’50s

Wayne Myrick (Animal Husbandry ‘55) remembers when Cal Poly was an all men’s school. He has good memories of his first year in “the old Camp San Luis Obispo.”

’60s

Roy E. Killgore (Soil Science ‘64) co-ran a successful produce, sales, packing and processing company called San Ysidro Farms. He fondly remembers celebrating his 65th birthday by cycling across the U.S. with his former Cal Poly roommate, Stan Rose.

’70s

John Huston (Soil Science ‘72) served for more than 21 years in the field artillery and transportation branches of the U.S. Army and retired in July of 1993 as a lieutenant colonel. He went on to work in real estate, farm in western Pennsylvania, and eventually became director of transportation for a school district before retiring in 2011.

Dean Cardoza (Agricultural Management ‘78) was recently promoted to the head of the agribusiness division for Bank of the West.

Mary Jean Stevenson (Food Industries ‘79) holds bachelor’s degrees in food industries and dietetics as well as a master’s degree in arts in health science education. She enlisted in the Air Force as a clinical lab technician and diet therapist and later went on to work as a health technician and a public school teacher of physical science. Since 2010, she has been an instructor of humanities and sciences for the University of Phoenix. In her free time, she volunteers with the Comfort Pets organization and visits hospitals, nursing facilities and universities.

’80s

Laurie Best (City & Regional Planning ‘80) traveled from the Central Coast to the Colorado Rockies, working with municipalities on a variety of meaningful public projects and policies. She currently lives in a ski town in Colorado and works to develop workforce housing and preserve the community character of the town.

Bernard Aguilar (Natural Resources Management ‘82) works as an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is responsible for biodiversity management in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area.

’90s

Kevin Bumen (Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration ‘96) is the director of airports for the county of San Luis Obispo and recently led the opening of the new airport terminal in SLO. The $40 million project created an entirely new terminal with six gates, an outdoor courtyard and large bag claim area.

Heidi Herrmann (Ornamental Horticulture ‘96) teaches native plant restoration at Sonoma State University and various sustainable agriculture courses at Santa Rosa Junior College. She also runs her own seaweed harvesting company and sells to chefs in the Bay Area.

‘00s

Leslie Sklena (Animal Science ‘04) received her doctorate of veterinary medicine from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada in 2009. She worked for several years in animal shelters in San Diego County and has also volunteered for veterinary causes on reservations and internationally. In June, she returned to SLO to work as director of veterinary services at Woods Humane Society.

Andrew Dixon (Nutrition Science ‘05) went to Ross University Medical School and completed a residency in anesthesiology at the University of New Mexico. In 2016, he returned to SLO with his wife and daughter and is practicing medicine.

Tara Black (Animal Science ‘06) worked for a large animal veterinarian in North County for two years before attending Washington State University veterinary program in 2008. She balanced a pregnancy with her clinical rotations and is now happily working as a mixed animal veterinarian on the Olympic Peninsula.

Sarah Nisse (Nutrition and Food Science ’08) started her own holistic healing business and now leads global retreats. She feels lucky to have worked with a herd of 55 elephants in Sumatra, orangutans in Borneo and the big five game animals in South Africa.

Margaret Leonardi and Brian Pruett (Agriculture Business ‘09) were married in 2017. They met on their first day at Cal Poly in AGB 101. They currently reside in Santa Rosa, Calif. Margaret is a winemaker at Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland and Brian is assistant winemaker at Dry Creek Vineyard in Healdsburg. They are both active in the North Bay Alumni Chapter where Margaret serves as treasurer.

’10s

Kathryn David (Food Science ‘10) is research and development manager of breakthrough projects at B&G Foods in Parsippany, N.J. She is responsible for product development and research and development project management on a variety of frozen and shelf-stable national food brands.

Megan Machado (Dairy Science ‘15) went into the dairy industry right out of college before finding her true calling teaching elementary school. Though she still loves cows, she also loves teaching and tries to instill the Learn by Doing motto in her own classroom.