Alumni Spotlight: The Yoho Family

The Yoho family is a CSULB Alumni family, consisting of Steve Yoho, his wife, Nancy, and their two kids Dan and Alison. Steve Yoho graduated from the College of Business with a degree in finance in 1982, while Nancy graduated in 1981 from the College of Liberal Arts with a degree in Geography. Dan and Alison followed their mother into the geography field, graduating in ‘08 and ‘13, respectively. Alison also earned her master’s in Geography in’16. With most of the family being in geography, they have endowed the Yoho Family scholarship, awarding Geography majors in their junior or senior year.

Steve Yoho had a successful career working at Northrup Grumman, and while he retired, he is still active in the CSULB Alumni community. For 6 years he has volunteered been a mentor for the Student Center for Professional Development (SCPD). He will be leaving for an SCPD leadership training retreat in Big Bear.

Steve and Nancy Yoho, both proud alums of CSULB

Steve says, “a lot of students I mentor are very appreciative of alumni help and they ask me how they can repay me, and I tell them I don’t expect them to repay me, but to keep paying it forward.” Steve and Nancy both believe in helping students in their educational journey as Nancy believes, “education is the key to success” Steve has recently endowed a College of Business scholarship that will be open for applications next semester.

Before retiring, Nancy also had a successful career at a mapping company called Thomas Brothers Maps. Steve praised his wife saying, “she was 1 of 5 people that started computer mapping and he became a Vice President of Global Information Systems (GIS) at Thomas Bros.” Nancy was also the Vice President at Rand McNally and became the Associate Director of the Long Beach City College foundation.

After retiring, Nancy became a part of the Alumni board at CSULB where she said, “she helped bring other alumni back to the college” and spoke at events to promote the Alumni Association. Her advice is for “students to become more aware of what’s going on at CSULB.” For current Geography majors, she believes it is an exciting time for the field as there are “so many more opportunities for geography majors and GIS is used in so many types of businesses.”

Dan Yoho is in Virginia, working for the federal government in GIS. Despite being on the east coast, Nancy says “he still wears all his CSULB gear.” Both Dan and Alison grew up viewing maps and feel in love with Geography through that.

Alison was an engineering major originally, but switched in her junior year, feeling she was missing something. Alison is now employed at Southern California Edison, also working in the GIS field. Nacy was very prod as she said, “It’s pretty amazing to see our kids grow and work in their field of study.”

The Yoho family are proud CSULB alumni, and they express that through giving back to the community and to students. They want to spread the message of giving back, paying help, and kindness forward. They are big Baseball and Basketball fans, with season passes to CSULB basketball, so do not be surprised to see them at a game, showing their Long Beach pride.