UNLV Magazine - Spring 2004

Perfect Pairing: Bryan Page, winemaker	1970s Jose A. Cardenas, ’74 BS Political Science, is chairman and partner in the international practice group of Lewis and Roca law firm in Phoenix. A graduate of Stanford Law School, he previously served as law clerk to Robert F. Peckham, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Northern California. He is president of the state’s Arizona-Mexico Commission and vice chairman of Greater Phoenix Leadership. He also serves as a board member of Chicanos Por La Causa, Center for the Future of Arizona, Arizona Family Housing Fund, and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. He received the Arizona Civil Liberties Union’s Civil Libertarian Award in 2002. Thad Martin Major, ’74 M.Ed., is retired from the Clark County School District. He lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with his wife of 33 years. Dr. Jerry W. Chernik, ’75 BS Zoology, is a dentist in Wasilla, Alaska. He received his doctor of dental medicine degree from Oregon Health Sciences University and previously served in the U.S. Dental Corps. He and wife Kris have a daughter, Shelby. Kenneth W. Fong, ’78 BS Management, was elected the 2004 president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management. A certified property manager, he is a partner-manager of Fong and Associates, which manages shopping centers and offices in Nevada. He holds an MBA from San Francisco State University. Mark R. Vincent, ’78 BS Accounting, is director of the finance business services department for the city of Las Vegas. Previously he served as director of finance and business systems manager for Nevada Test Site contractors EG&G, REECo, and Bechtel Nevada. He and wife Denise Robichaud, ’81 BS Special Education, have five sons, Nicolas, Douglas, Thomas, Brian, and Evan. 1980s Salvatore Semola, ’81 BS Hotel Administration, is chief operating officer of Greektown Casino in Detroit. He recently received the Gaming Professional of the Year Award for the Eastern United States from the Casino Management Association. He began his career as a pit clerk and has held numerous management positions with Casino of The Sun in Tucson, Ariz.; the Reno Hilton Hotel and Casino; the Silver Eagle Casino Riverboat in East Dubuque, Ill.; and Station Casino in Kansas City, Mo. He has taught gaming management courses at UNLV and at UNR. He lives with his wife in Grosse Pointe Park. Sheila S. Trexler, ’82 BS Nursing, practices law in San Diego and Inland Empire, Calif., specializing in medical malpractice defense and other health-related legal cases. She received her law degree in 1985 from California Western School of Law and was recently named as one of the top 50 women litigators in California by the Daily Journal Inc., the publisher of 19 legal, real estate, and business publications. Joseph Maloney, ’83 BA Hotel Administration, is vice president of operations for Park Place Entertainment’s Sheraton Casino & Hotel in Robinsonville, Miss. Vida Chow, ’87 BA Hotel Administration, is director of event management for the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. She manages catering sales and convention services. Leon R. Symanski, ’87 BS Management, ’94 MPA, ’01 JD, is an attorney in personal injury and workers’ compensation at Craig P. Kenny Associates in Las Vegas. A former Rebel basketball player, he previously played professionally overseas and worked in the hotel industry for 10 years. 1990s Curt Miller, ’91 BS Hotel Administration, is director of conference services at the Iowa State Center at Iowa State University in Ames. Previously he was general manager of Residence Inn in West Des Moines. He and wife Sarah have two sons, Jack and Colin R. Scott Barclay, ’92 BS Management Information Systems, is managing partner of Main Advantage Technology Services, a Las Vegas consulting firm he founded in 1998. The company provides specialized technology services for the legal, financial, architecture, and real estate industries. He is a Microsoft certified systems engineer, Microsoft certified database administrator, and amicus attorney certified consultant. Cliff Odle, ’92 BS Secondary Education, is a firefighter, police officer, and emergency medical technician in Sunnyvale, Calif. A former all-conference soccer player and team captain for UNLV, he played professionally for the Las Vegas Dustdevils and was a teacher and head soccer coach at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas. He operated his own bottled water company for six years before selling it to take on a new career as a firefighter and police officer. He lives in Santa Clara with his wife, Michelle, and their son, James. Lyra Beck, ’93 BS Hotel Administration, works for Harrah’s Entertainment-Western Division and travels to properties in Lake Tahoe, San Diego, and Shreveport, La., where she lived prior to returning to Las Vegas. Richard Baldwin, ’95 BS Accounting, is director of corporate finance for International Game Technology and heads investor relations. He is maintaining his Rebel ties despite living among Reno’s Wolf Pack. Bob Glenn, ’95 MA Communication Studies, is a professor at Owensboro Community College in Kentucky, where he coaches the speech and debate team. He was awarded the 2003 Outstanding Teacher Award at the 45th Annual Kentucky Communication Association’s fall conference. He also is a representative to the legislative assembly of the National Communication Association. Teri Helfrich-Love, ’95 BA Communication Studies, and Kevin Love, ’00 BS Civil Engineering, live in Hanford, Calif., where he is a civil sanitary engineer for Carollo Engineers. They have two children. Andre Lagomarsino, ’95 BA English, is founder of Lagomarsino Law Offices, a general practice firm in Las Vegas. He received his law degree from Creighton University School of Law. “Wanny” Mun-Yee Hui, ’95 BA Hotel Administration, coordinates a biannual trade show for gifts, toys, and house wares in Dongguan, China. Previously she worked for Adsale Exhibition Services, a trade show company in Hong Kong. Kyle Yahiro-Okino, ’96 BA Hotel Administration, coordinates computer related courses and is the webmaster for UNLV’s Educational Outreach Division. Lee Hocking, ’97 BA Communication Studies, is a deputy prosecutor for the county attorney’s office in Mohave County, Ariz. He handles criminal cases in Kingman and Lake Havasu City. He received his law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law and was previously employed with the Las Vegas law firm of Blalock & Associates. Scott F. Murray, ’97 MA Ethics & Policy Studies, is a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force stationed in Honolulu. He is currently the director of the commander, Pacific Air Forces, Personal Staff Action Group. He received a master’s degree in air and space science from the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies in 2003. Patrick Smith, ’97 BA Communication Studies and ’01 MPA, is an account executive with The Rogich Communications Group in Las Vegas. He focuses on government and community affairs. Jody Walker, ’97 BS Civil Engineering, has opened the firm Walker Engineering LLC in Las Vegas. Man-Auk Chun, ’98 BA Hotel Administration, is senior sales manager at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. Sangmi Park, ’98 BA Hotel Administration, and Jinho Lee, ’97 BA Hotel Administration, live in Seoul, South Korea,where he is a financial consultant manager for AIG. Stacey Andrews Sawyer, ’99 BA Communication Studies, is the morning and noon meteorologist for KAMC 28, an ABC affiliate, and KLBK 13, a CBS affiliate, in Lubbock, Texas. She started her weather career interning at KOVR in Sacramento, Calif., before moving on to KEVN in Rapid City, S.D., and KRCR in Redding, Calif. She has three dogs, named Vegas, Nevada, and Sahara. Leah A. Ayala, ’99 BA Environmental Studies and Political Science, ’02 JD, is an associate attorney in the litigation department of Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas. Her practice includes tobacco litigation, criminal writs of habeas corpus, probate, and contract formation and disputes. She also does legal work with local and state government agencies. Previously, she served as judicial extern to U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro. Ka Kei “Karrie” Yuen, ’99 BA Hotel Administration, is an assistant sales manager at The Royal Garden Hotel in Hong Kong. 2000s Carl J. Alstatt, ’00 BS Finance, is a first lieutenant in the Air Force. He graduated from pilot training in May 2002 and flew a C-130 aircraft in Operation Iraqi Freedom and in Operation Enduring Freedom. Cheryl Berry, ’00 BS Hotel Administration, is assistant club manager at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah. She previously worked at Hurlburt Field in Florida. Steven “Carson” Booth, ’00 BA Computer Science, is director of information technology for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Europe/Africa/Middle East Division. He lives in Brussels, Belgium. Rizzalyn E. Viernes, ’00 BS Civil Engineering, is a lieutenant with the 9th Civil Engineer Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in California. She received the 2002 Company Grade Officer Award. Brian R. Irvine, ’01 JD, is an associate attorney with Jones Vargas in Las Vegas. After graduation, he was selected from hundreds of applicants to serve as judicial law clerk for Melvin Brunetti, senior judge for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Aaron Whitman, ’01 MA Architecture, is job captain for ZGA Architects and Planners in Boise, Idaho. He is working on projects for St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center and for the General Services Administration. Shelly Marshall, ’03 BS Human Services Counseling, and Michael Salay, ’93 BS Business Administration, were married Dec. 20 at UNLV’s Richard Tam Alumni Center. The couple honeymooned in New York and Washington D.C. In Memoriam Robert Jay Kendall, ’81 BA Psychology, died Aug. 11, 2003. He held flight instructor ratings for commercial and multiengine planes and was a musician, paralegal, and pharmacy technician. He was a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association; UNLV Alumni Association; and Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary Catholic Church in Las Vegas. Michael Derwood Williams, ’02 MS Social Work, died Nov. 3, 2003, of a major coronary.He was employed at Bechtel Nevada as an employee assistance program counselor. He previously worked at the Center of Independent Living and was a director for the United Way’s foster children program. He is survived by his wife.
By Gian Galassi
Pairing fine wine with good food is just one component of a great dining experience, but for Bryan Page, ’96 BS Hotel Administration, combining the two has turned out to be the main course in his career. Now a formally trained chef, sommelier, and vintner, Page assigns dual credit for his love affair with the culinary life to his father, a former chef in Southern California, and to Julia Child, who he recalls watching on television as a child. At age 14, when other kids were still reading comic books, Page was experimenting with recipes from his mother’s collection of cookbooks. “I discovered that my mom owned the first book that Julia Child ever wrote and I ended up reading it cover to cover, copying everything that she did,” Page says. “And then when my father retired and started cooking more at home, I started cooking more, too.” Even though culinary school would have seemed the natural path for Page after high school, he enrolled at San Diego State University, majoring first in civil engineering, then psychology, business management, and child development. He never quite found the match he was looking for until he realized that his lifelong avocation should be his vocation. “Because I loved cooking so much I had always researched culinary schools, and when I finally decided to go, I knew it was the right choice,” Page says. It was while attending the California Culinary Academy in 1991 that Page got his first taste for making wine. While the rest of his classmates honed their craft on the San Francisco culinary scene, Page spent most of his time in Napa Valley, interning at Wine Spectator magazine, Haven’s Wine Cellars, and Truchard Vineyards – the latter of which he returned to after graduation to work as an assistant winemaker. “Working on smaller projects like Truchard’s and Haven’s was amazing because I had the opportunity to learn all about the process,” Page says. “I had my hands in everything – from crushing to cellar management to bottling. I absolutely loved it all.” Despite his newfound affection for wine making, Page didn’t abandon his formal education. He worked as a chef at some of Napa’s most renowned restaurants and cooked for some of the most respected names in the food and wine industry, including Baroness Rothchild and Claude Taittinger. But then a serious leg injury made standing for long periods difficult and cut short his career in the kitchen. “After my accident, I realized that I probably wasn’t going to be able to do what I’d spent my entire life training for,” Page says. “So I figured that if I was going to have to be on the other side of the business, I was going to do it right. And that meant going to UNLV.” Page was chef of the UNLV Wine Club and graduated magna cum laude with an emphasis in food and beverage management and entrepreneurship. But it was while teaching with UNLV’s summer studies program in Switzerland that Page’s dream job began to take shape. While traveling in 1997 through the St. Emilion and Pomerol districts of the famed Bordeaux region in France, Page tasted the wines that he hoped someday to emulate. Later that year, he returned to Napa Valley and turned his dream into reality. So far his passion is paying off.With his Page Wine Cellars now on its seventh harvest, Page has grown the production of his red Bordeaux-style table wine from a modest 60 cases in 1997 to approximately 850 cases today. In 2002, Wine Enthusiast magazine awarded his 1999 vintage a 93 rating, giving it the prized designation “Cellar Selection.” “Sometimes I can’t believe that I’m already on the fifth release of my own label,” says Page, referring to his 2001 vintage that will be released this spring. “It’s a lot of hard work but I can’t imagine doing anything else. Cooking provides instant gratification, but wine making requires a sustained level of heart and soul, from the harvest until the time when the wine is ready to release.” Recently engaged to be married, Page is now looking forward to a new chapter in his life, one that includes growing his winery to about 3,000 cases per year and making the best product he can.“My goal is to make amazing wine. I just want to continue doing this one thing and do it really well.”

Good Cop, Smart Cop: Dennis Cobb, deputy police chief
by Cate Weeks
When Dennis Cobb became a police officer, he figured his work-related travel would be limited to patrolling city streets. But since joining the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1983, the political science graduate has expanded his policing skills by visiting more than 20 countries as a Fulbright Fellow and a White House Fellow. “My travels from the Gobi Desert to the jungles of Columbia have given me a broad perspective of the underlying similarities of policing around the globe,” says Cobb, ’79 BA Political Science. “There may be different laws, but when it comes down to it, a domestic violence call in Beijing isn’t all that different from one in Las Vegas.” Cobb, now deputy chief for Metro’s Technical Services Division, was one of two officers from the United States awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Police Studies in 1992. Two years later he became the first UNLV alumnus selected for the White House Fellows program. In the one-year appointment as special assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cobb worked in 15 countries to develop policy recommendations on issues such as White House security and counter-narcotics use of unmanned airplanes. Judging by his accomplishments, Cobb clearly found his calling. Yet, like many college freshmen, he had just a vague notion about his future career when he entered UNLV. A guitar player, he originally pursued a teaching degree to ensure he wouldn’t have to lead a starving musician’s life. Inspired by professors Jerry Simich and Andy Tuttle, Cobb switched majors to political science. After graduation he tried a few professions, including substitute teaching and firefighting. “When I became a reserve police officer, I discovered that I’m more suited to the self-determined environment of policing. In firefighting, everything is reactive – I liked going out to look for stuff.” Cobb now oversees more than 550 employees, including those in facilities management, motor vehicle fleet, communications, civil fingerprinting, records, and information technology. The overseas experiences gave Cobb a clear indication of the value of his education. “When we gathered for a photo of all of the White House Fellows, I learned that I was the only one with just a bachelor’s degree and the only one who didn’t graduate from a place like Stanford or Harvard. It was exciting to realize what a good job UNLV had done to get me there. “I think what I learned most as a student was how to satisfy my curiosity. It seems a liberal arts degree doesn’t prepare you to do things so much as to know things – to know how to acquire knowledge. That’s served me well.” Cobb lives in Summerlin with his significant other, Colleen Sisley, ’95 BA and ’97 MA Psychology, a marriage and family therapist.

Animal Attraction: Sue Lynn Reif, zookeeper
by Diane Russell
A beloved 17-year-old diabetic cat named Mimi provides Sue Reif with all the animal companionship she wants – at home. While some animal lovers populate their houses with numerous pets of all species, Reif sees no need to do that. After all, what pet besides Mimi could compete with the wallabies, mute swans, exotic parrots, capuchin monkeys, capybaras, and African spurred tortoise? Reif, ’92 BA Psychology, is a zookeeper at California’s Happy Hollow Zoo and co-founder of the Pacific Cetacean Group, a non-profit organization devoted to marine conservation. While the aforementioned zoo animals are all well and fine, she admits a particular fondness for the ungulates. Say again? Ah, yes, ungulates, better known to non-zookeepers as hoofed animals. Reif is charged with the African pygmy goats, miniature horses, and the like. Her duties include training the animals, formulating their diets, feeding them, and, when necessary, giving them medication. “I’m always keeping a keen eye to seeing if they’re healthy and if their behavior is normal,” she says. “As you work with them, you get to know their personalities and natural behaviors and that helps you spot when something is wrong.” Reif’s favorite ungulate is the San Jose zoo’s 22-year-old dwarf zebu–a species of cow from India–named Nicky. “I had to win him over when I was first working with him,” Reif recalls. “He thought of himself as the head cow, and I was just the new guy on the block. I had to get him to respect me so that he would see me as the head cow. Now he lets me brush him and he loves his neck rubs.” Getting inside the zebu’s head to figure out how to get him to regard her as “head cow” is just one example, Reif says, of how she has put her UNLV psychology training to work in her various jobs in the animal world. “I well remember learning about conditioning and positive reinforcement in my classes,” she says. “And positive reinforcement is exactly what I use when I’m involved in training the animals. I received an excellent education at UNLV, and I’ve really applied it to the work I do.” It was while at UNLV that Reif, who then was known as Sue Konopka-Reif, got her start working with animals. She landed an internship at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab in Honolulu offered by psychologist and University of Hawaii professor Louis M. Herman, who is known worldwide for his intelligence and cognition work with bottlenose dolphins.When that internship ended, she moved right into a humpback whale internship offered by Herman. Returning to UNLV after nine months in internships, Reif was more certain than ever that she wanted to work with animals. After she graduated, Herman hired her to do field work on his Humpback Whale Project. For three years during the winter months, Reif headed out each day in a boat to track the whales and collect data. How many whales in this pod? Where is this pod located? What kind of behavior is this pod involved in? She also did underwater videography, recorded the whales’ songs, and photographed their tail flukes. Humpback whales can be identified by the unique patterns on the underside of their flukes – making it possible for those studying them to track migration and association patterns. Reif then moved to California to work with dolphins in Monterey Bay for the Earthwatch project. Her tasks were similar to those she had when working with the whales. While there she also became involved with wildlife rehabilitation work through the Monterey County SPCA. Animals hit by cars and seabirds snagged by fishing hooks or injured by oil spills were common. Pelicans, owls, hawks, songbirds, opossums, raccoons, and deer were among the species brought to the center. The animals were treated, rehabilitated and, when possible, released into the wild. During that same period she became involved with sea otter rehabilitation through the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, working with injured otters and orphaned otter pups. Reif still finds time today to do marine mammal work. As an independent contractor, she is a gray whale observer, counting the huge animals as they migrate from Alaska to Mexico. And she does sea otter census work for the U.S. Geological Survey each spring and fall. “I am very excited to do what I love,” she says. “Life is too short to spend it doing something you don’t truly enjoy.”

Perfect Pairing: Bryan Page, winemaker

1970s

Jose A. Cardenas, ’74 BS Political Science, is chairman and partner in the international practice group of Lewis and Roca law firm in Phoenix. A graduate of Stanford Law School, he previously served as law clerk to Robert F. Peckham, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Northern California. He is president of the state’s Arizona-Mexico Commission and vice chairman of Greater Phoenix Leadership. He also serves as a board member of Chicanos Por La Causa, Center for the Future of Arizona, Arizona Family Housing Fund, and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. He received the Arizona Civil Liberties Union’s Civil Libertarian Award in 2002.

Thad Martin Major, ’74 M.Ed., is retired from the Clark County School District. He lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with his wife of 33 years.

Dr. Jerry W. Chernik, ’75 BS Zoology, is a dentist in Wasilla, Alaska. He received his doctor of dental medicine degree from Oregon Health Sciences University and previously served in the U.S. Dental Corps. He and wife Kris have a daughter, Shelby.

Kenneth W. Fong, ’78 BS Management, was elected the 2004 president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management. A certified property manager, he is a partner-manager of Fong and Associates, which manages shopping centers and offices in Nevada. He holds an MBA from San Francisco State University.

Mark R. Vincent, ’78 BS Accounting, is director of the finance business services department for the city of Las Vegas. Previously he served as director of finance and business systems manager for Nevada Test Site contractors EG&G, REECo, and Bechtel Nevada. He and wife Denise Robichaud, ’81 BS Special Education, have five sons, Nicolas, Douglas, Thomas, Brian, and Evan.

1980s

Salvatore Semola, ’81 BS Hotel Administration, is chief operating officer of Greektown Casino in Detroit. He recently received the Gaming Professional of the Year Award for the Eastern United States from the Casino Management Association. He began his career as a pit clerk and has held numerous management positions with Casino of The Sun in Tucson, Ariz.; the Reno Hilton Hotel and Casino; the Silver Eagle Casino Riverboat in East Dubuque, Ill.; and Station Casino in Kansas City, Mo. He has taught gaming management courses at UNLV and at UNR. He lives with his wife in Grosse Pointe Park.

Sheila S. Trexler, ’82 BS Nursing, practices law in San Diego and Inland Empire, Calif., specializing in medical malpractice defense and other health-related legal cases. She received her law degree in 1985 from California Western School of Law and was recently named as one of the top 50 women litigators in California by the Daily Journal Inc., the publisher of 19 legal, real estate, and business publications.

Joseph Maloney, ’83 BA Hotel Administration, is vice president of operations for Park Place Entertainment’s Sheraton Casino & Hotel in Robinsonville, Miss.

Vida Chow, ’87 BA Hotel Administration, is director of event management for the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. She manages catering sales and convention services.

Leon R. Symanski, ’87 BS Management, ’94 MPA, ’01 JD, is an attorney in personal injury and workers’ compensation at Craig P. Kenny Associates in Las Vegas. A former Rebel basketball player, he previously played professionally overseas and worked in the hotel industry for 10 years.

1990s

Curt Miller, ’91 BS Hotel Administration, is director of conference services at the Iowa State Center at Iowa State University in Ames. Previously he was general manager of Residence Inn in West Des Moines. He and wife Sarah have two sons, Jack and Colin

R. Scott Barclay, ’92 BS Management Information Systems, is managing partner of Main Advantage Technology Services, a Las Vegas consulting firm he founded in 1998. The company provides specialized technology services for the legal, financial, architecture, and real estate industries. He is a Microsoft certified systems engineer, Microsoft certified database administrator, and amicus attorney certified consultant.

Cliff Odle, ’92 BS Secondary Education, is a firefighter, police officer, and emergency medical technician in Sunnyvale, Calif. A former all-conference soccer player and team captain for UNLV, he played professionally for the Las Vegas Dustdevils and was a teacher and head soccer coach at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas. He operated his own bottled water company for six years before selling it to take on a new career as a firefighter and police officer. He lives in Santa Clara with his wife, Michelle, and their son, James.

Lyra Beck, ’93 BS Hotel Administration, works for Harrah’s Entertainment-Western Division and travels to properties in Lake Tahoe, San Diego, and Shreveport, La., where she lived prior to returning to Las Vegas.

Richard Baldwin, ’95 BS Accounting, is director of corporate finance for International Game Technology and heads investor relations. He is maintaining his Rebel ties despite living among Reno’s Wolf Pack.

Bob Glenn, ’95 MA Communication Studies, is a professor at Owensboro Community College in Kentucky, where he coaches the speech and debate team. He was awarded the 2003 Outstanding Teacher Award at the 45th Annual Kentucky Communication Association’s fall conference. He also is a representative to the legislative assembly of the National Communication Association.

Teri Helfrich-Love, ’95 BA Communication Studies, and Kevin Love, ’00 BS Civil Engineering, live in Hanford, Calif., where he is a civil sanitary engineer for Carollo Engineers. They have two children.

Andre Lagomarsino, ’95 BA English, is founder of Lagomarsino Law Offices, a general practice firm in Las Vegas. He received his law degree from Creighton University School of Law.

“Wanny” Mun-Yee Hui, ’95 BA Hotel Administration, coordinates a biannual trade show for gifts, toys, and house wares in Dongguan, China. Previously she worked for Adsale Exhibition Services, a trade show company in Hong Kong.

Kyle Yahiro-Okino, ’96 BA Hotel Administration, coordinates computer related courses and is the webmaster for UNLV’s Educational Outreach Division.

Lee Hocking, ’97 BA Communication Studies, is a deputy prosecutor for the county attorney’s office in Mohave County, Ariz. He handles criminal cases in Kingman and Lake Havasu City. He received his law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law and was previously employed with the Las Vegas law firm of Blalock & Associates.

Scott F. Murray, ’97 MA Ethics & Policy Studies, is a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force stationed in Honolulu. He is currently the director of the commander, Pacific Air Forces, Personal Staff Action Group. He received a master’s degree in air and space science from the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies in 2003.

Patrick Smith, ’97 BA Communication Studies and ’01 MPA, is an account executive with The Rogich Communications Group in Las Vegas. He focuses on government and community affairs.

Jody Walker, ’97 BS Civil Engineering, has opened the firm Walker Engineering LLC in Las Vegas.

Man-Auk Chun, ’98 BA Hotel Administration, is senior sales manager at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, South Korea.

Sangmi Park, ’98 BA Hotel Administration, and Jinho Lee, ’97 BA Hotel Administration, live in Seoul, South Korea,where he is a financial consultant manager for AIG.

Stacey Andrews Sawyer, ’99 BA Communication Studies, is the morning and noon meteorologist for KAMC 28, an ABC affiliate, and KLBK 13, a CBS affiliate, in Lubbock, Texas. She started her weather career interning at KOVR in Sacramento, Calif., before moving on to KEVN in Rapid City, S.D., and KRCR in Redding, Calif. She has three dogs, named Vegas, Nevada, and Sahara.

Leah A. Ayala, ’99 BA Environmental Studies and Political Science, ’02 JD, is an associate attorney in the litigation department of Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas. Her practice includes tobacco litigation, criminal writs of habeas corpus, probate, and contract formation and disputes. She also does legal work with local and state government agencies. Previously, she served as judicial extern to U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro.

Ka Kei “Karrie” Yuen, ’99 BA Hotel Administration, is an assistant sales manager at The Royal Garden Hotel in Hong Kong.

2000s

Carl J. Alstatt, ’00 BS Finance, is a first lieutenant in the Air Force. He graduated from pilot training in May 2002 and flew a C-130 aircraft in Operation Iraqi Freedom and in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Cheryl Berry, ’00 BS Hotel Administration, is assistant club manager at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah. She previously worked at Hurlburt Field in Florida.

Steven “Carson” Booth, ’00 BA Computer Science, is director of information technology for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Europe/Africa/Middle East Division. He lives in Brussels, Belgium.

Rizzalyn E. Viernes, ’00 BS Civil Engineering, is a lieutenant with the 9th Civil Engineer Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in California. She received the 2002 Company Grade Officer Award.

Brian R. Irvine, ’01 JD, is an associate attorney with Jones Vargas in Las Vegas. After graduation, he was selected from hundreds of applicants to serve as judicial law clerk for Melvin Brunetti, senior judge for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Aaron Whitman, ’01 MA Architecture, is job captain for ZGA Architects and Planners in Boise, Idaho. He is working on projects for St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center and for the General Services Administration.

Shelly Marshall, ’03 BS Human Services Counseling, and Michael Salay, ’93 BS Business Administration, were married Dec. 20 at UNLV’s Richard Tam Alumni Center. The couple honeymooned in New York and Washington D.C.

In Memoriam

Robert Jay Kendall, ’81 BA Psychology, died Aug. 11, 2003. He held flight instructor ratings for commercial and multiengine planes and was a musician, paralegal, and pharmacy technician. He was a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association; UNLV Alumni Association; and Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary Catholic Church in Las Vegas.

Michael Derwood Williams, ’02 MS Social Work, died Nov. 3, 2003, of a major coronary.He was employed at Bechtel Nevada as an employee assistance program counselor. He previously worked at the Center of Independent Living and was a director for the United Way’s foster children program. He is survived by his wife.

By Gian Galassi

Pairing fine wine with good food is just one component of a great dining experience, but for Bryan Page, ’96 BS Hotel Administration, combining the two has turned out to be the main course in his career.

Now a formally trained chef, sommelier, and vintner, Page assigns dual credit for his love affair with the culinary life to his father, a former chef in Southern California, and to Julia Child, who he recalls watching on television as a child. At age 14, when other kids were still reading comic books, Page was experimenting with recipes from his mother’s collection of cookbooks.

“I discovered that my mom owned the first book that Julia Child ever wrote and I ended up reading it cover to cover, copying everything that she did,” Page says. “And then when my father retired and started cooking more at home, I started cooking more, too.”

Even though culinary school would have seemed the natural path for Page after high school, he enrolled at San Diego State University, majoring first in civil engineering, then psychology, business management, and child development. He never quite found the match he was looking for until he realized that his lifelong avocation should be his vocation. “Because I loved cooking so much I had always researched culinary schools, and when I finally decided to go, I knew it was the right choice,” Page says.

It was while attending the California Culinary Academy in 1991 that Page got his first taste for making wine. While the rest of his classmates honed their craft on the San Francisco culinary scene, Page spent most of his time in Napa Valley, interning at Wine Spectator magazine, Haven’s Wine Cellars, and Truchard Vineyards – the latter of which he returned to after graduation to work as an assistant winemaker.

“Working on smaller projects like Truchard’s and Haven’s was amazing because I had the opportunity to learn all about the process,” Page says. “I had my hands in everything – from crushing to cellar management to bottling. I absolutely loved it all.”

Despite his newfound affection for wine making, Page didn’t abandon his formal education. He worked as a chef at some of Napa’s most renowned restaurants and cooked for some of the most respected names in the food and wine industry, including Baroness Rothchild and Claude Taittinger.

But then a serious leg injury made standing for long periods difficult and cut short his career in the kitchen. “After my accident, I realized that I probably wasn’t going to be able to do what I’d spent my entire life training for,” Page says. “So I figured that if I was going to have to be on the other side of the business, I was going to do it right. And that meant going to UNLV.”

Page was chef of the UNLV Wine Club and graduated magna cum laude with an emphasis in food and beverage management and entrepreneurship. But it was while teaching with UNLV’s summer studies program in Switzerland that Page’s dream job began to take shape. While traveling in 1997 through the St. Emilion and Pomerol districts of the famed Bordeaux region in France, Page tasted the wines that he hoped someday to emulate. Later that year, he returned to Napa Valley and turned his dream into reality.

So far his passion is paying off.With his Page Wine Cellars now on its seventh harvest, Page has grown the production of his red Bordeaux-style table wine from a modest 60 cases in 1997 to approximately 850 cases today. In 2002, Wine Enthusiast magazine awarded his 1999 vintage a 93 rating, giving it the prized designation “Cellar Selection.”

“Sometimes I can’t believe that I’m already on the fifth release of my own label,” says Page, referring to his 2001 vintage that will be released this spring. “It’s a lot of hard work but I can’t imagine doing anything else. Cooking provides instant gratification, but wine making requires a sustained level of heart and soul, from the harvest until the time when the wine is ready to release.”

Recently engaged to be married, Page is now looking forward to a new chapter in his life, one that includes growing his winery to about 3,000 cases per year and making the best product he can.“My goal is to make amazing wine. I just want to continue doing this one thing and do it really well.”

Good Cop, Smart Cop: Dennis Cobb, deputy police chief

by Cate Weeks

When Dennis Cobb became a police officer, he figured his work-related travel would be limited to patrolling city streets. But since joining the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1983, the political science graduate has expanded his policing skills by visiting more than 20 countries as a Fulbright Fellow and a White House Fellow.

“My travels from the Gobi Desert to the jungles of Columbia have given me a broad perspective of the underlying similarities of policing around the globe,” says Cobb, ’79 BA Political Science. “There may be different laws, but when it comes down to it, a domestic violence call in Beijing isn’t all that different from one in Las Vegas.”

Cobb, now deputy chief for Metro’s Technical Services Division, was one of two officers from the United States awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Police Studies in 1992. Two years later he became the first UNLV alumnus selected for the White House Fellows program. In the one-year appointment as special assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cobb worked in 15 countries to develop policy recommendations on issues such as White House security and counter-narcotics use of unmanned airplanes.

Judging by his accomplishments, Cobb clearly found his calling. Yet, like many college freshmen, he had just a vague notion about his future career when he entered UNLV. A guitar player, he originally pursued a teaching degree to ensure he wouldn’t have to lead a starving musician’s life. Inspired by professors Jerry Simich and Andy Tuttle, Cobb switched majors to political science.

After graduation he tried a few professions, including substitute teaching and firefighting. “When I became a reserve police officer, I discovered that I’m more suited to the self-determined environment of policing. In firefighting, everything is reactive – I liked going out to look for stuff.”

Cobb now oversees more than 550 employees, including those in facilities management, motor vehicle fleet, communications, civil fingerprinting, records, and information technology.

The overseas experiences gave Cobb a clear indication of the value of his education. “When we gathered for a photo of all of the White House Fellows, I learned that I was the only one with just a bachelor’s degree and the only one who didn’t graduate from a place like Stanford or Harvard. It was exciting to realize what a good job UNLV had done to get me there.

“I think what I learned most as a student was how to satisfy my curiosity. It seems a liberal arts degree doesn’t prepare you to do things so much as to know things – to know how to acquire knowledge. That’s served me well.”

Cobb lives in Summerlin with his significant other, Colleen Sisley, ’95 BA and ’97 MA Psychology, a marriage and family therapist.

Animal Attraction: Sue Lynn Reif, zookeeper

by Diane Russell

A beloved 17-year-old diabetic cat named Mimi provides Sue Reif with all the animal companionship she wants – at home. While some animal lovers populate their houses with numerous pets of all species, Reif sees no need to do that. After all, what pet besides Mimi could compete with the wallabies, mute swans, exotic parrots, capuchin monkeys, capybaras, and African spurred tortoise?

Reif, ’92 BA Psychology, is a zookeeper at California’s Happy Hollow Zoo and co-founder of the Pacific Cetacean Group, a non-profit organization devoted to marine conservation.

While the aforementioned zoo animals are all well and fine, she admits a particular fondness for the ungulates. Say again? Ah, yes, ungulates, better known to non-zookeepers as hoofed animals. Reif is charged with the African pygmy goats, miniature horses, and the like. Her duties include training the animals, formulating their diets, feeding them, and, when necessary, giving them medication.

“I’m always keeping a keen eye to seeing if they’re healthy and if their behavior is normal,” she says. “As you work with them, you get to know their personalities and natural behaviors and that helps you spot when something is wrong.”

Reif’s favorite ungulate is the San Jose zoo’s 22-year-old dwarf zebu–a species of cow from India–named Nicky.

“I had to win him over when I was first working with him,” Reif recalls. “He thought of himself as the head cow, and I was just the new guy on the block. I had to get him to respect me so that he would see me as the head cow. Now he lets me brush him and he loves his neck rubs.”
Getting inside the zebu’s head to figure out how to get him to regard her as “head cow” is just one example, Reif says, of how she has put her UNLV psychology training to work in her various jobs in the animal world.

“I well remember learning about conditioning and positive reinforcement in my classes,” she says. “And positive reinforcement is exactly what I use when I’m involved in training the animals. I received an excellent education at UNLV, and I’ve really applied it to the work I do.”

It was while at UNLV that Reif, who then was known as Sue Konopka-Reif, got her start working with animals. She landed an internship at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab in Honolulu offered by psychologist and University of Hawaii professor Louis M. Herman, who is known worldwide for his intelligence and cognition work with bottlenose dolphins.When that internship ended, she moved right into a humpback whale internship offered by Herman.

Returning to UNLV after nine months in internships, Reif was more certain than ever that she wanted to work with animals. After she graduated, Herman hired her to do field work on his Humpback Whale Project. For three years during the winter months, Reif headed out each day in a boat to track the whales and collect data. How many whales in this pod? Where is this pod located? What kind of behavior is this pod involved in? She also did underwater videography, recorded the whales’ songs, and photographed their tail flukes. Humpback whales can be identified by the unique patterns on the underside of their flukes – making it possible for those studying them to track migration and association patterns.

Reif then moved to California to work with dolphins in Monterey Bay for the Earthwatch project. Her tasks were similar to those she had when working with the whales.

While there she also became involved with wildlife rehabilitation work through the Monterey County SPCA. Animals hit by cars and seabirds snagged by fishing hooks or injured by oil spills were common. Pelicans, owls, hawks, songbirds, opossums, raccoons, and deer were among the species brought to the center. The animals were treated, rehabilitated and, when possible, released into the wild. During that same period she became involved with sea otter rehabilitation through the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, working with injured otters and orphaned otter pups.

Reif still finds time today to do marine mammal work. As an independent contractor, she is a gray whale observer, counting the huge animals as they migrate from Alaska to Mexico. And she does sea otter census work for the U.S. Geological Survey each spring and fall.

“I am very excited to do what I love,” she says. “Life is too short to spend it doing something you don’t truly enjoy.”

Spring 2004 | Vol. 12, No. 1

CLASS NOTES