Class Notes | Spring 2025

• 1970s

  • Jay Swenson BS ’71 was in the sales industry for over 40 years, beginning in life insurance for five years. He was awarded Agent of the Year in 1973 from Fidelity Union Life Insurance Agency. He received a teaching certification from Utah State University in 1981. He led encyclopedia sales to public libraries, schools, day care centers, book fairs and families. Jay worked with World Book, Inc. as a district and division sales manager, where he hired and trained a salesforce and personally sold over 2,800 encyclopedia sets. In his 28 years with World Book, he earned many company sales awards, including the 1987 State Champion in the Manager’s Personal Selling Contest. He was the owner and manager of The Reading Revolution, Inc. for 10 years, offering Britannica products to public libraries and universities across the West and Midwest until retiring in 2012.

  • David John Preece BS ’74 worked for 44 years as a city, regional and environmental planner in the public and private sectors of New Hampshire, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin and Utah. He earned a Master of Public Service from Western Kentucky University and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin. David is a published and produced playwright in the U.S. and Western Europe. Some titles of his work include Tender, According to John, The Unicorn from the Stars, Dancing Among the Wildflowers and The Trial of Edward Coles. He also writes screenplays, with the title More than a Friend recently optioned by Robb Squad Film Company in Hollywood, California. He is the author of the Mr. Higgins children’s book series, published in 2024. He resides in Manchester, New Hampshire, and serves on the State House of Representatives.

  • Mike Vaughn AAS ’78 is an alarm technician with Mountain Alarm Fire and Security. He has worked in the alarm industry for nearly 50 years. He also worked in construction trades, building and remodeling homes. While attending Weber State, he was a pole vaulter for WSU’s track and field team. He has seven children and resides in Taylor, Utah, with his wife, Annette. 

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• 1980s

  • Cheryl Marie Hansen BA ’83 is a retired French professor. She taught at Weber State University for 30 years and retired in 2018. She earned a PhD in comparative literature with an emphasis in French. She and her husband, Greg Hansen, have one son, two grandsons and a great-grandson.

  • Cami Blau Alexander BS ’85, MED ’97 is a retired educator for Weber School District. She taught fifth and sixth grade at Club Heights, Roy and Plain City elementary schools. While teaching, she earned her Gifted and Talented Endorsement and became a nationally certified R.E.A.C.H. trainer. She served as the Weber Administrators Association president and a leader for the Utah Association of Elementary School Principals. Cami attended Utah State University to complete her administrator/supervisory certificate in 1999 and then served as principal at Club Heights and Lakeview elementary schools. She retired with 37 years of experience in 2022 as the executive director of elementary education. She currently works part-time as an educational coach and consultant. Robb Alexander BS ’78 has served as executive director of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah since 2013. Robb retired from Weber State University in 2012 as senior development director after nearly 29 years of dedicated service. He is a member of the Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium, the Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce and the Davis County Chamber of Commerce. Robb serves as chair of the military affairs subcommittee of the Davis and Ogden-Weber chambers’ legislative affairs committees and a Utah Division of Arts & Museums Advisory Board and executive committee member. He is the 2002 recipient of the WSU Presidential Outstanding Professional Staff Award and received the Patti N. Choate Distinguished Service Award in 2004 from the Utah Society of Fund Raisers. Cami and Robb serve on the WSU Alumni Association’s Emeriti Alumni Council. They have two sons and one daughter-in-law.

  • Leanne Parker Gundy AS ’85 had a fulfilling career as a board-certified nurse practitioner and a WSU Annie Taylor Dee School of Nursing and Department of Health Sciences faculty member. She is a member of Sigma Theta Ta, the international honor society of nurses, and was involved in research through the University of Utah and other organizations. She earned a Bachelor of Science in 1987 and a Master of Science in 1994 from the U of U. She was active in numerous nursing associations, including the Utah Nurses Association and Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, until her retirement in 2016. Her late husband, G. Craig Gundy, served as a faculty member and associate dean for WSU’s Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions until he retired in 2006. LeAnne now resides in Colorado. She is an avid reader and volunteers at a local bookstore.

  • Jerine Price BS ’87 is the environmental health and safety manager for Treehouse Foods Inc. in Ogden, Utah. For six years in a row, the plant has earned the Utah Safety Council Award of Merit for outstanding safety performance. Jerine earned a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix in 1997. She has participated in the American Diabetes Tour de Cure cycling events and enjoys volunteering at local senior care facilities.

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• 1990s

  • Carl Westergard AAS ’92, AAS ’03, BS ’03 is the great-grandson of former Weber State College President Aaron Ward Tracy. He has been the chief manufacturing engineer at Ruger Firearms’ North Carolina facilities for the past five years. Before that, he worked as a machine tools application engineer for 23 years, selling machine tool equipment to manufacturers and training companies to use the equipment. That path led him to visit 40 states and eight countries, where he worked with thousands of companies and processes in the manufacturing industry. In his current role at Ruger, he leads internship recruitment efforts and finds Weber’s mechanical engineering program’s hands-on teaching methods produce more prepared engineers than he finds elsewhere.

  • Jenn Rapp BA ’96 is a NYC-based director/choreographer and loves creating new musicals and theater for all types of audiences. She has been the associate director/choreographer of The Illusionists, a large-scale variety magic show, for the past eight years. The show has taken her to Broadway, London’s West End, the Sydney Opera House, Hong Kong and many other locations. She is the choreographer and creative director for Disney Recording Group’s DCappella. She has been the associate creative producer for America’s Got Talent seasons 17, 18 and 19 and the spin-off series America’s Got Talent All-Stars, AGT-Fantasy League and AGT Superstars Live! She has traveled the world with original children’s musicals, introducing young audiences to the joys of musical theater. During this time, she worked with local casts and crews in their languages for companies such as DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Disney Creative Entertainment (now known as Disney Live Entertainment) and Warner Bros. Entertainment. On board the Norwegian Jewel cruise line, guests experience her ongoing original production, Le Cirque Bijou, a mix of aerial circus choreography, music and dance.

  • Shawn Willsey BS ’97 is a geology professor and climbing instructor at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. He also authored Geology Underfoot in Southern Idaho and coauthored Roadside Geology of Idaho. In addition, he is a licensed professional geologist in the State of Idaho and earned a Master of Science in geology from Northern Arizona University after his tenure at WSU. Shawn taught geology at Salt Lake Community College and Palo Verde College in southeastern California before going to CSI in the fall of 2004. He currently has a popular YouTube channel of 124K subscribers, where he uses videos to share Earth’s incredible stories and wonders with the public.

  • Jacalyn “Jackie” Hayes Westergard BA ’98 is the granddaughter of former Weber State College President Aaron Ward Tracy. She attended Weber State from 1965 to 1968 and from 1993 to 1997, graduating in spring 1998 with an English major and minors in history, French and library science. She also studied child development. In 1968, she moved with her husband to Connecticut, where he served in the U.S. Navy submarine service. During that time, she worked as a librarian before starting her family. After returning to Utah, she worked for the Weber County Library System for 12 years. History and library science were equally helpful in historical research projects, while English was invaluable for writing historical information. She wrote a history of local historic site Bingham’s Fort, which she presented at a Mormon History Association meeting in the late 1990s. She donated books significant in English literature to the Stewart Library’s Special Collections & University Archives. She is currently researching veterans buried at the Normandy American Cemetery in France who died after D-Day, 1944.

  • Susan Klinker ’99 focused on expanding her education after a 10-year career in interior design and a one-year sabbatical volunteering at an orphanage in rural Kenya. She landed at Weber State, earning a bachelor’s in integrated studies with emphases in interior design, urban planning and cultural anthropology. Her practicum with West Valley City Community & Economic Development helped form the mission and foundation for developing West Valley’s Utah Cultural Celebration Center, where she has enjoyed a 23-year career. Susan completed a master’s degree in international development studies from St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, focusing on shelter issues and traditional indigenous natural building practices. She continues her passion for natural building through work with Builders Without Borders and Strawtegi, a company she co-founded to help advance natural building work. Susan recently built a net-zero carbon footprint accessory dwelling unit in Salt Lake City. The structure demonstrates how natural materials like straw, hemp and wood can create durable, high-performance structures. The ADU is the first permitted structure of its kind in the US insulated with chopped straw and has been featured by the American Institute of Architects Utah Chapter and publications including The Salt Lake Tribune, Reflexions Magazine and HomebuildersCAN. She is a contributing author in the books Building Without Borders and The Art of Natural Building.

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• 2000s

  • Rich Nye BS ’01, MED ’05 recently joined Utah Governor Spencer Cox’s administration as senior advisor of education. Nye has been the superintendent of Granite School District since 2021. He served as superintendent of Ogden School District for four years and deputy superintendent of student achievement at the Utah State Board of Education for two years. As a career educator, he occasionally provides adjunct faculty services for the University of Utah and Utah State University, teaching educational policy and leadership. Nye earned a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in teacher education and leadership from Utah State University. He completed a Broad Academy Executive Fellowship and earned a certificate in education finance from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. His wife, Lara Nye BA ’99, earned a pharmacy doctorate from Midwestern University and currently practices clinical anticoagulation management for Intermountain Health. Rich and Lara are the proud parents of three children attending Weber State University.

  • Duane Reed BS ’01 is the respiratory care program director at Southern Crescent Technical College. His clinical experience entails over 20 years as a practitioner at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, working in critical care areas of surgical, cardiac, medical and neurointensive care units. He earned a Master of Education from Central Michigan University in 2005 and a Doctorate of Education from Walden University in 2014. Duane has contributed to educational publishing companies, including ContinueD Respiratory Therapy and Reed Elsevier Publishing Company as a clinical editor and senior reviewer. He serves on the advisory board for ContinueD Education.

  • Eric Neff BS ’03 is the director of admissions advisement and recruitment for Weber State’s Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions. He is committed to contributing to the successful graduation of students studying health professions. Eric is a specialist in National Collegiate Athletic Association Name Image and Likeness (NCAA NIL) initiatives and sports ethics. He has been a keynote speaker at several events, including the University of Utah’s Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative collegiate program, and a panel moderator for the Hinckley Institute on Sports Ethics. Eric received an honorary acknowledgment from the Lebanese government in 2010 for his work on Lebanese governance and democratization theory and practice. He earned a Master of Arts from Utah State University in political science in 2009 and a Doctor of Education from the University of Utah in educational leadership and policy in 2022. He is the son of the late Thomas Rodney Neff, a former WSU geology professor. His wife, Brecca Tholen-Neff AS ’22, taught culinary arts at Ogden-Weber Technical College for seven years. She now dedicates her time to supporting their home and family. They both volunteer in their church and community.

  • Dan Hadley BS ’05 is the founder, president and CEO of Express Freight Finance, a company that supports carrier drivers in all freight trucking business-related needs, such as equipment leasing, fuel cards and lane data. He recently innovated an automated purchasing procedure that bridges the gap between when industry work is completed and when clients are paid. His wife, Sarah Hadley BS ’05, is an early childhood educator. She operated an in-home preschool for several years. She is currently a librarian at Syracuse High School. She loves being involved in education and is the PTA treasurer at Clearfield High School. She is also the Relief Society president at her church.

  • Jody Lake AA ’08, BIS ’11 began working at Weber State in 1980 as an administrative assistant at the Dee Events Center. During her 40-year career, she increased her responsibilities to managing multiple campus venues, including the Dee Events Center, Stewart Stadium, Wildcat Softball Complex and the Marquardt Field House, before retiring in 2019. She is a member of the International Association of Venue Managers, which she joined in the 1990s when women in venue management were a rarity. During that time, she focused on building her career and raising her family. She later went back to school at Weber State as a non-traditional student. She brought her life experiences to her studies in sociology, women’s studies and professional communication. Through her work in a male-dominated industry, she gained a passion for women in leadership. She focused on mentoring women and men to forge a path for women in leadership roles. She loved her time at Weber and noted many highlights of her career, including her involvement in hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics. She currently serves on the WSU Alumni Association Emeriti Alumni Council.

  
  
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• 2010s

  • Trevor Hicks AS ’10, BS ’12 is an education coach at PC Tots in Park City, Utah. He has also served as an education coach for the Utah Head Start Association, the YMCA and Utah State University. In 2012, he was the WSU spring commencement speaker and was awarded the Crystal Crest “Man of the Year.” During his senior year at Weber, he was accepted to Posters on the Hill in Washington, D.C., where he presented his research showing the correlation of lack of REM sleep with behaviors for children with autism to members of the U.S. Congress. He served on the Utah Association for Education of Young Children from 2012 to 2016. He is a co-creator of the Male Engagement Committee at Head Start. Trevor earned an early childhood education coaching certificate from the University of Colorado Denver in 2018. He lives in South Jordan, Utah, with his wife and 7-year-old daughter.

  • Nathan Alexander BS ’13 is the director of brand marketing for Intermountain Health. He leads brand advertising, notably the award-winning “The Power of We” campaign for Intermountain Health’s recent rebrand. He earned a Master of Health Leadership from Western Governors University in 2022. Nate loves serving the community, most recently on the board for Safe Zone Utah — the 501(c)3 arm of the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. He lives in Ogden and loves to travel whenever he can.

  • Matthew K. Warren BS ’13 is a cybersecurity analytics and business processes developer for the Defense Information Systems Agency at Hill Air Force Base. He focuses on cybersecurity analytics and process automation, ensuring system security and compliance. Matthew holds a master’s degree from Central Michigan University and actively participates in open-source community initiatives.

  • Jacob Kap BS ’16 is a sports medicine and orthopedic physical therapist for Intermountain Physical Therapy in Ogden. His wife, Erin Kap BS ’16, is the director of talent acquisition for Intermountain Health. In 2019, she earned a master’s degree in jurisprudence, labor and employment law from Tulane University. They have both spent time volunteering for Ogden’s Youth Impact organization.

  • Chelsea Maki BS ’16 is a graphic designer with WSU Marketing & Communications, where she supports Wildcat magazine and other projects that further university advancement efforts. Prior to her role at Weber, she worked for the Weber County Library System, where she curated and installed art exhibits and contributed to in-house design and print services. In 2020, she and her husband self-published their first graphic novel, Black Lantern. They released the second volume in the series in 2022, with another installment coming in 2025. She lives in Ogden with her husband and daughter.

  • Colt Florence BS ’17 recently accepted the position of senior vice president for Five Star Franchising, which owns six different franchise companies in the home service space. Shelley Florence BS ’18 is a health educator for Davis County Health Department. They have two sons.

  • Jessica Vlisides MS ’19 is working towards her Ph.D. in kinesiology: biomechanics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She specializes in the micromorphology and quantitative ultrasound of ligaments to identify structural changes prior to symptomatic effects, indicating injury risk with athletes who participate in sports that require repetitive overhead motions.

  
  
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• 2020s

  • Analeah Vaughn BS ’20 is the sustainability engagement coordinator for WSU’s Facilities Management. In this role, she oversees various initiatives to increase campus engagement in sustainability, such as the Green Department and Green Badge programs. She enjoys advising the students working in the Energy & Sustainability Office and serves as a mentor in the Faculty and Staff Mentors program. She received a Geospatial Analysis Certificate of Proficiency in 2021 and is pursuing an MBA at Weber State.

  • Jaime Winston BA ’22 earned a University of Utah bachelor's degree in mass communication. He then worked for Salt Lake magazine. Missing higher education, he began working for WSU Marketing & Communications. Now, he is the senior writer/editor for the office. At WSU, Jaime earned a second bachelor’s in organizational communication as the outstanding graduate. He is now working on a Japanese language certificate. Jaime and his wife, Elise Winston AAS ’24, have hosted visiting Japanese students and chaperones at their home. Elise has been an early childhood educator for over 10 years.

  • Brooklyn Piper BS ’24 has recently accepted a position as a first-year teacher at Rocky Mountain Jr. High and is also the cheer coach there. She is the president of the Weber State Campus Lions Club and an ambassador for The Hope Hero Foundation. Brooklyn is currently working on her master’s degree in education from Southern Utah University.

  
  
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