Tech executive Rick Nelson makes his play to generate support for Carlsen Center

When 28 local executives hit the golf links later this year for a charity tournament, there will be a lot on the line for Sacramento State.

Rick Nelson ’94 (Communication Studies), the owner and former CEO of Direct Technology and now-Chairman of the Launch Consulting Group, is raising money before and during the Oct. 5-7 Capital Cup tournament for the University’s Dale and Katy Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Individual participants raise money for charities of their choice ahead of the competition – interested parties may donate online – and charities supported by the winning team will share a $50,000 grand prize.

Nelson said his great admiration for fellow Sac State alum Dale Carlsen, founder of Sleep Train Mattress Centers, and Carlsen’s vision for the Center are two big reasons he wanted to lend his support.

“Young people need a place to go and find out how to lead, how to create and advance their own personal ideas,” he said. “It’s the key to fast, specific development of young talent.”

Nelson, who described himself as “not a great student in high school,” took a somewhat circuitous path to tech CEO, with Sacramento State playing a big role. Following high school, he enrolled at what was then California State University, Hayward, but left after one semester and eventually found himself in Carson City, Nev., where he decided to enlist in the Air Force.

Military service brought him to Rancho Cordova, and he enrolled at American River College while also working at UPS. He transferred to Sacramento State in 1989, where he found attentive professors who were willing to probe deep and complicated issues, as well as the support needed to learn from mistakes and continue on.

“Sac State was the target, the goal, to get to a four-year university and challenge myself in that environment,” he said. “Sac State was warm and inviting and probably the prettiest place in Sacramento. To go there and graduate from there was pretty exciting.”

He took an ownership interest in Direct Technology, which develops software solutions for public- and private-sector employers, in 2006.

Sacramento is experiencing a great deal of growth, driven in part by the migration of Bay Area residents to the capital region, Nelson said, and both new and existing businesses will look to Sacramento State for the bright, young and talented workforce that will allow the region to continue to grow. The Carlsen Center, he added, will provide students with the opportunity to learn directly from entrepreneurs and innovators with real-life experiences, not only to hear about their successes but to learn about what pitfalls to avoid.

“Sac State has the opportunity to be the leader in innovation. There’s a lot of energy in this area right now, and this is the perfect time for the Dale and Katy Carlsen Center,” Nelson said. “This Center is absolutely going to ignite a fire in people who want to start their own business and make their own path, and I’m excited to be a part of that.”

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Alum Cristina Mendonsa to co-host KFBK Morning News

The familiar voice of a Hornet will be returning to Sacramento airwaves soon.

Cristina Mendonsa ’96 (Government & Journalism), who spent 21 years as an news anchor for ABC Channel 10 before departing last summer when her contract was not renewed, will join radio station KFBK as its Morning News show co-host.

Mendonsa “brings name recognition and a reputation for award-winning news journalism” to the station, the Sacramento Bee reported Aug. 23.

In a 2008 article for Sac State Magazine, Mendonsa talked about having to work full time during college, and how doing so helped her learn to stay cool under pressure – an essential skill in the world of journalism.

“It was exciting. I was working in the business as a radio reporter while I was going to Sac State,” Mendonsa said. “I had (the late mayor) Joe Serna as one of my professors, so I would take notes at his lectures in the daytime, and in the afternoon I’d interview him on some city government issue, so it was kind of funny.”

Mendonsa begins her new job at KFBK on Aug. 27.

Through children’s books, Elsie Guerrero advocates for children with disabilities

Shortly after graduating from Sacramento State, Elsie Guerrero ’11 (Government) was working in a special needs classroom at a south Sacramento elementary school when a young boy came up to her at recess. Referring to one of his special needs classmates with autism, the boy asked why she acted the way she did.

Guerrero soon left her job with the school to begin working in political advocacy, but that moment – and the other misunderstandings about disability and even abuse that she witnessed – stayed with her for several years.

“I missed my kids,” she says. “I decided to write a children’s book to show people how amazing these kids are.” How Eli and Emily Become Friends, a book about autism inspired by that recess encounter, was published in 2016. Since then, Guerrero has published seven additional books about children with autism, dyslexia, cerebral palsy and other disabilities, helping kids and parents better understand and accept their peers with disabilities.

“One book led to two books, to three books, and the next thing you know I have people sharing their stories with me,” Guerrero says. “My stories are inspired by real people.”

Today, she lives in Washington, D.C., working for a nonprofit political advocacy organization that focuses on immigration, voter rights, inequality and other issues. Her ultimate goal is to return home to Sacramento to open her own firm advocating for children with special needs and the Latinx community.

Guerrero, the first and still only member of her family to attend college, originally enrolled at a private Bay Area university but struggled financially. After two years, she came back to Sacramento and started at Sacramento State, where she began to thrive. She participated in Associated Students Inc. and the Sacramento Semester program, which provided her the chance to intern with a state assembly member as well as with a lobbying firm. And at a time when state budget cuts meant tuition was rising, she had plenty of opportunity to flex her advocacy muscles through protests and other forms of activism.

Elsie Guerrero’s books help children with and without disabilities, and their parents, learn more about disability.

“It was good time to be a college student as a government major. You got to get your feet wet and get involved in politics, government and campaigning,” she says. “I got to see and experience the kind of work I wanted to do. Being able to be in (the Sacramento Semester) program opened doors for me.”

After Sacramento State, Guerrero in 2013 earned a master’s degree in public administration from Golden Gate University and, in 2015, another master’s in public affairs and practical politics from the University of San Francisco. During grad school, she interned with United Cerebral Palsy working on policies surrounding disability rights, before returning to working with children with special needs from 2016-2018. In June, she began working in Washington for Democracy Initiative, an issues-based campaign organization.

All the while, she continued publishing her children’s books and has been featured on Telemundo, NBC Latino, Hispanic Pro, and various blogs. Three more books, centered around Latinx issues, will be published later this year during Hispanic Heritage Month. The reaction to her books, she says, has been overwhelmingly positive.

“A lot of the response has been, ‘Oh, I didn’t know about that,’ ” Guerrero says. “People find it informative. Kids say, ‘Oh, I got to learn a little more about autism.’ ”

Learning about other individuals who are different from them is important to a child’s development, says Courtney Overton, a speech language pathologist who has read Eli and Emily to her students, but it’s also crucial that children with disabilities see themselves represented in books and other media they consume.

“I always give the example, not only for kids with disabilities but also for children of color, that when you see a photograph and you’re taking a group photo, immediately you look for yourself in that group photo because you’re always looking for someone that you can identify with,” Overton says. “When you translate that into education, it’s important for students with disabilities and students of color to see people in literature who look like them and to see educators who look like them, so that they can understand that they’re not alone.”

Overton met Guerrero when both volunteered at an event for high schoolers to help them learn more about applying for college, another of Guerrero’s passions. As if she isn’t kept busy enough through her advocacy work and writing, Guerrero also co-founded and runs Advancing Latinas into Leadership, or ALL, a mentoring program for D.C.-area Latina high school students. The organization provides help with college preparation, awards scholarships and connects students with Latina professionals for mentorship.

So far, she says, all of the young women involved in the program have gone on to college.

“I always said that the moment I think I’m becoming successful, I want to give back and I want to give back to those with similar backgrounds to myself and share the knowledge I wish I had when I was in high school.”

To learn more about Guerrero’s books and advocacy work, visit elsieguerrero.com.