1965
James Stahl [SciEng] was appointed to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board by Gov. Jerry Brown in November 2018. Stahl has been president of JFS Environmental Engineering since 2015. During his care, Stahl has held several positions at the Sanitation District of Los Angeles County in addition to working in the private sector. He is a member of multiple professional societies.1968
Rick Adelman [LibArts] was named in December 2018 as a candidate for the 2019 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts. Adelman led the Lions in scoring in his junior and senior seasons and was the third player in program history to average more than 20 points per game in a single season. He was among 44 players, coaches and referees to be named as nominees.
1972
David Grant [LibArts, Grad Ed ’80] was named a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in July 2018. For 35 years, he was head coach at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona, as well as director of athletics from 2000–14. Earlier in his career, Grant coached at Brophy College Prep in Phoenix, Loyola High School in Los Angeles and LMU. He also was a coach for the USA Under-18 team. He was previously inducted into the National Junior College Athletics Association and the Arizona Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
1973
Samuel Abrahamian [CFA] was nominated and elected Grand Knight (Columbian Year 2018–19) of the Knights of Columbus Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Council #14554 in Winchester, California.
Gary Rafferty [SciEng] received the 2018 Associated General Contractors (AGC) of California Construction Education Friend Award this past October. The award recognizes individuals who made outstanding contributions to construction education efforts and the development of future construction workforce. Gary recently retired as president and COO of San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders.
1975
Paul Sunderland [LibArts] will be inducted into the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame on May 5. Sunderland, who played both basketball and volleyball at LMU, was a member of the U.S. National Men’s Volleyball team from 1976–84. That team won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympic Games. Sunderland is a member of the LMU Athletics Hall of Fame and the U.S. Volleyball Association Hall of Fame. When he finished playing volleyball, Sunderland began a decades-long career as a sports broadcaster.
1977
Nick Daffern [LibArts] flew his last trip as captain with Alaska Airlines on June 4, 2018, closing out a 32-year career with the company. His wife, Anne, retired from her position as CFO of a local company last July. They’re completing the building of a new home in Woodinville, Washington, and looking forward to traveling to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as spending time with their beagles and participating in tours with their old cars
1978
John Corrigan [LibArts], who has been the Wall Street Journal’s China business editor since 2016, will join the paper’s Washington, D.C., bureau in January 2019 as business editor. He was part of the team that produced the China surveillance series, “China’s Surveillance State,” which won the 2018 Loeb Award in International Reporting.
1981
Norma Martínez-Rubin [SciEng] was elected to the city council of the Pinole, California, on Nov. 6, 2018. The top vote-getter, she was sworn in for a four-year term on Dec. 4, 2018.
1983
Jeffrey Kambak [LibArts] is CEO of U.S. Operations for Trident Global Inc., the U.S. division of The Trident Group. Trident is a manufacturer of bath towels, sheets and bath robes. He opened the company’s U.S. operation in 2014. During his summers at LMU, he worked as a jungle cruise skipper at Disneyland.
Michael Pipich [LibArts] is a psychotherapist who has worked with adolescents and adults for more than 30 years. He is the author of “Owning Bipolar: How Patients and Families Can Take Control of Bipolar Disorder,” which was published in September 2018.
1984
Markus Kessler [BusAdm] cofounded a consulting firm called Humanitas that advises on questions about social entrepreneurship. Kessler works from his home in Munich, while his partner is based in Boise, Idaho.
Msgr. Richard Krekelberg [GradLibArts], pastor of St. Rita’s Church in Sierra Madre, California, was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award by St. John’s Seminary, in Camarillo, California, at its annual gala held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles in September 2018.
1985
Jon Peters [SciEng] was promoted to assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department in November 2018. He was previously the deputy chief of the Personnel and Training Bureau, commanding officer of Operations-West Bureau and captain of the Pacific Division, which includes Westchester and the LMU campus.
1988
Barbara Oliver[LibArts] was named executive director of the Minority Limousine Operators of America this past September. She was previously publisher of Minority Business Entrepreneur Magazine.
1989
Anne Cavassa [LibArts] was named president of Saucony, which is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts. She took her post in May 2018.
1991
Juli Goodwin [LibArts] was appointed chief communications officer of the American Film Institute in September 2018. Goodwin previously was executive vice president of Domestic Publicity for Warner Bros. Pictures. Goodwin will serve on AFI’s senior management team, leading communications strategies for AFI's national arts and education programs.
1992
John Kovacevich [CFA] was named executive creative director at San Francisco ad agency Duncan Channon this past October. He wrote a piece at Medium website about his decision to go to full-time work after more than three years of freelancing.
1993
Faith DeVeaux [LibArts], Emily Aguilar [SFTV ’15] and Katherine Smith sold their movie, “Clara’s Ultimate Christmas,” to Bridgestone Multimedia Group at the fall 2017 American Film Market. Their horror film “Pipeline” appeared at the fourth annual Global Impact Film Festival in Washington, D.C., in August 2018.
2000
Dan Wyatt [CFA] produced an original radio play called “The D.B. Cooper Transmissions” that was staged in Vancouver, Washington, on the night before Thanksgiving 2018. That day in 1971 was when D.B. Cooper hijacked an airliner and parachuted over the state of Washington, never to be apprehended, or even seen again.
2002
Seth Pevnick [GradEd] was named curator in charge of ancient Greek and Roman art by the Cleveland Museum of Art in December 2018. Pevnick is said to be particularly expert in provenance, or ownership history of ancient artworks. Since 2009, he has been chief curator of the Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, Florida, as well as curator specifically of the collection of Greek and Roman art.
2003
Jacob Padrón [CFA] was named artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, effective February 2019. A former member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, he earned a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama and has been on the school’s faculty, where he teaches artistic producing in the graduate theater management program.
2006
Allison Leanos [BusAdm, GradBusAdm ’09] started a new job in January 2019 as social media advisor with Southern California Edison.
2007
Sauda Esoof Bholat [SciEng] and Sufian Akther Shahid were married June 30, 2018, in Hawthorne, California. Bholat is an internist at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut., and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.
Thomas Xavier was born to Ana Paula (Martinez) [BusAdm] and Matthew Delja [LibArts] on Oct. 19, 2017, in Tokyo.
2009
Vianey Lopez [BusAdm] was sworn in on Dec. 11, 2018, as one of seven members of the City Council of Oxnard, California. Lopez was elected in the November 2018 election to a four-year term in her first run for a council seat. She won by 10 percentage points in a field of four candidates.
2010
Denise Valadez [GradEd] was named associate superintendent of curriculum, spirituality and accreditation for the Diocese of Orange County, and its Catholic schools, in Orange, California in November 2018. She has taught religion and served as vice principal and principal of several Catholic schools in the Southern California area.
2012
Julianna Malogolowkin [GradEd] was named an associate in the litigation department at Hinckley Allen in the firm’s Boston office. She has worked on general litigation matters and on specific issues related to government investigations, white collar defense and labor and employment.
2014
Caroline Liviakis [CFA] premiered her “There’s A New Kid in Town” in May 2018 in San Francisco. The shows featured a cast of 12 dancers, multimedia dance film projections by the company’s resident cinematographer, and original music compositions by the company’s resident composer. After graduating from LMU, she earned an M.F.A. in dance from Mills College in Oakland, California, and then worked as a dance professor at Napa Valley College. She now has her own dance company.
2017
Erin Barisano [GradEd] was named superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Orange County, based in Orange, California, in May 2018. She took her post, which involves the oversight of 41 schools with 18,000 students, in July. Barisano previously was deputy superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Jessica Gabor [CFA] has been appearing on the television show “Shameless.” Her acting career took off when a producer attended a campus production of “Our Good Country” in which Gabor was part of the cast. As a child, she appeared as an extra in “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.