60 Notable alumni of
New Mexico State University
Updated:
New Mexico State University is 822nd in the world, 305th in North America, and 284th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 60 notable alumni from New Mexico State University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Pascal Siakam
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Pascal Siakam is a Cameroonian professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A two-time NBA All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection, he won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Siakam played college basketball for the New Mexico State Aggies and was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2016. Nicknamed "Spicy P", he was selected by Toronto with the 27th overall pick in the first round of the 2016 NBA draft.
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Jaron Lanier
- Occupations
- artificial intelligence researcherprogrammeruniversity teacherphilosophervisual artist
- Biography
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Jaron Zepel Lanier is an American computer scientist, visual artist, computer philosophy writer, technologist, futurist, and composer of contemporary classical music. Considered a founder of the field of virtual reality, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and wired gloves. In the late 1990s, Lanier worked on applications for Internet2, and in the 2000s, he was a visiting scholar at Silicon Graphics and various universities. In 2006 he began to work at Microsoft, and from 2009 has worked at Microsoft Research as an Interdisciplinary Scientist.
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Sim Bhullar
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Gursimran Singh "Sim" Bhullar is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Tainan TSG GhostHawks of the T1 League. He played college basketball for New Mexico State University and is the first player of Indian descent to play in the NBA. At 7'5", he also became the sixth-tallest player in NBA history, being tied with Chuck Nevitt and Pavel Podkolzin for that record.
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Rich Beem
- Occupations
- golfer
- Biography
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Richard Michael Beem is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is best known for his upset victory at the 2002 PGA Championship.
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Alvy Ray Smith
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineerscreenwriter
- Biography
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Alvy Ray Smith III is an American computer scientist who co-founded Lucasfilm's Computer Division and Pixar, participating in the 1980s and 1990s expansion of computer animation into feature film.
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Roosevelt Skerrit
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Roosevelt Skerrit is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000. Regionally, he has served as the chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and most recently as chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 2010. Skerrit is currently the longest-serving prime minister of Dominica.
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Steve Pearce
- Enrolled in New Mexico State University
- In 1970 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersonmilitary officer
- Biography
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Stevan Edward Pearce is an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 2nd congressional district from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party and was his party's unsuccessful nominee in the 2018 New Mexico gubernatorial election. On December 8, 2018, Pearce was elected Chair of the New Mexico Republican Party, replacing Ryan Cangiolosi. He was re-elected in December 2020.
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Scott Bailey
- Occupations
- television actoractor
- Biography
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Scott Bailey is an American actor. He is known for playing the character of Sandy Foster on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light, the character of Roman Martin on the MyNetworkTV limited-run serial Saints & Sinners and the character of Greg Cooper in an episode of the TV series Femme Fatales.
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David Bowdich
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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David Bowdich is an American executive and former law enforcement officer serving as the Chief Security Officer of The Walt Disney Company. Prior to this, he served as the Deputy Director of the FBI.
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Tony Sanchez
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Anthony Phillip Sanchez is an American college football coach and former wide receiver, who is the current head coach of the New Mexico State Aggies. He was the head coach of the UNLV Rebels from December 8, 2014 until he was fired by UNLV on November 25, 2019. He was previously the head football coach at Bishop Gorman High School.
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Alan Hale
- Occupations
- astronomer
- Biography
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Alan Hale is an American professional astronomer, who co-discovered Comet Hale–Bopp along with amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp.
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Jonathan Gibson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jonathan Mychal Gibson is an American professional basketball player for the Sagesse Sports Club of the Lebanese Basketball League. He played college basketball for New Mexico State before playing professionally in Turkey, Israel, Italy, China and Iran. He made a name for himself in China, earning the league's scoring title in both the 2013–14 and the 2015–16 season, with 32.5 and 42 points per game respectively.
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Cyrus Nowrasteh
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Cyrus Nowrasteh is an American-Iranian screenwriter, director, and producer of film and television. He has worked on numerous television series and made-for-TV movies including The Day Reagan Was Shot, Falcon Crest, Into the West, and the controversial docudrama The Path to 9/11. He has also directed the theatrical features The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009), The Young Messiah (2016), and Infidel (2020).
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Howie Morales
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Henry C. "Howie" Morales is an American politician and educator serving as the 30th lieutenant governor of New Mexico. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the New Mexico State Senator from the 28th district, which includes Catron County, Grant County and Socorro County, from 2008 until 2019.
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Sam Lacey
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Samuel Lacey was an American basketball player. He spent the majority of his career with the Royals/Kings franchise. Lacey was selected as an all-star while playing for the Kings in 1975, and eventually had his number 44 retired by them.
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Jemerrio Jones
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jemerrio Jones is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Osceola Magic of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the New Mexico State Aggies.
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Paul Weir
- Occupations
- basketball coach
- Biography
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Paul Michael Weir is the athletic director at Eastern New Mexico University. He is the former head men's basketball coach of the University of New Mexico, having been named head coach on April 11, 2017 as the successor to Craig Neal, his second head coaching position at the college level. Weir was also the head coach of New Mexico State University (NMSU) for one season, going 28–6 and winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament. He was an assistant at NMSU from 2007 to 2016, including five seasons as associate head coach. Prior to that he spent two years as an assistant coach under Steve Alford at the University of Iowa, and served as director of basketball operations at Northwestern State University for one season. Weir began his coaching career as head coach of Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School in Toronto from 1999 to 2003. He also served as an assistant coach for the Costa Rica national basketball team in 2015.
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Jason Huntley
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Jason Kiree Huntley is an American football running back who is a free agent. He played college football at New Mexico State, and was selected by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
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Javier Gonzales
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Javier Gonzales was an American politician who served as the 42nd mayor of Santa Fe from 2014 to 2018. Gonzales was the city's first and only openly gay mayor. He held the office of Santa Fe County Commissioner, serving two terms. Soon after, he was elected as the first Hispanic president to the National Association of Counties. Upon assuming the mayorship of Santa Fe, he was chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
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Sylvia Acevedo
- Occupations
- systems engineerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Sylvia Acevedo is an American engineer and businesswoman. She was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 2016 to 2020. A systems engineer by education, she began her career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she was on the Voyager 2 team. She has held executive roles at Apple, Dell, and Autodesk. In 2018, Acevedo was included in a Forbes list of "America's Top 50 Women In Tech". She was a founder, with 3 others of REBA Technology, an infiniband company that was sold and also the Founder and CEO of CommuniCard. As CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Acevedo led the organization's largest release of badges, over 100 badges in STEM and Outdoors over three years.
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Larry Williams
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- jazz musicianmusic arrangersaxophonist
- Biography
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Lawrence Lowell Williams is an American record producer, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. He is proficient on the keyboards, saxophone, flute, and clarinet. Williams began his musical career in the 1970s, and has since established himself as a prominent figure in the music industry. He regularly toured and recorded with Al Jarreau for over 3 decades and also was a musician on Michael Jackson's albums Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
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Nick Gonzales
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Nicholas Joseph Gonzales is an American baseball second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected seventh overall by the Pirates in the 2020 MLB draft and he made his MLB debut in 2023.
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Charlie Criss
- Occupations
- basketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Charles Washington Criss Jr. is an American former professional basketball player born in Valhalla, New York.
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Lester Lyles
- Occupations
- military officerentrepreneur
- Biography
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General Lester L. Lyles is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF). He served as Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. After retirement from the USAF in 2003, he became a company director for General Dynamics, DPL Inc., KBR, Inc., Precision Castparts Corp., MTC Technologies, Battelle Memorial Institute and USAA. Lyles is also a trustee of Analytic Services and a managing partner of Four Seasons Ventures, LLC.
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Alena Sharp
- Occupations
- golfer
- Biography
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Alena Sharp is a Canadian professional golfer currently playing on the LPGA Tour. A graduate of New Mexico State University, where she played on the golf team, Sharp turned professional in 2003, playing two seasons on the Futures Tour and on other minor tours before joining the LPGA Tour in 2005.
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Gary King
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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Gary Kenneth King is an American lawyer, politician, and energy consultant who served as the 30th attorney general of New Mexico from January 1, 2007, to January 1, 2015. King previously served as an advisor in the United States Department of Energy, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, and the Democratic nominee for New Mexico governor in the 2014 election.
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Ed Foreman
- Occupations
- motivational speakerpoliticiancivil engineerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Edgar Franklin Foreman Jr. was an American businessman and politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives. He had one term representing Texas's 16th congressional district from 1963 to 1965 and a second term from 1969 to 1971 representing New Mexico's 2nd district, then newly established. He is the most historically recent member of Congress to have represented more than one state during their career.
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Wendell McKines
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Wendell McKines is an American former professional basketball player. He is known for his moniker as Mr. Wednesday.
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Tommy Sheppard
- Occupations
- general managersports executivesporting director
- Biography
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Thomas F. Sheppard is an American basketball executive. A native of New Mexico, he attended New Mexico State University and played for their football team before graduating in 1991. Sheppard joined the public relations department of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Denver Nuggets in 1994. He later joined the NBA's Washington Wizards as an assistant executive under general manager Ernie Grunfeld in 2003, and served as their general manager and team president from 2019 to 2023.
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Earl Calloway
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Earl Genard Calloway is an American-born naturalized Bulgarian professional basketball player for the Ottawa Blackjacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL).
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Kathy Lueders
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Kathryn Lueders is an American engineer and business manager. Lueders has led NASA's human spaceflight program as the Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. She became the first woman to head human spaceflight. She was the program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program and oversaw the return of human spaceflight capabilities to NASA. She currently works at SpaceX as Starbase General Manager.
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Michael L. Connor
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Michael Lee Connor is an American politician, lawyer and engineer. He has served as the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works since November 2021, and served as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior from 2014 to 2017, among other positions in United States Department of the Interior.
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James Edward Wharton
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Brigadier General James Edward Wharton was a career United States Army officer who briefly commanded the 28th Infantry Division in the Battle of Normandy before being killed in action during World War II.
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Dianna Duran
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Dianna Duran is an American politician who served as the 24th Secretary of State of New Mexico. A Republican, she was the first member of her party in 80 years to serve in the position. On October 22, 2015, she resigned her position amid a corruption and campaign law investigation. She subsequently pleaded guilty to six of 65 fraud and embezzlement charges against her as part of an agreement reached with the Attorney General of New Mexico. Duran was sentenced to 30 days in jail and began her sentence on December 18, 2015.
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Sarah Stewart
- Occupations
- virologist
- Biography
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Sarah Elizabeth Stewart was a Mexican-American researcher who pioneered the field of viral oncology research, and the first to show that cancer-causing viruses can spread from animal to animal. She and Bernice Eddy co-discovered the first polyoma virus, and SE (Stewart-Eddy) polyoma virus is named after them.
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Daniel Mullings
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Daniel Walden-Mullings is a Canadian basketball player for the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). He played college basketball for New Mexico State.
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Daniel Johnson
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Daniel Johnson Jr. is an American professional baseball outfielder in the Baltimore Orioles organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians.
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Don W. Cleveland
- Occupations
- researcherchemistneurobiologist
- Biography
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Don W. Cleveland is an American cancer biologist and neurobiologist.
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Ursula Wikström
- Occupations
- golfer
- Biography
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Ursula Wikström is a Finnish professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour. She represented Finland at the 2016 Rio Olympics and won the 2017 Ladies Finnish Open.
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Winston Rose
- Occupations
- player of American footballCanadian football player
- Biography
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Winston Rose is a professional gridiron football defensive back for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Rose won the 107th Grey Cup with the Blue Bombers when they beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33–12. He played NCAA football for the New Mexico State Aggies.
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Denise Chavez
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Denise Elia Chávez is a Chicana author, playwright, and stage director. She has also taught classes at New Mexico State University. She is based in New Mexico.
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Tyrone Watson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Tyrone Watson is a Canadian professional basketball player for the St. John's Edge of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). He attended New Mexico State University, where he represented the Aggies, and has competed with the Canadian youth national team in the past. Following graduation, Watson played a season with the Halifax Rainmen in the NBL Canada and, following a suspension, returned to the league with the Orangeville A's.
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Ray Birmingham
- Occupations
- head coach
- Biography
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Raymond Joseph Birmingham Jr. is an American former college baseball coach. He was a baseball coach at the high school, junior college, and four-year college levels from 1978 to 1983 and 1988 to 2021, starting at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico from 1978 to 1983, then the College of the Southwest from 1988 to 1989, New Mexico Junior College from 1990 to 2007, and finally the New Mexico Lobos from 2008 to 2021. Upon retirement in 2021, Birmingham finished as the winningest baseball coach in New Mexico history and the winningest coach in Mountain West Conference history.
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Tony Wragge
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Tony James Wragge is a former American football center. He was originally signed by the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played college football for New Mexico State University.
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Clarence Moniba
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 45)
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Clarence K. Moniba is a Liberian politician, author and former actor. He served as the country's youngest Minister of State without Portfolio. He leads the Liberian National Union (LINU). In 2023, he ran for president in the 2023 Liberian presidential elections, obtaining 5,298 votes (0.29%).
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Kerry Locklin
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Kerry Barth Locklin is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Topeka Tropics of the National Arena League (NAL).
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John McEneny
- Occupations
- politicianhistorian
- Biography
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John "Jack" McEneny is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He was a member of the New York State Assembly, representing about half of Albany County in the 104th Assembly District, from 1993 through 2012.
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Blanca Magrassi Scagno
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Blanca Margarita Magrassi Scagno was a Mexican women's rights activist, civil and pro-democracy activist, politician and leading figure within the National Action Party (PAN). Magrassi Scagno, the wife and political partner of Luis H. Álvarez, the former President of the National Action Party, served as a member of PAN's national executive committee from 1988 to 1990. She was considered a moral authority within PAN and Mexican politics.
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Mark W. Spong
- Occupations
- roboticist
- Biography
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Mark W. Spong is an American roboticist. He is a professor of systems engineering and electrical and computer engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). He served as dean of the Jonsson School and the Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair in Electrical Engineering from 2008 to 2017. Before he joined UTD, he was the Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering, professor of electrical engineering, research professor of Coordinated Science Laboratory and Information Trust Institute, and director of Center for Autonomous Engineering Systems and Robotics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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David Coss
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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David Coss is an American politician and civil servant who served as mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico from 2006 to 2014. He was elected to a four-year term in March 2006 after serving on the Santa Fe City Council from 2002 to 2006, representing the third district. He was elected to a second four-year term in March 2010.
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Amy Simon-Miller
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- researcher
- Biography
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Amy Simon is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, involved in several missions of the Solar System Exploration Program.
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Tshilidzi Kawata
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Tshilidzi Kawata formerly known as Tshilidzi Nephaweis, is a South African-Japanese professional basketball player for the Hiroshima Dragonflies of the Japanese B.League.
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Evan Lavender-Smith
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Evan Lavender-Smith is an American writer, editor, and professor.
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Patricia D. Lopez
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Patricia Diane Lopez is an American computer scientist noted for her research on computer vision, image processing, and image enhancement. Her most notable work is her early efforts on neural networks, modeling human vision and imaging patents.
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Carrie Anderson
- Occupations
- planetary scientist
- Biography
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Carrie Anderson is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
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Fernando Ramsey
- Years
- 1965-.. (age 59)
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Fernando David Ramsey Ramsey is a former Panamanian center fielder who played in Major League Baseball. Listed at 6' 1" (1.86 m), 175 lb. (79 k), Ramsey batted and threw right handed. He was born in Rainbow City, a section of the city of Colón in Panama.
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Damond L. Williams
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Damond L. Williams is an American professional basketball player in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia League. Williams, who is 6'6", is known for his versatility as a combo guard, effective at playing both point guard and shooting guard positions. He led his team through a perfect season of 42-0 during the Syrian Premier League and Syrian League Cup in the 2009 season. In 2009 Damond was voted the best shooting guard of the 20th Dubai International Basketball Tournament. Damond is also Founder of the Chicago Basketball Academy a global company that creates high-quality programs and services to provide alternative career opportunities for aspiring NCAA, NBA, and FIBA athletes.
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Renee Schulte
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Renee Schulte is a former American politician who was the Iowa State Representative for the 37th District. Schulte has over two decades of leadership experience in the behavioral healthcare field. Her work in the public and private sectors has given her a unique understanding of the complexities of delivering quality care.
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Elgin bryce holt
- Years
- 1873-1945 (aged 72)
- Occupations
- geologist
- Biography
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Elgin Bryce Holt was an American geologist, mine owner and engineer, amateur scientist, anthropologist and entrepreneur who reorganized and managed the Cerro de Plata Mining Company in Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico.
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Denise Stephens
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- astronomer
- Biography
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Denise C. Nuttall Stephens is an associate professor of astronomy in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University.
