Notable Alumni

John Lebus launched his career while still in graduate school at SFA during a trip to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Convention Convention, where ConocoPhillips snatched him up. He began in reservoir characterization before receiving training as an operations geologist, quickly moving up to development geologist in the Bakken Shale, first at Conoco and then at Hess in 2014, where he became team lead overseeing 17 drill rigs. As operations team lead, John refined geologic models to improve wellbore placement, spacing, and targeting accuracy. As a senior geologist at Hess, he is currently working to understand natural and artificial fracturing in the Bakken Shale to improve predictive analytics when determining the best way to drill.

Kevin Ausburn has used his geology training at SFA to forge an interesting career in the mining industry, starting out at Phelps Dodge Mining Company as a process mineralogist. After Phelps Dodge was acquired by Freeport McMoRan Mining Company, he managed their automated production mineralogy laboratory, which is the largest lab of its type in the mining industry, processing more than 1,000 samples per day. In 2011, he joined FLSmidth, a worldwide leader of equipment and services to the mining industry, as their chief mineralogist. There he oversaw the construction and commissioning of their Ore Characterization & Process Mineralogy and their Automated Robotic Mineralogy laboratories in Salt Lake City, Utah. His work focuses mainly on the implementation of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Near Infrared (NIR), optical microscopy and robotics analyses for the mining industry.

Richard Ball earned his Bachelor of Science in geology at SFA. After he graduated from SFA, he earned a Master of Science in geology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Richard’s career includes work in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs during his 10-year career with Chevron, including onshore U.S., Gulf of Mexico Shelf/Deep Water and West Africa Shelf. At Detring, Richard focuses on upstream acquisitions and divestitures, in addition to market-leading basin research. Richard recently served as general vice chair for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ 100th anniversary annual convention, a four-day conference attended by more than 7,500 geologists. He served on the AAPG executive committee from 2013 to 2015. 

Christina Vasquez earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from SFA. During her time as a Lumberjack, Christina participated in the Mickey Leland Environmental Internship Program at TXU’s Martin Lake Power Plant. As an intern, she worked in the environmental department, learning from experts in the field the ins and outs of efficiently running a power plant while maintaining governmental regulatory compliance. After graduation, Christina accepted a job with TXU Luminant in mine planning and later took a job at Halliburton Landmark, where she worked in quality assurance for the earth modeling application. She is currently working as a solution marketer manager at Landmark, supporting the Reservoir Management R&D group, where she works on go-to-market and commercialization strategy, solutions marketing, partner marketing, and PSL and portfolio-wide value propositions.