Portraits of Success The Impact of Graduate Education at UCSB An Annual Publication from the UC Santa Barbara Graduate Division
THE ALUMNI ISSUE Visionaries, Changemakers, and Trailblazers
graddiv.ucsb.edu Portraits of Success
THE ALUMNI ISSUE
CHANGEMAKERS,
TRAILBLAZERS
VISIONARIES
Meet the visionaries, changemakers and
trailblazers who earned their advanced
degrees at UC Santa Barbara. Find out
how these notable alumni discovered their
potential to innovate, inspire, and lead in a
dynamic environment. A Message from the Dean
Dr. Carol Genetti CONTENTS Anne and Michael Towbes Graduate Dean UC Santa Barbara Graduate Division
Portraits of Success Our Mission
At UC Santa Barbara, we are committed to 7 The Changemakers providing our graduate students with a world- class education and with the opportunities, 25 The Trailblazers resources and support for career attainment in academia, industry, government, non-profits, 51 The Visionaries or the arts.
Our goal is to cultivate the individual strengths and talents of each student and welcome them as 77 Building Opportunities at UC Santa Barbara partners in our research and teaching mission. We are a highly interdisciplinary campus and provide many opportunities for discussion, collaboration, and 91 Support the Future of Graduate Education at UCSB discovery across disciplines. We recognize the critical role of diversity in these conversations; it is only by bringing together scholars of varied backgrounds, experiences and perspectives that we will realize our potential for excellence and innovation.
5 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 6 THE CHANGEMAKERS These UCSB graduate alumni made history by overcoming barriers and creating change to positively impact their communities, our state, our nation, and our world.
NICOLASA SANDOVAL BETTY KOED LOIS CAPPS JEAN FULLER
7 Portraits of Success Nicolasa Sandoval
NICOLASA SANDOVAL Ph.D. `07 // EDUCATION Education Director, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Education Department Member of the California State Board of Education Lecturer, Gervitz Graduate School of Education, UC Santa Barbara Past Board Member, UCSB Alumni Association Board of Directors
When Nicolasa Sandoval received her Ph.D. in Education from UC Santa Barbara in 2007, she brought home an important milestone in educational attainment to her community.
9 Portraits of Success THE CHANGEMAKERS | Nicolasa Sandoval
At the time, members of the Santa ever cheerleader from her tribe What brings me the greatest joy Ynez Band of Chumash Indians had at Santa Ynez High, before going is getting to know an individual, earned law and medical degrees, on to be the first in her family to finding out what lights their fire but no one had yet achieved a attend college. and then helping support them in doctorate in education. developing those pathways, so they Before she pursued her Ph.D. can nurture that love they have, for Sandoval was the first Chumash to at UCSB, Sandoval earned her the good of all.” earn a Ph.D., but due to community master’s degree in museum studies leaders and education advocates from George Washington University Sandoval also remains an integral like her, she would not be the and her bachelor’s degree in part of our UCSB community as a last. More and more members of public relations from Pepperdine lecturer at the Gervitz Graduate her tribe, many of whom she has University. She held several School of Education, and recently “I think diverse, multiple mentored over the past decade, positions at the Smithsonian’s completed her term as an elected have pursued advanced degrees National Museum of the American member of the UCSB Alumni perspectives are essential to our with great success. Indian, and worked as a public Association Board of Directors. relations professional for the intellectual and personal growth “It was a wonderful sense of Smithsonian’s National Museum ”I have had the wonderful accomplishment, to earn a Ph.D.,” of Natural History and the J. Paul honor of being able to support as human beings. One of the she said. “But I always knew that Getty Museum. and nurture emerging scholars, my research area and all of my work educational leaders, teachers, things I love about teaching on was never just for me. It was for the Sandoval currently serves as the school psychologists and guidance good of our tribal community and Education Director of the Santa counselors,” she said. “Being campus is the openness that our for society.” Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, part of this wonderful family and and has been appointed twice campus community, where we students have, to hear different Sandoval grew up with her four by Gov. Jerry Brown to the State are nurturing the next generation sisters on the Chumash reservation. Board of Education. of changemakers, keeps me voices and to listen to other views. Her mother worked hard to provide connected to UC Santa Barbara.” for her family, but always found “We help academic learning and They are open to the world. This time to encourage her daughters growth from birth to career in our to read and explore the local tribe,” she said. “We understand space enriches our own learning. libraries. Sandoval broke barriers that learning happens throughout early in her life, becoming the first the whole continuum of life. We may be surprised how we
grow as a result.”
11 Portraits of Success Betty Koed
Every Tuesday, Betty Koed delivers a history lesson for our nation’s lawmakers.
BETTY K. KOED As head of the United States Senate Historical Office, Koed is able `83, MA `91, PhD `99 // HISTORY to educate our elected officials on any topic she chooses about our nation’s Senate history. “Often, I provide historical context to a current Historian of the United States Senate issue,” she said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to share my love of Head of the United States Senate history with my principal audience – U.S. senators – and allows them Historical Office to gain a better understanding of this complex governing institution.” 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award, UCSB Alumni Association
13 Portraits of Success THE CHANGEMAKERS | Betty Koed
Koed herself occupies a special records dating from 1790 to and considered applying to law bonds,” she said, citing teachers place in American history as the 1881. “Yes, that was an exciting school. A road trip from Maine and mentors like Bob Kelley, first female U.S. Senate Historian. event!” said Koed, who led her to South Carolina, with stops Otis Graham, Randy Bergstrom, “It’s a `plate-spinning’ kind of team in researching the volumes at Philadelphia’s Independence Mary Furner, and Pat Cohen. job, requiring me to keep many for insights into early Senate Hall and the U.S. Capitol in “When I was a history graduate I love helping people. Whether it projects balanced and going at administrative history. Washington, D.C., opened her student, I truly felt like I was part the same time,” she said. “I like eyes to the richness of U.S. history. of a large, supportive family—an be a Senate leader preparing for working with senators, who – A young Betty Koed would have intellectually challenging but despite the bad press – are mostly loved to dig through such a find. The many strengths of the UCSB comforting environment.” an important hearing or a fourth incredibly hard-working people Growing up in a working class history department, home to the trying to solve problems.” family in Iowa then Colorado, nation’s first Public History Ph.D. Koed cultivates that same type grade student preparing a History Koed loved to write stories and program, drew Koed to return of family environment for her Her many daily responsibilities as essays, and was fascinated by to her alma mater as a graduate staff at the Senate Historical Day project, helping them gives U.S. Senate Historian range from archaeology. Inspired by a book scholar. “Whether I studied early Office. “The camaraderie writing and research projects, to from the public library, she would national history or 20th century among the professors and me great satisfaction. `You’ve providing historical commentary bury her mother’s dishes in the history, however, I knew my focus graduate students at the History for C-SPAN to fielding questions backyard to “excavate” them the would be politics and public Department set me up for made my day,’ is a phrase we hear about the Senate’s 228-year next day. policy,” she said. She funded her a lifetime of friendships and history from the public, the press, dissertation research and living professional relationships,” she often in the Historical Office. That Senators, and staff members. Before Koed finished high school, expenses by working as a teaching said. “I love my job and the At our nation’s capital, history can her family moved to California. assistant and research assistant, life I have in Washington, D.C., never gets old. manifest in the most unexpected She attended Santa Barbara City and applying for awards. so I guess that experience and ways. In 2002, construction on College for two years before “I was lucky enough to come into training served me well! Thank the new Capitol Visitors Center transferring to UCSB in her junior the History Department with an you, UCSB!” unearthed a series of old leather- year. After earning her bachelor’s amazing cohort of grad students, bound volumes that held records degree in English in 1983, Koed and the `Americanists’ of that of Senate salary and compensation worked as a technical writer time period quickly formed strong
15 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 16 Lois Capps
LOIS CAPPS Last year, Congresswoman Lois Capps packed up MA `90 // EDUCATION her office at the Capitol and bid farewell to her fellow lawmakers in an emotional final address at the U.S. House. U.S. Representative from California’s 24th Congressional District, “To me, this job has always been – and always will be – about the 1998-2017 people,” she said.
2017 Distinguished Alumni Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, UCSB Alumni Association
17 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 18 THE CHANGEMAKERS | Lois Capps
Lois began her public service Lois received her bachelor’s degree At the UCSB Gervitz Graduate career after her husband Walter in nursing from Pacific Lutheran School of Education, Lois focused Capps died only nine months into University, and went on to earn on early childhood education. “My his term as the U.S. representative her first master’s degree in religion professors inspired me. I got into for California’s 22nd congressional from Yale Divinity School. At Yale, materials that I had never read district. She won his seat in a special she met her husband Walter, then before – and never understood election in 1998, and went on to a young divinity student who before my time at UCSB. My start her first full term in office after would soon become one of the degree really broadened and winning the general election later foremost religious studies scholars deepened my knowledge.” that year. in the country. She returned to campus this June She became the first Democrat The couple married in 1960 and to deliver the keynote address in over 50 years to hold the 22nd moved to Santa Barbara, where at the 2017 Graduate Division district for more than one term. Her they raised their three children. Commencement Ceremony. “One district was renumbered twice -- as While Walter taught religious of the pillars of our democracy, what the 23rd district in 2000, and the studies at UC Santa Barbara, Lois I believe in so strongly, is public 24th district in 2010, expanding worked as a nurse in the local education -- and that is what we are Some have rather glibly said to include more inland areas of schools. Her experience with Head here to celebrate today,” she said. Santa Barbara County, as well as Start and other preschool programs “And you are the product of that `Education is wasted on the young.’ San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria. inspired her to consider earning her system as we know it in California.” Lois was a respected leader in second master’s degree at UCSB. Educated is never wasted -- but when Congress on issues of public health, Lois is grateful to be able to engage gender equality, protecting the “A graduate degree is often with the community and campus you have lived a little, you realize environment, and providing more challenging in so many respects,” she knows so well. “I feel like the affordable access to education. she said. “For me, I was juggling UCSB campus is home in many what particular values you have and Her professional background in a lot of different aspects of life ways, for me and my family,” she both health and education deeply during my second time at graduate said. “We are proud to be a part what areas of knowledge you still informed her work as a public school. I was raising a family with of UCSB over the years, in so many servant for nearly two decades. my husband in Santa Barbara. I was capacities — my own master’s need. To have been able to access working full-time as a school nurse degree that I received there, one “I have been a strong believer in at the Santa Barbara Unified School of our kids went to UCSB and is an that knowledge in our Santa Barbara education all my life,” she said. “I District. It was so very different from alum, and Walter taught there for was raised in a household where before, when I was a bit younger. 30 years. So UCSB has really been a community at UCSB was outstanding. education was truly valued above Then, life was simpler.” vital part of our family.” everything else.”
19 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 20 Jean Fuller
JEAN FULLER Ph.D. `89 // EDUCATION
First Female Senate Minority Leader, California State Senate
Member of the California State California State Senator Jean Fuller spent over thirty Legislature, Representative of the years of her life as an educator. 16th State District, 2006-2017 Growing up in Kern County, California, Fuller would often be found California Superintendent of the at the library, poring over books and schoolwork. “I was helped by so Year, American Association of School many to excel in school,” she said. “I really wanted to help others to Administrators also enjoy reading and the educational process.”
21 Portraits of Success THE CHANGEMAKERS | Jean Fuller
First in her family to attend college, seminars at Exeter College at Senate leaders,” she said. “That was Fuller worked her way through Oxford University, Harvard, and the the vision I needed to get my own school, earning her B.A. from University of Southern California. picture in there – and to get other It doesn’t matter where you come California State University, Fresno Her many achievements as a women’s pictures on that wall.” in 1972, and a master’s degree in public education leader earned her Now a year away from the end of from or who you are, or any of those public administration from California numerous awards and accolades her second term in the Senate, Fuller State University, Los Angeles in over the years, including the 1998 recently stepped down from her role external variables. You need to able to 1982. She first learned about the American Association of School as Republican leader, paving the way education doctoral program at UC Administrators Leadership for for another woman – Senator Patricia believe fully in your cause, your group, Santa Barbara while working as a Learning Award, and the 1995 Bates – to take the reins. principal in Palmdale. California Superintendent of the Year. your coalition, your SELF – you need “In the legislature, one of the “When I became seriously engaged In 2006, Fuller won her first election things that really drives me is being to believe in whatever you are trying in my profession, I knew I needed to the California State Legislature able to help others by building to be able to be a credible source as the representative for the 32nd relationships, strong communities, to put together, even in the face of of original thinking,” she said. “The Assembly District. In 2010, she and infrastructure,” she said. program at UCSB taught me to do went on to win her seat at the “Whenever I see children, I think negative information. Once you aim to original research and provided me California State Senate as the of their potential. It’s exciting to with the coaching and core skills representative for California’s 16th discover what each new day brings, dream big, you are inevitably going to to publish, attend conferences and Senate District. and how our world develops around share papers. I was able to move us. To be able to work toward a hit some hard spots along the way. to a place where I could become a In 2015, California Senate future where our children grow up leader in my field.” Republicans elected Fuller as in a safe, strong community with minority leader – making her the first libraries and great schools, and all Fuller continued to supplement woman, Democrat or Republican, the resources to help them move her education after she earned her to hold a top leadership post in on and make a better world…that is Ph.D. in Education from UCSB. the Senate. “When I first arrived, what continues to inspire me.” She completed course work and there was no woman on this wall of
23 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 24 THE TRAILBLAZERS They pursued the roads less-traveled and discovered new career possibilities in their chosen fields. On the stage, in the boardroom, and across borders, these alums transformed challenges into opportunities to make an impact on the world.
SISTER JUDITH ROYER ARTURO GONZALEZ BO HU NICOLE IFILL FAYA CAUSEY ALEXANDRA SEROS
25 Portraits of Success Sister Judith Royer
Using art to build community and inspire social justice lies at the heart of Sister Judith Royer’s work in theater and education.
As a producer, director, dramaturge, and teacher, she brings real SISTER JUDITH ROYER stories from real people to the stage, giving audience to the voices of Ph.D. `83 // DRAMATIC ART those who might otherwise remain unheard. Professor of Theater Arts, Loyola Marymount University Director, CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice Her desire to create, coupled with her faith as a Catholic sister and Director, Playwrights Center Stage New Plays Series a deep connection to her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Orange, have characterized Royer’s four celebrated decades at Founder, Mark Taper Forum and Theatre Gallery Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Milan Stitt Award for Outstanding Teacher of Playwriting, Association for Theatre in Higher Education THE TRAILBLAZERS | Sister Judith Royer
“I see my religious vocation as product of a merger between This hands-on, community-based a way in which we are active to Loyola University, Marymount approach has since evolved into serve and to help make change,” College, and her own teacher’s a model for teaching students, she said. “I see that happening college. UCSB’s proximity to LMU offered formally at LMU through What gives me life is creating as for me in the arts as well. I use the allowed her to pursue her Ph.D. a course called Voices of Justice. gifts I have.” without going too far from her CSJ Performances produced by the an artist. Teaching is also an art. community of sisters. course have not only afforded Royer’s love of the theater is, in part, students the opportunity to connect Watching students be able to do the a product of her comprehensive The program at UC Santa Barbara to local advocacy organizations, undergraduate education at St. challenged Royer as a scholar. “It but also to gain a greater same thing - growing as actors, as Joseph’s Teachers College. In was very intense academically,” she understanding of the importance of addition to studying theology and recalled. “I remember the thing that their work. “It’s astounding to have writers, using those gifts for social history, Royer majored in English, made us survive was that view of students at those performances, with an emphasis in dramatic the ocean from campus. We were along that general audience and justice - is pretty extraordinary. literature. As she progressed through studying for ten, eleven hours a day. the agency storytellers in the her studies, she found herself more I remember walking out one day audience,” she said. “That’s really interested in the transformation and looking out at the lagoon and moving and transforming for all.” that took place on stage than any looking at a tree and going, ‘Uh, I individual interpretation in print. don’t remember seeing that for a One of the most significant Watching literature come alive long time!’” rewards of Royer’s work as a and the collaboration required teacher has come from witnessing to produce a piece of theater Theater as a vehicle for social her students experience this continued to draw Royer to the field. change has remained an integral learning process. “One student part of Royer’s roles at LMU said she had never realized that Though she was working as a high as Director of the Center for her art could actually make a school teacher at the time, Royer Reconciliation and Justice, and as change that had any impact on decided to pursue her doctorate a Professor of Theater Arts. Nearly people other than entertainment,” at UC Santa Barbara in order two decades ago, Royer shifted her she said. “What teacher would to continue teaching at Loyola focus to dramatized narrative work -- ever want any more feedback from Marymount University. The newly finding local communities and telling a student than that?” formed 4-year institution was the their stories on stage.
29 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 30 Arturo Gonzales
ARTURO GONZALEZ MA `93, Ph.D. `97 // ECONOMICS Arturo Gonzalez’s career journey provides a perfect illustration of the versatility of an advanced degree Senior Director, Visa, Inc. (or two) in economics.
Former Chief of Consumer & Over the past decade, Arturo has worked in leadership roles in Community Development Research, academics, public service and the private sector. He credits his U.S. Federal Reserve Board advanced degrees for empowering his life decisions. “Being able to Financial Economist, Office of the exercise your freedom is the most powerful thing you can do,” he Comptroller of the Currency said. “And that’s what a graduate degree gives you -- it gives you the freedom to realize what you want to be.”
31 Portraits of Success THE TRAILBLAZERS | Arturo Gonzales
Arturo earned both his master’s sociology and actually worked as moving on to work at the Public This year, he returned to Curiosity, more than anything else, degree and doctorate in economics a sociologist. But I did hear about Policy Institute of California. “I was the West Coast to work at at UC Santa Barbara. When he first accountants who got jobs because able to do the academic research, Visa, Inc. in San Francisco, has driven me to make decisions considered graduate school as an they majored in accounting.” but was able to add the other California. “So now I’m undergraduate in economics at dimensions I enjoyed,” he said. “I going to take everything that on what I want to do next. I always UCLA, his advisor recommended His first undergraduate class in was able to talk to the media, talk I’ve learned, and apply it to UCSB for its reputation for economics completely changed his to policy makers in Sacramento, and consumer finance and access tell people to never assume that microeconomics and applied work. point-of-view. “The professor told network with other academics.” to credit, but now with a “He knew that my interest was us that economics wasn’t really just global presence,” he said. what you are doing now will be more on applying economic theory about business or understanding A grad school friend encouraged “It will be a continuation to human behavior in a real-world finance or stock markets,” he said. Arturo to take another leap: moving of things I enjoy and I am your final outcome. Things can way, rather than a more abstract “It was really about people, about into the private sector as a pricing able to be intellectually manner than some other programs understanding human behaviors transfer analyst for Ernst and Young. challenged. Most important, happen. Recessions happen that will do,” he recalled. using very rigorous methods that “Unfortunately, while I was enjoying it will make a difference in can impact society.” it, the economy tanked,” he said. the lives of people.” completely throw your plans into Arturo chose economics as a “So things outside my control “very practical major” as an He completed his doctoral studies drove me to Washington, D.C. at a tailspin. More than anything else, undergraduate at UCLA. A first in 1997, and went on to teach the Office of the Comptroller of the generation college student, he grew economics and Mexican American Currency, working on regulations be honest with yourself about what up in a family-oriented, blue-collar studies at the University of Arizona governing financial institutions.” neighborhood in East Los Angeles. for six years. “I was teaching is your passion, and pursue that as students Mexican American studies After five years, Arturo was asked “Being a working class area, and used economics to help them to become a manager at the U.S. much as possible. resources for education, for understand issues,” he said. “It Federal Reserve. “I was given structure, and mentoring were was really fun seeing students an opportunity to build a brand- just not part of the everyday participate using economic theory, new team that would focus on experience,” he said. “Back then, using my economic models, community affairs, consumers, and I didn’t know how to get a job in and seeing the implications of community development,” he said. a big office building. I thought being able to take the rigor of In his role as chief of Consumer about things like accounting, economics and applying that to & Community Development economics and business degrees, issues like immigration that are Research at the Federal Reserve versus something that was vague really important to the Mexican Board, Arturo presented to the like history or psychology. I American experience.” Board and shared his team’s didn’t meet anyone who had When he received tenure, Arturo research with the public. an undergraduate degree in decided to challenge himself by
33 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 34 Bo Hu
BO HU Ph.D. `04 // ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Engineering Manager, Uber
Studying for an advanced degree is difficult.
Doing it in a foreign environment is even more challenging.
Bo Hu took on that double challenge when he moved from China to pursue his doctorate in electrical engineering at UC Santa Barbara.
Hu, who now works as engineering manager at Uber, recalled how he struggled with differences between educational systems when he first arrived at UCSB. “My educational experience in China was very structured and straightforward,” he said. “I knew exactly what I needed to do to succeed in my education, so the journey was very smooth. I always got good test scores and was admitted to the best schools. My graduate school experience in the United States was the opposite.”
35 Portraits of Success THE TRAILBLAZERS | Bo Hu
Hu credited his mentors for getting school. “It became clear to me and Dropbox. He joined Uber him through the tough spots that computer engineering is a a year ago to help expand the during his grad school career at perfect mix of software design, with company’s growth in his home UCSB. “”My advisor gave me extensive hardware background,” country, only to be given a wider great guidance and direction on he said. “I learned about Professor scope of responsibilities when I believe every graduate scholar how to explore deeper and be Margaret Marek-Sadowska’s Uber China exited the market after more creative,” he said. “The research lab at UCSB from my merging with Didi China. should have a passion for making five years I spent at UC Santa fellow classmates and found exactly Barbara totally changed my life. I what I was looking for. I also heard Hu now leads growth teams a difference. Today, globalization is learned important skills, including that Marek-Sadowska always for Uber’s international market, language, problem solving, and encouraged her Ph.D. students to covering Southeast Asia, Europe, inevitable. Technology makes our life perspective, which helped my spend summers in Silicon Valley the Middle East, Africa, and Latin career tremendously.” to stay in touch with the latest America. He looks forward to the world connected – and smaller. I advancements in the industry.” future, and what he can achieve with Hu grew up in Deyang, a small city his colleagues in the global market. think with a global point of view, near Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Choosing UCSB was an easy province. As a young child he decision. Choosing his research “I love this job because of the cities their graduate school research will dreamed of becoming an architect, topic however, was not. For five and people we are serving, and the but his fascination for STEM soon years, Hu sought direction to find life impact we bring to them,” he be more comprehensive, and more put him on the path to a career in his dissertation topic. “There were said. “In less than a year in this role, engineering. A diligent student, so many times I thought I had a I traveled to many cities around the thorough, with more variables, and Hu earned his B.S. in electrical brilliant idea, but proved in the world, and experienced first-hand engineering from Tsinghua end that it just did not work,” how Uber is making a difference potential impact will be significantly University, one of the top academic he recalled. “I learned over time in various local markets. It is truly institutions in Asia and one of the that failure is the norm of life, and gratifying to see people around bigger if they pull it off. foremost engineering universities it often takes perseverance and the world making a better living in the world. proper perspective on difficulties with Uber, regardless of their color, and failures to make progress and language, and background. There After graduation, Hu began to succeed.” is so much more we can do.” explore further specializing in computer programming and The hard work paid off. Hu software design. UC Santa graduated with his doctorate in Barbara’s research reputation drew 2004 and went on to work as an him to Central California for grad engineering manager at Facebook
37 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 38 Nicole Ifill
NICOLE IFILL Before becoming an education analyst at a research MA ’08 // STATISTICS firm, Nicole Ifill was working full time at a brewpub in the Santa Barbara area. Research Education Analyst, Education and Workforce While the position certainly nurtured her love for beer, she thirsted to Development, RTI International apply her skills to a job that combined her passion for both education Research Associate, and math. “I had these other goals and seemed to have gotten off MPR Associates Inc. track. So I literally quit my job, sold my car, and tried to figure out where to go,” she said.
39 Portraits of Success THE TRAILBLAZERS | Nicole Ifill
She ended up in Washington, paced New York City life to the Longitudinal Study, has paved to postsecondary education and D.C. Today, she works as a more relaxed-pace of life in Santa the way for education research issues related to persistence and research education analyst for Barbara, but she admits the weather and published several articles attainment in hopes of “changing RTI International, a nonprofit was a big draw. for the U.S. Department of the conversation and changing research firm that is paving Education, including “Persistence the focus” of so many articles the way in informing public While she studied for her Masters’ and Attainment of 2011-12 First- surrounding these topics. policy, expanding opportunities in the Probability and Applied Time Postsecondary Students and driving better outcomes Statistics (PSTAT) Department, she After 3 Years (BPS:12/14)”, “My contribution is to add for children, youth and adults began to diversify her interests. “Undergraduates Who Do Not nuance,” she said. “To take in education and workforce She worked with the economics Apply for Financial Aid,” and the messy contradictory data development. department to help her answer “Trends in Pell Grant Receipt and that students provide and questions surrounding the barriers the Characteristics of Pell Grant administrative organizations Growing up in Massachusetts, Ifill students have in accessing higher Recipients: Selected Years, 1999- provide about students, and was convinced that she wanted education while simultaneously 2000 to 2011-12.” turn that into something that to be a math teacher. After some working as a teaching assistant in researchers want to use.” gentle prodding from her family, the statistics department. After Ifill conceived and lead a new she went to Columbia University graduation, she worked with Dr. project sponsored by RTI: Learning, and received her BA in Political Joe McFadden in the geography Not Seat Time: The Rise of Science - Statistics. She worked as department on statistical analysis Competency-Based Education As a researcher who really feels that a data analyst for Harris Interactive of geographical projects even and the Implications for Student (best known for The Harris Poll) for while she worked at a brewpub Transcripts. Additionally, she is data takes the emotion out of bad two years before she decided that in the area. She then dropped the project director of the annual she wanted to go back to school. everything and moved to DC to College Results Online data update, policy decisions, I think that my return to her interest in education, an Education Trust website [IN2] Ifill was drawn to the graduate she was hired by the research firm which analyses data on graduation contribution is to be able to shine program at UCSB that combined MPR Associates, which was later rates, admissions, financial aid, and social science with statistics. “I acquired by RTI International to financial expenditures. a light on how these policies affect remember walking on the beach research students at risk. and calling my mom in March… Ifill’s research is leading the way to low-income and nontraditional and saying ‘it’s so amazing here, Since then, Ifill, in her role as change the national conversation I’m definitely going to come here!’” analytic director of the 2012/17 around education statistics. She college students. It was a big move from the fast- Beginning Postsecondary Students continues to research the barriers
41 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 42 Faya Causey
FAYA CAUSEY MA `77, PhD `84 // ART HISTORY
2017-2018 Scholar in Residence, Getty Research Institute For nearly two decades, art historian Faya Causey has been one of the world’s foremost scholars on the unique Recently retired, Head of Academic uses and cultural symbolism of the fossil resin amber. Programs, National Gallery of Art, Washington Causey’s interest in the ancient material was inspired by a 1975 visit to the British Museum. “It all started with my first sight of some very odd- Former Professor at California State shaped ancient carvings of amber,” she recalled. “There they were in University, Long Beach the same rooms as famous Greek and Etruscan works…and while the Former Instructor at the Art Center, style and subjects of the ambers were related to these better-known Pasadena objects, they were eccentric – the forms wrapping around the natural shapes of amber lumps.”
43 Portraits of Success THE TRAILBLAZERS | Faya Causey
Causey delved into the study of at UC Riverside, Causey was the artist (wherever and whenever In her current residency at amber as both jewelry and magic/ drawn to graduate study at UCSB possible) and the humanist’s the Getty, Causey returns talismanic items in ancient cultures. because of the “superb faculty research. Theory is critical. to academic research “It became clear to me that amber representing such a wide range Clear explanations are valuable and scholarly discussion, was the diamond of antiquity and of specializations and because -- but even more so are good as she works within the that these carvings were found in they offered such insight and questions!” year’s defined theme of the tombs of the elite all over Italy, experience in the current world Iconoclasm and Vandalism. and were high-status objects. I just traditions of scholarship.” Mentors In 1994, Causey left academe “My project will look at the wanted to know more.” such as Mario Del Chiaro, Fikret to pursue a position as in the destruction and ‘afterlife’ Yegül, Peter Meller, and David Department of Academic Programs of a number of Hellenistic The subject took her scholarly Gebhard shaped her experience. at the National Art Gallery. Though and early Roman sculptures, research into unexpected “Curiosity about things, ideas, the she continued her specialized which were decapitated from directions, including replicative past and the present coupled with areas of research, at the Gallery statues and then thrown archaeology. “I liked that these the tools to investigate art and she continued her role as educator. into wells!” she said. “It will strange carvings were such a architecture were inherent in every Museum work offered her a be wonderful to have the different way of looking at ancient class and seminar, and in every different, more varied audience time to devote the months art,” she said. The results of her meeting,” she said. but still included college students, to research and writing, research into the material are now graduate and undergraduate. discussion and debate.” featured in her book Amber and She carried this curiosity - along My educational experience at UCSB the Ancient World (2012) and in with an appreciation for the “Museum education always the online scholarly catalogue of “ideological spectrum” offered depends on research,” she said. was exciting, fun, thrilling, and, of the J. Paul Getty Museum, where by her professors at UCSB - with “Over the last few decades, Causey recently began a residency her into teaching positions at the museums are increasingly course, serious work! Throughout as a Scholar in Residence at the Art Center College of Design in undertaking research on the Getty Research Institute. Pasadena and at California State visitors’ experience (both on- my career as a former professor, University, Long Beach, where she site and off-site) and are deeply Her fascination with ancient art became a tenured professor. “I concerned about multiple administrator and educator, I have evolved from a diverse set of had learned about the power of learning styles, uptake, querying, interests that also includes 19th real art objects, from the most and opening up ideas about art drawn on the knowledge-sharing century French Impressionist hurried of sketches to great works and its production to the widest painters and Renaissance art of architecture.” she said. “It is of audiences.” atmosphere of my UC years. in Italy. As an art history major important to balance the voice of
45 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 46 Alexandra Seros
Acclaimed screenwriter Alexandra Seros has a scar on her arm as one souvenir of her time as a graduate ALEXANDRA SEROS student director at UC Santa Barbara. MA `72 // DRAMATIC ART During a main stage production of I Never Sang for My Father by Screenplay Writer, Robert Anderson, Seros had the play’s protagonist swing from a rope THE SPECIALIST (1994), across and above the stage multiple times. A city fire marshal stood POINT OF NO RETURN (1993) guard every night in case of an accident -- but the only emergency happened before the play opened.
47 Portraits of Success THE TRAILBLAZERS | Alexandra Seros
“I decided to crawl around on the William Reardon, professor emeritus Seros’s writing hit the big screen “In the beginning, producers angle iron (but every piece wasn’t of the Dramatic Arts Department. with two popular action thrillers actually thought I was a man; they yet connected) to check sight during the mid-1990s. For two misread Alexandra for Alexander. It lines—something I should not After earning her master’s degree, consecutive years, Warner Bros. was weird. When I began, women have been doing—and I fell about Seros pursued acting, wrote and released two movies based on were supposed to write romantic 15 feet, cutting my arm open on directed a short film, and was her screenplays -- Point of No comedies, not erotic thrillers. Now, the rusted corrugated tin that I accepted into the American Film Return (1993) and The Specialist of course all of that has changed.” used for stage walls,” she said. Institute’s directing program. (1994), starring mega film stars “Eleven stitches. All I have to do “Although moving from theatre like Sylvester Stallone and Sharon As she pursues the next phase of is look at my arm and the memory to film was a change, my training Stone. Seros has been writing her academic journey as a Ph.D. rushes back.” (The play received in theatre has been essential ever since, penning production student, Seros has met professors excellent reviews.) to my work as a director and rewrites and working for every like Dr. Janet Walker, a professor at screenwriter,” she said. major studio. the UCSB Film and Media Studies Seros had studied theatre history Department, who provide new and criticism while in the acting Only one of the other director In 2014, Seros was accepted into insights and inspiration for her specialization program at UCLA. fellows in her AFI cohort shared UCLA’s Cinema and Media Studies research and creative process. When a close friend and mentor her background in acting. “As Ph.D. program at the Department decided to join the faculty at UCSB, an imitative art, performance of Film, Television and Digital “I listen differently, I look at she followed by applying to the remains under-researched,” Media. She is currently doing things differently, my focus has I think I was the most active and graduate program. “UCSB turned she said. “On the other hand, research on Ida Lupino, the only improved, and I understand what out to be a great place for me, I had little experience in film woman who worked as a director I read in more depth; I see more alive at UCSB that I’ve ever been, where I did a lot directing work, technique. Thus, the quid pro and producer within the 1950s meaning,” she said. “There’s both in the university’s theatres, quo at AFI was that I helped Hollywood studio system, and a kind of scientific exploration often sleeping maybe four hours and at The Park Theatre on State with the acting, and my cohort the only female member of the that takes hold during work on Street,” she said. taught me about lenses, camera Directors Guild of America from a Ph.D. Having no preconceived a night; working, studying, and angles, and the frame. Eventually 1948 to 1971. notions opens up a lot of new During her year and a half at UCSB, I became a screenwriter, and have possibilities….most importantly, performing the other twenty. It was Seros recalls visiting Camarillo State been working in film ever since. “I certainly haven’t had her great I’ve understood the difference Mental Hospital as part of the cast I suppose my movement from and varied career, but some part between wanting to do something a different time, more experimental of Marat Sade under the guidance theatre to film is less a change of me felt that as a woman writing and needing to do it.” of visiting professor Giorji Paro, than an evolution. I would say hard action, I was an anomaly, and creatively daring. in preparation for the play. Seros that acting, writing, directing, and completely misunderstood, as remembers well her mentors like screenwriting all fit comfortably though I was suspect for working Drs. Cedric Winchell and the famed under the same overcoat.” on men-only narratives,” she said.
49 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 50 THE VISIONARIES From searching for ways to end food scarcity to enabling better community access to communications and media, these dynamic alums built their big ideas into tangible solutions for the betterment of society.
JAMES ROGERS WENDY MENDES MARC NATHANSON CRAIG KENNEDY THE WILCOXES ERIC HOCHBERG
51 Portraits of Success James Rogers
James Rogers spent six and a half years at UC Santa Barbara “literally watching paint dry.”
While pursuing his Ph.D. in materials engineering and his master’s in economics at UC Santa Barbara, the award-winning young scientist worked on developing more efficient plastic solar cells at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a National Science Foundation MA `12, ECONOMICS // Ph.D. Graduate Research Fellow. `14 MATERIALS ENGINEERING Co-Founder CEO, Apeel Sciences “I would make solar paint samples at UCSB and then I would drive up Member, UCSB Alumni Association to the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to look at the microstructure Board of Directors changes that occurred in those paints – to make watching paint dry more entertaining,” he said.
53 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | James Rogers
“To be able to see my research all His search for solutions to the team pitched the concept and won the trouble of creating a barrier on growing in the same direction. the way from making the paints spoilage and food waste problem $10,000 at the UCSB Technology the outside of fresh produce, what People from UCSB are hard- in the lab at UCSB, to molecular led him back to his undergraduate Management Program’s 13th you’ve really done is redefine the working and motivated, and imaging at Lawrence Berkeley days at Carnegie Mellon, where annual New Venture Competition. interface between the produce and at the same time have the National Lab was a really unique he completed dual degrees That same year, he received a the external environment.” values and connection to opportunity.” in materials and biomedical $100,000 grant from the Bill and The new product would environment and endeavors engineering. “We studied steel,” Melinda Gates Foundation Grand “camouflage” fresh produce by related to sustainability. Once Rogers regularly listened to music he said. “And the way you make Challenges Explorations initiative. preventing biotic stressors like you find something good, you and podcasts during his five-hour steel is to combine iron and fungal spores and insects from latch onto it.” commutes between Santa Barbara carbon atoms in a very particular Since then, the company has recognizing fruit and vegetables and Berkeley. He happened to ratio…the problem is, those grown from 35 to 85 employees, as food on the molecular level. hear a story on world hunger atoms in that chunk of iron and and recently moved into a new “We can actually preserve fresh while driving through farmlands in carbon react with the atmosphere 105k square-foot facility hosting produce without the use of Salinas Valley. “I saw all these lush, and form rust. Metallurgists its office, lab, and manufacturing chemical pesticides,” he said. It all comes down to reducing green fields, and wondered how figured out this clever trick of space. Over the past two years, “This really gets exciting once could there still be people on this incorporating a small number of Apeel gained FDA approval for its you offer that as a complete negative externalities. I don’t planet who go hungry,” he said. sacrificial atoms to form this thin Edipeel product and raised a record solution from end to end.” oxide barrier that would then $33 million dollars in funding. think that the intention was to He immediately looked at the protect the outside of the steel.” While James Rogers the scientist numbers. “It was estimated that Apeel scientists are on to solving the utilizes his knowledge for the go out with extremely audacious almost half of produce growing in Rogers and his grad school next problem: protecting fruit and good of humankind, James the United States was ending up in colleague Jenny Du worked vegetables in the field from pests, Rogers the CEO is passionate goals. At the core of what we’re a landfill,” he said. “The problem together in his garage to bacteria and fungi. about building the ideal wasn’t on the food production side. create an ultra-thin, all-natural corporate culture at Apeel. doing is applying fundamental It was really on the post-harvest layer sourced from agricultural “The goal for our company is to be Looking to UCSB’s unique storage of our produce. Naturally, byproducts that could protect able to offer consumers not only a collaborative environment, there science and engineering to as a scientist and engineer in produce from water loss and piece of produce that lasts twice as are more than a few Gauchos on training, I was inclined to investigate oxidation. This research seeded long in their home, but is also grown his team. solving problems in the world. what was causing the produce to the development of Edipeel, without pesticides,” said Rogers. spoil. So I looked into it. It turns out the first groundbreaking biotech “That sounds like a really challenging “One of the things we really value that the leading causes of spoilage product from Apeel Sciences. goal, but what we’ve discovered is at Apeel is teamwork,” he said. are water loss and oxidation.” In 2012, Rogers and his research that if you’re going to go through “At the end of the day, a company is just a collection of people all
55 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 56 Wendy Mendes
For five consecutive school years, from 2006 to 2010, undergraduate students at Harvard University named Wendy Berry Mendes as a favorite professor.
Throughout her professional career, Mendes has inspired both her students and her fellow scholars to pursue excellence and innovation.
Ph.D. ’03 // PSYCHOLOGY She credits her drive and discipline to her formative years spent Sarlo/Ekman Endowed Professor in pursuing a non-academic pursuit, classical ballet. “Like sports, the Study of Human Emotion, music, dance, and art can be rewarding long after the pursuit is UC San Francisco over,” she said. “It has been almost 30 years since I danced but I still draw from that same discipline, self-regulation, and resilience after a Founder and Director, The Emotion, setback that I learned from my early years.” Health, and Psychophysiology Lab, UCSF Department of Psychiatry First in her family to pursue higher education, Mendes earned both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in psychology from John L. Loeb Associate Professor, California State University, Long Beach. “I started out as a math major Harvard University and when I took my first statistic class, I was enthralled by the idea of using numbers and mathematical models to try to understand
57 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | Wendy Mendes
the mind and behavior,” she said. Harvard University for six years. co-authoring the book Social “Psychology provided that perfect In 2010, she accepted her current Psychophysiology for Social and nexus of science and philosophy, position at UC San Francisco, where Personality Psychology. She won and optimizes both bottom-up data she now serves as the founding the Gordon Allport Prize in 2008 driven approaches, and top-down director of the Emotion, Health, for the best paper on intergroup theoretical frameworks. Indeed, the and Psychophysiology Lab at the relations, the Sage Young Scholar best research psychologists I know UC San Francisco Department Award for early career contributions use a combination of inductive and of Psychiatry, leading research in in psychology in 2009, and the deductive reasoning to understand the area of emotion, intergroup Janet Spence Award for early the human mind.” relationships, stigma and career transformative contributions psychophysiology. Her lab is the in psychological science in 2011. For Mendes, UCSB presented the first to publish studies identifying “ideal choice” for her doctoral individual differences in vagal nerve Despite the accolades and awards studies. “The university is rich with flexibility that predict emotional she has earned over the years, I emphasize to my students brilliant minds, creative research, and social perception. Mendes remains humble about her and a clear commitment to students contributions to academia and her that they need to find their and the scientific process,” she “I study how affective processes – chosen field. “While I am grateful said. “Graduate students represent states like acute stress, motivation, for being recognized, science own personal contentment the `teenage years’ in the academy and emotional reactions – and education are team sports, and because of that intellectual directly influence brain and body yet awards are typically given to with science from the stage the faculty has to balance responses using a variety of individuals,” she said. “We also guidance with independence. psychophysiological approaches,” have a tendency to attribute ideas/ process and not from the UCSB faculty provided the perfect she said. Her research team’s theories/phenomena to a person, amount of subtle guidance allowing three areas of findings have shown but as anyone who has toiled in outcome. Studies often graduate students to learn from that not all stress is bad, that the a lab for decades knows, every their mistakes but not so much largest nerve in the human body idea stands on the shoulders of fail, but in that failure is freedom that the mistakes derail is actually related to social and the ideas and theories that came their trajectory irreparably.” emotional perception, and that before it.” something valuable and that feelings of one person can be After receiving her doctorate, contagious to others. is the beauty of learning. Mendes went on to conduct her post-doctoral research in Mendes has written and co- psychology and medicine at authored over 60 peer-reviewed UC San Francisco and taught at publications, in addition to
59 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 60 Marc B. Nathanson
Before he became one of the nation’s leading media industry executives, Marc Nathanson worked summers as a door-to-door cable salesman.
Born to the owner of a Midwest advertising agency, Nathanson witnessed the influence of media and advertising on local politics. His great-grandfather served in public office in Minneapolis, while his father ran many media campaigns for politicians like Paul Simon and Birch Bayh. Nathanson also spent time working in the Senate as a low-level press aide to U.S. Senator Gale McGee.
MA `69 // POLITICAL SCIENCE After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver, Chairman, Mapleton Investments Nathanson won a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Founder, Falcon Cable political science. He married Jane, his college sweetheart, and Former Chairman of the US decided to move to Santa Barbara for grad school. “UCSB gave me Broadcasting Board of Governors the opportunity to write my master’s thesis on the regulation of the Cable TV Hall of Fame cable TV industry,” he said. “Thus, I was able to combine my interest in television and politics.”
61 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | Marc B. Nathanson
When Nathanson received his Radio Liberty. “The BBG, the in support of public arts access master’s degree from UCSB in successor agency to the United and education. In Los Angeles, 1969, only 5 percent of the United States Information Agency, allowed Marc and Jane Nathanson provide States population had cable me to use my knowledge of leadership, fundraising guidance television. He started his media communications and technology and support for public cultural career at Able Cable and went and to apply it to help modernize institutions like the Los Angeles on to serve as vice president of the U.S. government’s diplomacy County Museum of Art, the marketing and programming efforts,” he said. Museum of Contemporary Art, at TelePrompTer. In 1975, he Los Angeles, the Los Angeles founded Falcon Cable, a company Nathanson is a member of Music Center Opera, and the Los that covered over one million the Cable TV Hall of Fame, Angeles Philharmonic. subscribers throughout 26 states in and has received the Global the late 1980s. By the time he sold Green’s Millennium Award Everything Nathanson has Falcon to Charter Communications and the Environmental accomplished centers on one key in 1999, over 70 percent of Media Association’s Lifetime motivator: his family. “To us, family Americans subscribed to cable. Achievement Award. He serves on is the most important part of our Nathanson now serves as chairman the board of the USC Annenberg life,” he said. “We have three of his investment firms Mapleton School of Communication, The children and eight grandchildren. Investments and Mapleton/RDS Aspen Institute, and the Pacific We hope they will all serve the Real Estate Group, with Falcon Council on International Policy. community and help to improve When they slam the door in Waterfree Technologies. He is also the vice chairman of society and promote tolerance the National Democratic Institute and understanding for all people. your face, you have to figure Throughout his career, Nathanson for International Affairs and is This is something that was has been recognized for his a member of the Council on stressed by my professors at UCSB out the reasons. That’s the visionary leadership in the field Foreign Relations. – tolerance and understanding, as of communications and for his well as the pursuit of knowledge. essence of marketing. commitment to public service. As the son of an ad man, Good lessons for life!” In 1995, President Bill Clinton Nathanson grew up with a keen appointed Nathanson to a three- appreciation of the visual arts and year term as a Chairman of the cites Andy Warhol as one of his Broadcasting Board of Governors favorite artists. Over the years, the (BBG), responsible for the Voice of Nathansons have collected over America, Radio Free Asia, Radio- 300 paintings and sculptures, and TV Marti, and Radio Free Europe/ have served on various boards
Portraits of Success 64 Craig Kennedy
Craig Kennedy discovered a passion for research and education long before most college-bound students have started thinking about a major.
Kennedy was an aspiring young musician in San Francisco with dreams of a musical career, when he stumbled upon a job in “one of the first classrooms in the country that was trying to educate BA `87, PhD `92 // PSYCHOLOGY, young adults and adolescents with autism in a regular school EDUCATION environment.” He quickly changed course. “This was a really Dean of the College of Education, innovative classroom,” he said. “At the age of 18, I started to be University of Georgia trained to do research with people with autism.”
65 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | Craig Kennedy
It was here he met Tom Haring, the development of biobehavioral solely on my research and who would soon become one of analysis in disabilities.” It was teaching,” he said. “It allowed me several influential mentors and a perfect match for Kennedy, to scale that up to help a broader role models to guide Kennedy’s offering an interdisciplinary range of people.” pursuit of both undergraduate and approach to research that allowed graduate degrees at UCSB. “Tom him to focus on the biological Kennedy’s increasing Haring was a mentor in the truest issues underlying behavior while responsibilities and growing sense – he taught me how to be a still working toward educational influence as a Senior Associate researcher, how to pose questions intervention applications. As he Dean at Vanderbilt soon caught and how to find answers to them rose from associate professor the attention of the University and help people implement them.” to full professor and eventually of Georgia, home to the second Chair of the Special Education largest public college of education Kennedy chose UCSB because Department, the idea of helping in the country. In his current Higher education never stops of its reputation in his chosen people discover and implement position as Dean of the College of field. He also credits mentors like solutions continued to resonate. Education, he remains committed evolving – this is the context Haring, and Bob and Lynn Koegel, to supporting the teaching and who founded the renowned center He chaired a task force on research research needs of students, staff, in which we pursue higher for autism research, for bringing infrastructure and was asked to and colleagues alike, tackling new him to campus. step into his next leadership role challenges and working toward education. Its goals never as Associate Dean of Research in innovative solutions. “I really enjoy After earning his doctoral degree order to implement the resultant seeing people move forward in stop changing. You can never in Education at UCSB in 1992, plan. “I discovered that I could their own development and helping Kennedy embarked on his career help people do their jobs better facilitate that,” he said. “That is precisely predict what new as a professor at Vanderbilt and have a larger impact being one of the great rewards in my role University, which was the “hub of an administrator than by focusing as an administrator.” challenges you encounter as a
dean. That’s part of the challenge
of being an administrator. My
major reward is taking problems
and solving them in ways that
help other people.
67 Portraits of Success Gary & Sue Wilcox
GARY WILCOX `69, MA `72// It would be difficult to find two alumni for whom the spirit BIOLOGY, of Gaucho pride rings truer than Gary and Sue Wilcox. PhD ’72 // BIOCHEMISTRY Vice Chairman and Interim Chief The husband and wife each completed their full undergraduate and Executive Officer, CoCrystal graduate educations at UCSB -- including their bachelor’s, master’s, Discovery and doctoral degrees. They remain enthusiastic supporters and regular Trustee, UC Santa Barbara contributors to the campus, with Gary serving as a Trustee of the Foundation UCSB Foundation and Sue recently completing a term as an Alumni Association Board Member, among other activities. SUE WILCOX ’70, MA `72 // MATHEMATICS “We gained so much from our education at UCSB that it feels right to PhD `74 // ECONOMICS give back to the university,” Sue said. “It is always exciting to see what Former Member, is going on and try to figure out where we can make a difference so UCSB Alumni Association that other students can have the same opportunities we had.” Board of Directors
69 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | Gary and Sue Wilcox
Now longtime Santa Barbara Sue discovered her fascination for Gary’s doctoral work with Dr. Ellis That Gaucho entrepreneurial spirit residents and generous economics after borrowing Gary’s Eglesberg in Molecular, Cellular and has been integral to the Wilcox’s I studied mathematics ambassadors of the UCSB textbook for a general education Developmental Biology eventually success in research and business. community, Gary and Sue first met course. “I fell in love with econ led to a faculty position at UCLA, As a result, Sue has become an because I enjoy problem on the beaches below Isla Vista. as a way to apply mathematical where his lab space was located ardent proponent of an on-campus It was spring quarter and Gary analysis to real world issues,” near the surgery departments. incubator. Located in the Mosher solving. There is a calculated was getting ready to graduate she said. She finished her “Every day I encountered Alumni House, the proposed and embark on his PhD studies bachelor’s degree in just 3 years physicians and patients in the incubator would aim to accelerate answer to most math in molecular genetics, while Sue in order to save money, and was hallways,” he said. “Over time the further development of ideas was about to start the last year accepted into the PhD program it became clear to me that the and projects produced by students problems. Math serves as a of her BA in mathematics. “We in Economics, to study under the research tools in my lab could be of UCSB’s Technology Management introduced ourselves, arranged for mentorship of Dr. Walter Mead. used to solve important medical Program (TMP). strong academic foundation a date, and have lived happily ever problems. The needs of patients after,” Sue said. inspired me to look beyond my “Gary and I benefitted from the that would allow some basic research in genetic regulatory education we received at UCSB mechanisms to the new frontier of and went on to create multiple flexibility in case I decided to biotechnology companies.” biotechnology start-ups that I’ve been able to take on some parlayed basic research into change majors. Gary has since held various pharmaceutical products and big challenges in research leadership positions at developed new drugs to address biotech companies including serious medical needs,” Sue and drug development by Icos Corporation and Xoma said. “Having an incubator in Corporation, in addition to Mosher Alumni House will allow convincing wonderful and co-founding Ingene Inc. and creative interaction among like-minded CoCrystal Discovery, where he entrepreneurial students, faculty, and talented people to work with currently serves as Vice Chairman alumni accelerating the process of and Interim Chief Executive transforming research and creative ideas me to pursue shared dreams Officer. He considers his greatest into world-changing goods and services.” accomplishment much closer to that, if successful, would make a home: “I’m most proud of my Gary hopes their stories and their family,” he said. contributions will help future generations difference in our quality of life.” of Gauchos discover their own passions. “Find something you’re good at, work hard, and always be an optimist,” he said.
71 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 72 Eric Hochberg
ERIC HOCHBERG BA `65, Ph.D `71 // ZOOLOGY
Curator Emeritus, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Aquanaut, Tektite II Program Co-Founder, Western Society of Malacologists Co-Founder and Past President, After he earned his doctorate in zoology from UC Santa Barbara, Eric Cephalopod International Advisory Council Hochberg lived underwater for three weeks as an aquanaut researcher for the Print Artist and Co-Founder, Nature 1971 Tektite II program. Printing Society Before becoming an aquanaut, the young same fish with same parasites on it. Our team scientist already made waves during his grad would dive together and set up different projects school days as an expert on parasites that lived looking at the same environment.” in the kidneys or gills of cephalopod mollusks. The NASA-funded Tektite II program comprised The post-grad undersea experience at the Virgin ten missions lasting ten to twenty days. Islands underwater laboratory was “an exciting Hochberg’s team followed the landmark all- adventure” for Hochberg and his fellow scholars. female mission, and were among the first in the “Day and night, you could go diving,” he said. three-stage Tektite undersea habitat program to “I could go back to the same rock and find the conduct in-depth ecological studies.
73 Portraits of Success THE VISIONARIES | Eric Hochberg
“My only regret when I came out of the first invertebrate zoology working on, cut the ink sac open from living underwater was that I department at the Santa Barbara and painted the squid with its own wanted to immediately get into a Museum of Natural History ink,” he recalled. “Then he pressed spaceship and go to the moon,” (SBMNH). the Japanese paper on the squid, he said. “That would have been rubbed it – and out came this another wonderful adventure. But When he was hired, he was the impression of this animal.” there aren’t any marine animals on only person in his department. the Moon.” As curator, he had to develop Hochberg was hooked – and went new research and exhibit spaces on to exhibit his art throughout When he first enrolled at UCSB to house invertebrate species. California and leading nature for his undergraduate studies, “When you compare invertebrate printing workshops at the museum, Hochberg considered going into collections to those housing where his work continues to be education. “Then I had a general vertebrate animals, you could displayed at Marine Hall. He also biology class,” he said. “It brought have a bird collection of about 100 helped build connections between me back to my days collecting preserved specimens versus an artists as co-founder of the Nature It’s really interesting talking shells, growing up on Catalina invertebrate collection where you Printing Society. Island.” He became a biology major would have 10,000 specimens,” to students to find out where and went on to join an honors class he said. When he retired in 2012, His art hearkens back to the way at the University of Glasgow in Hochberg left behind a legacy of scientists approached taxonomy in they want to go in the future. Scotland before graduation. expanded diversity in the museum’s the late 20th century. “The science invertebrate collections, as well as a we started with was really more What adventures do they want His mentor – a professor in full staff of invertebrate experts and visual,” he said. “It was holding a parasitology -- arranged for lab assistants. shell in your hand, comparing it to pursue? Mentoring can be Hochberg to go into the zoology to another shell. It was having a Ph.D. program at UCSB. “I had a Over the past four decades, scientific illustrator do drawings in discovery too. You are helping a little office where I could change Hochberg has illustrated his order to decide if this was a new and walk down right to the beach,” passion for science and nature species or the same as something student think about the next steps he said. “The campus was a as an internationally-recognized else. Nowadays, things are moving wonderful environment for me.” printmaker and artist. He learned in a very different direction. You’re in their lives and in their careers. Hochberg went on to establish about fish printing after meeting looking at the same two things we himself one of the world’s foremost a Japanese fish artist during a used to hold in our hands, but this scholars on invertebrates, and research cruise off the coast of time, you’re at the molecular level.” became the founding curator Mexico. “He took the squid I was
75 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 76 Successful students become successful BUILDING alumni. UC Santa Barbara’s Graduate Division is OPPORTUNITIES committed to student success. We provide student services for all graduate academic and professional programs FOR THE NEXT at UCSB. It is our goal to promote excellence in our graduate degree programs, to foster a diverse and inclusive community of domestic and international students, and GENERATION to cultivate an intellectually challenging, socially supportive academic environment.
We promote the academic and professional success of our students through workshops, training activities, counseling, and initiatives promoting timely degree completion. The UCSB Graduate Division also administers internal and external funding sources for students and programs. Our leadership and staff work together to administer UC and campus policies concerning graduate academic apprentice programs, while also providing support for initiatives to advise, train, and place graduate students in academic and professional positions.
The next few pages outline a few of these programs and introduce some current students that are moving towards completion and transition to the professional world.
77 Portraits of Success Portraits of Success 78 UCSB BEYOND ACADEMIA
“At UCSB, in addition to forming a strong network with my research group, I also network through organizations that help students think creatively about what their careers could be.”
Wennie Wang, a doctoral candidate at the UCSB Materials Department, is part of the student planning committee for Beyond Academia, the annual career education conference open to all doctoral students and post-docs at UCSB.
CREATING “Our goal is to inform students about what they can do with their doctoral degrees after they graduate,” she OPPORTUNITIES said. “In addition to becoming a professor, what else can you do with your Ph.D.?” For four years, the Graduate Division has worked in partnership with the Beyond Academia committee to TO EXPLORE produce the annual conference. “I am very proud of its results,” said Dr. Robert Hamm who serves as the Graduate Division’s Director of Professional Development. “Our students are able to realize the full range of CAREER PATHS career opportunities available to them.”
As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Wang currently works at the Van De Walle Computational Group. “I study the fundamental physics of materials for energy technologies using computational methods,” she said. “My research is enabled by the culmination of the development of quantum mechanics, the maturation of high-performance computing, and the need for cleaner and more efficient energy. The ability to explore materials at the atomistic level and to bring those insights directly to applications is what makes computational materials science exciting to me.”
As she prepares to graduate by the end of this school year’s winter quarter, Wang hopes to work at a national lab and to be able to share her scientific expertise with lawmakers. “I would like to be involved with science policy, advising on legislation,” she said. “A far-off dream that I have is to be Secretary of Energy - that would be one big goal for me.”
79 Portraits of Success UCSB CROSSROADS
UCSB Crossroads is a year-long, multi-faceted interdisciplinary research FOSTERING experience designed for UC Santa Barbara doctoral students that also encompasses the undergraduate classroom through curriculum development and INTER- closely mentored teaching. DISCPLINARY The program takes its name from the multiple intersections involved: of disciplines; of research and teaching; and of faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates. Faculty members and RESEARCH doctoral students collaborate on one or more year-long research projects through the auspices of a team-taught graduate seminar that includes the fellows as well as other graduate students. The research is then translated into the undergraduate classroom and/or for appropriate fields, like the professional Master’s classroom.
Since its launch in 2013, UCSB Crossroads has provided more than 60 graduate students with the opportunity to work closely with faculty to explore such interdisciplinary topics as religious experience and the mind, the politics of language and race in learning contexts, materials and medicine, and psychology, environment, and public policy.
Sarah Jane Pinkerton, Crossroads Fellow and doctoral student in the Department of Feminist Studies, summed up the impact of UCSB Crossroads on her studies: “The Crossroads fellowship has deeply impacted my research interests, and consequently, the direction of my dissertation. Thanks to a fruitful and engaging year, I have decided to focus my dissertation on artists and artworks grappling with climate change and the ways in which gender, race, and class intersect with environmental discourses.”
81 Portraits of Success THE GRAD SLAM
“Research serves no point if you can’t get the community and the people TEACHING who are going to fund you to understand what you’re doing.” VITAL This year, Leah Foltz wowed audiences throughout the 2017 Grad Slam competition with her 3-minute presentation on her research to cure blindness with stem cell therarpy. Foltz’s lively COMMUNICATION summary earned her first place at the 5th annual UCSB Grad Slam and the People’s Choice SKILLS Award at the UC-wide Grad Slam competition at the LinkedIn headquarters in San Francisco. Foltz works as a graduate student researcher in the lab of Dennis Clegg at the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology department. Her student research focuses on creating stem cells from skin cells to create living eye tissue. This eye tissue could someday be used to cure genetic blindness, as well as in treatments for diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
The Grad Slam competition is part of the mission of the Graduate Division to provide graduate students with the support to enhance their professional skills. The award-winning competition was developed by Dr. Carol Genetti, Dean of UCSB’s Graduate Division. Since 2012, Grad Slam has showcased graduate student research throughout the UC system. “It’s important to be able to talk about your research in a clear, concise, compelling manner,” said Genetti. “It’s a skill you can develop and learn to do, and it’s one that any student can master if they practice.”
83 Portraits of Success GRADUATE STUDENT RESOURCE CENTER
The Graduate Student Resource Center provides a SUPPORT FOR wealth of programming that fosters student academic EVERY ASPECT success in a fun, relaxed, and welcoming environment. OF GRADUATE The Graduate Student Resource Center provides over 100 professional development workshops annually. Topics include finding funding, STUDENT LIFE writing grant applications, CVs and resumes, creating a digital presence theater skills for academic presenters. Our full-time graduate career counselor helps students prepare for and obtain positions outside of the academy, while graduate student peers offer writing assistance, funding searches, programming for international students, and referrals to other campus agencies that assist graduate students.
The GSRC team also curates the GradPost (www.gradpost.ucsb.edu), the go-to website providing updates and information about events and workshops, funding, and tools for academic success.
85 Portraits of Success DIVERSITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION
“We talk a lot about diversity in our classes at UC Santa Barbara. A PIPELINE People don’t necessarily know what is outside of their bubble. You have to balance what you know with what they know – that’s why FOR SUCCESS diversity in graduate education is so important.”
Sami Alsalloom received the prestigious Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship to conduct his research into quantitative methods in social science at UC Santa Barbara. He is also a member of the inaugural cohort of the UCSB Graduate Scholars Program. “At UCSB, it’s really inspiring to be able to learn from all types of people from different disciplines and backgrounds,” he said.
Our outreach, admissions, and diversity staff travel the United States to identify promising students from non-traditional backgrounds and encourage them to consider our programs. Each year, a wide number of programs bring undergraduates and master’s students to UCSB for intensive summer research experiences and prepares them to apply for doctoral study. One such program is the UC-HBCU initiative that creates a pipeline from Historically Black Colleges and Universities into UC Santa Barbara graduate programs.
87 Portraits of Success THE GRADUATE SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The UCSB Graduate Scholars Program
BROADENING UC Santa Barbara recognizes that excellence and diversity are inseparable. On the other hand, it can be PARTICIPATION difficult to be the odd man out or the first in one’s family to navigate academia. The Graduate Scholars Program creates a community of diverse doctoral scholars and provides them with IN ACADEMIA social, academic, and professional support so that they may realize their academic and professional ambitions. Our conception of diversity is broad, including under-represented minorities, first-generation college students, disabled students, trans- or differently-gendered students, veterans, women in fields where they are severely under-represented, and students who have experienced significant barriers to education.
Central to the Graduate Scholars Program are “mentoring families” that pair three first-year students with an advanced doctoral student mentor, who answers questions, serves as a sounding board, checks in on progress, and acquaints students with resources. An additional layer of faculty mentors from across campus offers further support, as they provide advice and extend student networks.
The Graduate Scholars Program also provides students with direct access to workshops, panels, and other resources, as well as a chance to have dialogues with distinguished faculty and alumni of diverse backgrounds who visit campus to deliver lectures or performances.
In addition to supporting student success, the broader goal of the GSP is to create pipelines that will diversify the academic and professional worlds, as it is only by tapping all of our brilliance and incorporating all perspectives that we will realize our full potential as a university and as a society.
89 Portraits of Success Support the Future of Graduate Education
One of the great pleasures of my position as Political Sciences doctoral student Chia-Chien Chang, development director for UC Santa Barbara’s a Fulbright Fellow from Taiwan. Chang spoke to them Graduate Division is meeting alumni, hearing their about his research on equality and distribution of stories and connecting them to students and campus. resources, a project made possible by support from the Gannons. “I just cannot say how thankful I am Alumni and friends can participate in the life of and how helpful the award is,” said Chia-Chien. “I the Graduate Division and our graduate education utilized the fellowship to do an archival research in community in many different ways. One opportunity Asia and went to present my paper in Philadelphia is to visit campus as a keynote speaker at the annual this summer.” Beyond Academia Conference, featuring two full days of speakers, workshops, career panels, and Like many alumni, Prabhu Ambatipudi MS ’91 networking events to give graduate students the (Engineering) assists current graduate students by opportunity to learn about a variety of potential providing flexible support through the Graduate careers. Alumni can also participate in the recently- Dean’s Fund for Excellence. Prabhu said UCSB launched National Science Foundation mentorship publications that highlighted graduate students program to allow graduate students to spend a day and their work inspired him to “give a little more with them, or to provide guidance by phone or video back.” His contribution provided resources for the conference. Other alumni and friends contribute by Graduate Division to fund student writing workshops, making philanthropic gifts to help students thrive. professional development, fellowships, conference travel expenses, and research support. Dean Carol Genetti and I first met Arturo Gonzalez MA ’93, PhD ’97 (Economics) over coffee at a local The Dean’s Fund, combined with fellowship support, spot in Washington, D.C. last winter. The conversation enabled Paul Warden, a PhD history candidate, to continued over dinner with a small group of D.C. conduct a lengthy research trip that resulted in a alumni in February. This spring, Arturo met with published journal article. “These generous donations graduate students on campus, many of whom were to the university do more than just help students first-generation college students like him. The with research,” he said. “As a recipient, it gives you a students met with Arturo during an informal luncheon, sense that you have value.” and were excited to pick the brain of an alumnus who has achieved success in academia, the government If you would like to become more involved and make a These generous donations to and private industry (see article on page 31). difference for graduate students, please get in touch! the university do more than just Carolyn and Terry Gannon hold five UCSB degrees between them (Carolyn BS ’67, MS ’75; Terry BS Julie Karbula help students with research. As a ’68, MS ’69, PhD ’80), all in Engineering. For years, Senior Director of Development they have provided opportunities for international [email protected] recipient, it gives you a sense that students -- from developing library resources in 805-893-2190 Africa, to mentoring and supporting international you have value. scholars. This spring they met on campus with
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