USD Magazine Summer 2012

were married on July 9, 2011, in Spokane, Wash. They live in Seattle.

incredible day with all of our friends and family, and especially my USD Gamma Phi Beta sisters. We abso- lutely rocked the dance floor!” says Sarah. The newlyweds live in New- port Beach, Calif. ERIC LOREY (BAcc) was recently promoted to enterprise controller of Technetics-Burbank, an engi- neered-products company serving the aerospace market. He is also taking courses in an MBA program at Woodbury University while liv- ing in nearby Pasadena, Calif. JENNIFER MILOSCH (BA) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in econom- ics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She plans to finish her degree in the spring of 2013 with a research emphasis on family economics. She is involved in USD’s new Central Coast Alumni Chapter. MELANIE MINO (BA) graduated from the University of Texas at Aus- tin in 2009 with a master of science degree in social work and is now a medical social worker in a hospital critical care unit in Chicago. MEGAN MORTENSEN (BA) grad- uated from Emory University in May 2011 with a doctorate in physical thera- py. She is now in a pilates-based physi- cal therapy residency in Durham, N.C. ALEXANDRA SMITH (BA) went on her ultimate dream vacation to Egypt in December 2010. The three- week trip covered every major city in Egypt, a Nile cruise, a camel ride and a hike up Mount Sinai with a guide named Moses. Back at home, Alex is the president of the new Cen- tral Coast Alumni Chapter for USD. MICHELLE (LEIBRAND) WAHLIN (BA) writes, “Graduate school can be a very long haul, but I’m happy to say the end is in sight! I am offi- cially a PhD candidate and am working on my thesis research right now. Just another few thousand hours in the lab and 100+ pages of dissertation writing, and I will get to add a few letters to my name (and hopefully a real job to my résumé). My work is on understand- ing and characterizing the metabo- lism and toxicity of a breast cancer drug called lapatinib (Tykerb).”

ROBERT WATKINS (JD) and his wife, Shauna (Boehm) ’09, celebrat- ed their third wedding anniversary in December 2011.

pect to wind up practicing law. But while serving as a law clerk for the attorney general’s office during the summer of 1999, she was reading transcripts and had an epiphany: “I’d rather be in the courtroom.” She got her way: for the past 12 years —much of it in San Diego’s South Bay felony unit, as well as serving rotations in the gang unit (“very intense”) and the central pre-trial and disposi- tion unit — and she doesn’t regret a thing. “I had the luxury of choosing this work because I had a full scholarship to law school,” Ruiz says with candor. “I didn’t have a lot of student loans to repay. ” But perhaps most important to her is that her principles are never at risk of compromise; prosecutors are duty-bound to only pursue cases that they believe in. “I’m always wearing the white hat,” she says. “If we don’t believe in a case beyond a reasonable doubt, we dismiss it.” While the work is grueling by any standard — especially cases dealing with children — she takes pride in the positive impact her efforts have for the whole community. “If you can help a child, and there is a good outcome or conviction, it’s just more valuable in com- parison to other kinds of cases,” Ruiz explains. As busy as her caseload keeps her, she still makes time to share her expertise where it’s most needed. “I go to Mexico period- ically to train prosecutors, be- cause they’re switching over their criminal justice system. That al- lows me to be active internation- ally and feel like I’mgiving back.” It’s a juggling act, but one at which she’s become adept. “I can only do one thing at a time,” she shrugs. “When you’re in a big trial, you just have to get it done. When you’ve invested so much of yourself and your time and energy into a case, you can’t take half measures.”

[ 2 0 0 8 ] JAMES ALDO (BBA) and Lindsay McGowan ’08 were married on Sept. 17, 2011. KAITLIN GOWAN (BA) is a doc- toral student in literature at Arizo- na State University. She received her master’s degree from ASU in the spring of 2011. In addition to teaching first-year composition at ASU as part of her teaching asso- ciateship, Kaitlin is an adjunct fac- ulty member teaching composi- tion at a local community college. Kaitlin says the great English liter- ature foundation she received at USD helped get her to where she is today. “Go Toreros!” she says. UCSD California State Summer School for Mathematics and Sci- ence (COSMOS), a month-long summer academic enrichment program for talented high school students who are interested in science, technology, engineering and/or math. She manages pro- gram operations, supervises the student selection process, trains high school teacher fellows, coor- dinates curriculum with university faculty, and trains residential and graduate assistants. Rebecca also facilitates an annual UCSD summer program “best practices” day-long conference. THOMAS BLAKE HIGGINS (BA) is enrolled as a first-year dental student at the University of Col- orado Denver School of Dental Medicine. Before enrolling at CU, he participated in two medical/ dental mission trips to Honduras with Cure International to pro- vide free care for patients in un- derserved communities in that country. Blake says he is happy to be back home in Colorado and hopes to get in a little skiing in his hometown of Vail this winter. JAMIE (BUFKIN) HOVERSEN (BA) and her husband, William, were married in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in December 2010. ITHA KARASINTH (BA) is a medical student at Touro University Nevada. REBECCA HAMES (MA) was pro- moted to assistant director of the

[ 2 0 0 9 ] ELIZABETH (HACHMANN)

CONDAS (BBA) and her husband, Russ ’10, were married recently. “We met at USD and loved every second of it!” Elizabeth says. “We miss San Diego … but maybe we’ll be back in the future! Right now, we’re living in Minneapolis.” ANNA LEYRER (BA) received an award at the Fourth Annual La Man- cha Awards ceremony, which was held on Oct. 20, 2011, at USD’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. Anna was honored for her outstanding volun- teer service through Casa Cornelia Law Center’s volunteer program. LAUREN McDONOUGH (MA) graduated from Harvard University’s language and literacy graduate pro- gram in May 2011 and is now a liter- acy specialist in a public elementary school just outside of Boston. BRITTANY (WHITE) STRUCK (BA) completed graduate school at the University of Rhode Island with a master’s degree in marine affairs. She then married her hus- band, Kenneth, in Dallas and they moved to Long Beach, Calif., where Brittany works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration. As a natural resource man- agement specialist, she works on endangered species, specifically the Southern California steelhead trout. SHAUNA WATKINS (JD) and her husband, Robert ’08, were married and moved to Washington, D.C. They are both attorneys, practicing administrative law for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. “We are definitely enjoying the area of law and the East Coast adventures,” Shauna writes. [ 2 0 1 0 ] JAMES BLACKFORD (BA) was promoted to account executive after reaching the rank of assistant man- ager in the management trainee program at Enterprise Holdings. MICHELLE DOMINGUEZ (BA) is a student in the master of arts in medical science program at Boston University School of Medicine. “Even

BETH (MACHTOLF) WINTER (BAcc) and her husband, Aaron ’06,

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