Class Notes Category: Career
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Jane Fujishige Yada ’88
Segerstrom Center for the Arts has announced that Jane Fujishige Yada ’88, Manager, Harbor Field Holdings, L.L.C., has been elected to serve as the Center’s new board chair beginning July 1, 2021. Yada is an Orange County, Calif., businesswoman and philanthropist whose family interests have played a significant role in the growth and development of…
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Leisy J. Abrego, M.A. ’02, Ph.D. ’08
Duke University has published “We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States,” co-edited by Leisy J. Abrego, M.A. ’02, Ph.D. ’08. The contributors to the book—who are themselves currently or formerly undocumented—call for the elimination of the Dreamer narrative, showing how it establishes high expectations for who deserves citizenship and…
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Jesse Melgar ’09
Jesse Melgar ’09, who had been acting as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press secretary over the past year and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has officially been promoted to oversee the press office, strategy and operations. Melgar had previously served as Deputy Director of Media and Public Affairs from the beginning of the Newsom administration. He…
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Emily Torralba Patajo ’99
Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has appointed shareholder Emily T. Patajo ’99 (Los Angeles-Century City) a co-chair of its award-winning Career Advocacy Program (CAP). Patajo, a psychology major as an undergraduate, joined CAP as an associate Protégé in 2012 and was promoted to shareholder in 2016. She continues to…
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Scott Sweeney ’84
Since January 2020, Scott Sweeney ’84 has served as chairman of the Georgia State Board of Education, serving approximately 1.8 million K-12 public education students with an annual state funding level of nearly $12 billion. After serving eight years as an elected member of the Cobb County Board of Education, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in…
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Jennifer Nassiri ’96
Jennifer Nassiri ’96 has joined the Los Angeles office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as a partner in the finance & bankruptcy practice group. Nassiri most recently practiced at Quinn Emanuel. “Clients, now more than ever, need seasoned, experienced advice when it comes to dealing with the many complexities of bankruptcies and restructurings,”…
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Mark DePaco ’94
Childhood friends Mark DePaco ’94 and David Tappeiner have realized a long-held career dream together, jointly founding and opening their own law practice, DT Law Partners, in downtown Santa Barbara, a block from the landmark county courthouse. “After years of planning and preparation, we are thrilled to be launching this law practice in service of…
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Gregory Hanson ’10, M.D.
Gregory Hanson ’10, M.D., an interventional radiology resident in Philadelphia, Penn., has created a new startup, flipMD, that provides a new way for physicians to find and secure side jobs outside of their main clinical practice. Created with his wife and launched this summer, it has grown to over 370 physicians from the around the…
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Natasha Graves, M.P.H. ’14
Natasha Graves, M.P.H. ’14, continues to turn obstacles into opportunities, having just launched a travel website that caters to those with disabilities of all kinds. VacayAbility.com is a user- generated review website, where people with disabilities or unique abilities can rate and review places based upon accessibility. Graves described her motivation for creating the site,…
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Jeff W. Bens, M.F.A. ’92
A new novel by Jeff W. Bens, M.F.A. ’92, “The Mighty Oak,” will be published in September (hardcover, e-book and audio). According to the review it received in Publisher’s Weekly, the book’s main character, a hockey player named Oak, “struggles to make a new life for himself, both in and out of the rink. Oak…