51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ

Gregorio Silva, '14 JD, a member at Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice, has been named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2024. The LCLD Fellows program offers high-potential, mid-career attorneys from diverse backgrounds at LCLD member organizations with professional and personal development opportunities as well as leadership training, relationship-building resources, and access to other LCLD Members, including managing partners and general counsel, for mentoring and guidance. Silva is a civil litigation attorney with a practice focused on transportation litigation and investigating and defending fire and explosion matters. He has been with the firm since 2020 and is a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association.  

Christopher Aiken, '07 BA Psychology, is an associate professor in and head of the kinesiology department at New Mexico State University. He is married with two kids. His oldest daughter is named Scarlet in honor of his time at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ.

Matthew Carlyon, '12 JD, is a partner at the firm, Foran Glennon. Carlyon's practice is focused on commercial litigation, legal ethics, and insurance litigation. He offers essential assistance to creditors and debtors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy matters and adversary proceedings. Based in the Chicago office since 2021, he is licensed in Illinois and Nevada.

Mariaz Davis, '99 BS Health Physics, is working in the nuclear power industry.

Ronald Husband, ’73 BA Art, was tapped to help musician and designer Pharrell Williams launch his winter 2024 collection for Louis Vuitton. Husband, who holds the distinction of being the first African American animator Walt Disney Studios, was featured in film promotions for the new line illustrating a vision for America's first cowboy. His credits in his 38 years at Disney include animating Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Pumbaa in The Lion King. He was inducted into the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame in 2019.

Yu-Wen Sun, '23 BS Hotel Administration, is a wedding coordinator.

Joelle Silva, '19 BS Hotel Administration, Started within the hospitality industry as a hotel sales coordinator at Mirage in 2019 immediately following graduation. Silva then became executive meetings manager at Mandalay Bay, Delano, and Luxor in 2022 and has recently been promoted to convention sales manager for Mandalay Bay and Delano in 2023.

Breyen Canfield, '16 BA Philosophy and '19 JD, accepted an appointment to a position in the federal government after law school. He recently published a book called Plato's Barbell: What Ancient Philosophy Can Teach Us About Olympic Weightlifting. He started the book (edited by fellow 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ philosophy grad, Shad Taylor) in undergrad after many conversations with some of the great professors in the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ philosophy department who were able to help him learn about Plato, Aristotle, and others by putting them in contexts that do not have any obvious connection to ancient philosophy. Canfield thought he could help those in another field he loves, weightlifting, learn more about that sport by drawing on lessons from ancient philosophers while hopefully generating an interest in strength sports in the philosophy field. The book is published by Jailhouse Strong, a company devoted to promoting education in all sports of strength and is available on Amazon. He lives in northern Illinois with his wife and kids.

Michael Serna, '96 BA Theatre Arts, is the executive creative director for Disney Live Entertainment (part of Walt Disney Imagineering). He assumed this new role over a year ago. He recently created a new experience for the World of Frozen land at Hong Kong Disneyland. Serna lives in Fullerton, California, with his wife and adorable dog. When not working for Disney, he directs local theater (keeping with the roots of my 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ degree). Productions he's directed have been nominated and won awards over the past few years.

Joan (Camillo) Blair, '19 BSBA Business Administration, is controller of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance and has joined the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada. By leveraging extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, financial planning, grant compliance, and fundraising strategies, she will provide valuable expertise that will complement the work of the financial literacy nonprofit organization's dedicated board.

Jon Becker, '00 MS Civil Engineering, is nearly finished assembling a book from research on the limiting magnitude of nuclear energy (number, size, and type of nuclear reactors) that can replace the current magnitude of fossil energy (oil and coal) currently being consumed. The size of the recoverable oil reserves (taken from the BP Statistical Review of Energy) are used to determine the lifetimes of oil energy for the nine industrialized states and seven oil states. These comparisons and derivations define the necessity for world governmental support of the development and design of breeder reactors, and not dependency on financing by venture capital and index funds. It also examines why fusion energy will not save the world from economic collapse, for the simple reason that the available world oil reserves will be 95% depleted at least 10 years before the first commercial fusion reactor is available, and which may never be built for centuries to come. He hopes to have this book published in a couple more months.    Besides writing, Becker's other hobbies include online research into current news events, historical events, paleontology, astronomy, evolution, and geology (oil and coal formation).

Marina Abodeely Jezzini, '84 BS Hotel Administration, has proudly been helping families buy, sell, and invest in Las Vegas Valley for 30 years. She's been a Las Vegas resident since 1979. Jezzini trained with Century 21, Re/Max, and is currently with Urban Nest Realty and is in the top 2% in the Valley as a broker/sales associate. She's resided in Summerlin for 25 years and has extreme neighborhood knowledge of resale and new builders' inventory. In 2023, Jezzini was nominated and won the award for "Top 25 Women in Real Estate."  She has a 21-year-old son who graduated from ATP Pilot school and is married to an avid outdoorsman, engineer, and race car driver. Their motto is "Choose Thrilling."  For hobbies, Jezzini enjoys traveling overseas, yoga, hiking, and making Baklava for her friends.