Campus News
Alumni Notes: Summer 2026
Self-submitted updates from the UC Santa Cruz alumni community.
Awards and honors
Richard Leiter (Cowell ’76, anthropology and religious studies)
Richard Leiter was recently awarded the American Association of Law Libraries 2026 Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award. Established to recognize extended and sustained service to the Association or significant contributions to professional literature, this award is the Association’s highest honor. Richard is currently the director of the Schmid Law Library and the Marvin & Virginia Schmid Foundation and professor of law at the University of Nebraska College of Law.
Career updates
Ryan Silva (Rachel Carson ’22, politics)
Ryan Silva was named an associate attorney at Pray Walker, a Tulsa-based law firm. Silva serves as a Litigation Associate Attorney, focusing his practice on litigation and insurance law.
Silva earned his Juris Doctor from The University of Tulsa College of Law, where he distinguished himself academically and as a leader among his peers. Prior to law school, Silva earned his Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Legal Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was a shooting guard on the basketball team.
Terry Weiner (Stevenson ’82, politics)
Terry Weiner retired in 2025 as the Ellensburg, Washington City Attorney. In retirement, Terry is enjoying volunteering for a local fire lookout group, mentoring youth and curating his radio show, The Eclectic Music Hour, on Ellensburg Community Radio. Maintaining relationships with Slug alumni and reconnecting with others reminds Terry what an incredible experience he was able to enjoy with all of them.
New and upcoming books, films, shows, or other publications
Dan Blacharski (Porter ’86, literature)
Dan Blacharski published his debut novel, The Music of Time, a sweeping romantic time-travel adventure set between present-day Indiana and wartime Poland. The novel follows a man haunted by recurring episodes of parasomnia and vivid visions that seem to transport him to Nazi-occupied Poland, and to a lost love whose life ended in tragedy. Determined to discover whether these experiences are rooted in reality, he travels to Kraków, Poland in search of answers. As the visions intensify, he finds himself torn not only between two countries, but between two eras.
Nancy Foley (Kresge ’89, philosophy)
Nancy Foley released her debut novel, I Am Agatha, from Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster in March. The novel is set in New Mexico, and is loosely based on a period in the life of abstract painter Agnes Martin.
Maureen Corrigan of NPR’s Fresh Air said, “Move over, Mr. Ripley. I Am Agatha is a delightfully duplicitous debut… This is a strange, fresh story about artistic ambition and personal autonomy willingly abridged for love.”
Foley grew up in New Mexico and studied philosophy during her time at UC-Santa Cruz; she currently lives in Oregon.
Ben Judkins (Kresge ’17, film and digital media)
Ben Judkins and friend Taylor Lane are launching the online premiere of their documentary The Cigarette Surfboard, which follows the creation of a surfboard built from over 10,000 cigarette butts collected off beaches. After screening on campus at UCSC this spring, the film—which has already helped influence cigarette filter bans in Santa Cruz County—launches online Sept. 17–27, timed to coincide with International Coastal Cleanup Day (Sept. 19), as a call to action for ocean stewardship. The premiere will include several live virtual Q&A sessions featuring professional surfers and ocean activists from the film.
Michael Karlberg (Rachel Carson ’76, environmental studies)
Michael Karlberg published his third book, Rethinking Social Justice Theory and Action in an Age of Transition (co-authored with Derik Smith) with Open Book Publishers, an award-winning peer-reviewed open-source academic press out of Cambridge. The book reflects the culmination of a program of research inspired by Michael’s studies at UCSC. Michael is currently Professor of Communication Studies at Western Washington University.
Nicole Nelson (Cowell ’94, language studies)
Nicole Nelson will release her debut literary fiction novel Family Language with Melville House in November 2026. Nelson tells the story of an ambitious academic linguist who faces new and unwanted choices when overnight motherhood forces her to battle gendered expectations from her department, her partner, and herself.
Matthew Osborn (Porter ’89, modern society and social thought)
Matthew Osborn is an author and history professor at University of Missouri Kansas City, releasing his second book this September. Published by University of Chicago Press, the book, titled Night Hawk: A Nineteenth Century Superhero and the Dawn of Mass Culture set in 1820s Philadelphia, tells the “long-forgotten story of how a flying, superhuman vigilante played a pivotal role in the founding of the American labor movement.” Night Hawk is available for pre-order now.
Seth Serxner (Kresge ’80, psychology)
Dr. Seth Serxner, recently published The Wellbeing Effect: Bite-sized Practices for Busy People to Lead Happier, Healthier Lives. With more than 40 years of academic and practical experience working in corporate health and wellbeing, Dr. Seth Serxner distills his scientific expertise into commonsense practices you can fit into your everyday life.
Seth brings the breadth of his experience in academia, industry and consulting to his understanding of wellbeing. He has helped hundreds of companies, and their employees live happier, healthier lives through his ability to translate the science of wellbeing to easy-to-understand language and practices.
Seth lives with his wife in Half Moon Bay California, and has one daughter. He is a runner, skier, hiker, cyclist, and will play any sport that has a ball and a net.
Cynthia Taines (Crown ’93, biology)
Cynthia Taines recently published her new book, The Metropolitan Community: Partnering for Equality Across the Educational Divide, “tells the story of two Chicago-area schools—one suburban, one urban—whose students come together to examine the disparities between their schools and advocate for change.” The book received a Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention.
Rebecca Taylor (Kresge ’05, literature)
RJ Taylor recently published a novelette, The Third Movement of Time, in the Hugo-finalist magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Set in pseudo-19th century Scotland with a neurodivergent main character, the novelette follows a physics professor trying to bring her genius artist brother back to his adoring public after he goes inexplicably missing. Did he storm off in an uncharacteristic fit of pique? Was he captured by fairies? Or was there something more desperate to his trajectory? “The Third Movement of Time” appears in the seventeenth anniversary issue #442 and is free to read online.
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