2 OSU-Cascades alumni named to Advocacy, Advisory Board

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon State University–Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson has appointed two alumni to serve on the campus’s Advocacy and Advisory Board.

Verenice Alvarez-Sanchez and Chris Vlessis began their terms in 2020 and will serve through September 2023. They replace John Rexford and Oran Teater, who have served on the board since 2008. Teater served as chair of the board and Rexford served as vice chair. 

Alvarez-Sanchez was a student leader at OSU-Cascades and earned a degree in business administration in 2013. She is an administrative assistant at the Facebook Prineville Data Center.

Prior to joining Facebook, Alvarez-Sanchez worked with Mosaic Medical in Bend, supporting the chief executive officer and board of directors as an executive coordinator. She is secretary of the board of directors of the Latino Community Association of Central Oregon and has volunteered with the OSU Juntos program at high schools in Bend, Redmond and Prineville, introducing Latino students and families to resources and opportunities in higher education. She is a graduate of Redmond High School. 

Vlessis is co-founder and chief executive officer of Shape.io, a Bend software development company. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2018. As a senior at OSU-Cascades, Vlessis won the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Wyatt Starnes Battle of the Schools Award. He worked as a test engineer with G5 in Bend as a high school student and later completed a software engineering internship with Intel. Vlessis is a graduate of Summit High School in Bend.

Both Alvarez-Sanchez and Vlessis will serve terms ending in 2023.

For more information, visit OSUcascades.edu/board-advisors.

About OSU-Cascades: Oregon State University’s campus in Bend, Ore. features outstanding faculty in degree programs that reflect Central Oregon’s vibrant economy and abundant natural resources. Nearly 20 undergraduate majors, 35 minors and options, and three graduate programs include computer science, energy systems engineering, kinesiology, hospitality management, and tourism, recreation and adventure leadership. OSU-Cascades expanded to a four-year university in 2015; its new campus opened in 2016.