Graduate Alumni Milestones

John “JD” Davis, MS Mechanical Engineering ‘84 , has been appointed to the UC Santa Barbara Foundation Board of Trustees. John is a retired aerospace engineer for Raytheon Vision Systems. Read more.

Dawn Wright, Ph.D. in Geography ‘94, and Rory Cooper, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering ‘89, are set to be honored with Distinguished Alumni awards by the UCSB Alumni Association at the 2024 Alumni Awards Banquet on April 19th. Dawn currently serves as Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a world-leading geographic information system (GIS) software, services, and R&D company. On July 12, 2022 she became the first black person to dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, and to successfully operate a portable sidescan radar at that full-ocean depth. Rory is the founding director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, a joint center of the University of Pittsburgh and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. He was recently awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden and was inducted into the 50th class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. To learn more about the event and purchase tickets, click here.

Don Harjo Daves-Rougeaux, MA History ‘01, has started a new position as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor on Workforce Development and Strategic Partnerships for the California systemwide Community Colleges.

Erin Rebhan Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature ‘06, has started a new role as Professor, National Security Policy at the RAND Pardee Graduate School. In addition to her faculty position, Erin continues as Head of Strategic Communications, Homeland Security Research Division for the RAND Corporation.

Park Williams Ph.D. in Geography ‘09 has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for his research on climate change. Park is a professor of hydroclimatology at UCLA. His research aims to understand the causes and consequences of hydrological extremes such as drought.

Gregory Wolf, M.Ed. ‘13, has been named a 2024 California Teacher of the Year, earning the highest state recognition a teacher can receive. Greg, a graduate of the Teacher Education Program, teaches history, political science, and psychology at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School.

Prathibha “Sewwi” Madigapola, M.Ed. ‘14, recently launched her own educational consulting company, Learn with Ms. M. To read her recent alumni spotlight, click here.

Jesse Bernal, Ph.D. Education ‘14, was interviewed by GlobalMindED about his work in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education. Jesse serves as Vice President for Inclusion and Equity and Chief of Staff to the President at Grand Valley State University.

Keri Bradford-Gomez, Ph.D. Education ‘21, was recently hired as a Lecturer of American Indian Studies at UCLA. Keri also serves as a Senior Technical Advisor for the USDA.