Santa Clara Magazine

Alice Marcarelli Valenzuela MBA ’90 was awarded the 2012 Soroptimist Ruby Award in Phoenix, Ariz., for her tireless work on behalf of women in Sonora, Mexico, where she founded a women’s cooperative that operates an electronics recycling business to create employment in the impoverished rural area. The Soroptimists are a worldwide professional women’s service club, and the Ruby Award is the highest honor awarded by the organization. For more information about the electronics recycling initiative, see: http://retroworkswest.weebly.com/retroworks-de-mexico.html.

Kathleen (Mitchell) Simpson ’87, M.A. ’90 married Robert Simpson on October 2, 2010, at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Pleasanton, CA. Kathy and Bob were second-grade friends and classmates in Pleasanton. They currently reside in Brentwood, Calif. SCU alums in attendance were bridesmaid Christine Fierro ’88, Wes Bliven ’88, Brendan Lewis ’88, Michelle Matsumoto ’88, Diane Zilliotto ’88, John Scardamaglia J.D. ’09, and Jim Mitchell ’83.

Rita Neal J.D. ’90 will take over as county counsel for San Luis Obispo in September. She began her employment with the county office in 1998 as a deputy county counsel. Ten years later, she was promoted to chief deputy county counsel. Later in 2008, Neal was promoted to assistant county counsel.

Before she joined the county counsel’s office, Neal was in private practice in San Luis Obispo, specializing in civil litigation.

Krista Meade M.A. ’90 writes: "After a successful 15-year career in geriatric social work, I am beginning my third career as a writer/editor. I hope to work for a nonprofit or foundation serving the needs of older adults, women and children, social justice, or the environment."

Debbie A. Klis '90 has been named to Maryland's Top 100 Women list by The Daily Record. The list recognizes the accomplishments of women who have achieved professional success and making a difference through their leadership, community service, and mentoring.

Ms. Klis, of counsel in Ballard Spahr's Bethesda office, concentrates on transactional matters in an array of business, securities, and tax issues. She is known for her work with investment management companies, including the formation and operation of EB-5 immigration investment funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, SPACs, real estate funds, oil and gas funds, and international master-feeder structures.

Adrienne M. Grover J.D. ’90 was appointed by Gov. Gerry Brown ’59 as associate justice of the Sixth District Court of Appeal. Grover has served as a judge for the Monterey County Superior Court since 2002. She served as county counsel for Monterey County from 1999 to 2002 and as deputy county counsel from 1995 to 1999. She worked for Calaveras County from 1992 to 1995, serving first as assistant county counsel and then deputy county counsel. Grover was an associate attorney at Long and Levit LLP from 1990 to 1992.

Theodore Gonzalves ’90 is now the department chair of the American Studies department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is also serving on the search committee to fill the position of dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and is teaching two courses on Asian American experiences.

Joe DiNunno MBA '90 is the manager of research at FiduciaryVest, an institutional investment consulting firm based in Atlanta. Joe lives in Peachtree Corners, Ga.

Nora Denzel MBA ’90, senior VP of Intuit, will be a keynote speaker for the 12th annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, in October. The world's largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, the four-day technical conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Over 250 speakers and 150 technical poster presenters will include leading researchers and industry experts discussing their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research, and engineering. Co-presented by the Anita Borg Institute and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the conference has expanded this year to now feature more than 95 sessions including panels, workshops, technical papers, Ph.D. forum, new investigators, technical posters, and "birds of a feather" sessions across nine tracks, invited technical speakers, and the ACM Student Research Competition.

Nora Denzel MBA ’90 joined the board of directors of FirstRain, an analytics software company.

Denzel has more than 25 years of technology and leadership experience. Most recently, she was senior vice president for big data, social design and marketing at Intuit. Prior to Intuit, she was senior vice president of Hewlett-Packard's global software business, served as senior vice president of product operations at Legato Systems (acquired by EMC) and held several engineering, marketing and executive positions during 13 years at IBM.

She  also serves on the board of directors for Overland Storage Inc., Saba Software and the Anita Borg Institute.

Kristi M. Bowers ’90, MBA ’97 has joined SCU’s Board of Trustees. Bowers is marketing director for King Mountain Vineyards, a family business that is a French-style, sustainably farmed vineyard in Woodside, Calif. She is a director for The BASIC Fund, which has awarded $55 million in scholarships to more than 17,000 children over the past 14 years. A devoted SCU alumna who is highly involved in University events, since 1999 Bowers has served as an advisory board member for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, which was created by her parents, Linda and A.C. "Mike" Markkula, a founder and former CEO of Apple. She is also director of the family's philanthropic arm, the Markkula Foundation.

Carrie Woerner MBA '91 is a candidate for the 113th State Assembly District in New York. The 50-year-old Round Lake resident serves on the Round Lake Village Board and the Malta Planning Board. She operates a software division of a publishing company in Saratoga Springs. Woerner worked as executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation from 2002 to 2007, and is a member of the board of directors of Saratoga Arts and other organizations.

Tracy Thiem M.A. '91 is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, Somatic Therapist, & Spiritual Counselor in Petaluma, California.

Bryon Stevens '91 was named senior vice president of investor relations and capital markets of Home Loan Servicing Solutions, Ltd. Stevens most recently managed the Alternative Capital Markets Group at UBS Securities, where he was responsible for raising capital for companies in privately arranged transactions. Prior to UBS, Stevens was a vice president in the M&A Group at JP Morgan Securities.

Frankie Roohparvar M.S. ’91 was named CEO of Skyera Inc., provider of enterprise solid-state storage systems. Roohparvar brings nearly 30 years of industry experience to Skyera. For the last 13 years he served in various senior engineering and executive positions at Micron. He was also one of the founders of Micron Quantum Devices, an early provider of NOR flash memory.

Lisa Herrick J.D. '91 was appointed general counsel of Santa Clara County County Superior Court. Herrick, 46, joins the court with extensive experience in public sector law, including six years as senior deputy city attorney for the city of San Jose and more than four years as Santa Clara County Deputy County Counsel. Herrick also was a partner with the McManis Faulkner law firm, where she worked on civil litigation, criminal defense and family law.

In her current capacity with San Jose, Herrick provides advice and training to Mayor Chuck Reed, City Council members, the city clerk, city manager and department heads on state and local ethics, open government and campaign finance laws, including the Political Reform Act, Ralph M. Brown Act, California Public Records Act and Elections Code. Herrick has also worked on litigation involving the city's ethics ordinances. She has been involved in the Santa Clara County Bar Association, where she served as president as well as on its board of trustees.

At the Superior Court, Herrick will oversee a wide range of legal services and advise the court executive officer, judicial leadership, members of the court's bench and staff on a wide range of legal matters before the court.

Mark Haladwala ’91 writes that he is living in Birmingham, Ala. He works at BBVA Compass as head of the Consumer Segment for Alabama and Florida. Mark is married to Georgina Haladwala and has three daughters.

Anil Gupta MBA ’91 completed 10 years as a Managing Principal of Applications Marketing Group, a marketing consulting firm focused on enterprise software market.

Shauna L. Chastain ’91, J.D. ’96 is President of the Solano County Bar Association, and Bay Area Chapter Director of the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists.

Soccer star Brandi Chastain ’91 is among the Class of 2012 for the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. Chastain, who grew up in San Jose, has been one of the top ambassadors for women's soccer after scoring the winning penalty kick in the 1999 Women's World Cup. She has played on two World Cup championship teams and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. She was also a soccer commentator at the 2012 Olympics in London.

David "Shoe" Shuey J.D. ’92 is currently a partner at Rankin, Sproat, et. al. in Oakland, Calif. He practices insurance defense, including general liaiblity, construction defect and injury, and professional malpractice. He has been with Rankin since graduating from Santa Clara. He is also a two term Mayor and current City Councilmember in Clayton, Calif. He has been on the Council since 2002 and is serving his third term. He has been married for 20 years to wife Shelly and has five children, three of which were adopted from China and the Ukraine.

Kerry P.C. San Chirico '92 received his doctorate in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is now Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa, where he teaches Global Christianities and Indian religions.