Fall 2002 | Vol. 10, No. 2

 

n Class Notes

 

*Online Class Notes Submission Form

n 1960s

Tim Lau, ’68 BS Electrical Engineering, now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

n 1970s

Fred Albrecht, ’71 M. Ed., was recently named to U.S. Bank’s Southern Nevada Advisory Board. He is also UNLV’s vice president for university and community relations.

Kenneth Fong, ’78 BS Business Administration, was named a 2002 Businessperson of the Year by the Nevada Asian Chamber of Commerce. A certified property manager, he is a partner in Fong and Associates, a commercial property management firm. He received an MBA from San Francisco State University.

Cynthia Vannuca, ’79 BS Hotel Administration, received her MBA at the University of Texas and a doctorate at Penn State. She is director of meetings and conventions at Metropolitan State College of Denver. She recently authored a book on e-commerce design.

 n 1980s

Deron Shields, ’84 BS Hotel Administration, is director of sales for BarBanker LLC, a provider of wireless beverage monitoring software for the hospitality industry. He lives in Foster City, Calif., with his wife and five children.

P. Stanton Phares, ’85 BA Communication Studies, is a principal of Phillip Stanton & Associates, a marketing and advertising firm serving clients in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada. He is also a principal in Creative Forces, a company representing Midwestern artists and artisans. In 1999, he finished his first screenplay, Cricket, and is currently gathering research for his first novel, Sanderson County Courthouse.

Penny Pomerantz, ’87 Hotel Administration, is the point of sale and records retention manager at The Venetian Resort. She also serves as the fund-raising director for Mold Survivors of America.

Flint C. Richardson, ’88 BS Ac-counting, is the chief financial and process officer at Systems Research & Development, a Nevada-based technology firm. Previously he was a senior manager at Arthur Andersen.

Ty Busch, ’89 MA History, received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in May and is finishing a book about South African prisoners during apartheid. He recently served as a lecturer in sociology and criminal justice for Northern Virginia Community College and for Maryland’s Ann Arundel Community College and the Community College of Baltimore County.

n 1990s

Laura Worthington, ’90 BS Management, is a licensed broker/saleswoman and branch manager for Realty Executives of Nevada. She is married and has three children.

Michael R. Brunet, ’91 BA English, received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. Upon completion of the Nevada bar exam, he will join the law firm of Gordon Silver in Las Vegas as an associate attorney.

Eric R. Nelson, ’91, BLA Landscape Architecture, has joined the newly formed architecture division of Lumos and Associates, an engineering company with offices in Carson City, Fallon, and Reno.

Matthew B. Ross, ’91 BS Hotel Administration, is owner of Pop To Go, a beverage and candy vending company in Arvada, Colo. He has one son in seventh grade.

Paige A.M. D’Alessio, ’92 BS Hotel Administration, is marketing services director for the Northern California region of Trammell Crow, a leading commercial real estate firm. She and her husband live in Pacifica.

Aaron D. Lovaas, ’92 BA Political Science, is an associate attorney specializing in commercial transactions and litigation with Alverson, Taylor, Mortensen & Sanders in Las Vegas. He earned a law degree with honors at Seattle University School of Law.

Jody Zent Patton, ’92 BA Psychology, is vice president of private banking and investing at Key Bank in Portland, Ore. She was recently named to the board of directors for Portland Center Stage, the city’s largest professional theater company.

Jin Tae Park, ’93 BS Business Administration, is vice president of DM Sport Corp., a maker of bike and fitness products in Seoul, Korea.

Marci Hodges Riedy, ’94 BS Hotel Administration, is vice president of finance for the Las Vegas Hilton. A licensed CPA, she joined the Hilton as a front desk clerk while in college and has since held positions as operations analyst, assistant controller, director of financial planning, and controller. She is married to Terry Riedy.

Sam Joeckel, ’94 BA English, recently received a doctorate in English from Claremont Graduate University in California.

Michael Tate, ’94 BS Recreation, and wife Tonia Tate, ’99 BA Special Education, own and operate Kids R Kids Quality Learning Center in Las Vegas. The center currently enrolls more than 200 students.

Nathaniel Belin, ’95 BA Art, is a caricature artist whose clients include Sawtooth Center for Visual Arts and the Salem Star newspaper. He lives in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Brian J. Devine, ’95 BS Business Administration, is an attorney in the firm Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May in San Francisco. Previously, he was the assistant general counsel for Sulzer Medica, a Swiss manufacturer of implantable medical devices.

Steve Glassman, ’95 BS Business Administration, is branch manager for Coldwell Banker’s office in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He is responsible for operations and personnel at the 70-person office. Previously, he served as a sales manager and training director for Coldwell Banker and as a manager for Paramount Properties.

Lolu Adubifa, ’96 BS Electrical Engineering, is a recent MBA graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He majored in finance and strategic management. Previously, he worked in the oil and gas sector of Stewart & Stevenson in Houston and as an engineering project manager for FMC-Sofec.

D.J. Allen, ’96 BA Communication Studies and ’02 MBA, founded Imagine Marketing of Nevada, a firm offering marketing services for small- to medium-sized businesses. His wife, Stacey Benson Allen, ’98 BS Health Education and ’00 M.Ed. Health Promotion, is a teacher in the Clark County School District.

n 1990s (continued from previous column)

Barbara Giannini, ’96 MA Economics, operates Giannini & Company consulting firm and is director of corporate finance for Chenco Holding Company, a Taipei investment firm. She is a member of the board of directors for Silver State Schools Credit Union, and teaches economics at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Allan Pearlstein, ’96 MA Communication Studies, is a social insurance specialist for the Social Security Administration in Scottsdale, Ariz. He lives in Chandler with his wife and daughter.

Douglas Rivera, ’96 BS Biological Sciences, is a resident in radiation oncology at Duke University in Durham, N.C. A graduate of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, he served a residency in internal medicine at Columbia University. In June, he married Tera Ferguson, ’96 BS Civil Engineering, who is pursuing an MBA degree at Duke University and is president of the MBA Student Association. She previously served as a consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton.

Tina Vialard, ’96 BS Ed. Workforce Education, recently opened Kid to Kid, a seller of high-quality used children’s products and maternity clothing in Las Vegas. Prior to opening the store, she received an MBA from the University of Phoenix, worked as a corporate trainer, and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Robert L. Arrington Jr., ’97 BS Business Administration, graduated in the top of his class from Howard University School of Law in 2001. He is an associate attorney in the communications practice of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He also develops policy positions for clients before the Federal Communications Commission, Congress, and other governmental agencies. He lives in Chicago.

Lee R. Hocking, ’97 BA Communication Studies, earned a law degree from the University of Tulsa School of Law in Oklahoma and is now employed with Blalock & Associates in Las Vegas.

Jian P. Shu, ’97 M. Architecture, is a registered architect through the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and specializes in hotel and hospitality projects in Las Vegas. He is also a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Architectural Perspectivists. He previously worked as a project architect for MGM/Mirage Design Group.

Mitch Basin, ’98 BA Psychology, is a business consulting analyst with Household Credit Services, a financial services company. He works in the integrated planning department, which is responsible for forecasting, scheduling, call-flow dynamics, workforce management, and long-range capacity planning. An avid local sports fan, he is married and has two daughters.

Nicole K. Dircks, ’98 BA Communication Studies, recently received her commission as a naval officer after completing Officer Candidate School at Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, Fla. In addition to a rigorous physical program, her training included navigation, engineering, naval warfare, and management.

Tony Letendre, ’98 BS Hotel Administration, is senior assistant golf professional at The Reserve in La Quinta, Calif. He is working to become a full member of the Professional Golfers’ Association.

Mark Metheny, ’98 MBA, is an information technology architect specializing in the telecommunications industry for International Business Machines in Denver.

Greg Orr, ’98 BA Music and ’01 MBA, is manager of information systems at WorldDoc Inc., a Las Vegas company offering online health decision support and value-added benefits for employees. He oversees online development and site implementation.

Christine Robbins Fiske, ’98 MBA, is a financial analyst for State Street Corp. in Boston. She and her husband are expecting their second child in October.

Elliot Dubin, ’99 BS Hotel Administration, and Allison Wiede, ’99 BS Hotel Administration, were married in August 2001. He is the guest services manager at the Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel. They live in Wheeling.

Michelle Foumberg, ’99 BA Film Studies, is a casting director for MTV’s highest-rated show, Becoming. She began working at MTV as an undergraduate intern when the cable television station was filming in Las Vegas. She credits film professor Francisco Menendez with much of her success.

Sylvia Lyly Wang, ’99 BS Hotel Administration, is the human resources coordinator at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and was recently married.

Marty A. Weinberg, ’99 BS International Business, is a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch in Las Vegas. A die-hard Rebels fan, he is a member of the Annual Giving Council of the UNLV Foundation and an inaugural member of the College of Business Alumni Association.

n 2000s

Delia Georgiana “Jo” Hadesan, ’00 BA Economics and History, is a program associate in the environmental section of the United Nations Development Programme in her native Romania. She coordinates environmental projects and manages the communications operations for the office. She recently drafted a proposal for collaboration between the business community and the U.N. ambassador. She lives in Bucharest.

Scott Ramin, ’00 B.S. Culinary Arts Management, is the kitchen manager for UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration. He is also pursuing a master’s degree at UNLV.

Bobbi Youngblood, ’00 MA Political Science, is director of human resources for Konami Gaming, Inc., a manufacturer of gaming equipment. The Japanese-owned company has 120 employees in Las Vegas. The mother of five children, she credits former Honors College Dean Len Zane with inspiring her and three of her children to pursue degrees at UNLV. Justin Youngblood, ’96 BS Accounting, is working with IBM’s software development group in Austin, Texas. He earned an MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously worked with Deloitte & Touche. He and wife Summer have two sons, Jordan and Isaac. Noelle Youngblood, ’98 BS Secondary Education and ’00 MA Theatre, teaches at The Meadows School and has worked as an extra in the movies Ocean’s 11, X-Files, and Big Shot. Adrian Youngblood has been working on a bachelor’s degree in communications and is assistant project manager with DynaLectric Company of Nevada.

Charles L. Butler III, ’01 BS Hotel Administration, is pursuing a dual law degree and MBA at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.

Frederick E. Pollack III, ’01 BS Economics, is entering his second year at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. He finished his freshman year there in the top 10 percent of his class.