Each year, the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrates the accomplishments of our exemplary alumni. Meet the 2025 honorees.

Nursing student Liubov “Luba” Buklemisheva is making a bold career change from journalism and medical marketing to hands-on patient care.

The small shells found by researchers that include California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier at La Roche-à-Pierrot, a prehistoric archaeological site in Saint-Césaire, France, date back more than 42,000 years, providing evidence of the oldest workshops for the manufacture of shell ornaments in that area.

CSUN alumna Jenée Ornelas is experiencing a full-circle moment — from playfield to stewardship — as she pioneers a new job with Los Angeles County’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

The “El Rescate Collection, 1977-2016” offers a unique perspective of an El Salvador torn apart by civil war during the 1980s and the conflict’s impact on its people, many of whom sought refuge in the United States, especially Los Angeles.