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Photo three people at a podium outside; the right side has a blue overlay with the UC San Diego branded element of a stylized tridentYour Alumni Board

Members of the board are elected by the alumni and meet throughout the year to establish, in collaboration with the dean and UC San Diego Alumni, the goals and objectives for the school. The board assists the staff in the implementation of programs for more than 3,000 alumni worldwide annually.

Alumni Board President Message

Dear Fellow GPS Alumni,

I hope you and your families are well. I am honored to serve as your Alumni Board president for the 2022-2023 academic year. I would like to thank Jessica Megill '10, our outgoing president, for her superb leadership, especially during the height of the pandemic. I am joined by Peter Moritzburke as vice president and Gwendolyn Guzman Rose returning as secretary. Together we represent your leadership team. 

I would like to thank outgoing board members – Helio Bertachini ’09, Dennis-Michael Broussard '08, Ziwen Han ’15, Greta Paa-Kerner ’96, Jamal Russell Black '16 and Victor Tineo ’11 – for their service.

This is a strategically important year for GPS. There are three key areas on which your alumni board will focus:

  1. Strategic Plan: the new plan will capture Dean Freund’s vision, mission, key milestones and objectives for the school. It is currently under development and we expect it to be published in the coming months. What we do know is that our alumni activities will be an important component of the strategy, and we are excited to explore ways to align our efforts in support of the strategic plan once released. 
  2. Board Reconstitution: this summer marked the departures of several of our long-serving board members. Thank you for your service! Strengthening the board will be important in order to have capacity to support the strategic plan. We will nominate new board members while considering ways that allow alumni to contribute in specialized areas based on their expertise. If you or someone you know may be interested in service on or to the board, please reach out.
  3. Campus Presence: with the majority of classes and campus activities returning in-person, we hope to align alumni events accordingly in a safe manner. With a more permissive degree of travel in most parts of the world, we hope to see many of our alumni back on campus for milestone events such as homecoming this October. 

I would like to reemphasize the many online tools available for increased alumni engagement with GPS and UC San Diego. We encourage all GPS alumni to sign up to receive the school newsletter, take advantage of the Triton Table Talks career development series, join virtual events put on by the many  affiliated with GPS, consider UC San Diego Extension courses, and join the GPS LinkedIn group and UC San Diego’s Tritons Connect to remain aware of the many ways we can continue to serve you long after graduation.

The alumni board is here to represent you and keep you connected with GPS. Please feel free to contact me if you have any ideas or recommendations on how we can better serve our alumni community. 

Sincerely,
Jason Kim, MAS-IA ’12
GPS Alumni Board President

Board members

  • Darcy Cook, MPIA ’91, Mission Resource Conservation District (Fallbrook)

    Darcy Cook, MPIA ’91, Mission Resource Conservation District (Fallbrook)

    Darcy Cook serves as the district manager at Mission Resource Conservation District (MRCD) in Fallbrook, Calif. As an independent, non-regulatory special district, MRCD works closely with its community, growers and producers providing technical assistance and education on best management practices to restore and solve complex habitat, agriculture, water and other environmental challenges.

    Her background is in the San Diego high-tech sector in the environmental, marine and international arenas. Cook previously worked at Leidos, SAIC and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and more recently, as an independent consultant for blue tech and environmental start-ups and nonprofits, providing market and regulatory research and strategic planning services. 

    Cook was in the second class at GPS when the school was known as IR/PS. Her focus was on international environmental policy and her language, Mandarin Chinese.
  • Gwendolyne Guzman Rose, MAS-IA ’18, UC San Diego Extension International Programs

    Gwendolyne Guzman Rose, MAS-IA ’18, UC San Diego Extension International Programs

    Gwendolyne Guzman Rose has worked in international higher education for the last 17 years specializing in international relations and business development. She oversees recruiting students and establishing collaborations with universities and companies from all over the world into a portfolio of visiting student programs. She has traveled to over 60 countries for work, and she has lived and studied abroad in Spain and Thailand. Guzman Rose currently sits on the board of directors for Study California, an association established by the U.S. Commercial Services to promote California higher education globally. She has been a member of various international education associations such as NAFSA: Association for International Educators, the European Association for International Education (EAIE) and the Asia Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE). Guzman Rose received her bachelor’s degree in public relations with a minor in Spanish from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
  • Chenyu (Isabelle) Ho, MPIA 07, InComm Payments (Shanghai/ Taipei)

    Chenyu (Isabelle) Ho, MPIA 07, InComm Payments (Shanghai/ Taipei)

    Isabelle Ho is currently working as an APAC business development director with InComm Payments. She has dedicated her time to the financial and consultancy sectors since graduating from GPS in 2007. Her job gave her opportunities to work with teams and partners from different countries including the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UK. She credits what she learned at GPS with helping her better take on the challenges across regions. Due to work, she has been living and working between Shanghai and Taipei for the past 15 years. She is also an active member of both the Taipei and Shanghai Triton alumni clubs.
  • Jason Kim, MAS-IA ’12, U.S. Army (Stanford)

    Jason Kim, MAS-IA ’12, U.S. Army (Stanford)

    Jason Kim is a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Indo-Pacific region. He is currently a U.S. Army War College Fellow and visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, housed at Stanford University. Kim previously served on the U.S. Embassy Seoul Country Team and held key staff positions at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Army Pacific Headquarters. Kim possesses extensive experience in international affairs and strategic engagement working with civilian and military organizations throughout Asia. Kim also holds a B.S. in information systems from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
  • Peter Moritzburke, MPIA ’96, AEP Energy (San Francisco)

    Peter Moritzburke, MPIA ’96, AEP Energy (San Francisco)

    Peter Moritzburke is based in the San Francisco area and has over 25 years of experience in renewable energy project development, energy market entry strategy, energy policy and water resource management. He is currently Director of Development at AEP and has held leadership positions with E.ON, SunPower, BESST and CERA, as well as board positions with multiple renewable energy trade associations. Moritzburke has supported GPS over the years through hosting student delegations, helping with internships and working with alumni and faculty focused on carbon reduction strategies.
  • David Noel, MPIA ’14, JPMorgan Chase (Dallas/Houston)

    David Noel, MPIA ’14, JPMorgan Chase (Dallas/Houston)

    David Noel is a Vice President of Digital Product Strategy at JPMorgan Chase where he helps the bank to develop, pilot and market new digital products and financial technology partnerships. He was previously the founder of WorldSprout, an education technology platform connecting middle and high school students with international cultures. He also co-founded Red Phoenix Entertainment, a sports agency that secured Chinese, Japanese and Korean corporate endorsements for professional sports teams.

    Noel was previously an operational excellence manager and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and the Banc of California, where he led operational efficiency programs. At GPS, Noel led Export Access Global Consulting and the Environmental Policy Business Forum. He previously lived and taught English in Liaoning, China. He earned his master’s from GPS with a regional focus on China and his bachelor’s in economics from UC Santa Barbara.
  • Liliana Pao, MPIA ’02, European Commission (Brussels)

    Liliana Pao, MPIA ’02, European Commission (Brussels)

    Liliana Pao is currently in charge of communications and raising awareness in the Diversity and Inclusion Office of the European Commission in Brussels. Prior to joining the commission in 2010 to design and manage communication and talent management strategies, Pao was a senior consultant for strategic and corporate communications at FleishmanHillard and a board member of the Belgian Public Relations Consultants Association. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and political science from UC San Diego.
  • Kevin Trepa, MPIA ’05, Oregon Tool (Portland)

    Kevin Trepa, MPIA ’05, Oregon Tool (Portland)

    Kevin Trepa is currently the chief supply chain officer at Oregon Tool. Prior to this role, he was the chief information office and senior vice president for Blount International’s global supply chain. Further, Trepa led the Global Sales team for five years at Leupold & Stevens and was the vice president of the global supply chain at Sony Electronics. He also served for 24 years in the United States Marine Corps in both the active and reserve components. Trepa served as Chief of Current Operations for General Petraeus in Baghdad in 2007. He retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 2009.

Past presidents

  • Past Presidents

    We would like to acknowledge and thank the past presidents for their service.

    Rebecca Eyre, MPIA '90 (1991 – 1993)
    Mark Spalding, MPIA '92 (1993 – 1996)
    Mike Stankiewicz, MPIA '94 (1996 – 1998)
    Heather Shepard, MPIA '95 (1998 – 2000)
    Jennifer Kellogg, MPIA '93 (2000 – 2002)
    Melissa Dennis, MPIA '97 (2002 – 2004)
    David Freitas, MPIA '97 (2004 – 2006)
    Matt Hill, MPIA '04 (2006 – 2008)
    Ben Bahney, MPIA '06 (2008 – 2009)
    Anne Craib, MPIA '93 (2009 – 2010)
    Brooke Partridge, MPIA '91 (2010 – 2013)
    Jeff Rector, MPIA '97 (2013 – 2016)
    Aaron Jacobson, MPIA ’08 (2016 – 2018)
    Blake Tye, MPIA '10 (2018 – 2020)
    Liliana Pao, MPIA '02 (2020 – 2021)