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2016 Alumni Notes Graduation Years 1987-2004

2004

Beau Corkins

After graduation, I earned my master’s in statistics from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in 2007. I am in my eighth year teaching math and statistics at Gillette College. I have taught every math course from introductory algebra through differential equations. I love the people I work with, but most of all I enjoy interacting with the students I have had the privilege of teaching in my classes. In my free time, I enjoy the outdoors, movies and spending time with friends.

Dawn Eash

I am living in Los Angeles and working in litigation consulting. I have been participating in ASA's Committee on Career Development for the last several years, and if you have any ideas on how ASA can help with your career development, please reach out!

Nicole Leighton (Walterman)

I am currently a principle cost analyst in the aerospace and defense industry in Southern California. I work as a financial consultant for the Air Force on the rocket launch vehicle program as well as missile warning satellite programs. I never thought I'd learn how a rocket engine works, but watching a few billion dollars launch into space is pretty cool. On the family side, we just added a new addition a few weeks ago and now have two awesome girls and one crazy dog. In our spare time, we still love to travel, hike, snowboard and anything outdoors.

Laine Thomas (Elliott)

Since graduating, I got my Ph.D. at North Carolina State in 2009 and have been an assistant professor in the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Department at Duke ever since. I do lots of research in cardiology and am assistant editor for statistics at Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology. I’m interested in methods for causal inference in longitudinal data, particularly Medicare claims data and electronic health records. I have a methods grant on this topic and recently established the Program for Comparative Effectiveness Research with collaborators at Duke Clinical Research Institute. Too much jargon! I love living in Raleigh, N.C., which is a diverse, multicultural city despite the reputation N.C. has recently acquired. My parents and brother moved to Raleigh two years ago, so I spend lots of time with my son (seven years old) and nieces (one and four years old). 

2003

Jessica Oltmanns

I am still enjoying living and working in Santa Cruz, Calif., as an epidemiologist for the Public Health Department. In the past couple of years, I've decided to try surfing, and I love it! I learn so much about myself and nature each time I'm in the ocean. I'm not married, no kiddos or pets, so that gives me a lot of freedom to surf, play soccer, travel to warm water surf spots, and enjoy life.

David Schumann

After getting my Ph.D. in statistics from North Carolina State, I took a job in Virginia doing consulting work with Booz Allen Hamilton. For this position, I consulted with the U.S. Navy and worked in an analyst cell based out of Naval Station Norfolk. After a couple years at this position I transitioned to a position with SAS Federal in Arlington, Va. Sticking with the Department of Defense, I now work as a sr. systems engineer and work the technical portion of the SAS federal sales engagements with the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. This means that I interact with the DoD customers to help them understand how an analytical solution can support/enhance their current initiatives and help them more efficiently meet their mission.

On the personal side, I got married in August of last year. I met my wife playing for a North Carolina State alumni flag football league in the D.C. area. We got married in a barn built by my wife’s grandfather on top of Beech Mountain, N.C. We actually went a step further and decided that we should buy the barn, renovate it for our own wedding, and then open it up as a wedding venue for other couples looking to get married. So a bit out of nowhere we became owners of a wedding venue, the Overlook Barn. It’s been an exciting venture that gives two statistical-minded people a whole different set of skills to learn.

Tierra Stimson

This last year has been more than busy for me. I relocated to the Phoenix, Ariz., area to start an estate sale auction company with my husband. I am currently adjunct teaching (statistics and psychology courses) for Arizona State University, University of Arizona Online and Cochise College Online. My family has increased by two Weimaraners. We gave birth to six puppies in our own home, and kept two. Now we have four Weimaraners, with two speeds: on and off. Now that I have settled into my new location, I am looking for a full-time position. Got to love the job hunt!

2001

Samuel Frame

I have been busy over the last couple of years since returning from my leave at Wells Fargo. I worked with students on a project to assess the accuracy of Starmine's Predicted Earnings Surprises and how these predictions affect stock prices. I also collaborated with Cal Poly alumni from Marketing Evolution on individual-level marketing analytics models, taught some data science courses for Berkely's Masters of Informatics in Data Science program, developed a course on data visualization and storytelling for the Business Analytics Program for Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business, returned to Wells Fargo as a consultant, and got married. Wowsers, I feel tired from reading all of that.

1996

Rebecca Ottesen

This year was my 19th (how did that happen?) at the City of Hope working as a biostatistician and lead of the data mining group. I also continue to enjoy teaching classes and advising student research at Cal Poly.  In addition, I took on the role of co-chair (with Chelsea Loomis Lofland) of the Western Users of SAS Software Annual Conference that took place this past September in San Francisco. Outside of work, I've gotten back to hiking regularly and enjoying spur of the moment day trips to local destinations. In the coming year we're planning family trips to Sedona, Ariz., and Banff, Canada.

1995

Gregory Ridgeway

From 2013-14 I directed the National Institute of Justice, the science agency within the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing forensic science, social science and technology concerning crime and the justice system. While I really enjoyed my time at DOJ and learned an enormous amount about science, our justice system, running a large agency, working in government, politics and all that, I got an offer to join the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and jumped at that opportunity.

So now I’m an associate professor of criminology and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania well into my third year now. I primarily teach graduate level data analysis and research methods courses to criminology students, though this semester I’m teaching an introductory statistics class to Penn undergraduates and really enjoying that one, too. In addition, I have a lot of research projects going on: I’m studying violence in West Philly, police use of force, racial disparities in sentencing in New York state, opioid overdoses, and many other topics. I have some recently published research on topics such as which police officers are most likely to shoot (those the police already know are problematic), how much marijuana is in the typical joint (one-third of a gram), and the effect of public transit expansion on crime (no effect).

My Cal Poly statistics degree, including the computer science and math training I got at Cal Poly, really set me up to have an interesting career. I still live in Washington, D.C. with my wife (who is also a statistician) and our two girls (nine and 11 years old). Yes, I have a long commute to Philadelphia (I write this while taking the Amtrak to Philly), but it has been working out fine. I get the benefits of both Washington, D.C., and Philly.

1994

Todd Alonzo

I am a professor at the University of Southern California where I will be teaching a clinical trials course to graduate students during the spring semester. My main collaboration continues to be with the Children’s Oncology Group, where I am the group statistician and lead statistician for the Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) Committee. On a personal note, I can’t believe that I have two boys in high school. Where does the time go?

1993

Jose Tagunicar

Jose Tagunicar in front of Greek churchHow do you summarize life 23 years after graduating? Things have evolved so much. I attended Cal Poly when there were only two channels on TV if you didn't have cable. However, the Stat Department's alumni are very close knit, especially in my generation of graduates. I have worked with many Cal Poly alumni over the years — there are too many to mention. The friendships you build within the department are truly lifelong both professionally and personally. 

After spending 13 years in the financial services industry, I have been at FICO for the past 9 years. I've worked in sales, been the head of analytics, done research, and now I'm in our Global Advisory Consulting group. I've been fortunate to work with top banks around the world, averaging about 120,000 miles a year in travel. I've done many tours in China, Peru, Brazil and the U.K. to name a few. 

For the past two years, I have been living in Madrid, Spain, not only understanding the financial services industry in España, but also picking up a third language, getting an appreciation for the people in Europe, and, most importantly, having an experience of a lifetime that I have difficulty finding words to describe.

Moving to another country and having a wonderful experience isn't reserved for the 20-something's of the world. I did it at 44 years old. What an experience! 

But does a Cal Poly education mean anything in Spain? Absolutely. The Learn by Doing tools and techniques I've learned in academics apply to life in a foreign country. You have to immerse yourself in the culture and dive in feet first to truly get the total experience. It takes courage, risk and the willingness to do things on your own and learn from the experience.

Learn by Doing is more than hands-on laboratory or computer programming or real-life data experience and applying to the professional and academic world. This technique also applies in life.

1992

Andrew Schaffner

It's been so exciting to see our Data Science Minor get up and running. While I'm not involved in teaching our core data classes, I helped develop the program and have been advising eager students since its inception. I've really enjoyed the cross-campus collaboration (with computer science), and I know our students have also really enjoyed seeing some varied perspectives. In addition to the curriculum work, I've been working with faculty in kinesiology and nutrition to study healthy pregnancies in two very different populations: obese/overweight pregnant women in the U.S. and malnourished pregnant women in Malawi. It's sort of odd that with one collaborator we're trying to prevent excessive weight gain and with my other collaborator we're trying to increase weight gain.

On a more personal note, my oldest son, Ganden, is now starting to look at colleges. Being on the other side of college tours is very strange!

1987

Dave Hosford

Dave Hosford and familyCurrently, the director of enterprise information management at the Partnership Healthplan of California where I have been since 1994. I have lived in the Napa Valley with my wife Julie (Chow) Hosford (Accounting ’87) since 1992. We have two kids in college but none at Cal Poly. My son is studying statistics at UC Davis. I ran the California International Marathon in 2014 but am taking this year off to recover.

 

Read more updates:  1987-2004    2005-2008    2009-2010    2011-2012    2013-2014    2015-2016

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