Cal

She also earned a master’s degree in public administration and policy from Cal State Long Beach and has worked for the South Gate city attorney’s office and Los Angeles mayor’s office, according to her bio.

“Because they’re so common, people assume they’re quite boring,” said Breanna Putman, an ecologist at Cal State San Bernardino.

“So being apparent is sort of a double-edged sword,” said Robert Espinoza, a herpetologist at Cal State Northridge.

At Westmont University in Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Amanda Sparkman studied differences between blue bellies living near campus and those in more rural areas.

In 2023, Groft told a student journalist from Cal State L.A. that he’d been living on the streets for several years, ever since he had completed a mental health court diversion program, which provides residential mental health treatment to people facing jail time as an alternative to incarceration.