Alumni Updates

Deb (Lewis) Parker

Wildlife, 1976

Deb (Lewis) Parker, 1976, Wildlife Management, retired from the federal government in 2014 after a 36-year career. She still works full time as a senior staff assistant with the nonprofit National Conference of State Legislatures, in Denver. Parker started her career as a rodent-control biologist with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. She then spent 24 years with the U.S. Forest Service as a wildlife biologist and public affairs specialist working in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Parker’s next 10 years were with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Colorado, where she was the writer, editor and web manager for national wildlife refuge conservation plans in the service’s Mountain-Prairie Region. Parker and her husband, Andy (a retired wildland firefighter), adopted their daughter, Tai, from China in 1994. Tai is currently a junior at HSU with double majors in psychology and CRGS (Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). Parker’s weekends often involve competing in dog agility trials with her feisty terrier, Jagger.

Bob Freeman

Biological Sciences, 1976

Bob is retired from Imperial County as a Public Health Lab Director, He is also supporting his Laboratory Information System while writing more SciFi Novels

H2LiftShips Vol 1-3 Beyond Luna
H2LiftShips Vol 4 A back Story
And Vol 5 is a slow slog forward
Links to books:
https://www.h2liftship.com/beyondluna
https://www.h2liftship.com/backstory

The stories take place in the Desert, Humboldt, Yosemite, Phobos, the Asteroid Belt, and beyond with Solar Sail Ships and a few rockets thrown in for good measure.

BOB Freeman

Biological Sciences, 1976

I am continuing my writing career.

Vol 3 of H2LiftShips has just been released:
"Gigging the Void"
Available on Smashwords or Amazon

Christie L. Fairchild

Natural ResourcesEnv. Ed., 1976

Christie Fairchild, Natural Resources, 1976, feels that HSU and, in particular, Dr. Rudy Becking, launched her career as a passionate, environ-mental activist. Job-wise, she enjoyed many years as a seasonal National Park Service ranger, working from Pt. Reyes to Redwood to Olympic to Denali to North Cascades. She settled and homesteaded in North Cascades National Park, in upper Skagit, in 1982. In addition, she worked for six years for the US Forest Service in fire, visitor services, and interp planning. She also spent 20+ years as an environmental educator for two different non-profits. Fairchild met and married her husband Art Olson here and they homestead and grow food as well as have 30 acres of hay for sale. They also raise and use their mules in the fields as well as on back country trails. Fairchild is now living with ALS.

Bob Freeman

Biological Sciences, 1976

Bob Freeman, Biological Sciences, 1976, retired from his job as a public health microbiologist and lab director but is still writing software for the laboratory information management system. Freeman is now writing SciFi and his work can be found at
www.smashwords.com/books/view/1023599 and www.smashwords.com/books/view/1029727.

Nancy Ross-Flanigan Pokerwinski

Biological Sciences, 1976

After a rewarding career as a science writer for the Detroit Free Press and the University of Michigan, Nancy Ross-Flanigan Pokerwinski, Biological Sciences, 1976, is now focused on writing memoir and fiction. Her memoir, MANGO RASH: COMING OF AGE IN THE LAND OF FRANGIPANI AND FANTA, was published by Behler Publications in 2019, after winning first place in the memoir/nonfiction category of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Awards. Like most authors, she had to cancel or reschedule all the in-person events she had scheduled for spring and summer of 2020, and is exploring options for virtual events. Meanwhile, she is working on a novel about creativity, outsider art, and madness.

Barry k Avery

Biological Sciences, 1975

Barry became a UCONN Master Gardener after I retired about 25 years ago.  Barry says his Humboldt State education was very valuable in obtaining the certification. He has used his Degree in Biology and the MG certification to teach classes for the State of Connecticut and Northeast Organic Farmers Association, and is also one of the three Founders of "The Holcomb Tree Trail, a 120-acre Arboretum here in his hometown, Granby Connecticut. He says his HSU education served him well and has been invaluable to me since his graduation in 1975.

Craig S. Harrison

Biological Sciences, 1974 (Masters)

Craig Harrison, Biological Sciences, 1974, spent a year in Africa before attending HSU. Craig recently published his travelogue "Dreams of a Vanishing Africa: A 1970s Transcontinental Trek", which recounts his travels within the fabric of African societies in 1971-1972. He avoided safe, well-trodden routes and instead used decrepit trains, cargo trucks, rattletrap buses, jammed bush taxis, dugout canoes, and ferries. He lived out of a backpack and experienced the land and people of Africa up close. Craig's website (www.craigsharrison.net) has photos, and the book can be ordered there from the publisher Lulu as well as Amazon.

David E. Howell

Forestry & Wildland ResourcesForest Management, 1974

David Howell, Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1974, served in the U.S. Air Force active duty for four years and flew in Phantom F-4C, D, and E primarily out of George Air Force Base. He retired from career civil service after 37 years of active duty with the Bureau of Land Management. Howell's duty stations included, Susanville, California, Roseburg, Oregon, Ukiah, California, Hollister, California, Washington D.C. Headquarters, Vernal, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska. Positions included entry level Forester, Natural Resource Specialist, Area Manager, District Manager, Branch Chief and Deputy State Director for Resources.

Richard Sayre

Biological Sciences, 1974

Dr. Richard Sayre is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer for Mercury Bio Inc. (www.mercurybio.com) based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mercury Bio Inc. focuses on the targeted delivery of therapeutic RNAs and small molecular weight drugs to human cells to address various viral and genetic diseases. Dr. Sayre recently introduced Mercury Bio's platform drug delivery technology to the pharmaceutical industry at Boston's third mRNA-Based Therapeutics Summit.