HOSPITALITY
• Mesquite Gaming continued expanding its leadership staff hiring Andy Falkof as vice president of marketing and advertising. He brings more than 20 years of marketing experience to CasaBlanca Resort & Casino and Virgin River Hotel & Casino — Mesquite Gaming’s properties.
“Andy is a seasoned professional in both national and international resort and casino marketing,” said Justin Moore, CEO, Mesquite Gaming. “He comes in with a clear understanding of our goals and objectives, and a strategy of how best to reach them.”
Falkof’s gaming career began with Caesars Entertainment, and he later became vice president of loyalty marketing for Sands China, where he remained for six years. He then joined Melco Resorts & Entertainment in Manila as the vice president of strategy and analytics. He also served as senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Great Canadian Entertainment. Most recently, he worked as vice president of marketing for Rivers Casino in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
At Mesquite Gaming, Falkof will be responsible for creating programs and campaigns to increase gaming and non-gaming revenue. He will play an important role as the company is currently renovating and rebranding both properties.
LAW
• The William S. Boyd School of Law announced the appointment of two faculty members to named professorships. John Valery White has been named the E.L. Cord Professor of Law; and Ruben J. Garcia has been named the Ralph Denton Professor of Law.
“A named professorship is the highest honor a faculty member can attain and is based on a long-term record of recognized excellence,” said Dean and Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law Leah Chan Grinvald. “John Valery White and Ruben J. Garcia have consistently been among our leading faculty members, with distinguished records of research, teaching and service. I am thrilled to recognize them with this honor. I also would like to thank the E.L. Cord Foundation and the Joy McCann Foundation for their generosity in allowing us to honor our faculty members in this way.”
— White teaches and writes on civil rights law. He is widely published, having contributed to multiple books and casebooks and written articles for law reviews and symposiums. Professor White has been featured as a guest speaker for a variety of national organizations. Professor White served as the chair of the board of trustees of the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) and was recently appointed to the Executive Committee of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS).
The E.L. Cord Professorship is named for the E.L. Cord Foundation, which generously supports education, arts, culture and welfare in Nevada and was founded by the entrepreneur Errett Lobban Cord in 1962.
— Garcia teaches and writes on employment law and constitutional law. His scholarship has appeared in more than 20 leading law reviews and peer-reviewed publications. Most recently, Professor Garcia was recently appointed to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline, and to the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Professor Garcia’s latest book, “Critical Wage Theory: Why Wage Justice is Race Justice,” was published in July 2024 by University of California Press. He is an elected Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and an elected Member of the American Law Institute.
The Ralph Denton Professorship was named for native Nevadan and attorney Ralph Denton. The professorship was endowed in his name by the Joy McCann Foundation.
NONPROFIT
• United Way of Southern Nevada announced Samuel L. Rudd has been appointed as the new president and CEO. Rudd has a wealth of expertise in operations, financial management and nonprofit management across diverse industries. His professional journey consists of leadership roles in both the nonprofit and financial sectors.
Since joining the UWSN team as COO/CFO in 2023, he has made a profound impact. His leadership has been instrumental in enhancing the organization’s operational efficiency and implementing data-driven strategies. Rudd’s financial expertise has allowed UWSN to maximize resources, resulting in strategic investments into programs that serve community members in need.
Under his guidance, UWSN has expanded its reach, increasing visibility and public engagement through successful partnerships with local corporations, civic leaders and community members. In his role as president & CEO, he will continue to build on these successes, driving innovative solutions to address Southern Nevada’s most pressing challenges.
• Communities In Schools of Nevada (CIS), the nation’s leading evidence-based stay-in-school organization serving 118 Nevada schools with regional offices in the Clark, Elko, Humboldt and Washoe County school districts, welcomes Brittany Noble as human resources generalist for the organization’s Southern Nevada affiliate, and Tasia Wilson as full-service community schools manager across CIS’ three affiliates statewide.
— Noble brings several years of human resources experience to the CIS team and previously supported over 1,500 employees at a distribution center in Southern California. In her role as human resources generalist, her responsibilities include facilitating the hiring process, addressing management and employee concerns and enforcing company policies and procedures in southern Nevada.
— Wilson comes to CIS as the former full-service community schools program manager for Communities In Schools of Memphis. She oversaw student support specialists, led community engagement efforts, managed resources and built strong collaborative partnerships. As full-service community schools manager, Wilson now leads the implementation of Full-Service Community Schools across CIS’ three Nevada affiliates. This includes managing stakeholder relationships and driving community efforts to ensure students have equitable access to resources and thriving, holistic learning environments needed to succeed.
CIS places full-time and professionally trained site coordinators in 118 Title I and high-needs schools across Nevada to support more than 100,000 students in grades K-12 who face barriers to their success—increasing the likelihood of students staying in school and graduating on time. The organization taps into a statewide network of more than 120 community nonprofits, partners and agencies, bringing the community into the school to get students whatever they need to overcome the barriers they face that prevent them from achieving academically. From eyeglasses, dental care, health care and professional counseling to food, school supplies, clothing and housing, CIS identifies student needs and finds a way to address them, closing the gaps they experience in their everyday lives. CIS’s long-term vision is for every child enrolled in a Title I or high-needs school to access a CIS site coordinator and their evidence-based model of integrated student support, otherwise known as wraparound services. The graduation rate for CIS case-managed high school seniors in Nevada for the 2022-2023 school year was 95 percent. For more information, visit cisnevada.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.