Cedric K. Bandoh is a proud member of the Class of 2014 and graduated from the Bauer College of Business with a degree in Supply Chain Management. He currently serves a member of the UH Alumni Association Board of Directors and is the youngest alum to ever serve on the board.

During his time as a student, Cedric served two terms as the student body president. When elected in 2012 he was the youngest student in UH's history to be elected president of the student body. Through partnerships with many student leaders, faculty, staff and administrators, Cedric led many transformational university-wide initiatives to improve the quality of the student experience. Some of these include the Rebuild Cullen Blvd. initiative, the $80 million University Center Transformation Project, new football stadium project, UH in 4, and the task force that created the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. He also co-chaired the task force that made recommendations to the Provost on the creation of Cub Camp.

To increase student engagement via technology, Cedric led the implementation of Redline: UH's official mobile app and ImproveUH: an online forum that allows students to contribute ideas on improving the student experience while connecting them with decision makers. He also partnered with the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid to implement upgrades in system technologies to improve financial aid student service. Cedric was also a member of the National Campus Leadership Council, a coalition of student body presidents from around the country and the Bauer student chapter of the Institute for Supply Management.

A native of Dallas, Texas Cedric's life motto is service above self. He is a Global Product Manager at Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Dr. Jay Neal is an associate professor at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Conrad N. Hilton College.  After receiving his B.S., he worked in the restaurant industry for over ten years as general manager and catering director of a successful Houston restaurant chain. He received my PhD in Food Microbiology at Texas A&M University. He has published multiple articles in the Journal of Food Protection, the Journal of Food Science, Food Control, and Food Research International.

Dr. Neal teaches undergraduate Food Safety and Sanitation and graduate Food Service Systems. His current research focuses on best practices for deli employees within the retail setting. He also focusses on food handler safety behaviors especially for non-English speaking individuals and developing food safety cultures. Recently he received a USDA grant titled “Development of Effective Behavior Based Standard Operating Procedures for Fresh and Fresh Cut Produce”.

He manages a production kitchen laboratory, a sensory evaluation lab, 1200 gallon aquaponics laboratory and a BSL-2 food micro laboratory. Dr. Neal serves as a member of the Texas Food Safety Task Force and the Conference for Food Protection. He is also a member of the International Association of Food Protection, Institute of Food Technology and the Food Marketing Institute.

Joseph A. Pratt is the Cullen Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston, where he has taught for the last 16 years. Before coming to UH, he taught in the business school at the University of California-Berkeley, Texas A & M University and at the Harvard Business School. He earned his B.A. from Rice University and his Ph.D. in economic history from Johns Hopkins. A specialist in the history of the petroleum industry, he has written histories of Amoco, the Texas Eastern Corporation, and the National Petroleum Council. He is currently at work on a history of the offshore petroleum industry.

Professor Pratt has also co-authored the books  But Also Good Business,  Texas Commerce Banks and the Financing of Houston and Texas,  The Rise of the Corporate Commonwealth,  U.S. Business and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century, and  Baker & Botts in the Development of Houston. Publications have appeared in  Business History Review,  California Management Review, Journal of Economic History,  The Public Historian,  Research in Economic History, and others. Current work includes a forthcoming history of the Texas Eastern Corporation and a history of the control of oil pollution.

Paula Myrick Short is the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of Houston System, and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Houston.

In her role as Senior Vice Chancellor for the University of Houston System, Dr. Short is responsible for the academic quality and accreditation of all four UH system institutions: UH, UH – Downtown, UH – Clear Lake, and UH – Victoria. She also serves on the University of Houston System Board of Regents.

As Senior Vice President and Provost of the University of Houston, Dr. Short is responsible for faculty development, strategic enrollment planning, undergraduate student success, education innovation and technology, global strategies and partnerships, as well as two key University initiatives, UH Energy and UH Health, and development of a third priority, the UH College of the Arts.  As Provost, the Deans of the 13 UH Colleges and the UH Libraries report to her.

Since her appointment in June 2013, she has established the UH Graduate School, the Cougar Chairs Leadership Academy for Department Chairs, the Foundations of Excellence initiative, Houston GPS as well as implemented student success initiatives such as UH in 4 and Provost Summer Read.  Provost Short came to the University of Houston July 2012 as Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Policy, Research, and Evaluation.

Prior to joining UH, Dr. Short served 12 years as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the Tennessee Board of Regents, the sixth-largest governing board system of higher education in the United States, annually serving more than 200,000 students.  Dr. Short has served as a tenured faculty member at Auburn University, The Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Jared Gogets is a proud Houston Cougar, and an alum of multiple student organizations, the Jack J. Valenti School of Communications (Corporate Comm), University of Houston Athletic Department, and the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity. He currently serves as a director on the UH Young Professionals Political Action Committee.

During his time as a student, Jared served as the President of the Student Program Board, a Senator at Large in SGA, the Chairman of the University Center Policy Board, Co-Chair of The New UC Project, and Campus Involvement Chair of Pi Kappa Alpha. Jared lead growth initiatives on campus in the areas of student life, capital projects, and organizational change. These include authoring the TDECU Stadium Referendum, leading the $80 million New UC Project, expanding SPB to include large concerts like Gym Class Heroes in 2011, and securing consensus to keep the UH Chicano Mural in its current location.

In his support of athletics and school pride, Jared has served as PA Announcer as the voice of UH baseball, softball, volleyball, women's basketball, and swimming & diving. He's been the host of Mr. UH, Homecoming’s Strut Your Stuff, Frontier Fiesta's Battle of the Bands, and CEO's International Explosion.

Jared is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a Recruitment Consultant for TransCanada Corporation in Downtown Houston, and also runs his own talent acquisition consulting business.

Look up the phrase “Cougar Spirit” in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Danny Arocha. As the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management’s director of Enrollment, Danny is an enthusiastic and passion recruiter and a true advocate of Hilton College and all of its programs and people. A graduate himself, Danny graduated from Hilton College in 1995 with a BS in Hotel and Restaurant Management and brings to his position more than 15 years of industry work experience. Since 03-03-03, when Danny returned to the College as part of the staff, there has been an increase in the overall quality of the students he is recruiting.   A coincidence? Not if you know Danny Arocha. His industry experience, coupled with his Hilton degree, gives him a special insight into the questions and needs of prospective students and their parents; he is a natural recruiter and can talk about every aspect of Hilton College life and the ensuing career opportunities in the hospitality industry—and he does it in English and Spanish!

The key to his recruiting success? He treats all perspective students as if they were guests in his hotel. “You have to treat people the way you want to be treated,” explains Danny. “This is a great program located in the 4th largest city in the United States, representing one of the largest employers and the most diverse industry in the world. It’s important not to try to see through our students but, rather, to see them through the entire decision process.”

Danny believes the main reason that prospective students come to the Hilton College is because of his honesty. “You can’t make a student be a ‘go match’ for our program; it has to be a mutual agreement. I tell students who are interested in us that they must visit two to four different programs to make sure that they are making the right choice.”

In addition to his responsibilities in student recruitment and enrollment, Danny is the   advisor to the Conrad N. Hilton College Ambassadors, which he founded in 2003. He has also  served on the National Advisory Boards to the Distributive Educational Clubs of America, the Future Business Leaders of America, and the National Academy Foundation, to mention but a few of his “extra curricular” activities.

Danny loves his Hilton College and his University of Houston. And, if you want verification of this statement, just ask one of the several hundred students who he has recruited to the Hilton College in the past fourteen years years.  GO COOGS!!!!

A native of Pasadena, California, Malachi D. Crawford is assistant director of African American Studies at the University of Houston. He received his doctorate in Twentieth Century U.S. History from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with a focus on examining regional and transnational histories of religion and law, race and law enforcement, and intellectual traditions within the African Diaspora. More specifically, Crawford’s research takes a historical approach to understanding the legal, religious, intellectual and literary attempts by African-descended peoples to challenge the cultural foundations of civil law and human rights in the Western Hemisphere.  In January 2015, the Critical Africana Studies Series at Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., published his first book-length manuscript entitled Black Muslims & the Law: Civil Liberties from Elijah Muhammad to Muhammad Ali.  Intellectually located within the critical race scholarship of A. Leon Higgonbotham’s classic works on American slavery jurisprudence, this study examines the Nation of Islam’s quest for civil rights as a direct and inaugural challenge to the suppression of African American religious freedom as a matter of law. More recently, Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, approved a major media grant in support of his first digital humanities project, “ One False Step: A Visual History of Muhammad Ali and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Houston, Texas”.  

Dr. Ann Oliver Cheek is an Instructional Associate Professor in the Biology & Biochemistry Department.  She joined the University of Houston in Fall 2012 and has taught the two Introduction to Biological Sciences courses, BIOL 1361 and BIOL 1362 every year since then.  In the summers, she teaches Biological Field Research at UH's Coastal Center in LaMarque, TX.  Dr. Cheek's goal in all her classes is to foster students' interest in and enjoyment of biology by sharing her own sense of wonder at the complex and beautiful living world.  At the same time she deliberately challenges students to think like scientists:  to go beyond learning facts and processes toward applying knowledge to new situations, analyzing data and evaluating hypotheses.  Dr. Cheek's favorite aspect of working with first year students is their willingness to ask questions.

Leanica Adams is a Housing Manager for Customer Service & Training with the Student Housing & Residential Life department. She joined the University of Houston housing family in Fall 2013. She enjoys working with and assisting students with their housing choices and ensuring they are getting the most value in their on campus experience. My favorite aspect of working with first year students is seeing their excitement during move-in and the eagerness to participate in various activities on campus. Leanica is very ecstatic and honored to be a part of Cub Camp as the 2017 Cub Camp Namesake!

Jeronimo Cortina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Mexican American Studies. He earned a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University where he previously earned a Master's degree in public Administration and Public Policy from the School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Cortina specializes on Latino politics, survey research and immigration. His work has been published in scholarly and policy journals such as the Journal of Policy Studies, American Politics Research Journal, Foreign Affairs in Spanish, Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy and Migration and Development. His books include “Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do” (Princeton University Press), “A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences” (Cambridge University Press) and “New Perspectives on International Migration and Development” (Columbia University Press).

Jeff is the epitome of a diehard UH Cougar. Jeff Fuller has served as the Director of Student Recruitment at the University of Houston since February 2007 where he also began his work back in 1995 as an Admissions Counselor. Jeff leads a team of 25 dynamic individuals that work with entering freshman, transfer and international students and connecting them with campus to see how UH can catapult them into successful careers by having a successful college experience. Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, Jeff received two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Houston along with a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration. Jeff has held numerous leadership positions in the National and Texas Associations for College Admission Counseling where he served as president of both the Texas and National Associations for College Admissions Counseling. Additionally, Jeff received the first ever Rising Star Award from both organizations. This award recognizes young promising individuals in the profession. Jeff serves his community in various ways. He has previously served as Chair of the Houston Area Operation School Supplies Committee, a project aimed at raising money for school supplies for deserving students. For his commitment, Jeff was recognized as an Outstanding Volunteer by the University of Houston Alumni Association. Jeff is married to Kristyn, also a UH alum and they are the proud daughter Kate, a future Cougar in the class of 2031! Go COOGS!

Responsible for articulating and implementing a strategic vision for the university’s undergraduate student success efforts, including academic advising, research opportunities, and improvement of academic programs. Teri Elkins Longacre currently serves as Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Student Success in the Office of Academic Affairs and is an Associate Professor of Management at the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, where she joined the faculty in 1997. Teri previously served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in Bauer and as the University of Houston Faculty and Staff Ombudsperson. She received her undergraduate degree from Baylor University and a Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Houston. She teaches in the areas of business law, employment law, managerial communication, human resource management, and organizational behavior, and coordinates an internship program with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Teri has published scholarly articles on the topics of employment discrimination, employee selection practices, affirmative action plans, leadership, and academic internship programs. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, Sex Roles, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, SAM Advanced Management Journal, International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Journal of Managerial Issues, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

Since Rebeca Trevino started working for CMAS in 1995 she realized the enormous necessity to educate our youth and instill in them a sense of awareness for our Hispanic culture and the value of an education. In 1999, she became Program Coordinator for the SABE Program at Austin High School, outreach program that encouraged students to continue with their high school education and recruit them to the University of Houston. Presently, as the Program Manager of the Academic Achievers Program since 2001, Rebeca is committed to retain and propel more Hispanic students to graduation from the University of Houston. In her role she provides support services such as mentoring, academic tutoring, leadership skills and scholarships to first generation students. Rebeca encourages the importance of understanding how to balance school endeavors with life’s commitment in order to be a successful student and graduate. Rebeca is a certified university studies division academic advisor. Her commitment to students have taken her to serve as UH Staff Council representative, advisor for Kappa Delta Chi Sorority, Delta Gamma Sorority, and currently serves as staff advisor for Sigma Lambda Beta since 2012. In the community, Rebeca has actively worked with the Coalition for Higher Education to help immigrant students obtain a higher education in Texas. Served as council member of the Junior Achievement Hispanic Advisory Board, member of the Latin Women’s Initiative since 2003, UNIVISION “Nuestra Vida” Advisory Council member and has served as Regional Judge for the HEB Excellence in Education Awards. Born in Mexico and raised in Brownsville, Texas, Rebeca attained her Degree from the University of Texas at Brownsville. She came to the University of Houston after working for ten years at UT-Brownsville. Rebeca is dedicated to her students and has played an important role in shaping their academic success and the achievements in their careers. Rebeca takes a great pride in her work and cannot see herself doing anything else.

Charles Haston is proud graduate of the Bauer College of Business where he graduated with a BBA in Finance from the Honors Business program in 2012 and received his MBA in 2016. He currently serves as a member of the UH Alumni Association Board of Directors. While a student at the University of Houston, Charles held several student leadership positions including Chair of the Student Fees Advisory Committee, Student Government Senator, Chair of the SGA Senate Student Life Committee, and he served as Student Body President in 2014. As a student leader, Charles was very focused on student engagement. Charles was instrumental in pushing through substantial increases in funding for night and weekend programming, Frontier Fiesta, Homecoming, and Football Tailgating. Charles led the very first Football Bowl Trip in 2013 to Birmingham. However, Charles’ signature accomplishment was leading the effort to create the overnight orientation program that would become known as Cub Camp. Charles is a devoted Cougar living in Los Angeles where he is CEO of a digital health start-up, Rebel Labs Inc. However, Charles NEVER misses a home football game at TDECU and wants you to know that you should not ever miss a home game either!

Catherine Horn is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Executive Director of the Institute for Educational Policy Research and Evaluation at the University of Houston. She is also the Director for the Center for Research and Advancement of Teacher Education and the University of Houston Education Research Center.  Dr. Horn, who received her PhD from Boston College, focuses on the systemic influences of secondary and postsecondary assessment and related policies on the learning trajectories of students especially for students traditionally underserved by the education and social sectors. Prior to joining the University of Houston, she worked as Research Associate for The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University; Senior Research Associate for the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy’s National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy at Boston College; and a teacher at Jefferson Davis High School in the Houston Independent School District. Dr. Horn has been honored with numerous awards including a Fulbright Fellowship to Chile, a University Teaching Excellence Award, and appointment as an inaugural University of Houston Energy Fellow.

Keith T. Kowalka serves as the assistant vice president for Student Affairs, providing leadership, strategic vision, organization and innovation for the development and delivery of programs, services and facilities focusing on learning and student engagement while enriching the campus life experience. Keith provides administrative oversight to the following departments: A.D. Bruce Religion Center/Campus Ministries Association, Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life, Center for Student Involvement, Center for Student Media, Children’s Learning Centers, the LGBTQ Resource Center, Student Centers, Student Affairs and Enrollment IT Services and is the Advisor to the Student Government Association. Keith also chairs the UH Weeks of Welcome program, the UH Homecoming Steering Committee, works with major campus events, and serves as the Student Affairs and Enrollment Services liaison to the following areas/programs: College of Education Higher Education Program for Graduate Assistant and Graduate Intern Placement.

In an effort to build a caring community, Keith has worked diligently to develop programs and services which address the needs of UH student populations by developing programs designed to support student engagement and success. Keith has made a significant impact on the student experience at UH. He was the champion of the Student Center Transformation, from project inception in 2007 through completion in 2015. His joy and pride in working with students on this project was evident on a daily basis. Keith was instrumental in the creation of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in 2014, an office that now provides programs, workshops and educational experiences to over 10,000 students annually. Keith was the founder of the Weeks of Welcome program in 2011, an initiative that has grown from 35 events in 2011 to over 150 in 2017. He was also one of the co-founders of the Cat’s Back event in 2002. Cat’s Back has grown from hosting 1,300 students in the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center to hosting over 7,500 students this past fall – one of the largest single day programs at UH.

Based on his campus-wide impact, superior performance, and UH tenure Keith has been a recipient of the University of Houston Staff Excellence Award, and the Charles F. McElhinney Distinguished Service Award (the highest award given to a staff member for exemplary service to the university).

Native Houstonian, Paula Mendoza is an entrepreneur, innovator, advocate, barrier-breaker and tireless volunteer recognized not only for the quality of her work, but for the passion she brings to every endeavor. Mendoza earned a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice and later her MBA in Leadership from the University of Houston-Downtown.

Paula’s humility, discernment and sense of fair play are evidenced by her service as past Chairman of the State of Texas Ethics Commission, as a past board member of the Texas Board of Public Accountants and as past Chairman of the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TAMACC). In October 2013, Mendoza was appointed to the University of Houston System Board of Regents, a Tier One institution, by the Governor of Texas for a six-year term. Over the years she has offered her time and talent as a speaker, event organizer and community leader to countless organizations.

Under her leadership, Possible Missions, Inc. (PM), a company she established in 2001, who specializes in Project Management and Procurement Solutions throughout all industries has experienced exponential growth; the business has achieved significant accolades.