Alumni Updates

Mark Castro

AnthropologyMinor in Geography, 2010

Castro ('10, Anthropology) is a Co-Director of the Cultural Resources Facility at Cal Poly Humboldt and has been with the organization for 5 years. Castro has a holistic work experience through his time with multiple agencies including the BLM working on museum collections and archaeological field surveys, the Eldorado National Forest as a field technician, and the Northwest Information Center (Sonoma State University). 

He received his Master's in Cultural Resources Management at Sonoma State, is a Board Member of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is the Co-Lead for the Pride (LGBTQ+) Taskforce for Coalition for Diversity in California Archaeology. 

Mara Cole (Moore)

HistorySocial Studies BA, 1982

Mara Cole ('82, History, Social Science) serves on the board for Pass The Word Ministries in Monterey, California. Their purpose is to provide for the needs of our underserved and unsheltered individuals and families in the community. She is now also a consultant for Hands Up Foundation in Monterey County. She has a leadership role in the Calvary Chapel Fellowship and was an Oral English Professor in 2019 in Tai’an China to 400 nursing students. Cole is a member of a gospel choir, has been married 38 years, and is the mother of two children and grandmother of two.

Rebecca Beard

Art, 2001

Rebecca Beard ('01, Art) is currently on the Privacy Leadership Team at Meta where she focuses on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Device spaces. She leads a team of global managers who develop privacy practices to protect users' data in the development of the Metaverse. She completed her MBA from SFSU and EMBA from Yale. 

Marie McHaffie (Laurey)

History, 1996

Marie McHaffie ('96, History) is currently teaching in Mulberry, Arkansas. She received a Master's in English from National University and now works as an English, Journalism, and Theatre teacher, as well as a Social Media Administrator and FACE Facilitator. She created a reading incentive program and has 18 years of working in education. She now has two kids, two dogs, and two cats, and is still a lover of history, reading, and nature. McHaffie claims Arkansas is as green as Humboldt but super hot in the summer. 

Barbara Klessig

AnthropologyMA, Environment & Community Program, 2007

Barbara Klessig ('07, Anthropology, '13, M.A. Social Science) worked with Solano Archaeological Services and is currently a lecturer at Cal Poly Humboldt and an Archaeology Research Assistant with the Cultural Resource Facility (CRF). During her undergrad, she specialized in Archaeology, and her thesis for her M.A. is titled "Textile Production Tools from Viking Age Graves in Gotland, Sweden."

Ann Simas

English, 1971

Humboldt graduate and former Eureka resident Ann Simas (’71, Special Major, B.A., Business/English) announces the release of her latest book, Last Rites, number six in her Andi Comstock Supernatural Mysteries. Other titles in the series are Holy Smoke, Penitence, Angel Babies, Hellfire, and The Wrong Wicca. 

For more information about Ann Simas, go to annsimas.com or email ann@annsimas.com. She can also be found on Facebook at Ann Simas, Author. 

Alyson Hunter

GeographySocial Science Teacher Preparation, 1993

Alyson Hunter ('93, Geography, Social Science Education) is currently working as a Senior Planner for the City of Marina in the beautiful Monterey Bay area, ancestral lands of the Esselen peoples. She can't wait to move back to Humboldt in a couple of years!

Brian Benfer

Art, 2000

Brian Benfer ('00, Studio Art) was named a Fulbright Scholar and Associate Professor of Art at the Art Academy of Latvia. His research revisits the history of the exchange program between the Art Academy of Latvia and Cal Poly Humboldt, one facilitated by the late Latvian-American Sculpture Professor, Maris Benson. Living in Riga, Latvia during the invasion of Ukraine, he also co-authored a publication with Dr. Courtney Queen on the impact of the occupation on the local community.   

Michael Barnes

Communication, 2017

Michael Barnes ('17, Communication)  claims it's been a whirlwind since he graduated from Humboldt! Since his formative years as an undergrad studying under the great minds of Joshua Frye, Maxwell Schnurer, Armeda Reitzel, Scott Payton, and Leslie Rossman (now at the University of Denver), he continued to earn a master's degree in Communication from San Diego State University. He is now working toward a Ph.D. in Communication at Ohio University, where he is studying Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from various methodological perspectives. He cannot thank the faculty at Humboldt enough for believing in him and pushing him to go beyond! 

Ronald C. Holcomb

JournalismSpecial Major - Journalism, Natural Resources & Biology, 1976

After a 40-year career working for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Washington State Department of Ecology, Ron Holcomb ('76, Journalism, Natural Resources, Biology) wrote a book about his role in protecting the environment. "Constant Chaos - The Daily Battle to Protect the Environment" describes the life of a spill responder that at times is chaotic, difficult, and dangerous, and documents some of the most significant environmental disasters in Washington state. The book is available at: Constant Chaos by Author Ron Holcomb | Gorham Printing