Alumni News

Alumni News

We depend on you to help us keep current!
Please e-mail us your additions, corrections and comments.

Latest News (July 2008):

2005: 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.
1998: 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.
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.

Not-so-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.

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