Class Notes


1960s

Jacqueline (Jackie) Walden, ‘68, Ph.D., B.A., Psychology and ‘89, M.A., Anthropology, writes, “I moved three years ago to the woodlands of Grants Pass, Ore., where I serve on the board of directors and ethics committee of the local Lovejoy Hospice. My specialization in gerontology prepared me well for these challenging positions. In addition, I’ve authored one of the chapters in Left Coast Press’ new publication, Women in Anthropology: Autobiographical Narratives and Social History. In it, I give thanks to my mentors, Professors George Rich and Melford Weiss of the Anthropology Department at Sac State, for their help in my career.”


1970s

Donna Bledsoe, ‘70, B.A. and ‘75, M.A., English, was awarded her master’s degree in English on the basis of her fine arts project, a book of poetry called Scars (a copy is on file in the Sac State library). She is an active poet again and has published a blog with her newer works at poplivy.blogspot.com/. She invites Sac State students—past, present and future—to visit and make comments.

Brian Purtill, ‘77, B.S., Criminal Justice, has been counsel to the Santa Rosa law firm Spaulding McCullough & Tansil LLP. Recently, he was a faculty member at the Empire School of Law, teaching civil procedure. Purtill and his wife, Jymmey, ‘78, B.S., Nursing, live in Sebastopol.

Edward Winkler ’79, B.S. and M.S., Civil Engineering, recently accepted a position with the engineering firm CH2M Hill as a regional client services director in Northern California after completing 28 years of public service in the water industry. Most importantly, he says, “Family life is great as my wife, Trish, and I will soon be ‘empty nesters.’ We will be sending our youngest daughter, Chelsea, away to college next fall. Our eldest daughter, Krista, will graduate next year from Chico State with the goal of becoming a schoolteacher.”

1980s

Charles Johnson, ’86, B.S. and ’92, M.A., Criminal Justice, went on to earn his doctorate at Washington State University in December 2008. He is a retired California Highway Patrol officer and lives in Spokane, Wash. with his wife, Sharon, and children, Nicholas and Alexandra. Johnson is currently an adjunct professor of criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman.

William Eaton, ’89, B.S., Criminal Justice, joined the Los Angeles Police Department after graduating from Sac State, where he also played football. He has risen through the ranks and in August 2008, was promoted to captain. His wife, Elizabeth Free Eaton, ‘89, B.S., Criminal Justice, is also with the Los Angeles Police Department. She is a detective in the Mission area. They live in Santa Clarita and have two sons.


1990s

Max Santiago, ’95, Criminal Justice, is a 26-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol and serves as the assistant commissioner and inspector general. He provides executive-level oversight to departmental operations to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations and statutes. He has served throughout the state and in 2005, he served as a special officer of the Louisiana State Police and as Gov. Schwarzenegger’s representative to the Louisiana State Police and the Louisiana governor during emergency operations in the New Orleans region. He is a graduate of the 214th Session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va., and a member of Class 43, California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training Command College. Santiago is a member of the International Association of Highway Patrolmen and the FBI National Academy Associates. He lives in Elk Grove.

Debbie Chan, ’97, B.S. Accountancy, has been promoted from manager to senior manager at Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP, a statewide certified public accounting and management consulting firm. Chan has 10 years of experience and has been with the firm for seven years. Her expertise is in working on financial and compliance audits for governmental entities and retirement systems. She lives in Sacramento.

George D. Singewald, ’97, B.S. and ’03, M.S., Criminal Justice, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award and a Life Saving Award from the Sacramento Police Foundation. Singewald has been a member of the Sacramento Police Department SWAT team for the last 10 years. He was recognized for his dedicated and valuable service to the department and for heroics in providing emergency aid to an injured child. Singewald, his wife and 6-year-old son live in Sacramento.

David Enns, ’99, B.M., Music and Music Management, says he never thought his degree would lead to the job he has now—“honking bulb horns under my armpits and ‘leg-pits,’” as an entertainer. Enns has been on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”; “America’s Got Talent,” where he was a semi-finalist; “The Gong Show,” which he won; and many other domestic and overseas media. He’s been in half-time shows at NBA, NHL, MLB, AFL, Eurocup All-Star, college and minor league games. Enns has also been the emcee at concerts, churches, Magic Castle in Hollywood, and colleges across the nation. He invites you to check his website: www.davethehornguy. com. Enns and his wife, Amy, ’99, B.S., Speech Pathology and Audiology, reside in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Rebecca Gardner, ’99, B.A., Government and Humanities, has joined McDonough Holland & Allen PC, a California law firm representing both private and public sector clients. Gardner is an estate planning and probate associate in its Business Services Practice Group. She is a director of the Sacramento Estate Planning Council, a founding member of Professionals in Estate Planning and a member of the Sacramento Area Special Needs Trust Study Group. Gardner earned her juris doctorate from the UC Davis School of Law in 2003 after graduating summa cum laude from Sac State. She is a board member of the Sac State Alumni Association and lives in Citrus Heights.

Danielle Roberts, ’99, B.S., Biological Sciences, has worked for the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff’s Criminalistics Laboratory for the last seven years. Currently, she is a forensic toxicologist who is assigned to the Forensic Alcohol Unit. Roberts is responsible for the blood and breath alcohol programs for Contra Costa and Solano counties. She maintains more than 30 breath alcohol instruments in both counties, as well as analyzing alcohol and the effects of alcohol on the human body. Currently, she owns a home in Brentwood.

2000s

Prudence Pugeda, ’02, M.S., Accountancy (Taxation), has been promoted from senior manager to director at Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP in Sacramento. Pugeda has more than 16 years of accounting and tax experience. Her expertise includes tax planning and compliance for multifaceted businesses, such as consolidated corporations and multi-state companies. She assists businesses in the preparation and review of complex tax provisions and provides tax and financial solutions to high-net-worth individuals. She lives in Elk Grove.

Theresa Bazacos, ‘04, B.A., Psychology, is a graduate student at the California School of Psychology and has completed her third year of a five-year clinical psychology doctorate program. Her dissertation topic explores the events and pathways adults of Mexican origin encounter on the way to receiving public health services. Bazacos lives in Sanger.

Sarah Keesling, ’04, B.A., Communication Studies, is the business development manager at Brower Mechanical Inc., a commercial air conditioning contractor in Rocklin. She is responsible for commercial account management, commercial maintenance projects and assisting in the growth of the company. Keesling was formerly a business development officer at Granite Community Bank in Granite Bay and has eight years of sales experience.

Nancy Van Leuven, ’04, M.A., English, received her bachelor’s degree from CSU Fullerton and began her first career in journalism, publishing a book. Twenty-five years later, at the age of 49, she returned to the classroom to earn a master’s degree at Sac State. With the encouragement of many of the University’s English faculty, Van Leuven applied to, and was accepted by, the Communications Department at the University of Washington, where she began her doctoral studies in the fall of 2004, graduating in 2007. She was offered a tenure-track faculty position in communications at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. She now lives in Quincy, Mass., with her two golden retrievers.

Tyler Oaks, ’05, M.A., Spanish, had her debut mystery novel, Ruby Rest, released by Sterling House Publishers under their Pemberton Mysteries imprint, and it is available at Sacramento-area bookstores. A synopsis of her first novel can be found at www.tyleroaks.com. Oaks finished her novel while living in Modesto, where she was teaching Spanish at Modesto Junior College. She now lives in Napa.

Candace Dodge, ’06, B.A., Communication Studies (Public Relations), is the executive assistant and scheduler in the office of Rep. Howard McKeon in Washington, D.C. Prior to this position, Dodge served as executive assistant and scheduler to Rep. John Doolittle. She resides in Washington, D.C.

Lo N. Saeteurn, ’06, B.S., Criminal Justice, has completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill. The eight-week program included classroom study and practical instruction on naval customs, first aid, firefighting, water safety and survival, and shipboard and aircraft safety. The final exercise is “Battle Stations,” which gives recruits the skills and confidence to succeed in the fleet. He makes Sacramento his home base.

Linda Park, ’07, B.A., Journalism, is the Elk Grove Citizen’s lifestyle editor. Park is a Vietnamese immigrant who moved to Marysville when she was an infant. Her family relocated to south Sacramento after the 1986 flood when they were ordered to evacuate. After graduating from Hiram Johnson High School, she studied at Sacramento City College and then enrolled at Sac State. She continued to attend college while raising children, who are now 8 and 1. Before graduating in the summer of 2007, Park was a writer and the feature editor for The State Hornet. The Park family lives in Elk Grove.


Misty Dailey, ’99: On the road, saving lives

Misty Dailey, '99Misty Dailey (’99, Communication Studies) sees the work she does as more than just a job. For her, it’s a ministry—one that can save lives.

Since October 2006, Dailey has been presenting the “Driving It Home” program to Sacramento County and area high schools, church groups and civic clubs. It encourages teens to make good choices behind the wheel and addresses the duty of even just being a passenger.

“I start by saying, ‘Let me show you exactly what happens to your body in a crash, what they can’t show you on TV,’” Dailey says. “Let me tell you what happens to your mom, your dad, your brothers and sisters when you’re gone.”

Dailey came by the job she loves through serendipity rather than strategy. “I had a successful career in sales when I burned out and decided to explore a path with more gratification at the end of the day,” she says.

The Communication Studies graduate used her experiences at Sac State to make a decision about her career. “The critical thinking skills I learned in class really kicked in. I draw on these skills every day.”

After some volunteer work with the Elk Grove Police Department, she was offered a position as a community services officer. “I thought, ‘I haven’t really left sales, I’m selling safety,’” Dailey says.

The Elk Grove police chief told her the city had passed two ordinances prohibiting street racing. He asked her to talk about racing and show a video, which she says teens and adults believe is the real deal.

“The video is a re-enactment of an actual street race,” Dailey says. “It shows two cars racing to see who can get to the party first. There’s a crash. The girlfriend flies out of the car and dies on impact. Her boyfriend was the driver and ends up in jail. He is interviewed in his orange jail jumpsuit and talks about how his life has changed since his girlfriend died. It is very emotional and very effective.”

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office heard of the program and asked her to share it with high schools. “Jan Scully felt all the area high schools should have access to the program, rather than just Elk Grove,” Dailey says of the Sacramento County district attorney and 1973 Sac State graduate.

So far, Dailey has made more than 440 presentations to 27,000 teens and adults. “Out of that group, we have no report of any of our participants having been killed in a reckless driving-related crash, or having caused a reckless driving-related fatality,” Dailey says.

“Every time I present the program, I know we’ve saved at least one life. I remember a girl coming up to me months after I had given the presentation to her high school, and she said, ‘I told my boyfriend that if he cared about me, he would slow down, and he did.’ “That’s why I do this.”

—Kim Nava


Alan Wong, ’00: Philosophical about success

Alan WongWith four restaurants in Beijing so popular they’re turning away customers, Sac State alumnus Alan Wong says his philosophy major has been a big part of his success.

Wong (’00, Philosophy) also has three restaurants in Shanghai, and he’s poised to open two more upscale eateries in Beijing.

Wong’s family moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento shortly after he was born. His entrepreneurial voyage began in 2002 after graduating from Sac State when he was searching for some direction in life. Wong was working at Tokyo Sushi in Folsom when his father called from Beijing and invited his son to join his real estate business.

“It was not really my style,” Wong says of the arrangement, adding that he saw the work as tedious and stressful.

He looked around for something else, decided to put his working knowledge of the restaurant business to the test and opened Hatsune Sushi. Even though there were 300 other Japanese restaurants in Beijing at the time, Wong’s was different.

Rather than serving traditional Japanese cuisine, Wong served up his dishes in a modern California style, targeting non-Japanese expatriates and international tourists. “It was a completely different market, and I took all of their foreign customers,” he says.

So how does the study of philosophy help someone build a successful business?

“I look at any given problem from various directions so I have a wider insight to find a solution,” Wong says. “Critical thinking, logic and theories of metaphysics train you to be open-minded.”

With Hatsune a runaway hit, Wong could have just repeated his success by opening more restaurants with the same theme. Instead, he went with totally different styles for his next two endeavors.

Kagen is a hot pot barbecue restaurant, where hot coals are brought to diners’ tables along with skewers of raw meat. The third restaurant is a teppanyaki eatery, similar to a Benihana, with the food prepared on an iron griddle at a large table.

Wong learned the basics of business management from his father, Steve Wong, a Sacramento land developer, then applied what he learned from Sac State philosophy professors, such as David Long and Matt McCormick, to his wider view of operations.

The unique puree of philosophy and capitalism has paid off. Hatsune has won the best restaurant award in Beijing five years in a row and has been mentioned in The New York Times.

Wong says he misses California — his apartment is designed along the lines of a Lake Tahoe cabin — and would like to come back some day to open a smaller venue, perhaps 20 seats.

—Craig Koscho