The Bridge

Staff Profiles

Cathie Marker

Executive Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs

Cathie Marker has only been on campus for 18 months, but she feels right at home working in the Vice President’s office for AVP Eric Rivera.

“I love the work I do and working with different people who are all part of a community full of energy and potential,” said Cathie. “I love being around students and get excited to hear what they’re learning and their thoughts. I feel all of us in Student Affairs has, in our own little way, some impact on something bigger.”

Cathie came to SDSU after several years working in government contracts for firms such as General Dynamics Information Technology Systems, which had formerly been Anteon Corporation. She worked for the main General Dynamics from 1981 – 1993, until they left San Diego.

Cathie, who grew up in Poway, lives in La Mesa with her husband, Mark, and their two parrots, Lulu and Ruby. The living room of their home contains a large, sandblasted Manzanita tree with toys on it for Lulu and Ruby. She said they pretty much have the run of the house except for one room – the kitchen, which they are discouraged from visiting.

When not at work, Cathie is gaining a reputation as a very talented quilter, having spent the last eight years on this hobby.

“The funny thing was that my mom, my aunt and my grandmother were all accomplished seamstresses, and in my earlier years, I wanted nothing to do with that,” she said. “When I first started dating my husband 26 years ago, my mom made me this beautiful sampler quilt. I then began to attend quilting shows with her and realized what a beautiful art form it is, and I became intrigued. Plus I love the major role quilts have played in history.”

One Christmas, Cathie told her mom that she wanted a sewing machine as her gift.

“There was absolute silence on the other end of the phone,” said Cathie. “After many futile years of trying to get me into sewing, she was shocked that her tomboy daughter finally came around.”

In addition to quilting, Cathie is also an accomplished ceramicist and is taking a pottery class. She also has a hidden talent that most of her colleagues don’t know about – singing. She and her husband were in a band called “Cathie and the Comets.” Right now, they are working as an acoustic duet.

“Mark plays many instruments and composes music, but his primary instrument is the guitar,” she said. “We play primarily blues, but a little bit of country.”

Cathie and Mark also enjoy camping in the desert where Mark rides his dirt bike. “I haven’t ridden myself yet, but my New Year’s Resolution is learn again,” she said.

Trimaine Davis

Assistant Coordinator, College Access Program

Trimaine Davis is one of the many SDSU alumni who found themselves working at the very place that helped shape them: Montezuma Mesa.

While a student at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Calif., SDSU Men’s Basketball Coach Steve Fisher recruited Trimaine to play for the Aztecs. “Basketball was a great tool to see different parts of the country – it exposed me to a new climate,” he said. “It raised the bar of my expectations, showing me what was beyond Pittsburg.”

Playing for crowds of 15,000-plus fans, the 6-foot-7-inch center was challenged off the court by sixth-grade skeptics who weren’t sold on the idea of education. Trimaine soon began volunteering and eventually running an after-school program for inner-city elementary students, who were a vivid reminder of his own past.

“I fell in love with the school. If it wasn’t for Nubia (Leadership Academy) I wouldn’t be here doing what I do.” The students at Nubia helped to spark a new drive: change the young skeptics of education into believers.

Voice in the community

While basketball brought him to SDSU and enabled him to be the first person in his family to graduate from college, his volunteer work as a student helped determine a career path that would eventually lead him back to the university.

Today, Trimaine is part of a self-described ‘three-person army’ – the College Access Program – that advocates higher education, and preparing for higher education, to inner-city junior high students.

“We wake up every morning and our job is to go out and make a difference. It’s very challenging, and sometimes even frightening, but we’re determined to develop a college-going culture.”

Dating back to his high school years, Trimaine would provide outreach to his younger contemporaries, deterring them from the present dangers of drugs and gangs, and steering them toward the avenues of scholastic achievement and camaraderie through sports.

“It’s going back into the communities we came from and motivating others,” he said of his work on and off campus. “My own motivator is my grandmother, who always says: ‘It’s never where you start, but where you finish.’ ”

Outside CAP, Trimaine serves as the student adviser to the Student African American Brotherhood, and provides speaking engagements to athletes, students and the community at large.

In his free time, Trimaine spends time with family and friends, including his 6-year-old son Trimaine Davis Jr. and his girlfriend, Ashlie Hallman. And while visiting his hometown of Pittsburg, he is sure to stop by family headquarters: grandma’s house. Trimaine is also an avid movie-goer and says he’s more interested in the previews than the feature. “That’s the best part, seeing what movies are in the making – what’s yet to come.”

Lori Kern-Greenberg

Graphic Designer, Communications Services

When an animal-lover meets politics, look out. West Covina native Lori Kern-Greenberg has united two of her passions: advocating for the good guy and promoting the rights of animals.

The SDSU alumna graduated with a degree in journalism and went on to earn a certificate in graphic design from the Advertising Arts College. While a student at SDSU, she wrote for The Daily Aztec, hosted a radio show and did news on KCR College Radio, and even lived in the first residence hall established on campus – Zura. “I’m still friends with some of the people that I met on my floor at Zura,” she said.

Skill set and experience combined, she’s volunteered her creative services to advocating animal rights, politics, and “causes worth fighting for,” including the Friends of County Award Shelters (FOCAS).

“I just like fighting a good fight, I like the good guys to win,” she said. Today, Lori is back at her alma mater, providing graphic design services for Student Affairs departments and programs.

On animals and politics

Three years ago Lori adopted her first rescued animal – a black female Labrador mix. “It was between her and a small needy dog,” she said. “Of course I picked the large dog, who ignored us at the animal shelter.” And before finding the right dog, Lori and her husband Andy had already selected a name for their would-be pet.

“We bought two bowling balls at the Salvation Army. One was inscribed ‘Tony’; the other, read ‘Rita.’ So now we have our Lovely Rita, and hopefully, Andy willing, we’ll find our next rescued dog, Tony.” Cat Renny rounds out the Kern-Greenberg family. The atypical ‘rescued animal,’ it was Renny who found and adopted the Kern-Greenbergs.

She was elected to the Democratic Central Committee here in San Diego County in June and her term begins in January. She is a working toward starting an animal rights caucus in the state Democratic party.

“I encourage people to rescue their next pet from a local shelter, rather than buying an animal,” she said. “I would like to get people to use common sense with their animals as well, such as not leaving your dog or cat tethered in the yard, which can lead to injury or death by coyotes or other predators, heat stroke or choking.”

During the last few years of her political involvement, Lori has had the opportunity to meet and attend the rallies of some of the most historical figures in U.S. history: the first female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton; and the first black American president-elect, Barack Obama. “I actually got to meet Hillary last year at a convention! That was my political highlight.”

Outside of work, Lori enjoys spending time with her husband and their animals. They are a musically inclined family, Lori on French horn, Andy on bass, and they own a local guitar repair shop – El Rayo Guitarworks.