Carlos Alazraqui: Voice virtuoso
Though you may not know it, you’ve probably
imitated alum and chameleon actorcomedian
Carlos Alazraqui (’86, Recreation
and Leisure Studies.) Since creating one of the most recognized voices in advertising—the Taco Bell Chihuahua— Alazraqui has portrayed countless on-screen and off-screen television, movie advertising characters. He currently stars as Dep. James Garcia on Comedy Central’s “Reno 911” and the show’s movie spin-off, Reno 911 Miami. Last year he worked alongside Robin Williams as Nestor, one of the “Adelie Amigos” penguins, in the animated Oscar-winner Happy Feet.
Alazraqui’s career began when Sac State Recreation Professor Ernie Olson encouraged him to follow the sound of his voice rather than the lure of the outdoors.
“He recognized I could imitate people and do voices and he said to me ‘You should try do to do comedy,’ and off I went,” Alazraqui says.
After winning two local comedy awards, Alazraqui pursued stand up in San Francisco. While honing his new craft, four little words: “Yo quiero Taco Bell” would carry him into television history and ignite his acting career.
Since then he has appeared in a variety of television shows from “Lizzie McGuire” and “Las Vegas” to “That ‘70s Show” and “Men Behaving Badly.” His voice-over talents range from creating Nickelodeon’s Rocko of “Rocko’s Modern Life” and the Cartoon Network’s Lazlo in the “Camp Lazlo” series. He’s heard regularly on Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” PBS’ “Maya and Miguel,” and Disney Channel’s “Handy Manny.”
Alazraqui credits his acting versatility to growing up in a diverse Concord neighborhood with his Argentinean-born parents and many internationally influenced friends. “We were never limited by anything in terms of culture,” he says of watching British television and following international soccer.
Alazraqui based Dep. Garcia’s racially ambiguous and insecure persona on a Caucasian childhood friend with a Latino surname and television’s iconic bumbling deputy, Barney Fife. “Inside Garcia is really a scared and lonely man but on the outside he has a tough exterior,” he says. “He’s a likable jerk. You kind of feel sorry for him in the end.”
Alazraqui hasn’t lost his interest in outdoor exhilaration. A fanatical skydiver, he’s made 690 jumps. He jokes that he’d like to one day “jump off a fjord in Norway.” But that’s not all he dreams of. “The epitome for me,” he says laughing, “would be to have a kissing scene with Diane Lane.”
Norma Samra: Trail blazer
Norma Samra (’81, Communication
Studies)
didn’t intend to become a role
model for East Indian women,
but the trailblazing attorney
has a pioneer spirit in her blood.“I grew up in Elk Grove, and we were the only family from India that we or anyone else knew in the area,” says Samra.
And her family didn’t get there easily. Samra’s father immigrated at age 14 from Punjab, India to Honolulu, where he worked in the sugar cane fields to save money to sail to the United States.
“My father had heard what a wonderful place America was, and he was determined to go there and become a success,” says Samra. He sailed from Honolulu to Angel Island and was one of the first East Indians to come to America.
He began work as a migrant farmer in the Delta, became the world’s largest celery grower, and bought the farm the family still operates today.
“But in spite of his accomplishments, my father regretted not having a formal education,” says Samra. “So he and my mother instilled in all their four children the importance of getting a college degree and working in the professional world.”
Shy by nature, Samra came out of her shell during her studies at Sac State. “As a communication studies major, I had no choice,” she says. “I had to make a lot of presentations to my professors and classmates.”
Samra distinctly remembers a professor she greatly admired. “Barbara O’Connor was so influential in my life,” says Samra. “Her lectures were fascinating. I never looked at the clock during her classes. I wanted to present the same way she did.”
O’Connor encouraged Samra to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer, even though it wasn’t culturally acceptable for a woman to aspire to a profession dominated by males, says Samra. She pursued her goal and in 1986 was one of the first East Indian female attorneys to be admitted to the California State Bar.
For 13 years, Samra was a partner in a large worker’s compensation defense organization. After marrying and having two children, she left the company and opened her own private practice firm, Ramirez & Samra. The personal injury and family law firm affords her the opportunity to work with women in the East Indian community. “The women are breaking traditional cultural taboos regarding domestic violence and utilizing the services of the judicial system,” says Samra.
Today, Samra and her husband are instilling the same educational values her parents encouraged her to have. “My children think of college as a necessary—not an elective—step in their education,” she says. “I like to think of it as a legacy my parents passed on to them.”
Selwyn C. Gonsoulin, ’49, B.S., Business Administration, hasn’t let age get in the way of having the time of his life as musical director of the 30s-40s-50s Dance Band, a 17-piece big band that plays the music of its name. Gonsoulin, 82, fronts the band playing his trumpet and singing various vocal styles. The band rehearses every Wednesday night at the Sierra Oaks home he shares with wife Kelli, and the neighbors look forward to the two-hour serenade. The band operates as a community- volunteer band and includes another Hornet, Sac State President Emeritus W. Lloyd Johns, and his trumpet. With more than 400 arrangements in its repertoire, the band is constantly booked for all kinds of dates. In its seventh year, the band averages more than 30 performances annually.
1960s
Margo Murray, ‘63, B.S., Business Administration, founded MMHA The Managers’ Mentors, Inc., in Oakland in 1974 and now has alliance partners in 12 countries. Her best-selling book, Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring: How to Facilitate an Effective Mentoring Process, has been translated into Swedish, Japanese and Korean. She is director emeritus of the executive board of the International Mentoring Association, and a director of the executive board of The Mentoring Center Oakland Selwyn C. Gonsoulin, ’49, B.S., Business Administration, hasn’t let age get in the way of having the time of his life as musical director of the 30s-40s-50s Dance Band, a 17-piece big band that plays the music of its name. Gonsoulin, 82, fronts the band playing his trumpet and singing various vocal styles. The band rehearses every Wednesday night at the Sierra Oaks home he shares with wife Kelli, and the neighbors look forward to the and The Bellevue Club in Oakland. Recently she has been working with the Sac State College of Business Administration Alumni Chapter on a mentoring process for students. At the Emotional Intelligence Learning Systems’ world conference in Texas in April, Murray was recognized with its first-ever award for personal excellence and was the keynote speaker where she described her work using facilitated mentoring as a strategy for positive societal change. The conference drew participants from India, Bulgaria, Jamaica, the Philippines and throughout the United States. Murray lives in Oakland and is a life member of the Alumni Association.
1970s
John Pitta, ’70, B.S., Business Administration, is the owner of John Pitta Trucking in Monterey, Calif. Pitta attended Sac State on the G.I. Bill after serving two years in the U.S. Navy. He began his trucking career in management for a trucking company. But he realized he really wanted to drive and purchased a rig of his own in 1989. Pitta is active in the California Dump Truck Owners Association, serving two terms as state treasurer. Currently, he is chapter chair for Monterey Bay. He and wife Leath have a son and a daughter.
Greg Cook, ‘73, B.A., Communication Studies, has owned Friar Tuck’s Restaurant and Bar in Nevada City, Calif. since 1973. The restaurant employs more than 40 people, seats nearly 200 and does almost $2.5 million a year in business, serving just dinner. Cook’s business has rebounded from a devastating fire that burned down the restaurant and most of a city block four years ago. He also operated a restaurant in Moscow, Idaho just after graduation and one in Grass Valley 20 years ago. He says, “I am grateful for my education at Sac State and I am proud to be in business for 34 years.”
George J. Valdez, ’72, B.A., Social Work, retired after 33 years as the chief deputy probation officer for Sutter County, where he was born and raised. Drafted into the Army in 1968, Valdez became a clerk in the headquarters company of an artillery unit stationed in the central highlands of Vietnam. It was the human interaction involved with the job that made him decide on a career in counseling or probation. He joined the probation department in Sutter County and spent the first five years working with underage offenders. After a long and fulfilling career, Valdez is now enjoying some free time and makes his home in Yuba City.
Patricia Cochran, ’75, B.S., Accountancy and Business Administration, chief financial officer of Vision Service Plan, the nation’s largest specialized health plan for vision care, has been elected to The Mechanics Bank’s board of directors. Cochran has been with VSP since 1978, and was part of the team that led the 52-year-old company’s expansion to all 50 states. VSP has grown as an eye-care benefits provider with 48 million patients covered by its plans and with a network of 24,000 doctors. VSP also has made Fortune Magazine’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” eight consecutive years and ranked in the top 25 seven of those years. This year, Cochran was named to the Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement. She also earned the Distinguished Service Award from the Sac State Alumni Association in 2001 and the College of Business Administration named her alumnus of the year in 2005.
Mark Krueger, ’78, B.S., ’85, M.B.A., has joined Lee & Associates as principal in the firm’s newest Nevada office. The firm is one of the largest national commercial real estate providers with regional expertise. With more than 27 years of experience in commercial real estate, Krueger will oversee land and investment transactions. In 1995, he relocated to Reno from Sacramento where he had been named to the “Who’s Who in Sacramento Real Estate” by Sacramento Magazine. Now an expert in the Reno market, he has negotiated more than $300 million worth of land and investment property deals since 2004. As a result of his efforts, he has been recognized as the annual “Top Land Broker” in Northern Nevada for the past two years. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of Grubb & Ellis/NCG where he was the top producer for six of his nine years with the company. James R. Marshall, ’79, B.S., Criminal Justice, has spent his entire career in the criminal justice arena. He served as a police cadet with the El Cerrito Police Department, as an intern in the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office from 1974 to 1977, and then began his career as a police officer in Pleasanton. Before retiring, he earned numerous commendations for the dedication and quality of his work. One of his most recent commendations involved the arrest of the people responsible for a home invasion robbery. In retirement, he is living in Antioch.
1980s
Stephen Pecor, ’80, B.S., Criminal Justice, is a 28-year veteran probation officer for Placer County. As chief probation officer, he oversees a staff of 150 and an $18 million budget. Prior to being named to the top post, Pecor served as a senior deputy probation officer, a supervisor-manager, probation manager and assistant chief probation officer. He sees a lot of Interstate 80 on his way to and from his home in Meadow Vista. Cary Boyce, ‘83, B.A., Music, was recently awarded one of three “special distinction” awards from the ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers) Foundation–the 2006 Rudolf Nissim Prize for large musical works requiring a conductor. Boyce’s score, “Dreams within a Dream,” is a 40-minute work for soprano, chorus and orchestra in five movements. The work premiered in Bloomington, Ind. with the Bloomington Chamber Singers and Orchestra and was subsequently recorded on the Aguavá New Music Studio label. A public radio special followed soon after. Boyce says, “The real story is that a community chorus commissioned, premiered and recorded a major oratorio.” He makes his home in Bloomington and will tour the East Coast with Aguavá New Music Studio in March and April 2008.
Sam Savinovich, ‘86, B.S., Business Administration (Marketing), is the director for Setka, Inc., and has maintained an office in Sacramento for 12 years. Established 22 years ago, the company provides top IT professionals throughout California and across the country on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire basis. It moved its San Ramon headquarters to its Sacramento office. Besides serving the State of California, Setka is also an approved vendor for many counties, cities and local government entities throughout the state. Savinovich’s offices are located on Campus Commons Road in Sacramento.
1990s
Ed Jerome, ’93, B.S., Mechanical Engineering, works in the energy efficiency field as director of utility services for Cogent Energy, a small consulting firm located in the Bay Area. The firm provides engineering services to help utility customers use energy wisely, reducing their energy costs while benefiting the environment. The firm’s efforts include numerous energy efficiency projects on the Sac State campus.
Phil Brace, ’96, M.S., Electrical Engineering, is the chief marketing officer for LSI Logic, a leading Silicon Valley technology company. He has headed LSI’s marketing and corporate planning since 2005, after a successful stint at Intel Corp. Brace is responsible for developing and implementing marketing programs for a wide range of products including large data storage arrays that are used by the world’s largest companies.
2000s
Lauren Palmer, ’00, B.A., Government, has been named the director of programs and services at the Folsom Chamber of Commerce. She has several years of experience leading special events and programs, public relations, marketing and community relations initiatives for non-profit and for-profit organizations. In her former position as events manager for public policy at the Sacramento Metro Chamber, she planned, coordinated and managed public policy programs and events, such as the Capitol-to-Capitol trip. Palmer recently became engaged to Ardie Zahedani, and they are looking forward to making their permanent home in the Folsom community.
Julie Anne Miller, ’06, B.A., Music, moved to New York to pursue a master’s degree in vocal performance at The Bard College Conservatory of Music. She is one of eight students in a new graduate program in vocal arts, founded by Grammy Awardwinning soprano Dawn Upshaw. Miller, a mezzo-soprano, made her New York City debut at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in April, premiering a new work by Ryan Carter for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and instrumental ensemble. The performance was part of the 2007 Osvaldo Golijov/ Dawn Upshaw Workshop for Singers and Composers.