Chico Statements Fall 2018

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First Look 7:09 P.M. MAY 19, 2018

Students enter University Stadium to “Pomp and Circumstance� during the undergraduate Commencement ceremonies, which boasted a record 3,825 graduates in the Class of 2018.

Photo by University Photographer Jessica Bartlett.

Fall 2018

Vo l u m e 2 4 , I s s u e 2

“I’ll never forget that first jump.

After that, it was game on.”

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Class Notes

Editor’s Note The response to our redesign was overwhelmingly positive—thank you to everyone who took time to write, email, or call to share your thoughts. We especially loved one compliment that our changes represented “a transformation from Dullsville to Thrill City.” We can only hope to maintain that reputation!

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The Lineup

How To

Get Moving p. 4

In the issues to come, we’ll continue to make improvements and strengthen our voice, and that includes responding to our readers’ wishes.

As we continue to profile students at the heart of our campus community, we set our sights on another underrepresented population—and one readers have repeatedly expressed interest in: veterans.

In this issue, you’ll read about four students whose identity is equally about their academic experience as it is their tenure in the military.

They share the challenges they face as nontraditional students and how their needs are met on campus. We thank them not only for their service, but for so candidly sharing their lives with us.

If you have suggestions for stories you’d like to see in Chico Statements, please send me your ideas at agebb@csuchico.edu. As always, this is your magazine.

— ASHLEY GEBB (’08) PUBLICATIONS EDITOR

Departments

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President’s Note

The intellectual and innovative hub of the North State

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Take Note

Alumni, faculty, and staff remembered

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Last Look

Campus news worth sharing

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The Lineup

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Class Notes

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Fond Farewells

Alumni profiles and updates

Snapshots from across campus

Catch up with Wildcat sports

EDITOR: Ashley Gebb (’08) DESIGNERS: Christian Burke (’94), Geoff Wintrup (’02) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Kate Post CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Savannah Anderson, Sean Murphy (’97), Luke Reid (’04, ’09), Amanda Rhine (’15, ’18), Travis Souders (’09) UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jessica Bartlett (’16), Jason Halley (’05) SEND MAILING ADDRESS UPDATES: csuchicoupdate@csuchico.edu CONTACT US: University Communications, CSU, Chico, 400 West First St., Chico, Chico, CA 95929-0040 EMAIL: classnotes@csuchico.edu PHONE: 530-898-4143 © 2018, California State University, Chico

KARI GREER/USFS

9 Behind our cover story

17 Features

9 The Rise of Megafires

As wildfires grow faster, larger, and more deadly every day, alumni and faculty share professional and personal perspectives on what’s happening, why, and how we can respond.

17 Who Helps the Heroes?

For help acclimating to civilian life and a college world starkly different from their military service, veteran students seek support from those who understand them best: other veterans.

For much of the summer, Chico was cloaked in smoke and its sunny skies were marred by fires burning across the North State. Unfortunately, it’s not a new phenomenon. The cover's cut-paper-style digital illustration by senior graphic designer Christian Burke (Visual Communication, ’94) captures what has become a new normal: the extended fire season, megafires ripping through communities and leaving rubble in their wake, and our Wildcats who are facing it firsthand.

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President’s Note

Go Figure

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I am committed to this idea of service because our faculty and staff are together a powerhouse of knowledge and expertise that can be used for the greater good.

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ogether, we will make Chico State the intellectual and innovative hub of the North State and beyond.

I believe in the importance of this aspiration for the benefit of Chico State students and the communities we serve. President Glenn Kendall said back in 1966, “Life should be better in Northern California especially, and through the state in general, because this college is here.” More than 50 years later, this aspiration still rings true. His words— and our efforts—are timeless.

I am committed to this idea of service because our faculty and staff are together a powerhouse of knowledge and expertise that can be used for the greater good. It isn’t unusual for communities to tap nearby universities for expertise—and we are no different.

When the primary and emergency spillways of the nearby Oroville Dam began eroding during an onslaught of winter storms, Chico State faculty were called to weigh in on why. As the City of Chico crafts an improvement plan for the neighborhood south of campus, it is our faculty and students across eight disciplines being relied on for assessment and data on crime, lighting, and other factors.

And it is our Autism Clinic that serves hundreds of North State families year-round to enhance the

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sensory, motor, communicative, and cognitive skills of children with autism.

In this issue, we take a close look at this summer’s dangerous and deadly fire season. Guiding the conversation about the worst wildfire season in the state’s history are faculty experts and alumni with firsthand experience. Their insights are invaluable, and we continue to look to their expertise to improve the communities we call home.

These kinds of exchanges— supporting a community or industry with the knowledge that a University has ready and available—are where we should and will continue to place time and resources. This is where we can leverage our applied learning, undergraduate research, and faculty and student contributions to truly realize our University’s commitment to civic engagement.

pounds of peaches were sold during this year’s U-Pick event at University Farm—stripping the trees clean in a single day!

3.56

AVERAGE GPA

for admitted first-time freshmen in fall 2018, the highest ever for an incoming class

And this is how we become the intellectual and innovative hub of the North State and beyond— working together to build a better world for all.

—GAYLE HUTCHINSON, PRESIDENT

41,014 student visits to the Student Learning Center during the 2017–18 school year

Take Note

100 FEMTOSECONDS

—how long it takes our physics students’ self-designed instrument to analyze material reactions started by lasers (in case you're wondering, one femtosecond is a quadrillionth of a second)

of college courses throughout her life finally led Sylvia Hamilton to complete her bachelor’s in sociology last May at age 83

$16.9 million

meals the Hungry Wildcat Food Pantry provided for Chico State students in need over the last year RAISED BY SUPPORTERS IN THE UNIVERSITY’S BIGGEST FUNDRAISING YEAR EVER

130,000

plastic straws are being eliminated annually by the Associated Students’ switch to reuseable and paper straws with encouragement to eliminate straws altogether—we are the first CSU to do so!

REDUCTION IN CAMPUS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS, REACHING UNIVERSITY TARGETS 5 YEARS EARLY today.csuchico.edu 2

Take Note Chico Stated

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It wasn’t just one box, one person.

—Anthropology professor emeritus P. Willey discusses the challenges of identifying remains of US servicemen returned from North Korea on NPR’s All Things Considered

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When you think you’re going to die, you learn that other things are just not that important.

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It’s the kind of story I would love to have read when I was a teenager, to have known I wasn’t alone and someone else had gone through what I was experiencing.

—Alumna and New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone (Journalism, ’91) speaks about her latest novel, Little Do We Know, with the East Bay Times

— Susan G. Komen President and CEO Paula Schneider (Special Major, ’79; Credential, ’85) in The New York Times on surviving breast cancer and a demanding career

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You are enough— each of you has what it takes to continue this great journey and capture the dreams ahead of you.

—Honorary degree recipient and alumnus Dennis Murphy (Civil Engineering, ’94) gives advice to new graduates during the 2018 Commencement 3

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Why can you ride a bicycle? Because of something called angular momentum.

It's kind of magic!

—Professor Nicholas Nelson demonstrates the physics of riding a bike and flipping a hammer at EdXChico, a first-day-of-classes event to ignite curiosity via five-minute faculty lectures

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when people drink a glass of wine, when they pour it out of that bottle, it’s authentic– you know this story... does it taste different when you know this story?

—Management professor James Downing shares his students’ research analyzing the storytelling of Napa wineries with North Bay Public Radio

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Being so worried about your credit that you do nothing is the last response you want to have.

— Jaycob Arbogast (Business Administration, ’15), coordinator of Chico State’s Center for Excellence and Finance, shares common mistakes regarding credit scores to WalletHub

How To

Get Moving

BREAKTHROUGHS

Speaking Out

Making Waves

Sometimes the gap between wanting to be physically active and actually doing it can feel as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Professor Cathrine Himberg offers some tips:

Boost your knowledge and understanding

Most of us know how great physical activity is for the body, but do you understand its positive effects on your brain?

Regular activity helps with cognitive function, learning, stress, anxiety, depression, hormone fluctuations, and symptoms of aging. Knowing the benefits is a major motivator to make permanent changes.

Start where you are

Do a self-assessment to help gauge your current level of fitness. It can be as simple as checking how many steps you currently get each day, or how often you get the recommended 10,000 steps a day.

Set goals and plan wisely

Set a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, has a timeline, and is challenging (SMART-C). For example, if you walk 5,000 steps per day, a realistic yet challenging goal can be to increase by 500 steps per day each week, until you reach 10,000 steps after 10 weeks.

Manage your time

Time is precious and most of us don’t have enough of it. But making room for regular physical activity can save time in the long run. Do you have any “time wasters”—watching TV or browsing social media? Find them and steal back 30 minutes a day to take care of your body and brain.

Choose activities you enjoy

Want to stick with it? Make sure it’s something you like. People who are active regularly usually enjoy what they do and have confidence in their abilities. Pick something you can do with friends or that just makes you smile!

Learn new skills

“Just do it!” is easy to say, but if you don’t have the skills, you may not even try. It’s never too late to learn new activities!

You never know what you could like once you build some performance skills. Maybe it’s rock climbing, tennis, Spikeball, or West Coast Swing!

Kinesiology professor Cathrine Himberg helps future physical education teachers commit to their role ensuring that all children graduate high school with the skills, knowledge, dispositions, and virtues to be physically active for life. For more information on exercise promotion and adherence, visit her website, supportREALteachers.org.

Analyzing the rhetorical strategies and practices of social media activists, graduate student Catherine Wilcox is studying how a group of women uses Facebook to gain agency and advocate for change in ways their conservative churches handle cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Cancer Fighters Lauren Housley and her graduate and undergraduate students are working to discover dietary strategies to prevent and treat forms of breast cancer. They are currently investigating the properties of sulforaphane, a phytochemical derived from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli.

With the help of university partners in Japan and a team of undergraduate researchers, mathematics and statistics professor Sergei Fomin is working to mathematically model tsunami wave dynamics to better protect vulnerable coastlines.

Standing Up Using 5 ½ years of arrest data, a team of interdisciplinary faculty teamed up to investigate impacts of the city of Chico’s public safety approach to homelessness.

They explored effects of the sit-lie law and other ordinances to draw conclusions about punitive approaches to poverty and public policy.

UPDATE

Water Towers Saved In fall 2017, we shared that California Water Service planned to remove some downtown water towers— a decision that was met with outcry from many in the Chico community.

After a dedicated effort by preservationists, including history professor Mike Magliari, Cal Water announced this summer that the towers at Third and Orient Streets, which date to 1905 and 1913, will remain standing! today.csuchico.edu 4

Take Note Crash Course

Public Murals

In art professor J. Pouwels’ “Public Murals” course, knowing how to cut through red tape is every bit as valuable as one’s skill with a paintbrush. No matter the scale—from canvasses as small as Wi-Fi router boxes to wall-spanning, larger-than-life murals— students learn a valuable lesson through the process of pitching, commissioning, and completing projects: There is much more to public art than the image. And communities across our service region are benefitting from the creativity, with students’ murals taking shape in libraries, building exteriors, school playgrounds, and government buildings throughout the North State.

“The reason I took this course was to learn to work with a client—in real-life situations and with real challenges,” said studio art major Will Mobley, whose Cesar Chavez mural now graces the fourth floor of Chico City Hall. “It prepares you to think on your feet, act accordingly, and still produce something amazing. I’ll take more away from it this way than I would just focusing on painting.”

Read more: today.csuchico.edu

INNOVATORS

Outdoor Ally, founded

by Peter Farsai (Business Administration, ’14), is a mobile lifestyle app that allows users to select criteria to find exact regulations that apply to their hunt. Features include weather, news feeds, notes, photos, and content sharing. Verified by both experienced professionals and hunting enthusiasts, Outdoor Ally allows modern hunters to spend more time in the field and less time checking their regulations book.

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DID YOU KNOW?

The Tree of Peace, a redwood near Trinity Hall, was planted by representatives of more than a dozen Native American tribes 30 years ago on November 16, 1988. The planting followed a series of racist incidents on campus and took place in the spirit of bringing peace and healing to the community. When the tree was damaged a few years later and it was unclear whether it would survive, a second redwood was planted across the pathway—both stand tall today.

PRIDE POINTS

Worth Sharing

Top 10 again! U.S. News & World Report ranked Chico State a top-10 master’s level public University in the West—an honor we’ve earned every year since the list began in 1998.

Chico State’s demographics have changed more than any other CSU in the last five years, as the number of first-year students who identify as underrepresented minorities increased by 56%.

SPRAWLING BIDWELL PARK makes for a beloved 3,670-acre backyard for Chico residents. The municipal park stole the spotlight in an adoring story in the San Francisco Chronicle this spring, which called it “a giant advertisement for Why People Love Northern California.”

Nearly every Wildcat who spends time in Chico, whether a few years or a lifetime, can tell you fond memories of exploring this local treasure.

More stories came pouring in when we shared the Chronicle praise on Chico State’s Facebook page. What’s yours?

Such a beautiful place ... also where my husband proposed to me almost 13 years ago.

—Brandi I.

Many happy times in Bidwell Park as a kid. Bicycling, riding horses from Tull’s Stable, walks, swimming at Bear Hole. Truly a magical place.

—Mary S.

We will always be so grateful to John’s wife, Annie K., for gifting the park for all to protect. She was quite a gal!

—Kathy G.

Spent lots of time there as a kid and as a college student.

A true gem! Also, the old Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn had parts filmed in Bidwell Park.

—Anne I.

In evaluating the cost of attending a college against a student’s long-term earning potential after graduation, PayScale ranked Chico State in the nation’s top 100 schools for return on investment.

The Sierra Club named us one of the greenest universities in the country at No. 9 on its annual “Cool Schools” list, the highest ranking of any CSU institution.

Our reputation continues to precede us. In August, Money magazine ranked Chico State as one of the nation’s “50 Best Public Colleges” out of 727 universities, and Forbes again named the University on its annual “America’s Top Colleges” list.

Meet James Luyirika-Sewagudde Advisor, Office of International Education

To students, he’s “Mr. James.” With his calm presence and warm demeanor, James Luyirika-Sewagudde provides oneon-one assistance to hundreds of international students every year, guiding them on anything from conflicts and financial concerns to communication challenges, racism, and changing laws. After all, the Uganda native knows firsthand how it feels to be an outsider, having come to the United States for college in 1964. After earning master’s degrees from Chico State in 1972 and 1975, he began working in the Office of International Education, where he has served for the last 45 years. Personally and professionally, it’s his mission to make each student feel welcome, a job that’s brought him decades of fulfillment.

“I find great satisfaction in helping. It’s selfish that I find joy,” he said, a smile stretching across his face. “But one should be happy doing what they’re doing.”

Read more: today.csuchico.edu today.csuchico.edu 6

The Lineup

#25 DAMION LEWIS Position: Goalkeeper Height: 6'5" Weight: 180 lbs.

Class: Senior Major: Criminal Justice Hometown: Miami, Florida

As one of the finest goalkeepers in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Chico State’s Damion Lewis is a study in contrast.

Away from the pitch, he expresses his laidback and fun-loving nature as a DJ. With his Wildcat team, head soccer coach Felipe Restrepo describes Lewis as a leader players rally around, commanding with the same intense focus he adeptly balances with playfulness while coaching a local youth travel soccer team.

Until Lewis graduates in spring 2019, the criminal justice major will keep adding to his status as one of the top net-minders in school history.

“He’s one of the best we’ve had here,” Restrepo said.

“He’s a dominant player, and I think he has the best in front of him. He’s just now coming into his own.”

Since arriving in 2016, Lewis has started every game he’s played for the Wildcats—now approximately 50 career games. Through Oct. 18, he’s tied for third in Chico State men’s soccer history in career shutouts (20), fourth in career victories (28), and third in career goals against average (0.82).

This season is shaping up to be his finest yet, as he also owns the lowest single-season goals against average by any goalkeeper in Chico State history (0.50).

JASON HALLEY

“That’s the smallest part of him, though,” Restrepo said. “I think the thing that we all get excited about is he’s an incredible young man. … He hits the values and ethics and the core beliefs that we have in our program: being a man of character and substance and being kind to others. He’s made me a better person and coach.”

Read more: today.csuchico.edu

W I L DC AT S For more sports coverage, visit chicowildcats.com or follow @ChicoWildcats on Twitter.

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“I am extremely proud of our student-athletes and coaching staff …To have all 13 of our teams compete in the postseason—something never done before in the history of our department—is special.”

—Athletics Director Anita Barker, reflecting on the overwhelming success of the 2017–18 season

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

MAJOR

GRADUATE STUDIES: CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

Karlie Garcia took a circuitous route to Chico State, with stops at University of Mississippi, University of the Pacific, and Southern Utah, but years of redshirting have enabled her to preserve her true passion as a graduate student—running.

An All-American in the 10,000 meters after finishing fifth in the nation in the 2016 track season, she was sidelined repeatedly by injuries. In 2017, she placed seventh at the CCAA Cross Country Championships and then led the women’s team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships finals, while also taking 11th for the best individual showing in the storied program’s history.

She’s a star in the classroom as much as on the trails. When she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2017, she was named the student of the year in the child development department. In June, she became the 13th Wildcat in any sport to be chosen as an Academic All-American for outstanding academic performance during competition.

“Karlie’s feisty and competitive. When she wants something, she really goes after it … that’s how she approaches life.”

—Chico State Cross Country Head Coach Gary Towne

WILD STATS In its 50th season, the softball team captured both the CCAA regular season and conference tournament championships, and made its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division II Championships. A few milestones along the way:

Taking the WNBA by Storm

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CHICO STATE’S NATIONAL RANKING AT SEASON’S END

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In September, Alisha Valavanis led

WINS IN 2018 SEASON—SMASHING PREVIOUS RECORD OF 40

the Seattle Storm to its third WNBA

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SEASON HOME RUNS—OBLITERATING PREVIOUS RECORD OF 26

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PITCHING VICTORIES BY SENIOR HALEY GILHAM— FINISHING HER CAREER WITH A SCHOOL RECORD 87

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VICTORIES LED BY COACH ANGEL SHAMBLIN—MAKING HER THE WINNINGEST COACH IN CHICO STATE SOFTBALL HISTORY

The former Chico State player and assistant coach is proud to be driving increased interest in women’s athletics.

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HOME GAMES LOST IN 2018—FOR THE FIRST SEASON EVER

IN THE ZONE

championship and first in eight years—a stunning rebound for a team that hadn’t finished with a winning record since 2011.

As president and general manager, Valavanis (Journalism, ’00; MA, Physical Education, ’04) oversees all business and basketball operations since joining the team in 2014. In 2018, the Storm had four five-game winning streaks and never lost consecutive games during the regular season.

TEAM BATTING AVERAGE—HIGHEST IN PROGRAM HISTORY

MILB.COM

SPORTS

Carolina Mudcats pitcher Luke Barker (Exercise Physiology, ’14) was voted the Carolina League relief pitcher of the year. Barker went 6-4 with a 2.21 ERA while leading the league with 20 saves and 38 games finished. He totaled 63 strikeouts against 16 walks over 61.0 innings, holding opponents to a .213 average in 46 appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Class-A Advanced affiliate.

The former Wildcat also led qualified Carolina League relievers in fewest baserunners. Barker was signed by the Brewers as a non-drafted free agent in November 2016, and finished the 2018 season with the Class-AA Biloxi Shuckers in the playoffs.

“I think we are ready for ESPN, for the local markets, for the national markets, to actually back professional women’s sports and women’s sports in general,” Valavanis told The Seattle Times.

“What does that look like? Yes, coverage on the front page, comprehensive spreads leading up to playoffs, games on ESPN … that’s what we need to hit the next iteration of visibility and awareness for the next fan.” today.csuchico.edu 8

COURTESY ALISHA VALAVANIS

P L AY E R P R O F I L E

KARLIE GARCIA

story Ashley Gebb

Tornado-like winds swirling around her, this evacuation felt different.

“We stepped out our front door and we could see it. You could see flames, you could see smoke, you could see black spirals that you would assume were structures just literally going up in smoke,” said Shannon Phillips (Psychology, ’81). “This was a roaring fire.”

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KARI GREER/USFS

today.csuchico.edu 10

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nto the car went baby books for her and her husband’s three children, any photos they didn’t have digitally, an heirloom coin collection, insurance papers, and jewelry, in case the flames came closer.

That was at 5:30 p.m. Two hours later, the power went out and her neighbors pounded on the door.

“Go now, and don’t even think twice about it. Just get out,” they directed Phillips, who had been evacuated once 14 years earlier, but only for a few hours.

“There was so little time to think clearly,” she said. “I just looked at the house and thought, ‘What’s replaceable?’ and let the rest go.”

The Carr Fire started on a Monday, July 23, sending up white plumes 15 miles west of Redding. By Thursday, it had become a firestorm, ravaging forests and consuming everything in its path as it exploded in size and raced toward suburbia. Quickly surpassing 100,000 acres, it classified as a megafire—a designation once rare but now routine.

As Phillips fled the encroaching flames, junior Shane Kaylor was defying evacuation orders after his parents urged him to return home to help. The Chico State business administration major thought the likelihood of the blaze jumping the Sacramento River and reaching their house in a suburban neighborhood was so slim, he packed his Xbox to pass the time. Hours later, he was fighting flames with a water cannon alongside his father, a retired fire chief, in hopes of saving their family’s home.

We are stronger than the Carr Fire.

I think we are going to come out of it a stronger, better community.

— Shannon Phillips (Psychology, ’81)

“You don’t believe it can happen to you—until it does,” he said. “It felt like a storm but instead of rain it was smoke and flames. It was like a campfire you wouldn’t believe. You could hear it almost roaring.”

By the time the Carr Fire was contained five weeks later, it had ravaged 229,651 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes, and killed eight people. For those the fires touched—Phillips and Kaylor among them—their lives were forever changed.

To firefighters, these blazes represent the new normal: Six of the state’s most destructive fires, five of the deadliest, and three of the largest have taken place in just the last two years.

UP IN SMOKE “We are experiencing larger and more damaging fires in this century,” explained Judith Downing (Recreation Administration, ’83), a 36-year US Forest Service veteran. “These fires are becoming more dangerous—and they are more costly. They are a pretty severe wakeup call to all of us in fire and land management agencies, as well as the public.”

Downing has seen countless fires in her career. She battled them firsthand as a wildland firefighter during her summers as a college student, explained them to citizens during her years as a public information officer, and worked to limit human-caused wildfires as a prevention officer. Today, she works in wildland fire management, based out of Washington, DC. “It’s one thing to talk about the fires, but it’s another thing to talk about how we address them—and there are solutions out there,” she said. “With these megafires, there are many effective actions in our current national strategy. But we are also seeing things we have never seen before.”

Adding to their impact is the sheer volume of smaller fires, the combined acreage they consume, and the destruction they leave in their wake. As of early October, more than 1.5 million acres had burned in California this year—three times the annual average—with what is historically one of the most active fire months still to come.

With low humidity and whipping winds that start earlier every 11

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year, “California doesn’t really have a fire season anymore—it just has peaks and lulls in fire activity,” said Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann (Communication Studies, ’91), who spent the last decade of his 32-year Cal Fire career working on a statewide incident management team.

Though late 2017 contained some of the most devastating fires in state history, as the Nuns, Tubbs, and Redwood Valley Complex Fires destroyed thousands of homes and took dozens of lives in October, it didn’t mark the end of fire activity for the season.

“When we thought it could not get any worse after what happened in Sonoma, Lake, and Napa Counties, the largest fire happened in December and January in Southern California,” Biermann said.

That 280,000-acre Thomas Fire didn’t hold the record for long.

This summer’s Ranch Fire far eclipsed it, with the blaze not fully contained until it had burned 410,000 acres in Mendocino County.

“Everything is being evaluated to figure out why these fires are so large, and things we can do to stop it,” Biermann said.

FANNING THE FLAMES Despite years of prevention efforts, nearly 9 out of 10 fires are still caused by humans. Arson, illegal or untended campfires, roadside sparks from vehicles or dragging chains, and countless other peopledriven factors continue to spark catastrophic fires every year.

JASON HALLEY

Regardless of how the fires start, changing conditions drive the sheer magnitude and exponential damage now witnessed with alarming regularity.

Federal and state agencies, scientists, and others point to many causes for these extreme fire conditions: climate change, warmer temperatures, drier weather, drought, and insect infestations. Add swaths of dead and dying forests and overall vegetation buildup creating massive fuel loads, and the landscape has become a tinderbox.

Meanwhile, more people are living closer than ever to high-risk wildfire areas.

As California’s population continues to swell, many residents are moving to areas where cities and suburbs border wildlands and forests. An estimated 4.4 million people now live in the wildlandurban interface, with another 1.2 million homes projected to be built in the highest wildfire risk areas by 2050.

This state is certainly not alone, with similar conditions taking place across the Western United States. Ultimately, addressing megafires takes implementation of a cohesive national fire management

strategy created in partnership among federal, state, nonprofit, private, tribal, and local agencies, Downing said.

“What we are trying to do is look across the boundaries of our jurisdictions to see how we can work on these things together,” she said. “A big piece of that is to use the best available science in making our decisions. And we do that through collaboration.”

This national strategy’s goals are threefold.

First, create more fire-resilient landscapes, including the reduction of fuels by increases in prescribed burning and a renewed focus on forest thinning.

Secondly, strengthen fire suppression resources and improve the speed and effectiveness of communication, whether about evacuation, fire conditions, or other impacts of large-scale fires, Downing said. Other needs include creating safety zones for evacuees and earlier detection of fires in wildland-urban interfaces.

Lastly, continue growing fire-adapted communities through government, nonprofit, and tribal partnerships. Solutions include today.csuchico.edu 12

KARI GREER/ USFS

“The biggest and best thing we can do is stop these fires from starting. If we can stop a few, the cost alone—financially and in lives lost—is a win,” Biermann said. “We need to get the word out to make sure people are not out there doing the right thing at the wrong time.”

When Shannon Phillips was finally allowed to return to her suburban neighborhood 10 days after fleeing the Carr Fire, she faced an eerie scene. Amid the piles of crumbled stucco, warped metal, and the skeletons of washing machines and mattress springs, were few remnants of the lives once in their place.

By the time the Carr Fire was contained, it had ravaged 229,651 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes, and killed eight people. It had also earned a classification as a megafire— a designation once rare but now routine.

ignition-resistant roofing materials and mandatory attic vent screens, as well as landscaping buffers, growing free wood-chipping programs, and reimagined neighborhood layouts.

Together, Downing said, the goal is that a fire could burn through an area safely—reducing life and property loss and damage to natural and cultural resources.

“Prevention really is all of our responsibility,” she said. “From the government, to the community, to the individual person who is out taking a hike in the forest.”

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE In Chico State professor Don Hankins’ “Pyrogeography” course, he and his students spend part of their instructional hours in the field.

Whether studying burn scars on pine trees or igniting the forest floor with a drip torch, he hopes students will walk away with an understanding and respect for the power of prescribed burning.

“It really takes a community embrace,” he said. “It’s not just about putting fire on the ground. It’s doing it in a way we can achieve the greatest good for the landscape.”

Hankins, who has taught in the Department of Geography and Planning for 13 years, has been fascinated with fire since childhood, but his interest grew as he studied how Native Americans have used flames as a tool for thousands of years. Fire is used to manage the meadows and forests, support healthy deer populations, ensure thriving grasses for weaving and basketry, and protect acorns and other traditional food sources.

And, of course, it creates manageable fire breaks. Mechanical controls to address thick forests—whether logging or thinning by chainsaw—are helpful but only a short-term solution, Hankins said.

“You still have to come back at some point with fire,” he said. “The match is the cheapest and easiest tool, and it will have the best ecological benefit.”

An international expert in the field of prescribed burning, Hankins has worked with indigenous populations on burning projects in Australia, written grants for burns on public lands, and drafted federal policy that supports tribal partners in carrying out burning projects in national forests and other public lands.

Revisiting a project site 20 minutes east of Chico, Hankins points to bracken ferns sprouting lush from the blackened soil. Invasive blackberries are gone and blue wild rye and other native grasses are growing in their place.

Unlike the uncontrolled burning of wildfires, which can decimate the environment as nature corrects itself, prescribed fire can creep slowly through to safely and effectively reduce the amount of fuel available to burn, Hankins said.

“We know it’s going to burn but we can shift it to put terms in our favor,” he explained.

Prescribed burning can be used to reduce vegetation near powerlines, roadways, and other access points where fires often start, as well as across forests and around homes to reduce the dangers.

Sunset magazine published an article in 1910 that extolled the virtues of prescribed burning. And yet, Hankins said, attitudes have shifted toward general public opposition to burning on public and private land.

“We need to give people the sense that we can do this,” he said. “It’s been done. It’s not so scary, and it’s going to get us what we need.”

Hankins’ dream is to use the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve as an experimental landscape where landowners can learn how to manage fuel loads, noting he recently helped secure two grants with 13

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WILDFIRES BY THE NUMBERS

1995

16%

of US Forest Service’s funding spent on wildfires

2017

55%

of US Forest Service’s funding spent on wildfires

1970

3 MILLION acres of US land burned in an average year

2050

20 MILLION acres could burn

84%

KARI GREER/USFS

of wildfires are started by humans

SOURCE: USDA.GOV

1997-2017

today.csuchico.edu 14

JASON HALLEY

Professor Don Hankins points to signs of resilience in a tree where a prescribed burn passed through.

In the surrounding area, non-native and invasive species are now gone and native species are thriving.

Cal Fire and other partners to conduct burning projects on the reserve. With 15 vegetation communities, each with its own fire needs, it offers learning opportunities for professionals and citizens alike, whether in oak woodlands, mixed conifer forests, grasslands, or chaparral.

He also has visions for establishing the University as an educational center and creating a specialized major.

“Students can be the next generation of fire stewards, thinking about the landscape and the ecological and social impacts,” he said.

THE GOOD IN GRAZING A trained geneticist, animal scientist, and sixthgeneration rancher, agriculture professor Kasey DeAtley (Agriculture, ’06) is looking at another fire mitigation tool: grazing. Using cattle, sheep, and other animals is economical and effective, she said.

Ranchers benefit from a food source for their animals, while the grazers curtail invasive weeds and nonnative species, allow native plants and wildlife to thrive, promote new growth, and reduce the accumulation of fuel so that when fires do burn 15

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through, they don’t burn as intensely or do as much damage.

“We could manage rangeland where a lot of these fires could be prevented or a fire could at least be fightable, not just a get-out-of-the-way situation,” DeAtley said. “Cattle and sheep grazing are just one tool in a big toolbox, but it is one that is underutilized.”

She describes a scene from the Stone Fire, which burned nearly 40,000 acres in Modoc County this summer. After ripping through impenetrable forests and unmaintained grassland, the fire stopped at the grazing line as if a load of retardant had been dropped.

“It didn’t have enough energy,” she explained. “We can create change. We just need to figure out a way to do it and do it effectively.”

Like prescribed burns, grazing was a common method of controlling the grasslands and forests during the 1800s, DeAtley said. But overgrazing and mismanagement devastated the rangeland, and California has spent the last century trying to recover.

Unfortunately, the federal regulation that intends to protect damage from overgrazing has become so extensive that it is now a deterrent and barrier for many, DeAtley said. She has wanted for years to secure a federal grazing permit for the 100-cattle herd her family has in Lassen County, but environmental regulations, agency approvals, and expense have her reconsidering.

It’s a difficult decision when DeAtley knows the mutual benefits. After years of researching rangeland science and management, she sees prime opportunity to increase grazing in partnership with wildfire ecology and management.

Like Hankins, she also sees students as the stewards to carry that tool into reality. As tragic as the recent surge in megafires has been, she said, her hope is that it spurs a tidal shift in attitudes and behaviors.

“Wildfire resonates with everybody in California.

It doesn’t matter if you live in downtown San Francisco, LA, San Diego, or rural places like McArthur,” she said. “This is an opportunity to change … and I think education is a good place to start.”

RISING FROM THE ASHES Remembering and learning from fire history is imperative not just for controlling blazes but being ready for them, Biermann said.

“You need to not forget this event in five, 10, 20 years,” he said. “When you live in that rural area of California or that urban interface where the wildland can burn, you need to be prepared all the time. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when.”

The reality, he said, is the 2018 Atlas Fire in Napa had the same footprint as another blaze by the same name in 1981, and the Tubbs Fire that leveled areas of Santa Rosa tore across the same fire footprint of the Hanley Fire of 1964. Both were fueled by high winds, dry conditions, and challenging topography.

“We have to look at everything in totality and long-term sustainability of whatever we do to react to these fires,” Biermann said. “We need to use safe and sound facts and scientific data moving forward and not just the emotional response.”

When Phillips was finally allowed to return to her neighborhood 10 days after fleeing the Carr Fire, she faced an eerie scene. Amid the piles of crumbled stucco, warped metal, and the skeletons of washing machines and mattress springs were few remnants of the lives once in their place.

“You just go from one lot to the next and basically everything was gone,” Phillips said. “What hit me were the number of vehicles that were burned and left behind. … It felt like a war zone.”

The scene was similar in Kaylor’s neighborhood. He and his dad estimate they saved six homes on their block that night, including their own, but they could not protect them all. The inferno that passed through left little more than torched trees, empty lots, and views of blackened hillsides.

Wildfire resonates with everybody in California.

This is an opportunity to change … and I think education is a good place to start.

From young families to the city police chief, Phillips has lost count of how many people she knows who lost everything—and she still marvels at how close she came to being one of them. The ruins of other lives start just three houses down from hers. As she walked into her home, she faced bittersweet relief at the sight of the table where her family had shared holiday meals and photos brightening the walls as she realized it all could have been gone in an instant.

Six weeks later, as she walked the streets of her neighborhood, the smell of smoke still lingered in the air and machinery rumbled as it cleared lots —Kasey DeAtley (Agriculture, ’06) of their toxic remnants.

Phillips pointed to small glimpses of hope among the ashes: a burst of pink blooms opening in a flowerpot, the redwood trees on someone’s lawn sprouting bright green new needles, lots being readied for homeowners who were forging forward with plans to rebuild.

“We are stronger than the Carr Fire,” she said. “I think we are going to come out of it a stronger, better community.”

As chief operating officer of the McConnell Foundation, a nonprofit that provides philanthropic support to the surrounding community, Phillips is intimately involved in recovery efforts. In addition to allocating foundation resources for short-term cash assistance, longer-term support, and erosion prevention, she also is engaged in conversations about fire-wise rebuilding, reforestation, and trail restoration in the fire-scarred forests.

“We can make some healthy choices today so that 10 years from now or the next time a fire comes through our community, we learned from this experience and we are less susceptible to a repeat,” she said.

Finding a small, slightly warped metal sunflower in the remnants of her neighbors’ front porch, she pocketed it, with plans to repaint it and give it to the owners as a gift. Phillips’ heart aches, she said, knowing the struggles still to come.

“There is a bit of community-wide depression that hits three months after the fire. It’s a little like grief. We get through the loss of a loved one, we get through all the things on the to-do list, then the reality hits that they are gone permanently,” she said. “We are committed to the long haul in staying engaged in our recovery.”

today.csuchico.edu 16

Chico State Veterans Seek Support Where They Always Have: From Each Other

story Travis Souders photos Jessica Bartlett

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W

ords await military members when they return to civilian life.

“Welcome home.” “Thank you for your service.” “We love the troops.”

They never hurt. But they seldom help.

Those who enter the United States armed forces face grueling training, long-term family separation, and myriad other physical and psychological hardships throughout their service.

Some bring home wounds that will stick with them for the rest of their lives—crushed ribs, PTSD, substance dependencies, hearing or vision loss, anxiety, worn knees and hips, to name a few.

As veterans adjust to civilian life, they can often feel like outsiders—being on a college campus only exacerbates the feeling. On top of that, the rigors of everyday life—jobs, academics, families—can also cause heavier burdens: unexpressed anxiety, a yearning for responsibilities long relieved, memories of relationships severed by discharge or combat. The military experience is one where few others will ever truly be able to relate.

The uncomfortable truth is that military culture isn’t an easy one for civilians to embrace, and vice versa.

“It kills your empathy,” said Bryan Lewis, a 26-yearold business management major and four-year Army veteran. “People want to complain about their stupid first-world problems, but I can’t really care when a kid out there is walking two miles to get fresh water, trying not to step on a land mine.

“But you can’t tell anyone that. You have to pretend to care.”

Ultimately, it takes veterans to support veterans.

Chico State’s Student Veteran Organization (SVO) is one of 20 founding chapters of the national Student Veterans of America nonprofit, and our campus regularly receives recognition as a military-friendly campus, including being named to Military Advanced Education and Transition's 2018 Top Colleges and Universities.

That is thanks to the campus Office of Veteran Affairs, which helps veterans, reservists, active-duty service members, and their dependents navigate benefits including everything from the GI Bill to US Veterans Affairs assistance. Its staff, including a focused allveteran support team, serve students by churning through paperwork, directing them to online help sites, and providing a secluded area for studying or taking a break.

At the head of the operation is Director Larry Langwell, whose own background—physical scars and transitional experience included—equips him to support military students in a representative way few others at the University can. Langwell has had numerous operations during and since his discharge from the Air Force, the result of a one-ton bomb falling onto him from a trailer as he worked on a runway while stationed in England. today.csuchico.edu 18

JASON BLUM

Civil engineering major Jason Blum, who served four years in the Marines, often feels a disconnect from the campus community, both in age and life experience.

COURTESY PHOTO

Gesturing to an office photo of an enormous warhead, Langwell recounts the carnage: The bomb crushed his pelvis, caused severe intestinal damage, broke part of his skull, ruined his knee, and forced surgical reconstruction of his back and neck.

“I enjoyed the work. I was thinking about making it a career, and I was on the fast track. And then, the military says, ‘Get your ass out of here,’” he said. “They don’t want to retrain you. I had to recalibrate.”

“Going through that transition is a part of the veteran experience,” Langwell added. “A lot of the camaraderie with veterans comes from suffering through things together. That’s our identity.”

It’s an understanding among a collective that is impossible for outsiders to replicate, no matter how good their intentions.

“Veterans have a unique culture of honor, valor, integrity, duty, and family,” Langwell said. “Most of them don’t want to leave that life behind, and that’s what we provide here. The University recognizes us as a culture, and we want to promote it for each other on campus.”

bench, in a voice at once confident, honest, and markedly louder than the surrounding conversations.

“You can’t act like a veteran in a civilian world—it’s not accepted. You have to flip a switch,” Blum said. “I’d take a bullet for someone, but I can’t talk shit to their face like I would with another Marine, because I’d hurt their feelings. People like veterans, but not when they act like veterans.”

A prospective engineer, Blum does feel a kinship to other students living through struggle. Classmates paying their own way, in particular, impress the Marine from rural Eureka, who would not have been able to afford college himself if not for his GI Bill.

“Some people are getting their ass kicked, and my hat’s off to them. I respect that. I respect being in a shitty situation and having to work through it,” he said.

But for the most part, Blum said, there is a disconnect for veteran students in a setting where just one of every 64 students has served.

(Nationally, veterans make up about 1 out of 25 undergrads.) Social dissonance is a common anxiety trigger, and it’s one of many factors contributing to the struggles of a population plagued by a suicide rate that triples the American average. Surrounding student veterans with those who just “get it” is a vital function of campus veteran services.

“PEOPLE LIKE VETERANS, BUT NOT WHEN THEY ACT LIKE VETERANS.” Muting the military persona is a frequent occurrence for many veterans, especially students. So it goes for 29-year-old senior Jason Blum, a civil engineering major who served in the Marines as a heavy equipment operator from 2008–12 and completed two deployments in Afghanistan.

Thick-chested but lean, with a close-cropped haircut and dark eyes, Blum shared some casually coarse insight seated on a campus 19

C H I C O S TAT E M E N T S FA L L 2 0 1 8

COURTESY PHOTO

Lewis, an SVO member and Office of Veterans Affairs employee from Los Gatos, knows many of the stereotypes the armed forces endure aren’t without some truth: “All the cussing, drinking, fighting—that’s very real. Most of us are loud. A lot of us communicate in aggressive ways that regular

BRYAN LEWIS Business administration major and four-year Army veteran Bryan Lewis estimates he’s lost 5–6 times as many veteran friends to suicide than to combat, a painful truth in a culture that often feels in conflict with civilian life.

people don’t want to associate with.”

His experience in the Army, a four-year stint as a communications operative in which he worked with wiring, satellite, and radio technology, is one he looks back on with fondness and disdain. He liked some of it—“blowing stuff up,” traveling all over Europe while he was stationed in Germany before he spent a year on the Turkish-Syrian border—but he doesn’t miss Christmas leave being canceled, or the daily 5 a.m. 10-mile runs. His body feels broken from the intense physical demands of his military service.

“Deployment is rough. You don’t know when you’re going to come home. People are getting gassed, getting blown up, going three months without showers,” Lewis said. “But when you come back, you have this new perspective. It doesn’t translate to normal life.”

Lewis doesn’t resent the traditional student experience. But he points to civilian ignorance and attitudes toward the armed forces as a major reason veterans feel uneasy at home. After 12 months of shooting down chemical warheads and protecting civilians from hostile fire in the Middle East, Lewis came home on leave. His friend’s new girlfriend casually called him a “baby killer” when he told her he was in the Army.

“The people out there in the world, they appreciate us,” he said.

“Around here, we’re treated like garbage.”

“I WAS ENJOYING THE SCHOOL LIFE. SERVICE LIFE SAID, ‘YOU’RE NOT DOING THAT ANYMORE.’” For many, the transition is never truly complete, regardless of how far removed they are from their service. Student veterans in the

reserves, like criminal justice major Jorge Romero, commonly feel an inability to settle, knowing they might need to answer the call of duty at any given moment.

Romero enlisted in the Air Force Reserves at 19 out of Pierce High in Arbuckle, a 3,000-person ag town in the northern Sacramento Valley.

Without any idea of what to do after high school, Romero, whose parents were migrant farmers, didn’t see himself destined to stick around and do manual labor his whole life. Excited at the prospect of working with airplanes and serving his country when he flipped through an Air Force pamphlet, he joined the Reserves and drew an assignment to Security Forces.

COURTESY PHOTO

Romero did his basic training and technical school in San Antonio and served a one-year tour in Kuwait from 2016–17. While the bulk of his duties included search missions for people and vehicles and asset-protection patrols, Romero was fondest of fly-aways—personnel protection and transport for veterans whose tours had ended.

“The best feeling is to see their faces when the plane’s in the air and they know they’re going home,” Romero said. “You know they’ve gone through so much of the same stuff you have—basic training, the struggle in general. Keeping them safe during that last home stretch, being the face they see when they have that realization they’re going to see their families again, that’s huge.”

It is what he misses the most now that he is in the inactive Reserves. today.csuchico.edu 20

JORGE ROMERO

Criminal justice major Jorge Romero lives in a world of limbo.

Still in the Air Force Reserves, he could be pulled from his studies and back to duty at any time.

At the same time, he knows he could be recalled to duty any minute.

Such was the case when he returned from basic training and technical school to start his collegiate career. After two years at Woodland Community College, Romero had earned three associate’s degrees and was set to transfer to Chico State when his unit got the call for deployment. Not wanting to lose momentum in his education, he applied for an exemption, to no avail.

“I was enjoying the school life,” Romero said. “Service life said, ‘You’re not doing that anymore.’”

Almost two years later, Romero, now a senior, juggles 15 units, a job in the Office of Veterans Affairs, and the responsibility of helping direct the student veteran community to resources on and off campus. He is a self-described “gym rat,” spending much of his free time at the Wildcat Recreation Center, and a devotee to structure, with his daily schedule and even meals planned ahead of time. He has adapted to the unpredictable nature of being a reservist, and even grown to like it, he said. But he also encounters many veterans who haven’t reached that level of comfort yet, and he knows that feeling, too. In his role at the Office of Veterans Affairs, he’s trying to help others reconcile the gap between lives past and present, even amid his own occasional difficulties in turning off his military persona.

“I do have an opportunity to help people grow, like the Air Force helped me, but without the negative reinforcement,” he explained.

“One of the biggest adjustments I’ve learned is that everyone has the right to own up to their own successes and failures.”

It’s not uncommon for student veterans to struggle with reintegrating to civilian life without demeaning their peers. In the military, virtue is found in punctuality, respect for authority, a general sense of fastidiousness. Among anyone who may not subscribe to those same values, let alone those with markedly less life experience, veterans can feel isolated, if not resentful.

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“It does drive me nuts,” admitted Kiena Sanders, a 26-year-old animal science major and four-year Navy veteran. “I developed this mindset of commitment, doing my duty so someone else doesn’t have to do it, and that’s not the mindset of most of my generation in the workforce. The world around me says it’s fine, that you shouldn’t work yourself too hard, you should take breaks. I can’t think like that anymore.”

“OUR BRAINS HAVE BEEN REWIRED TO NAVIGATE PROBLEMS IN A WAY THAT CAN HELP OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARMS THROUGH THEIRS.” With a full class schedule and aspirations of working with livestock in the veterinary field, Sanders complements her animal science studies by double minoring in chemistry and biology. She has her sights set next on veterinary school or a master’s degree to study zoonotic viruses.

Sanders was a year into her community college career when she decided to join the Navy at 18. Doing as her grandfather

KIENA SANDERS

and great-grandfather had done came to her friends’ surprise—and her mother’s anguish.

Working aboard the USS Makin Island in its San Diego home port as an aviation electronics technician second-class petty officer, Sanders spent seven months at sea during her enlistment, deploying to Hong Kong and Singapore, among other areas in Asia and the Middle East.

Homesickness, frustration with communication along the chain of command, stress—many factors illustrated to her that military life is not for everyone. But the shared experience of service was a bond she found to be unbreakable, unlike so many friendships that faded when she was miles offshore with no internet or cell service, only reachable by hand-written letter.

“You can have a bad day, bad week, even a bad month. It’s mentally very challenging,” she said. “But you deal with it. …

You have moments when you’re in it, that you realize that it’s awful, and at the same time you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. And that’s mostly because you’ve got others going through it with you.”

Now, Sanders, Lewis, Blum, Romero, and almost 275 other veteran students are going through the Chico State experience together, regardless of how much time they may spend at the Student Veterans Center or how willing they are to discuss their service. Sanders, who visits almost daily, said she appreciates a COURTESY PHOTO campus community that embraces her identity.

Students, staff, and faculty are largely grateful and sensitive to veterans’ different perspectives, she said.

But support from those who can relate—to have the effort come from those who have experienced military life themselves—is irreplaceable.

“Our brains have been rewired to navigate problems in a way that we can help our brothers and sisters in arms through theirs,” she said.

“You have to be able to trust the person next to you and know they trust you, too.”

Animal science major and four-year Navy veteran Kiena Sanders developed a strong sense of duty and responsibility during her service. She admittedly misses the feelings of cohesiveness and support she experienced from her military family.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT THE OFFICE OF VETERANS AFFAIRS brings student veterans together and actively engages the campus, the media, and the broader community to advocate and raise awareness for veteran issues.

Designate the Student Veterans Center at www.csuchico.edu/giving to contribute.

2018 VETERANS DAY 5K HOORAH RUN/WALK SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2018 The Veterans Day 5k Hoorah Run/Walk is hosted by Chico State Facilities Management and Services and raises money for student-veteran scholarships. The course starts in front of Kendall Hall and takes you on a route through the beautiful campus. Check-in and day-of registration start at 7 a.m., and the race starts at 8 a.m.

Race information at www.csuchico.edu/fms

today.csuchico.edu 22

T O W E R

S O C I E T Y

2017–18 Honor Roll IN 2017–18, WE CELEBRATED OUR BEST FUNDRAISING YEAR EVER, AS 15,450 ALUMNI, STUDENTS, PARENTS, AND FRIENDS RAISED MORE THAN $16.9 MILLION— 90 PERCENT OF WHICH WAS GENERATED BY TOWER SOCIETY MEMBERS.

G

reetings! As I reflect back on the last year, I continue to be awed and inspired by the kindness and generosity of our community of supporters as we work to transform lives on a local and global level. Time and time again, they continue to demonstrate unwavering dedication to ensuring we provide a world-class education, hands-on learning, and life-changing experiences.

We are building a culture of philanthropy at Chico State, and through the magnitude of their generosity, our Tower Society members represent the heart of that effort. They share a bold vision to help us change lives, and in taking their investment in people and programs to the next level, their impact is far-reaching and never-ending.

I am delighted to introduce the 2017–18 members of the Tower Society and celebrate the essential role they play in supporting tomorrow’s leaders. Thanks to our family of donors, in the last year we have been able to enhance workspaces, support staff and faculty in thinking beyond the classroom, introduce new courses, bring national resources to our campus, facilitate hands-on learning through summer research institutes and internships, and use innovation to drive research and implement state-of-the-art technology.

Our Tower members are leading the way in inspiring others to give. This passion has helped us earn national recognition as we witness the making of donor history here at Chico State. I’m proud to say our combined efforts earned the University a Peak Performance Award from Reeher this year in honor of defying traditional fundraising conventions by increasing our numbers of donors and dollars raised.

In 2017–18, we celebrated our best fundraising year ever, as together, 15,450 alumni, students, parents, and friends raised a record $16,919,880 million—90 percent of which was generated by Tower Society members. And it is our Tower Society members who are the driving force behind Transform Tomorrow | The Campaign for Chico State, which has now surpassed the $70 million mark on our way to raise $100 million for three priorities by 2020: empowering student success through annual giving, renovating and building cutting-edge learning environments that facilitate innovation and collaboration, and investing in people by establishing endowments for scholarships, faculty support, and programs.

As we look to the future, our goal is to grow in a way never seen before on our campus. I am confident our Tower Society members will continue to lead the way, investing in areas and projects they care about and inspiring others to do the same. I invite you to join this community of leaders and supporters as we build a bold future for Chico State. Together, we will transform tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Ahmad Boura Vice President for University Advancement 23

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2017–18 Honor Roll

M E M B E R S W H O CO N T R I B U T E D B E T W E E N J U LY 1, 2017 A N D J U N E 3 0, 2018

Visionary $100,000 or more Beavers Charitable Trust Chico CM Education Foundation Chico Concrete Industry Management Patrons Aaron Colton (’82) and Gina Colton (’82) Gaia Fund Harry C. & Deborah L. Elliott Family Foundation Dennis Murphy (’94) Jim Wells and Carol Windsor

Philanthropist $50,000–$99,999 Anonymous Aileen S. Andrew Foundation Chevron Corporation Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation Jay Gilbert (’69) Hayden Homes LLC Koch Foundation Cathy Pleasant Valene L. Smith Melaine Taylor (’61) and Thomas Taylor

Benefactor $25,000–$49,999 Joel Arthur and Carol Arthur Wes Dempsey and Phyllis Dempsey Ron Duff (’71) and Lynn Duff Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Geoff Fricker Jr. and Sandee Machida Granite Construction Company Sandra Jensen (’00) Bill Klein (’79) and Liz Klein (’78) Joanne Martin Thomas Milling and Marian Milling Chuck Nelsen (’89) Matt Ober (’07) George Parrott (’65) Skip Reager Jr. (’74) and Cheryl Reager Glen Thomas (’83) and Joyce Densmore-Thomas (’82) David Winzenz and Marilyn Winzenz Ricky Wood (’81) Dennis Young (’69) and Jan Young

Founder $15,000–$24,999 Anonymous—4 donors Keith Bewley (’78) and Cheryl Bewley Janell Campbell (’78) and Richard Campbell Stuart Casillas (’96) and Kimi Casillas (’96) Construction Employers Association Charles Copeland and Sally Foltz Scott Dalecio (’86) and Kathleen Dalecio Sam Fogleman (’85) and Laura Fogleman (’85) Foor Foundation Jeff Gasik (’84) David Hopper and Shari Maxson Hopper

Johnson Family Foundation Tom Johnson and Kimie Johnson Billie Kanter (’68) and Kirk Monfort KPMG, LLP Foundation Louis and Harold Price Foundation, Inc. John McAmis and Renee McAmis Chris Nichols (’69) Richard Portis and Mary Portis Glen Toney (’66) and Virginia Toney Tri Counties Bank U.S. Bank Foundation Veritas Technologies LLC Tom Villa (’82) and Karyl Villa Virginia L. Jones Foundation Linda Zorn

Pioneer $7,500–$14,999 Anonymous—2 donors ADP, LLC Fred Avakian (’93) and Kristen Avakian (’93) Dick Baldy and Marian Baldy Doug Britt (’88) John Burghardt and Jamie Burghardt Butte Creek Foundation Martin Carovano and Barbara Carovano Charles Koch Foundation Cintas Clark Construction Group, LLC Bernard Davitto Red Emmerson and Maria Escosa-Emmerson Enterprise Holdings, Inc. Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions, Inc. Susan Erving Jane Fischer Graybar Electric Company Henry Schein, Inc. Dave Hodson (’90) and Christine LeCuyer-Hodson (’93) Richard Hughes (’69) and Marilyn Hughes InterWest Insurance Services, LLC Jeff Jones (’86) Bob Kittredge (’69) and Bobbie Kittredge Roger Lederer and Carol Burr Vern McHaney and Rose Crain MDU Resources Foundation Michael Messner (’74) and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo Marcia Moore Bill Niepoth (’49) and Marilyn Niepoth Scott Paine (’77) and Mary Kay Paine Westley Patton (’65) and Jane Patton Mike Prime and Robyn Prime Janeane Rhoades-Peterson (’96) and Scott Brown Richard Hughes Dairy Robby Paine Foundation Joan Rycraft (’68) Robert Salmon (’90) and Patricia Mertens-Salmon Darryl Schoen (’77) and Jaci Schoen Anne Sena (’97) and William Sena

Chuck Seufferlein (’74) and Sylvia Seufferlein (’75) Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College District Judy Sitton (’68) Howard Slater (’70) and Diane Slater (’78) Slater & Son, Inc. State Center Community College District Brad Watterson (’78) and Janelle Watterson (’79) Wells Fargo Foundation Bix Whitcomb (’69) and Wendy Yen Yellow Door

Explorer $3,500–$7,499 Anonymous—3 donors Keith Adams Aerotek, Inc. AGC Construction Caroline Aldrich-Langen Douglas Alexander and Kathleen Alexander Donald Alger and Barbara Alger Linda Allen (’81) and Gayle Hutchinson Jeanette Alosi (’79) American Society of Professional Estimators ASCC Education, Research & Development Foundation Abe Baily Bank of Commerce Redding Robert Barnhart (’85) Angela Basi (’00) Daniel Beadle (’74) and Linda Beadle Cameron Beck (’88) and Kim Beck (’84) Gregg Berryman and Phyllis Berryman Bizness Apps, Inc. Lance Blanshei (’81) and Shelly Blanshei (’82) Grace Brewer (’78) and Mark Boydston Brighton Solar, Inc Stephen Brocchini (’98) Gary Brown (’69) Lois Bueler Thomas Burkett (’82) and Barbara Burkett (’77) Burroughs Family Farms, LLC Ward Burroughs and Rosie Burroughs Butte College California Manufacturing Technology Consulting California Water Service Company Debra Cannon (’77) Cheuk-Kin Chau and Theresa Chau Chico Breakfast Lions Club Carlos Chinas and Beverly Chinas Chipotle Mexican Grill Kathryn Colburn-Magnusson (’73) and Peter Magnusson Colusa Industrial Properties, Inc. Crystal Equation Stephen Cummins and Sunday Cummins Tom DiGiovanni and Carol DiGiovanni John DiMichele (’76) and Bonnie DiMichele Jeanne Dryfoos (’41) E. M. T. Elaine English Donna Falk (’67) today.csuchico.edu 24

2017–18 Honor Roll

M E M B E R S W H O CO N T R I B U T E D B E T W E E N J U LY 1, 2017 A N D J U N E 3 0, 2018

Phillip Figone (’84) Mark Fitzpatrick (’85) and Rhonda Fitzpatrick Five Star Bank Fixzyn, Inc. Diane Flaherty Food Industry Foundation Foothill Property Management Diane Fossum Nancy Fox (’64) and Jack Fox Sherry Fox Carolyn Freese (’65) Chris Friedland (’99) and Melissa Friedland Gallo Sales Company Andrew Gazdecki (’11) and Michelle Gazdecki (’12) Genentech George Lucas Family Foundation Google, Inc. Timothy Grewis (’90) Mary Growdon (’79)* Lee Hamre (’76) and Deborah Blue Kent Harris (’73) Jon Hilbert and Bonnie Hilbert Nancy Hodges (’55) Marc Hollis (’87) and Donna Hollis (’87) Edwin Hulbert (’81) and Cathleen Hulbert (’79) Paul Huntzinger (’67) and Cele-Anne Huntzinger IBM Corporation Pamela Ikuta Christina Jensen Eckert Samuel Jewell and Isabel Jewell Sandy Kalinowski K-Coe Isom Edgar Kimball (’64) and Joy Kimball Larry Kirk and Maureen Kirk James Kirks Jr. Teresa Kludt (’77) and Walt Schafer Kohl’s Department Store Thomas Korver and Roxane Perruso Jeffrey Krisa (’89) and Marie Krisa (’88) Ken Lange (’65) and Sheryl Lange (’66) Debra Larson LaSalle Medical Associates Stephen Lee and LeeAnne Lee Bob Leppek and Julie Leppek Craig Lindsley (’92) John Loll and Jane Bielke-Loll Jim Lucchesi (’66) Lundberg Family Farms Victor Madero and Alicia Madero Allen Masuda (’71) John Mathena (’85) Thor Maydole (’67) and Connie Barr Missy McArthur (’72) David McCallen (’79) and Rose Esposito-McCallen (’80) Lefty McClellan (’72) and Jeannie Jacobs (’83) McConnell Foundation Ailsie McEnteggart Theresa McGowan (’58) 25

C H I C O S TAT E M E N T S FA L L 2 0 1 8

June McMahon Edie Miller (’79) Sally Morton (’81) Jacqueline Murad (’76) National Philanthropic Trust Marcie Nelson (’82) and Kenneth Gall Warren Nelson (’72) and Maritza Pick-Nelson Northstate Neurosurgical Associates Medical Group North Valley Ag Services Oroville Hospital Matthew O’Sullivan (’83) and Donna Garcia Pacific Gas & Electric Company Robert Pillsbury (’57) and Judith Pillsbury Richard Ponarul and Vimali Paul PowerSchool Group, LLC Raley’s Betsy Randolph (’68) and Richard Randolph Claudia Rawlins (’77) Gary Reeve (’81) and Alicin Reeve Carolynn Reynolds Robert E. and Adele M. Boydston Foundation R & S Farms, Inc. Tim Sauer Sr. (’91) Randy Schiff (’90) and Laura Schiff (’04) Kathleen Schovajsa Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. Luke Seufferlein (’09) Sherwin-Williams Company Sierra Pacific Foundation Stanley Black & Decker Staples Brandon Stegall (’95) Joan Stewart Stifel Nicolaus—Chico Bob Stofa and Becky Stofa Marti Sutton (’92) and John Sutton III Tailored Shared Services, LLC John Taylor (’72) and Suzanne Taylor Tea Innovations, Inc. TEK Systems The Albert and Rina Brocchini Family Foundation Thomas Tognoli (’88) and Lynn Tognoli Tom James Company Angela Trethewey (’88) Jennifer Wallace (’79) and Robert Fulton Walmart Stores and Sam’s Club Gary Watters (’57) and Lorrene Watters (’56) Garey Weibel (’56) and Barbara Weibel (’62) Sally Wells David Whetstone (’66) and Carol Whetstone (’67) Chance Whittley

Leader $1,500–$3,499 Anonymous—6 donors Aflac Almond Board of California Altum Wealth Advisors

Beverly Alves (’75) Nicholas Ambrosia Diane Anderson Diane Apostolakos (’75) Arrhythmia Center of Northern California Ashlock Company Associated Students ASTM International Susan Avanzino Karen Avis (’81) and Jonathan Sylwester Holly Bailey (’96) Jenelle Ball (’82) and David Ball Thomas Bannon (’77) Ray Barker (’69) and Roma Barker Scott Barker and Anita Barker Alicia Barr (’96) and Andrew Barr Don Batie and Merle Batie Scott Bauhs (’08) Robert Bechard (’60) and Kathie Bechard (’81) Ted Bell and Judy Hennessey Arturo Benavidez Jr. (’02) and Tiffany Giammona-Benavidez (’02) Steven Benninga (’78) Shanti Betts (’08) and Alexis Betts David Billings (’94) Jessica Bjork (’09) Sarah Blackstone Boice Family Fund Boman & Associates Kent Boman (’97) and Melissa Boman (’97) Margaret Bomberg Gary Borders (’71) David Bordin (’74) and Judy Bordin (’73) Ahmad Boura and Jen Boura Tyler Bramble (’94) James Braziel Sr. (’57) and Carol Braziel (’75) Margaret Brennan-Maxey and Robert Maxey Janet Brown (’77) and Michael Abruzzo Jeff Brown and Wendy Brown Judith Brown Francis Buchanan and Evelyn Buchanan Lee Bucknell (’59) Build Group, Inc. George Buonaccorsi (’66) and Vicki Buonaccorsi Thomas Burkland and Susan Burkland Jason Burns (’02) Butte Glenn Medical Robert Buzan Catherine Caldwell California Beef Cattle Improvement Association California Faculty Association Chico Chapter California League of Food Processors California Retired Teachers Association John Calvert (’04) and Melanie Calvert (’03) Capstone Accountancy, Inc. Betty Carlson (’57) Ted Carmody (’97) and Kimberly Carmody (’11) Harriette Carr (’66) and Jack Carr

T hank you for your support.

Bill Carson Jr. (’68) Anthony Carter Jeremy Carter Marcus Carter (’12) Joseph Chiapella and Judy Chiapella Chico Eye Center Chico Hearing Aid Center Chico Natural Foods Inc. Chico Rotary Club Foundation Robert Christianson and Jennifer Christianson Robert Christopherson (’69) and Bobbé Christopherson C. H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Ronald Churchill (’75) and Leslie Churchill (’76) Miste Cliadakis and Steven Cliadakis Ryan Coker (’93) and Heidi Coker Sara Cooper and Sandra Beck Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Inc. Brian Corley (’95) and Zephra Corley Mitch Cox (’81) and Laura Cox CPG Data, LLC Harold Crangle (’64) Kimberly Cupps (’84) Tom Cushman Dave Daley (’79) Lisa Dal Gallo (’86) and Josh Sullivan David Damazo and Becky Damazo Robert Damen (’79) Linda Dardarian (’83) Chris Davis (’83) and Timothy Davis Karl Dawson and Debra Barger Ailene Dean Christopher Devine (’96) and Renee Devine (’98) DHL Express Paul Dickinson and Barbara Dickinson Heather Dickson (’95) and Scott Dickson Diepenbrock Elkin Gleason LLP Gayle Dilley (’86) and John Dilley Dome Construction Corporation Robert Donoho (’84) Susan Donohue Catherine Dougherty DP Advertising, Inc. Lisa Driver (’82) David Eichner (’66) and Patricia Eichner (’66) Tag Engstrom and Kristine Mazzei Enloe Medical Center Gary Enos (’79) and Cindy Enos Scott Erwin (’86) and Laura Erwin Farm Credit West, FLCA Federated Insurance Phil Filbrandt and Joanne Reid David Filomeo (’78) William Flake and Sandra Flake Kenneth Fleming and Liz Fleming Erica Flores (’07) Foliofn Investments, Inc. Karen Ford (’99) and Richard Ford Forterra

Kimberly Foss (’84) Gary Fowler (’77) and Elizabeth Sandbach (’79) Mark Francis (’82) and Jolene Francis Akihiro Fujikawa (’03) Scott Fulenwider (’04) and Kari Bianchini (’04) Nick Gainer (’18) Robin Gayle (’80) Morgan Geddie and Mary Geddie Joan Genthe Melvin George (’67) and Gail George James Gerber (’74) Joan Gerhardt (’68) Benjamin Gilbert and Vally Gilbert Jim Gleason (’81) Nicole Gleason (’95) Steve Gonsalves (’81) and Charlene Gonsalves (’83) Stephen Goodall (’78) and Jane Goodall (’78) Kent Green and Judy Green Jack Griswold (’73) Laura Grossman Timothy Gross (’91) and Marion Gross Steve Gubber (’84) Doug Guerrero and Kelly Guerrero Alex Gutierrez (’79) and Kathleen Gutierrez (’79) John Hacker and Alexis Strauss Allen Hackett (’64) Steve Hall (’77) and Carol Stanley-Hall (’73) Chris Hammond (’95) Hamre Equipment Company, Inc. George Hansen (’73) and Sandra Hansen Richard Hardin (’70) and Katharine Hardin (’71) Neil Harris (’74) and Lorena Harris Harris & Plottel Hart Farms David Hassenzahl and Hilary Hassenzahl Rand Hart Neil Hennessy and Kathy Hennessy Hensel Phelps Construction Co. Daniel Herbert (’77) and Kathy Herbert (’78) Julie Herman (’11) Timothy Herring (’81) and Michelle Herring Hilbers, Inc. Kurt Hilbers (’81) Samuel Hillaire (’02) and Sam Hillaire (’99) Kevin Hill (’96) Robert Hockett Jr. (’71) Pam Hollis and Greg Hollis Thomas Hood (’10) Joann Hooker (’88) Jenifer Hornaday (’97) Jim Houpis Ted Howard (’68) Graham Hutton and Suzanne Bresina-Hutton Muhammad Hussain and Bashiran Hussain Thomas Huston (’81) and Carol Huston (’82) IM Chico 1 Opco, LLC (Residence Inn, Chico) Inframark Matthew Ives (’79) and Connie Ives (’81)

Richard Jackson and Giovanna Jackson Ricardo Jacquez and Michele Auzenne Todd Jensen (’87) and Adriana Jensen (’87) Terry Jewett (’78) and Tony Jewett Jim Johnson (’64) and Mary Johnson Matthew Johnson (’84) and Cassie Bigelow-Johnson (’83) Melissa Jones (’07) Kassamali Kassam (’75) Jan Keller Samuel Kissee (’69) and Robert Zadra Ron Knapp (’80) Knife River Construction Linda Koch (’71) Mary Kowta (’85) and Makoto Kowta Marilyn Kruschke Walter Kusumoto and Dawn Kusumoto Daniel Lakowski Tom Lando and Anastacia Snyder Lando Milton Lang (’93) and Janel Lang (’96) Andrew Lavagnino (’83) and Anette Lavagnino Fred Leek and Diana Leek Ross Lemcke (’76) and Karen Lemcke (’76) Lennox Industries, Inc. Rush Lenroot and Hollie Lenroot Leslie Lerner (’84) Nancy Leverette Liberty Mutual Group, Inc. Loeta Robles, DDS, Inc. Elizabeth Lumbattis-Chalem Richard Macias and Pat Macias Marge Maddux (’43) MAINS’L Makena Endeavors, LLC David Mallas (’98) and Ginger Mallas (’99) Marin Community Foundation Rosanna Marino Eric Marshall and Nancy Overton Aaron Martella (’99) and Shawna Martella Sanford Ma (’72) and Gloria Ma Julie Mastrarrigo (’84) Ben Matthews (’50) and Alma Matthews (’52) Deanna McCoy James McFarland (’54) Michael McGie (’57)* Nancy McGie (’68) Rich McGowan and Pam McGowan Carrie McGranahan Gary McMahon (’84) and Bridget McMahon (’97) Mike McNeill Jr. (’83) and Michele McNeill (’84) Mechanical Contracting Foundation, Inc Steffen Mehl Duane Menefee and Candace Menefee Timothy Merrifield (’89) Paul Minasian and Susan Minasian Mission Produce, Inc. Asa Mittman Laura Moravec (’06) and Jim Moravec Julia Moriarty (’94) today.csuchico.edu 26

2017–18 Honor Roll

M E M B E R S W H O CO N T R I B U T E D B E T W E E N J U LY 1, 2017 A N D J U N E 3 0, 2018

Joan Murdock (’74) Rick Narad (’79) Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company NC3 LLC Tracy Neal (’94) and Shelly Neal (’95) Chuck Nelson (’72) and Paula Busch (’75) Craig Nelson (’87) and Elizabeth Nelson (’88) Patrick Newell and James Smith Jr. News America Marketing John Nichols and Elizabeth Nichols Lisa Nichols (’01) and Chris Nichols Kathy Nicol Erick Nielsen (’70) and Margaret Nielsen Robyn North (’83) North State Symphony League Northwestern Mutual Nur Enterprises, Inc. Dennis O’Connell (’68) and Mikel O’Connell Bob Odland and Charlotte Odland Kevin Olsen (’80) and Beatrice Olsen (’81) Mike O’Malley (’74) Don Osborne (’75) and Nancy Osborne Jeff Oxendine (’82) Jerry Pajouh and Diane Pajouh Carlo Panaccione (’84) and Julie Panaccione Ryan Patten Paychex Paycom Payroll, LLC Mark Pellowski (’86) Patricia Penn Bonnie Persons (’88) Craig Peterson Philadelphia Insurance Companies Placer Community Foundation Zack Plottel (’99) and Nicole Plottel Jessica Porter (’05) James Postma (’74) and Beverly Postma (’74) Ann Pyeatt (’69) Angela Quail Gwen Quail Darlene Quinn Rabobank, N.A. David Raven Randall Reed and Linda Davis-Reed Marilyn Rees (’81) R. Gorrill Ranch Enterprises Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Steve Robinow and Rena Duhl Jesse Robles and Loeta Oviedo-Robles Phil Rogers (’77) Rolling Hills Casino Rudolph and Sletten Inc. Toni Ruggle (’78) and Vickie Ruggle 27

C H I C O S TAT E M E N T S FA L L 2 0 1 8

Sacramento Region Community Foundation Lee Salter (’67) and Judy Salter Erika Sander (’63) Linda Sbrocca (’82) SC Builders Elmer Schaal (’72) and Beverly Schaal Nitsa Schiffman (’82) and Irv Schiffman Heather Schlaff Mark Schwartz (’84) Dallase Scott (’05) Dave Scotto (’89) and Debra Scotto Maggie Sedar (’78) Dwight Seuser Chris Sharp (’11) Emilyn Sheffield Frederica Shockley Sara Simmons (’01) and Janet Rauch Patrick Singleton (’72) and JoAnne Villarreal Alain Smith (’75) Lise Smith-Peters Bob Sneed (’69) and Jan Sneed Soroptimist International of Chico Lynnette Spadorcio (’84) Spencon Construction, Inc Michael Spiess (’79) and Patricia Witt (’79) Melody Stapleton Greg Steel (’66) Stifel Nicolaus—Saint Louis Carrie Stone (’90) Martin Strasburger (’98) and Gloria Strasburger (’99) Walter Stringfellow Arthur Sutfin (’67) and Joan Sutfin Brian Sweeney (’78) and Karen Sweeney (’80) Brooks Thorlaksson (’78) Gary Towne (’91) and Roxanne Lara (’98) Tom Tracy (’83) Del Travis (’75) and Patty Travis (’77) Gerald Uhland (’85) and Barbara Uhland (’85) Universal Forest Products, Inc. Charles Urbanowicz and Sadie Urbanowicz Lionel Valley and Ellie Bradbury Pat Van Dyke (’75) Daryl Vanella (’76) Eddie Vela and Celeste Jones Vimali Paul, MD, Inc. Carol Vivian (’61) Randall Vivian (’97) Cecily Von Berg Ellen Walker Andy Wallace (’87) Walsworth

Michael Warren Penny Warren (’82) Greg Webb (’70) and Joan Webb (’70) Donald Weidlein and Heidi Weidlein Russell Weiss and Janna Weiss Wells Fargo & Company Claudia Wentworth (’84) Paul Wicker and Nancy Wicker Alan Wilhelm (’84) Terry Williams (’87) and Jerry Williams Donald Willis (’68) Willows Veterinary Clinic Patrick Winchell (’95) Mark Womack and Tracie Womack Michael Wood (’91) Charles Worth and Denise Worth Kevin Wright and Jennifer Wright Mike Wysong (’79) and Nanette Wysong Young’s Market Company Yuba Community College District

GOLD

Graduates of the Last Decade

$150–$1,499 Anonymous—6 donors Monica Acosta (’08) Brenda Aguilera◊ Jorge Alvarado (’16) Ashtyn Anderson (’16) Matthew Andreasian (’11) Sara Ansolabehere (’10) Jay Apalit (’90) and Karen Apalit (’07) Dana Appley◊ Ted Aquino (’09) Jaycob Arbogast (’15) and Shannon Arbogast (’12) Brooks Bailey◊ Patrick Ball (’18) Kasey Barnett (’14) Susan Barnett (’07) Logan Baxter (’17) Zachary Bay (’09) Arlyn Beneke (’10) and Margaret Beneke (’70) James Benton (’09) Sarah Bergquist (’11) Ryan Beyers (’12) Rajpreet Bihala (’16) Whitney Bixler (’08) Sarah Bohannon (’13) Patrick Boivin (’09) and Colleen Boivin◊ Jena Boling (’08) Erik Brandtman (’08) Ian Brooks (’08) Lyda Brown (’10)

Mary Butler (’11) David Calo (’10) Jose Campos (’17) Kelly Candelaria (’07) Tony Capretto (’07) Ryan Ceccarelli (’16) Betty Cheung (’12) Alfonso Cisneros (’14) Philip Clements (’05) and Ashley Person (’10) Emma Colquhoun (’18) Kyle Conrad (’11) McKenzie Dalthorp (’14) Jamie Daly (’10) Geneva Desin (’17) Molly Downtain (’12) Connor Doyle (’18) Kendall Duffield (’18) Blair Dugan (’08) Roy Dunlap (’08) and Pamela Dunlap (’05) Michael Durando (’09) and Courtney Durando (’10) Mitzy Edgecomb (’11) and Shane Edgecomb◊ Matthew Elston (’08) Sapur Engineer (’13) Antonio Facendini (’11) Michael Findlay (’84) and Denise Findlay (’86) Keegan Fraschieri (’08) Leslie Freeland (’08) Andrew Gambino (’07) Charlee Ganzer (’07) Dawn Garcia (’09) and Melvyn Richardson◊ Melissa Garcia (’12) Ariana Gehrig (’13) Emily Gibson (’18) Reidun Gilbert (’09) Jessica Guaglianone (’08) Gian Gualco-Nelson (’15) Ellie Guinchard (’18) Carolyn Gurstein (’18) Brenda Gutierrez (’17) Veronica Guzman (’11) McCall Habermehl (’16) Timothy Haley (’06) and Lindsey Haley (’07) Courtney Hamilton (’14) Kyle Harper (’07) Jeremy Hartelt (’08) Thomas Hatch (’14) Hunter Haworth◊ Patrick Hensley (’18) Jose Hernandez (’14) Jerry Hight (’89) and Susan Hight (’08)

T hank you for your support.

Erik Hormann (’06) and Amy Hormann (’08) Sarah Houck◊ Donna Humphrey (’18) Michael Huyck (’91) and Connie Huyck (’11) Sena Ichikawa (’07) Maia Illa (’09) Jacqueline Ioimo (’08) Cody Johns (’11) Scott Johnson (’89) and Marie Paquette (’08) Amy Jones (’10) Aditya Joshi (’18) Meghan Jost (’09) Ross Judge (’11) Katherine Kanarek (’11) Morgan Keven (’08) and Kimberly Keven (’04) Asad Khan (’14) Joseph Koch (’12) Andrew Langelier (’11) Darnell Lee (’16) and Kaitlyn Baumgartner Lee (’12) Natalie Leifheit (’17) Miguel Leon (’15) Karin Lightfoot (’09) and Robb Lightfoot Daniel Lofgren (’09) Nathaniel Loker (’14) Callie Lutz (’08) Taylor Lydon (’12) Jeff Maas (’04) and Samantha Maas (’08) Lindsay Macias (’10) Kris Magri (’13) Christopher Markey (’10) and Jamie Markey (’08) Will Martin (’12) Heath Mason (’11) Ava McAllister (’17) Nicole McAllister (’15) Mandi McKay (’08) Dara Mckinley (’08) Ana Medic (’15) Manuel Mejia Jr. (’11) and Andrea Mejia (’09) Daisy Mendez (’18) Shannon Mendonca (’16) Chris Michel (’06) and Renee Michel (’11) Sara Mikesell (’14) Corey Miller (’13) Rebecca Monk (’09) Thomas Morgan (’09) Kara Morison (’14) Aric Morton (’94) and Cinnamin Morton (’10) Mohit Nayyar (’09) Adam Nikssarian (’14)

Mazi Noble (’07) and Lauren Wilson (’04) Haley O’Loughlin (’18) Turner Olson (’18) Christina Pantera (’10) Drew Parsons (’16) Thomas Peacock (’09) Benjamin Pope (’07) Elizabeth Quivey (’10) Adam Raish (’10) Abbey Ranzau (’18) Alan Rellaford (’82) and Daria Booth (’09) Zane Roesner (’14) Beau Rogers (’10) Kit Roggli (’08) Ariana Roman (’17) Thomas Rosenow (’13) and Deborah Rosenow (’89) Aaron Ruch (’07) and JT Ruch (’08) Tanner Ruhlen (’15) Lesley Rundberg (’08) Kiaya Sabolovic (’17) Henry Schleiger (’13) Eddie Serna (’10) and Jennifer Serna (’06) Gabriel Shapiro (’07) Dylan Shelters (’11) Bria Shepherd (’08) and Tim Shepherd Adrian Sherrod (’13) Nicholas Shirley (’18) Aman Singh (’09) Chi Siu (’07) Cassandra Smith (’18) Christopher Souder (’08) Ary Spilkin (’18) Stephanie Sprague (’13) Thomas Staiano (’07) Jennifer Sturm (’07) Olan Swan (’08) Gavin Swanson (’10) Ruth Testman (’08) William Thomas (’14) Rocky Torgrimson (’10) James Trauben (’09) Sudeep Unnikrishnan (’09) and Tegan Unnikrishnan (’11) Marie Ussery (’11) Jeresly Vazquez (’17) Benjamin Wachman (’10) Annie Ward (’15) Michael Warenycia (’10) William Warring (’11) Beth Wattenberg (’08) and Steve Wattenberg◊ Zeb Wheeler (’10) Chase Wick (’14)

Denise Wills (’07) and Robin Wills◊ Kelsey Woodel (’18) Sean Woulfe (’16) Casey Wright (’08) Erin Wylder (’16) Johnny Yang (’14) Alma Zamacona (’18) Chris Zepeda (’07) Tianyu Zhou (’16)

Gifts In Kind Galil Motion Control ModuSystems, Inc. Motion Solutions Omron Foundation Virginia Pointer University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Leaving a Lasting Legacy The University Foundation is pleased to recognize the following donors who have arranged to support CSU, Chico through their estate plans.

Testamentary Commitments July 1, 2017–June 30, 2018 $7,656,000

Anonymous Tom Carter (’70) and Donna Carter (’69) Carolyn Freese (’65)

◊ Current students

* Deceased If you feel your name has been omitted or listed incorrectly, please notify Scholarship and Donor Relations Coordinator Flynn Hoffman at 530-898-4796 or donorrelations@csuchico.edu.

Joanne Grundman (’67) Gregory Meadows (’87) and Nancy Meadows (’89) Missy McArthur (’72) Betsy Randolph (’68) and Richard Randolph Darryl Seale (’76) and Karen Seale Jim Wells and Carol Windsor

today.csuchico.edu 28

Class Notes Serving Up Stories p. 31 Alumnus Miles Daisher is a BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot in the Red Bull Air Force.

Where My ’Cats At? p. 34 Don't Miss This p. 35

Taking the Leap Miles Daisher was a child playing soccer with friends on a field in Ohio when he saw a skydiver land in a nearby field.

“He had smoke on his foot and he had a flag, it was really cool,” said Daisher (Physical Education, ’93). “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do that someday.’”

His interest in extreme sports grew, and after graduating from Chico State (where, among other things, he wrestled, pole vaulted, and worked as Willie the Wildcat), Daisher spent the next two years in Squaw Valley working and networking with other extreme sport athletes.

Then, on September 6, 1995, he skydived for the first time at Yolo County Airport in Davis.

“I’ll never forget that first jump,” he said. “After that, it was game on.”

Daisher earned his skydiving license and within two years, he focused solely on taking people on skydives, packing parachutes, and doing anything he could to be around the sport.

His social circles became filled with professional extreme sports athletes. The more time he spent with these athletes, the more time he spent skydiving.

Soon, Daisher was introduced to BASE jumping (BASE jumping is an acronym that stands for the categories of fixed objects from which these athletes jump: buildings, antennas, spans, and earth) and became known as a charismatic and photogenic athlete with boundless energy. In 1997, Red Bull signed Daisher as an extreme sport athlete, carving a BASE jumping niche when there wasn’t one for him to step into.

“You just make the job. If you want to be something and they don’t have it, if you put your passion behind something you love to do, people will see that,” Daisher said. “It showed enough for the people at Red Bull to get behind me.”

Daisher has soared to elite status in the worlds of parachuting and BASE jumping. He’s one of only three people on the planet with more than 5,000 BASE jumps (he once held the world record for most jumps), while also amassing over 8,500 parachute jumps.

CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/RED BULL

He also teaches skydiving and BASE jumping and strives to continue exposing these sports to the world. He recognizes the role that he’s played in helping the development of these sports into global phenomenons.

“I’ve been lucky enough to watch the whole sport start and develop. Right place, right time, at the right age,” Daisher said.

“I feel like I’m the most fortunate person on the planet right now. Where I am in life, I’m just loving every minute of it.”

Read more: today.csuchico.edu

29

C H I C O S TAT E M E N T S FA L L 2 0 1 8

50

JOSEPH BHARAT CORNELL SPECIAL MAJOR, ’73

After publishing his first book, Sharing Nature with Children, in 1979, Joseph Bharat Cornell has become an internationally renowned nature educator and author. The US Fish & Wildlife Service selected Sharing Nature with Children as one of the most influential books—published from 1890 to today—that has connected children to nature. As someone who designed his own degree at Chico State—a BS in nature awareness—the mysteries and beauties of the natural environment is something he wants every child to experience. His most recent book, Deep Nature Play, is a 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist.

GEORGE FOSGATE (Speech Arts, ’59) is a professor emeritus of theatre arts after 32 years of teaching at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where he also endowed a theatre scholarship. After retirement, Fosgate and spouse Pat (Burton) Fosgate spent 20 years in Portland, where he was a freelance professional theatre actor and director, and both worked as senior lifestyle models doing commercial TV spots. He appeared in a few national TV movies and series, notably the films Final Justice and Take My Advice: The Ann and Abby Story, and a featured spot on Leverage. The couple now lives in Las Vegas, where they recently celebrated their 60th anniversary.

60 MARK REISCHLING (Physical Education, ’69) retired after working for 35 years as a secondary teacher and coach at Gridley and Petaluma High Schools. He also refereed at the major college level for 35 seasons (including the 2001 Final Four) and worked for the NBA for nine seasons as an official’s observer for the Golden State Warriors. Reischling also spent time working as the supervisor of basketball officials for three community college conferences: Bay Valley, Big Eight, and Coast.

70 KENDRA MCKEEN (Business Administration, ’70; Credential, ’71) worked in the insurance industry, including most recently as a senior excess underwriter.

She also received her MBA in business and industrial relations and a chartered property casualty underwriter designation from Golden Gate University.

McKeen is now retired and lives in Martinez, where she spends her free time playing bocce ball, participating in a garden club and other volunteer clubs and activities, and traveling the world.

WAYNE EDMISTON (Industrial Arts ’71) retired after teaching in the state prison system for 23 years. He and his wife, Jacque, moved to the central California coast in 1998 to begin their ministry and ordination through The Centers for Spiritual Living.

Edminston’s recent project has been publishing several of his works, including Unfatally Dead: To Thaw or Not to Thaw; a whimsical family fiction Ellie and Her Elephant; an upcoming paranormal novel focused in the Chico area, Crisis at Paradise EyeLand; and the thrillogy Promises Kept, Until Broken.

DON GRAHAM (MA, Psychology

’73) came to Chico as a graduate student in 1971 and retired as the associate vice president for Student Affairs 36 years later in 2007. Don and his wife, MaryAnne, retired to Sonoma County and spend their days enjoying family dinners and choral events. Graham frequently hits the gym, noting, “I also take part in a seniors boxing club. We hit punching bags, not each other.” His most recent endeavor has been writing and publishing his book, a memoir titled Coming Home Whole, which candidly recalls the dilemma of how young American men like himself responded to the government's efforts to draft men into the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War.

MARGUERITA “RITA” CATCHING (Nursing, ’74) retired from her occupation as an instructor of nursing at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington. Her mystery novel, A State of Grace, was shortlisted for the 2016 Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award. Her novel is the first in a series set in eastern Oregon that features a nurse as the protagonist.

CHEHAB ELAWAR

CIVIL ENGINEERING, ’80 Chehab Elawar and his wife, Bricia, have dedicated their lives to helping others through the San Bernardino Sunset Rotary Club, while also serving with other nonprofit groups and traveling the world searching for opportunities to help.

The couple contributes to communities by repairing cleft palates on children, building tiny homes for people who are homeless, and serving food to those who are hungry. This year, they were awarded the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation. The Elawars have served communities in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Thailand, Turkey, and Lebanon.

Next stop: India!

today.csuchico.edu 30

COURTESY OF RACHEL BELLE

ClassNotes

SERVING UP STORIES Whether she is talking mole poblano with Oscarwinning director Guillermo del Toro or dishing on hamburgers with former California first lady Maria Shriver, Rachel Belle has an insatiable curiosity.

Whip-smart and wonderfully witty, the Seattle radio host serves up the Your Last Meal podcast twice a month, interviewing celebrities on their final food choice and then unraveling its history, preparation, cultural influence, and quirks in 30 minutes or less.

“Learning about the history of food has taken it to a new level of fun,” said Belle (Communication Design, ’02). “It’s not just food—it’s war and politics. … It tells you a lot about what is going on in the culture and economy at that time, and where people are from and who is living where.”

It also earned her a nomination this spring for a James Beard Award, known as the “Oscars of Food.”

She’s come a long way since her Chico State internship days at KPAY. In her 12 years with KIRO-Seattle, she’s reported on topics as newsy as the Super Bowl and natural disasters, and as creative as plant-based burgers and the world’s first tearless onion. This summer, she won an Edward R. Murrow Award for feature writing for her story about girls experiencing homelessness joining their first Girl Scout Troop.

Food has always been and remains a key ingredient for Belle.

Whether eating dim sum with her father in San Francisco or late-night burrito runs to Tacos de Acapulco as a college student, she said, “I came from the kind of family that eats breakfast while asking, ‘What are we having for lunch?’”

Read more: today.csuchico.edu

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JAMES SANFORD (Communication Design, ’75; MA, Special Major, ’80) retired as project coordinator for the parolee education program with Contra Costa County Office of Education in 2014. He lives in Antioch with his wife, Linda Pinkston-Sanford.

After graduating, Sanford served as a teacher and education administrator in various junior high schools, high schools, community colleges, and within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

He has taught science, English, creative writing, art, reading, adult basic education, and substance abuse education.

Sanford has also written eight books since graduating from Chico, the latest being a historical novel, While the Gods Slept.

ERIC GERSTEIN (Physical Education, ’78) is the owner of Eric Gerstein Brokerage in Sugar Loaf, New York. He has helped clients with financial management for over 30 years, as well as dedicating himself to being a single parent to his 21-year-old son. He never hired a babysitter outside of the family, ensured he made three meals a day, and took him to and from school every day. “I am very proud of him!” Gerstein boasts.

CLAUDINE CAMPBELL ZENDER (Child Development, ’79) continues her political activism in Moscow, Idaho. A veteran of the 1960s free speech, antiwar, civil rights, and women’s rights movements, she recently attended a March for Our Lives protest, braving the snow and hail in hopes of inspiring younger generations to follow suit. In addition to marching, Zender also raises money for progressive organizations by selling political shirts on her online store.

80 KAREN CLYDE (Home Economics, ’83) has served as a human resources professional for over

30 years. She began working as the director of human resources at Cycle Gear, Inc. 4 ½ years ago and is thrilled to shared the news that a store will be opening in her old college town this fall—“very exciting!”

90 CRAIGE MAZUR (Computer Information Systems, ’92; Business Administration, ’93) and JESSICA FEINSMITH (Recreation Administration, ’94) met at Ray’s Video in 1991 while attending Chico State. Events and friends surrounding the Mother Hips, a local band, flagged the beginning of their friendship.

Throughout the years, the couple briefly reconnected while living in various places in the United States—including one time when their college roommates married each other. Mazur pursued a career in technical science support at Oregon Health and Science University, while Feinsmith pursued a master’s degree in mental health counseling at Lewis and Clark College. In 2016, they began dating while they were both living in Oregon, and after two months could hear wedding bells sounding in their future. They married in August in Ashland, and the event was deemed a “big Chico reunion.”

Feinsmith affirms that their time at Chico has “stayed close to our hearts all these years later.”

NASSER DEAN (Political Science, ’93) is the newly elected chairman of the California FFA Foundation Board of Directors, an organization that supports over 89,000 California students each year through scholarships, competitions, events, and leadership development opportunities. Dean grew up on a rice farm in rural Northern California, where his love and enthusiasm for production agriculture was cultivated. He also works as a stakeholder relations manager for Bayer Crop Science, supporting agricultural polices that advance scientific innovation to feed a

global population. He shares that his life has been driven by “invaluable principles I picked up from FFA: learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, and living to serve,” and he credits Chico State faculty for teaching him about public policy and advocacy, which have been keys to his success.

ROBERT BRYAN III (Industrial Technology, ’94) and VANESSA (VOLKSEN) BRYAN (Journalism, ’99) met at Chico State in the ’90s, but their paths would not cross again until 2011 when they ran into each other at a mutual friend’s restaurant. Seven years later, they are married with a 3-year-old daughter and 1-yearold son. They both work at PG&E and reside in Roseville.

PENELOPE KUHN (Psychology, ’94) is a professor at Chico State who established and maintains the neuroscience laboratory in the Department of Psychology. The laboratory serves as a space to study brain and spinal cord injuries as well as mechanism repair at the cellular level. Kuhn also established the Psychology Study and Tutor Center, which is staffed by student tutors and serves over 500 students each semester.

JILL HOMER STEWART (Political

Science ’95, History ’97) is now based in Washington, DC, and is the director of federal government relations for the Jackson Laboratory. JAX has a mammalian genetics headquarters in Bar Harbor, Maine; a facility in Sacramento; and a genomic medicine facility in Farmington, Connecticut, that is enabling the laboratory to translate its fundamental science to the clinic. In addition to its National Cancer Institutedesignated cancer center, the laboratory has also initiated a cancer research laboratory in Seoul, South Korea.

COREY CONNERS (Organizational Communication, ’97) recently joined Rincon Consultants as its first director of communications on the executive team. The company is an environmental consulting firm, where Conners works to influence

the evolution of the firm’s culture of communications and collaboration in order to include employee communications, marketing communications, public relations, and professional development programs.

00 ROSEANN LANGLOIS KEEGAN (Journalism, ’00) has joined the advancement and engagement department at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine as a content marketing manager. In this position, she will develop digital content that tells the UNR Med story through medical education and research developments. She is also a fitness professional dedicated to her students’ success while working at Yoga Pod, Full Pedal Reno, and Double Diamond Athletic Club.

KIMBERLY (RILEY) KOLCZ (Art, ’01) is the owner and principle of Offay Design Studio in Newport Beach. She says she “has been lucky enough to design projects such as the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, and Taj Resort in Coimbatore, India … just to name a few!” She and her husband recently welcomed a baby boy, and together the couple loves to SCUBA dive and travel the world. They honeymooned in Africa where they trekked throughout Uganda to see gorillas. Kolcz states that her company “holds a charity raffle every December to benefit one of the schools we visited while we were in Uganda, and it's always a great success!”

JASON MELLOW (Economics, ’01) is currently the director of business and dealer development for Agmechtronix, an agricultural equipment designer and manufacturer that focuses on automated solutions to difficult-to-find labor.

VIANNA (BORING) RENAUD (Music, ’01) is now based across the pond in the United Kingdom, where she is working on her doctoral studies in peer-topeer employability mentoring at the Centre of Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University. Renaud also teaches piano at Bournemouth University and in her local community, and recently performed in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s 125th Anniversary Celebration in the Bournemouth Gardens.

YANNICK DE ALWAIS (Mechatronic Engineering, ’08) says that after “over 7 years of designing, developing, and testing consumer medical technology, I started my dream job at Raytheon in December of last year.” He is now happily employed working on critical defense technologies that protect the United States and allies from a variety of possible threats. De Alwais explains he has worked on some very challenging problems but still describes his work as invigorating and immensely satisfying. He also says he enjoys living in “the beautiful Sonoran Desert of Tuscon, Arizona.”

MIKE FITZPATRICK (Business Administration, ’08) graduated with a degree in finance at the height of the financial crisis.

Since there were few available jobs, he accepted a teller position at Wells Fargo. Years later, he landed a job as a sales development rep at Jobvite—a job he was referred to by his roommate at the time, who had also lived a couple doors down from him in Lassen Hall. Since then, Fitzpatrick has worked with several startups, including Reflektive and, most recently, Sapling, which strives to create a world-class new-hire experience for employers. He is the sole member of the Sapling sales team today, and works directly with the CEO.

ANDREA (BERWIND) DAVIS INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ’96 Andrea Davis is the director of Global Crisis Management and Business Continuity for the Walt Disney Company, where she is responsible for developing and implementing emergency management training, exercises, crisis and family assistance operations, and employee preparedness initiatives around the world. Over eight weeks in 2017, she and her team led Disney’s response to nine activations of its global Emergency Operation Center, and this year she was named Emergency Manager of the Year by the International Association of Emergency Managers.

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JEREMY SANKWICH (Business

Administration, ’08) recently started a position at TAPCO, where he oversees consumer, mortgage, and Visa lending and the strategic portfolio growth.

Sankwich says the move “was a big jump in my career and I can thank the leadership and mentorship from Dr. Willie Hopkins and Bob Sprague in the business school! I still reflect on a lot of the advice I received from both faculty!” Sankwich was also part of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and served as the president in 2008.

JACLYN DUNN COMMUNICATION DESIGN, ’02 Jaclyn Dunn has experienced Bay Area traffic from practically every perspective— listening to scanners, sitting in slowdowns, or scanning scenes from the air to provide updates from above. In April, she celebrated one year at CBS Bay Area as the traffic anchor for KPIX 5 TV morning news. Her first job out of college was an assignment editor at KTXL in Sacramento, where she got her first taste of traffic reporting working with CHP officers on live updates. She then reported for the most respected traffic outfit in the nation— KCBS All News Radio—and got her big TV break as a traffic reporter for KPIX 5 and then at KCRA 3. She’s very happy to be back in the “City by the Bay.”

MATTHEW KAIN (Music Industry and Technology, ’09) has been working in music publishing royalties since graduation. Last year he was promoted to senior manager of global royalties for Universal Music Publishing Group.

10 NICOLE ESCOBEDO (Liberal Studies, ’10) taught mathematics for the last five years at three different low-income middle schools in Elk Grove and Nashville, Tennessee.

She went on to attend Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and earned a master's degree in education with a focus on leadership and organizational performance. She is now working in healthcare, focusing on population health.

CARL ZINN (Recreation Administration, ’10) started a job at Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe two days after graduating in June 2010. He is currently the assistant director of food and beverage at the hotel, and in 2017 he opened the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington. Zinn reflects how when he started at the company “there was a group of five of us Wildcats in 2010 and it has grown to at least 20–30 students each summer! I was able to come and help recruit a few times—which was amazing!”

BRANDON MASAI (Kinesiology, ’09; MS, Kinesiology, ’12) worked as an adjunct associate professor in kinesiology for five years at

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San Joaquin Delta Community College, where he also served as head assistant coach to the men’s soccer team for four years. Masai was hired this year as a student advisor and visiting assistant professor at University of the Pacific's physical education teacher preparation program. He lives in Stockton.

MEGAN MCCOURT (Journalism, ’11) earned a promotion to director at Small Girls PR in New York, where she runs and lends her expertise to a “Woman in Business” hub as well as an entertainment hub. She loved her time at Chico State and has fond memories of being involved in The Orion and Tehama Group Communications, as they set her on the path she’s been following since her graduation.

EMI HANSEN (Mechanical Engineering, ’12) works as the quality program manager with Aristocrat, a gaming company, assisting with running quality programs and initiatives to ensure the highest quality on slot machine games and cabinets.

HANNAH HARDING (Political Science, ’12) and ZACH NEWMAN (Political Science, ’12) graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in May. They sat for the Oregon Bar Exam in July, with Hannah planning to begin a federal clerkship with the US District Court in Southern Oregon and Zach pursuing a career as a criminal defense attorney.

HANNAH (RAMEY) MEYER (Agriculture, ’14) recently returned from a two-year internship working in rural Southeast Asia where she was a herd manager of a Westernized 40-cow dairy farm. Since returning to California, Meyer began her career at Dinner Bell Farm, a pastured pig and certified organic flower farm, and notes the job grew out of an internship she had with the farm during her senior year at Chico State. The company is passionately committed to animal welfare and is on the cutting edge of behavior “to the point where we rarely see or

MATTHEW DAY RECREATION ADMINISTRATION, ’15 Matthew Day is traveling the world as part of his master’s degree program through Miami University’s Global Field Program. He studied manatees and coral reefs in Belize, and primates and palm oil in Borneo before spending summer 2018 in Guyana to study the traditional ecological knowledge of the Makushi people.

Day lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where he works as an elephant keeper at Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. He works with six African elephants—all wild rescues from Swaziland— cleaning up after them, training them, promoting elephant conservation, and cleaning up after them some more!

Support Tomorrow’s Leaders Gifts to the Chico State Fund have an immediate impact on students.

Text “CHICO” to 41444 or call 530-898-4488 ONLINE:

Where My ’Cats At?

www.csuchico.edu/giving

MAIL:

Gina Sims (Anthropology, ’95) hiked to the top of Table Mountain during a visit to Cape Town, South Africa, in fall 2017. Her traveling partner for the trip was her best friend and fellow alumna Nicole Stolte (History, ’95). They were randomly paired together as roommates in Mechoopda Hall in 1991 and have enjoyed a decades-long friendship, traveling together around the world to destinations including the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and British Columbia.

Send a note and photo showcasing your Wildcat spirit around the world to classnotes@csuchico.edu.

hear a sign of fear or pain, at the same time, fully recognizing that these are animals to be raised for delicious pork you can feel good about eating.” Those values are so important to her, she even had Dinner Bell Farm cater her recent wedding!

CHRISTOPHER KUNZ (Business Administration, ’15) launched into a real estate career shortly after graduation. In 2018, Kunz was recognized as one of Coldwell Banker’s top 30 real estate agents under the age of 30—an internationally recognized award that bases its recipients off their success in sales and philanthropy. He now lives in Sacramento and states, “I've been able to use my degree to launch into a career that I'm passionate about, and for that I am very thankful.”

MCKENNA SCHOTT (Business Management, ’15) comes

from a family that has been in the commercial construction industry for decades. During her college years, she completed marketing internships at two commercial construction companies in San Francisco— one of which her grandfather founded in 1969. She recently began working at Source Planning & Construction as its first official marketing coordinator. She reports, “I am enjoying every minute of it. I get to work with some amazing people, and I am always learning. I am so proud to be a Chico State alum and would not be where I am today if I had not gone there.”

ASHLEY SIMON (Psychology, ’15) earned a master's degree in sport and performance psychology from the University of Denver in 2017. While she was there, she interned with the US Olympic Committee and

Chico State Fund-0999 CSU, Chico Chico, CA 95929-0999 William Mixter, was a 2017–18 recipient of the donor-funded Lieutenant Robert Merton Rawlins Merit Award, The award celebrates scholarship, extracurricular activities, and outstanding academic and professional accomplishments.

also volunteered as a crisis counselor for Crisis Text Line.

After graduating, she moved back to Northern California and is now the program and development director for Roseville Home Start, a transitional housing program for families who are homeless. She works with families to help them overcome obstacles and has seen families go from camping on the streets to signing a lease for their own apartment. She stays closely connected to Chico as an advisor for the Zeta Theta chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi, of which she was a founding member. She is grateful for all that Chico gave her, and she is still close to her “little college town.”

COLE BUCHNER (Business Administration, ’16) started a career in hospitality working at the luxury resort L’Auberge Del Mar in San Diego and has since today.csuchico.edu 34

ClassNotes received two awards: “Values Champion of the Quarter—Earn Trust,” and “Employee of the Year 2017.”

He plans to continue his career in hospitality, while also striving toward owning his own company in the foreseeable future.

DON’T MISS THIS

WILDCAT FUN FACTS BIRTHPLACE NORMAN, OKLAHOMA MATERIAL CAST BRONZE WEIGHT 1,498 LBS.

VLADAMIR DROZDOV (Business Administration, ’16) recently opened a hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Harbor Club Hotel is a lovely 10-minute walk from the Vosstaniya Square and Chernyshevskaya metro station. Wildcats welcome!

HEIGHT 7' TO THE TIPS OF EARS LENGTH 9' NOSE TO TAIL SCALE 3.5X LIFE SIZE

CLARISSA CHAIREZ (Agriculture, ’17) participated in Miami University's Earth Expeditions global field course in Baja, where she studied desert and marine landscapes through ecological and social field methods. Chairez, a plant science intern at The Walt Disney Company, lives in Kissimmee, Florida, and is a graduate student in Miami University's Global Field Program.

NOVEMBER

November 17 Bay Area Chapter Food Bank Volunteering

DECEMBER

December 1 San Diego Chapter Holiday Mixer December 6 Sacramento Chapter Holiday Mixer

CARSON PREDOVICH (Management Information Systems, ’18) has since started a career as an IT collaboration engineer at Informatica LLC in Silicon Valley, where he was offered a job prior to graduation.

JANUARY

January 26 Chico Chapter Wildcat Basketball Reception and Game

Welcome Wildcat We unveiled a majestic new symbol of school spirit in to come. The Wildcat Statue shares the biological name,

APRIL

the school mascot by the student body in 1924. Its dedication

April 18 Chico Chapter Spring Barbecue

Union—now known as Wildcat Plaza—was also proclaimed

April 30 Senior Send-Off

Lynx rufus californicus, for the animal that was chosen as been promoted, or started your own business? Perhaps you’ve gotten married, crossed something off your personal bucket list, or achieved a lifelong dream. Send an email to classnotes@csuchico.edu to share where life has taken you since your days at Chico State.

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MARCH

March 30 Bay Area Chapter San Jose Sharks vs Vegas Golden Knights

April, a touchstone for today’s Wildcats and generations

Have you recently changed jobs,

MORE EVENTS

celebration on the Second Street side of the Bell Memorial

Wildcat Spirit Day, to be held annually on the third Thursday

in April. A project eight years in the making, the Wildcat Statue was designed and created by Matthew Gray Palmer, a

sculpture artist who has created pieces for the National Parks

Service, zoos, and colleges. The statue was made possible through the generosity of the Chico State Alumni Association, the Associated Students, and Wildcat Athletics.

C H I C O S TAT E M E N T S FA L L 2 0 1 8

FOR INFORMATION VISIT US AT

www.csuchico.edu/alumni or alumni@csuchico.edu

Fond Farewells The University and Alumni Association note with sorrow the passing of our alumni, students, and colleagues.

Faculty and Staff*

Carol Brajkovich (Social Welfare, ’67)

Richard “Dick” Bednar, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1979–2004

Marla (Harris) Conry (Business, ’80) James Jarald Davidson (Agriculture, ’78)

Ricardo Jacquez, College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management, 2015–18

Zachary Elliot (Marketing, ’17)

Dorothy Kennedy, School of Education, 2012–18

Margaret “Peggy” (Knochenhauer) Fung (Liberal Studies, ’74)

Mike Murray, Information Technology and Support Services, 1997–2018

Robert “Bob” T. Jarmusz (Social Work, ’59)

Michael R. McGie, Physics, 1966–2002

Hector Najera (Attended, History, 2005–06)

Merville Shaw, Psychology, 1952–87

Stephen Ray (Liberal Studies, ’86; Credential, ’87)

Kent Wooldridge, Computer Science, 1981–2001

Students Arturo Vega, Business Administration

Merle “Bud” Miller, Art, 1986–93 Darlene York, Math Education, 2002–05 * Years of service

Margaret (Thomasson) McCool (Education, ’37) died April 24, 2018, at the age of 102.

A lifetime resident of California and third generation of a pioneer family, she was raised in Chico and Anderson, and graduated from Chico Normal School with a dream of becoming a teacher. She went on to teach in Redding, Lakehead, and a one-room schoolhouse before Interstate 5 was built. In the 1940s, McCool was a member of Women Accepted for Volunteer Service (WAVES) and contributed to the war effort as an aerographer, measuring, transmitting, and recording weather. With her family, she enjoyed drives to the coast and picnics to the mountains, and they got up well before dawn on September 28, 1963 to catch a bus to the new Whiskeytown Dam, as President John F. Kennedy was coming to dedicate it. McCool was an avid traveler, fearless seamstress, talented cook, and lifelong learner—publishing her first book at age 92.

today.csuchico.edu 36

JASON HALLEY

Alumni

Last Look 1. Nely Lopez separates samples as part of her research on scoliosis with the Chico STEM Connections Collaborative, which gives underrepresented and low-income students access to research opportunities.

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2. Incoming freshman Zoë Smith poses for a selfie with her mom, Susie Smith, in front of Whitney Hall during Move-In, which welcomed nearly 2,000 residents this year.

3. Art shop technician David Barta works to cast a bronze piece called Portable Confessionals in the Ayres Hall Foundry. The work, which was created in partnership with Trong Gia Nguyen, a visiting artist from Vietnam, was displayed in Jacki Headley University Art Gallery in October.

4. Haley Gilham—the winningest pitcher in program history—delivers a pitch during playoffs on the team’s course to the NCAA championships.

5. Associated Students leaders welcome first-year and transfer students to University Stadium during Wildcat Welcome. The “Go Wildcats” mural was painted on the back of Acker Gymnasium in August.

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photos 1, 2, 4, 5: University Photographer Jason Halley 3: University Photographer Jessica Bartlett

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Positive, healthy, and honest relationships. That’s what inspired Glen Thomas (Business Administration, ’83) and Joyce Densmore-Thomas (Liberal Studies, ’82) during their time as students, and it’s a value they aim to cultivate with their leadership giving at Chico State. The Thomas family, including their son, Neils (Accounting, ’18), knows that having faculty who develop rich classroom environments where students can build relationships and collaborate are key to long-term success.

That’s why they established the first endowed faculty fellowship in the College of Business to recruit top-notch professors and build opportunity for future Wildcats.

Join the Thomas family in supporting student success through leadership giving with the Tower Society, or consider making a planned gift to help the University transform lives and the communities we serve in the years to come. Learn more by visiting www.csuchico.edu/giving.

California State University, Chico University Communications 400 W. First Street Chico, CA 95929-0040

Looking Back Students work on tabulations in an accounting class circa 1960. Note the adding machine’s dozens of keys and pull lever in this moment in time captured by Francis Bayles.

Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Chico, CA Permit #217