Kris Mayes, 34, ’94 B.A., ’03 J.D.

Power player

Kris Mayes’ mother says she can’t keep a job. Since college, Mayes has been a reporter, a lawyer, a political consultant and a press secretary. Now she’s one of five Arizona Corporation Commissioners who regulate the state’s utilities and decide rate cases worth about $6 billion a year. She’s the youngest person ever elected to the Corporation Commission, and one of only five women to serve since 1912.

She’s moved back and forth between employment and school — also getting a master’s in public administration from Columbia — and her roles have often overlapped, as they did the year she was finishing law school and acting as Governor Janet Napolitano’s press secretary. It was, she admits, “an insane year.” She and the governor-to-be had hit it off when they met on a plane in 2002, and Napolitano invited her to work on her campaign, despite their different political affiliations.

Mayes majored in journalism at ASU and cut her teeth as editor of the State Press, winning a Truman Scholarship and a USA Today All-Academic First Team award. After graduation she covered the legislature for the Arizona Republic. She says her current job is the best one she’s ever had.

"It’s fascinating, interesting work, and it’s also the toughest thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “Every time a utility wants to raise its rates, they have to come to the commission for approval, and it’s a rigorous evidentiary process that can take a year. The cases we hear are sometimes agonizing and difficult, like determining where power lines will go through populated areas. You’re affecting people’s lives.”

Derrick Hall, 36, ’91 B.S.

On the ball

You might say Derrick Hall just hit a career home run. After stints in Vegas, Verona Beach, Florida and Los Angeles, where he had a long tenure with the Dodgers, the ASU alumnus has come full circle, back to the Valley, as the newly appointed vice president of communications for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A Los Angeles native, Hall fell in love with Arizona as an undergraduate at ASU. After earning his broadcast journalism degree in 1991, Hall hit the road to build his career. He worked as a magazine editor, earned a master’s degree from Ohio University, and then landed a job with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he worked his way up to the position of vice president of communications. Along the way, he hosted a morning radio show, and worked as a sports anchor at the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles.

His new position with the D-backs comes with some hefty responsibilities. “I am responsible for publicity, media relations, community affairs, game entertainment, outreach camps,” he said. “I’m so happy to be back, and ready for the challenge.”

Wyatt Smith, 28, ’00 B.A.

Show him the money

For as long as he can remember, Wyatt Smith B.A. ’00 dreamed of being a part of Washington, D.C.’s political scene. Fresh out of college, the political science major’s dream came true. Working for the Republican National Committee during President George W. Bush’s 2001 inauguration, Smith suddenly found himself in front of major donors, requesting fundraising support for the GOP.

"I had no political fundraising experience,” says Smith. “But I was assigned to work with donors, as well as congressmen who assist with fundraising calls and make campaign appearances.” The sink-or-swim atmosphere didn’t faze Smith, who had interned in D.C. before his senior year. He also worked for College Republicans for three months after graduation, volunteered for President Bush’s Phoenix campaign in 2000, and completed an internship with U.S. Senator Jon Kyl.

After only a year in D.C., Smith was tapped to become the finance director for California U.S. House candidate Dick Monteith’s Congressional campaign. Responsible for all finance operations, he successfully raised $1.2 million before being whisked back to Washington, where the National Republican Congressional Committee named him western region finance director.

"When I first started in fundraising, it wasn’t easy for me to ask for money,” admits Smith, “But I believed in what I was selling, which made it easier.”

Today, at 28, Smith is equally excited to be working on Capitol Hill as director for the non-profit D.C.-based Armed Forces Foundation, which raises funds in support of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Tayari Jones, 35, ’00 M.F.A.

Writing off-balance

With two published novels behind her, does writer and professor Tayari Jones feel that she has finally “made it”?

"Sometimes I think I’m a superstar and sometimes I think I am a big loser,” she said. “My editor always tells me I’m not selling enough. It is the editor’s job to keep a writer off-balance.”

If that’s the case, she’s done an admirable job of keeping on her toes. In 2002, Tayari Jones, had her first novel, “Leaving Atlanta,” published by Warner Books. The tale is a coming-of-age story, set amid the grisly Atlanta child murders of the late 1970s. The work of fiction enjoyed critical acclaim, and was named “Novel of the Year” by Atlanta Magazine.

In April, Jones released her second novel, “The Untelling,” about a young woman’s journey to embrace the truth, and rise above the trauma of her past.

After finishing “Leaving Atlanta” and earning her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from ASU, Jones left Phoenix in pursuit of the tenure track. She is now an assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Jones lives in a craftsman bungalow with walking distance of campus, where she has just begun her second year teaching full-time, and is working on her third novel. "Actually, it’s working on me,” she said.

"I am learning how to balance teaching and writing,” Jones said. “Teaching is great because it is important to have a steady paycheck, so my publisher doesn’t own me.”

Profile credits:
Mayes written by Sarah Auffret, assistant director of ASU media relations.
Hall and Jones written by Phoenix freelance writer Michael Hammett
Smith written by Phoenix freelance writer Melissa Crytzer Fry

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Kris Mayes

Derrick Hall

Wyatt Smith

Tayari Jones