2017-18 Alumni Notes Graduation Years 2005-08
2008
Wade Herndon
To be honest my update is not that interesting because I haven’t worked much as a statistician since I left UCSB two summers ago. I spent a lot of time floating around California playing music with various people. I’ve been out of the states for about five months in total this year and am currently abroad. I spent the summer in Minneapolis working with a research/consulting company with a growing focus on data-science-type work. Eventually I plan to work with them again and help them open locations in South America.
Sean Silva
Professional: In 2017, I finished my fellowship under the Society of Actuaries and am very excited to finally be done taking exams forever. I am still working at Milliman as a health and welfare and pension consulting actuary, and travel frequently to cities on the West Coast for client meetings.
Personal: I live in the East Bay with my wife and two boys. In 2017, we went on several trips, including San Luis Obispo, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Tahoe to name a few.
Casey Word
After Cal Poly, I earned a master’s degree in finance at Vanderbilt and my FSA credentials from the Society of Actuaries, worked a couple of insurance jobs as a health actuary, and am going on five years as an actuarial consultant for Milliman’s San Francisco health practice. Lately I’ve been spending my free time planning my wedding (I got engaged in August.) and woodworking (currently building a nightstand for the guest room).
2007
Matthew Bowyer
I passed the nine-year mark at Marketing Evolution and am currently heading up our analytics group. We went through our series A earlier this year, and we've seen quite a lot of growth since then. The only downside is thatwe moved offices so my commute to the office from our Cameron Park, Calif., home doubled from 15 to 30 minutes. On the home front, my wife and I traded in silent nights for a bundle of joy on September 28th, 2017. Zachary turned out to be quite the bundle, weighing in at 10 pounds!
Tommy Garrison
It seems like the Stats Department is as strong as ever and continues to adapt with the changing data science climate. I got this impression looking through the upper-level coursework and reading updates of recent alumni, what they're doing, etc. It all sounds really good. I'm still extremely thankful for my time at the Stats Department and really don't think I would be where I am without that foundation. I also don't think I would have ended up where I did without Dr. Schaffner and Dr. Lund's encouragement to do something ecologically related with my degree. So thanks.
Mary Joynt
I am currently working as a sales operations analyst, at Trimble Navigation, Inc. I cover all of North America and parts of Europe. I have been working at Trimble for the past eight years. In our free time my fiancé and I love to travel. We went to Paris, Iceland, Hawaii and Florida last year. We also adopted a dog name Sherlock. We got engaged in Sherlock Holmes Pub in Reims, France, so the name was perfect for him.
We are looking forward to all the new adventures of 2018!
Kendall Roberg
Life since Cal Poly has developed in three domains: family, statistics and frogs.
I have been happily married for 10 years now to my awesome wife Shelley. We are both public school teachers and love working with our students. I am tremendously grateful to all the examples of excellent teaching I experienced while at Cal Poly. We now have two children, ages four and three, and occasionally use them to demonstrate statistical concepts.
In my statistical life, I am privileged to teach AP Statistics at Burbank High School. This year I wrote an AP Statistics practice book, and I am currently developing a Normal Distribution Rubber Stamp (I got sick of drawing it by hand). I realize my stamp has a very narrow and nerdy target market, but it’s worth a shot.
The rest of my life is devoted to frogs and unfortunately their rapid worldwide extinctions. I made a documentary about the plight of a frog in Panama, and I am soon heading to Madagascar to film more frogs.
Hagen von Massenbach
It was great getting to visit the campus and seeing my old teachers this past Thanksgiving holiday. Shortly after graduating, I was hired by BAE Systems. I'll hit my 10 years of service this January. In 2011 I took a promotion and moved out to San Diego where I work as a compliance specialist in support of government audits. It was just south of the boarder in Tijuana that I met my future wife. We've been married three years now. She is creative, loves to draw and paint, and works as a graphic design artist. Basically the complete opposite of my logical personality. I like to say that we share each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses. We love to travel and have shared some fun adventures, but our greatest adventure is due this March!
2005
Anne Humphrey - 2005
I’ve had a busy year. My son Sean started high school. He plays bass drum in the marching band. They’ve been cheering on their undefeated varsity football team. He was also offered a job as an assistant coach at his Ninja Academy. My daughter Katelyn is in her eighth year of the dual immersion program and started playing saxophone. She’s very good at drawing and wants to go to art school. I am still working for Paychex as an implementation coordinator for payroll accounts. However, I’ve joined a specialized data management team that doesn’t directly support clients. We take the data clients provide us from their current payroll company, convert it into a usable format, and import it into the system. I’ve been taking Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) training to learn how to create converters in Excel. And to top it all off, I spent two and a half weeks in New Zealand and Tahiti. It’s been quite a year!
Alicia (Davis) Fry - 2005
I started teaching statistics at American River Community College in 2016. It seems like I’ve been here longer, but that is likely a side effect of prepping for finals. I was brought on as a temporary full-time faculty member this term and hope to be extended through spring.
What started out as a nice part-time position allowing me to overlord (just kidding) my six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, has segued into a full-time career. My professional life ramping up happened to be rather serendipitous because my personal life took an unexpected turn. My family unit has changed, and I am slowly becoming a divorcee. This year has been a roller coaster full of many surprising turns and lessons.
This year, I’m reminded that we never stop learning and growing. Presently, I approach a junction where I need to make a decision: go back to corporate data analysis, continue working as an educator, or pursue a doctorate? Or perhaps another opportunity will develop. I am still screenwriting and working on a delightful romantic comedy and, of course, blogging when I have the time at www.BeePlease.blogspot.com. I am so grateful to have my education and all the opportunities it presents. I am actually wearing my Cal Poly Statistics Department t-shirt today!
Thomas Leung - 2005
I am currently on my 11th year with MarketCast, a market research company in the theatrical entertainment industry, near Hollywood. On the personal side, I am now occupied by a three-week-old son named Jasper.
Aaron Quan - 2005
I'm doing what Heather Smith told me to do in regards to survey response rates and helping that out. I completed my doctorate and am in Seattle in search of my first statistics job. I'm doing odd jobs trying to get myself in the worker's mindset in the meantime.
Kaycee Roeser - 2005
Since graduating in 2005, I have been working for Kaiser Permanente, an integrated non-profit healthcare system. During my junior year, I became very interested in SAS programming. I was hired on with only my undergraduate degree in statistics, which is somewhat uncommon. To this day, I use SAS every day, and I couldn't picture a better career. To all students who may read this; please know that earning a degree in statistics was very hard for me; so hard that I questioned my ability. Please know that if you have made it this far, you can do it.
