Research and Development and Data Science

Jes Sherman is a test engineer at Freedom Photonics. She received her PhD in Materials Chemistry from UCSB in 2014, changing focus from organic semiconductors to III-V optoelectronics and has been working as an R and D focused test engineer at Freedom Photonics since 2015.

Gregory Su is a postdoctoral fellow at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He received his PhD in Materials from UCSB in 2015 focusing on organic semiconducting materials for electronic applications. He uses X ray characterization tools to study soft materials systems and collaborates with user groups at Berkeley Lab and externally. He is also involved in organizational groups such as the User Executive Committee at the Molecular Foundry.

Jessica Roeder is head of data science at Insight Data Science. She has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience and works helping academics transition to careers in data science.

Lauren Vucovich is a research product scientist at Evidation Health. She completed her PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara in 2016, studying learning and its neurobiological mechanisms. At Evidation she works with engineering and product teams to develop their study platform.

User Experience and Tech

Kara Otto is a user experience researcher at Age of Learning, Inc. She completed a PhD in Education at UCSB with a focus on learning, applied linguistics, written communication, and qualitative and cross cultural research. After graduate school she transitioned from academia to an industry job in user experience research and now shares her journey with graduate students.

Shay Hopkins is a technical writer at Procore Technologies. She completed her PhD in English Language and Literature Letters in 2017 at UCSB and works as a technical writing consultant in Carpinteria.

Jessica Cornick is a quantitative user experience researcher at Facebook. She completed her PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences and an MA in Advanced Quantitative Research Methods at UC Santa Barbara in 2016. Her research addressed virtual reality applications for social psychological phenomena and latent variable models for large data sets. She previously worked at a market research firm before joining Facebook, where she conducts research with advertisers on use of the advertiser platform.

Brendan Barnwell is a programmer at Vocabulary Systems in Goleta. He completed his PhD in Linguistics at UCSB in 2014 and designs algorithms to transform data into knowledge about how to teach English vocabulary to learners.

Startups and Entrepreneurship

Ali Titiz is CEO and cofounder of MemoryCo, a company focused on improving the lives of seniors and people with brain disorders through personalized content memory training. He is a cognitive neuroscientist entrepreneur with a background in memory research, with a BA in Biology from Grinnell College, a PhD from Dartmouth College, and postdoctoral work at UCLA on the DARPA Restoring Active Memory project.

Keith Guinn is principal development engineer at Freedom Photonics. He has over 20 years of experience in electronic packaging for high performance products. His work spans Freedom Photonics, Coherent, Transonic Combustion, HRL Laboratories, Bell Labs Research, Naval Nuclear Submarines, and other companies. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and BS in Chemistry from UCSD and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

Melanie Matheu is cofounder of Prellis Biologics. She helped launch the company in 2016 to create fully vascularized human tissues and organs for transplantation using laser based technology developed during her PhD work. She is an expert in laser based imaging of the immune system and developed the companys platform technology, bringing experience in laser microscopy, cell biology, physiology, and biophysics.

Noelle Huskey Mullin is cofounder and chief scientific officer of Prellis Biologics. She focuses on high precision non toxic multiphoton laser printing of vascular structures for viable human tissues. Previously she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford studying tumor evolution and completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2013 at UC San Francisco.

Jeff Shealy is president and CEO of Akoustis Technologies, Inc., a company developing single crystal bulk acoustic wave RF filters. He received MS and PhD degrees from UCSB and an MBA from Wake Forest University. He founded RF Nitro in 2000, later acquired by RF Micro Devices, where he served as vice president and general manager. He founded Akoustis using a public venture model and has over 25 years in the RF and wireless industry.

Government and Public Policy

Brooke Pearson is a biosurveillance advisor at Engility Corporation in the Washington DC area, providing analytical and support services to the Chemical and Biological Defense program at the Pentagon. She previously worked as a senior scientist at Cubic on chemical and biological programs and completed her PhD in Pathobiology at Brown University in 2003.

Kristian Roth is branch chief in the Bacterial Respiratory and Medical Countermeasures Branch at FDA CDRH OIR DMD. He received his PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of California Riverside and completed postdoctoral work at UC Santa Barbara. His career includes work at CombiMatrix on nucleic acid amplification assays, at Meso Scale Discovery on infectious disease detection platforms, and at FDA as scientific reviewer and branch chief, including work on guidance documents and emergency responses to Ebola and Zika outbreaks.

Joseph Bernardo is an intercultural affairs associate at Loyola Marymount University. He earned a PhD in History from the University of Washington in 2014 studying Little Manila Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. His interests include Asian American history, race in the American West, urban planning, and Philippine history. He has worked at Liberty Hill Foundation and the Los Angeles Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs and now develops policies to increase institutional diversity.

Angela Chen is director at Pre Health Dreamers and has extensive experience supporting undocumented students. She previously directed the Undocumented Student Program at UCLA, serving over 500 students and building campus wide resources. She has led University of California system wide efforts and advised universities nationally on support programs. She holds a BA in Psychology from UC Irvine and MA and PhD degrees from UCLA Graduate School of Education with an emphasis on higher education.

Consulting and Business Strategy

Anna Marie Trester is a career linguist and storyteller and a trainer at the FrameWorks Institute, a social change communications firm. Formerly she directed the Masters in Language and Communication program at Georgetown University. As an applied sociolinguist, her research covers language and identity, professional self presentation, social media, and the language of business. She has published in several journals and coedited Discourse 2.0 Language and New Media and authored Bringing Linguistics to Work. She holds an MA in linguistics from New York University and a PhD from Georgetown.

Emily Garcia is a medical writing consultant at Observables, Inc. with 11 years of industry experience. After completing her doctorate in Molecular Biology at UCSB, she joined a medical device company where her data analysis and problem solving skills aligned with medical writing. Her career includes managing clinical study teams and supporting regulatory approvals for drugs and devices. She currently works with medical writers at Johnson and Johnson on European medical device approvals.

Jamil Abo Shaeer is vice president of strategic planning at AOSense, Inc., a startup providing atom based navigation and timing solutions to reduce reliance on GPS. The company is transitioning laboratory research into fieldable prototypes and product lines. Jamil previously worked as an associate consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and as a program manager at Darpa overseeing high risk, high reward projects. He completed his PhD in Physics at MIT in 2004.

Curriculum Development, Education, and University Administration

Lolli Lucas is head of upper school at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara. She previously served as upper school director at Sierra Canyon School and as director of college counseling at Brentwood School, where she led administration efforts and established Black student and parent organizations. She also worked as director of multicultural recruitment at the College of William and Mary and assistant dean of admissions at Pomona College. She holds a BA in Psychology from Vassar College and a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from UCLA.

Sean OBrien is director of exhibits at MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation. He holds a PhD in Education specializing in maker education in teacher preparation. He previously taught in elementary classrooms, including at an international school in Berlin, and has worked in diverse jobs such as commercial welding, surfboard fabrication, and waterski instruction.

Meredith Murr is assistant vice chancellor for research development and strategic planning at UCSB. She received her PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from UCSB in 2006, holds a BA in chemistry from Boston University and an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has industry experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. She participated in the Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship and worked in the Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships at UCSB before joining the Office of Research.

Malaphone Phommasa is director of the UCSB Transfer Student Center and director of academic success initiatives in the College of Letters and Science. She earned her PhD in Education from UCSB and previously served as assistant professor and minority faculty fellow at Marshall University. She oversees the Transfer Student Center and ONDAS Student Center.

Graciela Fernandez is director of GEAR Up and Talent Search in the Office of Educational Partnerships at California State University Dominguez Hills. These programs seek to increase high school graduation and college going rates among first generation, low income, and underrepresented students. Previously she was founding director of the Student Outreach and Retention Center at UC Irvine, where she helped create the DREAM Center and the FRESH Basic Needs Hub. She is a first generation college graduate and holds BA degrees in Sociology and Chicana o Studies and MA and PhD degrees in Education from UC Santa Barbara.