serve others and show the love of Christ to others through my career.

Who or what inspires you?

Teamwork. Any time I see a group of people, especially unlikely allies, working together for a common good, I am completely moved. There is so much division in our world that seeing people put their differences aside to help others stands out as a beacon of light.

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How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine has brought great people into my life—at home, at work, and at church. Every day my life is made better by my fellow alumni, especially my wife, Sharon. Everything I’ve accomplished has been in partnership with her. Meeting her was the best moment of my Pepperdine experience.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I would have enjoyed being a banjo musician.

6. Stiphan Beher (‘84)

Advisor on FDI, President’s Office of the Kyrgyz Republic Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

As advisor to the president of the Kyrgyz Republic, I have secured projects supporting the sustainable economic development of the country totaling $170 million USD in the past year and a half.

As CEO of a new space start-up, SpaceTek, I have also successfully entered into key partnerships in the spheres of space manufacturing, microgravity research, and space tourism.

Who or what inspires you?

Elon Musk and Jeffrey Manber have faced failure yet continue to open space to commercial enterprise.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill How do you unplug?

Being in central Asia, going to the regional provinces helps me appreciate what we take for granted.

I enjoy the isolation from lack of technology.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I always envisioned a career as a diplomat, bridging cultures and societies.

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9. Scott Bowling (MA ‘90)

11. Dechele M. Byrd (MS ‘01)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

• Olympic gold medalist, beach volleyball (2000)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

My biggest accomplishment thus far has been expanding the Exceptional Children’s Foundation’s mission impact and creating a unique service continuum with the statutory merger of the Kayne Eras Center into the Exceptional Children’s Foundation in 2007/2008.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

One of the most significant outcomes of my career is the growth in the number of my students (24 percent) accepted to UCLA in 2016. Having any student accepted into the colleges and careers of their choice each year upon graduation is the ultimate goal.

President/CEO, Exceptional Children’s Foundation Los Angeles, CA

Broadcaster/Speaker/Coach Santa Monica, CA

• First African American to win a major beach volleyball title (1997) • First US male two-time beach volleyball Olympian (2000, 2004) • NCAA champion, men’s volleyball (1992) • Three-time National Championship assistant coach (beach volleyball) at USC (2015, 2016, 2017)

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine’s education, as well as its values, reputation, and influence, helped to strengthen my commitment to service while preparing me for exceptional professional opportunities.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

While at Pepperdine, I won a national championship in volleyball, earned my teaching credential, and received my degree in communications.

Men’s volleyball head coach Marv Dunphy (‘74) was the biggest inspiration, as he helped me develop the character and skills that I have used throughout my life.

Who or what inspires you?

Leaders who make decisions and take action based on solid values.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

Getting to Gold: the Life and Times of Dain Blanton

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I was president of the Pepperdine Alumni Board for two years and spent 18 years producing a flag-raising ceremony to teach patriotism to our Glenbrook community.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Help one person each day get closer to realizing their goals.

8. Kim Carlton Bonner (JD ‘90) Circuit Court Judge Sarasota, FL

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I have taught new judges at their mandatory training for many years and served as dean for an intensive education program focusing on DUI and traffic court cases. Helping new judges learn the ropes and navigate difficult situations while offering support and advice has been the most rewarding way to pay it forward in my career.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

I always do my best to uphold the values of integrity and professionalism that Pepperdine instilled in me as a law student. I am so grateful to the faculty and staff for their support and outreach, especially as a struggling first-year student who needed some guidance and very nearly quit.

10. Lorraine Hill Brinton (‘60)

Semi-Retired Volunteer Palm Desert, CA, and Glenbrook, NV

Principal, George Washington Preparatory High School Gardena, CA

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“Excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.” —Barack Obama What’s next?

Upon the completion of my doctoral degree, I would like to become a consultant to school districts with at-risk youth or youth who reside in crime-infested communities.

12. Ray Chips (EdD ‘99)

Who or what inspires you?

My mother; a softball coach who taught me to be a good third baseman for our church team; the man who gave me my first job at age 15; Clara Marble, our Zeta Kappa mentor; and Helen Young, who was at Pepperdine for three of my years.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I would have enjoyed being an event planner. I’ve had the pleasure of planning many special events for the organizations I’ve been associated with.

Program Specialist, Irvine Police Department Irvine, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Having a positive impact on the academic success, social maturation, and citizenship responsibility of thousands of students as a high school administrator. In my law enforcement career, providing violent intruder response skills to hundreds of community members.

Who or what inspires you?

I am inspired by teachers and administrators who give so much of themselves daily for the benefit of their students. I am equally inspired by similar sacrifices made by police officers who sacrifice their personal safety and well-being for the benefit of our community daily.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”

—Publilius Syrus How do you unplug?

Fussing over two classic cars, reading historical nonfiction, and working crossword puzzles.

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Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“If you can’t laugh at yourself, someone else will just do it for you.”

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

Books and Naps: A Love Story

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13. Morgan Christen (MBA ‘06)

CEO/CIO Spinnaker Investment Group, LLC Mission Viejo, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

My greatest accomplishment has been launching Spinnaker Investment Group in May 2016.

We started with no assets under management and now have over $200 million.

How has Pepperdine impacted your personal/ professional success?

The education from my professors and interaction with my classmates has helped me with managing a firm and personnel. I learned to take a much more global approach to planning and problem solving.

In five words or fewer, what career or life advice would you give a new college graduate?

Learn to pivot.

14. Lance Christensen (MPP ‘04)

Chief of Staff, California State Senator John Moorlach Sacramento, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

It’s an honor of a lifetime to work as chief of staff to state senator John Moorlach, the man who saved Orange County from the largest bankruptcy in the nation’s history (until that point). I have been blessed to be a trusted confidant, manager, and leader at the forefront in the many debates on the state’s $265 billion budget, transportation issues, pension reform, and religious liberty.

How do you unplug?

I mow the lawn.

What three things could you not live without?

My wife, Oreo cookies, and Brian Wilson’s music.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

I’ve rediscovered the prescient aphorism that, in a time of serious need, we need to light a candle rather than simply shout in the dark. At a minimum, light drives out darkness and leads to clarity and understanding.

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15. Stephanie Frahme Cupp (‘94)

17. Marv Dunphy (‘74)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

January 2018 will mark my 15th anniversary working for Pepperdine. It has been my privilege to help welcome new faculty into the Pepperdine culture and encourage them to bring their life experiences and faith into the classroom to benefit our students.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Helping the Pepperdine men’s volleyball program develop good players and good people.

Program Coordinator, Pepperdine Center for Faith and Learning Malibu, CA

How has Pepperdine impacted your personal/ professional success?

From my undergraduate years to being a faculty spouse to working at Pepperdine and now being a Pepperdine parent, Pepperdine has shaped who I am in each of my roles and how I have chosen to live out my story.

Who or what inspires you? Tell us why.

I take daily encouragement from Mother Teresa, who taught deep lessons about being faithful in the small things, treating each person I meet as if they were Jesus, and learning first to love those closest to me before trying to tackle the world.

Are you where you thought you would be in life when you were in college?

Definitely not! I thought I’d be a nurse out in the jungle somewhere in South America.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

The Goat Girl: From Ranch to University, Lessons I’ve Learned About Community

16. Andy Dunbar (JD ‘99)

General Counsel/Chief Compliance Officer, Bel Air Investment Advisors LLC La Cañada Flintridge, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

One of the very first investigations I led as an enforcement lawyer at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) turned out to be one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history at that time. Heading up that case opened the door to more high-profile cases while at the SEC and ultimately gave me the experience that helped me succeed as a partner at a big firm.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

I try to live simply, be grateful, practice mindfulness, and be present.

Are you where you thought you would be in life when you were in college?

I graduated college without any clue of a career.

I was a blackjack dealer in Lake Tahoe for a while, and I knew it wasn’t a long-term career option.

My oldest brother is a lawyer, and I figured having a law background would open additional career options and provide a bit more job security.

Retired Men's Volleyball Coach Teacher, Pepperdine University Malibu, CA

Who or what inspires you?

The great young people who have allowed me to coach them over the years.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“Individuals never lose the desire to be treated as individuals.” — John Wooden What three things could you not live without?

Family, good health, and great friends—and, of course, great players!

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Take care of your own front porch.

18. Jim Freitas (MBA ‘14, PKE 132)

Managing Director, Product Marketing and Analysis, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Snohomish, WA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I have been fortunate to be in leadership roles developing, testing, and supporting some of Boeing’s most successful airplanes. My most significant accomplishment is seeing the career growth of young people that I have been able to mentor. Knowing they will mentor others makes it almost eternal.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

My great-great-grandfather immigrated to California from the Azores Islands in the 1860s.

He bought land in central California and raised cows, sheep, and chickens. Every now and then I wonder what it would be like to be a rancher.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Hydroponic biofuels (algae grown in salt water that consumes carbon dioxide and releases oxygen while growing) providing a nearly carbon-neutral energy source for cars, trucks, and airplanes.

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Director of Orthopaedic Athletic Medicine, Gamradt Orthopaedics Associate Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery, USC Keck School of Medicine Los Angeles, CA How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Professors within the Natural Science Division provided a scholastic foundation to continue my education at an Ivy League medical school and fostered my confidence to succeed in a highly competitive field.

Who or what inspires you?

It seems like our students and trainees are smarter and more impressive every year, which challenges me to be the best surgeon, mentor, and educator I can be.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

“Your opponent is still training.” It motivated me in high school, and it still motivates me to never rest on past accomplishments.

Founder/CEO, Rework Work Los Angeles, CA

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine has been instrumental in helping me make the impact I have had the opportunity to make. I have contributed as a speaker to Pepperdine’s women’s events, diversity events, and career-related events—all of which align directly to my work as a career strategist and diversity educator.

In five words or fewer, what career or life advice would you give a new college graduate?

Be humble enough to learn.

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Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Owning my own companies, being an involved father of five, and trying to be there for my wife, friends, and family while maintaining the workload of an MBA was a challenge, to say the least. When graduation day came, all those challenges simply faded into a proud moment as we all walked that Pepperdine stage together.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

The PKE program gave me a greater understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. Being in a class with highly successful yet extremely different personalities and strengths gifted me the ability to realize that one way of doing something didn’t mean it was the only way.

Which quote, mantra, or philosophy motivates you?

One that I always say to the soccer teams I coach is, “You’ll win plays with your muscles, you’ll win games with your mind, but if you play with your heart, you’ll win championships.”

22. Peggy Grande (‘89)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

One of the most significant accomplishments of my career is having had the opportunity to impact people’s lives by creating strategies to overcome unconscious bias. I receive messages every day from people who have taken my course and hear stories of how they have changed their behaviors.

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Cofounder/Chief Technology Officer, Built On Vision Ladera Ranch, CA

23. Kimberly (Herman) Hassett (JD ‘94) Deputy District Attorney, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Los Angeles, CA

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Alternative Sentencing Court programs are designed to reduce recidivism by assisting defendants with their underlying problems that can contribute to criminal conduct. As the alternative sentencing court coordinator for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, I am most proud of the people whose lives were changed and the paths that were altered because they were given a chance to participate in treatment rather than incarceration.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine gave me a strong foundation for a career in public service and instilled in me the ideals of serving my community and treating others as I would want to be treated.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

Friends and Chocolate

24. Zack Hicks (BSM ‘97)

20. Stacey A. Gordon (MBA ‘07)

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21. George Goubran (MBA ‘16, PKE 135)

Author/Keynote Speaker/Specialty Project Consultant La Cañada Flintridge, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Working for President Ronald Reagan was the honor and opportunity of a lifetime. To sit right outside the office door of this iconic man for over a decade and serve as his executive assistant left a lasting impact on me. The timeless leadership principles and political civility that he embodied changed my life forever and has the power and potential to change other lives for the better still today.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I may have missed my true calling as a trauma doctor. As the mother of four, I have seen many injuries and situations requiring quick analysis, a calm demeanor, and a swift course of action.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Live as if your legacy depends on it because it does.

Your legacy is not something that is written after you are gone, but is written with every day of your life.

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CEO, Toyota Connected, and SVP, Toyota Motor North America Dallas, TX Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I’m passionate about driving innovation and unleashing the talent that exists in our company.

I’ve been given the opportunity to do so through technology, innovation fairs, and creating a culture of innovation creation. We’ve invented new big data mining capabilities that led to Toyota launching a new start-up.

What career or life advice would you give a new college graduate?

Learn as much IT as you can because it’s needed in every role in every industry. Make lateral moves and don’t always be focused on upward mobility.

What’s next?

I’m leading a new division called Connected Technologies that will build the next-generation in-vehicle connected experience that will help keep you safe and entertained while you’re in and out of our vehicles.

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25. Adam Housley (‘94)

Senior Correspondent, Fox News Northern and Southern California Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I have met people from around the world and covered some of the most prolific news stories of our time, from the Chilean miners to war zones, tsunamis to the World Series. I am an Emmy, AP, and RTDNA award winner.

How do you unplug?

Working in my yards while listening to music.

Traveling anywhere in the world with my family.

Working at our winery in Northern California.

Rebuilding homes. Watching sports.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I always wanted to be a professional baseball player and got that opportunity for a few years.

Outside of that, an ambassador would be an amazing experience. I’ve also always wanted to develop new businesses and write articles and books.

27. Geoffrey Koboldt (MBA ‘03)

29. Monica Mallet (EdD ‘17)

Architectural Technical Sales Manager, Acuity Brands Corona Hills, CA

Education Specialist/Professor, Relativity Education Los Angeles, CA

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I built a multimillion company from scratch along with two other business partners. Seeing a product that we created in a Fortune 500 mass retailer for the first time was an incredible feeling.

We gave a percentage of our profits to several charities and made a positive impact on the skateboarding youth and the 125 college interns we mentored.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

I remember a professor saying to us MBA students, “If you aren’t moving laterally or up continuously in the company, get out! Don’t let a company hold you back from growing professionally.” Since then, I haven’t been afraid to leave environments that I felt were limiting my potential.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

The Rebellious Spiritual Warrior Who Fell Asleep While Meditating

26. Jacki Kelley (‘88)

Chief Operating Officer, Bloomberg Media New Canaan, CT Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I left USA TODAY after 18 years to jump into the deep end of digital. It required me to uproot my family, leave a team I loved, forfeit equity in a brand I helped build, and become a beginner again. It ended up changing the trajectory of my career, but I am glad I felt the fear and did it anyway.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine gave me both roots and wings.

I gained confidence in my ability to lead and humility to know I can’t accomplish anything alone.

Who or what inspires you?

I am inspired by people that demonstrate resilience. Anyone that demonstrates the faith to be still in times of adversity and rises up despite the ache is always an inspiration to me.

How do you unplug?

If I am really honest, a great TV drama or reality TV! After a long day, hanging out with my teenage daughter and watching Dancing with the Stars is a great way to unplug!

28. Andy Kubitz (MBA ‘11, PKE 125)

Executive Vice President, Programming Strategy, ABC Television Manhattan Beach, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Being a small part of the birth of reality television with a show called Survivor, helping to find a home for TV’s reinvention of the crime procedural with the CSI franchise, and making TV on Thursday night cool again with ABC’s #TGIT lineup.

Who or what inspires you?

My father, a man who worked in a factory his entire life and never complained, believed a hard day’s work builds character, and always provided for his wife and three children.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

My most significant project thus far is the annual Super Star Mothers Awards show, which honors mothers in the fields of health, education, philanthropy, and business who make a significant impact in the world. Our first ceremony will be at Smothers Theatre on May 6, 2018.

Are you where you thought you would be in life when you were in college?

I was on track to work in entertainment for the rest of my life, but when my brother who majored in elementary education was shot and killed before starting his student teaching, I knew that I had to do something to make a change in the lives of the type of young people who were the perpetrators.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Forgiveness.

30. Shannon McAndrews (EdD ‘15)

Learning Programs, Products, and Services Team, AVID Center Headquarters Carlsbad, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Through my intentional design, AVID Elementary (K-8) became the fastest growing program for AVID Center with quality instructional practices, realistic assessment parameters, and real-world applicability.

How has your Pepperdine experience impacted your personal/professional success?

The organizational leadership doctoral program influenced my perspective, skills, and abilities to foster, lead, and empower individuals and teams.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I would have liked to pursue a career as a lawyer striving for social justice for all.

What profession other than your own would you have liked to attempt?

I have always loved computers and technology and would have liked to have become a computer engineer and designed video games.

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feature 31. Dwayne K. Moring (‘84, JD ‘91)

33. Jason H. Pates (‘95, MPP ‘99)

35. Denise Roberson (MBA ‘14, PKE 131)

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

The careers I chose had a strong service component emphasizing helping others and improving society.

As a public defender, I represented indigent defendants charged with serious crimes. As a deputy district attorney, I prosecuted individuals accused of committing sex crimes against children and adults. Finally, as a judge I view my role as a leader in the criminal justice system.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

My professional experiences supporting public sector concerns, such as examining ways for the US Treasury Department to leverage free market signals to better measure bank risk-taking, are my most significant. Another key project was consulting with the US Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, to help develop and deploy humanitarian assistance training during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I was fortunate enough to help launch the National Geographic Society’s Animal Jam online game worldwide. It brings me great joy to see a new generation of NatGeo kids who come from completely diverse backgrounds, don’t speak the same language, and don’t even live on the same continent, all coexisting beautifully in an online world where they can explore animals and nature with world-class experts, travel through foreign lands, and celebrate their amazing differences in total harmony.

Judge, San Diego Superior Court Chula Vista, CA

Senior Consultant, Cisco Systems, Inc. Wake Forest, NC

Are you where you thought you would be in life when you were in college?

If I hadn’t attended law school, I would have applied to film school. I also still plan to put my journalism degree to use by pursuing a career as a writer of screenplays, graphic novels, or a website dedicated to legal analysis, entertainment, and politics after I retire from the bench.

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

A society-wide effort to improve civility and respect for differing opinions with the goal of eliminating the belief that “compromise” is a negative word.

32. Tara C. Morrow (‘94, MS ‘00)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Bethany Christian School has worked hard during the past five years to make sure our curriculum and programs are relevant to 21st-century learning while continuing to retain foundations of strong academics and Christian values.

Who or what inspires you?

Women in leadership inspire me—women who lead with integrity, love Jesus, show kindness, and are intelligent, efficient, and encouraging.

How do you unplug?

Nothing says “vacation” to me like getting in the car on the open road, where I have time to think, create, listen, learn, sing, and pray.

In five words or fewer, what career or life advice would you give a new college graduate?

Effort plus passion equals impact.

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Who or what inspires you?

George Pepperdine, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling, to name a few. Watching God’s plan at work in the lives of others is both inspirational and motivational.

How do you unplug?

I enjoy screenwriting and find fun in exploring relationships and divining new takes on old stories.

I also enjoy coaching my kids’ sports teams and watching them experience new things.

34. William Anthony Richardson (BSM ‘16)

Principal, Bethany Christian School Westlake Village, CA

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CEO, Jadi Communications Laguna Beach, CA

Manager, Standard Development Los Angeles, CA

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I cofounded Rundalay, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit running club that holds monthly charity drives for the local Downtown LA community, including Fred Jordan Mission, LA Mission, Toys For Tots, Midnight Mission, and many other local charities.

Who or what inspires you?

Giving to those in need is something that my mother drilled in me since I was a child. I especially enjoy volunteering at the VA hospital and helping the American Veterans organization (Amvets), which my mom was heavily involved in.

Is there a particular quote, mantra, or philosophy that motivates you?

I’ve always believed that God will bless me the more I bless others. I just want to be a funnel that God pours his blessings through to bless others.

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Who or what inspires you?

I’m inspired by great innovators who are trying to create change through sustainability initiatives that impact diversity, poverty, planetary resources, and equality, and who believe corporate profits are not the only marker of business success.

What three things could you not live without?

Family, adventure, and purpose.

36. Michael S. Saddik (MBA ‘08, PKE 120)

CEO, Built On Vision/Cofounder, Myndsi.com Laguna Niguel, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Mentoring team members. I continue those relationships even after they or I leave the organization where we met. When I see their careers and personal lives develop, and they work on becoming the best version of themselves, I am honored to have played a small part in that.

What would your autobiography or memoir be called?

What Was I Thinking?

What’s one idea you think could change the world?

Changing how we as a society view problems.

We spend too much time looking at problems and not enough time on solutions. If we tried to help people be the best versions of themselves, we can solve all the world’s problems collectively.

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37. Terry A. Schroeder (‘81)

39. Ryan Stankevich (‘97)

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I have the opportunity to coach, teach, and inspire young athletes to do well in their sport, but more importantly to help prepare them to be successful husbands, fathers, and businessmen.

Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

Overseeing the publicity campaign on Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 was one of the toughest but most rewarding experiences of my career. Building a global campaign for a film brand that hadn’t been on screen in more than a decade was exciting but pressure filled. It was thrilling to break box office records we hadn’t even thought were possible.

Head Water Polo Coach, Pepperdine University Chiropractor, Live in Alignment Chiropractic Lake Sherwood, CA

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

Pepperdine was the perfect fit for me to grow up with faith at the center of my life. As a student, I developed skills that helped me become a sixtime Olympian (four as an athlete and two as a coach). I am so blessed that Pepperdine has been a part of my life for the past 35-plus years.

In five words or fewer, what career or life advice would you give a new college graduate?

Make excellence a habit!

What’s next?

Continue coaching to help bring another NCAA title to Pepperdine and continue to work as a chiropractor in my practice to help people with their health every day.

38. Danone Simpson (MBA ‘12)

CEO, Montage Insurance Solutions Woodland Hills, CA Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

My most significant accomplishment in my current career was opening Danone Simpson Insurance Services. Not having insurance at 18 and being in a life-threatening accident gave me the passion for the importance of insurance.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

The Graziadio School was a reach as I turned 56.

I learned we can do anything we put our minds to with the help of brilliant teams.

How do you unplug?

Mary Kay Ash said that you must have your “top three.” Hers were God first, family second, and career third. I have used these same values to help me prioritize my days, weeks, months, and years, and I set goals for each decade of my life.

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Senior Vice President, Global Publicity, The Walt Disney Studios Los Angeles, CA

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

The time I spent in Florence was one of the most valuable experiences of my college career. Now that my job entails international work and global responsibility, I am grateful that I have that background.

How do you unplug?

I’m a huge fan of cooking and sharing good meals with family and friends. It relaxes me and gives me a creative outlet.

40. Gregory E. Sterling (MA ‘80)

The Rev. Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School New Haven, CT Describe your most significant career accomplishment.

I led the effort to diversify Yale Divinity School in four areas: representation, curriculum, cocurriculum, and iconography.

How has Pepperdine impacted your success?

In the first class I took with Frank Pack, he offered an overview of the history of New Testament textual criticism without ever consulting a note. I remember thinking that this is what a professor should be able to do. He has mastered the material and can handle it at will. He was also a model of a believing scholar.

He helped me realize that scholarship and faith were not polar opposites—an understanding that is common today but was not when I was a student.

Who or what inspires you?

My father was a minister in Churches of Christ for 46 years. Serving churches was my parents’ life.

I never attended a church that did not grow because my parents served people unstintingly. They had deep compassion for the frailties of people but did not ignore human responsibility.

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feature

MATERIAL From Marilyn to Nehru, photographer LAWRENCE SCHILLER (’57) captured the incredible true stories of some of the most fascinating people in modern history

By Gareen Darakjian

All photos: courtesy of Lawrence Schiller Oswald’s Gun, Dallas, November 22, 1963

W

here were you when you heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas?

Lawrence Schiller was at his home in Los Angeles when his wife announced what she had just heard on the radio. Within hours he had traveled some 1,400 miles, reaching Dallas police headquarters just as Lee Harvey Oswald was being booked on suspicion of assassinating the 35th president of the United States. Working for the Saturday Evening Post, Schiller had arrived just in time to take some of the first photographs of one of the most notorious killers of our time,

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introducing the rest of the world to the face of the defiant accused assassin and the rifle that changed the course of American history.

“I raised my Leica, shot two frames, and made what would become an iconic image,” Schiller remembers. His strategy for telling a story in a single frame? “Finding, as Henri CartierBresson said, ‘the decisive moment.’”

Film footage shot on the second floor of the police station that day shows Schiller standing alone just steps away from the sea of photographers. “Get out of the way!” can be heard coming from the group, distractedly unaware of the strategic process in play.

“I never did feel comfortable being where the other photographers were standing,” Schiller explains. “I was never part of the pack. I always had to do what nobody else was doing.”

Just a few years prior, Schiller was a student at George Pepperdine College in Los Angeles taking photos of life on campus, from drama to sports to student body elections.

He had won a scholarship to Pepperdine after submitting one of his shots to a scholastic sports photo competition run by the Hearst Newspapers.

After living in campus housing for the first few semesters, Schiller eventually rented an apartment nearby and was given a small office next to the Dolores statue near the center of the school. When he wasn’t in class, he used the space to make appointments for photo shoots and meetings—and to plan his next moves. His photography career was taking off and he eventually outgrew the space. Needing a darkroom and a larger place to shoot, he moved his burgeoning business to the basement of President Hugh Tiner’s home on campus. That summer, Pepperdine rented out part of the campus to a school for baton twirlers.

“I took this picture of some 200 to 300 girls all throwing their batons in the air and sent it to the Saturday Evening Post for their ‘The Face of America’ pictorial,” Schiller remembers. “When they said they wanted to publish it, I wasn’t too attentive

to the caption—‘A school for baton twirlers sponsored by Pepperdine College.’ When it was published, the school didn’t think it represented their image very well.”

After a stern talking-to by the dean, Schiller promised to be more mindful and continued to document the campus experience while contributing to the school yearbook.

A portrait he shot of California governor Goodwin J. Knight during a campus visit garnered so much praise from the politician’s team that the governor made it his official portrait.

While still a student at Pepperdine, Schiller began selling his photos to international publications—the only ones that would hire a 20-year-old college student to photograph some of the world’s most famous—and infamous—personalities. Foreign magazines like France’s Paris Match needed a photographer on the west coast and Schiller

In 1962, on the set of Something’s Got to Give, what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s final film, Schiller was commissioned again by Paris Match to document the production, a common promotional tool that movie studios utilized prior to a film’s release.

Over the course of the six-week production, Schiller captured the star both on set and behind the scenes. The “money shot” was catching the playful starlet splashing around in a pool sequence.

Unbeknownst to the crew—and to Schiller— Monroe had decided to go off-script and emerge from the water wearing less than what the production notes called for.

Schiller’s shutter captured each moment on endless rolls of film and scored covers and numerous pages not only in Match but in Life, Time, and Stern. While the film was never completed—famously disrupted by Monroe’s personal troubles—and was completely abandoned after her untimely death, photos from that set are some of Schiller’s bestknown and most celebrated pieces.

If you dig even a little bit into Schiller’s relationship with Monroe, you will discover that their bond was unconventional at times, and one that Schiller still cherishes now over 50 years later. There are tales of them poring over contact sheets under a streetlamp on Sunset Boulevard Lee Harvey Oswald, Dallas, November 22, 1963 in Monroe’s Thunderbird—her, was happy to ingratiate himself with the drinking Dom Pérignon out of a brown paper likes of Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood, bag as she cut up the color transparencies Bette Davis and Barbra Streisand, to capture she didn’t like with pinking shears, and him, Hollywood royalty on the rise. He remembers sweating as she destroyed his handiwork— working late hours on a photo essay for hesitant, but confident in her process.

Life magazine featuring Jack Lemmon and lamenting the hour-and-a-half drive home. Schiller had no reason not to trust her. She was practically a professional photographer “Jack said, ‘Larry, why don’t you sleep on the herself, having developed an expertise in couch? I’ll find a shirt that fits you,’” Schiller lighting and angles throughout her wellrecalls of the close bond that they forged documented romance with the camera. over the course of the assignment. “You have to be vulnerable,” he advises, describing the “She knew exactly how to turn. She knew understated demeanor necessary for building exactly what the nose shadow would be,” and maintaining close relationships with his Schiller remembers. “Marilyn was the first subjects. “Combine that with a little chutzpah person I ever photographed who knew as and just knowing how to talk to people.” much or more than I knew about lighting.”

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feature In Marilyn & Me: A Photographer's Memories, Schiller’s 2012 memoir about his intimate moments with the starlet, the photographer recalls her precise notes on the set of Something’s Got to Give in the moments before she emerged from her dressing room to the relief of a patient—yet frustrated— production crew.

Marilyn … saw me in the mirror and, without turning around, said, “That’s not the best angle for me. If you go over there”—tilting her head slightly, indicating a spot to the left—“the light will be better.”

I moved to where she suggested and at that moment she turned her head halfway in my direction. Looking over her left shoulder, she flashed a coy smile that told me all I needed to know about Marilyn Monroe: she knew who she was, she knew who I was, and she knew what to do. What’s more, she understood light.

As I lifted the Nikon with the 105mm telephoto lens, Marilyn smiled at me, and I pressed the shutter. Immediately, I realized I had the shot. In fact, Marilyn had shown me what other photographers who had shot her knew: that when she turned herself on to the camera, the photographer didn’t have to be more than a mechanic; it was almost as if she were both the shooter and the subject.

As Schiller’s star was rising, Monroe’s was as bright as ever. In those moments, it would have been hard to believe that, in just a few months, it was about to burn out in such spectacular fashion. In fact, Monroe’s last-ever “on-set” photo was taken by Schiller just before she died. That August, he paid tribute to her one last time—Nikon in tow—as her shrouded body was wheeled out of her Brentwood home, immortalized in the flash of Schiller’s camera.

Marilyn Monroe on the set of Something’s Got to Give, 1962

Schiller refers to the mid century as the “Wild Wild West,” and he was riding the wave, scooping up assignments for Life and Time magazines covering elections, assassinations, and urban unrest.

By 1959, he was one of the top photographers on Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign and collected accolades and awards for his emotional snap of Pat and Richard Nixon conceding the 1960 presidential election. His lens also captured Muhammad Ali in his prime defeating Joe Frazier in the ring, Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a passionate speech in 1965, and the opening of Chinese-American relations when Nixon was finally elected president in 1968. Schiller, with camera in hand, was ubiquitous and his work was influencing the way America was perceived around the world.

“Covering all of these events, you have no idea [of their magnitude] at the time,” says Schiller. “You’re hoping to find the right moment in which a single picture tells the whole story. There are great photographers with unbelievable talent— photographers that are artists.

Pat and Richard Nixon, November, 1960

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I wasn’t an artist. I was just a guy with a camera, and I was using it like a sponge.”

At one point, Schiller was taking on 150 assignments a year, “parachuting in” on a story and departing as quickly as he had arrived. “I learned about the world through the people that I photographed,” he recalls.

What he didn’t realize at the time was that he was also becoming a skilled interviewer.

“Every time I’d photograph someone important, I’d try to find a way to sit and talk to them and interview them,” explains Schiller. “Sometimes I would talk to people for hours and hours and tape-record the conversations. That was my way of getting an education.”

By the close of the 1960s, Schiller had developed relationships with some of the most notable actors, activists, and world leaders. Through photo essays and interviews, he reported on the hot topics of the day, like homosexuality and the American male for Time magazine and psychologist Timothy Leary’s controlled experiments on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. He also spent time with those who carried out some of the

most heinous crimes in modern history.

He obtained Susan Atkins’ calm confession about her role in the Manson Family murders (chronicled in his book The Killing of Sharon Tate), and at the bedside of a dying Jack Ruby, Schiller documented his involvement in the shooting death of Kennedy’s killer.

In the early 1970s, as both American and international magazines were beginning to fold, Schiller began looking to a different medium—television—to hone his craft. With no training, he started making documentaries and financing them with his own money.

American Dreamer starring Dennis Hopper was his first foray into the new field, and he was hired to direct The Man Who Skied Down Everest, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1976.

In The Executioner’s Song, author Norman Mailer put into narrative form Schiller’s jailhouse interviews with Gary Gilmore leading up to his execution by firing squad in Utah in the late 1970s. Schiller went on to direct the television film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel starring Tommy Lee Jones, who won the Emmy for Best Actor for his portrayal of the notorious killer.

Throughout his career, Schiller also produced or directed more than 15 television films, five of which have won

“There are great photographers with unbelievable talent— photographers that are artists.

I wasn’t an artist. I was just a guy with a camera, and I was using it like a sponge.”

Emmys, including the Peter the Great miniseries starring Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, and Omar Sharif.

“True stories got higher ratings on TV,” Schiller explains. “I didn’t know how to handle fiction, but I knew how to take a true story and make a docudrama.

I understood what a true story was because I was a journalist.”

“The film has to smell right,” Schiller continues. “It’s got to be real. You have to feel the pores of the skin of the people.

It can’t be a movie. It has to be a reality.”

From May through September of this year, the Smithsonian American Art Museum had on display an exhibition called American Visionary: John F. Kennedy’s Life and Times. Schiller was tapped by the museum to curate an exhibition of photos for the Kennedy centennial. They had seen Superman Comes to the Supermarket, a photographic book that had utilized Mailer’s text of Kennedy’s 1960 campaign.

Members of the Kennedy family had thought it was the best collection of photos of the president.

“So we went to Washington and put together an exhibition,” Schiller recalls.

“Everybody said it was too late. I said nothing is too late if you have a good idea.

I was blown away that at 80 years old, I was curating an exhibition at the Smithsonian and later for the New York Historical Society. It was a great experience for me.”

In a conversation with White House photographers held at the opening reception, Schiller offered words of wisdom to aspiring photographers in an age of changing media.

“If you understand light, understand composition, and understand a little bit of history—and possess the skill of anticipation—add all that to your own sensitivity and your photojournalism will rise to the surface.”

Schiller (right) on the set of “Hey, I’m Alive” with cinematographer Richard Moore, 1975

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feature

Alumnus Robert Kyncl (MBA ’97) is devoted to DIGITAL EVOLUTION at one of the world’s most dynamic, creative, and disruptive entertainment destinations

By Gareen Darakjian and Noelle Seybert

Across the

Photo: courtesy of YouTube

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You Niverse

IN THE TIME THAT IT TAKES YOU TO

READ THIS PARAGRAPH, APPROXIMATELY

400 HOURS OF VIDEO WILL BE UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE by makeup artists, amateur comedians, philosophy professors, and cat enthusiasts, as well as major movie studios, TV networks, and the biggest sports leagues in the world.

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feature

IN THE 12 YEARS SINCE ITS INCEPTION , THE VIDEO SHARING WEBSITE HAS ELEVATED A NEW GENERATION OF ENTERTAINERS TO CELEBRITY AND LEGITIMIZED THEIR INFLUENCE ON AUDIENCES TOTALING 1.5 BILLION PER MONTH AROUND THE WORLD.

It has also provided advertisers limitless opportunities to share their products with audiences who consume over one billion hours of content every single day. At the helm of some of these developments is

ROBERT KYNCL, YOUTUBE CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, who is redefining how we consume news, entertainment, live events, and scripted programming and contributing to the ways in which media shapes our culture.

Your book, Streampunks: YouTube and the

Rebels Remaking Media [co-written by Google speechwriter Maany Peyvan], was released this September. Why was the timing right?

The book is meant to give people a greater understanding of the new type of YouTube creators that are rising and the new types of storytelling that they’re introducing to the world. So much of the conversation surrounding online video has focused on existing formats—movies and TV shows— transmitted through the internet and experienced online instead of on a television. While all that is happening, there is this massive ecosystem that has developed around new types of storytellers and new stories. The book will provide greater understanding of that through the voices of those creators.

It makes it really personal, interesting, and diverse.

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The phrase “new media rebellion” is used

in the publisher’s description of the book.

Who are the rebels that they’re referring to?

The content creators are the rule breakers. They are veering from the norm and doing something different.

They are building their own audiences themselves without the backing of a TV network. They are creating content that hasn’t been created before. They are innovators just like any entrepreneur. Whether you’re creating a mobile app or starting a big YouTube channel and building an empire around that, your mindset is the same: you’re trying to do something different.

ROBERT KYNCL ON… THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

I was born in a country that didn’t believe in the freedom of information, and I can appreciate that our company can provide that. That’s amazing.

THE FREEDOM OF OPPORTUNITY The work we do at YouTube gives people the ability to make a great living, and most of their income is from outside their home market. There are so many amazing stories of people who have transformed their lives through their YouTube channels and have turned their passions into a full-time living.

THE FREEDOM TO BELONG Many groups that form on YouTube enable people to feel comfortable sharing information with each other. Whether you identify with LGBTQ, cooking, or fitness communities … whatever it is, there are groups that help people feel like they belong and build strong friendships and communities.

THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION People can express themselves and share their story with the world on YouTube. The idea that everyone has something important to say and has the freedom to engage in open dialogue and empathy can counter hate. This value also celebrates creative freedom, which YouTube star Casey Neistat embodies in his video, “Do What You Can’t,” which captures the exact sentiment of being a creator and expressing yourself.

One of the chapters in the book focuses on Jenny

Doan, founder of the Missouri Star Quilt Company YouTube channel, which has approximately 1.5 million subscribers. The “quilting grandma” doesn’t quite fit the model of a modern YouTube content creator.

What sets her apart?

That’s the point of the book! There is no model. People are imposing the model, but Jenny is a great example that you can throw the model out the window. She utilized YouTube to create demand for her product and has completely revitalized Hamilton, Missouri. It’s the most heartwarming story and just the greatest use of the platform to create demand for business and turn around a whole town. YouTube is not just for 20-year-old whiz kids. In today’s world, if you know how to build an audience, you have a lot of power.

In your keynote at last year’s Consumer

Electronics Show, you said, “It is much more attainable to be the next PewDiePie than it is to be the next Tom Cruise.” Can you speak to this new wave of “celebrities?”

You can’t really see how Tom Cruise or other movie stars became successful. With platforms like YouTube, it’s easy to see how people did it, and you know that you have all the same tools available to you. It’s there for the picking. That doesn’t necessarily make it easy. Everyone can try it, and competition is high, but ultimately you have the resources. You just have to figure out how you are going to use them to create and be better at something than everyone else, and then build your audience.

These content creators know how to connect with their audience and they know how to keep their attention.

It’s a really hard thing to do.

YouTube is known for user-generated

content as well as user-driven feedback.

What is the role of traditional quality gatekeepers in the future media landscape?

We’re building a lot of different features to help content creators further engage with their audiences, so the feedback will inevitably get stronger. The more that happens, the more responsive the content will be.

That’s really what we’re focusing on—the interactions between fans and creators and the reporting tools we’re building for them. We’re giving them visibility into data and further developing connections with their followers.

What is one of the most surprising things

you’ve discovered at YouTube in the last year?

How popular YouTube is in Vietnam. I was aware of our popularity in the Middle East, Mexico, and Brazil, but Vietnam was surprising. I haven’t fully cracked it yet, but it has something to do with the government making greater investments in their infrastructure and us strengthening our relationships with media partners in the region.

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alumni

A special invitation from Bob Clark (MBA ’79), Executive Director, Pepperdine Alumni Affairs Pepperdine invites you to one of our seasonal celebration events taking place in alumni chapters across the country. As an integral part of the Pepperdine family, we welcome you to join us in giving thanks for our many blessings and praying for peace and prosperity for all humanity. In the midst of uncertainty and discord, we can find hope through our faith, families, and friends.

Regardless of beliefs, come together with your Pepperdine family during this season and share in the joy and love that our Creator has given us.

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L.A. Waves Holiday Party Thursday, December 7, 2017 | 6:30 PM OUE Skyspace, Downtown Los Angeles Join classmates, family, and friends for an evening of food and festivities while enjoying breathtaking 360-degree views from California’s tallest observation deck and the thrilling outdoor Skyslide made entirely of four-inch thick glass.

Find a complete list of events to celebrate with Waves near you and across the country: pepperdine.edu/alumni/holiday

Atlanta Waves

Alumni

STRATEGIC PLAN

Colorado Waves

On September 9, nearly 400 alumni participated in service projects in 22 cities nationwide to give back to their local communities, while over 1,000 students partnered with 67 organizations in the Los Angeles area. Step Forward Day, a 29-year-old Pepperdine tradition, connects students with alumni and the University with its neighbors, providing a positive impact from coast to coast.

We consider our alumni to be family and are committed to finding meaningful ways for you to strengthen your bond with alma mater. We believe we can do better in creating opportunities to enrich your lives and for you to enrich the lives of our current students and your fellow alumni alike.

With this in mind, we have developed an Alumni Engagement Strategic Plan, a University-wide blueprint that calls for a mutual commitment between school and alumni, executed in a more purposeful way than ever before.

Over the next year, we will pilot new programs including an online alumni community and increased collaboration with school career centers.

How to get involved: alumni@pepperdine.edu • pepperdine.edu/alumni

Volunteer to participate and follow the latest news from this initiative: pepperdine.edu/engage

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community | scholarship

Accepting

Applications W

hen his lucrative real estate brokerage company suddenly folded during the housing market’s colossal collapse in 2010, Dylan Hood (MPP ’17) became despondent and was desperate for something to cling to. Overwhelmed by thoughts of an uncertain future, his psyche was flooded with competing emotions, the most serious of which engendered suicidal thoughts. One night in his upscale Chicago apartment, Hood was confronted with two options: end it all or spend the remainder of his life making a meaningful contribution to the world.

I

nspired by the notion of making a positive difference in people’s lives, Hood began to explore a second career as a substance abuse counselor in an effort to help others battling the same demons he once faced.

“I believe that everyone deserves a second chance,” he expresses. “There were plenty of ways that I could have

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AFTER LOSING HIS COMPANY IN THE ECONOMIC

DOWNTURN, A CHANCE

ENCOUNTER TRANSFORMS

AN ENTREPRENEUR’S HUNT FOR A SECOND CAREER

By Sara Alamdar

wound up behind bars, but the grace of God helped me.”

While receiving his training at a small community college, he met a classmate who shared his desire to support those who had become detached from society due to drug use, involvement in crime, incarceration, and other factors. This notion planted a new seed in Hood’s mind—that the ideal profession for him would utilize his real estate expertise in specific ways to help individuals overcome life-altering personal struggles.

Over the next couple years, as part of an independent project, Hood spent countless hours interviewing staff members at numerous prisons throughout the United States, asking each one the same two questions: why are recidivism rates so high and how can they be reduced?

After speaking with hundreds of subjects, he found that none of them could offer a satisfactory answer.

What he eventually learned was that availability of mentorship and resources can reduce recidivism by 27 percent, a concept he refers to as “the 800-pound telephone.”

Hood has a personal understanding of the strength it takes to seek help and reinforces that the phone can suddenly seem too heavy to lift during times of trouble.

“In our minds, we think that if we call people to ask for help, they’ll think we’re weak and they won’t respect us. We feel like we’ll be bothering them,” he shares, adding that calls for help are rarely ever made.

In 2013, with deeper knowledge of what formerly incarcerated individuals experience after leaving prison, Hood founded Freedom House Reentry, Education and Employment

Corporation (FREE), a Chicago-based organization that assists recently released inmates transition back into society.

Between July 1 and December 31 of this year, in partnership with Verizon Wireless, FREE has offered the Get Help App™ Phone Program (GHAPP) to a test group of 1,200 individuals exiting Illinois prisons. The mobile phone application, which provides formerly incarcerated individuals with mentorship and employment opportunities, mental health and medical counseling, and a direct link to resources for successful and sustained reentry back into their communities, has been pre-downloaded on iPhone 6 devices and is free of charge for all participants.

Specifically designed to respond to this population’s unique 24/7 on-demand needs, GHAPP offers three ways to access help: “Speak” (to call mentors), “Text Message” (to write to mentors), and “Refer a Resource” (managed by trained operators to locate any resource—from hair salons to grocery stores to shopping centers—based on the phone’s GPS settings).

“Our mentors are peer mentors,” Hood points out, “which means they were formerly incarcerated. We are employing them and paying them a living wage.”

A training module is also being developed through a partnership with Adler University, a Chicago-based institution offering degrees in psychology, couples and family therapy, rehabilitation counseling, and community health.

In the event that mentors interact with users who require a more advanced level of counseling than they are trained to provide, calls may be transferred at any time to a dedicated on-duty clinician. Several usage restrictions have also been strategically imposed on the phones to flag inappropriate behaviors and illegal activities, and communications will be tracked to ensure ethical boundaries are not crossed.

“There were plenty of ways that I could have wound up behind bars, but the grace of God helped me.”

“We want the mentors to listen and to share their own experiences because they have gone through the same processes as the people they are speaking with. But we are really stressing that we do not want them to give advice to anyone,” Hood reveals.

Once GHAPP becomes available in nine additional states after January 2018, FREE plans to introduce a similar application for veterans involved in the criminal justice system—the Vet Help App Phone Program— with test programs scheduled to launch in California and New York in late 2017.

FREE’s next partnership will be with Children of Promise, NYC (CPNYC), to build drop-in centers for children with incarcerated parents in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York—a natural collaboration given CPNYC offers afterschool and summer day camp programs that uniquely and attentively address the welfare of this specific group. Once open, the drop-in centers will coordinate bonding visits, “which means we will take a busload of children to a correctional facility so they can visit their parents and keep those family bonds alive,” Hood explains.

While traveling nonstop between Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York to raise awareness of FREE’s cause, Hood recalls how his time at the School of Public Policy and School of Law (where he is currently a student) have equipped him with the necessary tools to secure such substantial partnerships with government-operated entities and international corporations.

“When I originally wanted to gain a better understanding of policy, I was specifically interested in identifying how to get things done,” he notes.

“Through all of the [course-required] reading, I learned that making changes in policy is really about influence. Money has a lot to do with it, but you don’t have to have money. What you have to have is persistence and drive, and to not feel intimidated. I persist until I get results.”

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community | spiritual life

CREA TION CARE The ocean waters were as bright and clear below the surface as the cloudless skies were above. It was the perfect setting in which to experience a moment of profound clarity. And as Chris Doran explored the coral terrain 60 feet below the surface of the Maldives’ famously clear waters, he understood that big changes are happening here on God’s planet. Yet it seemed to him that most of the people in relationship with God aren’t talking about what is happening to His–and our–earth.

“No one was talking about environmental issues at all. Particularly conservative, Bible-believing folks like myself,” says Doran, who is an associate professor of religion at Seaver College. “The Maldives will likely be underwater by the time I’m old. We don’t realize that we’re part of a bigger story.”

Doran’s moment of clarity in the waters of the Indian Ocean came at the very beginning of his 2015 sabbatical from Seaver just as he was beginning to write his latest book, Hope in the Age of Climate Change: Creation Care This Side of Resurrection (Cascade Books, April 2017).

The book is the result of years of research into what Doran calls the “rapidly changing structure of the planet,” and how Christians can respond to these issues in ways that honor and care for God’s creation.

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Alumnus and professor Christopher Doran (‘98, MDiv ’02) is on a mission to make his university a leader in sustainability

By Sarah Fisher

He knows it can be overwhelming to hear unpleasant predictions, such as conservative estimates that point to approximately 200 million people being displaced by the year 2100 because of rising oceans. So he balances this unimaginable scope by discussing how Christians can provide hope to a world weighed down with speculative despair.

The key, he says, is to think beyond the walls of their Sunday morning sanctuary and take the communal, inclusive spirit of the Lord’s Supper out into the world by feeding the hungry and housing the homeless, for example—both of which will become vital as populations are displaced by climate change.

“Sitting at a table honoring God with the bread and the wine, there are certain ‘table manners’ that you learn, such as inclusion of other people and equality of the people around the table,” explains Doran. “Why are those things we practice only on Sundays? They should be things we practice all the time.”

Convincing his fellow Christians to acknowledge and talk about the problems is half the battle, however, as Doran so startlingly realized underwater in the Maldives. His book explores the idea of creation care as an act of humility, mirroring the greatest example in the history of Christianity. “Jesus humbled himself to come to earth and become a servant,” he points out.

He continues, “We human beings are interesting creatures. We seem to want it both ways: that we’re the greatest things that God has ever created—but we’re not so great that we can’t screw things up. What the scripture says is very interesting. God lets humans suffer for their sins. He lets things play out in such a way that we actually have to endure the consequences of our actions. That’s not something that we often want to take seriously.”

Doran is hoping to change that in three distinct ways: with his book, which offers practical advice for anyone looking to make a difference; with his work at Pepperdine, which will include the founding of the Institute on Sustainability, now in its earliest stages of fundraising; and with giving to his alma mater with his wife and fellow alumnus, Amy Doran (’98).

He and Amy met as students at Seaver, where she majored in accounting.

He majored in biology before going on to

With a $100,000 gift to establish the Chris and Amy Doran Endowed Fund in 2015, the couple made a substantial commitment to the growth of sustainability and creation care initiatives at the University.

The significant gift will specifically help to sustain the annual Climate Calling conference—cohosted by the University and its neighbors, including the Malibu Public Library—which brings some of the most sought-after Christian experts in the fields of environmentalism and climate change to the University.

[God] lets things play out in such a way that we actually have to endure the consequences of our actions. That’s not something that we often want to take seriously. get his master of divinity from Pepperdine in 2002 and a PhD in systematic and philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in 2007. They founded and ran a scholarship program for more than a decade in honor of a friend who passed away from ovarian cancer; the Faith and Education Scholarship Fund distributed more than $200,000 to partially and fully fund the college education of 13 students. But the couple felt called to do more to specifically help their alma mater, having heard that only about eight percent of alumni give back to Pepperdine.

“Pepperdine has been involved in interesting sustainability programs focused on water conservation and recycling, but it’s not what we’re known for. Amy and I wanted to help on the academic end to start something that might help Pepperdine to be known for that work, eventually,” says Chris.

Chris also helped found a minor degree program at Seaver two years ago and recently had his proposal for the Institute for Sustainability approved by the administration, pending funds.

Plans for the institute include bringing more top scholars in the field to teach students, more classes on sustainability, international program opportunities, and a scholarship to help students that plan to study for careers in sustainability.

Ultimately, Doran believes Pepperdine has the potential to be uniquely situated at the forefront of sustainability in academia—a prospect and challenge he finds exciting.

“Many sustainability programs don’t have the ability to think about these issues morally, ethically, and theologically like we do at Pepperdine,” Doran reflects.

“I’d really like my alma mater to become known as the West Coast leader for sustainability research and practice.”

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community | athletics

SHOWING SOME

Waves volleyball setter and outside hitter Heidi Dyer overcomes major surgery to become a star—and inspire others

By Doug Gillett

U

nlike most studentathletes at Pepperdine who experience a clear-cut beginning and end to each season, the demands of the season never really end for Heidi Dyer. The junior from San Clemente, California, is one of a handful of Waves athletes playing on both the indoor and beach volleyball teams. While the two sports are similar, Dyer explains that competing on both teams takes “absolutely twice as much effort.”

During the fall, she is fully committed to the indoor game—the one that earned her a scholarship to Pepperdine. In the spring, she does double duty. Some days require Dyer to attend both indoor and beach practices and later participate in the beach competitions. “There are days when it’s hard to have any energy left for school,” she admits.

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There was a time when even playing one or the other would have been a challenge for Dyer. At the age of 11, she was diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, a condition that could have ended her volleyball career almost as soon as it had begun.

“They put me in a brace at first,” she says, remembering her frustration about having to sleep in the confining contraption. “But I knew it had gotten more serious when my doctors said the brace wasn’t working and started discussing the option of surgery.”

It wasn’t a simple procedure. Surgeons removed three ribs from Dyer’s right side and grafted bone from those ribs onto her vertebrae to fuse them together. They also installed two titanium rods to keep her spine stable. When they were done, Dyer’s spine was straight, but it wouldn’t bend at all—a staggering realization for someone from a family in which all six children not only played volleyball but excelled at it.

I KNEW IT HAD GOTTEN MORE SERIOUS WHEN THEY SAID THE BRACE WASN’T WORKING AND STARTED DISCUSSING THE OPTION OF SURGERY. Fortunately, the surgery had happened early in her volleyball career, and Dyer’s relative lack of experience ended up working in her favor. She wasn’t far enough along in her career to be afraid of losing it, nor had she mastered enough of the game’s fundamentals to know how limited she would be. Simple determination, she says, drove her to find ways to work around the moves she couldn’t make gracefully on the court.

“One thing I’ve heard from coaches many times over the years is to get my elbow back farther,” Dyer says. “That’s something that’s very hard for me. I have to move from my hips and turn sideways to use my whole body or else I’ll only be getting power from my arm.”

Photos: Jeff Golden

Dyer sensed she wouldn’t get very far by making excuses or trying to explain her surgery. Instead, she practiced even harder, hoping to develop her skills to the point where they overshadowed even the most minor glitches in her technique. Dyer went on to excel in high school and attract the interest of a number of college programs, Pepperdine included. Not only did Pepperdine nail every item on her “wish list,” but the indoor coach at the time, Troy Tanner, had followed her career since she was 13.

Even after making both of Pepperdine’s volleyball squads, Dyer admits she didn’t feel overwhelmingly confident. An unusual convergence of events changed that. As a freshman, Dyer, who had played both setter and right side hitter positions, was behind a senior setter with superior skills and felt unsure about her ability to play over her.

“I asked coach if I could go on hitting lines”—a move that sends the ball over the blocker and parallel to the sideline—“and I was able to hit, so he watched to see if I’d be able to pass. Passing was easier since I’d played so much beach [volleyball].”

Dyer was named a starting outside hitter as a freshman and, by the end of beach volleyball season, she and her partner, Taylor Racich (’16), had earned All-American honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

Now, as she enters her junior year, Dyer is using the lessons she learned through

her challenges to mentor and inspire the younger players. “This year, it has been great to welcome the freshmen in and shepherd them along,” she says. “There wasn’t really a set culture when I came in as a freshman, because we had a new coach and a group of girls who had been recruited by different people. But we have been able to build our own culture. It feels good to be able to show the new recruits how hard we have to work and how that translates into wins.”

Waves beach volleyball coach Nina Matthies says Dyer is making a difference for young players far beyond campus as well. “Girls that are 12, 13, 14 years old have emailed us to get in touch with Heidi because they’re having the same surgery and are inspired by her story,” Matthies says.

“She’s made them feel a lot more comfortable. As her story has gotten more attention in the media, it’s been great to see other people benefiting from it.”

Expect that story to continue even after Dyer earns her degree in integrated marketing communication in 2019. Having put so much of herself into the game, Dyer wants to continue playing—maybe a year or two of professional indoor ball overseas, maybe on the AVP tour, maybe both.

“It’s just been such a big part of my life growing up,” she says. “Although it doesn’t define me, it’s a big passion of mine, and I don’t want college to be the end of that.”

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community | athletics

WEIGHT LISTED A sports medicine professor demonstrates the power of the human body when she sets a new world record in an Olympic category

By Sara Alamdar

A

t 71, Olympic weightlifter Laurie Nelson is in better shape than the students in her anatomy and kinesiology courses. The Seaver College professor—who has taught physical education and sports medicine courses for over 40 years and serves as the prehealth professions advisor—can easily lift nearly 100 pounds, an impressive feat for a woman with a petite 5'3" frame who picked up her first barbell at age 64.

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LAURIE NELSON AGE: 71 HEIGHT: 5'3"

SNATCH

34kg 29kg US Nationals

World Record

CLEAN & JERK

DEADLIFT

US Nationals

One Rep Max

42kg 42kg

World Record

Recalling the remarkable journey that commenced just seven years ago, Nelson reveals that the force behind her motivation was realizing she could no longer place her own luggage in the overhead bin on an airplane. Shortly after that experience, the lifelong exerciser and avid hiker joined a local CrossFit gym to build her upper body strength and combat the new challenges her body was experiencing.

“There is a certain amount of fear involved,” the athlete admits. “You have to squat down, lift the bar, and then get under it … all in a coordinated fashion. But when you’re older, it’s harder to make your body do what it doesn’t want to do. My nervous system isn’t as snappy as it used to be and it doesn’t respond as well [to maintaining good form]. But if I could improve my form, I could actually lift even more weight.”

After a few years of working out at CrossFit Malibu, Nelson doubled her efforts and joined Takano Weightlifting gym in Woodland Hills, California, owned by USA Weightlifting Hall of Famer Robert Takano.

As she continued to build muscle and improve her form under Takano’s coaching, Nelson felt that she had become strong enough to participate in the USA Masters Weightlifting competition.

With three judges and three referees intently observing her form at the World Masters Games (often characterized as the Olympics for mature athletes), Nelson broke two international records in the women’s 70 to 79 age category (the oldest competitive category for women) with a snatch of 29 kilograms (64 pounds) and a clean and jerk of 42 kilograms (92.6 pounds).

“I decided to compete in the US Nationals when I turned 70 because I saw that I could actually lift competitively and wanted to see if I could set the US records”—which she did two years ago in both the snatch (an exercise where the bar is pulled from the floor to a locked-arms position in one continuous move) and the clean and jerk lifts (a two-movement exercise in which a weight is raised above the head following an initial lift to shoulder level).

In April 2016, Nelson returned to the USA Masters Weightlifting competition in Savannah, Georgia, where she set the National Masters Weightlifting women’s record (and broke her own previous record) for lifting 34 kilograms (75 pounds) in the snatch competition and 42 kilograms (92.6 pounds) in the clean and jerk competition in the women’s 70 to 74 age category. Her clean and jerk stats, which were 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) over the previous record, were so high that she even outscored the younger women in the 60 to 69 age category and qualified to compete the following year in the ninth World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

At my age, you can continue to work out just to maintain your strength because you don’t really expect to get better ... but I did get stronger over time and I improved my technique.

The sports medicine professor—who is also a Level 1 certified CrossFit trainer— acknowledges that the path toward the World Masters Games was sometimes rough. But after recovering from several injuries as a result of her workout routines and being away from her students during the end of the spring semester in order to compete in New Zealand, her perseverance ultimately allowed her to demonstrate an extraordinary—and unexpected—level of strength.

As Nelson points out, “At my age, you can continue to work out just to maintain your strength because you don’t really expect to get better. In other words, how much

92kg

stronger can you actually get at 71?

But I did get stronger over time and I improved my technique. So there is a lot of room for growth.”

Having grown up during a time when girls’ and women’s sports programs weren’t offered in schools, Nelson explains that limitations on how far females can go in specific athletic categories still exist.

While male weightlifting competitions allow men to participate well into their 80s, the oldest age category for female weightlifters is “70-plus,” and competitors over the age of 71 are rare.

But for the new generation of female athletes who have had access to sports training in schools, Nelson predicts that the number of female Olympic weightlifters will inevitably increase over time.

“Eventually the women will have a competitive category for 75-year-olds, too,” she says. “Should any of them decide to compete in Olympic weightlifting for fun, they could do it very well. It’s very possible.”

With more than four decades of experience teaching young college students about the importance of physical health, Nelson is newly passionate about inspiring a different audience to step up their fitness game.

“Being a professor and teaching in sports medicine has been the perfect career for me, as I am vitally interested in health and fitness for all—especially for older adults at this time in my life,” she says. “I hope my achievements will encourage others to get involved in keeping strong and fit.”

“Most of the time it’s not physical fatigue preventing you from exercise, it’s mental fatigue,” she continues. “You just think you don’t want to exercise. It happens to me with weightlifting. I have arthritis and sometimes I feel like I don’t want to work out. But I feel better after 10 minutes, so I keep going.”

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community | the arts

THE

M A K I N G

OF A

MUSEUM

By Carly Pippin (’07)

As the Frederick R. Weisman Museum celebrates 25 years on the Malibu campus, museum director Michael Zakian reflects on how the contemporary art collection came to Pepperdine

Frederick Weisman believed that art was to be enjoyed by everyone. A self-trained art enthusiast and collector with a successful business background, Weisman amassed a remarkable collection of contemporary art over the course of his lifetime.

Before his death in 1994, Weisman undertook numerous philanthropic endeavors to ensure that the public would have ongoing access to the works in his collections, and one of the most significant was his founding of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine in 1992.

Weisman was first introduced to Pepperdine that same year, when the longtime curator of his personal collection, Nora Halpern, became director of what was then the Pepperdine University Art Gallery. Knowing that Weisman was interested in finding a Southern California home for his collection, Halpern invited him to visit the space. Weisman quickly realized that Pepperdine’s commitment to educating the whole person—body, mind, and soul—aligned with his ideals of accessibility and discovery.

In August of that year, he gave a $1.5 million gift to Pepperdine and the art gallery was renamed the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. According to a Los Angeles Times article announcing the gift, Weisman pronounced, “It’s very exciting. What could be better than having a museum in my hometown? I have long sought an appropriate forum in the Los Angeles community to demonstrate my interest in the art of our century and of California.”

As a collector and exhibitor, Weisman refused to answer to others.

Never reliant on art historians or experts to select new works, he catered to his own tastes by purchasing things that he loved.

At Pepperdine, Weisman found a home for his art where he could put works from different artists and different eras together.

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“I don’t think there is anything that communicates better than art.

It is quicker than language and clearer than philosophy.”

“Traditional museums place Renaissance art in the Renaissance galleries, African art in the African galleries,” says Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art since 1995.

“At Pepperdine, Weisman could put objects together from different countries, periods, and styles so that viewers could make comparisons and connections that even the artists didn’t see.”

The museum’s first exhibition, “Selections From the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation Collection,” opened September 12, 1992, and included 45 works by wellknown artists such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Edward Ruscha, Joe Goode, and Roy Lichtenstein. Since then, the museum has hosted numerous acclaimed exhibitions, many of which have been overseen by Zakian.

One of the most significant shows to be held at the Weisman was the 1996 retrospective of modernist painter Agnes Pelton. As curator, Zakian worked for three years to track down

Pelton’s paintings, which had been mostly forgotten—much like the artist herself who passed away in 1961. The works themselves were beautiful nature-based abstractions from the early 1930s of the desert outside of Palm Springs.

“Today, because of this exhibition, she’s California’s Georgia O’Keeffe,” says Zakian.

“The cataloguing and display of these works was huge for the history of American art.

In fact, LACMA just acquired a work of hers, as did the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Phoenix Art Museum.”

Other notable exhibitions over the years included Rodin’s Obsession: The Gates of Hell (2001), featuring dozens of bronze sculptures derived from Rodin’s famous, never-tobe-realized Parisian entryway; Roy Lichtenstein: In Process (2011), a show that chronicled the creation of the pop artist’s works from simple sketches to final products; and Chihuly Los Angeles (2005), featuring site-specific glassworks by artist Dale Chihuly. To this day, Chihuly remains the most popular show in the Weisman’s

– Frederick R. Weisman

history with more than 31,000 visitors over four months.

In celebration of the museum’s 25th anniversary this year, the Weisman is hosting California Dreaming: Contemporary Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation (through December 10), an exhibition that looks at contemporary Californian art from the 1960s to the present, with an emphasis on historic works.

The work on view, curated

by Weisman’s widow Billie Milam Weisman, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, reflects Weisman’s deep personal relationships with many of the artists and chronicles the period when Los Angeles emerged to become one of the nation’s leading art centers.

“It is one of the most colorful and visually dynamic exhibitions we’ve ever done, with all of the artists drawing upon California’s light and color,” says Zakian.

Today, as it has since 1992, the museum focuses on being true to Weisman’s passion for art being open to all people.

“While on a certain level, art is more accessible to the general public than ever before due to technology, some people still find art a little off-putting and challenging,” notes Zakian.

“One thing we try to do at the museum is break down those barriers.”

This means that exhibitions are designed to provide a visual experience that can strike the emotions of visitors.

Oftentimes, they feature a message that can be clearly discovered or that is explained in comprehensive wall texts.

This way, anyone who walks through the galleries can learn or experience something new.

As Weisman once said, “I don’t think there is anything that communicates better than art. It is quicker than language and clearer than philosophy.” Everyone who has walked through the Weisman at Pepperdine and encountered something profound, challenging, beautiful, or simply different than what they’re used to can be thankful for his vision.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

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community | the arts

FROM

RUSSIA Comedian Yakov Smirnoff was the 1980s embodiment of the American dream, the Russian immigrant who arrived in America with nothing and rose to become a household name. Known for his amused commentary on American culture and his catchphrase, “What a country!” by the end of the ’80s he was helping President Reagan write his speeches about AmericanRussian relations during the Cold War. And then the Berlin Wall came down.

“David Letterman had a Top 10 list about things that would change after this big event in history. I made number one: ‘Yakov Smirnoff will be out of work,’” Smirnoff recalls. “And it was true.”

h t i w

LOVE (AND LAUGHTER)

BY SARAH FISHER

Russian-American comedian YAKOV SMIRNOFF heals relationships through the science of laughter

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However, the sudden downturn in his career at the close of the Cold War gave Smirnoff the opportunity to notice a different type of tension taking place off the world stage and in people’s homes, specifically in marriages.

He observed relationships that were once infused with laughter and warmth become humorless and, well, cold.

“People say, ‘[My husband] is not funny anymore,’ or, ‘[My wife] used to laugh at my jokes, but now she’s just rolling her eyes.’ Their sense of humor did not change. It’s a sign that they’re not meeting each other’s needs,” he notes.

Most people think laughter is the heart, but I see it as THE PULSE. It lets you know YOU’RE STILL ALIVE. Smirnoff is transforming observations about relationships into two new stages of his career. The first is that he has adopted a completely different genre of comedy; once known for his jokes about living the Russian-American experience, his current comedy show about laughter in relationships is titled Happily Ever Laughter: The Neuroscience of Romantic Relationships. He has toured the country performing his new show—including a performance at Pepperdine in March—and PBS aired a national special about it in 2016.

The second development in Smirnoff’s career is that he has formalized and built on his observations through academic study. In 2006 he earned a master’s degree in positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Now he is expanding on what he has learned with a doctorate (EdD) in organizational leadership from Pepperdine’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

He is slated to graduate in May 2019.

“You can apply [the research of laughter] to employee engagement, to leadership, to anything in the world, pretty much.

So I try to spin every assignment towards my dissertation,” Smirnoff laughs. “The professors are very supportive but also very cautious if I take it too far—they bring me back.”

The future Dr. Smirnoff is perhaps uniquely qualified to research laughter from scientific and organizational standpoints, given that the scholar also has more than two decades of experience as a business owner. When

demand for his comedy lessened after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he bought his own theater in Branson, Missouri, which he owned and ran for 23 years.

“In Branson, they did not know the Soviet Union collapsed,” Smirnoff deadpans. “They still don’t know and I’m not telling.”

He performed for more than 4.5 million people in Branson, saying his theater became his laboratory.

“I’m coming at this as a comedian who can gauge the happiness of the audience based on what I’m hearing … and laughter is the gauge. Most people think laughter is the heart, but I see it as the pulse. It lets you know you’re still alive.

Happiness is when your needs are met,” he says.

Smirnoff explains two kinds of laughter: one that helps fulfill an immediate need for entertainment or rest and another that works in tangent with our deeper human needs.

“We have manufactured laughter, which billions of dollars are spent every year creating. I’m part of that industry.

People come to me for an external laugh,” he explains. “Then there is organic laughter, which happens in the interaction between people, and I think relationships are suffering because we’re no longer relying on people close to us to help us meet our needs.”

As a speaker at the Spark Marriage Conference 2017 in Houston, Texas, in mid-August, Smirnoff asked his audience of 8,000 people how many would go on a second date if there was no laughter during the first.

“There was total silence,” he notes.

“So what I talk about is the word GIFT— it’s an acronym for Give Importance, Fun, and Time. That’s what we used to do with the most important person on the planet when we were dating; we were organically creating laughter in the honeymoon stage. We would stay up and talk for hours. We were looking for things to do that would be fun and invest that energy.”

Smirnoff says he stays happy by taking care of his needs through exercise, eating healthy, and connecting with his two children, both in their early twenties. He’s been working on some new material now that AmericanRussian relations are making headlines again, though he says these days he feels far more American than Russian.

And as long as he can continue to amuse audiences, Smirnoff will be fulfilling one of his own biggest needs: making other people happy through the gift of laughter.

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in focus

IN

THE WAKE OF HARROWING

NATURAL DISASTERS that have devastated communities across the country and around the world, School of Public Policy alumnus Kevin McGowan (MPP ’10), assistant director of Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, offers tips to help us navigate through potential dangers and the fallout.

“Regardless of where we live, work, or visit, a hazard that has the potential to cause a disaster is ever present,” McGowan warns. “The list of hazards we face is long and can be overwhelming, but if you take action and prepare, you will increase your resilience when the next disaster strikes.”

TOP 10

PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS FOR ALL HAZARDS:

1 Make a Kit

(for your home, car, and workplace

3 Stay Informed

• Water: one gallon

pp Research the most common hazards in your area

• Nonperishable foods

pp Sign up for your local emergency notification system, like Ventura County’s VCALERT (vcalert.org)

per person per day (three-to-five-day supply) (three-to-five-day supply)

• Prescriptions

(two-week supply)

• AM/FM radio (battery

and hand crank-powered)

• Flashlight • Mobile phone charger • First aid kit • Dust mask • Duct tape • Multipurpose tool • Local/regional maps • Comfort items

(items helpful in making life easier: coffee, board games, hand warmers, etc.)

MOST DESTRUCTIVE 2 Develop a Plan HAZARDS: 1 Earthquake 6 Severe weather 2 Flood 7 Terrorist attack 3 Hurricane 8 Tornado 4 Landslide 9 Tsunami 5 Pandemic 10 Wildfire

pp Determine a notification process for family and friends.

Text messaging is usually the most effective method.

Identify one out-of-town contact that can serve as a relay point. pp Make additional copies of contact information pp Determine in-town and outof-town meeting locations pp Develop both shelter and evacuation plans

pp Download mobile applications for disaster preparedness, such as Ventura County’s Ready VC

4 Seek Training

pp Attend your local Community Emergency Response Team program pp Visit FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute for free online training (training.fema.gov)

5 Get Involved

Serve as a volunteer at any of the following organizations active in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery:

• American Red Cross • Amateur Radio/Auxiliary

Communications Services

• FEMA Reservists • Medical Reserve Corps • Salvation Army • Southern Baptist Convention • Team Rubicon • United Way

ONE EXTRAORDINARY DAY. AN ENDURING GIFT.

Pepperdine’s SECOND ANNUAL GIVING DAY is your chance to help build upon the University’s time-honored tradition of generosity and support FUTURE GENERATIONS OF WAVES. Join the 3,070 ALUMNI AND FRIENDS who contributed to the unprecedented success of last year’s first-ever Giving Day!

Learn more: pepperdine.edu/give2pepp

PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY 24255 Pacific Coast Highway Malibu, CA 90263-4138

75 Annual Pepperdine Bible Lectures th

May 1–4, 2018 pepperdine.edu/biblelectures