- Alumna Finds Purpose in Advocacy for Native Children and FamiliesAs Maya Goodblanket reflects on her time as a student, she vividly remembers the day she found the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at Cal State San Marcos. Goodblanket was nervous about checking out the CICSC. She didn’t know anyone on campus and was unsure about going inside. But she mustered the courage to open the door, and all of her anxiety disappeared as she was instantly welcomed. Little did she know that she was meeting mentors that day who would help her achieve the career she has today. Through intentional support from faculty and staff and inclusive spaces like the CICSC, CSUSM equips students to lead with identity, purpose and impact. “I was looking for that connection to my culture, and I found it on campus,” said Goodblanket, who received a bachelor’s degree in psychological science and a Master of Social Work at CSUSM. “I'm an out-of-state Native. My tribe is from Oklahoma, so I always am searching to reconnect with tribal communities and tribal culture.” Goodblanket, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, serves as an Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) court advocate for the Valley Center-based Indian Health Council, which provides health and wellness services for American Indian communities in north San Diego County. Any families involved in a child welfare case, such as a juvenile dependency proceeding, can rely on Goodblanket for support. "I work with moms and dads who are struggling with a variety of challenges," Goodblanket said. "One is substance abuse. My job is to support families in doing what they need to do to reunite with their kids if they’re not currently in a place to have them back. I also work with caregivers and family members who have taken placement of the children." Goodblanket’s cultural connection is at the heart of her advocacy. Under the ICWA, child welfare agencies must prioritize placing American Indian children with relatives or within their tribal communities whenever possible. “Natives are still removed at a disproportionate rate by child welfare services,” Goodblanket said. "When children are disconnected from their culture, their long-term outcomes aren't as strong as those who remain connected. That’s why the cultural component is such a vital part of the work I do." As a student, Goodblanket participated in CSUSM’s inaugural “Beyond the Stereotype" campaign to raise awareness about cultural appropriation and the harm caused by stereotypes. Goodblanket and other students were featured on posters across campus that challenged common misconceptions about underrepresented groups. She emphasized the need to raise awareness about issues like missing and murdered Indigenous women and the harmful sexualization of Native women through stereotypes and costumes, which contribute to broader societal perceptions and injustice. "Maya demonstrates how education driven by purpose and cultural knowledge creates lasting change,” said Joely Proudfit, chair of the American Indian studies department and director of the CICSC. “CSUSM remains grateful for her transformative impact, particularly through her leadership in the award-winning 'Beyond the Stereotype' campaign, where she challenged cultural appropriation with authenticity and understanding.” Goodblanket didn’t expect the campaign to have such a large impact, and its widespread presence across campus was surprising but meaningful. "I think it was really important to take that stance and just stand up,” she said. “And I think that's what college is all about.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- After Surviving Battle With Hep C, Alumnus Now Helps Others Do SameRichard Jaenisch had received a death sentence at age 12. Diagnosed with hepatitis C, very unusual for a child that young, Jaenisch had been told by doctors that if he didn’t get a liver transplant, he wouldn’t live past 30. That disturbing prediction had hung over his adolescence and early adulthood like a black cloud, casting a pall over every doctor’s appointment and health episode. Now here it was, 2016, the year when Jaenisch turned 30, and the doctor’s assessment was feeling eerily prescient. He had not been able to procure a new liver, and his condition was deteriorating rapidly. To borrow his gallows humor, he was as “yellow as a Simpsons character” because of jaundice. He collectively spent more than six weeks in the hospital as a result of various complications from end-stage liver disease. “Every single day that year, I had a 30 to 60 percent chance of dying,” Jaenisch said. That he didn’t die, that he received a liver transplant on Dec. 3 (only a few months before his 31st birthday), Jaenisch considers to be nothing short of a miracle. Given the gift of fresh life in his fourth decade, he elected to devote it to ensuring that no one else has to go through the ordeal that he did. Three years later, Jaenisch returned to Cal State San Marcos – the university where he had earned a bachelor’s degree in social sciences in 2008 – to pursue a master’s in public health. He now works as the director of education and outreach for Open Biopharma Research and Training Institute, a Carlsbad nonprofit whose mission is to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals like the ones that helped keep him alive while he waited for the miracle liver. More significantly, Jaenisch is a tireless patient advocate, dedicating countless hours to multiple organizations that share a goal of ending the scourge of hep C. He has transformed adversity into community impact, leveraging his CSUSM education to improve lives and strengthen public health across the state. “Richard is truly a special person,” said Carrie Frenette, the executive director of global medical affairs for Gilead Sciences and Jaenisch’s liver doctor for nine years starting in 2012. “I can’t think of anyone else who has so much expertise and understanding in their medical problems, advocates for themselves and then goes on to advocate for others. Honestly, it made it so easy to care for him, and it made it mean even more when he got his transplant and was healthy again.” 'I don’t know how you are still alive...’ It all started with brown pee. Jaenisch was a normal suburban kid growing up in Rancho Bernardo. When he was 12, his parents signed him up for a summer tennis camp. It was a sweltering day and he didn’t drink a lot of water; when he returned home and went to the bathroom, his urine was dark. His father took him to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he was put through a battery of tests on his kidneys, spleen and liver. The diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) stunned them, as did the subsequent wallop of bad news: After the rest of the family was tested, it was discovered that he contracted the infection at birth from his mother, who also was found to have HCV. Nothing, though, could have prepared Jaenisch for the haunting prognostication of liver transplant or death. “That shook me to my core,” he said. “My childhood was fundamentally changed. And my mom heard that, too, because she was in the room. It’s awkward hearing your own future from your child’s diagnosis. We shared a very odd relationship in that way.” At the time, in the late 1990s, there was no cure for HCV, only experimental treatments with low success rates and punishing side effects. Jaenisch’s mom started the drugs – interferon and ribavirin – almost immediately, but as a child, Jaenisch wasn’t eligible. The primary impact of HCV on his teenage years was that he was forced to cease participation in all sports and PE classes (because the disease can be transmitted through blood) and he began to suffer from a type of brain fog named hepatic encephalopathy (HE). After graduating from Rancho Bernardo High School, he attended Palomar College for two years, then transferred to CSUSM. There, he threw himself into classes in economics, history and political science – not only to satiate his hunger for knowledge but also to distract himself from the fear that constantly lingered at the back of his mind. “I wanted to live as much of my life as I could before everything hit the fan,” Jaenisch said. “Because I knew what was coming. When someone gives you a death sentence, you remember it, to say the least.” Jaenisch graduated from CSUSM in December 2008. Only a few weeks later, the trouble started. He attempted to begin the same treatment program his mom had undergone, but because of denials by his mom's employer, he wasn’t able to do so for about nine months. Once the snags finally had been resolved, the 12-week regimen of interferon and ribavirin didn’t work. He experienced all the negative effects of the drugs – in his case, painful inflammation and wild emotional swings – without any decrease in his body’s viral load. A second round at double the dosage early in 2010 similarly yielded no response. By this point, more than a decade after his HCV first had been discovered, Jaenisch had descended to the most serious stage on the scale that measures liver fibrosis, or scarring. F0 equates to no fibrosis, F1 is mild, F2 is moderate, and so on. He was at F4, which indicates the presence of cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver is extensively scarred and permanently damaged. Jaenisch had reached the dreaded end-stage liver disease, which essentially meant that the ticking of his clock was only accelerating. All the while, he was encountering roadblocks in his career. He had hoped to enter the niche field of traffic economics, but graduating into the Great Recession scuttled that plan. For a time, he held a job in tech support that he found unfulfilling. The work that did bring Jaenisch joy was for a group that offered before- and after-school services for elementary and middle schools in the Poway district of his youth. He envisioned a long-term future in that field but was stymied by both the ailing economy (which led to layoffs) and his illness (he claims he was a victim of disability discrimination but chose to spend his remaining time trying to get better rather than pursue a case.) While he tried to piece together enough work to retain his vital health insurance, Jaenisch’s health continued to deteriorate. In 2014, two years into her stint as his liver doctor, Frenette proffered a grim evaluation. “She said, ‘I don’t know how you are still alive with this liver,’ ” Jaenisch recalled. “She showed me pictures and was like, ‘Your liver is an old shoe. It is not doing what it’s supposed to do. But you’re still functioning.’ ” Every moment of optimism, it seemed, was followed by a stroke of misfortune. He began taking a new drug called Sovaldi (a direct-acting antiviral, or DAA) that was considered a game-changer for HCV patients in that it had an 86% cure rate in six months. Sure enough, Jaenisch’s viral load was approaching zero and his liver was curing. But then he contracted a C. diff bacterial infection (the suspect: spoiled food from a restaurant), which caused acute liver failure and brought his HVC roaring back. He later tried another second-generation DAA – Harvoni – that sounded promising but failed in the last week of treatment. As his liver continued to deteriorate, in 2016 he became too sick for treatment and, following a now-common hospitalization, an ER physician gave him outdated medical advice, which resulted in a case of sepsis that nearly killed him. End-stage liver disease is typically a rapid descent lasting as little as two years. For Jaenisch, it was an eight-year slog, from age 22 to 30. “He was in and out of the hospital multiple times, and he nearly didn’t make it to transplant multiple times,” Frenette said. “I can’t imagine anyone going through it with the courage and strength that he did.” Even after the liver transplant, Jaenisch wasn’t out of the woods. The operation addressed the issue of the failing liver, but it didn’t eradicate the HCV (the virus lives in the bloodstream). Frenette advised a treatment plan of Sovaldi, Zepatier and ribavirin, and that pharmaceutical concoction proved to be a magical formula. In September 2017, 18 years after the fateful diagnosis, Jaenisch was cured. “Honestly, I cried,” Frenette said. “He had been through so much, and to finally get rid of this awful virus that he had lived with his entire life and had caused his liver to fail … I don’t have words.” ‘I have to be more than a self-advocate' It was during one of his dozens of hospital stays that Jaenisch decided on the next course of his life, provided he would live long enough to choose. In the fall of 2014, he had been admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital after the HCV returned via his C. diff infection. His medical team was struggling to lower his levels of bilirubin, a substance found in bile that was causing jaundice, the yellowing of the skin now so familiar to Jaenisch. He knew that ultraviolet rays help break down bilirubin, so he convinced the nurses to bring him outside for an hour a day at peak sun. As he had theorized, his bilirubin numbers declined. “It was at that point where I was like, ‘I have to be more than a self-advocate. If I can survive through transplant, I need to go to a Master of Public Health program,’ ” Jaenisch said. “I realized that that path would help me better understand how to become an advocate not only for myself but also for others.” His commitment would be nurtured in an environment like CSUSM, as he was accepted into its accelerated MPH program. His time back at the university overlapped with the pandemic, which he took advantage of by choosing as his thesis topic the emergency use authorization of COVID-19 tests. “He was very inquisitive and passionate,” said Asherlev Santos, an associate professor of public health and Jaenisch’s thesis adviser. “Sometimes that passion was more visible than the evidence of the inquiry, but all came from a place of helping others in some sort of need. He used his personal and professional experience to spur on what he did for his MPH degree.” His master’s allowed him to land his job at Open Biopharma, but it’s passion that mostly fuels Jaenisch in his advocacy connected to HCV. In 2016, while his body was still racked with the disease, he traveled to Sacramento with an organization known as CalHEP to talk to state legislators and raise awareness about viral hepatitis. The next year, when Congress was preparing to vote on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Jaenisch enlisted in the fight. He told his story of overcoming HCV in half a dozen TV interviews, worked at a call center, wrote letters – he did so much that the American Liver Foundation named him its liver champion of the year. “I wanted to preserve the things that help people get access to health care,” he said. “Because to me, it saved my life.” He also has volunteered for state and local groups such as End the Epidemics, the California Department of Public Health and the Eliminate Hepatitis C San Diego County Initiative. Their shared objective (in line with a goal established by the World Health Organization) is to eliminate hep C by 2030, which means a reduction of new infections by 90% and deaths by 65%. And the barriers are much lower than they used to be. Jaenisch says his family spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatment and other expenses to keep him alive. Today, treatment could run as cheap as a few hundred dollars, and that’s for more effective drugs, too. “I was raised in a middle-class suburban household, and I wouldn’t have known I had hep C if I didn’t pee a brown color,” Jaenisch said. “I’ve always maintained that I think we’re missing a lot of people, and I keep trying to push for us to find them and knock this virus out. We’re taking a lot of steps, and eventually we’ll get there.” Thanks to Jaenisch’s focus on access and innovation, those steps are becoming strides – toward a healthier, more equitable future for all. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- MBA Graduate Builds Meaningful Career Helping Domestic Violence SurvivorsAs co-executive director of Kathy’s Legacy Foundation, Alex Lutz will tell you that no two days are ever the same. One moment she’s assembling raffle baskets, the next she’s reviewing financial statements. “It’s almost like you could take a Fully Employed MBA class schedule and go, ‘OK, yep, you’ve tapped finance, you’ve tapped accounting, marketing, leadership,’ ” Lutz said. “Somehow, I have to wear one of those hats at any given point in my job.” Founded in the wake of a tragic act of domestic violence, Kathy’s Legacy Foundation honors the memory of Kathy Scharbarth, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2011. The nonprofit supports children and pets impacted by domestic violence – offering comfort, stability and hope through its two signature programs. Lutz, who joined the organization in 2019 after earning an MBA from Cal State San Marcos, thrives on the variety and challenges of nonprofit work. Her time at CSUSM helped her develop a deeper understanding of her strengths and areas for growth, while also fostering connections that continue to support her in her role today. “CSUSM helped me focus on what I felt like my strong suits were and what I liked and didn't like,” Lutz said. “The personal connections I made at CSUSM have become invaluable professional resources.” Years after graduating, Lutz came full circle when she collaborated with CSUSM business students on their Senior Experience project for Kathy’s Legacy. Although the project was ultimately cut short due to the pandemic, Lutz felt a strong connection to the students because she had completed similar projects while earning her MBA. “The project was marketing-focused, and we were working to try to reach donors who resonate with our mission, " Lutz said. “I was bummed that we didn't get to finish in person together, but I loved getting to work with them as someone who has gone through the same experience. It was great, and we got some amazing materials in return.” Lutz first connected with Kathy’s Legacy when a friend asked if she’d be interested in consulting on an event for the organization. She was immediately drawn to the mission and soon after was hired full time as a program manager. In the ensuing years, she steadily took on more responsibility, stepping into the role of co-executive director in 2024. “I feel like jumping in wholeheartedly and putting everything I had into Kathy’s Legacy led me to where I am today," Lutz said. The foundation’s work centers on two initiatives: the Silver Lining program, which helps children heal from the trauma of losing a parent to domestic violence, and the Lady’s Legacy program, which was inspired by Scharbarth’s yellow labrador, Lady, who was present when Scharbarth was killed. Lady became a symbol of the often-overlooked impact of domestic violence on pets. Lutz now helps coordinate multiple fundraising events throughout the year, including the annual Kathy’s Legacy Golf Tournament held at Twin Oaks Golf Course in San Marcos. The work isn’t easy, but Lutz says the impact is clear at the quarterly events Kathy’s Legacy hosts. There she sees firsthand how the organization is changing the lives of the children they support. “We had one boy who was not doing well during COVID and even long after the pandemic would wear a mask and have his hood up,” Lutz said. “But in the past year, the hood has come off and he’s smiling and engaging, which means something we’re doing is working. “I love that we can be that beacon of light and that reliability that these kids don't have anywhere else.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Chronic Illness a Journey of Strength, Self-Discovery ... and SaltThe first time I rode in an ambulance was in May 2024. I was in the middle of my 10:30 a.m. Communication 200 class when I realized my vision and hearing were failing. I couldn't keep my legs or arms straight and I couldn’t speak. The full memory is hazy, but I found myself sitting outside of Crash’s Market in the University Student Union with a handful of salt packets and on a Facetime call with my parents, who live in Tennessee. This experience didn’t come out of nowhere. I have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a chronic condition that I’ve lived with since my junior year of high school. There’s not a lot known about POTS, but it's a disorder affecting the autonomic nervous system. When I switch positions (postural) – especially when I go from sitting to standing upright (orthostatic) – my heart rate rapidly increases. On average, it's over 100 beats per minute (tachycardia). POTS leaves me with a slew of symptoms. Daily, I experience dizziness, nausea, fatigue and brain fog, among others. Some people who have POTS faint frequently, even daily. I'm lucky enough that this doesn't typically happen to me, but I do experience presyncope, which means I go through all the symptoms of passing out while still fully conscious. When it occurs, I'm not able to see, speak or hear anything. I’m so dizzy I can’t walk straight. I get heat flashes. I remember only bits and pieces of what happens during these moments. The severity of my symptoms can vary, leading to an episode like the one I suffered in May 2024. If I have been walking or standing for too long, sitting for too long, am stressed out or if it’s hot outside, there’s a higher chance of an occurrence. That day in May, while I was on the phone and sitting outside of Crash’s Market, my parents called the paramedics. Determining that I couldn’t walk anywhere on my own and wouldn’t be able to for several hours, they took me by ambulance to the emergency room at a nearby hospital. Though it was my first time in an ambulance, I had made frequent visits to the ER over the previous four years. The process this time was the same as it had been for prior trips: They measured my vital signs, checked my heart with an electrocardiogram and did blood work to confirm POTS as the reason for the incident. Then I received an IV. IVs have been incredibly helpful. People with POTS struggle with low blood volume and tend to get fewer nutrients from the food we eat. An IV provides quick hydration and extra electrolytes. I also constantly consume extra salt, which helps improve blood volume. I add salt to my food, but in extreme cases, I will just eat plain salt packets. At restaurants, I always take an extra handful of salt packets from the condiment stand. These live in my purse or backpack, and I keep them handy in case I feel an episode coming. Some of my friends even carry salt packets when they’re hanging out with me. Despite the challenges, I try to focus on the positives. This journey has taught me to advocate for myself and surround myself with people who care about me, which is easy to do at Cal State San Marcos. Self-advocacy became a necessity as I went through many months of doctors’ appointments during high school trying to figure out what was wrong. Several doctors said everything I was going through was normal. But I knew it wasn’t. I wasn’t officially diagnosed with POTS until two years after my first symptoms. I had COVID twice during that time, and doctors believe that may have exposed an underlying condition. POTS is a chronic illness, meaning there is no cure. I’m a regular at the doctor’s office, with multiple appointments every month. Attending events causes heightened anxiety – both for me and the friends I’m with – and I do my best to be prepared in case of an episode. I had to take another ambulance ride in March. A friend and I were at a Kelsea Ballerini concert in San Diego. Though I had been fine the whole day, I started feeling nauseous and dizzy during the first opening act. I couldn’t stand. By the time Kelsea took the stage, the combination of the heat, crowd and strobe lights proved too much. My friend had to help hold me up as she guided me down the stairs to find the medics. Situations like this are frustrating. I don’t want to be a burden to friends and family, and I don’t want friends constantly worrying or family having to pick up slack. I’ve made some lifestyle changes in an attempt to lessen my symptoms. I take daily medication to ensure that my body keeps the right balance of salt and water. I drink tons of water with extra electrolytes and salt added. I try to walk every day to get my body more adjusted to moving. On hot days, I carry a mobile fan. And I also make sure to eat well. When I decided to attend CSUSM, the Disability Support Services office proved invaluable – they set me up with first-floor housing so I could avoid stairs (and anyone who has spent time on campus knows it’s no easy task to avoid stairs at CSUSM!). I also have learned to be more open about my condition. Through my on-campus job as a writing intern in the University Communications office, I’ve made great friends and found people who understand and support me. The experience has been an important part of pursuing my goal of becoming a writer. While CSUSM has helped me grow, my family and I made the difficult decision for me to move back to Tennessee at the end of the spring semester to focus on my health. I’ve had my share of challenges, but I also know how difficult it has been for my family to get calls in the middle of the night to learn I’ve been taken by ambulance to the ER when they’re 2,000 miles away. Though I’m heading east to finish college, I’ll always be thankful for my time at CSUSM – for the friends I’ve made, the support I’ve received and the confidence I’ve gained in sharing my story. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Firefighting Proves to Be ‘Hand-in-Glove Fit’ for GraduateDwaine Collier always has thought of himself as a guy who runs toward the frightening things that most people run away from. As a boy, his career aspiration was to be on a SWAT team. As a student at Cal State San Marcos, though his academic track early on was kinesiology, he gravitated to the theater and began auditioning for every high-pressure stage role possible. So when Collier was at a crossroads in his post-graduate life and his stepfather figure suggested that he explore firefighting, perhaps the most surprising aspect is that Collier had never thought of it himself. Who, after all, is more willing to charge headlong into a risky situation than a firefighter? “I’m the person who will stop their car on the side of a busy road to help somebody rather than driving on,” Collier said. “That’s just what I do. It’s what’s in me. So for me, this job is a hand-in-glove fit.” Collier was speaking from a common area inside San Diego Fire Station 43, which is in Otay Mesa and has been his home away from home for the past year. On this day in late April, he had donned his gear several times to go on calls in the station’s primary engine with his firehouse colleagues – a firefighter paramedic, an engineer and a captain. The calls were fairly routine. Because Station 43 is in a lightly developed neighborhood only a few miles north of the Mexico border, most of the emergencies that its crews respond to are vegetation fires, car fires and incidents at the border itself – often people sustaining injuries as they try to cross into California illegally. Collier, 29, is less than four years into his firefighting career, which translates into this current assignment far from the heart of San Diego. He has to gradually work his way up the ranks and into more plum stations. But Collier still loves where he is and what he’s doing. He gladly will show off for visitors every nook and cranny of Station 43 – from the exercise space where he gets to incorporate one of his favorite activities (weightlifting) into his work hours, to the kitchen where he frequently cooks meals for the whole house, to the cherry-red fire engine that he has come to know every inch of like the back of his hand. “Becoming a firefighter is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he said. “It’s not an easy job. When the stuff hits the fan, it sprays everywhere. But it’s also one of the most rewarding things you can do.” It was at CSUSM that Collier discovered the stability and self-confidence that made life as a firefighter seem realistic. He grew up in the foster system and entered the university having attended an astounding 17 different schools before he even reached high school, Olympian in Chula Vista. He arrived at CSUSM with the assistance of ACE Scholars Services, the university’s program for former foster youth. Collier switched his major from kinesiology to visual performing arts and threw himself into theater with abandon, ultimately starring in seven shows during his five years as a student. “What CSUSM gave me is the belief that I can do anything,” said Collier, who graduated in 2018. “I came into college with extreme educational deficiencies. Yet CSUSM had every tool to catch me up and help me succeed. It gave me the environment to grow.” Collier intended to pursue a Master of Fine Arts and a doctorate en route to becoming a theater professor, but he admits that he didn’t prepare well enough for his graduate school auditions and was delivered a harsh “reality check.” He was teaching kids at Callan Swim School when his stepdad proposed what turned out to be a fateful visit to the Heartland Fire & Rescue station in El Cajon. He was a reserve firefighter there for a year before entering the San Diego Fire Academy in 2022. Now Collier aims to keep climbing the ladder – both literally and figuratively – as a firefighter while not pulling it up behind him. As soon as he joined the fire service, he got involved with community outreach as part of the team tasked with recruiting the next generation of firefighters. And his next goal is to take classes toward becoming an instructor of young firefighters eager to enter the fire service. “I feel like that’s my next calling,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how to give back by motivating and helping others. It gives me joy to see people be uplifted and accomplish things.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Alumna Took Unorthodox Path to Leading Local Health Care StapleMichelle Gonzalez was a Cal State San Marcos student only about a month away from graduating in 2003 when she started working for an organization then called North County Health Services. Her degree (communication) was unrelated to health care, and Gonzalez had no intention of staying in the field. The main appeal of the job was that it was close to her home and the university. Beginning her journey as a program assistant in an entry-level role, Gonzalez quickly developed a fondness for the local nonprofit and its high-minded mission: providing quality health care and wellness services to underserved communities, regardless of income or insurance status. Her early connection to community health mirrored CSUSM’s commitment to accelerating social mobility through leaders who serve with purpose. What Gonzalez imagined to be a brief pit stop instead turned into a rewarding career, and over two decades, she climbed the rungs all the way to the top – she was appointed president and CEO in 2020, the same year that North County Health Services was reborn as TrueCare. With Gonzalez at the helm, TrueCare has expanded into a regional force with 21 health centers and five women, infants and children (WIC) locations, covering a footprint of more than 42 miles, from Encinitas to Ramona. Her leadership has driven key advancements, including the opening of new health centers, expansion of the mobile fleet and specialty services, implementation of an advanced electronic health record system, rebrand of the organization, and launch of a successful doula program supported by a $2 million federal grant. Question: This year marks the five-year anniversary of you becoming the leader of TrueCare. What does that milestone mean to you? Michelle Gonzalez: I think it's a reminder of how quickly time flies and how quickly things can change and evolve. It's hard to remember that we were in this worldwide pandemic. It feels like it's been a couple lifetimes. We've had a lot of growth for the organization, and I think at this five-year mark, it just underscores how resilient we are, how much people matter at the core of everything we do – whether it's providers, whether it's patients, whether it's the community, our staff. It's a culmination of the strength of the organization and everything that we've accomplished, which is a lot in the last five years. Q: How would you sum up the growth and changes that have occurred since 2020? MG: We've expanded our footprint. We've opened new sites, we've added new service lines, we've added acupuncture, we've added podiatry. We've really stabilized our workforce during a time of a lot of shortages and uncertainty. I’m proud of the fact that our provider retention rate is over 90%. We continue to hire at an accelerated pace, and I start there because everything we do, all the growth and all the accomplishments, it always starts with people. Without a solid workforce, we wouldn't be able to achieve anything. Our patient population has grown significantly as well. We had a slight decrease post-COVID, but we're back up to almost 70,000 patients. We've rendered more than 350,000 visits in this last year. Our workforce continues to grow. We're over 800 employees now and close to 160 providers. And then our budget has grown significantly, by almost $55 million in the last five years. We've tripled our mobile fleet. In all the areas of the business that you would expect to continue to progress, we're not only progressing, but we're thriving. Q: How did your appointment as CEO come about? MG: My predecessor went on a leave of absence in January 2020. The board asked me if I would be willing to step in on an interim basis. They were initially planning to do a national search, which I was fully supportive of. I didn't have any aspirations to be a CEO. I sometimes say I'm an accidental CEO. I was working in that interim capacity for several months, and then COVID made its presence known and we had the stay-at-home order. By April, the board had unanimously appointed me to maintain the position full term. After a lot of conversation and some prayer and reflection, I decided to pursue the position, and it's been a fantastic journey, in large part because I have such a great team around me. Q: What was the biggest challenge in taking over just as the pandemic was heating up? MG: There was so much uncertainty and fear. At one point, we had to close more than half of our clinics, probably 75-80% of our sites, we had to furlough staff. You think you can sort of ease in to becoming a CEO. There was no ease-in period. I remember talking with colleagues in the industry and saying, “How are you handling this? What are you doing?” And I realized very quickly that there's no playbook and everybody was truly figuring it out as they went along. Very early on, I made a conscious decision that I would be the type of leader who was always grounded and surrounded by strong advisers. We offer health care, but I'm not a clinician, so I made certain that we had strong clinical leadership on our team. It was about trying to understand what was unfolding in the world around us and how TrueCare plays an important part and ensuring that we were keeping our workforce intact. We’re back on track now, but it was an incredibly stressful time. Q: How did TrueCare pivot during that time and how does the organization look different now than it did in 2020? MG: Before the pandemic started, we had pieces of a telehealth or virtual health program. We realized very quickly that it would be crucial to continue to offer services to patients. For many patients, we are their lifeline, and cutting off their health care was not an option. So we were able to stand up a virtual health program in three days. It started off with telehealth visits and as soon as we were able to, we migrated to a video visit platform. We essentially worked around the clock to make sure that we didn't cut off access for patients, but it also gave employees a sense of purpose. And we've continued to build on that virtual health program while staying true to the traditional methods that you would expect to render medicine. We also had to pivot when it came to figuring out what our workforce was going to look like. We had to put people on furlough, but we made sure they still got a salary. We really believed that we needed to take care of our people, and a lot of funding from the federal government helped to shore us up. We laid off less than 15 individuals, and we were able to provide them with a severance so that they landed on their feet. I’m proud of that. Q: How would you characterize the change in you that turned TrueCare from a short-term job to more of a calling? MG: What I found was that people who worked here were very connected to the mission. They weren't here for the money. They were here because they cared about the people and patients that we were serving. The more I learned about the organization, the more in love I became with it and the more I realized, “My gosh, we have to make sure more individuals in the community and more community-based organizations know about what we do because there are so many people in need.” There was a misconception about people who were accessing care at community health centers, that they deserved less or they were just poor. I discovered that these are individuals who work very hard and who don't understand the importance of preventative care, and a lot of times don't feel like they're worthy of having access to care. What became a cornerstone of the work I did early on, and has carried on throughout my time here, is making sure everybody understands that access to health care is a right, not a privilege, and we don't care about your walk of life, where you come from or your circumstance. We want to make sure we help everyone who walks through our doors to the very best of our ability. Q: Tell me about your background. MG: I was born in Virginia, which is where my father is from. My mother is from Guam, and my parents met there while my dad was in the military. I'm half-Chamorro and half-white, and my husband is Mexican. We were childhood sweethearts who met when I was 12 and he was 14. I've had a lot of exposure to his family and culture over the years, and I think that's something that has benefited me very well. Though I'm not Mexican, I'm not Latina, I have such an appreciation for the culture and the people who we serve, which is the predominant background of our patients. My family traveled a lot while my dad was in the service. We moved to Vista when I was in third grade, and I've lived in North County pretty much my whole life. I'm also the youngest of seven children and the first in my family to go to college. So I'm a first-generation college graduate. Q: Did your parents not encourage college among your siblings? MG: We came from very humble beginnings, and I don't think we always understood that college was something within reach. My parents did the best they could to work and provide for us, but it was really the mindset of, you go to school and you get a good job. But my mom would say to me, “You're too smart, Michelle. You need to think about college.” I told her we couldn’t afford college, but she said we'll figure it out, we'll find a way. For most of the time that I was a student, I worked two jobs to put myself through school. I was also an AmeriCorps member, so I was able to receive a grant. But none of it came easy and none of it was without sacrifice or hard work – not just for me, but those around me who supported me. Q: What I'm hearing is a story of social mobility. MG: Oh, one thousand percent. I think that's why Cal State San Marcos and TrueCare are such great partners. We see health care as a right, not a privilege, and we think it's fundamental and foundational to everything. I think it ties in beautifully with social mobility. And there's so much good that is happening at Cal State San Marcos. There's a lot that we do together, and social mobility is a big part of that. Q: One of the main areas in which TrueCare and CSUSM have partnered in recent years is mobile health clinics. How did that come about? MG: Once I became CEO and started serving on the University Council, I learned about CSUSM’s interest in having a mobile health unit. I connected with (nursing lecturer) Matt Mincey early on and said, “You don't have to go on this journey alone. We have mobile clinics. We're right here, let's partner, let's figure out how to do this together.” What started out small has expanded into working not just with the mobile team, but also with the School of Nursing, public health, the entire College of Education, Health and Human Services. It’s a great opportunity to give exposure to students and help them understand that health care doesn't just come in a traditional hospital setting, that there's this whole other life of community health. There's a ton of overlap where our interests align nicely with what CSUSM is doing. We go to the same community events, and CSUSM students are able to do outreach, blood pressure screenings, things of that nature. Then, as they move farther along in their studies, when appropriate, they're also able to do internships at TrueCare. Q: How would you summarize TrueCare’s model in terms of providing health care? MG: One of the things I want to emphasize is that TrueCare will not refuse services to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. What we're focused on is the individual and the family who presents and what services you need, and how we can either provide those directly or connect you with somebody who offers them. At TrueCare, we provide high-quality, compassionate care. Like we always say, “Health inside, welcome in!” Q: That seems like such a valuable service in the community – health care you don't have to pay for. MG: In today's day and age, it sounds like something very novel. Does that really exist? And the reality is that it does. When you believe in your core that health care is a right and not a privilege, you fight to make that a reality. And that's what we're doing. We're growing in all possible ways and we're maximizing wherever we can, in terms of the revenue we're able to generate. We take that and we pour it right back into the organization so that we can continue to expand our footprint. We put a lot of emphasis on making sure we can get people enrolled in coverage because we know that if you have coverage, that's a reduced barrier and you're more likely to access health care. But that's not the only barrier you will have to face and figure out. We also spend a lot of time and resources and energy in cultivating a fantastic culture internally. We believe that people who are joyful at work are more likely to do a better job and will pour that energy back into our patients and community. We make it a priority to care for our workforce, to really give them opportunities to advance, to grow and level up. What we find more and more often is that our patients are a direct reflection of our staff, and our staff is a direct reflection of our patients. Pouring into one is pouring into the other, and we're proud of that because health care is daunting – not just for the patient in terms of navigating, but it's also really hard work. One of our VPs many years ago said, “Michelle, we do noble work.” And I was like, “Yeah, this is noble work.” That's exactly what we do. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Opportunity Knocks: Physics Grad Co-Founds Thriving CompanyMadison Perry didn’t have any type of physics background when he wandered through Science Hall 2 looking for research opportunities after his first year at Cal State San Marcos. Perry wasn’t worried about pay or even the tasks he would be doing. He simply wanted an opportunity to gain some hands-on experience. It wasn’t an easy sell, even if CSUSM is known for high-impact, experiential learning. Perry wasn’t a physics major (he was studying mathematics at the time), and he didn’t have any lab experience. Perry wasn’t having much luck when he knocked on the door of physics professor Stephen Tsui. “He just said, ‘Sure, why not?’ ” Perry said. The simple gesture was the catalyst for Perry’s switch to physics and the beginning of his journey to co-founding TP Engineering Services, a Poway-based company that builds laser and electro-optic systems for defense and fusion applications. The company has flourished since its founding in 2017, but a fusion contract that it secured three years ago has accelerated its growth. “It’s pretty insane to think about us getting to this point already,” Perry said. “Did I ever think we'd get here? Yeah, but I had no idea what it was going to look like, and I had no idea how it was going to happen.” The experience is similar to the one Perry had at CSUSM, where he practically lived in Science Hall 2 as a student. In fact, he was there so early and so late that the physics department eventually entrusted him with keys and after-hours access to conduct his work. “That was my thing – just being in a lab setting, being around hardware, being around something that was tangible, something that wasn't just theoretical,” he said. “It was where I could put my hands on hardware and get some experience.” After graduating in 2016, Perry headed north to UC Santa Cruz, where he earned a master’s in phototonics. His master’s thesis – on the design and development of a deep ultraviolet fiber laser system – caught the eye of a defense contractor who funded the project, leading to the formation of TP Engineering with his mother and father. TP Engineering quickly grew from an optics table in Perry’s bedroom where they navigated every project to the Poway lab it calls home today. The company has expanded from the initial trio of co-founders to over 20 employees, including two from CSUSM. The university still holds a special place in Perry’s heart. It’s where he met his wife, Amanda, who earned a bachelor’s in kinesiology. More than a decade after they met while both lived on campus in the University Village Apartments, they welcomed daughter Elli, who will be 3 years old in December. And he still returns to campus every year for Super STEM Saturday, an annual one-day science festival that brings thousands of community members to campus. A longtime supporter of CSUSM Giving Day, Perry increased his contribution last year with a matching gift for the physics department. “He's an alum who really believes in giving back,” Tsui said. “It's nice that so many of our graduates remember us so fondly and want to see younger alums and students do well.” That’s certainly the case for Perry. He doesn’t take for granted the impact that people like Tsui had on him and his career. “CSUSM took a chance on me a long time ago, and I want to support them being able to give other students a chance as well,” Perry said. “My professors gave me a unique perspective on life. If Dr. Tsui hadn't given me that opportunity to work in his lab, I don't know if any of this would have happened. They gave me a chance, and that changed me forever.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Faith, Resilience Help Athlete Through Life-Threatening CrisisIt all started with a headache. A seemingly normal ailment, but Malachi Wright doesn’t get headaches. And he definitely doesn’t get headaches that force him to leave work early or have him confined to the couch and throwing up for three straight days. That's when his mom, Ivonne Mancilla, knew this was something more. It was the summer of 2023. Wright – who had just completed his second year at Cal State San Marcos, where he plays for the men’s soccer team – was experiencing pain like he had never felt before. “He has a high pain tolerance,” Mancilla said. “I started noticing how much he was sleeping and how he was walking very fragile. I realized it wasn’t a normal headache.” On the third day of the headache, Mancilla took Wright to urgent care. Doctors treated it as a migraine, giving him some medication and sending him home. But the pain continued to be unbearable. Wright told his mom that he felt like he was dying. On day four, Wright went to the emergency room. It saved his life. Wright spent the next 40 days in the hospital, undergoing three brain surgeries with no idea what the future would bring. No certainty if he could return to school, let alone soccer, his passion from the time he was a young child. But Wright defied all odds. “I hope to get my story out to people so that they can see anything is possible,” Wright said. “I am trying to bring people inspiration and give glory to God. That was my thing in the hospital, having faith and staying faithful to God, knowing that I'll be OK and he's got me.” Wright was guided by his faith throughout his hospital stay. He and his mom prayed throughout the journey, and she kept a bible verse at the edge of her son’s bed that they read every day as he fought for his life. It’s Psalm 30:2: Lord my god, I called to you for help, and you healed me. Those prayers began virtually the moment Wright arrived at the emergency room. A CT scan showed that his brain was filling with fluid, and an MRI revealed a cyst in the third ventricle of his brain. When a neurosurgeon came to review Wright’s scans, she was horrified. No one had informed her of his highly critical state. He was dying. “They said his brain was like a balloon and that it could burst at any moment,” Mancilla said. “I had to sign a paper giving them permission to go in and drain his brain immediately because he could have brain damage or die.” There was not space available or time to get Wright into an operating room. Instead, ICU nurses rushed into his room to assist the neurosurgeon, who numbed and drilled a hole in Wright’s head to drain the fluid. Doctors initially wanted to place a permanent shunt in Wright’s brain. Mancilla was a fierce advocate for Wright throughout his hospital stay, earning the nickname “Bulldog” from nurses. She was resistant to the shunt, worried it would affect Wright's ability to pursue his dream of becoming a firefighter. After she expressed her concerns, the lead neurosurgeon opted for a temporary shunt instead. Wright was in and out of consciousness for much of his time in the hospital, but a strong support system – including his mom, his aunt Vanessa, members of the family’s church, and coaches and teammates from CSUSM’s soccer team – played a crucial role in helping him through the process. The constant stream of visitors led Mancilla to discover the positive impact that Wright has had on so many people. His manager at Casero Taqueria, where he still works, reached out to Mancilla asking for permission to start a GoFundMe. The community raised $14,000, the exact amount needed to cover the family’s maximum out-of-pocket medical costs. “I didn't realize how many people Malachi has impacted,” Mancilla said. “Sometimes as a parent, you don't get to see all that until these types of things happen. Sometimes we focus a little too much on what they're doing wrong and not on all the other good things that they're doing that maybe they don't tell you about. “I told him, ‘This is all because of the seeds that you've planted out in the world, and this is how it's all coming back to you. So continue to be who you are.’ I am so proud of that. I was such a proud parent.” Wright endured three brain surgeries during his hospital stay. The first removed the majority of the cyst, the second cleared residuals of the cyst and the third addressed blood clots. It was a physically and mentally draining process. After the first surgery, Wright was temporarily paralyzed on his left side. He couldn’t sleep and was in constant agony. “It was the worst pain I felt in my life. It was excruciating,” Wright said. “It was really hard. I was confused, wondering where I was. It was a lot of scary stuff.” It wasn’t until Wright’s 35th day in the hospital that Mancilla felt like her son would be OK. His pain levels were reduced and he could walk again. But the biggest sign to Mancilla that Wright was doing better? He asked for his phone, which he hadn’t been able to use for most of his hospital stint. Though Wright’s pain was finally under control, other challenges remained once he left the hospital. He underwent cognitive, physical and speech therapy. Doctors expected the recovery process to take two years, but Mancilla knew her son had the fortitude for a quicker recovery. She could see that Wright was capable of more than he was initially allowed to do in the rehabilitation process, and her tireless advocacy paid off. Wright returned to CSUSM in the fall of 2023, just months after his hospital release. He eased back in by taking one class before increasing his load to three courses in spring 2024. He is grateful for the support he received throughout this time from coaches, teammates and athletic department staff, also noting the important role that CSUSM’s Disability Support Services played in helping him return to the classroom. A little more than a year after his three surgeries, Wright was back as a full-time student and soccer player. Wright didn’t just settle into classes, he thrived in them. He received a 4.0 grade-point average, making him the highest academic performer on the soccer team. “Not only did he heal perfectly, he's a better version of himself,” Mancilla said. “He turned something that caused him so much pain into good. He continues to make good choices for himself. He uses that painful experience and turns it into good.” That includes his efforts on the soccer field. Returning to the sport he loves was an impressive milestone for Wright, especially because it was considered virtually impossible just months earlier. Perhaps the most powerful moment of the 2024 season came in a match against Biola University. As the first half was winding down, Wright scored his first goal since the health scare. Mancilla, who never misses a game, ran down to the field. Coaches welcomed and hugged Mancilla as she rejoiced over the milestone. “It was a great, raw moment of emotion, love and gratitude,” said Ron Pulvers, CSUSM’s men’s soccer coach. “An experience I will never forget. “Malachi is a tireless worker in all aspects of life. He lives our core value of unconditional gratitude at the highest levels and lives his life with unequalled faith.” Wright is back on the field this fall as he continues work toward a bachelor’s degree in human development. He is scheduled to graduate in fall 2026, with an ambition of becoming a firefighter. While his time spent in the hospital was scary, the support he received helped him overcome adversity and his faith helped him remain positive. He now uses his experience to encourage others and push himself to perform the best he can. “People meet Jesus at the end of the rope. And that was the end of my rope,” Wright said. “Going through this whole experience with my brain really changed my perspective on life and it changed my character as a man.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Alumna on Front Lines of Fight to Advance Clean EnergyManal Yamout McDermid often feels like she’s standing on the cutting edge of California’s multibillion-dollar green economy. One day, McDermid will be meeting with a company that is developing what are effectively electric helicopters designed to cover distances of less than 100 miles – basically, an Uber for the skies. The next day, she’ll sit down with a business that’s building a device that captures a semi truck’s carbon emissions directly from the tailpipe, pumps it into a tank, then either buries it underground or sells the CO2 for use in products like soda. Still other days might include huddles with firms that make rooftop solar panels, heat pump water heaters, even self-driving cars. “Each of the clients that I work with, I get a chance to embed in their team,” McDermid said. “I get to jump around. And not only is the subject matter different, but the people are different and the vibe is different. I like that diversity.” Those clients, in turn, value McDermid’s expertise, so much so that they’re willing to pay handsomely for it, in many cases while they’re still trying to get off the ground as a startup. The Cal State San Marcos alumna is the founding partner of Caliber Strategies, a Sacramento-based lobbying firm that helps energy and climate companies – whether sexy startups or stodgy utilities – navigate the regulatory maze that is the California policy arena. In doing so, McDermid draws on almost two decades of experience in state politics and policymaking, going back to when she was a clean energy adviser to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in her early 20s, only a few years after graduating from CSUSM with a degree in biology. “I founded this company because it’s really challenging to bring new technologies to market, especially in a place like California where the market rules are quite complex and there are all these different agencies doing different things,” McDermid said. “We focus exclusively on climate and energy, and primarily on what I refer to as disruptive technologies.” Founded in 2013, Caliber now totals eight employees, and one of McDermid’s fellow partners is Michael Picker, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the nonpartisan body charged with regulating the state’s utilities. The company has almost 50 clients, including investment management giant Blackstone, accounting firm KPMG and Sunrun, one of the nation’s biggest solar installers. Sometimes Caliber’s clients take the form of a legacy company that’s opening a new product line. A.O. Smith Corporation, for example, has been around for 150 years and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of water heaters and boilers, with annual sales of almost $4 billion. But as California increasingly moves toward the full electrification of all buildings, A.O. Smith is gravitating toward heat pumps, which heat water using electricity instead of gas. Enter Caliber. The company worked with a team of nonprofit, industry and environmental organizations to help pass legislation to allocate about $44 million in incentives for heat pumps. Caliber then led an effort with this coalition and the CPUC to design an incentive program that would offer state residents payments of up to $7,300 for installing heat pumps. Another category of clients is fledgling businesses with an innovative solution to a climate-related problem. Charm Industrial is a Bay Area startup with a mission to, as its website touts, “put oil back underground,” an elegantly simple description of the complex science involved in carbon capture and sequestration. Charm approached Caliber in its infancy, seeking to get introduced to the right people, increase its name recognition and create a market from scratch. “It’s about streamlining the process, and even more so trying to educate regulators,” McDermid said. “We educate regulators and policymakers about what the needs of new technologies are. After the policymaker has already said, for example, we want electric cars and you have the market ready, there remain all these barriers that no one has figured out. So it’s a collaborative process to figure out how we get from where we are now to where we want to be.” It was at CSUSM where McDermid discovered her twin passions for environmental science and public policy. Having initially enrolled at the university on a cross country and track and field scholarship (she competed for two years before injuries forced her to stop), she decided she wanted to pursue conservation biology and save the earth one planted tree at a time. At some point in her college journey, however, it dawned on her that planting trees – even 10 to 20 acres worth – couldn’t compare with, say, protecting millions of acres through legislation. As a junior, McDermid spent the fall semester in Washington, D.C., as part of the Panetta Congressional Internship Program, and when she returned, she ran for and was elected president of Associated Students, Inc., for her senior year in 2004-05. She even started a progressive activist organization with some friends. “CSUSM was this perfect testing ground to try out all these different things,” she said. Using her student experience as a springboard, McDermid was accepted after graduation into the Capital Fellows Program, an initiative through Sacramento State that offers paid, full-time fellowships in each branch of California’s government. She was assigned to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office for a year, followed by a year working in the office of First Lady Maria Shriver. In 2008, McDermid got her big break when Susan Kennedy, still early in her tenure as Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff, acted on a recommendation to tap McDermid as her top deputy. Kennedy was seeking not an executive assistant but someone who could step into her high-pressure position when necessary and not miss a beat. In McDermid, she found a kindred spirit, essentially a younger version of herself. “She was perfect,” Kennedy said. “She looked out at the landscape from the perspective of, if she were the chief of staff to the governor, how would you prepare for this? How would you brief him on this? What information do you need from the agencies or the departments or the senior staff? “It’s a very tough role to step into, and she earned everyone’s respect because she was so good at what she did. She made me twice as good at what I was doing because she was as good as me.” Near the end of his eight years as governor, Schwarzenegger began to feel a particular urgency to buttress his accomplishments in the climate space. He tasked Kennedy with figuring out how to secure permitting for a host of renewable energy projects being incentivized by the Obama administration, and Kennedy in turn tasked not only Picker – the former CPUC president and current Caliber partner – but also McDermid. “It was a failure-is-not-an-option initiative by the governor,” Kennedy said. “I gave Michael all the power, and I gave him the most powerful weapon I could think of, which was Manal. The two of them were responsible for basically unlocking gigawatts of renewable energy in California, which completely changed the landscape of the state’s climate initiatives.” McDermid’s efforts were so successful that, when Schwarzenegger left office in 2011 and Jerry Brown entered, she was among just a handful of staffers retained out of the nearly 100 in the governor’s office. She departed later that year to take a job in Washington as a lobbyist for NextEra Energy, an electric utility holding giant, before Kennedy lured her back to California in 2013. With her longtime mentor, McDermid launched not only Caliber but also Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), a company that was born out of the shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear power station in June 2013. That closure created an immediate 20% power shortage in large portions of Los Angeles, a gap that AMS filled by building what McDermid called the “world’s largest virtual power plant” – battery storage systems at commercial sites like Kaiser Permanente, Irvine Company and Walmart. Over time, AMS shifted its focus from developing those large-scale energy storage projects to providing software that allowed others to optimize their own energy storage assets. When AMS was sold in 2020, McDermid rededicated herself to Caliber, which had been on the back burner for a few years. During the pandemic, she got married and moved from San Diego (where she grew up after her family escaped war-torn Lebanon when she was 3) to Santa Barbara, her husband’s hometown. Manal and Hitch, her husband, have a 3-year-old son, Malek. McDermid makes frequent trips to Sacramento and to San Francisco, where Caliber has a small office. Not coincidentally, the Bay Area also is the headquarters of the CPUC, one of the regulatory bodies that Caliber works closely with, along with the California Energy Commission, the Air Resources Board and the Natural Resources Agency. Many for-profit companies have an adversarial relationship with the regulators that establish the rules governing them, but that’s not the case with Caliber or most of its clients. They’re all in the same boat and rowing in the same direction when it comes to the state’s ambitious climate goals, which is one of myriad reasons why McDermid loves the work she does. “We’re very focused in California precisely because we actually want to get things done,” McDermid said. “I don’t want to spend my time convincing someone that climate change is a problem or that we should put more electric vehicles on the roads. The nice thing about California is, at the highest level, the leadership is completely bought in on what the problem is. And it’s more about figuring out: How do we solve it?” Manal Yamout McDermid Major at CSUSM: Biology Graduation year: 2005 Company: Caliber Strategies Website: caliberstrat.com Founded: 2013 Number of employees: 8 Talking Business With Manal Yamout McDermid What's the best advice you received about starting a business? Work with people you like. It's super simple, but if you pick people you like and admire and want to spend an inordinate amount of time with, you really can't go wrong. In some ways, getting the people right is more important than the idea and the path to market. What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? Same advice as the first one: Choose your partners carefully, and choose them based on their character, their integrity and your level of trust in them. Don’t just think about breaking into a market. What's the greatest challenge in starting your own business? I think it's the uncertainty and the self-doubt that come with it, like: Should I grow? The greatest challenge is believing that as you scale up, things will work out, and getting the confidence to take that next step. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? No. I'm a firm believer that whatever happens was supposed to happen, and it doesn't mean that it was good. But I wouldn't have done it differently. What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? I would say confidence, belief in yourself. The ability to really pay attention to what's happening around you, whether that's the market or the people you surround yourself with. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Incredible Mulk: Class Project Becomes Thriving BusinessMelissa Finestone remembers the assignment in her business marketing class that started it all. Each student was required to develop a business plan based on a product they conceived. Finestone decided to curate a product that combined her passion for cooking with a childhood love of chocolate milk. But Finestone wanted to develop a healthy alternative to other chocolate milks on the market. She noticed that there was a growing demand for more plant-based options, and she wanted to create a product that would avoid a laundry list of unfamiliar ingredients. When Finestone couldn’t find a product on the market that met her requirements, she chose to make her own. Using her Vitamix blender to grind almonds in her kitchen at home, Finestone crafted samples of chocolate- and strawberry-flavored, plant-based almond milk. She served it to each student in the class while presenting her product. “I remember a classmate saying, ‘I do not drink flavored milk, no matter what kind of milk it is, but I would buy this one,’ ” said Finestone, then known by her maiden name of Mandim. The overwhelming support from her peers inspired Finestone to launch The Mulk Co. in June 2018, only one year after she graduated from Cal State San Marcos with a bachelor’s degree in global business management. “What she is doing in starting up a food business is extremely difficult,” said Dick Lansing, who worked with Finestone as part of the College of Business Administration’s Career Mentor Program. “There are all sorts of hurdles and problems and costs that you need to go through and take into consideration. “I generally don't recommend anybody go into the food business, as an individual person, unless they have a lot of money they want to lose. But she had a plan, which was really good and really smart.” Today, Finestone’s signature almond milk is available at nine farmers markets throughout San Diego County and three in Los Angeles. She has gone from grinding almonds in her kitchen to using a commercial space in Vista, where she produces 10 different flavors and three seasonal offerings. The chocolate and strawberry flavors that she shared in class are among the most popular – and the recipe hasn’t changed much since then. “I can’t pick a favorite, but I associate each flavor with a memory,” Finestone said. “When I think of strawberry, I think of the student who complimented me in class because I couldn’t believe that she liked it so much.” Finestone takes pride in using only real ingredients in her almond milk; it contains no additives, fillers or preservatives. She sources her almonds from a farm in California’s Central Valley, where 80% of all almonds in the United States are harvested. Mulk has become so successful that Finestone has employees to cover the numerous farmers markets, though she still can be found each Sunday at the Leucadia Farmers Market. “My husband tries to get me to stay home and rest on Sundays, but I just love it,” she said. “There’s just something about the community and relationships you build with other vendors. I love the friendships you make, not just with your customers but with fellow business owners.” Finestone never intended to be an entrepreneur. It took a one-way ticket around the world for her to discover this path. Finestone grew up in South Africa, where she earned a bachelor’s in fine arts from Witwatersrand College and then graduated from Inscape Design College. She had a well-established career in interior design, even winning an interior designer of the year award for Virgin Airlines’ launch in South Africa. When Finestone’s parents moved to Australia, where her sister had landed a job, Finestone decided to move with them. But she quickly learned that Australia wasn’t where she wanted to live long term. Instead, she packed her belongings to find someplace that felt like home. It began a journey that took her from Melbourne to Sydney and then on to Chile, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, India and Thailand. With visits to more than 30 countries over her lifetime, Finestone credits the globe-trotting experiences for shaping her as a businessperson. In fact, it was a trip to India that inspired one of Mulk’s most popular flavors. The company’s golden almond milk is blended with turmeric, cinnamon and ginger, a nod to the Indian drink masala haldi doodh, which translates to “golden milk.” “I remember drinking it at Indian street markets, and it was delicious,” Finestone said. “I knew I wanted to create a version of it for Mulk.” After nine months of traveling, Finestone returned to Australia to see her family. She didn’t stay long, taking an offer to visit a friend in Los Angeles. This trip was different from the others, though. It was her first time in the United States, and she fell in love with Southern California. Finestone found herself with new opportunities, and she leaned into her passion for cooking, which had been a constant in her life since she was 6 years old and honing her skills with her mother and grandmother. Her talents led to a job as a chef for Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. But Finestone yearned for something else. She started studying business leadership and management at Santa Monica College and landed internships in public relations and marketing. She always thought her time in the U.S. would be temporary, that she would eventually return to Australia to be closer to her family. Then she met her future husband, Adam. One of Finestone’s internships was located next to the packing and shipping company owned by Adam’s parents. She frequented the store to mail packages, becoming such a regular that Adam’s parents invited her to a Christmas party where she met their son, who was visiting from San Diego. Finestone eventually moved south to be closer to Adam and continued to pursue her business degree, first at Palomar College and then at CSUSM. “I liked the idea of having a degree that would support any industry,” Finestone said. Finestone also had support from Adam, whom she credits for inspiring the name of her almond milk business. “My husband makes fun of me when I say ‘milk.’ It sounds like I’m saying ‘mulk’ because of my South African accent,” Finestone said. “The name just stuck, and I felt like it was fitting for my business.” Starting any business comes with challenges, and the food industry is notoriously difficult for budding entrepreneurs. It wasn’t just Lansing, a College of Business Administration advisory council member, who warned Finestone about how grueling it could be. As Finestone grappled with whether to start a business or find a corporate job, she reached out a week after graduation to Jim Hamerly, then the college’s dean. “I certainly shared some of my concerns and skepticism with Melissa about starting a food business,” Hamerly said. “She told me, ‘Well, I'm manufacturing it in my kitchen at home and I'm crushing my own almonds.’ And I'm thinking, ‘Oh my.’ ” Hamerly knew that could be problematic for adhering to U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines and that a commercial kitchen would be needed. At the time, Hamerly was helping his brother with a soup stock business, which required Hamerly to learn about packaging and manufacturing fluids. He shared what he learned with Finestone, even connecting her with his brother. Both Hamerly and Lansing were impressed with Finestone’s drive to launch her business. She decided after meeting with them that she would start small and serve her milk at a few local farmers markets. It was familiar territory to Finestone, who worked as a food service vendor for Bitchin’ Sauce, an almond dip company, while attending CSUSM. “I knew the lay of the land,” Finestone said. “I was able to create connections with other farmers market vendors and get ideas for my business.” When Finestone was just starting out, Hamerly was a regular visitor to her booth at Poway’s farmers market on Saturday mornings to support her and purchase Mulk products. “She's really good with people,” Hamerly said. “I used to sit on the sidelines and watch her sell to people as they came through the farmers market. A lot of CSUSM students start businesses, but she's really got a great head for business. She gets it.” Six years after launching Mulk, Finestone is familiar with the landmines that come with owning a business. But the happiness that radiates from her customers keeps her going. She is continuing to grow the business, with hopes of one day having Mulk available in Whole Foods. Finestone still thinks often about the day that her classmates tried her almond milk for the first time. She smiles when she recalls their reaction, and the memory never ceases to fuel her motivation for the future. “I have had lots of challenges,” Finestone said. “But I believe in my product and I see people’s faces when they find something they like. And when customers keep coming back, it just tells me that I'm actually fulfilling some sort of need. That's really what keeps me going.” Melissa Finestone Major at CSUSM: Global business management Graduation year: 2017 Company: The Mulk Co. Website: themulkco.com Founded: 2018 Number of employees: 3 What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? “Rank on a scale of 1 to 10 how passionate you are about this idea because it needs to be 11. Don't be scared of starting a business. It might fail, but it also might set you up for your next success. I've come across entrepreneurs who have started one product, realized there were a lot of roadblocks with the product and then they switch and start doing something else. And then they actually move forward with that one.” What’s the greatest challenge in starting your own business? “Employees and when your equipment breaks. I use industrial equipment and I'm not an engineer. So if something goes wrong, it's really stuck.” Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? “It would have been so cool if I was studying business while I was starting a business. Because I think I would learn a lot of principles and it would have helped getting feedback from professors.” What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? “Resourcefulness, passion and a high learning curve.” Media Contact Bri Phillips, Communications Specialist bphillips@csusm.edu
- Dorm Dreams: Alumnus Leads Marketing Firm He Founded as CSUSM FreshmanIt’s a tale as old as higher education itself: a college student desperately seeking a job to defray the cost of attendance or just to pocket a little extra spending money. That was the situation Elijah Schneider found himself in as a freshman at Cal State San Marcos when he attended a Thanksgiving celebration in the fall of 2015. One of the guests that day – Schneider remembers him being a neighbor or a distant family friend – was a business owner who was soliciting opinions about his company’s Instagram channel. Though firmly in its core demographic, Schneider was no big afficionado of Instagram – he estimates that he had posted fewer than 20 times in about a decade of having an account. He was (and is), however, very opinionated. So while fellow attendees declined the invitation to weigh in, Schneider didn’t hold back. He told the man that his company’s feed looked ugly, that the images resembled generic stock photography and that he should replace whatever marketing agency handled his social media. A few days later, Schneider followed up with a phone call in which he proposed a rather bold suggestion for who should be the replacement. As Schneider recalls it: “I was like, ‘Hey, you’re getting ripped off. You told me you’re paying this agency 10 grand month or something. How about you pay me 1,500 bucks a month? I will learn, I will become obsessed with this. Give me three months. If it doesn’t work, get rid of me.’ ” To Schneider’s surprise, the man agreed to the gambit. Schneider had promised that he would devote 10 hours a week to the enterprise, but he grew so fixated that he doubled it. After a few months, the company’s Instagram following had swelled by a factor of eight, and the man was so pleased that he wanted more services. “Do you know how to do paid ads?” he asked Schneider. “No, but I’ll figure it out,” Schneider replied, with a degree of self-assurance that would become his trademark. He did indeed, to the tune of quintupling a $1,000 investment in paid ads after taking a few courses on YouTube and LinkedIn. By the end of his freshman year, Schneider was managing tens of thousands of advertising dollars, being connected to a second client and hiring his first employee – all while living in The QUAD housing facility and taking classes toward his major in business administration. As a teenager in his dorm room, Schneider founded a digital marketing agency that he first called Mercury Media before changing the name to Modifly in 2017. He continued to build the company during his five years at CSUSM – eventually moving into an office at Union Cowork across the street from campus in North City – before graduating in 2020. Today, Modifly occupies a sleek, modern, 8,000-square-foot space in a high rise in downtown San Diego, a short walk from where Schneider lives with his wife, Sarah, an OR nurse at UC San Diego whom he met at CSUSM. Two years ago, Schneider sold a majority stake in his nascent business to a parent company called CourtAvenue, helping his team grow to 30 employees spread across four cities, including Mexico City. Modifly’s current and former clients include such brands as Mercedes-Benz, Nordstrom and UGG boots. Asked about his unorthodox path to becoming an entrepreneur, the now 27-year-old Schneider said: “Because I didn’t have the baggage of working for other companies, I hadn’t developed bad habits. I had to develop perspective, which allowed me to – with no experience – test things and see what’s working and what’s not. Not having a traditional background is fantastic in terms of the progression of the business because we do things differently. Every time somebody joins the company from another agency, they’re like, ‘It’s not supposed to work like this.’ And I’m like, ‘I know, it’s great.’ ” How does Schneider do things differently? He conducts a performance evaluation called a 360 review in which every employee of the company evaluates everyone else, meaning that the CEO (Schneider) can get critiqued by a lower-level worker who was just hired. “It’s not about age or experience,” Schneider said. “Everyone’s perspective is critical.” How does he do things differently? Even as the young leader of a young business, he’s not afraid to call established companies out on what he sees as flawed marketing strategies and to propose solutions that constitute much more than tinkering around the edges. Take Poo-Pourri, which devises and sells fragrant sprays for toilets. The company approached Modifly after its previous marketing partner didn’t work out. After a deep dive into customer feedback, Schneider proposed a complete overhaul of its approach, mostly notably removing the “Poo” and broadening to other types of sprays. Now rebranded as ~Pourri, the company peddles fragrances that reduce odors from not only the bathroom, but also pets, cars, shoes, baby diapers, even marijuana. “Digital media and digital marketing are constantly changing – every hour, it feels like,” Schneider said. “It’s a giant puzzle, and if you have to navigate that as a brand, it can become really confusing. I love this business because it pushes me to think outside the box to solve problems.” Schneider’s righthand man almost since the outset of his entrepreneurial journey has been Brandon Biancalani. They met at orientation before their first year at CSUSM – Schneider an incoming freshman from San Diego, Biancalani from San Clemente. They soon learned that they would be living a couple rooms down from each other on the same floor of The QUAD (Schneider’s future wife lived a few rooms down in the other direction). Biancalani initially was struck by Schneider’s outspokenness – a sharp contrast to his introversion – but while other residents of the dorm were distracted by partying or other teenage concerns, he and Schneider bonded over long, late-night conversations about life goals. Having entered CSUSM as a kinesiology student, Biancalani quickly realized it wasn’t for him, and when Schneider dangled an opportunity in the summer of 2016 to be Employee No. 2 for Modifly (then Mercury Media), Biancalani jumped at it. They moved into an apartment south of campus and lived together for the next 3½ years before graduating in the same class. Biancalani, who’s also married to a fellow CSUSM alumna, is now the head of paid media for Modifly. “We had this feeling early on that we could be really successful with this,” Biancalani said. “Even when we didn’t have an office, we’d meet at a coffee shop, just a couple kids figuring stuff out. And then it started turning into something big really fast.” Biancalani says their business partnership works so well because he’s a detail-oriented, data-crunching specialist while Schneider is a big-picture visionary. “Elijah has done so many personality quizzes that land him in that ‘thought leader’ category,” he said. “If something new pops up, he’s probably three steps ahead and already is best buddies with the person who owns the company. His superpower is that he can predict things and be on the cutting edge and be fearless in voicing that early. And he’s right 99% of the time.” After Schneider sold his majority stake in Modifly in 2022, he turned over day-to-day operations to a new president, Nico Coetzee, who’s been in the marketing business since Schneider was an infant. Now that he has built a stable company, Schneider is relentlessly focused on its growth. He travels frequently to meet potential clients, speak at conferences and generally proselytize on behalf of Modifly. Given that he stumbled upon his career in the most accidental way imaginable – giving offhand advice to someone at a family gathering – even Schneider is often amazed by the passion he feels for it. “I pour myself into this job because I can and because I want to,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like work; it’s my favorite thing. There are definitely days where I’m like, ‘I just want to go home, I’m done.’ But 99 out of 100 days, I love what I do.” Elijah Schneider Major at CSUSM: Business administration Graduation year: 2020 Company: Modifly Website: wemodifly.com Founded: 2016 Number of employees: 30 Talking Business With Elijah Schneider What's the best advice you received about starting a business? Surround yourself with the right people. You are a product of your environment, and if you have morally good people around you, then every piece of advice you're receiving is typically to your benefit. People over everything – that's the biggest thing. What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? If you have an idea for a business, just do it. Don't overthink it. Just put it in the market. Also, make sure you give yourself permission to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. What's the greatest challenge in starting your own business? For me, it was age and experience. I didn't really have a good mentor system around me. The people I could turn to for advice, I kind of had to build that as we went. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? I would have evaluated myself more. I am good at some things, I am great at others and I am horrendous at others. I wish I had been able to take a step back and evaluate myself in a way where I could place levers of accountability to fill the holes. What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? First and foremost is awareness. You have to be aware of yourself, your environment, your strengths and weaknesses. Number two is vision. As an entrepreneur, if you cannot bring people together to accomplish something, whether it's a task or solving a specific problem, you're not going to do well. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- More Than a Numbers GameI don’t know if it was predestination, but I’ve certainly known for a long time that I wanted to be a scientist. I still have the picture I drew in elementary school when I was 8 years old. It’s a self-portrait with my dream job scrawled on the paper: “scantist.” I came across that picture not so long ago and, while my spelling has improved greatly since then, the statistics related to the number of Black people employed in science and engineering remain stark. Just 3% are Black men, according to the National Science Foundation. The numbers are worse for Black women like me – just 2%. But I’ve never been someone to let numbers define me or statistics deter me from pursuing my dreams. That’s probably a good thing considering I’m also part of another group that, statistically, struggles to complete college – former foster youth. Less than 3% of former foster youth earn a bachelor’s degree, according to the Education Commission of the States. I’m proud that I’m part of those small groups since graduating from Cal State San Marcos in May with my bachelor’s in biological sciences. Now I want to help other students do the same and see those percentages grow. Much like me, most just need an opportunity. It’s a lesson I learned from my grandmother, who taught me the importance of simply showing up and taking a chance on someone. In my grandmother’s case, she took in my three sisters and me when our mother couldn’t care for us. I’m also grateful to CSUSM for taking a chance on me. At the university, I had the good fortune of being in U-RISE, which is the Undergraduate Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement program. Part of CSUSM’s Center for Training, Research and Educational Excellence, or CTREE for short, the U-RISE program prepares talented and motivated underrepresented students majoring in the sciences to enter and succeed in doctoral studies. It was in U-RISE that I met some truly special mentors who stepped up on my behalf. CTREE and U-RISE have eligibility requirements – and I didn’t meet all of them. It’s not that I wasn’t good at science or passionate about my studies. But my grades weren't at the level that U-RISE requires. I had always been a strong student in high school. I earned a spot on the honor roll each semester and was involved in numerous extracurricular activities. But I struggled when I started college. I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. Fortunately for me, CTREE’s leaders looked beyond the numbers (in this case, my grade-point average). They took into account the challenges I was working to overcome and saw my potential. They were willing to take a chance on me. And it was truly life-changing. Becoming part of U-RISE led me to a spot in the lab of biology professor Dennis Kolosov, who was there for me every step of the way. Whether it was answering a question, meeting one-on-one or providing professional development, Dr. Kolosov was crucial to my development and shaping my identity as a scientist. The support that CSUSM provides is second to none, from faculty like Dr. Kolosov and Dr. Mallory Rice, who inspire students each day, to staff like Shanelle Watkins, the Black Student Success Initiatives coordinator in the Black Student Center. This fall, I’m starting a Ph.D. program at UC Irvine, where I will be studying immunology. While I put in years of hard work to get here, my support system at CSUSM was critical in helping me reach this point. I’m looking forward to helping other students like me in the future, whether through a nonprofit organization to give back to the community in my hometown of Rialto near San Bernardino, or by helping STEM students at CSUSM navigate the path toward their degree. I know firsthand how important representation is for students of marginalized groups, and I know what it’s like to persevere. Each time I have fallen, I have gotten back up. I crawled, walked and ran toward my degree at CSUSM. Now, I want to serve as a positive example and role model to ensure that other students facing similar challenges aren’t left behind. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Volleyball Standout Excels After Overcoming ChallengesEver since Cal State San Marcos student-athlete Jada Blake was 6 years old, the volleyball court had been her sanctuary — a place where family issues and everyday struggles could fade into the background, leaving just her and the game. That was, until she reached her freshman year of high school. Quickly, the court she loved so much became a source of distress, and Blake found herself faced with her biggest opponent yet: depression. “I stopped caring about volleyball,” Blake said. “I even ended up not finishing club that year. I was just going through a lot mentally and couldn’t continue having that pressure on my shoulders.” Blake began skipping school to cope with her loss of motivation and overwhelming anxiety. She no longer had the desire to connect with her peers and spent most of her time isolated from loved ones. As Blake disappeared inside of herself, she found it increasingly difficult to face the outside world. “My house was walking distance from school, so my mom would drop me off and I would just walk back home once she was at work,” Blake said. “I didn’t want to be at school. I knew I would just go to the bathroom and cry.” Blake was raised in a single-parent household. Her father, who died in July 2023, was not in the picture due to addiction issues, so Blake grew up surrounded by her mom, older sister and younger brother. Having only each other to rely on, they became a team, always ready to support one another. As Blake’s streak of unexcused absences continued to grow, her mom learned of the situation from Blake’s high school counselor. Taken aback by her daughter acting so out of character, she knew it was time to intervene. “Jada’s freshman year was a struggle,” said Brianna Becker, Blake’s mom. “I would get that automated phone call every day at 4 p.m. saying your child missed class. There were even times I left work early and would find her at home. So, I started staying at home more and going into work late. Anything I could to make sure she went to school. “As a young single mom with no child support, it was just us most of the time. I feel like I grew up with them. I always want my kids to be open with me, and I feel like they can come to me about anything in the world. If there’s something I can’t do for them, we’ll figure it out together.” Blake’s first year of high school progressed, and with the help of her family, she started to throw herself back into school and social activities. As she regained a sense of motivation, she felt ready to resume her athletic pursuits as well. Her sophomore year, she kickstarted a long-standing reunion with the court and concluded the last three years of her high school sports career on a high, playing on varsity and being a candidate for league player of the year. Unfortunately, when it came time to explore colleges, her volleyball recruiting process was derailed by the pandemic. During such a time of uncertainty, it was practical for Blake to stay with family and attend community college in her hometown of Phoenix. There, she gained a strong foothold on her academics and started to feel confident in her schoolwork. “In high school, academics didn’t come naturally to me,” Blake said. “I always felt discouraged in that realm. I knew that I wanted to go to college, and while my sister had academic scholarships that were taking her there, I didn’t have that. I only had volleyball, and I had left it for a time. “You don’t realize when you’re super young that just one semester of making the wrong decisions and not prioritizing the right things can throw a lot of opportunities down the drain. My sophomore, junior and senior year were mainly just focused on fixing my freshman year. “But I’m actually very happy that I started with community college because it helped me with the transition from high school to university. Those two years in junior college taught me so much about how I could excel as a first-generation student athlete. In fact, that first semester after the pandemic was my first semester ever getting straight A’s.” When it came time for Blake to transfer to a four-year college, she was introduced to CSUSM’s head volleyball coach, Andrea Leonard. It felt like an instant connection between the two, and Blake knew she had found the school for her. As she made the plunge and moved to California last fall, she felt like she could finally breathe. She had earned her scholarship and could now play volleyball while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communication. Blake’s freshman year of high school was no longer a regretful memory, but a marker of her resilience and ability to overcome any challenge thrown her way. “I knew Jada was going to be an impactful player in our program,” Leonard said. “She really embodies all the core values that we look for, someone who is resilient, accountable and driven. She has this energy that bounces off the team and brings joy to everyone around her.” Blake lives with her great aunt, a local volleyball legend in the San Diego area, and her great aunt’s daughter, a fellow volleyball player. Although she was initially anxious about moving away from her family and falling back into old habits, Blake found a second home, dubbed “the volleyball house,” where she is excitedly taking on this new journey and staying on top of her volleyball and academic commitments. After her freshman year, Blake learned the importance of seeking outside help when needed. She now stays on top of her mental health by meeting with a therapist and talking with her family every day. They are her biggest supporters and regularly make the six-hour drive to San Marcos to watch her games. Knowing she can always count on her family to be by her side, Blake feels like she can overcome any barrier that stands in her path, mental or physical. “I just love watching her play,” Becker said. “I’m so proud of her and so happy that she’s in the position that she is in now. Seeing how far she has come and how things have turned around for her — it makes me emotional. At the end of the day, there’s going to be things in life that knock you down, but you have to pick yourself back up and fight for something that you are truly passionate about. And she did. And she has so much more to look forward to.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Lightning Strikes: Alumni Transform Passion for Helping Others Into Growing VR EnterpriseMurchison Falls National Park is a safari park in Uganda that boasts some of the best wildlife in the world, home to 76 different species of mammals and 451 species of birds. It’s located more than 9,000 miles from California, and a multiday safari there costs many thousands of dollars. On a Thursday afternoon in mid-February, a group of residents at the Bayshire Carlsbad assisted living facility made the exotic trip for free when white virtual reality headsets were placed over their faces. “You better hold on to your seat!” a resident named Jim Conley exclaimed as he craned his neck back and forth and spotted elephants, gorillas and monkeys in his field of vision, with a spectacular mountain range as the backdrop. “Boy, that is one pretty picture.” While Conley, seated in the first row of chairs, grew increasingly enmeshed in the virtual paradise around him, Jeremy Ford walked among the couple dozen other residents on hand for the VR session, carefully fitting them with their own headsets. Nearby, Tracy Ford, Jeremy’s wife, chatted with a couple of the residents as if they were old friends. After the safari experience, the residents hopped on a (virtual) plane and traveled to Cuba, then to Argentina and South Africa. A little less than an hour later, they were back at Bayshire, their eyes transfixed, their spirits lifted. “Every month when they come, I’m one of the first people out there,” said Conley, 72, a former boxer who has trouble walking now. “We saw a lot of cool stuff today. How often do you get to be that close to an elephant? After a while, you have to remind yourself that it’s not real.” That type of transporting experience is just what Jeremy Ford himself went through three years ago when, on an ordinary shopping trip to Best Buy with his wife, he strapped on a VR headset and found himself soaring over the Golden Gate Bridge like an eagle. Jeremy is a technophile who always has been an early adopter when it comes to electronic gadgets – he has waited in line for multiple iterations of the iPhone – and this would be no exception. Tracy bought him an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday, only a year after it had been released. Neither Jeremy nor Tracy studied business as students at Cal State San Marcos – Tracy graduated with a degree in criminology and justice studies in 2007, Jeremy with a degree in sociology in 2015 – but both possess an entrepreneurial bent that sees them frequently bounce ideas off each other. Here was a golden business idea staring them in the face: the opportunity to combine Jeremy’s technological savvy with Tracy’s interpersonal skills and their mutual desire to help people. Following a year dedicated to research and development, the Fords purchased 20 of the Quest 2 VR devices and in October 2022 launched Lightning Tours (the name was inspired by their son, Colton, now 5, and his love of the character Lightning McQueen from the Pixar film “Cars”). They considered multiple demographics as their target audience before deciding that senior living facilities made the most sense. “It started out with just putting on a headset, experiencing it for ourselves and wanting to share that with others,” Jeremy Ford said. “We’ve always had a passion for helping others and putting a smile on people’s faces. And that’s what we do, day in and day out.” Almost two years after the company was formed, Lightning Tours still hasn’t spent a penny on marketing. In the early days, the Fords pitched their concept to multiple facilities in North San Diego County by giving free virtual tours, and they gradually attracted paying customers by positive word of mouth. Now, they have grown to almost 40 VR experiences per month, and in total have given more than 500 throughout Southern California. As the tech guru, Jeremy handles the VR side of the business – buying and maintaining the headsets, selecting and loading the proprietary travel software, rigging the equipment so that it’s as comfortable and user-friendly as possible for an older clientele. He also has used his background in sales to drum up more customers, and he has personally directed all but one of the VR sessions (the single exception was when he had to travel for a funeral). Tracy, meanwhile, shoots photos and videos for the company’s social media channels while also taking the lead on communication with the residents of the facilities. “I try to build relationships with the seniors,” Tracy said. “I’m more of an emotional person, so I like to come in and see how they’re doing, how their day is going while he’s getting everything set up. I’d say he’s the brains of the operation, and I’m maybe more heart. “Although,” she added with a smile, “he does have heart.” Most of Lightning Tours’ clients value its service so much that they have booked standing monthly experiences. Each time, the tour is to a different country or region of the world – with rare exceptions, the destinations are places that the seniors are incapable of traveling to at this point in their lives. The effect can be powerful. Jeremy recalls a woman at a facility in Irvine who was initially reluctant to participate before he convinced her to give it a try. She agreed and sat quietly for the whole hour, turning her head in every direction. After the tour of Paris ended and Jeremy removed her headset, he saw that she was crying. When he asked her what was wrong, she related that her husband had died a few months earlier and that the sights during the tour brought back exhilarating memories of their frequent trips to the City of Light as a couple. “It was a moment that will stick out forever in terms of being able to provide that to her,” Jeremy said. “We want to bring joy to people, connect them to something that they might not otherwise be able to connect with, whether it’s the technology or whether it's the location.” Residents have been known to clap when the Fords enter the facility each month and to cheer after the experience. Some sites have introduced passport books, with seniors receiving stamps when they visit a new country. Olah Tupuola, the resident program director at Bayshire Carlsbad, said Lightning Tours has been a “transformative program” since the Fords first came to the center last September. “Their professionalism and kindness have made a significant impact on our community,” Tupuola said. “With Lightning Tours, the concept of a vacation is redefined, as residents can explore the world virtually, often while reliving cherished memories.” Jeremy and Tracy Ford are accidental entrepreneurs in more ways than one. A San Marcos native who’s the son of a Marine, Jeremy transferred to CSUSM from Palomar College and played on the first men’s basketball team in university history, coached by Jim Saia. He aspired to go to law school after graduation but ended up working in sales, first for a law firm and then for two large national life insurance companies. Tracy grew up in Oceanside and hoped to parlay her criminology degree into a career in law enforcement. But she graduated into a poor labor market caused by the 2007 recession and instead took a job in finance for 24 Hour Fitness. Unfulfilled by it, she transitioned into a role as a personal trainer for the same business. In fact, Tracy and Jeremy met at a 24 Hour Fitness gym, and they got married seven years ago. Both feeling boxed in by their corporate environments, they tried to turn a couple of their other late-night brainstorms into businesses, but nothing took off. Then came the fateful visit to Best Buy. Not that the birth of Lightning Tours came without hurdles. For the first 10 months of the company’s existence, Jeremy kept his full-time position at Ethos Life Insurance. “But there came a point where my wife was driving me to tours and I was working in the passenger seat, trying to do both jobs,” Jeremy said. “It was like, ‘OK, this isn’t sustainable. We’ve got to figure something out.’ ” That something was his decision to leave Ethos and dedicate himself fully to the startup in August 2023, which was accompanied by a different challenge in terms of the loss of his monthly paycheck. Jeremy called it a big leap of faith that makes him anxiety-ridden just by thinking about it. “They say it’s not easy to start a business, and they weren’t lying,” Tracy said. “But now we know exactly what to tell future entrepreneurs: If you think you’re ready to quit your job, wait at least six months, then do it.” Almost all of Lightning Tours’ clients are assisted living facilities, but the Fords have dipped their toes into other waters as well. They have brought their VR experiences to a few different daycare and after-school programs in the region, allowing children the same opportunity to see distant lands as the seniors get. This summer, they introduced a travel tour called “Around the World in Five Weeks” to the Boys & Girls Club of the South Coast Area in San Clemente, with passports and stamps for the kids to document their adventures. They also are in the process of getting approved by the San Marcos Unified School District to offer tours in local schools. Some of the sessions don’t even involve virtual travel. Lightning Tours has conducted some guided meditation experiences for the sales departments of businesses or for employees of high-stress jobs, such as firefighters and police officers. “Brick by brick, we’re building those partnerships,” Jeremy said. Yet the senior population remains the Fords’ primary focus, which makes sense given that there are more than 50,000 facilities for assisted living and memory care in California and they have been to only about 50 of them. The company’s growth continues apace. Lightning Tours has two other partial owners (unpaid for now) specializing in partnerships and strategic innovation, and it’s on the verge of hiring an employee to run some of the tours and free Jeremy up to source more business. Last spring, the Fords bought 20 more Quest 2 headsets (the company is now owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent), doubling their inventory, and deployed them in the Inland Empire through a licensing agreement with a couple who lives there. “I think this will go as far as we can take it,” Jeremy said. “We’ve done things strategically because if we grow too fast, the base can be flimsy and it can all fall apart. But thinking big picture, Lightning Tours could be national, it could be in every state, every big city. “Where we are now is trying to put the pieces together, get this technology out there and in the hands of as many seniors as possible. We want to provide high-quality experiences and the joy of travel, get them outside of those four walls that they’re in daily.” Jeremy and Tracy Ford Major at CSUSM: Jeremy, sociology; Tracy, criminology and justice studies Graduation year: Tracy, 2007; Jeremy, 2015 Company: Lightning Tours Website: lightningtours.co Founded: 2022 Number of employees: Four Talking Business With Jeremy Ford What's the best advice you received about starting a business? Have goals. Having goals gives you strategic direction, and if you don't have them, you'll be spinning your wheels. When you have those goals, it enables you to focus on the main categories that will be the catalyst for your business moving forward. What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? Be prepared for long hours, a lot of late nights. On those late nights, it can seem like you're on an island by yourself. What we learned the hard way is that having a team is very important – bringing others in to help support certain aspects of the business. Your reach expands when you let other people in to help. What's the greatest challenge in starting your own business? If you already have a full-time job, it can be difficult to decipher when it's time to quit and give your business the full attention. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? I would have waited longer to quit my full-time job. And I would have focused more heavily on the revenue-producing aspects of the business. Even though we do have quite a robust product now, there were times when we were building it up where the churn was at a higher rate than the income that was coming in. What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? I can sum that up in one word: perseverance. If you do not have perseverance, you will not be an entrepreneur; you will go back into the workforce within months. If you have the ability to persevere, the ability to plan things out and execute that plan, you have a much better chance of being an entrepreneur for longer than just a few months. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Scoop Dreams: Alumna Turns Childhood Memories Into BusinessFor Juliana Ortiz, ice cream is more than just a dessert. Ortiz still gets nostalgic recalling childhood trips to Rite Aid to grab Thrifty’s ice cream with her parents. Her go-to flavor was chocolate, and it brought her comfort every time she ate it. Ortiz cherished the little things. Going for chocolate ice cream with her mom and dad may have seemed ordinary to others. But for her, growing up in a low-income family, it was always a special moment. “Ice cream was always a reward,” Ortiz said. “I had to do something good to get it. Every time I had ice cream, it was always that sense of accomplishing something, even if it was something small.” Now, as a business owner, Ortiz looks for special moments like these through customers at her own ice cream shop. Entrepreneurship was never something on her radar, but that changed at Cal State San Marcos. It was a combination of fond memories of eating ice cream with her family and realizing that ice cream shops have the happiest clientele. “No one goes to an ice cream shop angry, right?” Ortiz said. “Customers are either really happy because they're with family or friends or they've had a really bad day and they want a pick-me-up.” Since graduating from CSUSM in 2018 with a degree in marketing, Ortiz has launched a successful ice cream business, Cali Cream, with her husband, Ken Schulenburg. Ortiz has helped craft 55 different flavors, including her childhood favorite, chocolate. Quality is paramount. Cali Cream ice cream is made with 16% butterfat, compared with an average of 12% for most ice cream companies. “We get it shipped from the farm to us within seven days,” Ortiz said. “It's only seven days from cow to cone.” Since opening steps from Moonlight Beach in Encinitas in 2016, Cali Cream has expanded to include a bakery and a second ice cream location in San Diego’s downtown Gaslamp Quarter. Cali Cream also has been featured at special events like Comic-Con International and concerts at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. “I don't know if there was ever a moment where the lightbulb went off,” Ortiz said, “but I think there are times where you're in a place in your life where you just say, ‘Hey, I want to do something different.’ ” Ortiz came to CSUSM looking for a change, intending to create a better life for her daughter, Leslie. When she was 16, Ortiz learned that she was pregnant. Telling her parents was difficult, and she didn’t want them to be disappointed in her or think it would keep her from having a successful future. “It was extremely hard,” she said. “You never want to disappoint your parents. And you never want to do anything that they think might hold you back. Sometimes kids make mistakes. I've learned from it, but I think I've turned it around. I also believe that there are certain things that just kind of happen for a reason, and I feel like she's my biggest motivator. We’ve grown up together.” Leslie was born prematurely, weighing just 4 pounds. Ortiz was facing adult responsibilities at a young age, but Leslie was a constant source of inspiration and motivation. “At that time, it was so difficult to try to navigate everything,” Ortiz said. “But I ended up just striving forward again. I'm not going to be a statistic. I'm not going to let something like that hold me back. I needed to give my family – and I needed to give my daughter – a good example.” When Ortiz was introduced to Rebeca Perren, a CSUSM marketing professor and former faculty mentor in the College of Business Administration’s mentorship program, she was clear that going back to school at age 30 was all for Leslie. And Perren was excited by the possibility of helping Latina students because when she was a student, she rarely saw people like her in the classroom. “I wanted to help students who were like me,” Perren said. “And just by chance, Juliana was the student who was assigned to me. I got to know Juliana and her story, not just as a first-generation college student, but as a mother. She had a teenage daughter and she wanted to get her degree before her daughter went off to college. I had children myself, and we connected on so many different levels.” Perren and Ortiz would meet to discuss class assignments and the struggles of being Latina in higher education. Ortiz saw that Perren regularly met with other business students, and she suggested that they all come together and start gathering as a group. Perren invited Josefina Espino and Chris Santos to join, and they all bonded instantly. They met twice a month, usually at the campus Starbucks, and talked about how they pictured their lives after college. The mentor group evolved into CoBA’s Latino Business Student Association, with Perren serving as the faculty adviser for seven years. Espino remembers when Ortiz revealed to the group that she was interested in entrepreneurship and wanted to start an ice cream business. Ortiz and Espino even used her business idea for a research project in a marketing class taught by professor Kristin Stewart. Starting a path to entrepreneurship was exciting, but also nerve-racking for Ortiz. She didn’t know how she would balance being a student and mother while quitting her job as a marketing coordinator at Pacific Records, Inc. in San Diego. “I remember one of the most important conversations I had to have with Juliana was about being generous to herself,” Perren said. “She, of course, had so much to offer, and one of the most difficult decisions she had to make was investing in herself. She is such a generous and loyal person. It felt difficult to let go of some of her commitments and give back to herself.” Now, as an entrepreneur, Ortiz shows her generosity in the creative ways she connects with her customers and employees. When a customer comes into Cali Cream and talks about an ice cream flavor that holds significance for them, Ortiz goes out of her way to make it. “Ice cream is such an emotional product,” Ortiz said. “We've made special request ice cream orders, because maybe it's a birthday present or it’s their parents' favorite. It’s so cool because I get to be the decision-maker. I can say yes or no, but if someone were to ask any other ice cream company, the answer is always going to be no. But my goal is to always make people happy.” One of the most rewarding parts of Ortiz’s job is supporting her employees through college. It’s her way of giving back. A photo wall in the Encinitas location displays the logos of the colleges that her employees are attending. Ortiz even established a rule that if an employee performs well during the summer, they are guaranteed a job when they come home from college. “I remember going to Cali Cream and seeing that the tip jar said ‘college fund’ on it,” Perren said. “It’s really awesome to see how college is built into the company culture. It's great when you see our alumni not only make a difference in their own life, but also how she can inspire and create social mobility in her family and in our community.” Juliana Ortiz Major at CSUSM: Business marketing Graduation year: 2018 Company: Cali Cream Website: calicreamicecream.com Founded: 2016 Number of employees: 35-80 (depending on the season) Talking Business With Juliana Ortiz What’s the best advice you received about starting a business? Do what feels right for you and don’t be afraid to take risks. Not every risk is going to be successful, but there's certain risks that are very rewarding. I think if you do your work and research time, then it minimizes the damage. What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? I would say go for it. I think you never want to regret not making a decision because of the fear of failure. What’s the greatest challenge in starting your own business? The greatest challenge for me was trying to understand the process for getting health permits. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? For us, it's a weather-based ice business. I have to look at weather for the next week and for the next couple of days to see how it impacts our business. That’s something that most people don't think about. I would also make sure to work with a team and ensure that if there's a new product, we have to educate them. If your team's not good and if they're not educated, it falls back on you. They also don't want to be put in a position where they don't know how to communicate to their guests. What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? With changes in just about anything, whether it’s regulation or COVID, you have to be able to adapt and you have to be able to transition. Media Contact Bri Phillips, Communications Specialist bphillips@csusm.edu
- Appreciating an Untraditional Path to DegreeI’m proud to be of American Indian, Guamanian and Mexican heritage. But I’m not going to lie – being from a multicultural background comes with more than its share of challenges. There are many days when you feel like you're never good enough, never enough for the population that you’re around that particular day. Some days, I'm not Native enough because I'm not fully Native or because I don't speak my Native language. Other days, I’m not as Mexican as others if I’m not speaking Spanish consistently. Or it could be my lack of a certain tattoo to represent my Pacific Islander heritage. I’ve learned over time to switch between those identities – usually without even thinking about it – depending on the circle of people I’m with in that moment. It’s like a light switch that I can turn on and off as needed. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Emphasizing one of my identities over the others can also bring about self-doubt and sadness because I’m doing it to be accepted by the person or group I’m with in that moment. I’m grateful that my time at Cal State San Marcos has helped me navigate those challenges. My journey in higher education been a windy road, from starting at the University of Hawaii-Manoa as a marine biology major to earning three associate degrees at Grossmont College to now finishing my bachelor’s in psychological science this spring at CSUSM. It’s certainly not a traditional path, and there were many days that I worried about not living up to some imaginary timeline of how long it was supposed to take me to get my degree. Today, I can appreciate an untraditional journey that has taken six years to complete. And I’m especially thankful that this path led me to CSUSM. It’s here that I reconnected with my American Indian heritage while also having the opportunity to fully appreciate and explore my Guamanian and Mexican identities. I am a descendant of Navajo Nation, and my clan spans the four corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Most of my family lives in Arizona, including half on the reservation. I spent much of my childhood growing up in Arizona near my Native family. But I lost touch with much of that part of my identity as a teenager when we moved to San Diego. Even though Southern California is home to a significant Native population, it’s always different when you’re coming from a different place and not used to the customs or practices. While different tribes have many shared experiences, I'm also cognizant of being a guest here because this is not my traditional homeland. There’s a responsibility to show respect for where you are, respect for the land and knowing that this isn't mine personally or my ancestors’. It's about finding the proper balance. That’s something I’ve strived to do at CSUSM. When I came here, I didn’t even know the university offered an American Indian studies major. My first American Indian studies course came when I saw it being offered to fulfill an upper division general education requirement. I was fortunate that my professor, Lara Aase, encouraged me to visit the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center on campus. That led me to meeting Joely Proudfit, the center’s director and the department chair of American Indian studies, and learning about the American Indian Student Alliance (AISA). I’ve had the privilege over the past year of serving as president of AISA, which was honored by CSUSM’s Student Leadership & Involvement Center as the Student Organization of the Year for 2021-22. I also joined Associated Students, Inc., as the representative for diversity and inclusion. In this role, I’ve worked to ease racial tensions and create a space where dialogue and conversation can occur. It has been rewarding to see so many different organizations, both cultural and religious, come together. We know that we won’t resolve every issue or problem, but acknowledging that we see one another and recognize one another is a step in the right direction. We try to focus on how we can help and uplift each other. My multiculturalism has been a tremendous asset in this work. It’s allowed me to be an ally for so many groups on campus. As AISA president, I’ve encouraged members of our organization to embrace and learn about other cultural and religious groups on campus. And doing so doesn’t invalidate our identity, it’s simply making space for others to also be recognized and seen, something that so many groups are fighting for on campus. One of the biggest opportunities we have is to continue fostering an environment where all groups have space to grow and be recognized. It’s something that’s a big part of where I am at now, too, as a person. I’ve learned through my higher education journey the importance of communicating your thoughts because, ultimately, we’re all trying to advocate for ourselves. And that’s an important lesson for everyone, because if you don't advocate for yourself, no one else is going to do it for you. Self-advocacy is a skill that takes practice, to be sure. But once learned, it allows you to better express your concerns, helps people hear you in a non-adversarial way and makes them more inclined to listen. And that's what will bring about that change that we all want to see. Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Alumna Paves Way as Palomar's First Latina PresidentIt’s been more than three decades, but Mary Gonzales still remembers the Friday meetings with Star Rivera-Lacey at an IHOP in Oceanside. Gonzales referred to these regular meetups as her “counseling sessions” because Rivera-Lacey always shared sound advice. The two friends would chat over a cup of coffee and, if they were lucky and had enough money, share a piece of pie. When Gonzales was struggling, Rivera-Lacey would ask, “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being world poverty, where does this problem fall?” Gonzales would typically respond with a low number on the scale, but the exercise helped her see her problems from a different perspective. “It taught me to stop sweating the small stuff,” said Gonzales, who is now retired from the San Diego County Office of Education. “That was one of her biggest powers, because now I share it with my own kids and I've shared it with other students. And I've heard people give it back and tell me the same thing. She always had that optimism of looking ahead.” That optimism continues to this day as Rivera-Lacey has grown from poverty in childhood to earning a Ph.D. and today serving as the first Latina superintendent/president of Palomar College. It was that ability to remain optimistic during challenging times that helped her become the first in her family to graduate from college when she received a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies at Cal State San Marcos. It seems Rivera-Lacey’s parents knew she had a bright future from the moment they named her. "My mom really wanted me to have aspirations and picked the highest thing in the sky,” Rivera-Lacey said. “That's why she named me Star.” Money was always tight for Rivera-Lacey as a child growing up in Oceanside. Her parents immigrated from El Salvador before she was born, and they always stressed the importance of a college degree to allow her to have a promising career and future. With her parents’ encouragement, Rivera-Lacey cultivated a passion for learning from a young age. She saw how they worked to improve their English by taking ESL classes at Palomar. Sometimes they even took Rivera-Lacey with them. Little could they have imagined that, almost four decades later, she would return to lead that very college. But Rivera-Lacey’s path to becoming a higher education professional wasn’t an easy one. Just as she was about to graduate from El Camino High School, she learned she was one class short. Her counselor recommended taking a physical education class at MiraCosta College to get the extra credits she needed to graduate on time. Rivera-Lacey signed up for a hip-hop dance course, but getting to class was always a challenge. She was constantly searching for a ride or scavenging for gas money to make it to MiraCosta. But once there, Rivera-Lacey was introduced to Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, or EOPS, which provides access to financial assistance and support services for low-income students. The program counselors reassured Rivera-Lacey that she could have a future pursuing a college education after she graduated from high school. Rivera-Lacey gathered a strong support system at MiraCosta. When she wasn’t sure how to navigate the complex college system, the counselors helped her every step of the way. She also had the endless encouragement of her parents. And when she met Gonzales, they formed a quick bond because they understood each other's struggles as first-generation college students. “I had a family, and she was single. But for some reason, when we met, we clicked really well,” Gonzales said. “We were both struggling financially. She had a car that she named Herman, and I had a truck. Sometimes Herman worked, and sometimes my truck worked. But my car had a hole at the bottom, and Star was always afraid that she would fall through when it was my turn to drive.” Car troubles weren’t the only obstacle. Rivera-Lacey was juggling her academic pursuits while working full-time to make ends meet. Sometimes that meant a second job. But Rivera-Lacey remembers the relief she felt when EOPS helped ease the expenses of her classes, including a grant to help pay for books. While trying to balance work and school, Rivera-Lacey needed five years to obtain enough credits to transfer to a four-year university. But MiraCosta’s EOPS counselors never wavered in their support. If she needed to take a semester off to focus on work, they would welcome her back every time with open arms. “There was no judgment,” Rivera-Lacey said. “They offered me complete acceptance, which made all the difference in the world. I never had to feel embarrassed, and that's so special.” Rivera-Lacey continued to receive that type of support when she transferred to CSUSM. She was also grateful to land an on-campus job. After working in retail throughout her time at MiraCosta and constantly battling to get the work schedule she needed to attend classes, it was a relief to be working on a college campus. “I have had a million careers,” Rivera-Lacey said. “But one of the best things that happened when I was at CSUSM is that I worked in a department that used to be called Student Affirmative Action and Outreach.” This job was nothing like the ones Rivera-Lacey had before. She would visit students from local elementary and high schools and get them excited about a future in higher education. Elementary school kids also visited CSUSM. Rivera-Lacey remembers the paper cutouts of graduation caps for kids to try on and fake checks to take to the bookstore to simulate the financial aid process. “CSUSM was so forward-thinking by doing that kind of community outreach,” Rivera-Lacey said. “I'm not surprised at all to see the success that Cal State has now. They've been investing in the community for so many years.” While Rivera-Lacey was helping other students get enthused about the possibility of attending college, she came to a realization as she watched people from similar backgrounds succeed in their jobs at CSUSM – she needed to continue her higher education journey and pursue a career in the field. Rivera-Lacey worked alongside her friend Sabrina Sanders in the Student Affirmative Action and Outreach program. Sanders, who received a bachelor’s and master’s from CSUSM, also decided to pursue a career in higher ed because she and Rivera-Lacey saw themselves in the students they were serving and the impact of reaching underserved communities. “The co-curricular experience as student assistants prepared and inspired us to our careers in higher education,” said Sanders, who also earned a doctorate from Alliant International University and is now the director of the Toro Reengagement Program at California State University Dominguez Hills. “As a first-generation Latina, Rivera-Lacey had an impact on the elementary, high school and community college students that was powerful. Her college journey, experiences and representation continue to inspire and exemplify the values and opportunities that education provides and her parents instilled in her. Promoting access, equity and student success is more than a job for President Rivera-Lacey – it’s a calling.” When Rivera-Lacey received her bachelor’s in liberal studies in 1995, it was a life-changing moment for her parents to watch the first person in their family graduate from college. “I think when you experience poverty and with every semester that I got under my belt, it was like one step closer to freedom,” Rivera-Lacey said. Rivera-Lacey saw how her financial situation started to improve after earning her bachelor’s, but there were still challenges. When she was pursuing a master’s in counseling at San Diego State University, Rivera-Lacey remembers driving to take her final knowing she wouldn’t have enough gas to get home nor the money to fill her tank. “I remember clearly walking on the freeway,” she said. “I do not recommend that anybody get on the freeway, but one of my friends came and rescued me. And to this day, it is one of the stories that we laugh about, right? “There are going to be obstacles in the way, doors that close, but there's always a window that's open. If you just put one foot forward, the road will rise to meet. There are so many people who are in education that love what they do and believe in students. You'll find the help.” Rivera-Lacey never let any of the obstacles she faced get in the way of her end goal. She received her master's in counseling at SDSU in 1997 and eventually returned to school to get her Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University in 2016. Rivera-Lacey knew she wanted to center her career around what she loved: student success. And she stayed with her passion for higher education for 17 years, which led her to become the superintendent/president of Palomar College in 2021. Just as when she was a child, Rivera-Lacey still has the same passion for continuing to grow and learn – and she’s in a position to inspire others to do the same as she works to build on Palomar’s success. Rivera-Lacey knows firsthand the struggles that so many students face, and she serves as a shining example to those who may never have seen a Latina college president. “I'm very, very surprised at people's reaction,” Rivera-Lacey said. “I remember during commencement, a student wanted to hug me because they’ve never seen a Latina president. And another student thanked me because their parents were able to understand the ‘Superintendent/President’s Welcome’ because we did it both in English and Spanish, which shows that representation does matter. “I tell people all the time, ‘I might be the first Latina Palomar superintendent/president, but I won't be the last.’ ” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- A Different Kind of CoachJoshua Foronda knows all too well the struggles that many freshmen face as they adjust to college. Foronda failed multiple classes during his first year at Cal State San Marcos, landing on academic probation with a 0.6 grade-point average during the spring of his freshman year and contemplating dropping out of school. But Foronda is nothing if not resilient, and his GPA climbed to 3.3 by the time he graduated in 2018 with degrees in criminology and justice studies and sociology. Today, Foronda uses his experiences as an undergraduate to help a new generation of CSUSM first-year students in his role as a student success coach for the burgeoning Office of Success Coaching. “Students feel like it’s the end of the world when their grades are not on point,” Foronda said. “But I tell students that every setback leads to a bigger comeback.” The Office of Success Coaching is transforming the way CSUSM serves first-year students, providing personalized support services to ensure that newly admitted students thrive. Launched during the pandemic, the program already has garnered national attention for its innovative approach, with CSUSM receiving the 2021 American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Excellence and Innovation Award for Student Success. AASCU, which includes nearly 400 state-supported colleges and universities throughout the country, honored the Office of Success Coaching for its outstanding results and potential to influence and serve as a model for other institutions. “There's so much pressure and students are trying to be so many things to so many people,” said Valita Jones, the office’s founding director. “The Office of Success Coaching gives them a pathway.” The concept and framework for what would become the Office of Success Coaching was in place before the pandemic, with Jones – then serving as CSUSM’s director for recruitment and outreach – using grant funds to acclimate first-year students to college life. But the onset of COVID-19 accelerated plans and helped shape the program. Jones met with CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt in the early days of the pandemic to share details about the onboarding program she was overseeing. And Neufeldt took the opportunity to tell Jones about the success coaching program at Old Dominion University, where Neufeldt served as vice president for Student Engagement and Enrollment Services before coming to CSUSM in 2019. Neufeldt wanted to bring a similar program to CSUSM and saw opportunity in the work that had already been started. As the Office of Success Coaching was formally launched, one of the first moves was bringing Jay Franklin, the director of recruitment and customer relationship management administrator for Extended Learning, aboard as the program’s associate director – and it didn’t take much convincing to get him to join the effort. “It was a dream,” Franklin said. “I said, ‘This is a job? You're going to pay me to do something that I have always dreamed about doing?’ I don't even call it a job. This is a purpose. “We’re not just there academically for students; it's personal relationship-building. And the end goal of any degree at Cal State San Marcos is not just the degree, it’s to help them understand how to network and connect.” With some departments and programs unable to provide normal offerings early in the pandemic, nearly two dozen employees – including staff from athletics, campus recreation and events, among others – were redeployed to help launch the Office of Success Coaching. Sherri Watson, the executive director for Old Dominion’s Career Development Services and Coaching, was brought on as a consultant to train CSUSM’s success coaches and prepare them to work with students. While some of the original student success coaches have returned to their former roles, the remaining team (which now includes graduate interns) works in a similar manner to a life coach. They start at the beginning of the student life cycle and aim to solidify a structured pathway for students to reach their end goal, which is to both earn their degree and pivot into a career. That includes helping students set goals, reminding them about important deadlines, and having general conversations about aspirations. Those conversations proved invaluable for Priscilla Al-Rayes, a criminology and justice studies student. Foronda was assigned as her success coach, and his persistent emails eventually prompted Al-Rayes to make an appointment. Their discussions covered everything from academics to time management to life skills. When Al-Rayes asked Foronda for his thoughts about joining CSUSM’s Orientation Team, which assists with campus tours and orientation sessions for new students, Foronda was able to share his own experiences as an O-Team member and even helped prep Al-Rayes for the interview. “No one knows what college is going to be like until you’re actually in college,” Al-Rayes said. “Your success coach is here to push you through that and get you to where you need to go. “I’m someone who needs that personal experience to understand something, and having a coach who has that personal experience to share is probably the best thing about the Office of Success Coaching. He’s already been through it all and I’m just starting, so I know almost exactly what to expect by talking to him. That really has eased my anxiety when applying to things and going to events and things like that.” Foronda takes pride in sharing with his students how he practices what he preaches. When he encourages students like Al-Rayes to build connections with professors and staff, he also tells them how the relationships he developed as a CSUSM student led to recommendations from people like Annie Macias, executive director of Associated Students, Inc., and Floyd Lai, director of the Cross-Cultural Center. Now Foronda proudly calls them colleagues. It’s not difficult for Foronda to relate to the students he mentors. Sure, he’s only a few years removed from receiving his bachelor’s, but he too was navigating school, work and family during the pandemic like so many of them. In May 2021, he received his master’s in counseling from San Diego State. “When I graduated, I sent all my students a video and said, ‘Hey, this is going to be you in a few years.’ I wanted to let them know that if I can do it during the pandemic, I know they can, too. “One thing I’ve learned: It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a university to graduate a student.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Difficult Times Give Way to Bright FutureFrom the time I was born until I was 7 years old, I grew up in what seemed like an average middle-class household. My parents and I lived comfortably with few financial concerns. But that all changed when I was in second grade and a car accident altered the trajectory of our lives. Today, almost 14 years after that accident, I still feel the reverberations as I navigate the challenges of being a low-income student while working toward becoming the first person in my family to earn a college degree. The day of our car accident was supposed to be a special day. My sister, Ashley, was just a couple of months old, and we were venturing beyond routine errands for the first time since she was born to go apple picking about an hour away from our Temecula home. Despite doing my best not to fall asleep during the drive, I woke up to our vehicle flipping over after being struck, I later learned, by a hit-and-run driver. Our car flipped multiple times on the freeway, and Ashley’s car seat buckle came undone. My first instinct was to try to hold her car seat down. Ashley escaped with minor scratches while my mom and I just had some bruises. My dad wasn’t as lucky. He broke his neck and was in a coma for several days. I remember him lying in a hospital bed, not knowing if he would survive. My dad was our sole financial provider, and he was unable to work during the lengthy recovery process. The mounting medical bills and expenses eventually forced my parents to file for bankruptcy. The accident also took an emotional toll. My parents separated not long afterward. Though it has been over a decade since they split, they continue to live under the same roof leading separate lives because of our financial circumstances. We didn’t have money for after-school or extracurricular activities, nor many opportunities to explore interests or passions. And college was never a topic of discussion. No one in my family has ever finished college, and my parents were largely indifferent, leaving me to determine my own path. As a high school senior, I had difficulty envisioning my future. I watched my peers embrace their excitement about getting accepted into prestigious universities while I was still figuring out the application process. I was unfamiliar with financial aid and how it could help pay for college. It seemed like my classmates had their lives figured out while I was struggling just to complete my FAFSA, the federal form used to determine financial aid eligibility. It has always been an unspoken rule in my family never to talk about money or finances because it always ends in a heated argument. I had to scavenge through my parents’ taxes to try to fill out the FAFSA on my own. When I finally built up the courage to ask my dad for help, it was hard for him to understand the significance of the application. He didn’t want to share personal financial information and didn’t grasp that completing the FAFSA was what would make attending college financially feasible. Filling out the FAFSA is still an emotional process every year, and one that I have to explain to my dad each time. But our financial status means that I qualify for a Pell Grant, which helps me pay for college. Learning that I was eligible for a Pell Grant was such a relief. Not only does it mean I can avoid potentially crippling loans, but it helps my parents focus on their needs without worrying about college expenses. After high school, I enrolled at Palomar College and joined TRIO SSS, an organization that advises low-income and first-generation students to encourage academic success. It was inspiring to be surrounded by successful students who come from similar backgrounds. I was excited to learn about the help TRIO SSS provides for first-generation college students like myself, and it showed me that I could achieve my goals regardless of my background. I was grateful to continue being part of TRIO SSS after completing my associate degree in communication at Palomar and transferring to Cal State San Marcos last fall. At CSUSM, I have received overwhelming support, which has helped me further my education and figure out my career path. The university emphasizes hands-on learning, and I have had the opportunity to work as a writer in the University Communications office where I’m gaining valuable skills and guidance as I look toward a career in communications after I graduate in May 2023. CSUSM has opened the door for me to feel more confident about my future. I am building a strong portfolio for future employers, and the positive work environment in University Communications has encouraged career exploration and connections to set me up for success. During my first semester at CSUSM last fall, I juggled two jobs to ease the financial burden on my family while trying to balance a full course load. It wasn’t easy, but I’m proud of achieving straight A’s in my first semester at the university, and having a strong support system at CSUSM was an important part of making that happen. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I’m looking forward to finding a job that allows me to use the written communication skills that I am developing through my work in University Communications. I still dread filling out the FAFSA, and it’s an ongoing challenge to navigate the complexities of the higher education system. But I know that all of the difficulties will be worth it. Not only because I’ll be the first in my family to earn a college degree, but also because I’ll be able to help my sister forge an easier path to college and financial independence. I strive each day to set a positive example for Ashley. I encourage her to explore her passions now so she will have more direction than I did when she heads to college in four years. The car accident that my family survived 14 years ago changed many aspects of my life, but I’m able to look to the future with optimism. I’ve learned valuable lessons about determination and perseverance, lessons that have helped me develop a strong motivation to redirect my path. Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Fighting Injustices in Food System Through FarmingGreg Reese loved the outdoors as a kid growing up in Orange County. It didn’t matter if it was the beach, camping or the river. And when he wasn’t enjoying nature, he was busy playing soccer, including two seasons for Cal State San Marcos after transferring from Orange Coast College in 2007. But it’s safe to say Reese never once imagined that all those hours spent outdoors would lead to what has become his passion. “I remember there was one farm still in my neighborhood growing up that had cows and little sheep and chickens,” Reese said, “but I never thought I was going to be farming growing up. It just kind of happened after I was 30.” Today, Reese is a regenerative farmer working to fight injustices in the food system by growing healthy produce for people who otherwise might not have access. Reese is a co-founder of Encinitas-based nonprofit Sea + Soil, which aims to “reconnect and regenerate ecosystems and community.” Among the programs under the Sea + Soil umbrella is 1000 Tiny Farms, which Reese pioneered to help explore how small patches of land could have a positive social, environmental and economic impact. “We focus a lot on the nutrient density and nutritional value of the produce,” Reese said. “If we can grow food without a need for heavy chemical inputs, then the soil will be better, therefore the plants are better, therefore the humans are better. It's kind of like a slogan that many people have probably heard before – food as medicine.” Reese’s interest in healthy food began while he was working at Stone Brewing in Escondido. He ate a salad there that proved life-changing. “I never felt so good after eating a salad,” he said. “It was noticeably energizing. And they sourced from a local farm in Escondido at the time. It was just so fresh. When I played soccer at Cal State San Marcos, I noticed that when I was eating fresher vegetables, I just felt good and I had more energy. Before that it was mostly meat and carbs. When I started incorporating fresh veggies, it was a game-changer.” Contributing to the greater good is part of Reese’s DNA, and he spent time working in solar energy and water reclamation before focusing his efforts on farming. He worked with the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, which helps “build a global community conscious of ecological farming and sustainability practices.” While some may be surprised to learn that Reese earned his degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing, he says his CSUSM education plays a role in his work every day, from manufacturing to distribution to marketing. In fact, Reese hopes to partner with his alma mater on many aspects of farming. He has thriving farms in Cardiff and Valley Center that can always use volunteers to assist with the physical aspects, but he said there also is a need for expertise with the scientific aspects of farming, including soil testing, identifying biological organisms in the soil, plant tissue analysis, and more. “I think it’s important to know where your food comes from,” Reese said. “Don’t be fooled by labeling. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors, and it helps to know where your food comes from.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Bridging the Gap: Alumni Introduce Platform to Transform ResearchRoberto Cano and Edgar Salazar are about to launch a business that has the potential to transform scientific research in Mexico with one simple goal: making it more affordable. Cano and Salazar are developing a Tijuana-based company, SinerLab, that will introduce an innovative online sharing platform for reagents, equipment and services to address the deficit of laboratory resources faced by many scientists in Mexico. This creative solution will both reduce costs and increase availability of the critical supplies needed for research and development. “José and I talk about how we develop science in the United States and how there is a huge gap in research and development in Mexico,” Salazar said. “There are good institutions in Mexico, but they are lacking in technology.” Cano and Salazar each launched their careers in Mexico after earning their undergraduate degrees — Cano in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry and Salazar in agricultural mechanical engineering. Their paths didn’t cross until after both had moved to the United States and enrolled in the Master of Biotechnology: A Professional Science Master’s Degree (MBt) at Cal State San Marcos. For his capstone project, Cano was working on a nonprofit business plan to match San Diego biotech companies that could donate used equipment with researchers in Mexico who need access to equipment. Realizing ultimately that this plan was not viable — import/export procedures alone were prohibitive — he quickly pivoted to a for-profit model based in Mexico with a shared online network of resources that scientists could either offer or access. “The purpose is to connect researchers within Mexico to help them make better use of the resources that are already in the country,” Cano said. “That will facilitate research and make it less expensive.” Cano’s capstone presentation caught the attention of many in the room. “José is committed to doing the right thing and serving people in need,” said Betsy Read, a founder of the MBt program and CSUSM professor of biological sciences. “One of his committee members, the CEO of a large organization in San Diego, was so impressed with what José was proposing that he asked if José was planning to move it forward.” That’s where Salazar came in. José recruited Salazar, who was in the cohort just behind him, and Salazar developed the new business plan for the online sharing company as his capstone project. The model, SinerLab, is going into pilot testing by the two graduates, who are now business partners. Both also hold full-time jobs — Salazar as a process development engineer for Illumina and Cano as a stem cell researcher for Fate Therapeutics. To move their business idea from page to lab, Cano and Salazar are working with The Founder Institute, a Silicon Valley startup accelerator that helps entrepreneurs through the early phases of their business creation. “José and Edgar are driven to help bring more science capability to Mexico and developing countries to improve the health and welfare of the people there,” said Al Kern, an MBt program founder and adviser for the SinerLab project. “When I talked to Edgar about working on the project as part of the master’s program, I told him I didn’t want it to stop there,” Cano said. “I think this is a really good idea and I want to make it real because I think we can make science more affordable and help a lot of researchers get faster results.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Keeping Lessons From Late Father Close to Her HeartIt’s easy to understand Cal State San Marcos softball coach Stef Ewing’s excitement about having Gianna Lombardi on the team. Lombardi adeptly switches positions without skipping a beat, able to start at catcher in the opening game of a doubleheader before moving to shortstop for the finale. She was one of the team’s top hitters as a freshman during the abbreviated 2020 season, and picked right up as a key contributor in 2022 after the 2021 season was canceled due to the pandemic. And she has arm strength that led one of the university’s baseball coaches to wonder aloud during a scrimmage if Lombardi can pitch – and he didn’t mean for the softball team. “Most females do not throw a ball overhand like she does,” Ewing said. “If you come to a softball game and you watch everyone play catch and then you watch Gianna pick up a ball and throw it, you don't even need any sports knowledge to know it’s a whole different level.” For the record, Ewing made it clear to the baseball coaches that Lombardi wasn’t going anywhere. But Lombardi’s value to the team goes beyond her considerable athletic ability. “You get in a room with her, and she just fills it in a positive way,” Ewing said. “She’s funny and charismatic. When new people come in and they're around our softball program and they see that she can be who she is, they know they can be who they are.” Lombardi’s infectious personality and approach to life harken to her father, Phil. The pandemic has taken a toll in so many ways, but none more difficult for Lombardi than losing her father in May 2021 to complications from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Most people diagnosed with glioblastoma die of the disease within 12-18 months. Phil’s death came only seven months after his diagnosis. But the lessons Lombardi learned from her father continue to resonate. “He taught me to be proud of myself, but also to be humble,” Lombardi said. “But I think the biggest thing he ever taught me was he would always say, ‘Don’t fear failure.’ Especially in a game like softball, you fail more than you succeed when you’re hitting. I just always kept that with me.” It was something Phil knew firsthand from his days as a major league baseball player. A third-round draft pick of the New York Yankees in 1981, Phil made his major league debut with them five years later and spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues (including one with the New York Mets) before nagging injuries led to an early retirement before the 1990 season. Phil coached Lombardi’s older sisters, Lauren and Julia, in softball, and both went on to play for Long Beach State. Lombardi flirted for a short time with the idea of trying something different than her sisters, but quickly realized it was more fun playing softball and benefiting from the experience and knowledge of her father and sisters. Lombardi never had a chance to see her father play professional baseball – she was born more than a decade after he retired – but knew about his career growing up, even if she didn’t always realize when he was pulling her leg. “I didn’t really know much about the game when I was younger, and he would joke, ‘I used to play with Jackie Robinson.’ And I thought he was serious,” Lombardi said of her father’s reference to the iconic Hall of Famer who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 – four decades before Phil made his major league debut. “But he didn’t bring up his career around other people. He was really humble about things.” Playing catcher was a natural choice for Lombardi. After all, it was Phil’s primary position during his career. And while nepotism may be an issue on some youth softball teams, having her father as a coach didn’t come with any special favors for Lombardi. Phil even insisted on Lombardi calling him “Coach Phil” instead of dad when they were anywhere near the softball field to avoid any thoughts of favoritism. Of course, with Lombardi’s work ethic and ability, it didn’t matter if it was her dad or a complete stranger coaching – she was going to be in the lineup. Lombardi thrived at West Ranch High School in Valencia and on travel ball teams. One of her frequent adversaries was Zoe Ballen, who played at Thousand Oaks High School about 40 miles away and was also a foe in travel ball. They are teammates at CSUSM now, but Ballen still remembers being in awe of Lombardi’s boundless energy and the difficulties she presented opponents. “When I came to CSUSM, I was kind of nervous to get to know her,” said Ballen, a pitcher who frequently throws to Lombardi behind the plate. “But she just kind of exceeded my expectations of the kind of person that she is and the kind of player that she is. “She's great at communicating with all of our pitchers and has a great relationship with everyone on the team. I don't think I've ever heard a negative thing come out of her mouth. She’s just an overall great person and player.” Lombardi started all 19 games in 2020 before the pandemic brought a premature end to the season and completely wiped out the 2021 slate. But she gave a glimpse of what she’s capable of in those limited games, batting .356 and impressing Ewing and teammates with her softball acumen. “Gianna is just someone who comes in and plays and there are no norms; she's rewriting the norms,” Ewing said. “If I asked Gianna to go play third base, she’d go play third base. If I told her go into left field, she'd go into left field. She will go do anything you ask her to do. She'd run through a brick wall for anybody.” Ewing may have as many as three more seasons with Lombardi after this. The NCAA adjusted its rules on playing eligibility because of the pandemic. So while Lombardi has completed her third year at CSUSM as a biology student, she will still be a sophomore next season in her softball eligibility. All of Ewing’s players faced an adjustment this year as they completed their first full season in three years, but Lombardi had the added weight of playing her first season without her dad. Phil was a familiar face at games in 2020, sometimes observing from beyond the center field fence and other times sitting right behind home plate where he could offer encouragement (and occasionally critiques) during games. But Lombardi is persevering, just as her dad would want. “We had our offseason games during the fall, and I was kind of crying on the way to my first game,” she said. “It was my first game without my dad being there. It was kind of sad, but I always do look on the positive side of it, and now it's like I’m playing for him more than playing without him.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
