Ann Grant, 2010
Dr. Ann Grant graduated from Cuesta College in 1975 with a nursing degree and began as a nurse at an Army hospital in Germany. She later earned a Ph.D. in nursing.

Dana Marlin, 2010
Dr. Dana Marlin graduated from Cuesta College in 1994 and went on to get his Ph.D. in bio-inorganic chemistry. Since 2009, Marlin has represented Malta in the European Patent Office.

Vicki Silva, 2010
Vicki Silva graduated from Cuesta College in 1970 and later received her realty license. She went on to be named a “top salesperson” at her firm and serve on the board of the Paso Robles Board of Realtors.

William “Bill” Swanson, 2010
Bill Swanson graduated from Cuesta College in 1969 and later Cal Poly. He is CEO of Raytheon Co., a government contractor specializing in defense and homeland security, with 75,000 employees.

Janet Frank, 2009
Dr. Janet Frank graduated with honors from Cuesta College in 1969 with an Associates Degree.  Frank works for University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine as
a professor. 

Kathryn Wetterstrand, 2009
Kathryn Wetterstrand earned her Associates Degree from Cuesta College in 1977. She is the Director and Chief Financial Officer of Western Quartz Products, Incorporated, which was founded by her grandfather in 1931.

Steven Frank, 2009
Steven Frank earned an Associates Degree in Civil Engineering from Cuesta College in 1970.  Frank is retired after working 32 years for the San Luis Obispo County Engineering Department as a Registered Civil Engineer.

Tim Williams, 2009
Tim Williams attended Cuesta College from 1990 to 1994. He founded the San Luis Obispo company Digital West in 1998 and grew the company to nearly 1,000 hosted domains within three years. 

Elaine Cormier, 2008
Dr. Elaine Cormier came to Cuesta College to pursue a nursing degree, which she received in 1981. Cormier found her passion in optometry

Sjany de Groot, 2008
Sjany de Groot attended Cuesta College graduating in 1973 with an Associates Degree in Nursing. de Groot has provided a care facility for medically fragile children for over 30 years in San Luis Obispo.

Katcho Achadjian, 2007
Khatchik H. “Katcho” Achadjian graduated from Cuesta College in 1973. Since 1978, he has been a local business owner employing more than thirty local residents.

Larry Martinez, 2007
Larry F. Martinez graduated from Cuesta College in 1973. Martinez was a Fulbright Senior Research fellow at the Center of Technology Assessment in Stuttgart, Germany in 1998-99.

Sam Blakeslee, 2006
Sam Blakeslee attended Cuesta College in 1974 earning an AS degree in General Studies in 1980. Blakeslee serves on the State Assembly where he currently represents District 33. 

Rodger Anderson, 2005
Rodger Anderson attended Cuesta College between 1968 and 1971.  He is the owner of The Galley restaurant in Morro Bay.

Greig Welch, 2004
Greig Welch attended Cuesta College from 1968 to 1970. He is currently the Assistant Superintendent of Paso Robles Public Schools.

Sue Torrey, 2003
Sue Torrey graduated from Cuesta College in 1981 with an Associate Nursing Degree. Since her graduation, she has been actively involved with fundraising for Cuesta College, soliciting a $15,000 donation from Tenet Healthcare for the North County Campus.

Freddie Ravel, 2002
Played in the Jazz Band while staying on the Dean’s honor list. The renowned keyboardist was voted San Luis Obispo High School’s “Most Likely to Succeed”.  Ravel went on to study jazz and classical composition at Cal State Northridge, where he graduated cum laude in 1982 with a bachelor’s of arts in music.

Michael Frommlet, 2001
Michael Frommlet attended Cuesta College from 1978 to 1980, during which time he was on the Dean’s list.  Frommlet attended Albany Medical College and after his residency, began practicing emergency medicine. He has authored and co-authored a number of publications relating to sleep disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and gerontology. Frommlet is an accomplished cellist.

Fred Sweeney, 2000
Fred L. Sweeney graduated from Cuesta College in 1969 overcoming many barriers to achieve his dream of becoming an architect.  Sweeney is a partner with one of the central coast’s oldest design firms, Phillips Metsch Sweeney Moore Architects with offices in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara.  

Jim Brabeck, 1999
Jim Brabeck attended Cuesta College in the mid-1960s when he was appointed to general manager at Farm Supply Company and he realized then that he needed to learn more about how to run a business.  Brabeck is involved in many community service projects, including Partnership for the Children of San Luis Obispo County, Hotline, San Luis Obispo County Alcohol and Drug Advisory Council, the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project and the Cal Poly School of Agriculture Advisory Council.

Dale Evers, 1998
Dale Evers attended Cuesta College from 1980 to 1982.  He is an internationally recognized sculptor who has centered his work on sea life and preservation of the sea environment. 

Elizabeth Cooksey, 1997
Elizabeth B. Cooksey graduated from Cuesta College in 1974. She is a branch librarian at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, Georgia.

Paul Salopek, 1996
Paul F. Salopek graduated from Cuesta College in 1978.  Salopek has been a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent in Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia and more recently in Darfur.  He won Pulitzer Prizes in 1998 for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the controversial Human Genome Diversity Project and in 2001 for International Reporting recognized his work in Africa, including his coverage of the civil war in Congo. 

Glen Martin, 1995
Glen W. Martin graduated from Cuesta College in 1969 and was a state Alpha Gamma Sigma honor roll recipient.  Martin attended University of California Santa Barbara where he earned his bachelor’s in English in 1972.  He is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and recipient of many awards.

Martin once said “[Cuesta’s] was bucolic education in the literal sense, combining free-ranging cattle with a solid grounding in the classics.”

Walter Smith, 1994
Walter Smith graduated from Cuesta College in 1982.  He is a researcher for the government near Washington, D.C. He has published a number of articles for scholar journals and written a graphics software package which is used by thousands of scientists all over the world, aboard ships and aircrafts.

Louis Owens, 1993
Dr. Louis Owens graduated from Cuesta College in 1968.  He taught for many years at prestigious universities in California and New Mexico. Owens has written hundreds of articles and reviews for periodicals and was named Writer of the Year from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers for Mixedblood Messages in 1998 and he was awarded the American Book Award for Nightland in 1997.

Holly Lane, 1992
Holly Lane graduated from Cuesta College in 1980. Lane is well known for her tableau painting and relief sculptures.  San Jose, Santa Fe, Dallas, Chicago and New York City are among the cities where Lane has shown her work.

Grace Romero, 1991
Grace Romero graduated from Cuesta College in 1983. Romero worked as a clinical pharmacist at Atascadero State Hospital. She has had many published works for the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy and the American Journal of Psychiatry.  

Lorenzo Dunn, 1990
Lorenzo Dunn graduated from Cuesta College in 1978.  Dunn worked for Hewlett Packard for nine years and then went on to work for Apple Computer as the manager of a Product Design group. 

Morgan Burkett, 1989
Morgan Burkett graduated from Cuesta College in 1968. Burkett established his own company in 1987 called Sterling Hotels Corporation.  In 1989, Sterling Hotels managed ten hotels.  Currently the company manages hotels all over the world.