Alumni News

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Latest News (September 2009):

• 2008: Kaitlin Brush (Literature, with a double major in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy) spent a year living and teaching English in Ethiopia, and has recently accepted a job in Saudi Arabia. She'll move there in October to teach university women.

Below: from Claire Watkins, "Keeping It in the Family"

• 2007: Claire Watkins (Writing) , who's still in the MFA program at Ohio State (see below for details under April 2009) just found out her short story "The Last Thing We Need" will be  published in a forthcoming issue of Granta. This is in addition to work that's already appeared in Granta online, and an essay she's had accepted to Ploughshares.  She's been picked up by an agent who also represents writers Junot Diaz and Jonathan Safran Foer.  If you remember Claire, and would like to congratulate her, she's at clairevayewatkins-at-yahoo.com
• 2004: Chrissy Klenke (Writing, with a minor in History) writes "The Cliff Notes version" of her life after graduation: "I hung out for a little while and then went into Language Corps and taught English in Costa Rica.  That was an awesome experience and I loved the country. I applied for grad school at University of Denver and was accepted to the Library Science and Information Studies program. Graduate school is going to be intense but I am looking forward to my new adventure followed by an awesome career. UNR will always be a part of my roots. I'm a proud alumna."
• 1999: Jamie Iredell (Literature, with double major in Political Science; MA in 2002) announces the publication in October of his debut novel Prose: Poems, A Novel by Orange Alert Press. Details at their site. He lives in Atlanta, where he received his PhD in Fiction last year from Georgia State University.
• 1995: Heidi Ayarbe (Secondary Teaching) won the Young Adult Fiction award for Freeze Frame, about the death by gunshot of the protagonist and his friend's effort to come to terms with events. Details at the HarperCollins website. Heidi lives in Columbia with her husband and daughter.

Right: Heidi Ayarbe's award-winning book

From July 2009:

• 2009: Shari Sanders (Literature, with a double minor in HGPS and Spanish) has enrolled in UC Santa Barbara's MA/PhD program this fall, and received a five-year "Doctoral Scholars Fellowship" to fund her education. She writes: "My new comp lit department has a strong interest in genocide and 'trauma studies.' I think it will be a really good fit, and I can't wait to get started."
• 2004: While teaching English at Coral Academy of Science in Reno, James Dilworth (Literature) completed an MA in Teaching at Sierra Nevada College. Way to go, James! In his spare time he edits the online journal Non Creative Garbage.
• 2000: Joey Gilbert (Literature), who has also made a name for himself in the boxing ring, recently formed a Reno law firm with partners William J. Routsis and William A. Swafford. The firm,  called Routsis Gilbert & Swafford, LLC, will focus in the areas of criminal defense, loan modifications, personal injury and bankruptcy. Gilbert, a professional fighter and three-time national boxing champion at Nevada, graduated from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Calif., in 2003.
• 1998: Michael Dewitt (Literature) received the Local Hero Award from the Washington State Bar Association. This award recognizes lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. “Mike has gone above and beyond when it comes to pro bono work and volunteering in the community as a whole,” said Toni Hood, secretary of the Thurston County Bar Association. Michael is currently an associate attorney at Morgan & Bartholomew in Lacey WA, practicing family and estate law. He earned his JD at the Seattle University School of Law.
• 1994: Joan Presley (English; MA in English 2001) has been named Fire Marshall by the City of Reno. She earned her associate of science degree in fire science from Truckee Meadows Community College and then came to UNR for, in addition to her BA and MA in English, a certificate in public management. She also has her Nevada Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) certificate and is a certified arson investigator. She currently heads the executive board of the Nevada Fire Safe Council, is actively involved in the Regional Youth Fire-Setter Intervention Program and has been extensively involved in the Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators Fire Prevention Committee and various regional fire prevention programs. Presley is also a member of the Nevada Chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators and the Fire Prevention Association of Nevada.

From April 2009

• 2007: Claire Watkins (Writing), who is working on her MFA at Ohio State, has seen her literary career begin to take off this year. She's had two short stories accepted to journals (Hobart and The Hopkins Review), and then--in two weeks' time!--she's had two nonfiction pieces accepted in major venues. One essay will be forthcoming in Ploughshares, and another has just been posted this morning to Granta's website, as part of their "Portraits of my Father" series. You can read it here: http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/Keeping-it-in-the-family. Not to be outdone, Patrice Boyakins (Literature) recently earned an MA in Psychology at .... we'll let you know where as soon as we hear back from her.
• 2005: Barry White (minor in Literature) dropped by for a visit a few months ago. He's in his fourth year of moving up the ladder at ABC News10 TV in Sacramento as a Multimedia Journalist and host of News10.net's The Game Guys.

From July 2008

• Danielle Crowther (Writing) is currently working as conference coordinator for UNR's Institute for the Study of Gambling  & Commercial Gaming, and applying to graduate programs in library science. She says, "It thrills me just writing that!  And, of course, someday I'll be a best-selling author. ;)"
• 2004: James Dilworth (Literature) is teaching English at Coral Academy of Science in Reno, and working on an MA in Teaching at Sierra Nevada College. Sabrina Golmassian (Writing) has returned from living in France to pursue a writing career. She writes: "In Las Vegas, working as a freelancer is actually a viable profession. People are interested in this place." Among other publications, the Boston Globe features her contributions in articles like this one, about Ben Affleck and the Darfur poker tournament. See some of her other work here, and here.
• 2003: Mark Dunagan (Writing) earned his degree from UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law and has joined the Reno firm of McDonald Carano Wilson LLP. In his spare time he writes articles and reviews for the Reno News and Review, like this one about the Buckbean Brewing Company.
• Bryan Smith (Literature) was named senior news editor at RISI, a national business news and information company. Working out of the firm's San Francisco office, Bryan has spent the past seven years covering global commodities for RISI's network of websites, newsletters, and magazines.
• 1996: Tony Illia continues to win recognition for his business writing. Most recently he won an award as managing editor of Nevada Contractor and another as editor and co-publisher of Southern Nevada Real Estate Monthly. He is a regular contributor to the Las Vegas Review Journal and other publications.
• 1993: Michael Linde and his wife, Dr. Samantha Woodruff, announce the birth of their first child,  Jessica Jane, on April 17th. They live in Denver.
• 1985: Robert Freedman has published How to Make Real Money in Second Life, a book about understanding virtual worlds on the Internet. See the Spring 2008 edition of Nevada Silver and Blue for details.

Old News (September 2007):

• 2007: Claire Watkins is headed off to the MFA program at Ohio State to study writing fiction; Mary Alauria Sell will be studying law at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon.
• 2006: Irena Yamboliev will enter the Stanford University PhD program in English this coming fall.
• 2005: Barry White works for the ABC-TV Sacramento affiliate as an editor and photographer. He writes, "Sacramento is the 20th largest market in the nation; for comparison, Reno is #112. Things are going well for me ..."
• 2004: Ben Johnson graduated from Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as senior executive editor for the California Law Review. He will be joining the Reno-based law firm of Woodburn and Wedge. Juliana Crespo, who also completed her MA in English at UNR in May 2007, was accepted to Indiana University's MFA program in fiction. Hannah Figurski is finishing law school at the University of California at San Diego where she was moot court winner in her first year and edited the law review; her classmate Amanda Brookhyser attends law school at Drake University. Che DeVol was accepted into the Teacher Education Program at Sierra Nevada College for Fall 2007.
• 2001: Campbell Pontius is teaching English at Shaw Middle School in Sparks, Nevada.

Older News (some of which may be out-of-date by now -- let us know!)

• 2004: Rory Dowd continues to be active on the Reno literary scene, currently hosting "poetry slams" at the Zephyr and elsewhere in the Truckee Meadows. Sabrina Golmassian has moved to "a little town of about 32,000 by Lake Geneva, called Thonon Les Bains."  She promises to keep in touch. Elaine Van Der Wall has been promoted from Copy Editor to Assistant Editor of Tahoe Quarterly magazine, a publication at which she began working as an intern in 2003. She writes to say that "internships are wonderful opportunities!"
• 2003: Kristin Marino is currently employed as an Editorial Assistant with Quinstreet Media in Reno.  "I was very fortunate," she tells us, "to find a job where I actually use my English degree every day!"
• 2002: Mike Wolterbeek works as public information officer for Washoe County. He and his wife Rose recently gave birth to a baby boy, Alexander. Truc-Ha Duong, who double-majored in Chemistry, is pursuing a  medical degree at the University of Connecticut. She reports that she  is still writing poetry and personal essays, as well as providing critique and feedback to other writers and artists at the on-line media publishing company www.poeticpublishing.com.
• 2000: Annie Uccelli is currently publicist for the Eldorado Hotel and Casino. She held a similar position at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino as well as operating her own freelance editing and writing service, A Few Words.
• 1999: Maggie Brentnall works in the Media Relations Department at Stanford University. She emails "I find myself making good use of my English degree after all. So whoever said an English degree is useless is wrong." OK, who said that? Joseph "Joey" Gilbert received his JD degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego while at the same time maintaining a 4-0 professional middleweight boxing record by knocking out all four opponents in two roun ds or less. He has moved to Las Vegas to start up a public relations firm, Fieri Communications, while continuing to pursue "ring studies." Cullen Wojcik is an editorial assistant at Hampton-Brown, a publishing firm in Carmel, California.
• 1998: Kirsten Mashinter took a one-year position in Shichijo, Japan, as an assistant language teacher with the JET Programme. Bryan Smith joined the Montgomery Group, a San Francisco public relations firm, as an account executive.
• 1997: Robert Munson teaches at Wooster High School in Reno.
• 1996:  Jonelle Beck recently opened her law office, specializing in estate planning, after graduating from McGeorge Law School, University of the Pacific. Shannon Chambers recently graduated from the Pepperdine University School of Law. Tony Illia (MA) received the Robert F. Boger Journalism Award from the Constructions Writers Association for an article entitled "Smart Growth" which appeared in the November 2000 issue of McGraw-Hill's Engineering News-Record.  Paul Myler went on to earn an MBA from Michigan State University. Ellen Reimel has self-published three volumes of poetry: Hot Passions, False Prophets, and The House of the Jade Tiger.
• 1995: Lauren Nelson is now an attorney with LexisNexis in Boston.
• 1994: Karen Wikander earned her PhD in 2000 from the University of Virginia in Textual Criticism and American Literature. With Elisabeth Solopova she co-authored Finding and Using Electronic Texts (Oxbow Books Ltd, June 2004), one of the Arts and Humanities Data Service Guides to Good Practice series. Her current projects include editing a critical edition of Edith Wharton's Custom of the Country.
• 1993: Alison Baker  earned her PhD in Middle English Language and Literature from Purdue in 2002, and is now an assistant professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. Stephen Matthews works as office manager for the Vilar Center for the Arts in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Craig Rulmann is a police officer in Santa Barbara, California. His hobbies, he tells us, are "too numerous to list."
• 1990: Chad Jones at last report was writing for the Oakland (CA) Tribune. Karen Foster works for Sierra Pacific Power in Reno, where her job titles have included construction project manager, power contract negotiator, account executive (crafting long-term service agreements with mining customers), community relations manager and, currently, public relations manager. She emails us that "the key ingredient to my career success has been my ability to write well and communicate with people." She is currently a Masters in Public Health student at UNR.
• 1989: Michael Bacon, who also earned his MA in English in 2004 from UNR, is currently reading English Literature (Victorian) for a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
• 1974: Deborah Hinman (Olthoff) is a Safety Administration Manager at SBC in Reno.
• 1972: Rosemarie Garland-Thompson (MA; BA '68) is an associate professor of Women's Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She is the author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture (1997) and co-editor of Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities (2002). She recently returned to campus as a Visiting Scholar in the Hilliard Endowment in the Humanities program.
• 1969: Carolyn "Cam" Usher, director of tourism for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, was recently named one of the "Top 200 Most Powerful Women in Travel" by Travel Agent magazine.

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  E-mail your additions, corrections and comments to  David Fenimore <fenimore@unr.edu>

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