Santa Clara Magazine

Simao J. Avila J.D. '83 is Senior Counsel, Legal & Government Relations for Kaiser Permanente. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Avila was labor and employment counsel for the Office of General Counsel, University of California. He was previously a partner with Littler Mendelson where he represented private and public sector clients on nearly all aspects of employment and labor law. He lecturers at Leland Stanford University, Law School (Gould Center) and at University of California - Boalt Hall on negotiations and ADR. He was a comments editor for Santa Clara Law Review at Santa Clara University, which published an article he authored, entitled "The Erosion of the Exclusionary Rule." He has presented on various subjects at professional conferences and speaks regularly on pertinent labor and employment issues dealing with the complexities of today’s diverse work force. To assist employers with one of those difficult contemporary challenges, while at Littler Mendelson, he co-authored a handbook entitled Terror and Violence in the Workplace. Avila is also co-author in A Litigator’s Guide to Effective Use of ADR in California (CEB, 2005).

Simao “Sim” Avila J.D. ’83 was named a Diversity Champion Finalist in the 2012 Bay Area Corporate Counsel Awards publication, a joint production of the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal.

Avila became a lawyer to create social justice in the world around him. It was a natural outgrowth of his years studying philosophy and existential phenomenology at St. Patrick’s College and law at Santa Clara University. In October 2011, he earned the Santa Clara Law Social Justice and Human Rights Award, which recognizes outstanding individuals in the cause of equality, social justice, and human rights.

Born on St. George Island in the Portuguese Azores, Avila worked for the National Labor Relations Board in Puerto Rico before coming to California. He practiced law as a partner at Littler Mendelson. Then as the labor and employment counsel for the University of California.

Martha C. Artiles '83 is the Global Chief Diversity Officer at Manpower, one of the world's leading staffing and employment firms. At Manpower, Artiles oversees strategic diversity and inclusion initiatives, and her expertise is organizational change, recruitment, quality management, and mechanical engineering.

Paul Hoen ’84 received the Director's Guild award for his children's show Let It Shine on the Disney Channel. This is Mr. Hoen's sixth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Program in 2007 for Jump In and was previously nominated in this category in 2000 for the Even Stevens episode "Take My Sister? Please," in 2004 for Searching for David's Heart, in 2008 for Cheetah Girls: One World and in 2010 for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.

Robert H. Thomas '84 is the Managing Attorney of the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Hawaii Center in Honolulu. Thomas joined PLF in 2003, and he directs land use, coastal zone, and environmental litigation across the State of Hawaii at the appellate and trial levels. His area of specialty is land use and eminent domain, but Thomas appreciates having a range of issues to tackle at PLF Hawaii. He is also Of Counsel to Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, a Honolulu firm that is one of Hawaii’s leaders in land use law.

Laura Rogers Stimson '84 and husband Charles "Cully" Stimson welcome children 3 and 4, Will and Cate--they join Ian and Sophia, both 7 years old. Laura is Director of the Career Litigation Track for the US Navy and Cully is a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.

James Stapleton '84, has joined 800-lawyer Littler Mendelson as the Chief Marketing Officer based in San Francisco.

Thomas M. “TJ” Spear, Jr., '84, a lawyer in Bend, Ore., with a private practice focusing on criminal defense and litigation, announced his candidacy in March for Oregon's Circuit Judge of the Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Prior to his entering private practice, Spear was a deputy district attorney in the State of Oregon for over 12 years. He is an accomplished trial attorney having both prosecuted and defended high-profile criminal cases, including murder and other serious crimes. Spear also previously served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy and worked in the energy industry.

Monica Smyth J.D. '84 of Stamford, Conn., was appointed a member of the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities on October 27.  The council is a governor-appointed body of people with disabilities, family members and professionals who work together to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities in community life.  Smyth works as a family resource support coordinator for Abilis, Inc., a Greenwich-based not-for-profit agency. 

Bob Reid MBA '84 has been admitted to the PhD program in business at Oklahoma State University.

Freshman Dorm: Swig

Mary McCurdy '81, J.D. '84 writes: "I live in Menlo Park, CA with my husband Kevin McCurdy. We have two children, Helen (22) and Brigid (19). Kevin and I have our own law firm, McCurdy & Fuller, in Menlo Park. As we are now empty nesters, we are enjoying traveling."

Mary Mathews-Stevens ’84 has been elected to SCU’s Board of Trustees. Along with her husband, Mark, a former partner in the venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, Mary has been active in education philanthropy with their support of numerous educational organizations in California. Earlier in her career, Mary spent 14 years in the commercial real estate industry in Silicon Valley. She served as a Vice President at Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank in Santa Clara. Their philanthropy has included a $500,000 gift to endow a fellowship program for graduates of the high school Mary attended in Portland, St. Mary's Academy, who wish to attend SCU. In a gesture to honor the late former president of Santa Clara University, in 2008 the couple donated $7 million for the Paul L. Locatelli, S.J., Student Activity Center.

Megan Martinelli '84 writes: "I will be installing my son, Phil, as an incoming freshman at SCU come September. I can now honestly say, 'I birthed a Bronco!'"

Shelley (Simmons) Kapur '84 and husband Vineet live in Portland, where Shelley is a project manager for Aerotek.

Shelley (Simmons) Kapur ’84 is working for TEKsystems Global Services as a project manager in Portland, Ore.

Steve Kahl '84 has achieved National Board Certification as an English teacher. Steve teaches at Mountain View High School, where he also coordinates the GATE and AVID programs. He recently was named to the board of directors for the California Association for the Gifted.

Mark G. Intrieri '81, J.D. ’84 has been included in the Strathmore’s Who’s Who worldwide edition for his outstanding contributions and achievements in the field of law. Mr. Intrieri has been in the legal professional for more than 27 years. He was Co-founder and is a Principal of Chapman & Intrieri, LLP, where he has practiced law for the past 19 years. Since 1984, Mr. Intrieri has specialized in civil litigation and trial work in product liability, employment, business, construction, public entity and intellectual property litigation. In addition, he has extensive experience in education and labor law for public entities, including conducting labor negotiations, contract administration, grievance arbitrations and administrative hearings. He is admitted to all courts of the State of California, including the United States Federal Court, Northern, Southern, Central, Eastern Districts as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Intrieri received a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Santa Clara and his J.D. from the University of Santa Clara, School of Law in 1984. He was voted as one of the top 100 lawyers in Northern California and has been annually elected from 2004 to the present, as a Northern California “Super Lawyer” in the area of civil litigation. He is a member of the Northern California Association of Defense Counsel, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the Empire Who’s Who Registry of Executive and Professionals and the California School Boards Association. He is currently serving as President of the Burlingame Elementary School District Board of Trustees and volunteers his time coaching youth baseball, football and soccer in his community. Mr. Intrieri currently resides in Burlingame, California, with his wife Katherine and their four children.

Timothy S. Heher '84, MBA '89 was appointed vice president of finance at ZONARE Medical Systems, Inc., a developer of high-end ultrasound solutions.

Heher brings to ZONARE more than 25 years of experience in key financial positions within the medical industry, both in ultrasound and healthcare IT.  Heher brings direct senior level experience in reducing costs and improving administrative and operational efficiencies at leading organizations, such as Allocade, Siemens and Acuson. At ZONARE, he will direct the company's overall financial operations, including financial planning and analysis, cash management and financial statement preparation.

Prior, Heher was the CFO at Allocade, Inc. in Menlo Park, and was responsible for all the finance and accounting activities and key in securing significant funding from VCs. His ultrasound experience includes over 16 years at Siemens Medical Solutions' Ultrasound Division and Acuson for where he assumed responsibilities as director of finance overseeing supply chain management, service, sales, and service & marketing

Monica Fox Heede '84 hit her first hole-in-one at the storied St. Andrew links (old course on the 8th hole), while vacationing in Scotland in February 2010 with her daughters Maddy (10) and Elizabeth (8). 

Karen (Grundon) Johnson '84 married James Haynes in Shawnee, Kans., on April 11, 2010. She is Accounting Manager at TDB Communications, Inc. in Lenexa, KS. The couple lives in Shawnee, KS with her two children, one of his four children, and 2 foreign exchange students, all teenagers (ages 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17).

Steven Foster '84 was named partner at Altira Group LLC.