Alumni Updates

Mark Castro

AnthropologyMinor in Geography, 2010

Castro ('10, Anthropology) is a Co-Director of the Cultural Resources Facility at Cal Poly Humboldt and has been with the organization for 5 years. Castro has a holistic work experience through his time with multiple agencies including the BLM working on museum collections and archaeological field surveys, the Eldorado National Forest as a field technician, and the Northwest Information Center (Sonoma State University). 

He received his Master's in Cultural Resources Management at Sonoma State, is a Board Member of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is the Co-Lead for the Pride (LGBTQ+) Taskforce for Coalition for Diversity in California Archaeology. 

Garrett Rains

Politics, 2010

Garrett is working as an AI developer for Samsung Electronics in Seoul, South Korea. He is creating colloquial English Speech for Samsung's Voice Assistant, Bixby.

Brandon Chapin

Politics, 2010

Brandon joined the California Conservation Corps (CCC) in May 2025 as Deputy Director for Legislative and External Affairs. In this role Brandon is focused on strengthening the CCC’s legislative presence and sharing the inspiring stories of the corps members, deepening connections with external and local partners, and also serves as the CCC’s Tribal Liaison.

Rory Shane Kalin

History, 2010

Rory Shane Kalin, 2010 History, is happy to announce he and his wife will be returning to Humboldt County where they met. Kalin is starting a position with the Office of the Humboldt County Counsel as a deputy county counsel in April.

Jessica Peters

Anthropology, 2010

Jessica Peters, 2010, Anthropology, interned at the American Embassy in Paris. While there Peters was accepted into UCLA’s Anthropology PhD program, and received her M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2012 and her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2015. During this time Peters also presented research at the AAAs and at the Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities (organized by the University of West Georgia).

Samuel Vogel-Seidenberg

Film, 2010

Samuel Vogel-Seidenberg, 2010 Film, got married in 2014 and had his first child Zachary on April 9th, 2017. Vogel-Seidenberg is the head men's lacrosse coach at Dominican University of California, an NCAA Division 2 school! Vogel-Seidenberg loves coming to Humboldt to visit and support the Humboldt lacrosse team.

Jessica Peters

Anthropology, 2010

Jessica Peters, 2010, Anthropology, received a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology in 2012 at UCLA. Peters also presented research at the American Anthropological Association 2012 meeting, and at the Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities at the University of West Georgia.

Brittney Cathey-Adams

Artbrittneycatheyadams.com for my CV, 2010

Brittney Cathey-Adams, 2010 Art, received her Master of Fine Arts from San Jose State University in 2014. With the support and mentorship of many of her art professors, and especially Professor Emeritus Don Gregorio Anton, Cathey-Adams has achieved one of her goals of teaching photography at the college level. She has had the opportunity to teach four courses in digital and darkroom photography with San Jose State University, create photo curricula for youth programs, exhibit her artwork, give lectures, participate in conferences for her regional chapter of the Society for Photographic Education. She currently works in the San Jose Museum of Art’s Education Department.

Zachary Haitkin

International Studies& Spanish Language, 2010

Zachary Haitkin, International Studies, 2010, is currently residing in the city of San Francisco working at the headquarters for the rideshare company, Lyft. He began his career here over 4.5 years ago by making the transition from a Lyft driver to customer support associate. Since then, he has worked on the Operations team and led the effort to build a Competitive Intelligence network in an effort to improve Lyft's visibility into what competitors are doing at a market level. Most recently, he has moved over to Lyft's Growth team as a Project Manager to help lead the charge in the localization of the Lyft platform into Spanish and other languages.

Kate Catanese

Anthropology, 2010

After graduating, I worked for six months as a research assistant on a project through Tulane University concerning the reproductive strategies of male capuchin monkeys. Although it was an amazing and life-changing experience, I came out of it knowing that I would much rather work with people than primates, and am currently seeking admission to HSU's elementary education program.