History Alumni 1990s

Michael Pisarik (BA 1990) is currently developing a sports competition series with a collegiate theme for a cable television network.  Since graduation, he has been involved with the marketing and sales of feature films and TV content to the international market, with an emphasis on documentary projects.

Don Cooper (Ph.D. 1991) is Coordinator of the AP Diploma Program at Langley High School and is listed in Who’s Who in American High School Teachers and 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century .

Jeffrey McIllwain (BA 1991) is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Criminal Justice and Coordinator for the International Security and Conflict Resolution Program at San Diego State University.  McIllwain specializes in the history of the American underworld and transnational crime.  His work has appeared in various criminological journals and his first book, Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race, Crime and Acculturation in New York’s Chinatown, 1890-1910, will be published in 2003.

Jill (Rosenfeld) Haas (BA 1992, MA History NYU 1993) now lives in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

Matt Kovacs (BA 1993)  has been promoted to Director of Public Relations at the Los Angeles Division of Formula PR.


Karen Ward Mahar (Ph.D. 1995) is an Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of the American Studies Program at Siena College in upstate New York. Her book Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2006.

Denise (Vasquez) Pool (BA 1995, MA History UCLA) has returned to Los Angeles with her husband and their newborn daughter.

John P. Valencia (BA 1995) serves as a Captain in the armor tank Battalion stationed in Miramar California. He plans to complete a Master’s degree in Public Administration through the University of Oklahoma this summer.

Janine Jellander (BA 1996, MS Ed. 1997) teaches world geography to 9th grade students in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. She has contributed an article in a book edited by Randy Stone Best Practices for High School Classrooms on the need to include geographical studies in the curriculum. In 2001, she served on the USC Alumni Board of Governors and remains active in the local Trojan Club.

Miguel Olano (BA 1996)  will graduate from Rutgers Law School in May 2002 and plans to take the California Bar in July.

Jill Fields (Ph.D. 1997) is an Assistant Professor at California State University –Fresno and a nominee for the American Association of University Women Emerging Scholar Award. Check out her L.A. Weekly review “A Beautiful Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste $8 On.”

Lynne Luciano (Ph.D. 1997) is Assistant Professor of History, California State University, Dominguez Hills, specializing in 20th century U.S. history  and gender studies. Last year, Hill & Wang published her book Looking Good: The Male Body in Modern America, a social history of male body image from World War II to 1990s.

Katherine Russell (BA 1998, MS Ed., 2000) is on the staff of the USC Care Medical Group, Inc., working on the USC Alhambra Campus.

Sirida Lynn Srisombati (BA 1998, MA, Cinema-Television Critical Studies, 1999) is currently a PhD Candidate in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Michael S. Carter (BA 1999) Graduated with honors. Currently he is studying for his Ph.D. in American History at USC.

Regina Lark (Ph.D. 1999) manages the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and the UCLA Women’s Studies Program.

Julia Siebel (Ph.D. 1999)  is  research analyst at Scripps College in the development office.  She has published two articles: one concerns the history of Junior Leagues and the other is "Soldiers on the Homefront: Protecting the Four Freedoms for American Citizens Through the Office of Civilian Defense's Office of Civilian War Services Division."

Janet Wilson (BA 1999) is attending graduate school in public history at the University of West Florida in Pensacola with an emphasis on museology and exhibit design. She is engaged to be married in 2003.

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