Alumni Class Notes

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2004

Grace Gau Saunders (MRED '04) and her husband, Tim, have moved to Dallas, Texas for his medical residency. They also had their first baby girl, Hennessey Carolina Gau Saunders, in July 2006.
(Submitted November 2006)

Hyunsun Choi (MPDS '98, Ph.D. '04) has joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Florida as an assistant professor. His appointment begins in fall 2005. From 1999 to 2002, Choi worked as an administrator for SPPD's Institute for Planning and Development Practitioners, where he recruited nearly 100 high-ranking officers from developing countries to attend the institute's annual intensive two-week course. Also, Choi worked as a research associate for USC Civic and Community Relations for five years, where he completed some USC community researches and mapping. He is doing researches and teaching in the fields of community development, urban planning, policy, international development, and GIS.
(Submitted February 2006)

In May, Meghan Loper (BS '04) graduated from the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs, a nine-month, full-time, post-graduate leadership training program designed to introduce young public servants to all aspects of public affairs. During her tenure, she worked at Service Employees International Union, New Economics for Women, Raytheon Company, and a California state senator's district office. She also worked on a California State Senate re-election campaign. In August, she joined Majestic Realty Company in City of Industry as the company's public policy coordinator and as program coordinator for the Majestic Realty Foundation, which seeks to improve quality of life by helping to build sustainable communities in the each of the company's key geographic areas.
(Submitted February 2006)

2003

Nicholas (Nick) Pinhey (MPA '98, DPA '03) was appointed to the position of Director of Public Works for the City of Modesto California effective January 2006.
(Submitted May 2006)

2002

Former SPPD honors student Andrea Campbell ('02) was recently promoted to Assistant Project Manager with Consensus Planning Group, a community relations firm based in downtown L.A. with offices in Irvine, Ontario, and Oakland. Her clients include BNSF Railway, Los Angeles World Airports, social services provider OPCC, and the Port of Los Angeles.
(Submitted June 2006)

Former SPPD Tilton Fellow Corina Avalos McAleenan (MPP '02) has worked for the Secret Service and is now a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting, LLP's Federal Practice in Washington, D.C. Her clients include the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the House of Representatives.
(Submitted February 2006)

Donna Staal (MPA '97, DPA '02) successfully defended her dissertation entitled, "Toward a Theory of Networks and Network Effectiveness: An Analytical Framework for the Study of Multilevel Networks in Health Care Service Delivery," on February 22, 2002.
(Submitted 2005)

2001

Randy Tan (MHA '01) is a Senior Consultant in the Strategy and Operations Practice of Deloitte Consulting. He is based in Sacramento and working primarily with the State of California.
(Submitted January 2007)

Maureen Spiwak (MPA/MPL '01) is an Attorney-Advisor in San Antonio, Texas for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(Submitted June 2006)

Jeremy Scharfenberg (MPP '01) is a Senior Associate at ICF International in Washington, DC. He specializes in global climate change, water resource management, stratospheric ozone protection and sustainable development. He will be transferring to the Los Angeles office in the Fall of 2006.
(Submitted May 2006)

Jesse (Lefton) Zilberstein (MPA '01) began working at The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles in 2005 as the Associate Director of the Real Estate and Construction Division.
(Submitted February 2006)

Scott Andreson (MPA '01) has been promoted to director, Global Power Group, Fitch Ratings.
(Submitted 2005)

Quintilia Avila (MPA '01) recently accepted a position as clinical project manager for the USC Department of Preventative Medicine Institute for Preventative Research where she focuses on the prevention of diabetes in minority children.
(Submitted 2005)

Betsy Dolan (MPA '01) is a management analyst for the City of Burbank.
(Submitted 2005)

Matt Hayden (MPL '01) is a special projects coordinator for the City of Calabasas.
(Submitted 2005)

Cathy Horiuchi (DPA '01) received the Reining Award for the best USC dissertation of the year. Her dissertation, "Electric System Restructuring and System Reliability," was chaired by Elizabeth Graddy.
(Submitted 2005)

Naomi Kovacs (MPA '01) is the executive director of Citizens Planning Association and Foundation in Santa Barbara. The organization is the premier watchdog for controlled growth in Santa Barbara.
(Submitted 2005)

Jesus J. Lara (MPL/MLA '01) is currently a doctoral student at Arizona State University in Tempe, working towards a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning with emphasis in urban regeneration, urban design, and sustainable design.
(Submitted 2005)

Lorraine McCall (DPA '01) successfully defended her dissertation, "Measuring the Social Health of Native American communities in New Mexico: Applying the Social Health Index to Reservations and Counties."
(Submitted 2005)

Daphne Nisperos (MPP '01) is a Presidential Management Intern working in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(Submitted 2005)

Shannon Valencia (MPA '01) works at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles as a major gifts officer.
(Submitted 2005)

Veronica Villalobos (MPP '01) recently accepted a position with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities as the director of public affairs.
(Submitted 2005)

2000

John Rios (MHA '00, MBA '04) is a Business Development Associate for Molina Healthcare, Inc., working on expanding business lines, taking the public-for-profit HMO into new markets throughout the U.S.
(Submitted June 2006)

After five years of working and studying in Germany, Caroline Hohensee (formerly Wollner) (MHA/MSG '00) will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Fall of 2006.
(Submitted June 2006)

Karin Stellar (MPA '00) continues to love working as a Partner at Morris & Berger. She feels that finding the right people for leadership roles in the non-profit sector is rewarding and challenging. According to Karin, making a difference in organizations through facilitation of a search can be one of the most important decisions an organization can make. She feels honored and lucky to be able to be part of that process. She has also been serving on the Alumni Board and hopes to have more events and opportunities for alumni to become involved soon.
(Submitted April 2006)

After serving as the Los Angeles mayor's West L.A. Area Director for more than three years, Viet Tran (BS '00) has joined Southern California Edison as Eastern Region Manager for Public Affairs, in which capacity he serves primarily cities in Riverside County. Tran worked for the City of Los Angeles for eight years, during which time he served as Asian affairs liaison and as district deputy for a city councilmember, among other positions. In 2004 he received the Public Service Leadership Award from the Westchester/LAX/Marina Del Rey Chamber of Commerce and was named Rotarian of the Year by the Hawthorne Rotary Club.
(Submitted February 2006)

Mark Capell (MPA '00) has recently accepted the position of associate director, financial advisory services at Caldwell Flores Winters, Inc. in San Francisco.
(Submitted 2005)

Leticia M. Cardoso's (BS '00) first job is working as an assistant planner, focusing on entitlements in Psomas.
(Submitted 2005)

Elsa Chagolla (MPP '00) is a Presidential Management Intern working as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Migrant Education in Washington, D.C.
(Submitted 2005)

Vincent F. Coviello ('00) started working for Greentree last fall.
(Submitted 2005)

Raumak C. Eshraghi (BS '00) has recently begun studies at Southwestern University School of Law.
(Submitted 2005)

Francisco Enriquez (MPA '00) is an analyst at the U.S. General Accounting Office in Los Angeles.
(Submitted 2005)

Kimberly Firetag (MPP '00) was recently promoted to research associate at The Milken Family Foundation.
(Submitted 2005)

David Flores, Jr. (MPA '00) has accepted a new job as an Administrative Analyst for the Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District.
(Submitted 2005)

Kristine Guerrero (MPA '00) recently accepted a position as press secrectary for California State Senator Gloria Romero.
(Submitted 2005)

Harriet Rae Kaufman (MSSM '91, DPA '00) is the Department Chair for Information Systems and Technology at the University of Phoenix.
(Submitted 2005)

Patricia Thompson Mazzeo (MPA '00) has a position as Managed Health Care Examiner at the Department of Managed Health Care.
(Submitted 2005)

Laura Shell (MPA '00) is a deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
(Submitted 2005)

After graduation, Caroline Wollner (MHA/MSG '00) moved to Germany where she spent one year learning the language and now works as an intern for Siemens Managed Care Services, a hospital consulting group.
(Submitted 2005)

Rhoda Veluz (MHA '00) has completed one-year administrative residency at the Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.
(Submitted 2005)

Frank B. Wein (MPL '75, DPDS '00) joined the Los Angeles office of URS Corp. as manager of the environmental planning group.
(Submitted 2005)