School of Public Affairs Celebrates 50 Years by Honoring 50 Alumni, Part III
Part III: Education, Research, and Writing
December 7, 2018
December 7, 2018
In Fall 2018, the SDSU School of Public Affairs celebrated its 50th anniversary by honoring 50 distinguished alumni. In Part III of our series, we look to SDSU Public Affairs alumni who have pursued careers in education, research, and writing.
Charles Hoch, MCP, 1975
Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois, Chicago
Professor Hoch began his career as a regional planner and transitioned to social policy development. After moving to Chicago in 1981, he traced the roots of contemporary homelessness, and in 1998, joined the board of the largest developer of affordable housing in the Midwest, Lakefront Supportive Housing.. Teaching planning theory and professional development seminars for 25 years, Dr. Hoch emphasizes planning as an inherently pragmatic enterprise. He is an active member of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), has served as contributor, review editor and editorial board member of the Journal of Planning Education & Research, and is the past chair of the Planning Accreditation Board. Dr. Hoch has authored, coauthored and edited several books, including What Planners Do: Power, Politics and Persuasion, The Practice of Local Government Planning and New Homeless and Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel.
Roger Kemp, PhD, MPA 1974
Chief Executive Officer/City Manager, Professor, Author
Dr. Roger Kemp’s career as a practitioner spanned 30 years. He served as the Chief Executive Officer/City Manager of major cities in Connecticut, New Jersey, and California. Dr. Kemp has taught graduate courses in CSU and UC system in addition to Golden Gate University, Rutgers University, the University of Connecticut and the University of New Haven. Dr. Kemp has written, edited, and been a contributing author to nearly 50 books dealing with local government policy and administration. Many of his books highlight national best practices for improving quality of municipal services and livability. Dr. Kemp is the Founder and President of Kemp Consulting, LLC and currently serves as Professor in Residence at the School of Public Service, Henry C. Lee College at the University of New Haven. He frequently speaks at conferences about social trends impacting cities, and city and college relationships. Dr. Kemp was awarded the Donald Leiffer Outstanding Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in 2007.
Gary London, MCP 1974
Senior Principal, London Moeder Advisors
Gary London is Senior Principal and founding partner of London Moeder Advisors, providing feasibility analysis, market research, strategic advice, and capital packaging for investors, lenders and developers. His work has resulted in the creation of numerous master planned communities and mixed use projects. He has served as a lecturer at UCSD, SDSU, Arizona State University, and the University of San Diego. Gary is featured in the San Diego Union Tribune’s weekly EconoMeter, and has appeared on CBS Evening News “Eye On America”. Gary has also testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. In 1995, Gary was featured in the San Diego Business Journal’s “Who’s Who In San Diego”; and was honored as the San Diego Land Economics Society “Member of the Year” in 1996. In 2016, he was honored as one of the 100 Most Influential persons in San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript. Gary serves on the School of Public Affairs Task Force.
James W. Messerschmidt, PhD, MCJC 1976
Professor and Author, University of Southern Maine
Dr. Messerschmidt is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Criminology Department at the University of Southern Maine. In addition to over 65 articles and book chapters, he has authored fourteen books, most recently, Hegemonic Masculinity: Formulation, Reformulation, and Amplification and Gender Reckonings: New Social Theory and Research co-edited with Patricia Yancey Martin, Michael Messner, and Raewyn Connell. In 2011, he received the “Outstanding Feminist Faculty Award” from the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of Southern Maine for his notable contributions to scholarship in gender studies. In 2012, he received the “Outstanding Alumni Award” from SDSU for his distinguished scholarly contributions to criminology, and in 2018 he was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the American Society of Criminology Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice. He is an adjunct faculty member at the School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Bernie Rhinerson, MPA 1978
Executive Vice President, Board of Trustees, San Diego Community College District
Bernie Rhinerson began his public service career at the County of San Diego and later as an aide to a San Diego City Councilman.,He spent 30 years with San Diego’s largest public relations firm where he specialized in public policy, marketing and communications consulting for corporate and local government clients. Bernie returned to the public sector to serve as Chief of Staff in the San Diego Unified School District where he managed external communications and government relations. In 2012, Bernie was elected to the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees and was re-elected in 2016. He currently serves as Executive Vice President and as an elected member of the Association of Community College Trustees Board of Directors. Bernie served as a lecturer for the School of Public Affairs for over two decades and as former President of the SDSU Alumni Association. He continues to serve on the School of Public Affairs Task Force.
Darrell Pugh, PA 1976, MPA 1977
Professor, SDSU School of Public Affairs, Labor Law Attorney
Professor Darrell Pugh is a professor of public administration in the School of Public Affairs at and a member of the California State Bar.. Dr. Pugh’s research interests include the history of American public administration and the U.S. civil service, human resource management, and employment law. His most recent research focuses on legal issues affecting public employers in California, and he has written several articles on employee free speech in the workplace, and methods of reasonable accommodation for employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Dr. Pugh has represented various public sector clients in hearings, arbitrations, and labor negotiations, and he has litigated cases in both federal and state courts and before the National Labor Relations Board and the California Public Employment Relations Board. He served as the former Historian of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). He is a past recipient of the Donald B. Leiffer Outstanding Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.
Richard A. Parker, PhD, MCP 1984
President/Project Director Rea and Parker Research
Emeritus Lecturer, School of Public Affairs
Professor Parker co-founded Rea and Parker Research in 1984 providing survey and market research and economic consulting for clients throughout the State of California and the Southwest. Dr. Parker specializes in sample survey research for various governmental agencies and market research for retail, commercial, residential, and recreational development. He has conducted significant market research in the fields of transportation and water. Dr. Parker is the co-author of Designing and Conducting Survey Research. Dr. Parker has published a variety of articles, monographs, and books about fiscal impact studies, environmental impact/socioeconomic and demographic analyses. He received the 2008 Bernays Mark of Merit for Special Purpose Publications. Dr. Parker is also an emeritus faculty member in the School of Public Affairs where he has taught since 1985. He has testified as an expert witness in courts of law and before various State of California legislative committees, city councils and county boards of supervisors.
Andrew Peterson, PhD, MCJC, 2004
Dr. Andrew Peterson’s interest in financial regulation and white-collar crime inspired his decision to complete his graduate studies at SDSU and earn a PhD at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Dr. Peterson’s dissertation, Skimming the Profit Pool: White-Collar Crime in the Mutual Fund Industry, was later published as a book while he was working as a graduate intern with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. He served as a researcher with the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) for five years. Dr. Peterson’s projects have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and his work on crack offender recidivism was credited by the Court as justifying changes in federal laws that reduced disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. Currently, Dr. Peterson is a senior researcher for the Washington State Center for Court Research where he focuses on juvenile and adult recidivism, racial/ethnic disparity in the justice system, and improving the pretrial process to increase public safety and reduce the governmental and societal costs.
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.
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