UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

Alumni

Ya Yang

Here’s what some Bobcat graduates have been up to: Sarah Hashemyan (B.S. ’10) has celebrated significant milestones: She married in 2020, moved to Oregon in 2021 and welcomed a daughter in 2022. She has spent almost six years as the vice president of People Operations at Atomic Labs LLC. Kristynn Sullivan (Ph.D. ’15) has had more than 10 years of professional experience in public health leadership and development, including as the lead epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was recently named the Merced County Public Health director. Linda Chang (B.S. ’16) is positively impacting UC Merced and her hometown of Merced. As an administrative officer at the university and president of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club, she has devoted herself to service, leading local projects and supporting community e orts while balancing a busy personal life and expecting her first child later this year. Ya Yang (double B.A. ’19) earned a master’s in Global Health at Georgetown University in 2020. During the pandemic, he managed infection control and epidemiology with Monterey County, helping prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and health care-acquired infections. He

is a first-year Ph.D. student in Public Health Sciences at UC Davis. Josh Franco (Ph.D. ’19) has been awarded the prestigious 2024-2025 Fellowship. is opportunity takes him back to Capitol Hill a er 15 years away, where he will gain first-hand experience in Congress while continuing his work as a political science professor and contributing to his ongoing research on federal courts. Annaliza Perez Torres (B.S. ’19), a materials science and engineering major, is an engineer with Lockheed Martin and has received a Rising Technical Contributor Award from the Society of Women Engineers. Vanessa Centeno (B.S. ’19) worked in Professor Emily Moran’s lab as a biological sciences major, became a research associate at DiaSorin, an immunodiagnostics company, then enrolled in the Master of Science program in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Claremont Graduate University. Mengjun Shu (Ph.D. ’20), an Environmental Systems graduate student under Professor Emily Moran, is now a plant genetics researcher at American Political Science Association Congressional

Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Je rey Lauder (Ph.D. ’20), a Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate student under Professor Emily Moran, is now the executive director of Sierra Streams Institute. Oscar Elias (B.A. ’20) studied in Professor Carolin Frank’s lab, graduated with a degree in public health, and now works for Sustainable Conservation. is nonprofit helps small farmers by focusing on implementing and supporting regenerative agriculture practices in the San Joaquin Valley. He is also applying to graduate school and hopes to work at the intersection of human health and environmental sustainability. Jazmine Kenny (Ph.D. ’21) is one of the founding sta of UC Merced’s Department of Medical Education, working as the assessment and evaluation lead for the SJV PRIME+ program. Kenny married Andrew “Du y” Murphy (B.S. ’15) in 2023. ey live on a family-owned almond and peach orchard with three dogs, three cats and three chickens. Erika Jones (B.S. ’21) worked in Professor Emily Moran’s lab as a biological sciences major and is now at the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine.

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