Alumni Updates

Adam Lodge

Geography, 1997

Adam Lodge is currently the Director of Solutions Delivery at Farallon Geographics, where he focuses on streamlining project management processes and managing key strategic client projects. Recently, he relocated to Encinitas, California, after spending many years in the San Francisco Bay Area following his graduation from HSU.

After earning a GIS certificate from San Francisco State University in 2000, Adam began his career as a GIS Analyst at San Mateo County, where he worked for six years. This experience provided him with a solid foundation for his transition into consulting at Farallon, where he has managed numerous projects involving GIS implementation, data development, and application development for local governments. One of the highlights of his career has been developing and implementing a software platform called Arches, which is designed to support the management of cultural heritage information. In recent years, Adam has shifted his focus away from technical work and concentrated on enhancing project management practices within his firm.

For more about his professional background, Adam can be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/adam-lodge-pmp-30651a13.

Joy DeBruyn

Geography, 2002 (BA - Geography); 2006 (BS - Wildlife Management)

Joy currently holds the position of Senior Technical Support at H. T. Harvey & Associates, an ecological consulting company, where she essentially fulfills the role of an office manager. She resides in Arcata and has a deep affection for Humboldt County, having left several times only to return each time.

Since graduating, Joy's career path has included valuable experiences working in Sequoia National Park as well as various field jobs across California and Oregon from 2002 to 2007. However, in order to establish a more stable local job and embrace her role as a mother, she transitioned to an administrative position with the ecological consulting company in 2007, where she has continued to work through 2026.

On a personal note, Joy's husband also graduated with a degree in Geography from Humboldt State University (now known as Cal Poly Humboldt). The couple initially met during a Physical Geography field trip and has since been married for 19 years, raising two children together.

Daniel Blazich

Geography, 2020

Since graduating from Humboldt State University (the last semester to be called HSU), Daniel was hired as a Surveillance Officer at Cher-Ae Heights Casino in Trinidad. He is currently one of five Gaming Compliance Officers, with his "slice of the pie" being Title 31 Compliance (anti-money laundering).  He tracks, monitors, and reports unusual monetary transactions to FinCen (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), which falls under the Department of the Treasury.  

Cody Leviloff

Geography, 2021

Cody is currently working for Mendocino County DOT in the County Surveyor's office, checking maps, determining right-of-way, and operating remote sensing equipment on behalf of the municipal government. 

David Kmetovic

Natural Resources, 1975

David moved to Arcata in the fall of 73, knowing virtually no one. He had been living in Santa Cruz and had just started playing some pick-up basketball, but had not developed many skills or instincts for the game. He started going to the gym at Humboldt on weekends (this was the “old” gym, which was new at the time), and her is very happy he did. Now retired at 73, after a career in the Environment field, and living in Portland, he's still playing. He's recently had some reflections on the importance of “play”, as it might relate to health and the evolutionary biology of our species.

He's attached the piece he alled “Keep on Playin’.

—

Keep on Playin’

The Wednesday Night Payoff

“Nobody gets hurt, guys!” It’s the standing hope and  agreement in my Wednesday night basketball group. Two hours of fast, unpredictable, yet structured “play” among adults, some now in their seventies.

A father and son who somehow still compete without mercy. One retired guy, who stubbornly keeps trying a few old moves that aged well. Another who often  laughs when he dribbles, seeing angles the rest of us miss. We come from three different countries, different careers. For those two hours none of that matters.

Why do we do it? What makes us ensure our schedules are clear so we can immerse ourselves in this apparent mayhem?

It’s the week’s payoff, where everyday details, the news cycle, and anxieties fall away, are crushed into insignificance.

The Mismatch

Playing in a way that demands muscular and aerobic output, and which simultaneously requires a focus on rapid responses, seems to be one path toward maintaining lifelong health. 

Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman has written about how the bodies of hominids evolved to allow vigorous movement, yet we now live in an environment where very little is required of us. Many modern health problems may be traced back to that mismatch.

Of course we’re all aware one should “stay in shape“, and although many of us engage in activities such as walking, running, cycling, or strength training, these activities don’t really demand the same constant adaptation. None of these actions taken alone seem very similar to what it took to survive for so much of human history.

Are there modern activities we can adopt where we reinforce the mind/body connection that stimulates and reengages these ancient traits?

My experience says we can.

Adults at Play

This is where the role of sporting activities comes in. Tennis or basketball for example, require constant adjustment of position, awareness of physical obstacles, and eye hand coordination at a very rapid pace. Situations change quickly and we respond using skills sharpened over time. Hopefully, our reaction to being challenged only stimulates us to improve.

Psychiatrist John J. Ratey has written extensively about the link between movement and brain function. Sport, with its constant decisions and adjustments often made under pressure, may be one of the most natural ways to activate and strengthen those connections. Pickleball, soccer, basketball, they all answer that call.

Now, I can’t pretend that our Wednesday night full-court hoop sessions re-create ancient life on the savanna. But I also can’t ignore how “right” it feels, the sprinting, the scanning, the constant adjustments, as if some old circuitry is being exercised, not just my legs.

No time for deliberation, actions arise from the body itself, reinforced by decades of experience. It feels like a body-mind fusion where muscle memory takes over.

Sporting games that include a tangible measure of success by keeping score and noting metrics of personal performance (points scored, aces, rebounds etc.), give us inarguable measures of effectiveness. The more negative experiences such as having a shot blocked, might also build emotional resilience, through our need to quickly “shake it off”  and get back in the game.

Belonging

Another aspect of the utility of sports is that they are social activities. We are after all tribal creatures, and for most of human history coordinated effort has been a key to our survival. In the modern world we have sports, where we accept well established rules and agreements, a valuable and non-violent substitute for earlier forms of both conflict and cooperation. Instant feedback, gaining insight on clever strategies and the near constant need to adjust on the fly in a social or one on one context, all strengthen these abilities, which mostly lay dormant in modern life. 

My own experience is that a palpable bond has formed in my group that regularly meets to share in the love of our chosen form of play.

If it feels good…

People can have a strong attraction, even an addiction to the reward neurotransmitters our brains generate, and they seem to flow freely in the active play state. We all seek ways to feed our addictions, so to those like us who have discovered a sport they love, heading off to play never feels like a chore or workout task they must complete: we are only too eager to get back on the court again, and happily run ourselves ragged. After a week mediated by screens, the game feels less like exercise and more like necessity. And doing well for the team carries its own quiet reward.

Beyond just staying “in shape”

Whatever form it takes, playing sports, as a modern echo of more primal demands, just might play a role in maintaining the health of the whole mind/body system into the later years. And those experiences in every session, good,  disappointing, or physically painful, just give new feedback, strengthened over time.

Could the satisfaction we feel and the prospect of another helping of dopamine help us heal, recover and return?

Why stop?

“Ball in!”

The ball is checked after a foul.

Shoes squeak as one of us makes a quick cut to get open in the key. But he is a step slow this time and the pass is stolen. It’s getting late, we’re getting tired.

And of course our bodies do complain. Our group has watched players drift away after a surgery, losing the battle with a chronic condition, or simply the accumulation of years. Most never return. But for now, the lucky ones keep playing through adulthood.

The wrestling play we see exhibited by lion cubs builds essential strength and agility. Yet, just as with humans, play generally fades away as maturity and a more self sufficient life begins. 

Maybe we should never stop playing.

One more time!

We click off the lights to our creaky old gym and in sweaty good humor, head over to the bar for the last part of the night’s ritual, to finally relax. Our conversations over beer can range from the evening’s court antics to the evening’s MVP to the recent death of a parent. Rae, our bartender, looks up, grabs the pint glasses.

We settle in the corner booth and clink them in a quiet toast.

For what we keep building.

For another week.

And hey, nobody got hurt.

Reasons enough to keep on playin’.

Claudine Bibeau Parks

Business Administration, 2024

Claudine is set to obtain a nonprofit leadership and management degree from Arizona State University (ASU) in May, which will complement her leadership studies degree program at Humboldt.

Jennifer Elizabeth Wood

Communication, 1972

Jennifer thought it would be interesting to report that she wrote and published two books in recent years: “What Did Uncle Harold Know?” in 2016, and “Defying Adversity as I Race to Achieve My Dreams” in 2024. The first book imagines what her long-deceased great-uncle might have learned in his long career as a bartender at the famous Copacabana in New York and then at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. The second book is a memoir about her long career and life joys, such as becoming the first intern in 1973 of an unknown new U.S. Senator named Joe Biden, as well as spending a weekend at the Kennedy Compound and sailing with Ethel Kennedy and several of her children in 1978. Jennifer later worked on the White House Staff. But a nightmare was following her during all these wonderful years: terrible physical symptoms that defied medical diagnosis and inspired dismissive reactions from doctors. The future development of MRI technology would at last confirm what she had believed. She had  Multiple Sclerosis. Both books are available on Amazon.

Joe Van Sambeek

Biological Sciences, 1993 Biology, Spanish, 1995 SS Teaching Credential

Joe is in his 28th year of teaching high school Science and Spanish in the Bay Area, still trying to make it relevant and "not boring" every day.  He says he still has a snake in his classroom, is still overextended, and is still causing headaches for his principal. Joe enjoys traveling and camping with his family and friends, having completed the Pan-American Highway last summer, 21 years after the first leg. He makes it up to Humboldt when possible and stays in touch with numerous friends from the Marching Lumberjacks. March or Die!

Caleb Chen

Sociology, 2025

Caleb Chen was recently interviewed about Cannabis research on mycannabis.com.

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