Ashley Coleman was raised out in the country on a vineyard ranch in the Central Valley of California. She liked getting her hands dirty, and especially loved picking grapes during harvest. At an early age, she learned to appreciate hard work and how much goes into making a great wine. As she grew older, her love for wine evolved as well as her passion for giving back. She is a graduate of Notre Dame, 3 year wine sales veteran, MBA student, and lover of all things creative. Now, she is the Chief Executive Officer for Greater Purpose, a wine sales company that gives 55% of its profit to organizations that work with orphaned children all over the world.
Dr. Craig Vierra, a professor of biology at University of the Pacific, has been given the University Distinguished Faculty Award in recognition of his work as “a scientist and scholar and his dedication to students and undergraduate research.” Dr. Vierra, who is also co-chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, joined Pacific as a visiting lecturer in the fall of 1994. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanics of black widow spider silk and how these properties relate to the fiber’s high tensile strength, elasticity and toughness. His work has been published in a variety of publications, including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences and Biochemistry.
Donna Morton, CEO, co-founder of First Power, with a mission to put clean energy, jobs and equity in the hands of first nations/ native communities globally. She recently was elected an Unreasonable Institute fellow. First Power is profitable and highly impactful. She is also an Ashoka fellow for her work with the Centre for Integral Economics (CIE) which put tax shifting and carbon taxes on the map across Canada. She is a serial-social entrepreneur, has experience from Greenpeace to think tanks. Donna has spoken at or keynoted events around the world including: BALLE, Bioneers, World Permaculture Forum. Media highlights include budget commentaries, recently featured in Entrepreneur, 2 part series for CBC Ideas “It is Not Easy Being Green” and Financial Post. She was featured as 1 of 30 global leaders in TV series — Act for the plant which aired around the world: www.actfortheplanet.org.
One of four children, Pacific’s own Jose Moreno Hernandez was born August 7, 1962 in French Camp, California. Today, Astronaut Jose Hernandez is a mission specialist for NASA and resides in (location). Jose Hernandez’s journey to the world of NASA did not lack obstacles; Hernandez comes from a Mexican migrant farm family. He spent his summers traveling, and these trips were no vacation. Hernandez, during the spring and summer seasons of his childhood worked on what he referred to as the “California Circuit”, going from Mexico to southern California in March then, come November, the family worked northward to the Stockton area picking cucumbers and strawberries at farms along the course. During Christmas the family would return to Mexico, and begin the routine over again in the following spring. Hernandez’ primary language was Spanish; in fact, he did not learn English until the age of 12. Although the language barrier was an obstacle, Hernandez worked hard and excelled in other academic areas of math and science. Hernandez continued his education attending Franklin High School, the University of the Pacific, and UC Santa Barbara. With hard work and dedication as underlying foundations, Hernandez was able to achieve great heights.
Hamza Siddiqui is an artist, aspiring entrepreneur, and full-time student at the University of the Pacific. With a passion for combating discrimination and misunderstanding through the Siddiqui writes poetry that revolves around global problems and social issues. He began writing and performing in 2009, and quickly rose to prominence by being selected as one of the winners at the All-City Poetry Slam. He also served as the opening act for actor and author, Hill Harper, and was invited to perform at the national youth poetry festival, Brave New Voices. Siddiqui also chooses to express his creativity through graphic design and web development. He has over six years of design experience and recently opened his own web design and internet marketing firm based in the San Joaquin Valley. As a student, he stays involved as a Resident Assistant on campus and is currently the President of the Muslim Student Association.
Hunter Lovins is President and founder of the Natural Capitalism Solutions. NCS educates senior decision-makers in business, government and civil society to restore and enhance the natural and human capital while increasing prosperity and quality of life. Trained as a sociologist and lawyer (JD), Hunter co-founded the California Conservation Project (Tree People), and Rocky Mountain Institute, which she led for 20 years. Lovins has consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide. She has consulted with large and small companies including the International Finance Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, Interface, Clif Bar and Wal-Mart. Governmental clients include the Pentagon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and other agencies, numerous cities, and the governments of Jamaica, Australia, and the U.S. She also serves an advisor to the Energy Minister of the Government of Afghanistan. Recipient of such honors as the Right Livelihood Award, Lindbergh Award and Leadership in Business, she was named Time Magazine 2000 Hero of the Planet. She has co-authored nine books and hundreds of papers, including the 1999 book, Natural Capitalism and 2006 Climate Protection Manual for Cities. She developed the Economic Renewal Project and helped write many of its manuals on sustainable community economic development. She is currently a founding Professor of Business at Presidio School of Management, one of the first accredited programs offering an MBA in Sustainable Management.
Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific. He is the author or editor of 14 books on food including Eating Right in the Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe, Beans: A History (winner of the 2008 International Association of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson Award), and Pancake. He has also co-edited two works, The Business of Food and Human Cuisine, and two other edited collections are forthcoming this fall: Food and Faith and A Cultural History of Food: The Renaissance. Albala was also editor of three food series for Greenwood Press with 30 volumes in print and his 4-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia was just published this summer. Albala is also co-editor of the journal Food Culture and Society and general editor of the new series AltaMira Studies in Food and Gastronomy, for which he has written a textbook entitled Three World Cuisines: Italy, China, Mexico which will appear in the spring of 2012. He is currently researching a history of theological controversies surrounding fasting in the Reformation Era, and has co-authored a cookbook for Penguin /Perigee entitled The Lost Art of Real Cooking, the sequel of which will appear next year and is entitled The Lost Arts of Hearth and Home.
New York based designer first pursued her artistic aspirations through environmental & industrial design but opted for a more pragmatic route with a Business Degree in Finance and Marketing. After a trade project with Vietnam’s consortium of 130 textile & garment factories (VINATEX), LanVy Nguyen was retained for consultion on contract negotiation, production, and business development. Traveling to & from Vietnam during the 3 years in this capacity, she was called to action having witnesses exploitation of children & labor abuse. Encouraged by outside investment who saw potential in her social enterprise, LanVy created a fashion line wrapped around the concept of modern feminity, environmental awareness, and social responsibility. Drawing inspirations from artistic differences of civilizations, LanVy designs for the modern Human – one that can appreciate the richness of various cultures & their respective sense of beauty. She is inspired by the revolution of KidRobot, by the technicality of flax weaving, by the fashion-forward yet beauty-mindedness of Soeul. Not limited to a genre, she designs because she is moved to create, inspired to do more, aspired to give more. She recalls the stories of those children gone and is compelled to liberate those children hoping ot taste freedom and a day untethered.
Martin Burt founded Fundacion Paraguaya and brought an innovative microcredit program to Paraguay in 1985, while the country was under dictatorial rule that made citizen initiatives a particularly challenging and even dangerous undertaking. Over the years, Fundacion Paraguaya has supported 35,000 micro entrepreneurs who create 19,000 new jobs each year, and it has taking on innovative and entrepreneurial challenges through a Junior Achievement program that builds the skills of young entrepreneurs. Its agricultural school is breaking new ground by demonstrating that well-managed, sustainable agriculture can be profitable and by helping young people learn to think of themselves as rural entrepreneurs. Martin is a Pacific alum and is currently the visiting professor of Social Entrepreneurship. He has been recognized with the following international honors: Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, Inter-American Development Bank Award of Excellence for Social Enterprise, and the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award.
Pamela A. Eibeck became the 24th President of University of the Pacific on July 1, 2009, and she is first woman to hold the office. Under her stewardship, the University has enjoyed a $16 million increase in endowment investments. Eibeck has dedicated the $7.5 million Janssen-Lagorio Gymnasium, the $10 million John T. Chambers Technology Center, the $5 million Alex and Jeri Vereschagin Alumni House and the $10 million renovation of the Pacific McGeorge Legal Studies Center. And President Eibeck has made connecting with the community a major priority with her Beyond Our Gates campaign. Through this initiative, University of the Pacific held six community forums to listen to the needs and goals of Stockton and San Joaquin and is now establishing partnerships to address these issues. Eibeck’s Presidency follows a distinguished career as a researcher, teacher, educational reformer, and university administrator. She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She has taught at both University of California Berkeley and Northern Arizona University. In 2004, Eibeck was n amed dean of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech, one of the nation’s largest engineering colleges with 4,400 students, 156 faculty and five research centers.
Rachel’s vision is to empower commercial, governmental and non-profit organizations with the unique knowledge to make critical decisions, leverage opportunities and minimize risk in Africa emerging markets to facilitate responsible, foreign direct investment (FDI). Her focus on developing ethical investments in emerging markets bore the Backpack Farm Agriculture Program, an internationally recognized social enterprise designed to supply, train and finance East’s Africa’s smallholder farmers to to standardize both the quality and quantity of agriculture production during an annual growing season, to mirror semi-commercial rates of production. Increased harvests translate into regional local, regional and international food security while impacting economic, social and ecological domains. Together, it is possible to achieve sustainable and scalable impact in Africa’s poorest farming communities. Rachel guides the organization with more than a decade of hands-on experience facilitating international business and social development in post conflict countries including Kosovo, Jordan, Iraq, Kenya and Southern Sudan where she continues to be exposed to the complex challenges facing humanitarian and commercial organizations to affect real social and economic change. She holds a Bachelors of Arts (International Relations) from George Mason University and a Master of Arts (International Security Studies) from the University of Bradford. She regularly lectures and publishes commercial analysis on post conflict development and ethical agriculture investment.
Ron D. Cordes is co-Founder of the Cordes Foundation, which he and his wife Marty created in 2006. The primary focus of the Foundation is to utilize social entrepreneurship and impact investing as tools for global poverty alleviation. Ron has enjoyed a 25+ year career in the investment industry, having co-founded and then sold AssetMark Investment Services to Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW) in 2006. He is currently Co-Chairman of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, which is responsible for over $ 22 bb of assets under management. Ron is a member of the Board of Regents of the University of the Pacific, as well as Chairman of the Board of Stakeholders for the University’s Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition, he is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and on the boards of Fair Trade USA, MicroVest Holdings, the Sarona Fund, and the East Bay Community Foundation.
Sacha Joseph-Mathews Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific. Professor Joseph-Mathews has a Master of Science degree with special emphasis in Tourism and Hospitality Management from Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She has taught a number of marketing courses including; international marketing, international business, advertising and promotions, as well as hospitality and services management. Professor Joseph-Mathews has also published articles in tourism, marketing and international business. Prior to her academic career she was an Economic Development Officer with the Export Promotion Company of Trinidad and Tobago as well as a Tourism Officer with the Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board. She has also worked as a marketing consultant on several state wide tourism projects in the state of Florida.
Sugar Water Purple is a neo soul band comprised of 7 current Pacific students, 1 Pacific alumni, and 3 Stockton community members. The group formed in February of 2009 through the vision of a composition student named Joshua Washington. In their time together, SWP has been the house band for the Pierced Ear Poetry Slam, performed at popular local and Bay Area venues such as Yoshi’s Jazz Club, and have been instrumental in raising funds for the Gospel Center Rescue Mission through participation in the New Life Project. Their first full length album is set to be officially released at the end of October 2011.
Van-Anh Vanessa Vo dedicates her life to creating music on the dan Tranh (16-string zither) and fusing her traditional Vietnamese foundation with a freshness of new structures and compositions.
Since settled in California, she has been a collaborator and solo artist with such musicians and groups as Kronos Quartet, Nguyen Le, Paul McCandless, Ali Ryerson, Charles Loos, SOMEI Taiko Ensemble, Wobbly World, as well as lending her talents to fundraising events for several non- profit organizations. Continually cultivates the beauty and versatility of the dan Tranh to feature her beloved instrument in an international music genre, Van-Anh has been co-composer and arranger for the Oscar® nomimated and Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Daughter from Danang (2002), the Emmy® Award-winning film and soundtrack for Bolinao 52 (2008), and the multiple award-winning film A Village Called Versailles (2009). Recently, Van-Anh released newest CD “She’s Not She” with award-winning composer Do Van-Anh began studying dan tranh from the age of four, and graduated with distinction from the Vietnam Academy of Music. In 1995, Van-Anh won championship in the Vietnam National Dan Tranh Competition along with the first prize for best solo performance of modern folk music. She has since performed in more than fourteen countries and recorded in many broadcast programs inside and outside of Vietnam. Her first CD “Twelve Months, Four Seasons” was released in 2002. She lives and teaches dan tranh and other Vietnamese traditional instruments in Fremont, California.
Executive Director, KITO International- As a former street boy, Wiclif brings deep connections and a superior understanding of the street youth community. After transitioning out of street life, he went on to create Eco Safi Products, a reform youth enterprise project that empowers youth and harnesses their entrepreneurial spirit while providing the training, education, and tools they need to create a lifetime of economic security. The motto of EcoSafi, “Street Kids Today. Entrepreneurs Tomorrow” reflects not only Odongo’s past but the future he is creating for others like him. Then in early 2009, he envisioned the KITO concept of training and educating youth, to then employ them in EcoSafi, so they can gain hands-on experience. Wiclif is an entrepreneur, community activist and represents the power of opportunity. Additionally, Wiclif has worked with community development organizations that serve orphans, street youth and HIV positive woman. Wiclif is a 2010 Cordes Fellow, which enabled him to travel to Ixtapa, Mexico to represent KITO at the Opportunity Collaboration.