Bruin Success

Ryan Dusick is an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist with an MA in Clinical Psychology and the founding drummer of the world’s most popular band, Maroon 5.

As a boy, he dreamt of pitching for the Dodgers and writing adventure novels. Arm injuries sidelined his burgeoning baseball career, just as rock music became his new passion and purpose. Founding the band Kara’s Flowers in 1994 with fellow Brentwood High School students Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Adam Levine, Ryan worked tirelessly through his college years at UCLA before the band changed its name to Maroon 5 and finally had its first hit record, Songs About Jane. Multiple hit songs, two Grammy Awards, and 20 million albums sold later, Ryan found himself suffering and without direction as his career as a performer came to an end, just as it was taking off.

Struggling with physical and mental health challenges, Ryan finally overcame his struggles in 2016, when he began his journey of recovery, culminating in a new life path full of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Now working as a mental health professional at The Missing Peace Center for Anxiety in Agoura Hills, CA, Ryan is spreading the message that recovery is possible, and some astounding things can come with it.

Natasha Case is the co-founder of Coolhaus Ice Cream. She created the company with Freya Estreller in 2009 because they did not feel represented by the ice cream brands on shelves and knew they could create higher quality and more unique ice cream with a more authentic story. They launched their ice cream sandwich company from a barely-drivable postal van at the Coachella Music Festival where the brand went viral. Since then, Coolhaus has scaled to a national fleet of trucks in LA and NYC, a flagship store and innovation center in Culver City, and a national grocery business of ice cream sammies, pints, cups, mini sammies, and cones in stores ranging from Whole Foods to Sprouts to Kroger. They launched a very successful dairy-free ice cream line (made from peas & brown rice!) in 2019. Natasha remained the CEO until Coolhaus was acquired by Perfect Day under their CPG umbrella company with a mission to make more sustainable products without compromise in December of 2021. 

Natasha took on a founding CEO role with Lunch Bunch in August of 2022. As a mom of a three and six year-old, she felt close to the systemic issues around feeding our kids and feeding them well. Lunch Bunch takes a holistic approach to tackling the problem by providing nutritious, balanced, and healthy meals along with offering culinary, gardening and food entrepreneurship enrichment classes. Essentially: the way we will treat our society is by including kids in the conversation and process of eating better, while we offer them wholesome food options. Lunch Bunch will give them inspiration around food they can pass on for generations to come.

Natasha is devoted to transformational positive change by creating mission-led businesses. At Coolhaus, she devoted her work to the next generation of women and LGBTQ founders, entrepreneurs, and creators of diverse backgrounds to feel empowered to turn their dreams into realities in an equitable environment. Natasha partnered with Black Girl Ventures to create ice cream to raise funds for entrepreneurial grants, the Okra Foundation for Pride to create a flavor called EnjoyMINT for All, celebrating our differences through a top 8 allergen-free ice cream, and she is committed to teaching courses and frequent public speaking engagements to push the envelope for the next generation. At Lunch Bunch, core partners include National School Lunch subsidized programs for under-resourced schools and communities including Compton YAL, Roenne’s School and culinary and gardening enrichments at Camp Harmony for homeless and vulnerable children.

Natasha has been named a Forbes 30 under 30 Food & Beverage, Zagat 30 Under 30, LinkedIn 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, 10 Most Successful Women in Business by Leaders Globe, and UCLA’s LGBTQ+ 2019 Alum of the Year. She is a published author of the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book which came out in 2014 and was featured on Good Morning America and named as one of Martha Stewart’s favorites. She has been featured in many national publications and media outlets like Entrepreneur, LA Times, and Bon Appetit, and has judged Food Network’s Chopped, King of Cones, and Top Chef Jr. She co-hosted her own podcast, ‘Start to Sale’ through Eater/Vox Media. In 2019, she joined YPO in the Beverly Hills chapter. Natasha is a board member of UCLA Arts Dept, Larchmont Charter School, Startup UCLA, Naturally LA and a member of the Lyft Council (Los Angeles). In 2022 she completed the Victory Institute training for LGBTQ+ leaders of tomorrow. 

Ryan Dusick is an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist with an MA in Clinical Psychology and the founding drummer of the world’s most popular band, Maroon 5.

As a boy, he dreamt of pitching for the Dodgers and writing adventure novels. Arm injuries sidelined his burgeoning baseball career, just as rock music became his new passion and purpose. Founding the band Kara’s Flowers in 1994 with fellow Brentwood High School students Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Adam Levine, Ryan worked tirelessly through his college years at UCLA before the band changed its name to Maroon 5 and finally had its first hit record, Songs About Jane. Multiple hit songs, two Grammy Awards, and 20 million albums sold later, Ryan found himself suffering and without direction as his career as a performer came to an end, just as it was taking off.

Struggling with physical and mental health challenges, Ryan finally overcame his struggles in 2016, when he began his journey of recovery, culminating in a new life path full of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Now working as a mental health professional at The Missing Peace Center for Anxiety in Agoura Hills, CA, Ryan is spreading the message that recovery is possible, and some astounding things can come with it.

Natasha Case is the co-founder of Coolhaus Ice Cream. She created the company with Freya Estreller in 2009 because they did not feel represented by the ice cream brands on shelves and knew they could create higher quality and more unique ice cream with a more authentic story. They launched their ice cream sandwich company from a barely-drivable postal van at the Coachella Music Festival where the brand went viral. Since then, Coolhaus has scaled to a national fleet of trucks in LA and NYC, a flagship store and innovation center in Culver City, and a national grocery business of ice cream sammies, pints, cups, mini sammies, and cones in stores ranging from Whole Foods to Sprouts to Kroger. They launched a very successful dairy-free ice cream line (made from peas & brown rice!) in 2019. Natasha remained the CEO until Coolhaus was acquired by Perfect Day under their CPG umbrella company with a mission to make more sustainable products without compromise in December of 2021. 

Natasha took on a founding CEO role with Lunch Bunch in August of 2022. By then as a mom of a two and five year old, she was driven by the idea of using creative eating experiences to inspire curiosity in even the pickiest of eaters… while also tackling a massive issue for parents around frustrations with packing lunch from a time, management, shopping, quality, cleaning and stress/guilt perspective. She plans to make Lunch Bunch not only a convenient meal delivery platform, but also a merchandise and content world to revolutionize our relationship to food and the way we eat.

Natasha is devoted to transformational positive change by creating mission-led businesses. At Coolhaus, she devoted her work to the next generation of women and LGBTQ founders, entrepreneurs, and creators of diverse backgrounds to feel empowered to turn their dreams into realities in an equitable environment. Natasha partnered with Black Girl Ventures to create ice cream to raise funds for entrepreneurial grants, the Okra Foundation for Pride to create a flavor called EnjoyMINT for All, celebrating our differences through a top 8 allergen-free ice cream, and she is committed to teaching courses and frequent public speaking engagements to push the envelope for the next generation. She looks forward to bringing this ethos into the Lunch Bunch business.

Natasha has been named a Forbes 30 under 30 Food & Beverage, Zagat 30 Under 30, LinkedIn 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, 10 Most Successful Women in Business by Leaders Globe, and UCLA’s LGBTQ+ 2019 Alum of the Year. She is a published author of the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book which came out in 2014 and was featured on Good Morning America and named as one of Martha Stewart’s favorites. She has been featured in many national publications and media outlets like Entrepreneur, LA Times, and Bon Appetit, and has judged Food Network’s Chopped, King of Cones, and Top Chef Jr. She co-hosted her own podcast, ‘Start to Sale’ through Eater/Vox Media. In 2019, she joined YPO in the Beverly Hills chapter. Natasha is a board member of UCLA Arts Dept, Larchmont Charter School, Startup UCLA, Naturally LA and a member of the Lyft Council (Los Angeles). In 2022 she completed the Victory Institute training for LGBTQ+ leaders of tomorrow.

Garin Hussenjian received her BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing from UCLA in 1996. In 1999, she completed her MFA in Film from Art Center College of Design and in 2000 her short film, Single Moments, was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Initially working in film production as an independent freelance producer and unit production manager, she branched out to work in a variety of fields. This included founding her own Japanese stationery importing company, managing an aerospace engineering company, and most recently, working for the City of Beverly Hills. Within the City of Beverly Hills, she’s held many roles including Public Information Coordinator, Community Outreach Manager, and Deputy Director of Special Projects. To every role, Garin brings some common threads – being an expert listener and communicator, bringing out the best in individuals so teams can achieve their goals.

Corey currently serves as a Vice President of Global Philanthropy with JPMorgan Chase & Co where he helps to manage a grant portfolio in Los Angeles that aligns with the strategic impact objectives of the company. He also plays a key role in building partnerships to bolster the company's overarching Corporate Responsibility initiatives in the region. Previously, Corey served as the Chief Operating Officer of Community Coalition - a permanent community-based institution in South Los Angeles - where he participated on the executive team to advance a robust policy agenda, direct operations, guide organization-wide strategic planning processes and launch key projects. He holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Urban Education from UCLA and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Natalie is the president and CEO at Coro Southern California. Under Natalie’s leadership, Coro has developed a new strategic plan, expanded

Stephanie Moran Reed is a native Angeleno and proud Mexican-American Mompreneur. In 2020 she co-founded with her husband MiJa Books, a multicultural children's bookstore and online resource for diverse and inclusive books. Inspired by their biracial daughter, they created MiJa Books to amplify stories by and about people of color. Her store has received acclaim from the Los Angeles Times as one of the "65 Best Bookstores in Los Angeles," and has been featured in NBC 4's Today in LA, KTLA 5's LA Unscripted, Spectrum 1 News, 89.3 KPCC-LAist, and L.A. Parent Magazine.

Links: 

Website: mijabooks.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mijabooks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiJaBooks

YouTube Channel for Kids: https://www.youtube.com/c/MiJaBooksStorytime

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mijabooks

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mijabooks

Marques is a cyborg anthropologist, working at the nexus of Ancestral Wisdom, Modern Technology and Future Society. Seeking to be globally impactful, he created the World Education Foundation in 2009 traveling to over 83 countries, while earning his Master’s through the Adult Learning and Global Change program at Linkoøping University in Sweden. In 2017, Marques was selected to participate in the Global Solutions Program hosted by Singularity University and NASA, exploring the utilization of satellite technology, unique datasets and machine learning to quantify financial, social and climate impact of the built environment. Marques is an expert in the field of Cyborg Anthropology, where he has become a leading voice in synthesizing the intra-connections between humans, innovation and living systems.

Currently, Marques is co-founder of Ism.Earth and a consultant for Earnst & Young’s Luminary Network. He’s considered a global thought leader, consultant and keynote speaker discussing topics spanning education, space, innovation, technology, climate change, blockchain, future of work, equity & racial justice, along with personal and organizational transformation.

Most recently Marques and dev team won the Qualcomm SnapDragon track at the 2023 MIT Reality Hack for creating a human-centered platform to utilize cutting edge technologies such as AR, Mixed Reality, GISdata and Machine Learning to help the unhoused conceptualize, customize, and co-create their very own home.

Website: MarquesAnderson.com

Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquesanderson/

Twitter- @AncestralCyborg

IG: @GlobalPoppaSmurf

More information about The Bruin Promise: alumni.ucla.edu/bruin-promise/

Currently serving as Chief Tea Officer, Tina was inspired by Taiwanese bubble tea concept and British tea drinking culture to develop a delicious, well-balanced tea latte beverage. With her love for a quality cuppa and her desire to make a positive impact on society, Tina made a career switch from IT to just tea, and HumaniTea was born! A proud social enterprise, HumaniTea supports wellbeing and sustainability initiatives through wholesome tea. Spreading Me Time, Tea Time, Any Time, HumaniTea encourages people to take tea breaks to find mindfulness. Prior to HumaniTea, Tina worked as a Senior Analyst at Accenture. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from UCLA and an MBA focusing on Sustainability and Innovation from the Imperial College Business School.

Website: https://humanitea.co.uk/