2010s

UCSB Psychology Class of 2011 Alumnus Paul Herzlich has been working at Google since 2011. Paul works on an operations team within Google's Legal department, and loving it. In terms of public service, he has been a liaison to UCP Wheels for Humanity, a nonprofit organization aiming to increase the number of people with access to appropriate wheelchairs worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Google recently gave them a $1MM grant, so Paul has been working with this awesome opportunity to get involved and help Google push their project forward.

I am Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. My research examines intergroup relations in applied domains like protest and apology. My latest project on moral judgments of racial passing behavior recently received funding from SPSSI. This past year, my partner and I bought a house in SW Portland and adopted a puppy named Freyja. Upcoming this summer I will be leading a laddered research team with undergraduates and a local high school student via funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

I worked with children with autism for a year in Los Angeles. I changed career fields and now work as an EMT in the Emergency Department of a hospital. I plan to become a Physician's Assistant.

I will soon obtain my California Real Estate license and I look forward to helping clients make their housing dreams a reality. I enjoy solving problems, coming up with creative solutions and working with people. I live with my family in Oakland and I am excited to read about what other Gauchos are up to!

I have been working as a coach and a behavior therapist. I am currently working towards my MA in Educational Psychology and will soon after be earning my BCBA credential.

After a short summer, I jumped right into a MA/Ph.D. program in Communications at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. My current focus is on the effects of prosocial and educational media on adults and children.

Graduated in 2013 with B.A. in Sociology, minor in Applied Psychology. I obtained a Masters in Psychology immediately after finishing UCSB. As of this past March, I am now a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I am still living in Santa Barbara and am grateful for everything UCSB gave to me!

BA, Psychology. I will soon obtain my California Real Estate license and I look
forward to helping clients make their housing dreams a reality. I enjoy solving problems, coming up with creative solutions
and working with people. I live with my family in Oakland and I am excited to read about what other Gauchos are up to!

BA, Psychology. I work as an Office Manager for a private psychiatry group in Los Angeles. I live in Encino, CA.

UCSB Biopsychology 2013 Alumnus Vira Fomenko is currently finishing medical school at UC Irvine and will be starting her residency in family medicine this summer! Vira completed her senior thesis in Dr. Ettenberg’s Behavioral Pharmacology Lab studying cocaine addiction in animal models and also worked as a teaching assistant to educate younger students about drugs of abuse. While at UCSB, she enjoyed giving back to the community by volunteering with Santa Barbara Street Medicine, and now continues to volunteer in free clinics and soup kitchens in Orange County.

Maira Areguin graduated UCSB in 2014 with a degree in Psychology and Chicana Studies. Her undergraduate research informed her masters thesis project at CSUN on how Latinx farm workers experience discrimination. Currently, she is a first year doctoral student in the joint Psychology and Women’s Studies program at the University of Michigan where she continues to ask how psychological research can shed light on the ways Latinx individuals experience discrimination in workplace settings.

Rianne Campbell is a 2014 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences alumnus who is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior at University of California, Irvine. At UCSB, Rianne was an undergraduate researcher and then research technician in Dr. Szumlinski's laboratory, where she worked on research projects focused on understanding how exposure to drugs of abuse induce adaptations to the glutamatergic system that underlie drug-seeking behaviors. Now as a graduate student in the Wood lab, Rianne's research focuses on elucidating epigenetic mechanisms that contribute to the formation of cocaine-seeking. Alongside her research, Rianne participates in the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory's Ambassador program, which is dedicated to educating the public about neuroscience and memory through outreach events. In addition, she is a media coordinator for UCI's Brews and Brains, an student-led science communication organization.

B.A. Psychology and English. I got a job as an HR Generalist with a Continuing Care Retirement Community called Vi at their San Diego location. I also walked in my graduation ceremony at University of Southern California for my MS in HR Management degree.

B.S., Biopsychology & Pharmacology. I worked at CLAS during my year off as an organic chemistry tutor and then came to Boston University for graduate school. I just finished my third year of my Pharmacology PhD program studying neurobiological mechanisms of addiction (something I initially started as an undergrad in Dr. Szumlinski's lab).

B.A., Psychology. After graduating UCSB, I went abroad to my master's in research psychology. Currently, I'm a recruiter in the Bay Area.

After graduating with Highest Honors and Distinction in the Major from UCSB in 2015, Nick Newton continued his education and recently completed his Master of Arts in Human Sexuality Studies from SF State University in 2017. At UCSB, he was a research assistant in Dr. Nancy Collins’ Close Relationship Lab and Dr. Jim Blascovich’s Research Center for Virtual Environments. Outside the classroom, Nick worked as an Academic Peer Adviser for the UCSB College of Letters and Science and a Course Grader for the well-known “Sociology of Human Sexuality” course with Dr. John and Janice Baldwin. He currently works for a health-tech start-up in San Francisco and continues his advocacy work for his local LGBTQ community.

Psychology Alumnae Sophia Litsey, the Class of 2015 Distinguished Graduating Senior gives back through her work in Human Resources at HM Electronics, Inc. (HME) in Carlsbad, CA. She coordinates the organization’s health & wellness program, “Power Up” for 800 employees around the world, in addition to “HME Cares”, the corporate community service program. Sophia works with The American Heart Association in her role at HME to improve the health and wellbeing of her employees and neighbors in the community.

B.S., Biopsychology, 2016. I took two years off working, studying, preparing and applying to optometry school. I just completed my first year at Arizona College of Optometry. I'm so happy to be on track towards what I've always dreamed of!

Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences 2016 Alumnus Catherine Enders is finishing her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UC Berkeley this May. During her time at UCSB, she conducted research in sustainability psychology and on public perceptions of the health risks of hydraulic fracturing, and she gave back to the community by mentoring freshman honors students and volunteering for Isla Vista's Adopt-a-Block. Grateful for the mentorship she received at UCSB, Catherine went on to mentor underrepresented undergraduate students on their senior research projects at UC Berkeley.

(2017 Alumnus and winner of UCSB's prestigious Frances Colville and Terry Dearborn Memorial Award) is currently working as a clinical research coordinator in a rheumatology practice in Los Angeles, where he explores how the mind affects the experience of pain. One of his studies explores whether virtual reality can help lower the need for pain and anxiety medications. Marcus also works for Kaplan Test Prep, where he helps prepare pre-medical students for taking the MCAT. To serve in the field he aspires to go into, Marcus also volunteers his time with a psychiatrist at the VA, where he has helped design research that addresses the newly acknowledged psychological condition of moral injury, as well as helped write a chapter on addressing psychiatric conditions through lifestyle. At the end of summer, Marcus will begin medical school. He currently holds acceptances at Yale, Univ. of Michigan, and UPenn, with more announcements on the way.