Breadcrumb
Alumni Updates
Brian Brown
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1990
Brian retired in 2025 after 21 years leading the California Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) program with the Water Education Foundation and 32 years as an Education Specialist at the Forestry Institute for Teachers, a program of the California Society of American Foresters. His entire career post Humboldt has been dedicated to educating K-12 students, teachers, and the general public about science and management of natural resources using much of what he learned in the HSU Forestry and Social Sciences teaching program - and plenty more learned from all the amazing teachers and partners he worked with since 1990.
Brian retired, moved to Missouri, and was married in September of 2025, and now he finds himself standing at the same crossroads he stood on upon graduation from Humboldt. He's spent all these years on the path of teaching and education, and he is now enjoying the start of his journey into forest and land management, as he learns about the forests and other habitats of the Missouri Ozarks right in his own backyard. Life has been and continues to be quite an adventure!
Robert A Nisbet
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1965
Bob Nisbet built on the strong foundation provided in his Forest Management training at HSU to complete an MS in Ecology from San Diego State University in 1969 in Chaparral Ecology and a PhD in Physiological Desert Plant Ecology at Arizona State University in 1972. After many years of research in modeling forest growth under simulated global warming conditions at UC-Santa Barbara (UCSB), he entered the new developing field of Data Mining at AT&T in 1994, focusing on the use of machine learning algorithms to predict customer behavior actions in Telecommunications companies. He retired from Santa Barbara Bank & Trust in 2009 as an Assistant VP of Technical Services, and promptly became bored. He spent the next 10 years teaching Data Science subjects remotely to international students in the UC-Irvine Data Science Certificate Program (a professional certificate comparable to about a half of an MS program). He is retired (finally) in Goleta, CA, near UCSB. He is the coauthor of 3 books in Data Science for Academic Press.
Paul Sheppard
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1982
Paul Sheppard ('82 Forestry) representing the Old College Try Barbershop quartet, which formed up at HSU in 1981 and sang on campus for a year or two, would like to share that since graduating from HSU, the quartet has been meeting up every now and then to sing and bird, and reminisce about Humboldt.
They even "met" online in 2020 to sing the Humboldt Alma Mater virtually, the way choirs and ensembles did to wait out the pandemic with music.
They just met up this year in the Mojave Desert, Southern California, and put up a video of their 2025 reunion:
Exactly 10 minutes long.
Suzan Homsombath
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 2017
Suzan is living in the Sierra Nevada foothills, practicing forestry and growing her career as a forester.
Bill (William) G. Ramos
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1980
Bill lives in Issaquah, Washington. He has worked for the U.S Forest Service for 30 years and 8 more years with the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was elected to Issaquah City Council in 2015. Then elected to the Washington State House of Representatives in 2018, 2020, and 2022. This year, 2024, He was elected to the Washington State Senate.
Stephen Lenzo
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1980
Steve started his career with the U.S. Forest Service while still a student at Humboldt and retired in 2018 after 40 years. Along the way he worked in five regions, served two years in the Peace Corps, and taught high school in NYC while completing a master's degree in bilingual science secondary education. Steve worked in both National Forests and at Job Corps centers finishing his career in the National Office of Job Corps. Since retirement, Steve has worked as a consultant helping to start Youth Conservation Corps programs in Honduras, Colombia, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Morocco, Guinea, Egypt, and Congo.
Daniel DeArmond
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 2004
After graduating, Daniel worked in the California timber industry as a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) preparing timber harvest plans (THPs). In 2015, he moved to Manaus, Brazil, and studied Brazilian Portuguese to prepare for the entrance exam at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA). Once successfully passing the exam, he entered the postgraduate program for tropical forest science (CFT) and completed all requirements to receive an MSc (2018) and Ph.D. (2023). His Ph.D. thesis is titled "Impacts and Recovery after soil compaction from logging machinery in Central Amazonia."
Rick Tholen
Forestry & Wildland Resources, 1976
After graduating, Rick continued to work seasonally for the Shasta Trinity NF until he was hired on permanently with the FS in Potlatch, ID. From there he went to work for the BLM in Medford, OR. Transferred to a BLM office in Missoula, MT, and then to Boise, ID, where he worked for the Washington Office and then at the National Interagency Fire Center. In Boise, he earned a Master's from Idaho. He retired with 34 years of federal service in 2010. He still lives in Eagle, Idaho (31 years now) and stays active by hiking, backpacking, biking, and golfing.
Kaelie Peña
Rangeland Resource Science, 2017
Upon graduation in 2017, Kaelie worked as a Rangeland Management Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service, first in the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and then in the Salmon-Cobalt Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest. In February of 2024, Kaelie accepted the position of Nevada State Coordinator with Pheasants Forever where she will coordinate partnerships amongst NGOs, State, and Federal Agencies across Nevada to accomplish habitat restoration and conservation work.
Rick Meilan
Forestry & Wildland Resources, Forest Science, 1983
Bill Bigg died on 13 April 2023. He was hired as a professor by the Forestry Department at HSU in 1979 (retired in 2007). He taught several courses in Forestry, including Tree Physiology, Tree Improvement, and Regional Silviculture. Bill also taught courses in a variety of other departments. He was respected and admired by his students for his knowledge, lecturing style, fairness, sense of humor, and approachability. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Donna, who faithfully assisted Bill in all aspects of his life. Donna can be contacted at DJBCOM1-Humboldt@yahoo.com.