Dimitri Deheyn is a Research Scientist at the Marine Biology Research Division of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego. There, he conducts cross- disciplinary research on biomimicry, which is the science of learning from Nature to develop new products and processes that are more sustainable and supporting circularity between society and the environment.

Of particular interest these days, Dimitri develops research around the issue of plastic and in particular microfibers from textiles. Aside from assessing the processes by which these microfibers are generated and distributed around the world, he also addresses their toxicity to ecosystems, but also humans. Dimitri uses the ability of certain organisms to produce bioluminescence or biofluorescence to assess their physiological health with the goal, one day, to monitor the biological light as a health proxy of the environment. Dimitri also works extensively with the industry to find alternative biomaterials that can substitute plastic.

Dimitri grew up in Africa and South America, and completed his PhD in Belgium where he started his academic career. His inter-continental past makes him have a global and cross- disciplinary perspective of scientific research. Consequently, his work today aims at understanding aspects of biology to describe novel processes, novel materials and novel compounds that can support an healthy future for our societies, globally.

Brought to us by WayZero. We Envision a Plastic-Free World. Our mission is to speed the transition from plastics by introducing zero-waste, sustainable alternatives for food packaging. Most take out containers and ready-made meals on store shelves are simply tossed out – and aren’t designed for the recycling bin. Plastic film is particularly problematic. Whether lining a coffee cup or sealing a ready-made meal at a grocery store, it’s hard to separate and often ends up contaminating other waste streams.

Alan is President & CEO of HRE Performance Wheels. He moved there in 1999 from Northrop Grumman where he worked as an engineer specializing in structural analysis of aircraft structures. Being a die-hard “car guy” and wanting to shed the big corporate culture for something more dynamic, he joined HRE as Lead Engineer. Landing his dream job, HRE provided an opportunity for him to not only create a wonderful product, but to help define the company culture and build a world renown brand. Over the years, he oversaw design, engineering, and production, until he was promoted to President in 2009. Alan holds a BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.

Growing up primarily in southeast Asia and in Europe, art was Anne’s way into many countries and cultures she lived in. Those early experiences proved fertile ground for a career and after her first college art history class, she was hooked! In college, Anne interned at the Huntington Art Gallery (18th-century British portraiture), Sotheby's New York (19th-century European Paintings), and the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps.

Post college she ran a contemporary art gallery, then worked at Sotheby's LA, (Latin American Art, American Art, 19th-Century European Paintings, and Old Master Paintings). Anne earned her masters at Brown focused on the Italian Renaissance and early printed books.

Returning to LA and she worked for the Decorative Arts and Sculpture Department at the Getty, and curated big exhibits in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art (DC) and the Louvre. Anne was also responsible for the complex provenance research related to WWII era looting for the Getty. And upon moving to San Diego moved into development at LUX.

Anne holds a BA from Scripps College and an MA from Brown In History of Art. 

Sierra Enge, PRS Alum class of 2018, is a current professional soccer player with Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace and a former player of San Diego Wave FC. Prior to coming to the Wave, Sierra studied and played at Stanford. She was part of the 2019 NCAA Champion team, and three-time Pac-12 Championships (2018-19, 2022), and was named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year (2022). She was a member of several US girls and women's under-20 teams. Sierra also volunteers with the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a program that provides support for physically disabled athletes. something she did while at PRS, through the group Opportunities for Athletes. 

 Dr. Todd Pizitz is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist in private practice in Vista, California. Working closely with persons afflicted with various addictions and challenges, he provides psychotherapy and psychological evaluations to adults, adolescents and families. 

As a Forensic Psychologist, Dr. Pizitz works with defendants prior to sentencing and once convicted of various crimes and for the past ten years, he has worked closely with private and public defense attorneys, family court services, the District Attorney’s Office, County Adult and Juvenile Probation, and Federal Probation.

He will be sharing his experiences working as both a clinical and forensics psychologist, explain the differences and share what he has learned in his work and how he got into the field.

Lauren Lipman, PRS alum, talked about her studies and work at the intersection of engineering, IT, and business. Lauren shared her experiences working at Amazon Web Services (Amazon’s cloud platform that Netflix and NASA use) and her studies in engineering and business.

Lauren is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS (Amazon Web Services). She studied Industrial Engineering with a minor in Management at Purdue University. She is passionate about supporting women in STEM and currently serves on the SWE San Diego County board and the Women at Amazon San Diego board. At Purdue, she was active an active member of Purdue's engineering ambassador program, Purdue's Grand Prix racing program, and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

Dr. Erika Reynolds will be sharing her own experience working in the field of medicine, with a specialty in psychiatry, having her own practice, what it is like to work as physician and in the mental health field, and the possibilities within that.

Dr. Erika L. Reynolds is a psychiatrist in Carlsbad, California. She received her medical degree from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and has been in practice for more than 20 years. Dr. Reynolds specialties include psychopharmacology and psychotherapy.

Sofia Hart, PRS class of  '20, shared her experiences working and studying across the border and with communities on both sides. 

Through the PRS Spanish program, she traveled with us twice to Tijuana, once during the spring of her Junior year and then again fall of her Senior year. On the first excursion, we visited 3 different migrant shelters and participated in a very unique service project melding migrant and local communities. On the second trip, she was at homestays with CETYS families and they all served breakfast together at Desayunador Salesiano the next morning. During these two exchanges, Sofia’s passion for migrant and border issues was solidified. At USD, Sofia continued her work, which you can read about here. Profe. Brady had the privilege of visiting Sofia at Espacio Migrante in TJ, where she learned about her work and her goals moving forward.

Robert Farris is CEO of the Wallyann Corporation, a performance-based digital marketing agency for some of the largest brands on the Internet. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and is working on an advanced degree in Fatherhood.  An entrepreneur at heart, he started his first small business at the age of 14 and hasn't stopped since.  Robert is passionate about helping young people find their "passion and direction" in life. His talk is entitled, "Wake up you need to make money: starting your own business in high school."

ANDY LAATS, After receiving his BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, Andy worked as the Snowboard Product Manager for Burton Snowboards. At Burton, he was head of snowboard design and production, and by 1995 was responsible for development of all branded hard goods. In 1995, Andy left Burton to get an MBA from Stanford University and upon graduation cofounded Nixon in 1997. Andy has held advisory and board roles in apparel, consumer appliance, and e-commerce startups. Andy holds patents for work on both snowboard and watch design. 

CHAD DiNENNA, After receiving his BS in communications from Cal State Long Beach, Chad interned with Transworld and turned that into a permanent position. At Transworld, he learned the action-sports industry, brands and made connections. He also met other founders in the space and build his ideas. 

The partners won the 2005 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for consumer products in San Diego.

Dr. Stephen Commins, current Associate Director, Global Public Affairs at UCLA, and formerly of the World Bank, will come to speak about a career focused on global issues, such as regional and international development, post-conflict reconstruction, urbanization in developing countries, NGOs, climate change and health, and disaster management. He has worked in many areas of the world and often looking at the delivery and success of programs to help children, refugees and the poor. 

Dr. Commins was Senior Human Development Specialist at the World Bank from 1999-2005. His work at the World Bank included “Managing Dimensions of Economic Crisis: Good Practices for Policies and Institutions,” the establishment of the Bank’s children and youth cluster, and a survey of service delivery programs implemented by civil society organizations. Commins was one of the co-authors of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People.  

Over the last decade, he has continued to work on service delivery programs, including the major study, “Service Delivery in Fragile States: Good Practice for Donors”, for the Fragile States Group of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2006.  Some of his fragility and disaster work has included “testing the DFID state building” framework in Lao PDR and Cambodia, managing studies on disasters and safety nets for the World Bank in Bangladesh, a co-authored paper on participation, accountability and decentralization in Africa, and producing studies on health systems strengthening in fragile states for World Vision Canada and on sub-national fragility in India and Pakistan for the HLSP Institute.

He has worked for five years in support of a long term study of livelihoods and post-conflict reconstruction in Pakistan, as part of a seven country project with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad and the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium at ODI in the UK.

At UCLA, Dr. Commins teaches courses in regional and international development, and the role of Non-Governmental Organizations.

Wes Cross, design engineer & inventor, will come speak about a career in engineering & design, architecture school, 3D printing, and car design and answer any questions you might have about any of it. There will also be a chance to see some of the work he has created for films. 

Inventor, engineer & designer, Wes Cross has invented cool products and solutions, from the 2016 Batmobile to Jet Packs, skateboards, drones, engines, turbos and more. Wes’s career has developed from designing and building Super Cars to developing and inventing products that include heavy industrial machinery and consumer products. Many of these products are still in use and sold today as individual parts or complex assemblies of components.

At Lucra Cars, Wes developed the New LC470/S/FS/R and the L148 Hyper Car. During his time at Lucra Wes was assigned to develop projects for Warner Brothers, Universal and other studios. These projects included developing the 2016 Batmobile, hero vehicles, additional vehicles for Fast and Furious Franchise, military vehicles for The Avengers films and more. Continuing his automotive passion coupled with design and engineering, Wes spent time at Weistec Engineering. While there, Wes developed new parts and assemblies for the Mercedes AMG program, including Turbos and Supercharger systems, the World’s fastest vehicles such as the AMG SLS, McClaren SLR, AMG Black and more. Wes Cross is VP of Engineering and Principal Inventor, Cross Engineering.

Jamie Welton, Senior Process Chemist at CND, a subdivision of Revlon, will come speak about her career in science, how she works with color, what is like to get a patent, and how to take your passion and make a career out of it! She is a polymer chemist working with nanoparticle technology. She develops photopolymerizable nail coatings, and globally direct manufacturing of these coatings. She is also an artist in her free time, focusing  on drawing and charcoal media. 
 

Griselda Suarez, newly elected Executive Director of the Long Beach Arts Council,  is a young poet, college writing professor, entrepreneur, and proud Latina mover and shaker. She is coming to speak to us about her work in the community and arts world, the role of the arts on civic culture, personal identity, letting your individuality drive your work, and helping students find their voice.
 

Dr. Joseph Peeden Jr. is a pediatrician and geneticist who has been working in his fields for over four decades. Dr. Peeden is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Medical School, and he also currently leads the Diagnostic Clinic at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.

Dr. Peeden spent twenty-five years in private pediatric practice; before that, he held positions at St. Jude’s Research Hospital and LeBonheur Children’s Hospital, both in Memphis, TN, in addition to serving as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force. Dr. Peeden received his M.D. from the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1975, and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1972. He is a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics, and he continues to research and publish on issues in the fields of genetics and pediatrics.

Frank Biddle, founder of F.B. International - Sun Vista Farms, will come to share his story on building his international business and his career, how being a Spanish speaker has influenced his work, and what his job is really like.  politics, armed security, trade sanctions with Russia...  in the flower business?
 

PHIL GRIECO is Director of Sports Marketing – Global Motorsports and Mass Sports, for GoPro.  He has 15+ years of marketing, partnerships and sales experience across brands (M&M’s, Snickers, Omega, Tissot), sports properties (NBA), and agencies (Octagon, Wasserman, Nielsen Sports, etc.).  His experience has crosses many areas of sports, including: NASCAR, the NBA, NFL, PGA TOUR, IndyCar, MotoGP, action sports (winter/summer), as well as music and entertainment.  Phil resides in Los Angeles, but grew up in NYC and Northern New Jersey.  He graduated from the University of Scranton, in PA. 

JIMMY ROSENFELD is a Sports Marketing Specialist – He has 12+ years of marketing, sales and operations experience across many markets (automotive, cycling, outdoors, wilderness medicine). His experience has crossed many high end and marketing leading brands, including: Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus, Aston Martin, Specialized Bicycles, Giant Bikes, and Trek Bicycles. Combining a passion for the outdoors in his personal life with work, Jimmy has taken many Wilderness Medicine and Outdoor Leadership courses to better himself professionally and to stay safe while in the back country. Jimmy lives in Encinitas, but grew up in Deerfield, Illinois just north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. He has been at GoPro for 5 years, and in his current role for 3+ years.

Jessica Sebor is the editor-in-chief of Women’s Running magazine. A lifelong bookworm, Jessie started running in high school when she realized that years of poring through the library books had not lent her the coordination necessary to practice other team sports. Luckily, she fell madly in love. Jessie has run through mountains in Peru, frigid Czech winters and Times Square at rush hour—but she’s never been anywhere more inspiring than Women’s Running. As editor, she loves sharing her excitement for the sport with women everywhere. Women’s Running is the world’s largest women-specific running magazine.
 

Kelly Wilson is a Department of Homeland Security Protective Security Advisor (PSA) assigned to Southern California, and previously the National Capital Region. Kelly was a District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Chief of the Strategic Analysis & Information Sharing Division. Kelly oversaw the District of Columbia’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Program and the 2012 District Hazard Vulnerability Assessment.

Previously, Kelly was the fusion process supervisor at the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center, the District of Washington's intelligence fusion center. Kelly spent nearly two years at the East Bay Terrorism Early Warning Group (EBTEWG) and spearheaded efforts to share valuable information and intelligence with private sector partners in the East Bay of California.

From 1999 to 2007 Kelly was a member of the Maryland State Police working in patrol, criminal investigations, and the department's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division (HSID). At HSID, Kelly was the supervisor of the Intelligence Liaison Office and facilitated investigations of international criminal cases as the INTERPOL Liaison for the State of Maryland. From 1995 to 2004, Kelly was an Intelligence Analyst and Technical Intelligence Analyst in the United States Army. In 2003, while deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Kelly was responsible for planning and carrying out missions to numerous locations within country.

Katherine Kantardjieff is a biophysical chemist and crystallographer, whose research utilizes combined experimental and computational approaches to better understand how structure controls chemical and physical properties of biomolecules, and applies this knowledge in drug design and development, as well as in engineering molecules with defined properties.

She is the Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics at CSUSM, which includes overseeing new programs like the Professional Science Master’s in Cybersecurity and Biotechnology.

Prior to joining San Marcos as Dean of CSM, Katherine Kantardjieff held academic appointments as Professor and Chair of Chemistry at California State Polytechnic University Pomona and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at California State University Fullerton. She received B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Southern California, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physical Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles.