Izzah Khan is a UCLA alumna who is currently working as a Program Manager at Amazon's Last Mile business where she supports the expansion of Amazon's delivery network in the US and Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and with the right experience, has been able to pivot into the data-heavy field of Supply Chain and Capacity/Topology Planning. Prior to joining Last Mile, she supported Amazon's retail/Appstore teams responsible for catalog quality and risk mitigation for several years, developing scalable solutions to protect customers and sellers from fraud and abuse. Having been working at a Big Tech giant for 4+ years, Izzah attributes her growth to self-discipline, hard (but smart) work, and a career-focused, purpose-driven support network, In today's podcast, we sat with her to learn about how her career trajectory took shape and her advice to students on pursuing a career in the work of tech. Bruin Success is hosted and produced by Christian Chavez '13.

Bruin Success

Topology Planning @ Amazon with Izzah Khan '13

Dr. Jasmine Talei is a California licensed Naturopathic Doctor. She completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Film Studies at UCLA and received her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University, California. Dr. Talei focused her clinical training on the skin-gut connection, autoimmune conditions, and mold-related illness. She has furthered her training in homeopathy, IV nutrient therapy, and craniosacral therapy. She currently also works with women and men to optimize their hormonal health and provides post-surgical naturopathic care. In alignment with her philosophy of treating the root cause, Dr. Talei understands the need for a holistic approach when it comes to achieving optimal health. Bruin Success is hosted and produced by Christian Chavez '13.

Naturopathic Medicine with Dr. Jasmine Talei

Tim Gallati '10, MLIS '13 is a Cybrarian on the Virtual Library team at Oracle with responsibilities in data, user experience research, research services, and learning curation. Following his UCLA BA (’10) and MLIS (’13), Tim served in corporate, academic, and non-profit libraries. He also explored a career in Theological Librarianship and received a Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School (’18). He recently taught a course in “Community Data” at the UCLA iSchool and looks forward to connecting with the next generation of UCLA students. Bruin Success is hosted and produced by Christian Chavez '13.

Cybrarian @ Oracle with Tim Gallati '10, MLIS '13

Nicole Starr '01 is Vice President of Social Impact for Participant, the leading media company dedicated to entertainment that inspires audiences to engage in positive social change. In her role, Nicole oversees the development and execution of impact campaigns that bring together art and activism to accelerate progress around the world’s most pressing issues. Her passion for leveraging the power of storytelling to inspire action drives her work at Participant, which includes the creation of social impact and culture change campaigns for numerous films, such as the critically acclaimed Judas and the Black Messiah, RBG, On the Basis of Sex, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power and Academy Award®-winning Roma. Most recently, the impact campaign around Roma helped shift the narrative around domestic workers and inspired the cultural conditions for policy change in the U.S. and Mexico. Nicole came to Participant with over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, including a six-year stint at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment building corporate partnerships around film and TV properties such as Avatar, Life of Pi, X-men franchise, and Glee. In addition, Nicole is a founding member of Storyline Partners, an organization working in writers’ rooms to create authentic portrayals of underrepresented or misrepresented communities in pop culture. Follow Participant on Instagram and keep an eye on their job board here. Bruin Success is hosted and produced by Christian Chavez '13.

Social Impact @ Participant with Nicole Starr '01

Jamal Madni is Co-Founder & CEO of Ingage, a company intersecting artificial intelligence and human connection by developing a behavioral signal analytics videoconferencing platform to help individuals better read and react to the virtual boardroom, exam room and classroom. Before technology entrepreneurship, Jamal was Managing Director of Enterprise Technology Strategy for Boeing. In this capacity, he spearheaded the $100B company’s integrated research & development road mapping, internal boutique technology assessments and technical due diligence for corporate M&As. Prior roles at Boeing included program managing the RF integrated electronics payload suite for NISAR, which is the world’s most expensive Earth-imaging satellite. Furthermore, as a Boeing software engineer, Jamal architected and developed a machine learning system for “spacecraft disease diagnosis,” which was a variant of his thesis work in wireless health at UCLA. For these efforts, Jamal has been nationally and internationally recognized by organizations such as the Ellis Island Honor Society, IEEE, SAE, SSPI, IET, and The Engineers’ Council. Passionate about organizational culture, Jamal founded the da Vinci Summit, named North America’s Employee Engagement Project of the Year in 2017. Finally, as a social entrepreneur, Jamal created a college application preparatory program, which has sent over 50 first-generation, low-income, underrepresented minority students to pursue STEM-based higher education. In addition to his double masters at UCLA, Jamal graduated with his master’s degree in management from Stanford Graduate School of Business as a Robert Joss Scholar. Bruin Success is hosted and produced by Christian Chavez '13.

Artificial Intelligence and Human Connection @ Ingage with Jamal Madni

Liz Schneider works on Google's real estate sustainability team, where she is currently the team's first-ever data manager. She helped create this role last year, when it became clear that Google's ambitious new sustainability goals would require an unprecedented level of thoughtfulness around data management. In this new role, she's guiding the development of data systems that provide insight into all aspects of real estate sustainability, from renewable energy to water efficiency and waste tracking. Prior to Google, she spent five years as a sustainability consultant, working with federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement strategies for sustainability and climate resilience. When Liz isn't working, she can usually be found outside, climbing rocks and enjoying the Southern California sunshine.

Sustainability Data Management at Google with Liz Schneider '14

Anthony Martore '16 is a Manager on the Business Diversity & Inclusion team at NIKE. In his current role, he leads an enterprise-wide initiative to expand NIKE's economic investment into diverse communities and diverse-owned businesses through the implementation of NIKE's first-ever global Supplier Diversity Program. Anthony hails from San Francisco, CA and is a first-generation American. He greatly enjoys international travel, and has visited over 40 countries to-date to continue his pursuit of learning from cultures, backgrounds and walks of life that vary from his own.

Business Diversity & Inclusion at Nike with Anthony Martore '16

Kate Pflueger ’11 is Manager of Asset Optimization Strategy at Netflix. After graduating in 2011 with a BA in Communications, Kate launched her career at Paramount Pictures in their Worldwide Marketing Partnerships group. In 2015, Kate began a new chapter of her career as a producer for Netflix where she worked with both international and domestic studios, as well as filmmakers to develop and optimize the imagery representing their content on the Netflix platform. She now leads a team focused on providing data-driven creative insights to producers, designers, and editors responsible for creating the rich visual promotional experience on the streaming platform.

Asset Optimization Management at Netflix with Kate Pflueger '11

Brandon Dang is responsible for user acquisition at Headspace - an app for meditation, mindfulness and mental health. He graduated UCLA in 2016 as an Economics major unsure of what career path he wanted to pursue. Digital marketing was a field that presented itself after he pursued an interest in tech and media. Brandon's young career has been a non-linear path that has always been inspired by a restlessness to continue exploring and learning.

User Acquisition at Headspace with Brandon Dang '16

Sei Ishikawa began his career in the global mobility industry over 15 years ago. After graduating from UCLA with double majors in Political Science - International Relations and International Development Studies, he started his career as a US immigration specialist at an immigration law firm in Los Angeles, CA. While working at the firm, he developed a passion for HR, which led him to pursue an MBA in Strategic HR. He managed a full suite of People functions while working in wholesale in Los Angeles. Sei then relocated to New York in 2014 to join the mobility group at Fast Retailing, a public Japanese retail holding company for brands such as Uniqlo, Theory, and Hemut Lang. In 2016, he joined WeWork as Director of Global Mobility. During his first year, he created the global mobility policies and processes from scratch, aiding the company in its global expansion efforts. In 2020, he took on additional responsibilities to serve as a point of contact for all HR matters related to divestiture and franchise deals.

Global Mobility at WeWork with Sei Ishikawa '05

When someone says “career,” you probably think of the classic ones like Doctor, Lawyer or Teacher, right? It makes sense yet so many career choices exist beyond the ones we may think of first. Over the next 10 episodes, Bruin Success will be featuring UCLA alumni who are paving their way in careers you probably haven’t heard of. If you are familiar with the careers, you’ll be getting an even closer look at the roles and experiences to help demystify each field and industry. We have a great lineup of alumni so subscribe to the podcast, connect with us on social media and help us get the word out as we explore 10 Careers You’ve Never Heard Of. Bruin Success is hosted by Christian Chavez ’13, Associate Director for UCLA Alumni Career Engagement. In his role, Christian leads programs and initiatives that support the career and professional development needs of UCLA alumni and current students. In addition to managing his portfolio of programs and resources offered by the UCLA Alumni Association, he works with multiple campus partners at UCLA to bring professional development opportunities to UCLA communities on and off campus. Christian is a Southern California native, and graduated from UCLA in 2013 with a B.S. in Psychobiology. The Alumni Career Engagement team provides resources, opportunities and events for Bruins at all stages of their careers through the help of faculty, staff, alumni, employers, and the UCLA community. 

10 Careers You’ve Never Heard Of

When someone says “career,” you probably think of the classic ones like Doctor, Lawyer or Teacher, right? It makes sense yet so many career choices exist beyond the ones we may think of first. Over the next 10 episodes, Bruin Success will be featuring UCLA alumni who are paving their way in careers you probably haven’t heard of. If you are familiar with the careers, you’ll be getting an even closer look at the roles and experiences to help demystify each field and industry. We have a great lineup of alumni so subscribe to the podcast, connect with us on social media and help us get the word out as we explore 10 Careers You’ve Never Heard Of. Bruin Success is hosted by Christian Chavez ’13, Associate Director for UCLA Alumni Career Engagement. In his role, Christian leads programs and initiatives that support the career and professional development needs of UCLA alumni and current students. In addition to managing his portfolio of programs and resources offered by the UCLA Alumni Association, he works with multiple campus partners at UCLA to bring professional development opportunities to UCLA communities on and off-campus. The Alumni Career Engagement team provides resources, opportunities and events for Bruins at all stages of their careers through the help of faculty, staff, alumni, employers, and the UCLA community. 

Katie Russo shares a farewell message and her thoughts on success in her final episode of Bruin Success. Since May 2019, Katie has hosted over 35 interviews delivering incredible “life after UCLA” stories from Bruins who have graduated and gone on to conquer the world in diverse industries all around the globe. Through Katie's interviews, we've seen that each Bruin has unique passions, goals, and experiences that shape their life path and career trajectory and she will be missed.  Stay tuned for exciting updates on Bruin Success in the coming weeks.

A Farewell Message from Katie Russo

Ann Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Enrou, an online story-driven marketplace for the socially conscious consumer to discover one-of-a-kind products created in developing communities around the world. Enrou empowers consumers to reduce global poverty with every purchase and live intentionally every day. As the daughter of a first-generation immigrant and entrepreneur, Wang grew up viewing the world through a distinct lens. While her dad taught her how to negotiate, lead and the importance of being self-sufficient, she always felt a responsibility to make a difference in the lives of others around the world. After initially looking into medicine and traditional nonprofit aid as outlets to make that difference, Wang realized her calling was to start her own business. Set on the idea that social enterprise was the answer to addressing a global need and creating lasting impact, Wang approached her longtime friend and roommate, Jessica Willison ’13, to join her on this journey. Willison’s passion and experience within the consumer retail market coupled with her similar belief in a brighter world made her the perfect fit to establish their social enterprise, now known as Enrou. In 2014, Enrou was awarded Forbes first-ever Pressure Cooker Award held during Forbes’ Under 30 Summit. Wang is a UCLA Alumni Association Sustaining Donor and currently resides in Los Angeles. Bruin Success is hosted by Katie Russo, produced by Christian Chavez '13, and made possible by UCLA Alumni.

Ann Wang '13 of Enrou

Joshua Arce serves as San Francisco's Director of Workforce Development following his appointment by Mayor London Breed in August 2018. In this role, Arce and his department support tens of thousands of unemployed residents and workers that have been displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic, working with community-based organizations, labor unions, and employers to prepare for San Francisco's economic recovery and advance employment equity for all community members.   Arce previously served in the administration of the late Mayor Ed Lee as the Director of CityBuild, San Francisco's landmark construction training program that has trained nearly 1,600 disadvantaged job seekers to become union construction apprentices since 2006. Prior to joining the City government, he spent 15 years as a civil rights attorney and labor representative for Laborers' Union Local 261, working with community members to improve employment, housing, and environmental conditions in low-income communities of color. In 2005, Arce founded civil rights non-profit Brightline Defense Project which advances sustainable communities strategies that promote job opportunities, clean energy, and affordable housing. Arce's career in public service began in 2012 with his work as the President of the San Francisco Commission on the Environment, and he currently chairs the Board of Directors of Mission Housing Development Corporation, one of the city's largest affordable housing non-profits. Arce and his wife Lisa Weissman-Ward, an Immigration Defense Attorney at the Stanford Law School Immigrants Rights Legal Clinic, live in San Francisco's Mission District with their two sons. Bruin Success is hosted by Katie Russo, produced by Christian Chavez '13, and made possible by UCLA Alumni.

Joshua Arce '97 of San Francisco's Workforce Development

Do you ever wonder how Bruins like you have gone on to achieve success after college? Now you have the chance to find out as UCLA alumni discuss their careers, what has helped them most in their journeys and their tips for personal and professional success.

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Bruin Success

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