Breadcrumb
Alumni Updates
Heidi (Foote) Bowman
EnglishEnglish Education, 2009
In the fall of 2017, Heidi Bowman, English, 2009, helped open the "sister charter school": CSArts-SGV. A free, public comprehensive high school in California's San Gabriel Valley, that embeds seven hours of conservatory arts instruction following the academic school day. Heidi has the distinct honor of being the Department Chair, and because of HSU's English Education program she graduated from in 2009, the department is the "Literature, Language, and Composition" team. The linguistics courses, the not-old-dead-white-guys literature courses, the pedagogy-built-into-my-soul courses, shaped her into an English teacher to be reckoned with!
Vanessa St.Oegger-Menn
English, 2008
Vanessa St.Oegger-Menn, 2008 English, is the Pan Am 103 Archivist and Assistant University Archivist at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
Joel Heng Hartse
English, 2007
Joel Heng Hartse, 2007 English, taught at universities in China for two years after finishing his M.A. in English at HSU. Hartse completed his Ph.D. in TESL in the Department of Language and Literacy at the University of British Columbia, and as of September 2015, has a teaching-focused, continuing faculty appointment as a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Heartse lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and their two sons.
Joel Heng Hartse
English, 2007
Joel Heng Hartse is a Senior Lecturer at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. His latest book is A Very Brief Guide to Reading & Writing in University.
Matthew Thomas Brashears
EnglishTESOL Minor, 2007
I'm happy to report that I was recently accepted to a graduate program at The New School. I'll be working towards an MA in TESOL - a field I was introduced to and excited by when I was an undergrad at HSU.
Lauren M. Connolly, Ph.D.
English, 2006, 2010
Lauren M. Connolly, Ph.D., 2006 and 2010, English, completed her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at El Paso in rhetoric and composition after earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Humboldt State University. She is an assistant professor at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.
Robert P. Robinson
EnglishEnglish Language Arts with a minor in Ethnic American Literatures, 2004
After teaching K-12 for 11 years, Robert Robinson, English, 2004, pursued a PhD in Urban Education with a concentration in Africana Studies at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. In March 2020, he remotely defended his dissertation with distinction. His doctoral research project, Stealin’ the Meetin’: Black Education History & the Black Panthers’ Oakland Community School, tells the story of the Panthers’ educational center as a site for understanding Black self-determination, the Black radical imagination, and the shift in mainstream curriculum.
Robert Robinson
EnglishSingle Subject Education, 2004
I've been teaching in San Diego for seven years. I taught at a private school for two years and a public school for five. I continued graduate work in education, focusing my attention on Ethnic American Literatures, Social Justice Education, Parent Contacts, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. I teach in the AVID program, working to increase the college enrollment of underrepresented students.
Erika Wright
English, 2001
I graduated from HSU in 2001 with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Ethnic Studies. Then I moved to London to do an MA in National and International Literatures in English at the University of London, School of Advanced Studies. HSU prepared me well for the next 10 years of my life where I lived, studied and worked in 4 different countries.
I lived and studied in both London and Berlin. Then I worked in Xi'an, China where I taught in the 1:2:1 program which brings Chinese students to Humboldt for 2 years. the past 2 years I have been living in Perth, Western Australia. I started teaching ESL to pre-literate refugees, am now I am working at Murdoch University and considering a PhD.
Cyndy Phillips
English, 1998
On September 3, 2022, Humboldt had its first published anthology of painters, Looking for Beauty. The publishing was designed and compiled by Cyndy Phillips ('98, English), a former English faculty. For nearly four years, the project was advised by Cal Poly Press and professor, James Woglom (who wrote the foreword). In August of 2022 at the Redwood Art Association (603 F St, Eureka), the final 80 limited edition books were on sale as a fundraiser to support the Redwood Art Association’s Annual Paint Out. The event was ushered in by gypsy jazz, North Story Wines, and free food.



