27
October
2025
|
08:00 AM
America/Los_Angeles
By Bri Phillips
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
Alex Lutz joined Kathy’s Legacy in 2019 after earning an MBA from CSUSM. Photo by Luna Canham
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Latest Steps Magazine
- Chronic Illness a Journey of Strength, Self-Discovery ... and SaltThe first time I rode in an ambulance was in May 2024. I was in the middle of my 10:30 a.m. Communication 200 class when I realized my vision and hearing were failing. I couldn't keep my legs or arms straight and I couldn’t speak. The full memory is hazy, but I found myself sitting outside of Crash’s Market in the University Student Union with a handful of salt packets and on a Facetime call with my parents, who live in Tennessee. This experience didn’t come out of nowhere. I have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a chronic condition that I’ve lived with since my junior year of high school. There’s not a lot known about POTS, but it's a disorder affecting the autonomic nervous system. When I switch positions (postural) – especially when I go from sitting to standing upright (orthostatic) – my heart rate rapidly increases. On average, it's over 100 beats per minute (tachycardia). POTS leaves me with a slew of symptoms. Daily, I experience dizziness, nausea, fatigue and brain fog, among others. Some people who have POTS faint frequently, even daily. I'm lucky enough that this doesn't typically happen to me, but I do experience presyncope, which means I go through all the symptoms of passing out while still fully conscious. When it occurs, I'm not able to see, speak or hear anything. I’m so dizzy I can’t walk straight. I get heat flashes. I remember only bits and pieces of what happens during these moments. The severity of my symptoms can vary, leading to an episode like the one I suffered in May 2024. If I have been walking or standing for too long, sitting for too long, am stressed out or if it’s hot outside, there’s a higher chance of an occurrence. That day in May, while I was on the phone and sitting outside of Crash’s Market, my parents called the paramedics. Determining that I couldn’t walk anywhere on my own and wouldn’t be able to for several hours, they took me by ambulance to the emergency room at a nearby hospital. Though it was my first time in an ambulance, I had made frequent visits to the ER over the previous four years. The process this time was the same as it had been for prior trips: They measured my vital signs, checked my heart with an electrocardiogram and did blood work to confirm POTS as the reason for the incident. Then I received an IV. IVs have been incredibly helpful. People with POTS struggle with low blood volume and tend to get fewer nutrients from the food we eat. An IV provides quick hydration and extra electrolytes. I also constantly consume extra salt, which helps improve blood volume. I add salt to my food, but in extreme cases, I will just eat plain salt packets. At restaurants, I always take an extra handful of salt packets from the condiment stand. These live in my purse or backpack, and I keep them handy in case I feel an episode coming. Some of my friends even carry salt packets when they’re hanging out with me. Despite the challenges, I try to focus on the positives. This journey has taught me to advocate for myself and surround myself with people who care about me, which is easy to do at Cal State San Marcos. Self-advocacy became a necessity as I went through many months of doctors’ appointments during high school trying to figure out what was wrong. Several doctors said everything I was going through was normal. But I knew it wasn’t. I wasn’t officially diagnosed with POTS until two years after my first symptoms. I had COVID twice during that time, and doctors believe that may have exposed an underlying condition. POTS is a chronic illness, meaning there is no cure. I’m a regular at the doctor’s office, with multiple appointments every month. Attending events causes heightened anxiety – both for me and the friends I’m with – and I do my best to be prepared in case of an episode. I had to take another ambulance ride in March. A friend and I were at a Kelsea Ballerini concert in San Diego. Though I had been fine the whole day, I started feeling nauseous and dizzy during the first opening act. I couldn’t stand. By the time Kelsea took the stage, the combination of the heat, crowd and strobe lights proved too much. My friend had to help hold me up as she guided me down the stairs to find the medics. Situations like this are frustrating. I don’t want to be a burden to friends and family, and I don’t want friends constantly worrying or family having to pick up slack. I’ve made some lifestyle changes in an attempt to lessen my symptoms. I take daily medication to ensure that my body keeps the right balance of salt and water. I drink tons of water with extra electrolytes and salt added. I try to walk every day to get my body more adjusted to moving. On hot days, I carry a mobile fan. And I also make sure to eat well. When I decided to attend CSUSM, the Disability Support Services office proved invaluable – they set me up with first-floor housing so I could avoid stairs (and anyone who has spent time on campus knows it’s no easy task to avoid stairs at CSUSM!). I also have learned to be more open about my condition. Through my on-campus job as a writing intern in the University Communications office, I’ve made great friends and found people who understand and support me. The experience has been an important part of pursuing my goal of becoming a writer. While CSUSM has helped me grow, my family and I made the difficult decision for me to move back to Tennessee at the end of the spring semester to focus on my health. I’ve had my share of challenges, but I also know how difficult it has been for my family to get calls in the middle of the night to learn I’ve been taken by ambulance to the ER when they’re 2,000 miles away. Though I’m heading east to finish college, I’ll always be thankful for my time at CSUSM – for the friends I’ve made, the support I’ve received and the confidence I’ve gained in sharing my story. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Firefighting Proves to Be ‘Hand-in-Glove Fit’ for GraduateDwaine Collier always has thought of himself as a guy who runs toward the frightening things that most people run away from. As a boy, his career aspiration was to be on a SWAT team. As a student at Cal State San Marcos, though his academic track early on was kinesiology, he gravitated to the theater and began auditioning for every high-pressure stage role possible. So when Collier was at a crossroads in his post-graduate life and his stepfather figure suggested that he explore firefighting, perhaps the most surprising aspect is that Collier had never thought of it himself. Who, after all, is more willing to charge headlong into a risky situation than a firefighter? “I’m the person who will stop their car on the side of a busy road to help somebody rather than driving on,” Collier said. “That’s just what I do. It’s what’s in me. So for me, this job is a hand-in-glove fit.” Collier was speaking from a common area inside San Diego Fire Station 43, which is in Otay Mesa and has been his home away from home for the past year. On this day in late April, he had donned his gear several times to go on calls in the station’s primary engine with his firehouse colleagues – a firefighter paramedic, an engineer and a captain. The calls were fairly routine. Because Station 43 is in a lightly developed neighborhood only a few miles north of the Mexico border, most of the emergencies that its crews respond to are vegetation fires, car fires and incidents at the border itself – often people sustaining injuries as they try to cross into California illegally. Collier, 29, is less than four years into his firefighting career, which translates into this current assignment far from the heart of San Diego. He has to gradually work his way up the ranks and into more plum stations. But Collier still loves where he is and what he’s doing. He gladly will show off for visitors every nook and cranny of Station 43 – from the exercise space where he gets to incorporate one of his favorite activities (weightlifting) into his work hours, to the kitchen where he frequently cooks meals for the whole house, to the cherry-red fire engine that he has come to know every inch of like the back of his hand. “Becoming a firefighter is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he said. “It’s not an easy job. When the stuff hits the fan, it sprays everywhere. But it’s also one of the most rewarding things you can do.” It was at CSUSM that Collier discovered the stability and self-confidence that made life as a firefighter seem realistic. He grew up in the foster system and entered the university having attended an astounding 17 different schools before he even reached high school, Olympian in Chula Vista. He arrived at CSUSM with the assistance of ACE Scholars Services, the university’s program for former foster youth. Collier switched his major from kinesiology to visual performing arts and threw himself into theater with abandon, ultimately starring in seven shows during his five years as a student. “What CSUSM gave me is the belief that I can do anything,” said Collier, who graduated in 2018. “I came into college with extreme educational deficiencies. Yet CSUSM had every tool to catch me up and help me succeed. It gave me the environment to grow.” Collier intended to pursue a Master of Fine Arts and a doctorate en route to becoming a theater professor, but he admits that he didn’t prepare well enough for his graduate school auditions and was delivered a harsh “reality check.” He was teaching kids at Callan Swim School when his stepdad proposed what turned out to be a fateful visit to the Heartland Fire & Rescue station in El Cajon. He was a reserve firefighter there for a year before entering the San Diego Fire Academy in 2022. Now Collier aims to keep climbing the ladder – both literally and figuratively – as a firefighter while not pulling it up behind him. As soon as he joined the fire service, he got involved with community outreach as part of the team tasked with recruiting the next generation of firefighters. And his next goal is to take classes toward becoming an instructor of young firefighters eager to enter the fire service. “I feel like that’s my next calling,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how to give back by motivating and helping others. It gives me joy to see people be uplifted and accomplish things.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Alumna Took Unorthodox Path to Leading Local Health Care StapleMichelle Gonzalez was a Cal State San Marcos student only about a month away from graduating in 2003 when she started working for an organization then called North County Health Services. Her degree (communication) was unrelated to health care, and Gonzalez had no intention of staying in the field. The main appeal of the job was that it was close to her home and the university. Beginning her journey as a program assistant in an entry-level role, Gonzalez quickly developed a fondness for the local nonprofit and its high-minded mission: providing quality health care and wellness services to underserved communities, regardless of income or insurance status. Her early connection to community health mirrored CSUSM’s commitment to accelerating social mobility through leaders who serve with purpose. What Gonzalez imagined to be a brief pit stop instead turned into a rewarding career, and over two decades, she climbed the rungs all the way to the top – she was appointed president and CEO in 2020, the same year that North County Health Services was reborn as TrueCare. With Gonzalez at the helm, TrueCare has expanded into a regional force with 21 health centers and five women, infants and children (WIC) locations, covering a footprint of more than 42 miles, from Encinitas to Ramona. Her leadership has driven key advancements, including the opening of new health centers, expansion of the mobile fleet and specialty services, implementation of an advanced electronic health record system, rebrand of the organization, and launch of a successful doula program supported by a $2 million federal grant. Question: This year marks the five-year anniversary of you becoming the leader of TrueCare. What does that milestone mean to you? Michelle Gonzalez: I think it's a reminder of how quickly time flies and how quickly things can change and evolve. It's hard to remember that we were in this worldwide pandemic. It feels like it's been a couple lifetimes. We've had a lot of growth for the organization, and I think at this five-year mark, it just underscores how resilient we are, how much people matter at the core of everything we do – whether it's providers, whether it's patients, whether it's the community, our staff. It's a culmination of the strength of the organization and everything that we've accomplished, which is a lot in the last five years. Q: How would you sum up the growth and changes that have occurred since 2020? MG: We've expanded our footprint. We've opened new sites, we've added new service lines, we've added acupuncture, we've added podiatry. We've really stabilized our workforce during a time of a lot of shortages and uncertainty. I’m proud of the fact that our provider retention rate is over 90%. We continue to hire at an accelerated pace, and I start there because everything we do, all the growth and all the accomplishments, it always starts with people. Without a solid workforce, we wouldn't be able to achieve anything. Our patient population has grown significantly as well. We had a slight decrease post-COVID, but we're back up to almost 70,000 patients. We've rendered more than 350,000 visits in this last year. Our workforce continues to grow. We're over 800 employees now and close to 160 providers. And then our budget has grown significantly, by almost $55 million in the last five years. We've tripled our mobile fleet. In all the areas of the business that you would expect to continue to progress, we're not only progressing, but we're thriving. Q: How did your appointment as CEO come about? MG: My predecessor went on a leave of absence in January 2020. The board asked me if I would be willing to step in on an interim basis. They were initially planning to do a national search, which I was fully supportive of. I didn't have any aspirations to be a CEO. I sometimes say I'm an accidental CEO. I was working in that interim capacity for several months, and then COVID made its presence known and we had the stay-at-home order. By April, the board had unanimously appointed me to maintain the position full term. After a lot of conversation and some prayer and reflection, I decided to pursue the position, and it's been a fantastic journey, in large part because I have such a great team around me. Q: What was the biggest challenge in taking over just as the pandemic was heating up? MG: There was so much uncertainty and fear. At one point, we had to close more than half of our clinics, probably 75-80% of our sites, we had to furlough staff. You think you can sort of ease in to becoming a CEO. There was no ease-in period. I remember talking with colleagues in the industry and saying, “How are you handling this? What are you doing?” And I realized very quickly that there's no playbook and everybody was truly figuring it out as they went along. Very early on, I made a conscious decision that I would be the type of leader who was always grounded and surrounded by strong advisers. We offer health care, but I'm not a clinician, so I made certain that we had strong clinical leadership on our team. It was about trying to understand what was unfolding in the world around us and how TrueCare plays an important part and ensuring that we were keeping our workforce intact. We’re back on track now, but it was an incredibly stressful time. Q: How did TrueCare pivot during that time and how does the organization look different now than it did in 2020? MG: Before the pandemic started, we had pieces of a telehealth or virtual health program. We realized very quickly that it would be crucial to continue to offer services to patients. For many patients, we are their lifeline, and cutting off their health care was not an option. So we were able to stand up a virtual health program in three days. It started off with telehealth visits and as soon as we were able to, we migrated to a video visit platform. We essentially worked around the clock to make sure that we didn't cut off access for patients, but it also gave employees a sense of purpose. And we've continued to build on that virtual health program while staying true to the traditional methods that you would expect to render medicine. We also had to pivot when it came to figuring out what our workforce was going to look like. We had to put people on furlough, but we made sure they still got a salary. We really believed that we needed to take care of our people, and a lot of funding from the federal government helped to shore us up. We laid off less than 15 individuals, and we were able to provide them with a severance so that they landed on their feet. I’m proud of that. Q: How would you characterize the change in you that turned TrueCare from a short-term job to more of a calling? MG: What I found was that people who worked here were very connected to the mission. They weren't here for the money. They were here because they cared about the people and patients that we were serving. The more I learned about the organization, the more in love I became with it and the more I realized, “My gosh, we have to make sure more individuals in the community and more community-based organizations know about what we do because there are so many people in need.” There was a misconception about people who were accessing care at community health centers, that they deserved less or they were just poor. I discovered that these are individuals who work very hard and who don't understand the importance of preventative care, and a lot of times don't feel like they're worthy of having access to care. What became a cornerstone of the work I did early on, and has carried on throughout my time here, is making sure everybody understands that access to health care is a right, not a privilege, and we don't care about your walk of life, where you come from or your circumstance. We want to make sure we help everyone who walks through our doors to the very best of our ability. Q: Tell me about your background. MG: I was born in Virginia, which is where my father is from. My mother is from Guam, and my parents met there while my dad was in the military. I'm half-Chamorro and half-white, and my husband is Mexican. We were childhood sweethearts who met when I was 12 and he was 14. I've had a lot of exposure to his family and culture over the years, and I think that's something that has benefited me very well. Though I'm not Mexican, I'm not Latina, I have such an appreciation for the culture and the people who we serve, which is the predominant background of our patients. My family traveled a lot while my dad was in the service. We moved to Vista when I was in third grade, and I've lived in North County pretty much my whole life. I'm also the youngest of seven children and the first in my family to go to college. So I'm a first-generation college graduate. Q: Did your parents not encourage college among your siblings? MG: We came from very humble beginnings, and I don't think we always understood that college was something within reach. My parents did the best they could to work and provide for us, but it was really the mindset of, you go to school and you get a good job. But my mom would say to me, “You're too smart, Michelle. You need to think about college.” I told her we couldn’t afford college, but she said we'll figure it out, we'll find a way. For most of the time that I was a student, I worked two jobs to put myself through school. I was also an AmeriCorps member, so I was able to receive a grant. But none of it came easy and none of it was without sacrifice or hard work – not just for me, but those around me who supported me. Q: What I'm hearing is a story of social mobility. MG: Oh, one thousand percent. I think that's why Cal State San Marcos and TrueCare are such great partners. We see health care as a right, not a privilege, and we think it's fundamental and foundational to everything. I think it ties in beautifully with social mobility. And there's so much good that is happening at Cal State San Marcos. There's a lot that we do together, and social mobility is a big part of that. Q: One of the main areas in which TrueCare and CSUSM have partnered in recent years is mobile health clinics. How did that come about? MG: Once I became CEO and started serving on the University Council, I learned about CSUSM’s interest in having a mobile health unit. I connected with (nursing lecturer) Matt Mincey early on and said, “You don't have to go on this journey alone. We have mobile clinics. We're right here, let's partner, let's figure out how to do this together.” What started out small has expanded into working not just with the mobile team, but also with the School of Nursing, public health, the entire College of Education, Health and Human Services. It’s a great opportunity to give exposure to students and help them understand that health care doesn't just come in a traditional hospital setting, that there's this whole other life of community health. There's a ton of overlap where our interests align nicely with what CSUSM is doing. We go to the same community events, and CSUSM students are able to do outreach, blood pressure screenings, things of that nature. Then, as they move farther along in their studies, when appropriate, they're also able to do internships at TrueCare. Q: How would you summarize TrueCare’s model in terms of providing health care? MG: One of the things I want to emphasize is that TrueCare will not refuse services to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. What we're focused on is the individual and the family who presents and what services you need, and how we can either provide those directly or connect you with somebody who offers them. At TrueCare, we provide high-quality, compassionate care. Like we always say, “Health inside, welcome in!” Q: That seems like such a valuable service in the community – health care you don't have to pay for. MG: In today's day and age, it sounds like something very novel. Does that really exist? And the reality is that it does. When you believe in your core that health care is a right and not a privilege, you fight to make that a reality. And that's what we're doing. We're growing in all possible ways and we're maximizing wherever we can, in terms of the revenue we're able to generate. We take that and we pour it right back into the organization so that we can continue to expand our footprint. We put a lot of emphasis on making sure we can get people enrolled in coverage because we know that if you have coverage, that's a reduced barrier and you're more likely to access health care. But that's not the only barrier you will have to face and figure out. We also spend a lot of time and resources and energy in cultivating a fantastic culture internally. We believe that people who are joyful at work are more likely to do a better job and will pour that energy back into our patients and community. We make it a priority to care for our workforce, to really give them opportunities to advance, to grow and level up. What we find more and more often is that our patients are a direct reflection of our staff, and our staff is a direct reflection of our patients. Pouring into one is pouring into the other, and we're proud of that because health care is daunting – not just for the patient in terms of navigating, but it's also really hard work. One of our VPs many years ago said, “Michelle, we do noble work.” And I was like, “Yeah, this is noble work.” That's exactly what we do. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
- Opportunity Knocks: Physics Grad Co-Founds Thriving CompanyMadison Perry didn’t have any type of physics background when he wandered through Science Hall 2 looking for research opportunities after his first year at Cal State San Marcos. Perry wasn’t worried about pay or even the tasks he would be doing. He simply wanted an opportunity to gain some hands-on experience. It wasn’t an easy sell, even if CSUSM is known for high-impact, experiential learning. Perry wasn’t a physics major (he was studying mathematics at the time), and he didn’t have any lab experience. Perry wasn’t having much luck when he knocked on the door of physics professor Stephen Tsui. “He just said, ‘Sure, why not?’ ” Perry said. The simple gesture was the catalyst for Perry’s switch to physics and the beginning of his journey to co-founding TP Engineering Services, a Poway-based company that builds laser and electro-optic systems for defense and fusion applications. The company has flourished since its founding in 2017, but a fusion contract that it secured three years ago has accelerated its growth. “It’s pretty insane to think about us getting to this point already,” Perry said. “Did I ever think we'd get here? Yeah, but I had no idea what it was going to look like, and I had no idea how it was going to happen.” The experience is similar to the one Perry had at CSUSM, where he practically lived in Science Hall 2 as a student. In fact, he was there so early and so late that the physics department eventually entrusted him with keys and after-hours access to conduct his work. “That was my thing – just being in a lab setting, being around hardware, being around something that was tangible, something that wasn't just theoretical,” he said. “It was where I could put my hands on hardware and get some experience.” After graduating in 2016, Perry headed north to UC Santa Cruz, where he earned a master’s in phototonics. His master’s thesis – on the design and development of a deep ultraviolet fiber laser system – caught the eye of a defense contractor who funded the project, leading to the formation of TP Engineering with his mother and father. TP Engineering quickly grew from an optics table in Perry’s bedroom where they navigated every project to the Poway lab it calls home today. The company has expanded from the initial trio of co-founders to over 20 employees, including two from CSUSM. The university still holds a special place in Perry’s heart. It’s where he met his wife, Amanda, who earned a bachelor’s in kinesiology. More than a decade after they met while both lived on campus in the University Village Apartments, they welcomed daughter Elli, who will be 3 years old in December. And he still returns to campus every year for Super STEM Saturday, an annual one-day science festival that brings thousands of community members to campus. A longtime supporter of CSUSM Giving Day, Perry increased his contribution last year with a matching gift for the physics department. “He's an alum who really believes in giving back,” Tsui said. “It's nice that so many of our graduates remember us so fondly and want to see younger alums and students do well.” That’s certainly the case for Perry. He doesn’t take for granted the impact that people like Tsui had on him and his career. “CSUSM took a chance on me a long time ago, and I want to support them being able to give other students a chance as well,” Perry said. “My professors gave me a unique perspective on life. If Dr. Tsui hadn't given me that opportunity to work in his lab, I don't know if any of this would have happened. They gave me a chance, and that changed me forever.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Faith, Resilience Help Athlete Through Life-Threatening CrisisIt all started with a headache. A seemingly normal ailment, but Malachi Wright doesn’t get headaches. And he definitely doesn’t get headaches that force him to leave work early or have him confined to the couch and throwing up for three straight days. That's when his mom, Ivonne Mancilla, knew this was something more. It was the summer of 2023. Wright – who had just completed his second year at Cal State San Marcos, where he plays for the men’s soccer team – was experiencing pain like he had never felt before. “He has a high pain tolerance,” Mancilla said. “I started noticing how much he was sleeping and how he was walking very fragile. I realized it wasn’t a normal headache.” On the third day of the headache, Mancilla took Wright to urgent care. Doctors treated it as a migraine, giving him some medication and sending him home. But the pain continued to be unbearable. Wright told his mom that he felt like he was dying. On day four, Wright went to the emergency room. It saved his life. Wright spent the next 40 days in the hospital, undergoing three brain surgeries with no idea what the future would bring. No certainty if he could return to school, let alone soccer, his passion from the time he was a young child. But Wright defied all odds. “I hope to get my story out to people so that they can see anything is possible,” Wright said. “I am trying to bring people inspiration and give glory to God. That was my thing in the hospital, having faith and staying faithful to God, knowing that I'll be OK and he's got me.” Wright was guided by his faith throughout his hospital stay. He and his mom prayed throughout the journey, and she kept a bible verse at the edge of her son’s bed that they read every day as he fought for his life. It’s Psalm 30:2: Lord my god, I called to you for help, and you healed me. Those prayers began virtually the moment Wright arrived at the emergency room. A CT scan showed that his brain was filling with fluid, and an MRI revealed a cyst in the third ventricle of his brain. When a neurosurgeon came to review Wright’s scans, she was horrified. No one had informed her of his highly critical state. He was dying. “They said his brain was like a balloon and that it could burst at any moment,” Mancilla said. “I had to sign a paper giving them permission to go in and drain his brain immediately because he could have brain damage or die.” There was not space available or time to get Wright into an operating room. Instead, ICU nurses rushed into his room to assist the neurosurgeon, who numbed and drilled a hole in Wright’s head to drain the fluid. Doctors initially wanted to place a permanent shunt in Wright’s brain. Mancilla was a fierce advocate for Wright throughout his hospital stay, earning the nickname “Bulldog” from nurses. She was resistant to the shunt, worried it would affect Wright's ability to pursue his dream of becoming a firefighter. After she expressed her concerns, the lead neurosurgeon opted for a temporary shunt instead. Wright was in and out of consciousness for much of his time in the hospital, but a strong support system – including his mom, his aunt Vanessa, members of the family’s church, and coaches and teammates from CSUSM’s soccer team – played a crucial role in helping him through the process. The constant stream of visitors led Mancilla to discover the positive impact that Wright has had on so many people. His manager at Casero Taqueria, where he still works, reached out to Mancilla asking for permission to start a GoFundMe. The community raised $14,000, the exact amount needed to cover the family’s maximum out-of-pocket medical costs. “I didn't realize how many people Malachi has impacted,” Mancilla said. “Sometimes as a parent, you don't get to see all that until these types of things happen. Sometimes we focus a little too much on what they're doing wrong and not on all the other good things that they're doing that maybe they don't tell you about. “I told him, ‘This is all because of the seeds that you've planted out in the world, and this is how it's all coming back to you. So continue to be who you are.’ I am so proud of that. I was such a proud parent.” Wright endured three brain surgeries during his hospital stay. The first removed the majority of the cyst, the second cleared residuals of the cyst and the third addressed blood clots. It was a physically and mentally draining process. After the first surgery, Wright was temporarily paralyzed on his left side. He couldn’t sleep and was in constant agony. “It was the worst pain I felt in my life. It was excruciating,” Wright said. “It was really hard. I was confused, wondering where I was. It was a lot of scary stuff.” It wasn’t until Wright’s 35th day in the hospital that Mancilla felt like her son would be OK. His pain levels were reduced and he could walk again. But the biggest sign to Mancilla that Wright was doing better? He asked for his phone, which he hadn’t been able to use for most of his hospital stint. Though Wright’s pain was finally under control, other challenges remained once he left the hospital. He underwent cognitive, physical and speech therapy. Doctors expected the recovery process to take two years, but Mancilla knew her son had the fortitude for a quicker recovery. She could see that Wright was capable of more than he was initially allowed to do in the rehabilitation process, and her tireless advocacy paid off. Wright returned to CSUSM in the fall of 2023, just months after his hospital release. He eased back in by taking one class before increasing his load to three courses in spring 2024. He is grateful for the support he received throughout this time from coaches, teammates and athletic department staff, also noting the important role that CSUSM’s Disability Support Services played in helping him return to the classroom. A little more than a year after his three surgeries, Wright was back as a full-time student and soccer player. Wright didn’t just settle into classes, he thrived in them. He received a 4.0 grade-point average, making him the highest academic performer on the soccer team. “Not only did he heal perfectly, he's a better version of himself,” Mancilla said. “He turned something that caused him so much pain into good. He continues to make good choices for himself. He uses that painful experience and turns it into good.” That includes his efforts on the soccer field. Returning to the sport he loves was an impressive milestone for Wright, especially because it was considered virtually impossible just months earlier. Perhaps the most powerful moment of the 2024 season came in a match against Biola University. As the first half was winding down, Wright scored his first goal since the health scare. Mancilla, who never misses a game, ran down to the field. Coaches welcomed and hugged Mancilla as she rejoiced over the milestone. “It was a great, raw moment of emotion, love and gratitude,” said Ron Pulvers, CSUSM’s men’s soccer coach. “An experience I will never forget. “Malachi is a tireless worker in all aspects of life. He lives our core value of unconditional gratitude at the highest levels and lives his life with unequalled faith.” Wright is back on the field this fall as he continues work toward a bachelor’s degree in human development. He is scheduled to graduate in fall 2026, with an ambition of becoming a firefighter. While his time spent in the hospital was scary, the support he received helped him overcome adversity and his faith helped him remain positive. He now uses his experience to encourage others and push himself to perform the best he can. “People meet Jesus at the end of the rope. And that was the end of my rope,” Wright said. “Going through this whole experience with my brain really changed my perspective on life and it changed my character as a man.” Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314
- Alumna on Front Lines of Fight to Advance Clean EnergyManal Yamout McDermid often feels like she’s standing on the cutting edge of California’s multibillion-dollar green economy. One day, McDermid will be meeting with a company that is developing what are effectively electric helicopters designed to cover distances of less than 100 miles – basically, an Uber for the skies. The next day, she’ll sit down with a business that’s building a device that captures a semi truck’s carbon emissions directly from the tailpipe, pumps it into a tank, then either buries it underground or sells the CO2 for use in products like soda. Still other days might include huddles with firms that make rooftop solar panels, heat pump water heaters, even self-driving cars. “Each of the clients that I work with, I get a chance to embed in their team,” McDermid said. “I get to jump around. And not only is the subject matter different, but the people are different and the vibe is different. I like that diversity.” Those clients, in turn, value McDermid’s expertise, so much so that they’re willing to pay handsomely for it, in many cases while they’re still trying to get off the ground as a startup. The Cal State San Marcos alumna is the founding partner of Caliber Strategies, a Sacramento-based lobbying firm that helps energy and climate companies – whether sexy startups or stodgy utilities – navigate the regulatory maze that is the California policy arena. In doing so, McDermid draws on almost two decades of experience in state politics and policymaking, going back to when she was a clean energy adviser to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in her early 20s, only a few years after graduating from CSUSM with a degree in biology. “I founded this company because it’s really challenging to bring new technologies to market, especially in a place like California where the market rules are quite complex and there are all these different agencies doing different things,” McDermid said. “We focus exclusively on climate and energy, and primarily on what I refer to as disruptive technologies.” Founded in 2013, Caliber now totals eight employees, and one of McDermid’s fellow partners is Michael Picker, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the nonpartisan body charged with regulating the state’s utilities. The company has almost 50 clients, including investment management giant Blackstone, accounting firm KPMG and Sunrun, one of the nation’s biggest solar installers. Sometimes Caliber’s clients take the form of a legacy company that’s opening a new product line. A.O. Smith Corporation, for example, has been around for 150 years and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of water heaters and boilers, with annual sales of almost $4 billion. But as California increasingly moves toward the full electrification of all buildings, A.O. Smith is gravitating toward heat pumps, which heat water using electricity instead of gas. Enter Caliber. The company worked with a team of nonprofit, industry and environmental organizations to help pass legislation to allocate about $44 million in incentives for heat pumps. Caliber then led an effort with this coalition and the CPUC to design an incentive program that would offer state residents payments of up to $7,300 for installing heat pumps. Another category of clients is fledgling businesses with an innovative solution to a climate-related problem. Charm Industrial is a Bay Area startup with a mission to, as its website touts, “put oil back underground,” an elegantly simple description of the complex science involved in carbon capture and sequestration. Charm approached Caliber in its infancy, seeking to get introduced to the right people, increase its name recognition and create a market from scratch. “It’s about streamlining the process, and even more so trying to educate regulators,” McDermid said. “We educate regulators and policymakers about what the needs of new technologies are. After the policymaker has already said, for example, we want electric cars and you have the market ready, there remain all these barriers that no one has figured out. So it’s a collaborative process to figure out how we get from where we are now to where we want to be.” It was at CSUSM where McDermid discovered her twin passions for environmental science and public policy. Having initially enrolled at the university on a cross country and track and field scholarship (she competed for two years before injuries forced her to stop), she decided she wanted to pursue conservation biology and save the earth one planted tree at a time. At some point in her college journey, however, it dawned on her that planting trees – even 10 to 20 acres worth – couldn’t compare with, say, protecting millions of acres through legislation. As a junior, McDermid spent the fall semester in Washington, D.C., as part of the Panetta Congressional Internship Program, and when she returned, she ran for and was elected president of Associated Students, Inc., for her senior year in 2004-05. She even started a progressive activist organization with some friends. “CSUSM was this perfect testing ground to try out all these different things,” she said. Using her student experience as a springboard, McDermid was accepted after graduation into the Capital Fellows Program, an initiative through Sacramento State that offers paid, full-time fellowships in each branch of California’s government. She was assigned to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office for a year, followed by a year working in the office of First Lady Maria Shriver. In 2008, McDermid got her big break when Susan Kennedy, still early in her tenure as Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff, acted on a recommendation to tap McDermid as her top deputy. Kennedy was seeking not an executive assistant but someone who could step into her high-pressure position when necessary and not miss a beat. In McDermid, she found a kindred spirit, essentially a younger version of herself. “She was perfect,” Kennedy said. “She looked out at the landscape from the perspective of, if she were the chief of staff to the governor, how would you prepare for this? How would you brief him on this? What information do you need from the agencies or the departments or the senior staff? “It’s a very tough role to step into, and she earned everyone’s respect because she was so good at what she did. She made me twice as good at what I was doing because she was as good as me.” Near the end of his eight years as governor, Schwarzenegger began to feel a particular urgency to buttress his accomplishments in the climate space. He tasked Kennedy with figuring out how to secure permitting for a host of renewable energy projects being incentivized by the Obama administration, and Kennedy in turn tasked not only Picker – the former CPUC president and current Caliber partner – but also McDermid. “It was a failure-is-not-an-option initiative by the governor,” Kennedy said. “I gave Michael all the power, and I gave him the most powerful weapon I could think of, which was Manal. The two of them were responsible for basically unlocking gigawatts of renewable energy in California, which completely changed the landscape of the state’s climate initiatives.” McDermid’s efforts were so successful that, when Schwarzenegger left office in 2011 and Jerry Brown entered, she was among just a handful of staffers retained out of the nearly 100 in the governor’s office. She departed later that year to take a job in Washington as a lobbyist for NextEra Energy, an electric utility holding giant, before Kennedy lured her back to California in 2013. With her longtime mentor, McDermid launched not only Caliber but also Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), a company that was born out of the shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear power station in June 2013. That closure created an immediate 20% power shortage in large portions of Los Angeles, a gap that AMS filled by building what McDermid called the “world’s largest virtual power plant” – battery storage systems at commercial sites like Kaiser Permanente, Irvine Company and Walmart. Over time, AMS shifted its focus from developing those large-scale energy storage projects to providing software that allowed others to optimize their own energy storage assets. When AMS was sold in 2020, McDermid rededicated herself to Caliber, which had been on the back burner for a few years. During the pandemic, she got married and moved from San Diego (where she grew up after her family escaped war-torn Lebanon when she was 3) to Santa Barbara, her husband’s hometown. Manal and Hitch, her husband, have a 3-year-old son, Malek. McDermid makes frequent trips to Sacramento and to San Francisco, where Caliber has a small office. Not coincidentally, the Bay Area also is the headquarters of the CPUC, one of the regulatory bodies that Caliber works closely with, along with the California Energy Commission, the Air Resources Board and the Natural Resources Agency. Many for-profit companies have an adversarial relationship with the regulators that establish the rules governing them, but that’s not the case with Caliber or most of its clients. They’re all in the same boat and rowing in the same direction when it comes to the state’s ambitious climate goals, which is one of myriad reasons why McDermid loves the work she does. “We’re very focused in California precisely because we actually want to get things done,” McDermid said. “I don’t want to spend my time convincing someone that climate change is a problem or that we should put more electric vehicles on the roads. The nice thing about California is, at the highest level, the leadership is completely bought in on what the problem is. And it’s more about figuring out: How do we solve it?” Manal Yamout McDermid Major at CSUSM: Biology Graduation year: 2005 Company: Caliber Strategies Website: caliberstrat.com Founded: 2013 Number of employees: 8 Talking Business With Manal Yamout McDermid What's the best advice you received about starting a business? Work with people you like. It's super simple, but if you pick people you like and admire and want to spend an inordinate amount of time with, you really can't go wrong. In some ways, getting the people right is more important than the idea and the path to market. What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs? Same advice as the first one: Choose your partners carefully, and choose them based on their character, their integrity and your level of trust in them. Don’t just think about breaking into a market. What's the greatest challenge in starting your own business? I think it's the uncertainty and the self-doubt that come with it, like: Should I grow? The greatest challenge is believing that as you scale up, things will work out, and getting the confidence to take that next step. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? No. I'm a firm believer that whatever happens was supposed to happen, and it doesn't mean that it was good. But I wouldn't have done it differently. What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? I would say confidence, belief in yourself. The ability to really pay attention to what's happening around you, whether that's the market or the people you surround yourself with. Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306
