Santa Clara University

Ron Hansen M.A. ’95, M.Div. ’04 is this year’s recipient of the Evil Companions Award, which honors a writer who hails from the West or writes about it. Hansen is an Omaha native who teaches literature at Santa Clara University. He has earned numerous honors in his four decades as a novelist, essayist and short-story writer, including the status of creating one of the longer and more intriguing titles in contemporary fiction: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Emiko Burchill J.D. ’07 was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown ’59 as special assistant for policy at the California Natural Resources Agency. Burchill was a contract attorney at Olson Hagel and Fishburn LLP in 2012. She was an executive fellow at the California Fair Political Practices Commission from 2011 to 2012 and was an intern at the office of Assemblymember Toni Atkins in 2011. Burchill was a volunteer attorney at My Sister's House from 2010 to 2011 and an attorney at the law offices of McDowall Cotter from 2007 to 2009.