December 2025 Alumni 955 Newsletter
Dear Fellow Alums,
As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, campus takes on that unmistakable feel of fall. The strong winds that blow through every autumn bring anticipation of the holidays, inviting reflection on the goodness of God, the gift of community and God’s faithfulness that carries us through each changing season.
For many of us, this time of year brings both gratitude and longing: gratitude for the people and moments that have shaped our journeys and longing for the deeper peace that only Christ can bring.
Wherever this season finds you — surrounded by family and friends, traveling or recalling your own days on this hillside campus — I hope you remember that the light of Christ continues to shine through you. We give thanks for the ways our alums live out Westmont’s mission with grace and joy in every corner of the world. May this Advent and Christmas season bring you rest, renewal and the deep assurance of God’s love made visible in Jesus.
May the strength of God sustain you;
May the power of God preserve you;
May the hands of God protect you;
May the way of God direct you;
May the love of God go with you always
May the will of God give you peace that transcends understanding as you trust in His providence.
Warmly in Christ,
Janay Marshall ’01
Director of Alumni Relations
A Joyous Homecoming Celebration
About 500 alums and their families returned to Westmont for one of the best-attended Homecomings in years. Many celebrated class reunions, and everyone enjoyed a wide variety of activities. The annual Alumni Brunch honored outstanding men and women who make significant contributions to their communities.
Rob Ring ’90, this year’s Alumnus of the Year, serves as CEO of London-based Kaerus Bioscience, which explores treatments for patients with rare genetic syndromes causing intellectual disability, autism and epilepsy. He earned a doctorate in molecular neurobiology at the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. “I’ve carried this Warrior mentality my whole life,” Rob said at the brunch.
We honored sisters Alexis Otterlei Bennett ’05 and Leah Otterlei Pillsbury ’00 as our Alumnae of the Year. They founded Orka Health and Wellness, providing compassionate, client-centered care through teletherapy and support services by a team of licensed therapists, registered dietitian, clinical nutrition coach, psychologist, parent coach and spiritual coach. Both are Licensed Independent Clinical Social Workers who have earned a Master of Social Work.
Spencer Dusebout ’15, our Young Alum of the Year, cofounded Hands4Others (H4O) when he was 16, bringing clean water to more than 250,000 people in 17 countries. Since then, he’s built and advised a number of software as a service (SaaS) companies that span business intelligence, automation and machine learning.
Lindsey Connolly ’08 received this year’s Global Service Award. She co-founded the non-profit Destined for Grace 17 years ago to educate and improve the lives of children in Haiti. Through donations and funds raised at their Goleta thrift stores, the organization has established a school and garden in Mirebalais that feeds and teaches the children. She serves as Westmont’s interim head coach for the track and field team during Coach Russell Smelley’s sabbatical.
Nominate an Alum as a Candidate for Next Year’s Homecoming Alumni Awards
A friendly competition encouraged reunion classes to make gifts to support Westmont students today. The class of 1975 donated the most, and the class of 1970 achieved the highest rate of participation. The Alumni Office presented a check of $5,507,564.91 (the total amount alums contributed in the past year) to WCSA president and vice president Mya Brushey and Allie Bunn, who accepted on behalf of students.
At Homecoming, we dedicated the new Nancy Voskuyl Prayer Chapel Window, which depicts the 15th Station of the Cross. Created by Scott Parsons, the beautiful artwork will remain on permanent display.
The Westmont Classic Golf Tournament featured friendly competition for teams and raised nearly $45,000 in scholarship money for students.
The Career Resource Center hosted an alumni-student networking dessert in the Kerr Student Center that began with a talk on AI in the workplace by computer science professor Mike Ryu.
Alums, students, faculty and staff gathered at the Fletcher Jones Foundation Center for Engineering to celebrate the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) awarding full certification to the Westmont engineering program following an extensive three-year process. Only two other Christian colleges in California have received this accreditation, which is retroactive to October 2022. The significant designation enhances the credentials of our engineering alums.
More than 100 alums gathered at the Biltmore Wall for our second annual Sips and Snacks event to watch the sun go down Friday evening.
Alums Roy Schenkenberger ’00 and Jon Hughes ’94 drew a crowd as they returned to campus for a free concert in Deane Chapel. Attendees enjoyed their heartfelt lyrics and unique fingerstyle guitar playing.
The college also honored four members of the first varsity women’s team: the 1973 volleyball squad. Shelley Bourland Ekstrom ’77, Jayne Presnell ’78, Cindy Vanderdussen Hardeman ’78 and Kathy Perkins McGuigan ’77 received Trailblazer Medals before the Friday night volleyball game to honor their pioneering efforts.
The Alumni Tailgate and Kids Carnival provided lunch and ice cream to more than 200 attendees. Children enjoyed face painting, a climbing wall and carnival games.
The Celebration of 50 Years of Women in Sports Banquet honored women who have been trailblazers and record-breakers in all our women’s sports programs.
Alums attended a variety of lectures and panels from Westmont professors, former faculty and guest speakers such as Greg Spencer (communication studies), Blake Kent (sociology), Michael Everest (chemistry), Tim Van Haitsma (kinesiology) and President Gayle D. Beebe. Amanda Sparkman (biology) led a fascinating panel on bioscience and the possible return of extinct animals. The Patterson brothers fielded questions after the screening of their documentary short “All Things Metal.”
Save the date for our next Homecoming: October 2-4, 2026.
Reach out to alumni@westmont.edu if you graduated in a class ending in 6 or 1 and would like to help plan your next reunion.
President’s Alumni Council
In June, the Alumni Office relaunched an Alumni Council , which serves as a vital link between the college and alums by developing and providing key leadership to mission-centered initiatives designed to strengthen and promote the alumni network. The council provides expertise, advice and support to the Office of Alumni Relations regarding its vision, goals and plans for the future. Matt Blickendorf ’08 serves as the president. Other members include: Courtney DeSoto ’98, Daniel Lew ’09, Janelle Marshall ’01, Taisa Skovorodko ’07, Zach Sheely ’04 and Ryan Zoradi ’08. We hope to grow this council in coming years. Among other good work, their signature project focuses on reestablishing the Westmont Career Mentor Program. More than 200 alums have registered as mentors, and we hope to match them with students interested in their industries in December. We hope to offer this program again next year. If you didn’t sign up this time, you’ll have future opportunities to do so.
Refer a Future Westmont Student
Do you know any high school students who would thrive at Westmont? Refer them to the admissions office. If we’re not already aware of the student and they apply and get admitted, you’ll receive a $100 gift card to the Westmont Bookstore (limit three per person).
Regional Events
Alums in Orange County have gathered for several recent events, including a patriotic summer social in July and a Trivia Night in September. They’ll meet to eat dinner and watch the Balboa Island Boat Parade in December.
Alums in the Bay Area enjoyed a pool party at the Lundells’ in June and watched the jazz act The Queen’s Cartoonists, led by Joel Pierson ’01 in November. In January, they’ll gather at Burgess Park in Menlo Park for a potluck with corn hole and spike ball.
Alums in Austin met in October at St. Elmo in Springdale.
Alums in Honolulu mark your calendar: We’re bringing you a free dinner and book tour event on Friday, March 13, 2026. Register HERE if you’d like to join us.
If you’d like to work with the Alumni Office and serve as a regional representative, please email alumni@westmont.edu. We can talk about this volunteer role.
Recent Lectures you may have missed
Ben Carlson, assistant professor of physics at Westmont, explored the scientific foundations of today’s most pressing energy and climate issues in Energy and Climate from the Ground Up . He earned a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and says the lecture expanded on a course, Physics for Future Presidents, that focuses on the impact of basic science in the modern world. He highlighted how we can use the concept of energy density as a lens through which to examine energy — from batteries to fossil fuels to nuclear power — and he
explored the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to sustainable energy systems. Earlier this year, Carlson and thousands of researchers worldwide received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics given to the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments. In 2022, he received a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to further his search for evidence of the presence of mysterious dark matter. He joined the Westmont faculty in 2021 after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh as a Samuel Langley postdoctoral fellow. Click HERE to watch this fall 2025 talk.
Physics professor Jennifer Ito presented Physics, Philosophy and Faith: An Exploration into the History of the Universe, which explored the history of the universe, covering both the scientific aspects of cosmology and its philosophical and faith-related dimensions. She delivered the talk as part of the Phi Kappa Phi Paul C. Wilt Lecture series. Robert Haring-Kaye (physics) and Jim Taylor (philosophy) responded. Click HERE to watch this spring 2025 talk.
Alumni Updates
Rhonda Mundenk ’94 has become the president and CEO at Haven for Hope in San Antonio, which serves the local homeless population. After graduating from Westmont, she earned a Juris Doctor from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago; a Master of Public Health in health policy and administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health; and a Master of Science in healthcare transformation from the University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School & McCombs School of Business. She served as CEO for both Lone Star Circle of Care and Clinical Health Network for Transformation in Austin and most recently as COO for Harbor Health Team Inc. She previously worked as the director of business operations and COO at the University of Illinois Medical Center.
Heidi Lundquist Jones ’95 and her husband, Ben, have operated their own successful chiropractic practice in Sacramento since 2001. A few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Heidi had an epiphany. “I woke up in the middle of the night and realized what I needed to do,” she says. “I’ve always felt that women could be better supported during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period.” She decided to create Haven, a nonprofit organization that encourages doulas in their career paths while helping mothers from underserved populations in Sacramento. When she opened the doors to Haven in 2020, they supported 50 mothers through their pregnancies in the first 10 months. Read more about Heidi in the spring 2025 issue of the Westmont Magazine.
Carolyn Dueck Murphy ’97, M.D. , serves as one of the physicians at Westmont’s Health Center. After graduating, she earned her medical degree from Loma Linda University and completed the Family Medicine Residency Program at Ventura County Hospital. She worked as a family practice physician at Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara and at UCSB’s student health service before returning to Westmont in 2022. Carolyn loves to deploy her gifts in the community and has volunteered at Doctors Without Walls, a free mobile clinic for the homeless, and at Santa Barbara Community Church while raising three active sons with her husband, Liam Murphy ’06.
Dr. Kristen Kleen Hughes ’04 , the 2025 Santa Barbara County Physician of the Year, joined the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department in 2016 and became the chief physician of the Franklin Healthcare Center in 2024, where she transformed team‑based care. A standout defender for the women’s soccer team that won national championships in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Kristen and her husband, Dr. Rob Hughes, Westmont’s director of health services, have two children.
Joy Brenneman ’11 wrote a how-to book about blacksmithing, Contemporary Blacksmithing for Beginners , which will be available on January 28! Find more information by clicking the link. A studio art major, she got interested in blacksmithing by working in the industrial craft and art field after graduating.
Santa Barbara Snapshots
Westmont finished in the black for the 41st consecutive year despite facing some of the tightest financial margins in our history, an issue across higher education.
At Orientation in August, Westmont welcomed 375 new first-year and transfer students with 38 students joining two other cohorts in the accelerated 16-month Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Westmont Downtown Grotenhuis Nursing. The new arrivals include 71 first-generation college students, 26 international students from 24 countries, and 127 athletes, the largest recruited athletic class in Warrior history. Men represent 43 percent of this new crew with 57 percent women, and 49 percent bring multicultural, multinational diversity with 27 percent identifying as Hispanic. The second largest transfer class in school history included 64 students. Westmont awards four-year academic scholarships ranging from $15,000 to nearly $41,000 each year to more than 95 percent of entering new students. The 62 high-achieving, first-year students selected as Augustinian Scholars received grants ranging from $28,000 up to 75 percent of tuition. Westmont attracted and enrolled an incredibly accomplished incoming class with an average GPA of 3.9. Students have expressed the most interest in majoring in economics and business (16 percent), kinesiology (12 percent), biology (9 percent) and psychology (7 percent) with 16 percent undecided.
Two alums returned to Westmont in the fall as tenure-track professors. Welcome back, Kyle Hansen ’19 (mathematics) and Nicole Marsh ’17 (biology).
We launched a new environmental studies major this fall in response to strong student interest in climate-related issues, environmental stewardship through the lens of Christian theology and ethics, and examining the links between social and environmental justice. Since adding an environmental studies minor in 2019, the college has hosted several national Christian Climate Advocacy workshops such as Faith. Climate. Action. and launched co-curricular programs on campus.
This fall, 28 students are traveling with the Westmont Global Semester with Charles Farhadian (religious studies), Anna Jordan ’07 (English) and Phil Beccue ’81, visiting China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Vietnam and Greece.
During Mayterm we offered several global education programs: Redemptive Entrepreneurship in London, England; Discovering the Roots of Psychology and Psychotherapy from Berlin to Vienna; Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands; and Food Systems and Food Writing through California, Iceland and Italy.
Upcoming Events
December 2, Let There Be Light, 4:30-6 p.m.
We warmly invite Westmont alums and friends back to campus for this family-friendly Advent celebration. Join us on Kerrwood Lawn for treats, festive entertainment and the ceremonial lighting. Pictures with Santa begin at 4:30 p.m., and the program starts at 5:15 p.m. followed by Christmas caroling on the lawn.
December 6-7, Westmont Christmas Festival
Join us at the Granada Theatre to listen to the Westmont Orchestra and Choir celebrate Christ’s birth. Get your tickets now.
December 13, Westmont takes on the Biola basketball team in Murchison Gym
Get your tickets now.
February 7, 2026, Alumni-Student Day of Service, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
This unique new event brings together alums, students and staff to dedicate a morning to meaningful work in the local community. It’s a powerful opportunity to build connections, share your wisdom and demonstrate the lifelong commitment to service that defines the Westmont community. Register HERE
February 27, 2026, 21st Annual President’s Breakfast at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort
Save the date. Our keynote speaker is Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. Registration coming soon.
March 28, 2026, Spring Sing at the Santa Barbara Bowl
Become a sponsor!
April 24, 2026, Westmont Women’s Leadership Council’s Luncheon
Save the Date. Registration is coming soon. Table sponsorships and other sponsors levels are available.
This year’s keynote speaker is Co-Founder and Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates and Manuel, LLC. The author, former diplomat, speaker is a sought-after advisor to Fortune 50 and Silicon Valley CEOs. Learn more.
May 1, 2026, Movie On the Lawn
At this fun family event, alums gather on Kerrwood Lawn for treats and an outdoor movie, which we’ll announce closer to the date.
May 8-9, 2026, Golden Warrior Weekend
The class of 1976 will be celebrating their 50th reunion!
June 4-5, 2026, Lead Where You Stand Conference at the Hilton Save the Date. Registration is coming soon. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact lead@westmont.edu.
October 2-4, 2026, HOMECOMING.
More information coming soon!
Final Announcements and Links
Update your contact information HERE
New Baby? Let us know, and we’ll happily send you a complimentary onesie for our future Westmont alum. Email alumni@westmont.edu
Do you have a job/internship opportunity for students? Reach out to our career center at Lbanez@westmont.edu
Need help polishing up your resume or with your job search? Westmont alums benefit from career services for life. Reach out to lbanez@westmont.edu
Send us your alumni updates if you’d like us to post them on the website or in our next newsletter.
Nominate a fellow alum for our next Homecoming Alumni Awards HERE.
We’re looking for regional representatives. If you’d like to help plan events in your area, email alumni@westmont.edu.
Do you love to read? Check out our new Alumni Authors Page.
Do you live in Orange County, San Diego, Fresno, the Bay Area or Hawaii? Check out the Westmont Warriors athletics schedules and watch our teams compete near you.
Nearly 15,000 Westmont alums belong to the LinkedIn Westmont network. Consult this effective resource to network, stay informed and connect with other alums professionally.
Former athletes can check out the Westmont College Athletics Alumni Group
Interested in professional networking? Check out the Westmont Alumni Network-Professional Connections & Collaboration Group
You Make the Difference
Alumni support makes a powerful difference for today’s Westmont student — join us for Giving Tuesday! One of our trustees has pledged $50,000 to match gifts to the Westmont Fund until midnight, December 2. Your gift will have twice the impact supporting a life-changing education. Visit the Website to watch our progress.
