People

Spotlight on achievers

Arlene Cheng,

Dorothy Strauss,

Eric Nelson, and

Dr. Michael Berns

UC Irvine

They were awarded the UCI Medal, the university’s highest honor, at recent ceremonies at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel. Arlene Cheng, a music educator, is a leading benefactor of UCI and the performing arts. In 1990, the auditorium of the Irvine Barclay Theatre was named Cheng Hall in recognition of Arlene and husband George Cheng. Eric Nelson, founder of Nelson Research and Development Co., is a member of the UCI Foundation board and with wife, Lila, has supported an endowed chair in pharmacology. The Nelsons are also contributors to the Nelson Auditorium and numerous campus programs. Dorothy Strauss, a retired college English instructor, is an active member of the UCI Alumni Assn. board and several other campus organizations. Dr. Michael Berns, a pioneer in the medical use of lasers and a UCI faculty member since 1972, has raised more than $26 million for the campus. Cheng, Nelson and Strauss are Newport Beach residents. Berns lives in Coto de Caza.

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Todd Ferguson

School board member, Tustin Unified

Ferguson, vice president and clerk of the Tustin Unified School District Board of Education, has been inducted into the Midland Lutheran College Athletic Hall of Fame for athletic achievements while a student at the school in Fremont, Neb. From 1961 to 1965, Ferguson excelled in cross country and track. He joined the Marines and set a Navy pre-flight training cross country course record in 1965. He then became a track coach at Cal State Fullerton, where he took the team to the cross country national championships in 1971 and 1972. Ferguson is a science teacher at Yorba Linda Middle School and has coached the school’s cross country, track, football, basketball and softball teams.

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Dr. Park Elliott Dietz

Forensic psychiatrist, Newport Beach

Dietz was recently installed as the new president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Dietz has given expert testimony in numerous high-profile criminal cases including those of John W. Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and consultant to the FBI. *

Greg Bills

Author, Irvine

Bills, 29, a part-time writing instructor at Irvine Valley College, recently published his first novel, “Consider This Home,” a story about a woman raised in a Mormon community in rural Utah who marries a religious zealot. Bills, a graduate of the UCI graduate writing program, was raised in Midville, Utah, near where his story takes place.

--COMPILED BY BERT ELJERA, RUSS LOAR AND HOLLY J. WAGNER