History Alumni

2000s

Alden Chiu (B.A., 2001) received the Phi Alpha Theta best history paper of the year in 2001. He is currently a first year student at Cornell Medical School.

1990s

Michael Pisarik (B.A., 1990) is currently developing a sports competition series with a collegiate theme for a cable television network. Since graduation, he has been involved with the marketing and sales of feature films and TV content to the international market, with an emphasis on documentary projects.

Don Cooper (Ph.D. 1991) is Coordinator of the AP Diploma Program at Langley High School and is listed in Who’s Who in American High School Teachers and 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century .

Jeffrey McIllwain (B.A., 1991) is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Criminal Justice and Coordinator for the International Security and Conflict Resolution Program at San Diego State University. McIllwain specializes in the history of the American underworld and transnational crime. His work has appeared in various criminological journals and his first book, Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race, Crime and Acculturation in New York’s Chinatown, 1890-1910, will be published in 2003.

Jill (Rosenfeld) Haas (B.A., 1992, MA History NYU 1993) now lives in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

Matt Kovacs (B.A., 1993) has been promoted to Director of Public Relations at the Los Angeles Division of Formula PR.

Karen Ward Mahar (Ph.D., 1995) is an Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of the American Studies Program at Siena College in upstate New York. Her book Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2006.

Denise (Vasquez) Pool (B.A., 1995, MA History UCLA) has returned to Los Angeles with her husband and their newborn daughter.

John P. Valencia (B.A., 1995) serves as a Captain in the armor tank battalion stationed in Miramar California. He plans to complete a Master’s degree in Public Administration through the University of Oklahoma this summer.

Janine Jellander (B.A., 1996, MS Ed. 1997) teaches world geography to 9th grade students in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. She has contributed an article in a book edited by Randy Stone Best Practices for High School Classrooms on the need to include geographical studies in the curriculum. In 2001, she served on the USC Alumni Board of Governors and remains active in the local Trojan Club.

Miguel Olano (B.A., 1996) will graduate from Rutgers Law School in May 2002 and plans to take the California Bar in July.

Jill Fields (Ph.D., 1997) is an Assistant Professor at California State University –Fresno and a nominee for the American Association of University Women Emerging Scholar Award. Check out her L.A. Weekly review “A Beautiful Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste $8 On.”

Lynne Luciano (Ph.D., 1997) is Assistant Professor of History, California State University, Dominguez Hills, specializing in 20th century U.S. history and gender studies. Last year, Hill & Wang published her book Looking Good: The Male Body in Modern America, a social history of male body image from World War II to 1990s.

Katherine Russell (B.A., 1998, MS Ed., 2000) is on the staff of the USC Care Medical Group, Inc., working on the USC Alhambra Campus.

Sirida Lynn Srisombati (B.A., 1998, MA, Cinema-Television Critical Studies, 1999) is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Michael S. Carter (B.A., 1999) Graduated with honors. Currently he is studying for his Ph.D. in American History at USC.

Regina Lark (Ph.D., 1999) manages the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and the UCLA Women’s Studies Program.

Julia Siebel (Ph.D. 1999) is research analyst at Scripps College in the development office. She has published two articles: one concerns the history of Junior Leagues and the other is "Soldiers on the Homefront: Protecting the Four Freedoms for American Citizens Through the Office of Civilian Defense's Office of Civilian War Services Division."

Janet Wilson (B.A., 1999) is attending graduate school in public history at the University of West Florida in Pensacola with an emphasis on museology and exhibit design. She is engaged to be married in 2003.

1980s

Richard A. Stea (AB 1980, MD 1988) is currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery; Univ. of Rochester, New York and in full-time private practice in the Fingerlakes Neurological Surgery, PC.

Bradley Reynolds (Ph.D. 1981) currently serves as Department chair for History at College of the Canyons where he has taught for 27 years. He is also an Adjunct Professor of History at Cal State Northridge.

Donna (West) Davis (B.A., 1981, J.D. UCLA 1986) is Senior Research Attorney, State of California, Court of Appeal, Santa Ana, CA. She and her husband John K. Davis who has a Ph.D. from USC have two daughters.

Randolph Ziskin (B.A., 1982) teaches seventh graders medieval history a LAUSD middle school. He has a two-year-old son.

Greg Franklin (B.A., 1983, Ed. D., 1997) is Principal at Fullerton Union High School.

Glenn M. Franklin (B.A., 1984) is a Foreign Service Officer and is currently posted to the State Department Headquarters in Washington D.C. He lives in Annandale Virginia with his wife and three boys.

Donald Nathanson (Ph.D., 1986) retired from LAUSD 4 years ago and currently teaches in the History and Humanities Departments at Cal State University at Dominguez Hills.

Ted Brooks (B.A., 1987, MB.A., San Francisco State University, 1991) works in health care administration. He has a senior management position with Marin IPA in Northern California.

Soonkoo Kang (M.A., 1988, M. Divinity, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary) is Senior Pastor at Fremont Korean Central Church in Fremont California.

Jeffrey Earle (B.A., 1982, M.A. 1989) is the owner-operator of the Red Onion Restaurant and active in politics.

1970s

Felice Miller Anspacher (B.A., 1970) teaches science to 4th and 5th graders in the Las Virgenes Unified School District. Her science team is comprised of 6 teachers who travel throughout the Las Virgenes District and teach a hands-on approach to 2200 children!

Mark S. Foster (Ph.D., 1971) is a Professor of History at the University of Colorado- Denver. His most recent book (his tenth!) is “A Nation on Wheels: The Automobile in American Culture Since 1945” (Wadsworth: 2002). He was named “Researcher of the Year” in 2001.

Mark Goodman (B.A., 1970 practices Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Long Beach, CA and writes on pediatric primary care and child abuse issues. He is married with 1 daughter and 1 granddaughter.

Gloria Ricci Lothrop (Ph.D., 1970) holds the W.P. Whitsett Chair in California History at California State University-Northridge.

Robert F. Oaks (Ph.D., 1970) is retired from the Bank of America where he was a Vice President and Systems Director. He has completed two articles on San Francisco in the 1850s that he originally began over twenty years ago, and he now is working on the relationship between California and Hawaii in the nineteenth century.

Beverly J. Quail, Esq. (B.A., 1971) is a partner in the Denver office of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. Her specialty is commercial real estate.

Elwin Myers (B.A., 1974) has been Associate Professor of Management at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi since 1988.

Ricki Cohen Ring (Ph.D., 1974) remembers Frank Mitchell and Missouri political history especially the Pendergast machine.

Theodore D. Stomel (B.A., 1975) is a dentist in Tarzana and is also active in real estate development. His wife Terri is an attorney. He has four children.

Linda Hamilton (B.A., 1976) works for the U.S. Department of Labor Pension and Welfare Benefits group which oversees the compliance of pension and health plans with federal law.

Thomas C. McLurkin, Jr. (B.A., 1976, MPA 1980, JD 1982-Univ. of La Verne) is Deputy City Attorney, City of Los Angeles, Civil Liability Division.

Anush Der Bagdasarian (B.A., 1977, J.D. University of West Los Angeles School of Law) is a member of the Choir & Ladies Aid at Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church, Montebello, CA., USC Friends of Armenian Music, the Armenian Professional Society of Los Angele, and the Masis Guild of Los Angeles.

Brad Askins (B.A., 1978, MS Computer Science 1980) Vice President of Technology at of ZINDIGO INC. recently re-located to the Boston area with his wife Alice Gast (BS Chemical Engineering, 1980). They have two children.

Bob Medwid (B.A., 1978) is employed by 3M Corporation as a Business Development Manager for Industrial tapes covering Latin America and Sub-Sahara Africa. He, his wife, and their two daughters live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Gary Murphy (B.A., 1978, MA History, CSUN) is stepping down as Principal of Chaminade High School in West Hills, after spearheading a 6 million dollar building campaign.. He plans to return to the classroom this year.

1960s

Walter Karabian (B.A., 1960, JD 1963, MS Public Administration 1965) Practicing lawyer in Los Angeles at Karms & Karabian. Former California State Assemblyman 1966-1975. Member of Southern California Historical Society.

Steve Moseley (B.A., 1960) teaches history and English and lives in La Jolla.

Bobbie F. AlBanese (B.A., 1961, MA 1968) has retired from the law firm Lozano Smith. Her husband and her son also have degrees from USC. She is a member of USC Associates.

Daniel Wolfson (B.A., 1962, MA 1964) lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he practices law at Wolfson & Associates.

Eileen Kramer (B.A., 1963) received her law degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law in 1979 and now is a solo practitioner in ADR/Arbitration/Mediation

Mike McDevitt (B.A., 1963) spent 34 years in the U.S. Navy retiring as a Rear Admiral in 1997 after heading the National War College. Since that time I have been at a Washington DC area think-tank where he is Director of the Center for Strategic Studies.

Elizabeth Goldstein (B.A., 1964, M.A. 1968) teaches at Huntington School, San Marino.

Carole Shammas (B.A., 1964, M.A. 1967) (Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 1971) returned to the USC History Department in 1997. Her book, A History of Household Government in America will be published by the University Press of Virginia in the fall of 2002.

Lee Anspacher (B.A., 1965) has taught Social Studies courses at Sylmar High School since 1981 and has just finished a stint as Department Chair.

Charles De Valin Conyers, II (B.A., 1965; M.A. Journalism, 1974) coaches—at no charge—candidates for Master’s degrees who have encountered difficulty writing their theses and is contemplating writing a book on this subject.

Dale S. Gribow (B.A., 1965) practices law on El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert. He has received several “Man of the Year” awards most recently from the City of Hope. He has a wife and teenage daughter.

Barbara Raia King (B.A., 1966, JD 1969-USC Law School) after practicing law for 31 years with the State of California, she retired in 2000.

Victor Pilson (B.A.,, 1967, M.A. 1971) recommends that historians adopt a more journalistic approach to writing in order to broaden their audience.

Bob Padgett (B.A., 1968) received a medical degree from Creighton University and practiced Emergency Room medicine for 25 years. His son, a third generation Trojan, will begin at USC in the fall of 2002.

Stuart Bloom (B.A., 1969, MD 1973) is Medical Staff President Ventura County Medical Center. He has been in solo Family Practice since 1976 and remembers the lessons of history every day.

Joyce Duncan Falk (Ph.D., 1969) wrote a dissertation on 18th-century France under the direction of Lloyd Moote. She is employed by the University of California Education Abroad Program where she was recently recognized for her service. She served as bibliographic consultant to the American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Literature.

1950s

Joe Osterman (B.A., 1950) taught and coached at El Rancho High School, Pico Rivera, CA 40 years. Retired 1991.Active in preservation of memories of a rural area and life style of South Orange County in small town agricultural life before urbanization, water and wheels. Author of 3 books, numerous contributions to other books, and close to 100 articles and essays. Books: 50 Years in “Old” El Toro, 1982; Stories of Saddleback Valley, 1985; and The “Old” El Toro Reader: A Guide to the Past, 1992.“Every place in any area should have a spokesman.” The El Toro of my youth is deep in his heart—that is why he writes.

Carl Terzian (B.A., 1957) has been honored by the Eisner Pediatric & Family Medical Center for “exceptional leadership in building board and volunteer support, increasing community awareness and raising development funds.

David Leston Baker (B.A., 1959) taught English for 30+ years. In retirement, still enjoys History.

Obituary Notice: Dan Butler (B.A., 1957, M.A., 1962) passed away on August 26, 2001. After teaching school for many years, he managed both Michelson and Lauritson Laboratories at the China Lake Naval Base in California. He left a widow, Barbara and two grown daughters, one a senior vice president at a Washington D.C. firm and the other a teacher in Los Angeles and a member of USC’s Phi Delta Kappa.

1940s

Geraldine W. Kitteredge (MA 1940) retired from teaching at Paul Revere Middle School. Travels constantly – China, Europe, Morocco, U.S.

1930s

Aldo Molinari (MA 1937) retired from the Los Angeles Personnel Dept. in 1973. Now lives in Long Beach.

Ernest Camfield (MA 1938) now lives in Lake Oswego Oregon.

Do you have news? Let us know about it!