Alumni

Alumni News Submissions

Send Communication Alumni News Updates to webmaster. Please include the degree (BA/MA) and year awarded.

Daniel Bernard (BA ‘03, MA ’05) was recognized in the Fresno Business Street Class of 2016 “40 Under 40” list, which recognizes outstanding business professionals in the private and public sectors of the Central Valley under the age of 40. 

Carson Wood (BA '99) serves as a Vice Principal in the Fresno Unified School District. He manages all independent study teachers at J. E. Young Academic Center and runs the day-to-day operations of the Educational Resource Center. 

Dr. Robert Bookwalter (BA '79) has been named dean of the Marshall University College of Education, according to Dr. Gayle Ormiston, senior vice president of academic affairs and provost. Bookwalter has been interim dean of the College of Education and Human Services since June 2010.

Robin McGehee (MA '98): The Central California Alliance and the Bulldog Pride Fund will present “Celebrating Local Heroes” on Wed. May 11th at 5:30 at the Smittcamp Alumni House on the Fresno State campus. Robin McGehee will be recognized for her work with Meet in the Middle + GetEQUAL.

James Thompson (MA) has been hired by Porterville Community College as a full time instructor.

Mary Anne Seay (BA '89) is the Director of Parks and Community Services in the City of Madera after nearly 20 years of public service in the City of Fresno. In addition to many wonderful recreation and community services offered by her department, Seay is involved with a variety of capital projects designed to improve the lives of Madera’s residents. Since her tenure began in 2007, the City has a new pool building, an expanded trail system, under-crossings along the Vern McCollough River Trail, new ball fields and play structures at several local parks, and a new state-of-the-art youth center will open in early 2010.

Dawn Marie McIntosh (MA '07; BA '04) will be recognized at NCA as the recipient of the Marie J. Robinson Scholarship. The scholarship seeks to fund the education of a graduate student who has begun to demonstrate his or her potential to impact the Performance Studies discipline and NCA through written and/or performed scholarship. Selection is based on the applicant's endeavors in Performance Studies as demonstrated through course work; NCA convention participation; publications; department, university, community based or professional performance work; and/or service to the discipline.

Dr. Sonja M. Brown Givens, is a member of the faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville teaching courses in human communication. Sage Publications recently released her co-edited book: Jackson, R. L., II, & Givens, S. M. B. (Eds.). (2006). Black Pioneers in Communication Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  Dr. Brown Givens was recently tenured and promoted to Associate Professor and awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the University of Alabama Huntsville Minority Graduate Student Association. Dr. Brown-Givens has been appointed Department Chair at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Leslie Collins-Hester (BA '05, MA '08) has accepted a position at Modesto Junior College as a full-time tenure track faculty member.

Scott Conway (MA ‘02) is currently a Senior copywriter for the national advertising agency Mering & Associates, Scott's latest commercial for the NFL debuted during the 2009 Superbowl.  View the commercial on Youtube.

Christine J. Levin ( Christine J. Levin (BA 1992) has opened a law firm (Christine J. Levin, Attorney at Law) specializing in appeals and writs.  After receiving her JD at Santa Clara University School of Law, she was a Deputy Attorney General in the Fresno office, she later represented indigent criminal on appeal (including a capital case), and then went to work for a mid-size law firm.  During her studies at Fresno State she was one of Professor Fraleigh's outstanding debaters, among other things participating in two international debates. 

T. Scott Vick (BA ' 89, MA '91) will be installed as the new President of the Century City Bar Association on April 7th. As a student, Vick served as Fresno State's Associated Student body president. He also served as a student trustee (gubernatorial appointee) of the California State University.

Michael Newton (BA ‘02, MA ‘05) has been the Director of Student Services at Heald College in Fresno, CA since graduating with his Masters in 2005. Mike and his Student Services Team were recently awarded “Student Services Team of the Year for 2008” by Heald College. Mike is very proud to be a CSUF Communication Department Graduate.

Thomas Newton (BA '05, LPH) completed a Master of Arts degree from UC Santa Cruz in Education and now teaches Speech and English in the Monterey Bay Area. 

Adam Perry (BA, MA) has matriculated into the Doctoral Program in Communication at Penn State. 

Lora Winslow (MA '00) accepted a teaching position at Skagit Valley College, Oak Harbor Washington. 

Leslie Collins Hester (MA '08) accepted a one year teaching position at College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

Mindy Truex (BA '00, MSW'02) is a Individual Employment Services Coordinator for United Cerebral Palsy's WORK, Inc. in Carpinteria, California.

Carmen Carey (BA '91, MA '92) has been appointed the CEO of Coppereye, a data management software company.  Carmen has received the 2009 Fresno State Outstanding Alumnus Award for the Division of Graduate Studies. The Fresno State Alumni Association will honor all the Outstanding Alumni recipient’s at their Top Dog Alumni Awards Gala which will be held on Friday, October 16th, 2009 on the floor of our on campus arena, The Save Mart Center.

Dr. Robert Vartabedian (BA Speech Communication) has been named the President of Missouri WesternState University.  More information. 

Chris Nunes (BA '05) is working as a recruiter for MRI network, recruiting in the construction management field.  He is completing his blackbelt in martial arts. 

Linda Carvalho Cooley (MA) has accepted a position at Reedley College.  

Daniel Duke (BA '00) earned a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2004. He serves as a project manager and in-house counsel at H.T. Harvey and Associates, a Bay Area-based ecological consulting firm. He has recently accepted an offer to join the College of Arts & Humanities Advisory Board. 

Roxanne Tuscany (MA) is a professor at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California.  Roxanne is the Director of Forensics, and she primarily teaches Small Group Communication and Public Speaking.

Dr. Don Morley (BA, MA) has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs since receiving his Ph.D. in 1982 at the University of Iowa.  He has published over 30 refereed manuscripts and has been a full professor since 1993.  His current work uses reliability approaches well know in communication to point to serious flaws in how other fields have incorrectly evaluated the reliability of student evaluations.

Lacey Gooch gave birth to a son on November 3rd.

Scott Fetterhoff (MA ’04) has accepted a position with Target Corporation and is currently the Management Training Coordinator for the Lodi, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Las Vegas markets. 

Wade Friesen (BA '05) played professional baseball in Australia last year; recently he moved to British Columbia, Canada where he currently builds custom homes. 

Joshua W. Avera (MA’ 02) is a director at the Marjaree Mason Center, a part-time lecturer in interpersonal communication, and is currently finishing his second Masters Degree in Psychology.

Gino Borges and co-author Zachary White have self-published a new book, Binge Thinking: A Different Kind of College Hangover. The book is available on Amazon.com

Janae Young (BA '99 and MA '01) has accepted a tenure-track position at Merced College.  For a couple of years she had a professional position with Pepsi in Fresno.

David Hemink earned an MBA degree at Northwestern University.  His parents, Lynn and Ellen Hemink, went back to Illinois for the graduation ceremony.  David has a position with Bard Medical.

Dr. Kathy Grace Hendrix  is a professor at the University of Memphis.

Dr. Don Morley is a Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Gerald Schwartz was a labor negotiator in the 70’s. He farmed for 26 years in the Herald/Galt/Lodi area. Presently, he is working for the East Bay Municipal Utility District as their Central Valley Liaison.  He is married to Debbie with 4 kids and two grandsons.

John Willoughby has been practicing law in San Jose for 27 years. He has 2 grown daughters and 2 granddaughters.

Bob Vartabedian has been married to Laurel nearly 27 years. They have two children: Rob (25) and Sarah (22).  He was dean of Arts and Sciences at Western Carolina university 1999-2005; and will be Vice President for Academic Affairs at Eastern New Mexico University.”

Jack Highfill has two sons with Toni, Eric and Seth.  They have been traveling to Africa for the past 12 years helping missionaries.

Adam Bernay was ordained as a Messianic Rabbi at the Messianic Bureau International Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia in July of 2006.  His congregation, Beit Tefillah Messianic Fellowship, is moving into a new building in Fresno.  He also consults for a write-in candidacy for state assembly and writes screenplays and music.

Rich Dixon is an instructor at Columbia College in Sonora, California. He and his wife, Karen, have three children: Abigail, Hailey, and Michal.

Ryan Hoverman is in a band, Calm Condition.

Vince Wesson is a coordinator for the Safe and Healthy Kids Department of the Fresno County Office of Education.