Courtney Klipp, AMG Chair, currently works as a Project Manager for the office of the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and as an Internship Coordinator in the departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology in the Fielding School of Public Health. Earlier in her career at UCLA, she served as a Student Affairs Officer in Writing Programs, Musicology and Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology. She has a master’s degree in Counseling with a specialization in Career Counseling from California State University, Northridge, and a bachelor’s degree in English from University of California, Santa Barbara. She is also a 2010 graduate of the UCLA Professional Development Program. Prior to UCLA, Courtney worked as an account executive for AppleOne Employment Services. Her personal interests include travel, cooking, reading, being on or in the water and spending time with husband and their cuddly Australian Shepherd, Harry.
Mark Ramseyer, Immediate Past Chair, started working at UCLA in 2001 as a Program Representative III – Program Manager. He was promoted to Senior Administrative Analyst with UCLA Extension's Department of Business, Management and Legal Programs. Currently he is an Analytical Financial Planner with the UCLA Office of Academic Planning and Budget. In addition to serving as the Vice-Chair/Chair Elect on the AMG Board, he serves on the UCLA Restructuring Committee and has chaired a Committee on Net Margins in UCLA Extension’s Strategic Planning Committee and served on committees reviewing Financial Responsibilities, Sustainability and Creating Synergy among departments and employees within UCLA Extension. While a member of the Professional Development Program, he worked on the Staff and Faculty Sustainability Handbook. Prior to UCLA, he was an Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager in the Banking Industry and served on the Board of Directors of a number of different non-profit organizations. His interests include sports, music, reading and golf.
Raffi Simonian, Events Coordinator, has been involved in the technology field for the past 29 years. He started his career at Bechtel Corporation as a software engineer and has led large and small groups of software developers at such companies as SQRiBE Technologies (later acquired by Oracle), The Walt Disney Company, Candle Corporation (later acquired by IBM), DeskTalk (later acquired by HP), SeeBeyond (later acquired by Sun Microsystems) and Xdrive (later acquired by AOL). Raffi has taught software programming courses at CSUN and UCLA since 1987. He has also done software consulting and training at Northrop Grumman, UCLA, Paramount Pictures and Logistics Latin America. Raffi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Math/Computer Science from UCLA and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University. He currently works as a Technical Project Manager and Senior Business Analyst at the Office for Research Information Systems (ORIS).
Lariza Johnson, Secretary/Historian, is currently the Clinic Operations Manager for the Center for East West Medicine & Primary Care under the Department of Medicine. She oversees program planning, expansion and space management, analyze clinical data and develop and report dashboard metrics that track the Center's progress. Additionally, she assists in planning and developing annual operating and capital budget integrating clinical and organizational goals, patient care standards, and administrative requirements. She received her bachelor's degree in Business Economics and Accounting at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2010. However, her career started in UCLA Health back in 2003. It was her work in UCLA Health that led her interest in Operations, Accounting, Health Economics and Economics of Insurance focus in UCSB. After her graduation in 2010, she went back to UCLA to work at the Eye Cancer Center (Ophthalmic Oncology), working on clinical operations, laboratory management, and research. She is a member of the 2012-2013 Professional Development Program cohort. In 2013, she finished the UCLA Health’s Lean Program, which focuses on working on quality improvement projects by aligning business planning and financial processes with performance and clinical activities. Her career focus is on operations, strategy, quality improvement in healthcare delivery, system re-design, and wellness initiatives in the work community. She enjoys listening to live music, watching movies, and snowboarding during her free time when she’s not working on her Masters of Public Administration program at the Cal State University Northridge.
Dennis Jong, AMG IT Coordinator, is currently the Systems Support Engineer for the School of Law providing technical support to faculty, staff and students. He is a UCLA graduate and started working professionally for the UCLA in 2002. Prior to joining AMG he served on the Executive Board of the Help Desk Consortium (BruinTech) and on the John Wooden Board of Governors. He is a graduate of the Professional Development Program (2012) and of the Student Affairs Management Leadership Program (cohort 3).
Paris McDonald, AMG Member at Large, is the Executive Assistant to the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate Division. Her position allows her to interact with people all across the UCLA campus, including students, staff, faculty and senior university officials. Paris began her career at UCLA in 2006. Before coming to UCLA she worked in the consumer finance industry for 18 years as an Administrative Services Manager and a Branch Manager responsible for everything from recruitment and sales to developing the annual budget. Paris enjoys spending time with her husband, who is an international illusionist and her daughter who will be heading to college soon.
Mark Leong, AMG Communications Liaison, currently serves as the Business Manager for the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), providing administrative support and financial management to the Institute’s many activities. He has previously worked in the Humanities Administrative Group and the Psychology Department, as an academic personnel coordinator and a fund manager, respectively. He enjoys working with the faculty, staff and students. Prior to working at UCLA, he attended the university, graduating with a B.A. in Sociology. He also earned an M.S. in Computer Science from Cal State, Northridge and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is a member of the 2011-2012 Professional Development Program (PDP) cohort. In addition to spending time with his three children and their pet chinchilla, he enjoys movies and theater.
Mojgan Eshraghi, Member at Large, is a Senior Programmer/Analyst at the at the UCLA Events & Transportation Department working on a variety of Information Technology projects. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from California State University, Northridge. She has completed a year-long leadership training program (Talent Development Initiative), a formal leadership training offered by Events and Transportation Department to nurture and develop internal talent in preparation for future organizational needs and changes. She is passionate about helping people on campus connect with one another and share knowledge and expertise. Outside of UCLA, Mojgan is actively involved in several non-profit and professional organizations. She enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and exercise.
Susana Luis, Member at Large, works at the UCLA Lab School providing overall administrative support to staff and faculty. Susana also works closely with the Director of Admissions, Finance office and oversees the BruinCard security system database. Susana holds an A.A in Business Administration (General), B.S. in Business Administration (Sports, Entertainment & Hospitality Management), Meeting & Event Planning certificate and is a Notary Public. Currently, Susana is enrolled in UCLA’s Extension Project Management course to pursue her CAPM certification through PMI, she is also a UCLA’s Staff Enrichment Program participant. As part of the Staff Enrichment Program she’s been meeting colleagues from across campus and has been exploring her newly discovered interests in Student Affairs and program management. Prior to UCLA, Susana worked as an Administrative Assistant and Leasing Consultant for JKW Properties, Inc., a professional property management firm. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, volunteering and watching movies.
Lori Okimoto-Wheatley, Member at Large, is currently the Director of Student and Academic Services in the Department of Psychology, where she received her B.A. She left UCLA to obtain her M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Cal State Long Beach, then came back to take on a position in the Department of Mathematics and begin her 23+ year career serving as an Student Affairs Officer in three academic departments. Lori now manages and oversees Psychology's Ph.D. program, three undergraduate majors and two minors, involving over 3000 students. She also works closely with faculty and the management team in Psychology, as well as supervises the Megan E. Daly Infant Development Program, which houses two of UCLA’s Childcare Centers. Lori is an alum of the 2001-2002 Professional Development Program. Her husband and she spend much of their time watching their daughter and son play several sports, and as avid Bruin fans, attend various UCLA sports together. She is now becoming the mom of a college student, as her daughter will be attending Penn State in Fall 2014. Lori also enjoys traveling, photography, scrapbooking and gardening.
Donna Robinson, Member at Large, serves as the Associate Director for Employer Relations at the Parker Career Management Center. As an Account Manager on Parker’s Campus Recruiting team, she maintains and expands company relationships through on-site visits, works with other Account Managers to welcome and manage new campus recruiting contacts, and oversees scheduling of all on-campus events and interviews. In addition to interactions with companies, Donna is actively involved with student clubs, student training and use of UCLA Anderson’s campus recruiting system, and serves as the liaison between the Career Center and Admissions for The Consortium, a program dedicated to increasing diversity in the business world. As a recipient of the UCLA Anderson School’s prestigious Abe Ackerman Award for staff excellence, Donna continuously strives to provide outstanding customer service to both companies and students. She received her undergraduate degree from USC & is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson Executive Program in Management.
