An entrepreneurial scientist who develops new life-saving drugs and the chairman and president of BAC Community Bank lead a spectacular group of alumni receiving University of the Pacific’s Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Joining Jie Du ’90, '93 and Ron Berberian ’65 are Robert Hanyak ’79, Halima Lucas ’13 and Calvester Stanley ’79. The awardees will be celebrated at the 65th Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony on March 1 in the Don and Karen DeRosa University Center on the Stockton Campus.

Ron Berberian ’65

Medallion of Excellence 
Honors alumni who are faculty, staff or regents and have exhibited exceptional service to the university, their profession and the community

Former Regent Berberian is deeply invested in Pacific and the Stockton community.

Berberian holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Pacific. As a Regent from 2012 to 2021, he participated in planning and launching the $300 million Leading with Purpose Campaign and helped Pacific successfully navigate the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A 34-year Pacific Loyal donor, Berberian has made philanthropic contributions to the university, including to Pacific Athletics, where he created and enhanced multiple golf scholarships and funded renovations of the Alex C. Spanos Center and Klein Family Field.

Appointed by then-president George W. Bush to the Kennedy Center Advisory Committee on the Arts, Berberian was instrumental in bringing the Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences on Tour to Pacific beginning in 2001. His support helped more than 24,000 local schoolchildren enjoy free performances.

He is chairman and president of BAC Community Bank and the owner of Bell Wine Cellars and Mercedes-Benz of Stockton. His community involvement also includes board service for the San Joaquin County YMCA and the Dameron Hospital Foundation.

Berberian is married to current Pacific Regent Dea (Spanos) Berberian. The Spanos Family received the Pacific Alumni Association’s Outstanding Family Award in 2002.

Regent Jie Du ’90, ’93

Distinguished Professional Service Award
Honors alumni who have achieved notable career success

Du is a pharmaceutical executive, inventor and serial entrepreneur who holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy.

After a successful corporate career in industry she founded JDP Therapeutics, serving as its CEO and president for a decade while she created and developed Quzyttir, an injectable drug to treat acute allergic reactions. She singlehandedly conceived the drug, completed all the research and development and fundraised to launch her company. In 2019 she sold JDP to TerSera Therapeutics to bring her drug to market. She now works for TerSera as a consultant.

During her early career, Du worked for Abbott, Merck and URL Pharma and co-founded Frontage Laboratories. In 2020, she donated $5 million to Pacific to establish the Jie Du Center for Innovation and Excellence for Drug Development, which provides pharmacy students vital experiential learning opportunities by focusing on new drug development, collaborations between industrial and academic scientists and pharmaceutical entrepreneurship.

Du has served on Pacific’s Board of Regents since 2022. She is based in Philadelphia, where she also sits on the board of Gwynedd Mercy University.

Robert Hanyak ’79

Distinguished University Service Award
Honors alumni whose contributions to, and efforts on behalf of, University of the Pacific are worthy of special recognition.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders, Hanyak taught audiology and speech-language pathology at Pacific for nearly 35 years. As an administrator in the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, he oversaw construction of the Chan Family Learning Center on the Stockton Campus. He was instrumental in developing the School of Health Sciences and retired as its interim director in 2020.

He also is the founding chair of Pacific’s Doctor of Audiology program and treated patients in its Hearing and Balance Center for more than 15 years.

Hanyak and his wife Martha are 44-year Pacific Loyal donors who have endowed four scholarships and a travel fund supporting speech-language pathology and audiology students. They also have remembered Pacific in their estate plans.

Hanyak received a Faculty Mentor Award in 2017, was the 2018 Speech-Language Pathology Alumnus of the Year and received the Order of Pacific when he retired. The award is the university’s highest honor. 

Halima Lucas ’13

Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Honors alumni of distinction who attended Pacific within the last 15 years.

Lucas is a storyteller with a passion for amplifying marginalized voices. She cultivated her love for filmmaking at Pacific before earning an MFA in film and TV production from the University of Southern California. Her master’s thesis film earned her the American Black Film Festival HBO Short Film Award in 2017.

Lucas wrote and developed shows for Nickelodeon before transitioning to Disney Television Animation, where she is a writer, story editor and producer for Marvel’s “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” She also developed two Disney Junior series and wrote an anti-racism short for Disney. Her work has received numerous accolades, including a Film Wanderer Award for best short film and official selections in the Sacramento International Film Festival and the San Francisco Black Film Festival.

Lucas earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Pacific and was a Community Involvement Program Scholar. She received the university’s Women of Distinction Award in 2019.
 

Calvester Stanley ’79

Distinguished Public Service Award
Honors alumni who have made exceptional professional contributions to society through civic or public service.

Stanley joined the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland as a junior staff member at age 14. His distinguished service to Oakland and Central Valley youth would span the next five decades.

While attending Pacific, Stanley served as director of education for the Stockton Boys Club. After graduating, he directed the West Fresno Boys Club, then returned to Oakland to lead the Outreach Program at Emerson Elementary School before rejoining the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland in 1988. He became president and CEO in 1992, a role he held for the next 31 years.

Stanley also has served the nationwide organization in numerous ways, including on the national board of the Association of Boys & Girls Clubs Professionals. He is a recognized leader in community partnerships, donor cultivation and program development and his achievements have been honored by the City of Oakland, the Golden State Warriors and the 100 Club.

Stanley holds a bachelor’s degree in recreation from Pacific.