Alumni Updates


Rhiannon Klingonsmith, 2004
Submitted: March 7, 2016

Rhiannon Klingonsmith, 2004 Wildlife, has worked as a wildlife biologist in the state and private sectors since graduating. Klingonsmith has remained active in The Wildlife Society and is currently the Sacramento-Shasta chapter president for 2016.


Stephanie Foster, 1995
Submitted: March 2, 2016

Stephanie Foster, 1995 Wildlife, is currently working at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. The center provides care and rehabilitation for injured, sick and orphaned wildlife.


Raymond J. Bogiatto, 1977
Submitted: March 2, 2016

Raymond J. Bogiatto, 1977 Wildlife, received his Master of Science in Biology from California State University, Chico in 1986. Bogiatto then worked at Eagle Lake Station as a station manager from 1989-2009. Bogiatto has been serving as a faculty member teaching biology at CSU Chico since 1987 to present day.


Jay Thomas Watson, 1980
Submitted: February 18, 2016

Jay T. Watson, 1980 Wildlife Management, spent several years as Lead Wilderness Ranger in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, working out of the Weaverville Ranger District of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. He then served for three years as the Executive Director of the Camp Unalayee Association, a non-profit organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., that owns and operates a wilderness backpacking summer camp for 10-17-year-old youth also in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. Watson then spent almost 20 years with The Wilderness Society, both in Washington, D.C., where he lobbied Congress on wilderness legislation and the annual Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, and in California where he was Regional Director for over a decade. For the last 11 years, Watson has worked for the Student Conservation Association, an organization dedicated to youth development, building character, and promoting careers in conservation. Watson is Vice President of the Western United States and works out of Oakland. Watson and his wife, Kathleen, have been married for 30 years and have two sons. Thomas is a First Lieutenant with the United States Marine Corps and leads a 36-man Infantry Platoon. Charles works in Government Affairs in Sacramento.


James Ronald Good, 1966
Submitted: October 8, 2015

James Ronald Good, 1966 Wildlife, spent the summer of 1964 and as range aide and range tech with the Bureau of Land Management on the Sheldon Refuge and Range in northwest Nevada. He spent summer of ‘65 conducting project inventories in southern Nevada. Good was later hired by BLM in 1966 as a range conservationist in Lewistown, Mont. He then transferred to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services in 1967 as assistant refuge manager at the Kern-Pixley Refuges in California. From there, Good transferred to the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area in Fallon, Nev., and the Hart Mountain Refuge in Oregon before going on leave to attend Oregon State University, where he earned a Master’s of Science in Wildland Sciences with a minor in Rangeland Restoration. Afterward, Good worked at the Columbia Refuge in Washington, then in the Pierre Area Office in South Dakota, as the staff refuge manager and biologist. In ‘82, Good was selected as refuge manager at the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in Utah. In '84, Good became the project leader for the Havasu Refuge, in Needles, Calif., before transferring to Galena, Alaska. After 33 years as a law enforcement officer, Good retired in 2000.


Wade Eakle, 1982
Submitted: September 17, 2015

Wade Eakle, 1982 Wildlife, spent 1982 and ‘83 working at the Institute for Wildlife Studies in Arcata, before serving at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Station at Arizona State University, in Tempe, Ariz. He then completed a Master’s of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at the University of Arizona at Tuscon. In 1987 he worked for the engineering firm Dames & Moore in Phoenix, and then the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Since 1990, Eakle has been with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the San Francisco District of the South Pacific Division.


Lippincott, 2015
Submitted: May 22, 2015

Michael Lippincott, 2015, Wildlife, accepted a permanent position with the Department of Agriculture after graduating.


John Voris, 1955
Submitted: April 23, 2015

John Voris, 1955 Wildlife, died on March 19, 2015. He received a master’s degree in Wildlife Management from Iowa State University in 1957. Voris’s first job was with Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms in Sonoma, Calif., where he was employed for 25 years. In 1982, he joined the staff of the Animal Science Department at UC Davis as a Turkey Specialist. He provided research-based consultation to San Joaquin Valley turkey growers, and published papers in academic journals on land-use disputes, agricultural nuisance complaints, and turkey care practices. The poultry facility guidelines Voris developed with the industry were the basis for an ordinance in Fresno County and are used as guidelines in four other counties in the area.


Bruce Edwin Deuel, 1967
Submitted: April 21, 2015

Bruce Edwin Deuel, 1967, Wildlife, retired from the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife in October 2007 after more than 34 years. Since then Deuel and his wife, Kathy, have traveled to every continent chasing new birds, and spent a lot of time enjoying their nine grandchildren.


William, 2013
Submitted: April 3, 2015

William Goldenberg, 2013 Wildlife, completed a master of arts degree in wildlife filmmaking with the BBC Natural History Unit / University of the West of England. Since then, Goldenberg has worked as a freelance cinematographer for television shows including "David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities" and now operates a media production and consulting firm based in Arcata.


Deb (Lewis) Parker, 1976
Submitted: April 3, 2015

Deb (Lewis) Parker, 1976, Wildlife Management, retired from the federal government in 2014 after a 36-year career. She still works full time as a senior staff assistant with the nonprofit National Conference of State Legislatures, in Denver. Parker started her career as a rodent-control biologist with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. She then spent 24 years with the U.S. Forest Service as a wildlife biologist and public affairs specialist working in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Parker’s next 10 years were with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Colorado, where she was the writer, editor and web manager for national wildlife refuge conservation plans in the service’s Mountain-Prairie Region. Parker and her husband, Andy (a retired wildland firefighter), adopted their daughter, Tai, from China in 1994. Tai is currently a junior at HSU with double majors in psychology and CRGS (Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). Parker’s weekends often involve competing in dog agility trials with her feisty terrier, Jagger.


Evan Lautzenheiser, 2003
Submitted: January 26, 2015

Evan Lautzenheiser, 2003 Wildlife, worked for Green Diamond as a wildlife technician conducting spotted owl surveys after graduating. Lautzenheiser also completed a short stay in Palm Springs, Calif., working with desert bighorn sheep. In 2007 he was hired by Arizona Game and Fish as a district wildlife manager/game ranger.


Peter Schmidt, 1997
Submitted: December 11, 2014

Peter Schmidt, 1997 Wildlife, recently accepted the Refuge Manager position at Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Ruby Valley, Nevada after spending 14 years at Tualatin River NWR in western Oregon. Schmidt is moving from an urban refuge with 2,200 acres to the most remote refuge in the lower 48 states with almost 40,000 acres to manage. The nearest services are 60 miles when the pass is open.


Jessica Ann Sellers, 2013
Submitted: June 23, 2014

Jessica Ann Sellers, 2013 Wildlife, spent two summers working on the Wyoming toad recovery project doing captive breeding, research, surveys, and releases. Sellers also spent some time in Key Largo, Fla., interning for REEF doing fish surveys and lionfish research and removals.


Carl S. Chavez, 1966
Submitted: June 6, 2014

Carl S. Chavez, 1966 Wildlife, published his second book, "A Year in Bodie, 1966-1967" co-authored with his wife Margaret (Elmore) Chavez (also class of 1966). The book is about the start of Chavez’s 33-year career as a California State Park Ranger and Administrator.


Marie (Ferguson) Smith, 1980
Submitted: April 16, 2014

Marie (Ferguson) Smith, 1980 Wildlife, has been teaching high school science for the last 25 years after working for the U.S. Forest Service as a Research Technician, I. Smith is married with three sons, two engineers (SDSU and CSU) and one zoologist (HSU). She’s currently living on a mountain outside of Glide, Oregon, and still teaching science (Umpqua Valley Christian School), but dreaming of retirement.


Dr. Leonard A. Brennan, 1984
Submitted: December 11, 2013

Leonard A. Brennan, 1984, Wildlife, has been a professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, at the Texas A&M University, Kingsville, since 2001, where he holds the C.C. Winn Endowed Chair for Quail Research. Brennan teaches graduate classes in Ecosystem Function and Models in Wildlife Science. His past positions include director of Research at Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, FL (1993-2001), and small game research scientist at Mississippi State University (1989-1993). He served terms as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Wildlife Management (2001-2002) and Wildlife Society Bulletin (2012-2013). Since graduating from HSU, Brennan has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, five books and more than 100 extension articles.


Eugene "Charles" Justus, 1989
Submitted: June 6, 2013

EUGENE "CHARLES" JUSTUS, 1989 Wildlife, was recently promoted to regional conservation officer with Idaho Fish and Game where he has been employed since 1990, soon after graduating from HSU. As RCO he manages the 22 conservation officers in the Southwest Region of IDFG. HSU's wildlife program prepared Justus very well for a career in Idaho, where he excels in bird and 'herp' conservation. Justus is married to Sue Epstein ('89, Wildlife) and has two boys. The family loves fishing, hunting and camping in the wilds of Idaho.


Sanford Wilbur, 1963
Submitted: April 3, 2013

SANFORD WILBUR, 1963 Wildlife, just published a new book, "Nine Feet from Tip to Tip: The California Condor Through History," the first in-depth look at the history of this species since the 1940s. It’s the culmination of some 45 years of field, lab and library research on the condors. In the mid-1970s, Wilbur and W. Dean Carrier (another '63 Humboldt Wildlife grad) were the impetus behind the current condor captive breeding program that is finally beginning to show real success.


Penelope Black Liotta, 1984
Submitted: December 10, 2012

Master's of Education Conferred December 2012 along with teaching license from Bethel University, McKenzie, Tennessee. Beginning a new career as a secondary school biology teacher.