Alumni Panel

Danielle Rushing Behrends, School of Law, May 2016

Danielle Rushing Behrends is a Senior Attorney at Dykema where she practices in the Restructuring & Bankruptcy practice group in San Antonio. When clients face bankruptcy and restructuring and receivership matters, Danielle is sensitive to their difficult financial situations and immerses herself as their advocate. She is driven by the opportunity to provide clients with successful solutions to address their complex legal and financial needs. Clients routinely turn to her for her resourceful, creative, and effective in and out of court restructuring advice. She looks for practical solutions and works to build a strategic plan that aligns with her client’s needs. Her experience includes several multi-million dollar businesses, particularly in the oil and gas/energy, retail, national fitness chain, healthcare, and transportation industries, Chapter 11 Trustees, and a federal court-appointed receiver. While attending law school, Danielle had the honor and privilege of learning from the Honorable Craig A. Gargotta, (now Chief) United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Texas, the Honorable Catherine M. Stone, Chief Justice (Ret.) of the Fourth Court of Appeals of Texas, and the Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program.  In addition to being a member of the St. Mary’s University Law Alumni Association and awarded St. Mary’s 10 Under 10 recognition by the GOLD Council, she is extremely active in the community. She was selected by the State Bar of Texas as one of only 20 attorneys in Texas to be a member of the 2020-21 class of LeadershipSBOT, served on the San Antonio Young Lawyers Association and Foundation board of directors, and currently serves on the board of directors of Bexar County Women’s Bar Association and Foundation, Junior League of San Antonio, Inc., and the San Antonio Legal Services Association. Danielle is also a Member of the San Antonio Bar Foundation Fellows Program and Texas Bar Foundation Fellows Program, serving at the charitable heart of the legal community.

Emily Gallegos, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology graduate, May 2020

Emily Gallegos is a graduate student pursuing an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (I/O) at St. Mary’s University. As an undergrad, Emily double-majored in Psychology (BA’20) and Business (BBA’20), as well as obtained a Certificate in Community-Based Assessment and Evaluation (’20). Emily is dedicated to improving the work environment through methodologically sound practices to ensure organizations are hiring, retaining, and promoting qualified employees. Emily is a Business Analyst for Endeavor Management, working with a team of consultants who aim to improve business operations through the application of business strategy. Emily’s research interests are in scale development, but she had done some work on emotional labor strategies, organizational change management, and various work attitudes. Emily has presented at research conferences such as The Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology, Southwestern Psychological Association, and Southwestern Academy of Management and is coauthored on two publications.

Zyania Seijas, Greehey School of Business, Finance & Risk Management graduate, Spring 2022

Zyania serves as a Lead Financial Analyst for AT&T’s Finance-Controller group. In this role, she is responsible for the month-end close collection of financial accounting information, review, and reconciliation of recordseach month.

Prior to this role, Zyania participated in the Finance Development Program at AT&T, where she particiapted in two rotations. During her first rotation, she worked under the Latin America Controller group, working with the Corporate Support organization finance to understand reporting and analysis requirements in order to incorporate into Power BI. She also worked with the Latin America Controller team to review reporting, conduct analysis, and look for automation/simplification opportunities.

Secondly, she worked for the Field Operations Finance Automation team, the organization that tracks the expense, headcount, volume and capital of field operations. In this role, she was responsible for updating older excel financial reports and creating new reports, using Power BI’s capabilities to automate and enhance them.

Zyania earned her Bachelor in Finance & Risk Management from St. Mary’s University; and is scheduled to start her Master’s in Finance at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Fall of 2023.

Zyania is a native of El Paso, Texas, and currently resides in San Antonio. She enjoys reading, running and travel.

Miguel Valdes, School of Science, Engineering and Technology, Environmental Science graduate, May 2020

Miguel Valdes is a St. Mary’s University alumnus, graduating with a bachelor’s in Environmental Science. Miguel is currently studying for his MS in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio while conducting research to reduce the leaching rate of contaminants in soil with polyurethane grouts.