Breadcrumb
Alumni Updates
Mark McKenna
Environmental Science & Management, 2024
Mark has been fully employed since April 2025 by the East Bay Regional Park District as a Park Services Attendant, currently working at Lake Del Valle in Livermore, CA, and plans to move up to Naturalist within the same company.
Debra Whitall
Environmental Science & Management, 1984
Debra recently published her first picture book. "The Fox and the Labyrinth" is a compelling life story featuring a beautiful labyrinth and a magical fox who leads a young girl on a journey of self-discovery. Inspired by a dream about a real labyrinth in Northern California after her mother’s death, the illustrations and story flowed from her grieving, with Fox as her guide. When not writing and drawing, Debra enjoys walking her own labyrinth in Santa Fe, New Mexico, traveling, hiking, and playing Mah Jongg. The book is available at: authorhouse.com/bookstore
Aaron Jensen Murphy
Environmental Science & Management, 2017
After graduating, Aaron worked on campus for Facilities Management as a groundsworker. In 2021, he moved from Arcata to Salt Lake City, Utah, to work as a Senior Natural Resource Technician for the Salt Lake City Public Lands Department. For the last two years, Aaron has worked for Salt Lake County Flood Control as a Permit Review Specialist. In his current position, he regulates all aspects of floodplain development within the county, including the installation of structures, channel realignments, and watershed restoration. He has remained passionate about environmental stewardship, professional development, and fostering successful partnerships with state and federal agencies.
Natalie Burghardt
Environmental Science & Management, 2020
Jesse Bobrow and Natalie Burghardt are engaged! They both attended Humboldt State University from 2017-2020.
Adam Cashman
Environmental Science & Management, 2021
Adam Cashman is among the first Peace Corps volunteers to return to overseas service since the agency’s unprecedented global evacuation in March 2020. Cashman wanted to travel to a different country and work in a different ecosystem and hoped to learn more about agriculture, restoration in subtropical ecosystems, and African culture. He is looking forward to making friends along the way and will serve as a volunteer in Zambia in the environment sector.
Aydee Zielke
Environmental Science & Management, 2008
Aydee recently obtained her dream job, joining the San Dieguito River Park JPA, taking on the role as the the Park Environmental Planner. Her work includes habitat conservation, preservation, planning, permitting, and mitigation for trails and parkland. She is also using her cartography skills to create map exbibits, maintain, and update GIS data. She had worked for various private consulting firms and earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii (2015). She met her husband while studying at Humboldt and they have more recently taken on the role of parents, raising their two outgoing toddlers in Coastal North County San Diego.
Patrick Murphy
Environmental Science & Management, 2013
Patrick Murphy has been working for the Orange County Water District for the past 6 years. His job consists of water quality monitoring through the sampling and water quality data analysis of many groundwater and surface water sites. Murphy has also recently obtained a MS in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton.
Garrett John Costello
Environmental Science & Management, 2014
Over the last two years Garrett Costello, Environmental Science & Management, 2014, and his wife (fellow alumni) got married and started an environmental consulting business. As the business has grown they have turned their attention to constructing low-tech beaver dam analogs to help restore critical stream and meadow ecosystems. This year Symbiotic Restoration installed over 100 beaver dams across north-eastern California. As the business expands they hope to be able to employ and incorporate Humboldt State students in to these programs. Their current plans include looking for land so that they can move back to Humboldt County and build their home back where their journey began.
Sylvia Lynn van Royen
Environmental Science & Management, Ecological Restoration Emphasis, minor in GIS, 2019
After graduating from HSU Sylvia Lynn van Royen, Environmental Science & Management, 2019, was hired by the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources based out of Orleans, California. The Tribe's DNR has ground breaking management goals that she feels honored and blessed to be learning from. Van Royen was originally hired to supervise the summer youth crew working on manual fuels reduction units, but is now working as a GIS Technician making maps and other spatially-oriented technology to support field crews.
Jason Sikorski
Environmental Science & Management, 2017
After graduating from Humboldt State University, Jason Sikorski, Environmental Science & Management, 2017, stayed local and worked at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park as a senior maintenance aid building ADA hiking trails in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park for one season. Afterward he moved back to his hometown in Orange County and was hired by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as an Environmental Health Technician in Laguna Niguel, California.