Points of Pride

  • Congratulations to Dr. Elena Ionescu, who recently completed her PhD in Social Work at University of Houston! Our GERN program is proud to celebrate her!
  • Wine Event: I know I gave this event a shout out last week, but this week I have photos and an article to share: https://www.csulb.edu/college-of-health-human-services/article/a-flagship-event-for-csulb-hospitality-management-program
  • Campus Couture Fashion Show: Sunday night, FMD and other CSULB students presented a spectacular event at the Carpenter Center, showcasing 13 designers’ work with 80 models navigating the runway. The upcycled demin collection was selected for many awards. Kudos to Jacquelyn Morell for working with these students as their faculty advisor, and to Laura Bonnell for serving as a judge at the event!
  • We have a lot to celebrate about our CAFF program’s representation last week at the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) annual conference.
    • Soo Cho assumed leadership of ACCI as President for 25-26! She also had two papers and one poster presentations with co-authors across the nation and internationally. The topics were Financial Discrimination, Financial Fraud Vulnerability, and Comparative Analysis of Multidimensional Poverty in the US and South Korea.
    • Hoang Tran (Consumer Affairs student) and Hannah Ouang (UROP student) won the 2nd place of the Undergraduate Research Poster Award with their poster titled “Importance of Financial Aspects on Health: Differences Between Immigrants and Native-Born”
    • Hofner Rusiana presented his poster, “Dynamic Relationship between Consumer Confidence and Federal Funds Interest Rates: VECM and TVECM Analyses”
    • Xiangchen Liu (new CAFF faculty joining us in fall) won the Richard Morse Consumer Economics Paper Award, with her paper titled “Health Insurance and High-Cost Borrowing: The Effect of Medicaid on Pawn Loans, Payday Loans, and Other Non-Bank Financial Products.” Xianchen ALSO won this year’s Dissertation Award.
  • Michelle Barrack and her MS in Nutritional Science student, Haleh Hashemi, were highlighted this past week in university news for their research!
  • Congratulations to Kelly Anthony, who successfully defended her dissertation at Chapman University in March!
  • Congratulations to Amanda Sauceda for her appearance in Health! Can You Really 'Train' Your Taste Buds to Crave Healthier Foods?
  • Congratulations to our FCSI Students who represented us at the 2025 Pacific Southwest Regional College Bowl.
  • Congrats to Zoe Engstrom for her article on budgeting! https://wallethub.com/edu/b/zero-based-budgeting/142818#expert=Zoe_Bryan_Engstrom
  • Congratulations to Soo Cho’s student team who won the second-place award for the 2025 American Council on Consumer Interests’ Undergraduate Student Poster Competition! They will present the paper in the April conference.
  • Kudos to Rachel Blaine for teaching advocacy in action! She traveled to Sacramento today alongside five graduate students to participate in the CA Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' Advocacy Day. They visited legislators' offices to support Farm to School and Ending Child Hunger bills.
  • Our Hospitality Management program was featured in CSULB news! https://www.csulb.edu/news/article/happiest-chef-earth-how-a-csulb-grad-shaping-disneylands-food-and-sustainability
  • Brianna Koster is delivering a 49er Industry Chat to share how our Hospitality Management program is preparing students for the workforce today! The Industry Chat is presented in collaboration with CSULB Alumni. See attached flier.
  • Tiffany Brown participated in a team that delivered a workshop last week on Cultural Taxation, based on their work shared here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF43SnEad0/HR5VwybfKUkKqXMr6_YStQ/view?utm_content=DAF43SnEad0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor#1 Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing your work with our campus community and encouraging discussion and action.