Awardee Biographies

Michael A. Dauber

Outstanding Full-Time MBA Student

Michael Dauber is a Full-Time MBA candidate at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, concentrating in Digital Innovation and Information Systems. During her time at Graziadio, she developed a strong foundation in strategic thinking and data-driven decision-making, strengthening her ability to approach complex challenges with structure, clarity, and purpose. She is sincerely grateful for the scholarship support she received, as it made this experience possible.

She currently serves as Secretary of the Graziadio Business of Beauty Club, where she manages internal communications, distributes updates to the student body, supports event logistics, and helps ensure the smooth execution of club programming and industry visits with leading beauty companies. In this role, she has enhanced coordination between students and industry partners. Professionally, she gained experience through a wealth management internship at Morgan Stanley, supporting portfolio analysis and client strategy initiatives. Separately, she supported a Pepperdine professor by conducting research for an upcoming book on leadership and women’s agency and assisting with manuscript development and formatting.

As she prepares to graduate, Michael is focused on pursuing mission-driven opportunities, particularly within government and public-sector organizations. She is eager to apply her analytical strengths, structured approach, and commitment to service to improve operations, strengthen institutional effectiveness, and contribute meaningfully to the communities these institutions serve.

She leaves Graziadio proud of her growth and prepared to carry that foundation into the next chapter of her career.

Leo Moronta Blanco

Outstanding Part-Time MBA Student

Leonardo (Leo) Moronta Blanco will graduate from the Pepperdine Graziadio Part-Time MBA program in Spring 2027, concentrating in General Management with an emphasis on strategy and entrepreneurship. He has approached his graduate studies with a focus on expanding his leadership range and strategic business acumen, strengthening his foundation to lead across functions and industries. Recognized for his academic rigor and leadership within the program, Leo strives to embody the values of integrity, collaboration, and excellence central to the Pepperdine experience.

Leo began his career in Boston, MA, earning his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University with a concentration in Entrepreneurship & New Venture
Management. After graduation, he moved to Southern California to launch a patented suspension skateboard product, marking the beginning of his hands-on approach to building and scaling ventures. He went on to manage multimillion-dollar advertising investments for one of the largest media companies in the United States before expanding into revenue operations and operational strategy, where he focused on building scalable systems and leading cross-functional initiatives.

With an entrepreneurial blend of strategy, leadership, and operational execution, he currently serves as Director of Digital Strategy for a leading enterprise AI company. In this role, he helps lead a business division focused on AI-driven performance marketing, productizing data and AI solutions to deliver measurable growth for health and wellness organizations.

In his free time, Leo enjoys surfing, skateboarding, and spending time with loved ones. He dedicates this George Award to his two parents, Gissell and Raul Moronta, who instilled in him the values of integrity and tireless work ethic, and whose unwavering support has fueled his
professional and personal journey.

Courtney Racquel Schemansky 

Outstanding Online Student

Courtney Schemansky recently completed her MBA at Pepperdine in December and will walk the stage to receive her diploma at graduation this April. She chose a concentration in Marketing and is driven by a combination of creativity, data, and execution. Courtney aims to apply her MBA to a career path where she can work with companies to align their business goals with customer needs, creating a competitive advantage and scalable growth.

Courtney has worked full-time while completing her MBA online at night. Although she earned her MBA remotely, she was a leader on numerous boards serving as a chair on the Student Advisory Board and the Diversity and Belonging Council. Alongside her hours at Pepperdine, she has worked for 4 years at a commercial real estate tech company, bridging the gap between cutting-edge real estate technology and the people who use it. Championing customer growth by turning data into actionable insights and partnering with clients to streamline operations and unlock their full potential by using their platform.

In addition to her academic and professional achievements, Courtney has a strong global perspective. Spending two years living in France, Courtney immersed herself in local culture, built meaningful relationships across linguistic barriers, and deepened her global perspective through extensive travel. This fostered personal growth by sharpening her ability to interpret consumer behavior, adapt messaging for diverse audiences, and build empathy-driven insights. Courtney plans to apply her exposure to varied cultural norms to a career where she can use her broadened perspective on segmentation, positioning, and customer experience, enabling her to approach marketing challenges with a more globally formed mindset.

Courtney resides in Arizona with her Golden Retriever, Ripley and partner, Preston. Reflecting on her time at Pepperdine, she is incredibly grateful for the support of Preston, her family, and a cohort that turned late nights and group projects into friendships that she plans to carry well beyond the program.

Courtney dedicates this award to her dad, Kevin, who has stood behind every dream she has ever chased and believed in her long before she believed in herself, and continually pushed her toward success. To Courtney, this achievement is just as much his as it is hers.

Kimberly S. Chavez-Duque

Outstanding BSM Student 

Kimberly Chavez-Duque is an entrepreneurial leader, global strategist, mentor, and resilient innovator whose life reflects discipline, service, and purpose-driven ambition. Of Guatemalan descent and raised in a bicultural immigrant household, she developed an early appreciation for perseverance, stewardship, and generational advancement — values that continue to shape her leadership. As a Bachelor of Science in Management candidate at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, she has distinguished herself not only through academic excellence but also through meaningful contributions to the classroom environment within the Graziadio Entrepreneurship Program.

A devoted wife and mother, Kimberly has pursued her education and entrepreneurial vision while remaining committed to her family. Becoming a mother at 17 — a statistical outlier who rewrote her trajectory — she transformed early responsibility into discipline, long-term vision, and generational purpose. While in her fifth trimester at Graziadio — just one trimester from graduation — and pregnant with her first daughter, she faced and overcame cancer. This experience profoundly shaped her perspective on strength, service, and impact. Rather than allowing adversity to define her limitations, she transformed it into motivation to build ventures that restore dignity and confidence to others facing medical hardship. Born from her work within the Graziadio entrepreneurship program, It’s a Wrap™ emerged as a modular, bamboo-based headwear venture where medical need meets style — designed to support individuals experiencing hair loss due to medical treatment or hair transitions, while empowering broader communities through inclusive, innovative design.

In the classroom, Kimberly is known for integrating theory with lived experience, drawing on global insights from having worked, lived, and visited in more than 15 countries. Her Guatemalan heritage, combined with her bicultural residency in both Colombia and the United States, informs her perspective on cross-border supply chains, ethical globalization, and socially conscious business strategy. She consistently elevates peer discussions by applying venture growth frameworks, global economic analysis, and financial modeling to real-world implementation.

Kimberly’s professional background reflects both public service and operational rigor. She earned an Associate of Science in Public Policy and an Associate of Arts in Natural Science from Santa Monica College, where she served as a police cadet. She later spent five years as an accountant for a small-business real estate firm and now works as an independent consultant in property management and small claims advisory. She also serves as an advanced tutor and mentor, providing academic guidance and encouragement to students.

At age 21, Kimberly sponsored her parents’ U.S. citizenship — a milestone that reflects both responsibility and generational progress. Today, she carries that legacy forward not only through enterprise and service but through the example she sets for her children. An accomplished dancer who has performed internationally in the United States, Beijing, Shanghai, Panama, Benin, and Colombia, she reflects Graziadio’s mission to cultivate leaders grounded in resilience, enterprise, and global impact.

Victor Shahen Shahnazarian

Outstanding MSAF Student

Victor Shahnazarian is a finance professional and capital markets specialist with a background spanning healthcare sciences, corporate finance, and global macro investing. Victor has channeled the values his family instilled in him into a meaningful career in finance and a genuine commitment to giving back to his community.

Victor holds a Bachelor of Science in Pre-Medical and Health Studies from MCPHS University and a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from California State University San Bernardino. He is a graduate of the Master of Science in Applied Finance program at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School.

Professionally, Victor serves as a Senior Associate at White Lion Capital, a family office focused on capital markets activity within the small and microcap space, where he works across strategic partnerships, venture and private equity transactions, and broader capital markets engagements. Prior to White Lion, he served as a Mergers and Acquisitions Research Analyst at Global Capital Markets under industry veteran Vince Monteparte. Outside his institutional work, Victor manages his own global macro portfolio, focusing on foreign exchange markets and taking positions informed by macroeconomic regime analysis.

At Pepperdine Graziadio, Victor served as Vice President and President of the Graziadio Student Investment Fund, worked as a Research Associate to Dr. Joseph Cheng, participated in the Bryant Stibel Alternative Investments course, and captained the Pepperdine team in the CFA Institute Investment Research Challenge, representing the school in one of the most competitive student investment research competitions nationally.

Victor is also the founder of a financial literacy program serving members of his local community. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, live music, and time with friends and family.

He dedicates this award to his mother, Alenoosh, his father, Vachik, and his brother, Vartan, and friends, who have shaped him into the person he is today, and to his mentors, Dr. Clemens Kownatzki, Dr. Joseph Cheng, Dr. Levan Efremidze, Andy Peters, and Alan Uryniak, whose guidance has been invaluable throughout his journey.

Todd J. Schofield

Outstanding Executive DBA Student 

Todd Schofield is a Worldwide Industry Lead for Financial Services. He drives industry transformation through digitization, mobility, and differentiated experience for customers and employees. He is a former Managing Director at Standard Chartered Bank, where he founded and managed the bank’s Global Innovation Office and established its Enterprise Mobility Group. Schofield holds Global Executive MBA degrees from UCLA and the National University of Singapore, and received his Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. He was previously an Executive-in-Residence and Open Innovation Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Doreen Shanahan

Outstanding Faculty Award

Dr. Shanahan is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Graziadio School of Business, known for her focus on applied and experiential learning and for launching the school’s E2B program, which connects students with companies to solve real business challenges. She has developed hundreds of E2B cases and stays closely connected to industry through speaking and consulting. Her current research examines how consumers and organizations adopt and use technology.

Gene Eidelman (MBA '19)

Waves of Service Alumni Award

Gene Eidelman co-founded Azure Printed Homes in 2022 after more than 35 years as a real estate developer. Driven in part by firsthand experience helping communities rebuild after wildfires, Gene and his team are breaking new ground with a patented 3D-printing–enabled construction process that combines modular and prefab systems. This eco-friendly approach is up to 70% faster and approximately 30% more cost-effective than traditional construction, fundamentally rethinking how homes are built.

Following the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, Azure has been actively supporting homeowners in rebuilding efforts—providing rapid-deploy housing solutions, feasibility studies, and scalable construction strategies designed to help families return home faster while improving long-term resilience. This work has reinforced Azure’s mission to deliver durable, sustainable housing solutions when speed and certainty matter most.

Azure’s current state-of-the-art factory is located in Los Angeles, and the company has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being named Pepperdine’s 2025 Most Fundable Company and earning a place on TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025 list. Azure is now establishing additional factories across the United States and internationally in 2026 to meet growing demand.

Gene is a sought-after speaker on innovation and sustainability. In 2024, he delivered a TEDx talk on the future of housing that has surpassed one million views and has been recognized as one of the most impactful TED talks of the century. He is also the author of From Ashes to Action: A Survivor’s Guide to Rebuilding After Wildfires, an Amazon International Bestseller. Through his leadership, Gene is helping shape a future where resilient, affordable, and sustainable housing is accessible to communities everywhere.

Rodrigo Gonzalez (MBA '11)

Outstanding Alumni Winner 

Rodrigo Gonzalez is the Founder and Managing Partner of DEODATE, an international corporate real estate strategy and portfolio program management firm. DEODATE consultants have advised corporations, private equity groups, and governments on nearly $5.5 billion of real estate and facilities engagements across its five business lines: Valuation, Portfolio Optimization, Construction and Project Management, Strategic Advisement and Corporate and Government Real Estate. Engagements have been completed across America, Canada and Mexico.

Today, DEODATE is one of the largest real estate-focused management consulting firms in the Western US and has offices in Pasadena, CA and Kansas City, MO.

Rodrigo has been recognized as one of the foremost real estate strategists in the country for corporations and governments and is as a multi-year nominee for the Los Angeles Business Journal Brokerage Executive of the Year Award and has been named a GlobeSt.com Retail Influencer. DEODATE was also nominated as a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Company of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), the Real Estate Executives Forum (REEF), and a Fellow of the NAIC Next Generation Private Equity Program.

Rodrigo holds an MBA from The Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and a BA from UC Irvine. He has completed executive programs in Real Estate Private Equity at NYU, Construction Management at Columbia University, and is a graduate of Stanford’s Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative.

He currently serves as President of the Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing Alliance which is the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Housing Authority and as a National Board Member for the Catholic Association for Latino Leadership.

Rodrigo lives in Pasadena with his wife of 16 years, Diana, and their two children, Isaac (11) and Penelope (9).

Rafael Rivera at PIHRA 

Outstanding Corporate Leadership Award

Rafael Rivera is Chief Executive Officer of the Professionals In Human Resources Association (PIHRA), a professional association serving Southern California HR professionals through local communities. He oversees the organization’s strategic evolution, expanding its reach and impact across California among HR professionals whose work affects more than two million employees statewide.

Since assuming leadership in 2010, Rafael has guided PIHRA’s transformation into a modern, forward-looking association. Under his direction, PIHRA has expanded its professional and student communities, strengthened continuing education and credential advancement opportunities, and embraced innovation to elevate member engagement and organizational performance.

Rafael is a 2008 alumnus of the Executive MBA program at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. With more than two decades of executive experience across mission-driven and corporate organizations, he is recognized for building growth-oriented ecosystems that connect leaders, develop talent, and help organizations navigate the changing world of work.