Bakersfield Life

Thirteen people to watch

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      If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a village? The answer might be in the heart of the cogs, in the gears that protect our streets, teach our children, buoy our poor and homeless, defend our defenseless, grow our food, heal the unwell, and speak for those without a voice.
      Bakersfield may be bigger than a village, but nestled between the mountains and the ocean, settled in the  valley of “Sun, Fun, Stay, and Play,” are people whose jobs turn the crank on our local economy and work to make this metropolis of 450,000 feel more like a friendly village than the bustling bull’s-eye of California.
      As is tradition, Bakersfield Life tips its hat to a dozen local people, who work tirelessly in their field to improve their “village” and ensure that all its citizens thrive.

COMMUNITY
Ken Beurmann
Vice President of Business Development, Goodwill Industries of South Central California

      Ken Beurmann knows where he’s going and seems quite efficient about how to get there. It took him just three years to earn his undergraduate degree from CSUB, and then (at 21 years, 10 months old), he became the youngest student to earn his master’s degree from USC’s Communications Management program. Beurmann married his wife, scored his first job with Terrio Fitness, had a set of twins and a new job at Goodwill Industries—all before he was 23 years old.
      Efficient? He is if his track record means anything. Hired by Terrio Therapy Fitness out of college, Beurmann was the research and development manager and was responsible for opening the first Terrio clinics outside of Kern County.
      Leaping ahead, Beurmann took a job with Goodwill Industries in October 2009 and transitioned from the private sector to a nonprofit. At just 24, he oversees 11 retail stores and about 240 employees and is responsible for market research in communities where Goodwill would like to expand.
      “Right now, I foresee us being in four other stores in three years. I want to expand north – Hanford, Tulare, Porterville and Lemoore,” said Beurmann, who will explore the communities in the cities Goodwill hasn’t touched before to discover what each town needs.
      To Beurmann, towns need a Goodwill store. “People forget we’re a nonprofit. In the private sector, the bottom line is to make money; for a non-profit, the bottom line is helping people. At Goodwill, we’re helping people get back on their feet and back to work.” 
FAITH
Kim Albers
Director of Bakersfield Flood Ministries

      Kim Albers realizes that the name of her ministry might be a little deceiving. By design, the ministry doesn’t specifically offer relief efforts to people displaced by floods — but by faith, they certainly would if asked.
      Bakersfield Flood Ministries is a faith organization designed to “flood” people with love —particularly people down on their luck, homeless, or about to be homeless. Often, negative life circumstances leave vulnerable members of the community feeling hopeless.  That’s where Albers and the ministry step in.
      “We want them to feel so engulfed, immersed in a new way of looking at life by flooding them with love.  We just want to love on people,” said Albers.
       The ministry provides Saturday night outreach at the Garden Community Center in downtown Bakersfield to establish meaningful relationships with the most hurting and hungry members of the community.
      This is Albers’ full-time job. Married and a mother of two, a graduate of UC Riverside and PTA president, she said she felt called to this group of people in 2006 and now works more than 40 hours a week in dedication to the cause.
      A faith-based organization, Bakersfield Flood Ministry branched from Jesus Shack in 2008 and includes worship services with their Saturday night meal for anyone in need.
      “We do offer (faith services) before the meal, but it’s not required. We know that lives will be transformed when Christ is moving within them. But we think that building relationships and being a stronger witness rather than forcing them.
      “We let them see that maybe there’s something else out there.”
HEALTH
Tim Terrio
Founder, CEO Terrio Therapy Fitness
      Tim Terrio is busy. Between working the largest privately-held, family-owned physical therapy company in the Central Valley to creating sports leagues for children with disabilities, the Terrio name has become synonymous with hard work and altruism. And it all starts at the top.
      Terrio received degrees from Montana State, Indiana State, and finally, the University of Long Beach, where all together he earned his bachelor’s degrees in physical education and physical therapy, and his certification as an athletic trainer. That’s not all.
      “I actually have a World Series ring from 1988,” said Terrio, who accepted a job as the athletic trainer in Great Falls, Montana, for the rookie league Dodgers, the organization responsible for bringing Terrio to Bakersfield in 1989.
      In 1998, he opened Terrio Therapy with one employee. Today, the Terrio network consists of 170 employees and has expanded to Fresno. In 2011, he plans to grow again.
      “We’re building the largest physical therapy clinic in Fresno – a 24,000-square-foot sports training facility that’s three times the size of The Edge (in Bakersfield).”
      Terrio is also finalizing a new field for “Field of Dreams,” a baseball league for children with disabilities.
      “Kids are still kids and deserve the same chance to be in a league,” said Terrio of the baseball and basketball leagues that offer opening day ceremonies, jerseys, hats, photo packages and trophies. Currently, the Terrio team is writing grants and raising money, and Tim predicts he will have the $150,000 needed to build the all-purpose field before next year’s opening day.

LAW
Matt Clark
Attorney at Chain, Cohn, Stiles
       A graduate of Garces Memorial High School, Matt Clark attended Loyola Marymount to get a degree in film and TV production. After discovering the grim reality of fickle Hollywood employment, Clark took the LSAT exam on a whim decided to enter law school. Today, at 34 years old, Clark is the youngest partner at one of the oldest law firms in Bakersfield.
      “I was recently made partner, and it’s a very nice thing. If you’re loyal and stick with a firm for a long time, prove to them to be indispensible, it happens. It doesn’t make me unique in Bakersfield, but (making partner) just happens over time with loyalty,” said Clark.
      Clark is a plaintiff personal injury attorney, who favors litigation and the constantly changing environment of his job. “I like interaction with clients and, funny as it sounds, with opposing counsel.  I’m not generally tied to a desk every day. I have new clients all the time.”
      Clark is married, has one child, and is an avid cyclist. He has served as a judge in Teen Court, a program run through the probation department for first-time offenders. He’s also on the board of directors for Clinica Sierra Vista, the largest provider of rural medical care in Kern County.
       And he’s forthright about his generation’s failings. “One thing my generation is lacking is loyalty. You have to put in the time and show interest — not just in yourself but in the firm as a whole. Any lawyer in this town who’s a partner has shown that type of loyalty and commitment.”

NON-PROFITS
Kelli Gruszka
President-elect, Junior League of Bakersfield
        Born in Kankakee, Illinois, Kelli Gruszka has both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but says she was blessed to stay home and raise her children rather than work a traditional job. After living in St. Louis and Barcelona, Spain, the family moved to Bakersfield when Gruszka’s husband, Phil, took a job with Grimmway Farms.
      While she always knew about the Junior League, Gruszka didn’t have time to participate in it while she was raising children. But after she’d lived in Bakersfield for a year, she said, “the organization reentered my radar zone as a fabulous way to get to know people. We didn’t have friends here and I found myself twiddling my thumbs. So I joined Junior League,” an organization designed to help their community through voluntarism. Gruszka will become Junior League president for 2011.
      “I sure didn’t go into this thinking I was going to be president!” she said, smiling. “I am humbled by the people around me, helping me. The other women have really encouraged me to step up and take over.”
      As president-elect, Gruszka says she will learn as much as she can and prepare herself to be the best president she can when she takes office next June, and part of her preparation is to work with the “Girls Achieve” program, which meets the needs of foster youth to prepare them as they near the age of emancipation.
      “I want to see that program take off — and I would like to increase community awareness of our organization, how dedicated we are to the community.”
PUBLIC SAFETY
Hajir Nuriddin
Captain, Bakersfield Police Department
      If the goal in any command staff is to foster trust and understand each other’s goals, then the Bakersfield Police Department has a great boot in the door with one-time motorcycle officer-turned first female captain, Hajir Nuriddin.
      Born in Bakersfield, Nuriddin earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at CSUB. She started working  for the Bakersfield Police in 1985 and after working in every department, was promoted to captain in 2010.
       “Our command staff is made up of native Bakersfieldians. We understand the community. We have 21-year-old young people enter this profession, and our objective is to make sure they understand the nobility of this profession and what it means to be a police officer, to wear a badge. What it means to this community.”
      Nuriddin says she hopes to encourage more women to think about law enforcement, too.  “My goal is to be a role model and encourage other women to enter this profession and not to let stereotypes discourage them; it’s not what you look like, but what you believe in and what you’re passionate about.”
      Over the next year, Nuriddin (who has already trained in the FBI international academy in Africa) will continue serving her community in the Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary Club and encourage women and others to “go out on the skinny branches in life.” Failure, she says, doesn’t mean to stop. She urges people to have a hungry brain; find out what your God-given talent is; and speak up for people who can’t speak for themselves.
EDUCATION
Blanca Cavazos
Task Force Administrator, Kern High School District Office of Instruction
       Up until July, Blanca Cavazos was one of the veteran principals in the Kern High School District —13 years at Arvin High School. At the close of the 2010 school year, however, Cavazos accepted a new challenge to help lead the district in an innovative and creative approach to learning.
      Born in Mexico, Cavazos moved to the United States when she was three years old and grew up in Arvin/Lamont. She graduated from Arvin High School (never imagining, at the time, that she would return as its principal) and received her bachelor’s, master’s degrees, and her teaching credential at CSUB.
      During her tenure at Arvin, Cavazos and her staff implemented “professional learning communities,” a form of assessment that utilizes a team of teachers teaching at the same grade level, teaching the same subjects, looking at the same data and adjusting their curriculum accordingly,” said Cavazos. “It’s a move away from focusing on ‘teaching,’ and a move instead to focus on ‘learning.’”
      Arvin has found success using this method, and Cavazos credits shared decision-making for the achievements. “It’s not ‘top down’ administration, but (instead), working with the staff as a team.”
      The Kern High School District created a new position for Cavazos so she could share Arvin’s methods with the other area high schools. Accepting the position, though, means leaving a campus she’s grown to love. When asked how she feels, Cavazos groans.
      “I’m in mourning!” she says. “It’s hard to leave as principal, but I’m pleased with the appointment of the new principal.”

OIL
Ed Ganzonatti
CEO of ELCO, Inc. and ELCO Middle East, LLC

      In 1991, Ed Ganzonatti started ELCO, Inc. from scratch with four employees and a modest, 2,000 square foot facility. Sure, he wasn’t totally unfamiliar with the oil business or wellhead production; he began working in a family oilfield equipment company in 1979 and slowly gained enough experience to feel comfortable striking out on his own.
      Today, it’s fair to say Ganzonatti found success. Besides employing 200 people, he also has a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and a 20,000-square-foot building in Bakersfield on seven acres. Ganzonatti also acquired another wellhead business, Shaffer Oil Tool, and made it a part of the ELCO group, which now has operations in Rio Vista and Fontana, and plans to expand to Texas and Colorado, as well.
      Ganzonatti, born in Bakersfield but raised in Fresno, has worldwide goals. “We’ve become a presence in Bakersfield, but we’ve expanded internationally, as well.”
      He’s talking about ELCO Middle East, LLC, a division of the company that recently opened a location in Oman, and ELCO’s sales office in Cairo, Egypt.
      “We started one of the first U.S. owned Omani corporations, in Oman, owned by Americans, prior to the free trade agreement with the United States that allowed us to form an Omani corporation.”
      ELCO sells and services wellheads worldwide but plans to expand internationally into Kuwait and other countries in the United Arab Emirates.
      And it all started with their worldwide headquarters in Bakersfield. “We had four employees, and one of them was me,” said Ganzonatti. “And we just grew from there.”
GOVERNMENT
Lorelei Oviatt
Kern County Planning and Community Development Director
       Lorelei Oviatt has worked for the Kern County Planning Department for 14 years. Four months ago, she was promoted to the top and is now accountable for the entire department. And that’s OK with her. She’s had plenty of practice.
      Born in Hollywood, Florida, Oviatt is married with four children and two grandchildren. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from CSUB and has been a professional planner for 30 years. She’s also the director of the Southern Section of the Central Division of AICP, the American Institute of Certified Planners.
      In Kern County, she is responsible for quality of life issues the community and land use planning for 8,000 square miles, a job she seems born to do.  Her plans for her new role in 2010 are to encourage new business growth and provide homeowners with methods to reduce energy costs.
      “We will continue the work we’re doing in conjunction with the City of Bakersfield, encouraging people to bring in new business, ensuring that we have parks, walking paths, trails—the kinds of things people want in their community that already make Bakersfield a great place to live.”
      Oviatt is encouraged by Bakersfield’s reputation as the center of green energy for California. “We want to continue to have more innovative green projects and supplemental things homeowners can do to lower energy costs, and that we can continue to create a community that can be sustainable into the future.”
 
 

Adam Icardo
Co-owner, Gary Icardo Farms
      The name Icardo in Bakersfield is synonymous with integrity and farming. Adam Icardo is carrying on that family tradition by learning everything he can from his father, Gary, and remembering the lessons he learned from his grandfather — the late Jimmie Icardo, after whom the Icardo Center at CSUB is named.
      A Garces Memorial High School graduate, Icardo attended Cal Poly for Ag Business. Although he said he had “ideas of grandeur” to be a doctor or a lawyer, he knew all along that farming was in his blood.
      “I’m an only child, but Dad said to do what I want to do. He also said you have to be a jack of all trades to be in farming, and now I really understand what he meant!” said Icardo, 36.
      While traditional harvests of Icardo Farms are vegetables and melons, the newest crop is almonds. This season, the almond orchard will be in its first full production.
      “Almonds are becoming very popular and a very healthy item. We’ve gotten in at a pretty good time,” he said.
      Icardo said that while his family will continue to farm their staple crops, he says they need to change with the times if they are to stay viable.
     “Looking to make life and yourself better, you can’t become stagnant. You’ve got to change yourself and take a few intelligent risks. So many things are changing in the world that put a strain on certain areas of your operation. We need to change with the times.”
SPORTS
Megan Langenfeld
UCLA, Pac-10 Player of the Year
       Megan Langenfeld has been playing softball for 14 years. With determination and tireless practice, she dreamed of playing for a Pac-10 university team.
       It happened. Langenfeld, now 22, is finishing her senior year at UCLA, where she led the 2010 team to their 11th national softball title, the university’s 106th championship. Playing first base and pitcher, Langenfeld rounded out her senior season with a few distinctions.
       “I was Pac-10 Player of the Year, 1st Team All American, 1st Team All West Region, and at the World Series, I was the Most Outstanding Player,” Langenfeld said. She also made the National Futures Team, a team similar to the Olympic team if this were an Olympic year.
      Langenfeld graduated from Centennial High in 2006 and comes from a tightly woven family. Her parents split their time between her softball games and her brother, Matt’s, baseball games, often driving (or flying) different directions in the same week. At UCLA, Megan will finish her bachelor’s degree in economics this fall. After that, she has a choice to make.
      “I could be playing in Japan for the Japanese league (for a big paycheck) or stay close to L.A. and work with the UCLA softball team during the spring quarter.”
      But before all that — an outstanding honor: Langenfeld was one of four college women nominated for an ESPY Award (the sporting world’s equivalent to the Academy Awards) in the “Best Collegiate Female Athlete” category. 
      “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Langenfeld. “My brother is flying from Hawaii just to attend the ESPYs with me. I can’t wait.”

BUSINESS
Jay Tamsi
Chair-elect, Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
       At 31-years old, Jay Tamsi has already donated more time to service organizations, boards, and nonprofit events than most people will in a lifetime. On a short list, Tamsi is on 10 boards and works with nine civic organizations at present, and he finds time to participate in at least a dozen more non-profit events throughout the year.
      “I believe it’s important to give back to the community and especially get involved in the political process that affects the city you live in,” he said. “There is no greater feeling than helping others and making a difference in the lives of those that surround us.”
      It isn’t that Tamsi has more free time than others do. To the contrary, Tamsi has a full-time job with Dryer’s Ice Cream as a senior formulations specialist. He’s a graduate of CSUB and plans to begin his master’s classes in 2011.
       But perhaps the most exciting position for Tamsi in 2011 will be as the chairman of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the largest Hispanic business organization in the region.
      “My plan for next year is to create innovative and influential business classes, programs and opportunities that will assist our members and boost economic development in Kern County. I also want to expand membership to create a larger networking environment,” said Tamsi, who isn’t discounting the possibility of becoming a public servant one day.
      “I plan to continue to take on leadership positions in Kern County and, who knows down the road —maybe a political career.”