Seven USF Alumni Who Are Making an Impact: Part Two

You’ve seen how USF alumni are making an impact in fields ranging from law to family medicine. Now it’s time to step into the shoes of four more outstanding USF graduates:

• Gloria Muñoz, Writer: Inspiring Real-World Change Through YA Fiction
• Chris Fils, Wealth Manager: Guiding Clients to Prosperity
• Bailee Olliff, Surgeon: Advancing Trauma Surgery with Robotics
• Candace Braun Davison, Editor: Sparking Joy Through Journalism

If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out our first article on these three USF alumni:

• Karim Hanna, Family Doctor: Putting the “Care” in Healthcare

• Janae Thomas, Lawyer: Challenging Injustice in the Legal System

• Alicia Thompson, Author: Creating Community Through Stories
  

Gloria Muñoz  

Job: Author, poet, literary translator, and the cofounder of Moonlit Música, a bilingual production house for children’s media

Location: Minneapolis

Degrees: Bachelor of Arts, World Literature and English (Sarah Lawrence College); Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing (USF)

A Day in the Life of a Writer

At 5:30 a.m., Gloria Muñoz often wakes from a lucid dream about her novel-in-progress. She gets up and writes while her partner, child, and miniature goldendoodle, Blueberry, are still asleep.

“I feel really lucky to be able to write,” says Muñoz, whose second young adult (YA) novel, They Called Us Wicked, releases in September 2026. She’s also the author of two poetry collections and the poet laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Being an author is just one of the many writing jobs she juggles.

In the morning, she spends three to five hours writing fiction or poetry. (Blueberry helpfully sprawls beneath her standing desk.) Muñoz doesn’t hold herself to a particular word count: If she writes 100 very good words in three hours, she’s happy.

In the afternoon, Muñoz switches to her other two jobs. She translates other people’s works between Spanish and English, which is like a fun “language puzzle.” She also co-runs Moonlit Música, a bilingual production house that offers editing, film, sound, and songwriting services for children’s media.

Becoming a Writer

Muñoz always loved writing. As a kid, she filled journals with song lyrics. “I was very interested in how songs were put together,” she says. “Here's a whole world within this very small space … like poetry.”

She credits her MFA program at USF with showing her that writing could be a real career. It also gave her a writing community: She still keeps in touch with classmates years later.

Her advice for young writers? “It sounds so basic, but you will be a better writer with the more you read,” she explains. Audiobooks count, and even movies can help you get a sense of storytelling. “Then find a writing group,” she says. “I have a group where we meet up, and we just write from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays.”

Making an Impact Through Fiction

Novels can make a difference because they “reflect actual experiences that people have … the very true wonders and horrors of this world,” Muñoz says. Imaginary worlds can also inspire readers to create change in the real one.

Her first YA novel, This Is the Year, takes place in a futuristic St. Petersburg, FL, ravaged by climate change. It was originally supposed to be for adult readers, but she changed it to young adult because she realized that “teenagers are the ones who are inheriting this earth.”

“They’re the ones who also are going to be the most innovative and have the creativity and the capacity to… enact change.”

This Is the Year’s message is ultimately hopeful. As the main character grieves both her twin sister and the Earth she loves, she learns to accept change and live her life.

“Readers can look at this and say, ‘We’re still going to be ourselves. We’re still going to fall in love and have friends, and life is still going to happen while we are figuring out how to leave the world a little better than it was when it was given to us,” Muñoz says.

Taking Time for Self-Care

Muñoz stops work every day at 4 p.m. to exercise and spend time with family and friends. “Although I truly love the work that I get to do in this life, I think it's about balance,” she says. “I love a day of just seeing friends and walking, being outside.”

As climate change threatens the Earth, Muñoz finds hope by working with her community. Even small actions — like planting a tree — can have big impacts, she reminds students. “A tree is a habitat for a ton of animals, so that alone makes a difference. You are planting a home for someone.” 

Chris Fils 

Jobs: Managing director, complex manager of Raymond James Chicagoland

Location: Chicago

Degrees: Bachelor of Science, Finance (USF); Certified Financial Planner (CFP Board); Master of Business Administration (St. Leo University)

A Day in the Life of a Wealth Manager

Wealth management helps people grow, preserve, or pass down their money. For Chris Fils, it combines his love of math, strategy, people skills, and athletics.

“I played basketball my entire life, did intramurals at USF, and what I really like in my job is the competition to get better every single day,” he says. There’s always something new to learn — like how to preserve wealth as lifespans increase.

“I'm managing one of the largest metros in the country here [in Chicago] for Raymond James,” Fils explains. “No day is the same. I get to create. If I have a vision, I have autonomy here.”

Depending on the day, he might meet with his branch managers (his entire team consists of about 88 financial advisors and 100 support staff), attend a community event, recruit new employees, or network with prospective clients.

The job also comes with fun perks, like helping a professional athlete meet their financial goals and hanging out with them and their family after a game.

Becoming a Wealth Manager

The personal touch is what drew Fils to wealth management over other financial careers like accounting. “I love the numbers,” he says. “But I needed… more connectivity to people.”

He credits USF — including the Corporate Mentor program and the Bulls Business Network — with giving him the industry skills to succeed. “I was a first-generation college student … so I didn't really have a lot of people to go to when it came to preparing for a career in finance.”

The career comes with unusual demands: He had to master everything from wearing just the right suit to fancy dinner etiquette to golf prowess.

Today, Fils has been recognized nationally as a 40 Under 40 financial professional by InvestmentNews.

He and his wife (whom he met at USF) now offer their own scholarship endowment for students. “We're diehard Bulls,” Fils says with pride.

Making an Impact in Wealth Management

The most impactful part of Fils’s job is seeing clients hit their goals. Building relationships with clients is key to wealth management, Fils explains. It’s the personal touch that makes a difference: He shows up at clients’ birthday parties and weddings and sits at the kitchen table with them after they've lost a loved one and need guidance.

He also uses his position to mentor young business and finance majors. He encourages students to keep learning even after college — get your CPA, CFP, or MBA, he advises — and to take jobs in different parts of the country. Work hard, but don’t lose yourself in your work.

“I try to be myself, and I encourage students to be their true, authentic selves,” Fils says. “One thing that I tell people is ‘you're not what you do.’”

Taking Time for Self-Care

In a demanding career, Fils carves out time for self-care. He wakes up at 5 a.m. every morning, works out six times a week, journals, and does prayer calls with friends.

Family time with his wife and son rejuvenates him — whether checking out the Chicago food scene or traveling internationally. (Trip highlights include wine tours and water cruises through the Duoro Valley of Portugal; beach relaxation on the Cayman Islands; and three-day safaris in Masamara Park, Kenya, where they saw everything from hippos to hyenas.)

Fils is also teaching his four-year-old son golf. “He's going to be my golf buddy when he gets a little older.”

As an optimist from a strong, faith-based family, he believes in making an impact and spends time mentoring young people through the Boys & Girls Club of America.

“My dad is a Haitian immigrant. He came from Haiti here to have a better life for me. Every day I'm waking up and just trying … to make this world a better place than where I left it and make my imprint somewhere.”

Bailee Olliff

Job: Trauma medical director at Denver Health and trauma surgeon specializing in acute care robotic surgery

Degrees: Bachelor of Science, Biomedical Science with a Minor in Biomedical Physics (USF); Doctor of Medicine (USF Health Morsani College of Medicine)

Location: Denver

A Day in the Life of a Trauma Surgeon

Bailee Olliff uses a robot to perform surgeries. Through a few 8-millimeter incisions, the robotic arms can repair entire sections of intestine or remove an appendix. That might sound like science fiction, but for her, it’s just another Monday.

She operates the four-armed robot from a console. “It has 3D visualization, so you can really see the depths of what you're working on, rather than a 2D image,” she says. “You're able to see really detailed things through very teeny-tiny incisions.”

Although robotic surgery is common in elective operations, Denver Health is one of the few places that also uses it for emergencies. It takes a bit more time to set up the robot, but it’s tremendously better for the patient, says Olliff. With smaller incisions, patients have less pain and a lower risk of infection or scar tissue.

Every day is a little different for Olliff. Between scheduled and emergency surgeries, she also works as the hospital's trauma medical director. She runs meetings, teaches residents, leads injury-prevention education and EMS trainings, and works on community-wide projects (like equipping ambulances with whole blood products so patients can get instant transfusions).

Becoming a Surgeon

The summer before college at USF, Olliff shadowed a cardiothoracic surgeon in Tampa. When she got the chance to test a first-generation robotic surgical system, she knew that was what she wanted to do.

Trauma surgery particularly appealed to her because it meant working with medically underserved patients. “That's just the patient population that I connect very well with,” she says. “In a field that can be high-risk for burnout … it’s really important to have that human connection to your patients and what you do.”

Olliff relates to her patients because she grew up in rural central Florida, where good medical care was a two-hour drive away, if you were lucky enough to have insurance.

The first time she drove on the interstate was on the way to her freshman semester at USF.

“USF is honestly at the forefront of robotics and surgery. I was very privileged to be trained in that environment,” she says. USF’s partnerships with medical centers gave her the experience she needed to fine-tune her craft, and she remained a Bull all the way through medical school and residency for general surgery.

Making an Impact in Robotic Surgery

Olliff advises young physicians to work for a place that aligns with their values. As “the safety net hospital of the community,” Denver Health takes care of marginalized patients, like the uninsured, by offering free and discounted health plans.

Olliff doesn’t have much time to bond with patients before an emergency surgery, so she prioritizes building trust. She kneels to be at eye level. “A lot of times with patients, we're talking over them, and that can be very physically intimidating and can often symbolize the gap of knowledge between patient and provider.”

Honoring the patient is also key, and making them feel like “who they are as a person, and their culture, matters.”

One way she does this is by always introducing herself in Spanish to her Spanish-speaking patients. “Even if I need an interpreter, I think just taking that first step to speak their language makes them feel instantly more comfortable.”

Ollif explains the surgery until her patient fully understands and has every question answered. The goal is to treat them with the same care you’d give “a family member or a friend,” she says.

Taking Time for Self-Care

After an intense day, Olliff recharges by spending time with her husband (her high school sweetheart) and her 15-year-old cat, Molly, who she adopted from an Outback Steakhouse parking lot. She maintains a routine of self-care (being active, eating healthy, and doing creative hobbies like flower arranging). “Rather than reacting to a bad day as it comes up, I think it's better to have healthy habits and patterns in place so that bad days don't throw you totally off your game.”

Most of all, Olliff finds hope by helping her patients: “You can make a difference in a single person's life.”

Candace Braun Davison

Job: Vice president of editorial at PureWow, lifestyle writer and editor, and the author of two cookbooks

Location: Long Island

Degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Mass Communications and Journalism, with a Minor in Business (USF)

A Day in the Life of an Editor and Writer

“I’ve always been curious … and wanted to get this peek into other people's worlds,” Candace Braun Davison says.

Her career gives her that sneak peek. She’s done it all: sampled dishes at a RoadKill Cookoff; sailed on a Disney cruise ship’s maiden voyage; and attended Taco Bell’s massive menu-release party, featuring confetti canons and the best-tasting purple ube sandwich cookie. She also tests and reviews products, from premade cookie dough to the “hottest toys of the year.”

“If you ask my seven-year-old daughter, she's like, ‘My mom's a toy tester who also writes articles,’” Davison laughs.

As vice president of editorial for PureWow, one of the U.S.’s most popular lifestyle websites, Davison’s days are packed. She edits and assigns stories, writes her own articles, films video content, and leads team meetings to determine how well content is performing. She also meets with publicists and attends restaurant tastings of new menu items.

Becoming an Editor and Writer

Davison wanted to be a magazine writer ever since she read the first issue of CosmoGirl. “I was like an awkward middle school kid at the time, and felt like I found … someone relatable I could connect with in a magazine,“ she remembers. “I thought, wow, I really want to be a part of this. I want to help other people feel less alone in the world and have this big-sister guide.”

A journalism and business major, she credits her time at USF Tampa’s student newspaper, The Oracle, as one of her biggest gamechangers. Gaining real-world experience is crucial in journalism.

So is grit.

In her first media job, she wrote for an interior design magazine, but dreamed of becoming a food writer.

“I had no interest in interior design,” she says. “I remember eating off the dollar menu for dinner while writing a story about an $11,000 mirror.”

At night, she took classes at the International Culinary Center. “I would basically race out of work straight to culinary school as fast as I could, change into my chef's whites, and do that [until 11 p.m.],” she says. “Pretty much everyone else had the plans of eventually working in a [Michelin-starred] kitchen ... I was like, ‘I want to interview you once you get there.’”

Making an Impact in Journalism

Davison used to worry that lifestyle journalism — her passion — was too unserious. Then she realized that “the small, fluffy stuff can leave a lasting impact on someone else's life.”

She recalls how one of her readers used Davison’s tutorial to bake an allergen-free birthday cake for their kid. “Being able to follow this tutorial was the first time that they felt accomplished as a baker,” Davison remembers. “Their kid was able to enjoy this cake, and they had a really great moment together.”

It’s these moments of family time and creativity that give us the energy we need to tackle the hard stuff, Davison says.

“About a year ago, my sister was diagnosed with a very serious illness,” Davison says. “I found that having creative outlets … really helped [us] face difficult doctor's appointments.”

Taking Time for Self-Care

In the fast-paced, competitive media industry, it’s important not to define yourself by your job, Davison says. “I realized I needed to cultivate more of my personality outside of that [job] and stop defining my self-worth by what I could achieve,” she says.

She started her own blog, Life Between Weekends, to help herself (and readers) prioritize downtime and reignite creativity. Her own self-care looks like spending time with her husband and two kids, and pursuing hobbies like baking, yoga, and candlemaking.

When life gets tough, Davison “looks for the helpers,” as Mr. Rogers advised. “I find hope in little acts of kindness,” she says. “It doesn't have to be big, world-changing gestures. It can just be that small moment of grace in your day that can really change your whole perspective.”

Make Your Mark

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