The University of California-Irvine School of Law community is mourning the loss of Rizza Barnes, who died May 21. Barnes, 41, died of an aneurysm.
Barnes joined the law school in 2014 as its public relations manager. Her communications background included more than 12 years in university public relations and marketing. She served as director of publications at the USC Gould School of Law and as communications director for both the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and the Graduate Division at UCI. Previously, she was a communications and marketing specialist at an education nonprofit and for a global information technology firm.
She began her career as a journalist, writing for the Los Angeles Daily News and later editing for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She was a graduate of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
