Christine Paskvan Kiely, '90 BS Hotel Administration, is a full-time broker/ salesperson with The Brazill Team and Elite Realty. She previously spent five years in advertising and sales for Clear Channel Taxi Media and 24/7 magazine.
Michael G. Murrell, '90 BS Hotel Administration, is the west region manager for Lighthouse Catholic Media, which specializes in practical and effective ways for Catholics to know and keep their faith. He has six children, Jason, 12, Marissa, 10, Sierra, 6, Joshua, 4, Joey, 2, and Gianna-Marie, 8 months. The family lives in La Quinta, Calif.
Elora Tshudy Paik, '90 BS Business Administration, recently became the human resources system manager at UNLV. Previously she spent 15 years working in information management for four subcontractors to the U.S. Department of Energy on the Yucca Mountain Project. Her husband, Eugene, is a doctoral student at UNLV studying education learning and technology. Their son, Eugene II, attends the UNLV/CSUN Preschool.
Jeffrey Stutts, '90 BS Hotel Administration, recently became director of event management at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. He transferred there after two years as director of event planning and operations from San Francisco's Stanford Court. He lives in West Hollywood, Calif.
Theodore R. Nelson III, '91 BS Business Administration, is the Midwest regional vice president for Footlocker. He and his wife, Valerie Watkins Nelson, have two children, Selene and Maya. His hobbies include fishing and football. The family recently moved from California to Naperville, Ill.
Ki-Joon Back, '92 BS and '94 MS Hotel Administration, recently joined the faculty at the University of Houston as an associate professor and graduate program director in the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel Administration. He lives in Sugarland.
Linda Bernstein, '92 BS Business Administration, '06 Master of Hospitality Administration, is corporate director of training and development for Resorts International, which employs more than 12,000 people nationwide. She has worked in the Las Vegas gaming industry for 19 years. She currently is serving as the first female board chair for the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Heart Association and serves on the board for the local Leukemia Lymphoma Society. She and her husband, Jeff, have two children: Jennifer, 17, and Brian, 15. She likes to read, garden, draw, and paint.
Lindsay A. Lauro, '93 BS Hotel Administration, recently returned to Las Vegas and works at the front desk at the Wynn. He also has begun a new career as a licensed real estate agent. He once worked at Bally's and New York, New York. He also lived in Japan where he studied Japanese and taught English.
Mark Capasso, '94 BS Hotel Administration, was promoted to senior director of the hospitality and gaming group at Cushman & Wakefield Valuation Services. He is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry, specializing in the valuation of hospitality and gaming assets. His expertise includes properties such as limited-service hotels, full-service resorts, trophy casinos, and horse tracks. Since joining the company in 2003, he has been one of the firm's top five revenue producers in the Western United States.
Shawn Danoski, '94 BS Architecture, and Bryce Clutts, '03 BS Business Administration, are the leaders of a full-service general contracting firm, Danoski Clutts Building Group, which was founded in 2001. Among the firm's recent projects have been the new Thrifty Car Rental and the Dollar Rent-A-Car facilities at McCarran International Airport, the Southwest Airlines cargo scanner project at McCarran, and the Sullivan Real Estate offices on Rainbow Boulevard.
Vicki Pettersson, '94 BA English, will have three books published by HarperCollins/Eos Publishing. The Scent of Shadows and The Taste of Night are part of an open-ended urban fantasy series set in Las Vegas. The first will be published in March, the latter in April. In November, a novella in a fantasy anthology called Holidays are Hell will be released. She and her husband, UNLV Athletic Hall of Famer Roger Pettersson, '96 BS Hotel Administration, who played tennis, have a 1-year-old daughter. They live in North Las Vegas.
Vicki Kunkel, '95 BA Communication Studies, is a senior human resources reporting specialist at a global Fortune 100 financial investment firm. She previously worked in human resources at both Ralston Purina and Nevada Power Co. and was a reporter for a local newsmagazine. She and her husband, Tom, have two children. They live in Missouri.
Brad Packer, '95 BS Hotel Administration, is director of public relations for Four Seasons Resorts Lana'i in Hawaii, which includes its properties at Manele Bay and Lana'i and The Lodge at Koele. He previously spent five years in Miami Beach, Fla., as director of public relations for the Island Outpost and Noble House hotels. His hobbies include travel and outdoor recreation. He lives in Honolulu.
Michael Campbell, '96 BS Business Administration, works for Keller Williams Realty and is dedicated to giving back to the community. Among the ways he does this is by donating $500 on each real estate transaction to the charitable organization of the client's choice and by donating money for community development and redevelopment in Henderson through a fund he has established called the Campbell Housing Fund. He has signed up to be a mentor through UNLV's Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies.
Stephanie Pernell, '96 Master of Education, and Jeff Pernell, '03 Master of Education, recently cofounded the Flathead Valley Montessori Academy, the first Montessori middle school in Montana. Stephanie serves as head advisor, while Jeff is school administrator. They have two children. Their hobbies include traveling, hiking, snowboarding, skiing, and sailing. They live in Kalispell.
Jacqueline Neal Hooper, '98 BS Education, teaches for the Rutherford County School District in Tennessee. She previously taught for the Clark County School District for seven years. She earned a master's degree from Walden University in 2004. She and her husband, John, have two children, Shaylynn and Mason. They live in Murfreesboro.
Valerie Miller, '98 BA Communication Studies, is a reporter for the Las Vegas Business Press and recenlty won two first-place awards from the Nevada Press Association in 2006. Her award for best news story was about Harrah's use of radio frequency tags to track cocktail waitresses. Her award for best feature story concerned convenience stores and their struggle for industry survival and convenience store crime.
Jason Roth, '98 BA Communication Studies, is director of marketing for the University of Southern Nevada, a Henderson-based private university. Previously, he worked as an account supervisor at Phoenix-based Mullen Public Relations. There he oversaw the development and implementation of a marketing-driven, regional public relations campaign on behalf of one of North America's largest degreegranting higher education systems. He enjoys traveling, working out, and pursuing outdoor activities. He and his wife, Marygrace, welcomed their first child, Zane, on March 29, 2006.
Stacy Smith, '98 BA Theatre, is pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles and is co-editor of the "MiGNation Telegraph" newsletter at www.mignation. com. The portal website supports fans of Universal Music Group recording artist MiG Ayesa, who came in third last summer on the television reality rock show Rock Star: INXS. She lives in Glendale.
Glaee Valencia, '98 BS Sports Injury Management, received a doctor of chiropractic degree from Southern California University of Health Sciences. She has a solo practice in Las Vegas, Valencia Sports and Family Chiropractic. She also works with the Southern Nevada Pop Warner and Nevada Youth Football leagues. She is married and has one daughter, Mia.
Illan Kessler, '99 BS Business Administration, owns North Pole Xmas Trees, which wholesales and retails a wide variety of evergreen products and supplies, including trees, wreaths, and garlands. The company's wholesale division supplies more than 20,000 trees and hundreds of thousands of wreaths. The largest trees are shipped around the nation to a variety of customers, including Orlando (Fla.) City Hall and Las Vegas casinos. He lives in Nashua, N.H.
