College Advocacy Board

Daniel Lindberg-Lang, Past Chairperson

Daniel serves as the Past Chairperson for the Honors College Advocacy Board after having served as the Chairperson to increase membership and create annual donor programs. He managed a team of a dozen influential community members as well as onboarded undergraduate students to the Honors College. Daniel served as the Honors College Advocacy Board Vice Chairperson and Secretary under the leadership of Rich Siegel and Steve Caloiaro and was an active member of the Founding Education and Mentorship Committee.

Daniel hails University of Nevada, Reno Honors College as his alma mater where he received his B.A. in Journalism with Strategic Communication emphasis and three minor’s in Chinese, English, and Communications. He received the Presidential Scholarship Award in 2015 and the Senior Scholar from the Reynolds School of Journalism in 2019.

Citizen diplomat Daniel Lindbergh Lang serves as an English Education and Community Development Volunteer for the Peace Corps in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and as the Chief Marketing Officer and Founder of LinYL Non-Profit Foundation. Daniel is the type of exceptional individual that the Honors College fosters. He asks inventive questions to forge ideas. An instructor, having presented at conferences internationally, nationally, regionally and locally, he advocates for outreach and equity with intercultural considerations — whether in speech or writing, in English, Chinese, or Mongolian. Beyond fieldwork and social science classrooms, Daniel enjoys nature walks, art experiences, practicing languages and mentoring students. He even sings first tenor for choirs large and small, including a tenure with the Reno Philharmonic Chorus!

Larry Barber, Chairperson

Mr. Barber serves as Chair of the Honors CAB. He started his career as a United States Air Force officer where he held a top-secret EBI clearance, before spending thirty years in Silicon Valley high technology companies.   He was instrumental in development of numerous high-tech products. He is a serial entrepreneur and a member of the selection committee of the Sierra Angels, one of the oldest Angel investment groups in the U.S. 

He is a successful initial investor in numerous high-tech companies including Rotten Tomatoes, Tom’s Hardware Guide and many others. His sites served over 45 million users per month. Mr. Barber was also founder of a data mining start up that was the 14th largest data collector in the world. It supplied and still supplies real-time data to set pricing at Sears, Best Buy, Samsung, Seagate. Disney, Micron and others. 

His education consists of a bachelor's in Chemistry from the State University of New York and a master’s in Management and Informational Systems from the University of Southern California.

Caroline E. Neuhaus Wesley, Ed.D., Vice Chairperson

Dr. Caroline E. Neuhaus Wesley serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Honors CAB and the Chair of the Programming and Events Committee.  She has served as a Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, and Executive Director/Superintendent.  She currently serves as the President and Founder of Saphira Education Associates, LLC focusing on supporting schools on numerous aspects of management including expertise on facilities, budget, operations and academic accountability. 

Dr. Wesley has been an educator for over 25 years in traditional public and charter public schools. Dr. Wesley has also served as an adjunct instructor at the university level. Saphira's Associates are strong educators with advanced degrees and years of dedication to private, public and charter schools.

Dr. Wesley holds three degrees including an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California; M.A in Educational Administration; and a B.A. in English Literature. 

Dan Villanueva, Treasurer

Dr. Dan Villanueva, Honors CAB Treasurer, serves as Senior Director for CBYX and Transatlantic/University Partnerships at Cultural Vistas. There, he coordinates the team selecting American young professionals for a yearlong exchange in Germany sponsored by the U.S. Congress and German Parliament while providing services to reciprocal German participants in the USA. He also develops contacts with U.S. higher ed institutions for sustainable global studies programming.

Dan’s award-winning involvement in Honors education as faculty and administrator at both of Nevada’s Honors Colleges spans more than two decades: First at UNLV, and then at the University of Nevada, Reno. Most recently, Dan was NSHE GEAR UP coordinator, directing statewide college-access programming for underrepresented students while continuing to be adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno Honors.

Dan holds a B.A. in German and International Relations (American University) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in German Studies (Duke University) and is author and translator of scholarly works in language pedagogy, German Studies, and Honors education.

Esther Hong, Secretary, President of Honors College Student Council Ex-Officio Representative

Esther Hong serves as the Secretary of the Honors College Advocacy Board and as the President of the Honors College Student Council. Esther is currently a Senior majoring in Biology with a minor in Public Health. She aims to increase the sense of community and belonging within the Honors College. As a representative of the Honors students, Esther listens to the voices of her fellow peers and works to make a difference as a liaison between students and Honors faculties. She introduces various opportunities for students to help the community. Esther has won three President's Volunteer Service Awards again exemplifying the strength of the Honors College student. Not only is Esther a full-time student, she also serves as a Senior Resident Assistant in Peavine Hall, the President/Founder of the Pokemon Go Pack Club, and an active member of the Nevada Glee Club.

Seth Padovan, Chair of the Fundraising and Marketing Committee

Seth Padovan serves as the Chair of the Fundraising and Marketing Committee of the Honors College Advocacy Board. He grew up in Charleston, Illinois and earned his B.S. with honors in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He started his career in Chicago, but spent several years in Colorado in both Denver and Aspen working on a variety of civil engineering projects before moving to Reno in 2005.

Seth has served as the President of Padovan Consulting, LLC for nearly 16 years. As a Professional Engineer, his civil engineering company specializes in project and construction management for residential and commercial developments. He has significant experience with hillside development involving complex, large-scale grading, residential development, road reconstruction and working with HOAs to maintain pavement and drainage infrastructure. His company has been successful in catering to both large and small projects with a focus on communication and practical solutions.

Seth enjoys spending time outdoors skiing, mountain biking, mountaineering, backpacking, kayaking and practicing yoga with his family. He is grateful to have the opportunity to serve the Honors College.

Bryan McArdle, Chair of the Mentorship and Education Committee

Bryan McArdle is the Vice President of Entrepreneurial Development at the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN). Bryan helps entrepreneurs launch startups and grow their businesses throughout the Biggest Little City. He is an organizer for Startup Weekend Reno and facilitated what is now Startup Row on First Street in Reno. Bryan also led the Summit Venture Mentoring Service that supports the growth of high potential startup companies.

Jason Truppi, Chair of Technology Ad Hoc Committee

Jason has more than two decades of technology experience, notably including working on some of the largest national security and criminal cyber intrusion cases as a Cyber Special Agent for the FBI. He also served as Director of Security at Tanium, where he developed threat detection techniques at scale for Fortune 500 companies, before moving on to found several companies in cybersecurity, data analytics, fintech, and insurtech. In addition to his leadership roles, Jason is an advisor to several technology-based startups (Armis, ALTR, Tonic, Valkyrie, Jet) and continues to drive cyber policy as a Cybersecurity Fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Chul Yim, Director

Chul Yim graduated with honors from the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2004 with a B.S. in Computer Science. While at the University, he served as President of ASUN and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Chul is the National Director of State and Local Government, and Education for Virsec Systems, Inc., a mission-critical cybersecurity company, where he leads a team to protect governments and enterprises from sophisticated cyber threats. He credits much of his success to the rigorous academic coursework in the Honors Program, leadership opportunities and lifelong friendships built during college.  Today, he remains actively involved with the University having served on the Alumni Council for the past six years. Outside of work, Chul can be found advising and investing in civic-tech startups, golfing, skiing, fly fishing or globe-trotting the world. Chul splits his time between in San Francisco, North Lake Tahoe and Reno.

Steven Caloiaro, Director

Steven Caloiaro was the inaugural co-chair of this CAB in 2020, serving as its chair for the 2021 term. He graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with honors in 2004. During his time at the University of Nevada, Reno, Steven was the President of the Honors College Student Council, a two-term ASUN Senator, and won a national championship with the University's Hockey Team. Following his time at the University of Nevada, Reno, Steven went to the University of San Diego, School of Law. After graduation he came back to Reno to practice law and is now a partner in the national law firm Dickinson Wright. Steven was recently awarded Northern Nevada's 40 under 40.

Bianka Dodov, Director

Bianka is a native Nevadan, born and raised in Reno. She attended UNLV where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, with honors. During her time at UNLV, she was an active member of the Honors College. Following her time at UNLV, she lived in Washington, DC where she spent three years advocating for recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. government. She earned her law degree at Seton Hall University School of Law and spent the next 10 years living and working in New York City in securities finance and legal compliance. She moved home to Reno in 2019 and currently works as a Senior Attorney at Sierra Crest Business Law Group, where she heads up the Firm's Corporate and Business Transactional practice.

Mark Friedler, Director

Mark is CEO of technology, Web3/blockchain and games consultancy, Gigex, Inc. He’s a serial entrepreneur in games, digital assets, SaaS and enterprise services. He is an advisor and investor in several Web3 and fintech projects and is the blockchain expert for Dundon Advisers, a financial restructuring firm. From 2019-2020 he led the Global Blockchain and ESports strategy for the world’s largest beer company, ABInBev, at their Silicon Valley BeerGarage Tech Innovation Lab and incubator. Projects include the launch the first beer NFTs, IBM’s TrustYourSupplier supply chain network, a global logistics pilot and building the global ESports and Web3 strategy with key partners.

Mark led business development for Swarm.fund Security token marketplace, has advised several projects including Apollo Art, Mobaso Games, Cappasity, Vertex Market and several NFT projects. His focus is on building valuable business communities through business development, sales, strategic partnerships, marketing and fundraising. He is the co-founder of the world’s largest fintech and blockchain meetup CryptoMondaysSF with chapters in 55 global cities.

He is a frequent speaker, keynote and panelist on blockchain at global events including Davos WEF, CoinAgenda, CES, E3, GamesBeat, GDC, ESports Summit and other events.

He’s founded 4 companies in online games, digital currencies, B2B enterprise cloud services and media. He was the founder/CEO of Gigex, the first cloud game download service. He built GameDaily into the largest B2B games executive network, and GameDaily.com, the largest consumer site that was acquired by AOL/Time Warner. He founded V-Cast, the first push delivery content service, acquired by Verizon. He was Senior Director at Oracle Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud and interim president of rideshare company ICars. He’s served as an advisor and mentor to global growth company founders through US Market Access and BootstrapLabs.

At 16, he rode his bicycle 3,467 miles with a small group from New York City to Seattle. Mark’s first business introduced a chain of chocolate chip cookie stores to Sweden. He and his family are based in the Reno, Nevada Area.

Value Quraishi, Director

Value is a software technology product and team builder who specializes in global scaling and turn-around. She is an advisor or board member for several companies in the area of software technology applications and cloud transformation. She is on the Board of Trustees for Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) and has been building Reno's start-up ecosystem with a group of like-minded entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders.

Value is a mentor at the University of Nevada, Reno Innovation Center and the Innovator Accelerator Program 2021 cohort. She integrates student interns into positions, new graduates into professional careers, and professionals pivoting into the software technology and game industries.

Arnie Glassberg, Director

Arnie spent his entire 37-year professional life serving students in K-12 schools in California. Starting as a junior high school teacher and counselor, he progressed through the ranks as a special education program specialist, principal, director of instruction, assistant superintendent, business services and superintendent. Along the way, he was an assistant professor at the graduate schools of education at four California universities including University of California, Berkeley.

Once retired, Arnie served as an appointed member of Board of Directors of the San Leandro Boys and Girls Club; the Master’s degree program for the acting school of American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco); and most recently, the Reno Philharmonic. In addition, he was an elected member of the Coastside County Water District Board.

Arnie earned a B.A. at UCLA in Microbiology, an M.A. in Counseling at Cal State University, Northridge and was a candidate for a Ph.D. in Educational Administration at University of California, Riverside.

His passion since retirement has been travel. He has explored all seven continents and traveled in over 60 countries around the world.

Jared Desamero, Honors College Alumni Chapter Ex-Officio Representative

Jared Desamero is a proud Honors College and College of Business alumnus of the University of Nevada, Reno, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S.B.A. in Economics and Finance. He currently serves as the President of the Honors College Alumni Chapter and Ex-Officio Representative for the Honors College Advocacy Board. Jared is also the 2018 recipient of the College of Business Outstanding Senior Award in Engagement and the N. Edd and Nena Miller ASUN Leadership Award, the highest honor given to an ASUN student officer. After college, Jared became an established sales and product marketing professional at various tech startups, Fortune 500 companies, and multinational organizations. Based in Las Vegas, he stays involved through the United Way of Southern Nevada and the Honors Beyond: Mentorship Network. Outside of work, he is an avid electronic music enthusiast, hiker of the U.S. National Park system, and amateur chess player.