CHSS Connection

The All-University Committee on International Programs (AUCIP) invites faculty and staff to an international faculty and staff engagement event in recognition of International Education Month. The event will be held 3 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, on the fifth floor patio of the Administration Building. Come join your colleagues for refreshments as International Education Month kicks off! RSVP via Qualtrics.

Public Health Lecturer Faculty Deborah Craig visited Sweet Briar College, where she spoke about her documentary on Sweet Briar alumna Sally Gearhart. Gearhart was a much loved Women Studies and Communication professor at SF State from the ’70s through ’90s and a groundbreaking lesbian feminist activist who fought for LGBTQ+ rights shoulder-by-shoulder with Harvey Milk.

Gearhart grew up in small-town Virginia and went to Sweet Briar College for women in that state the late ’40s and early ’50s. Craig says, “At that time, Sweet Briar was a place for gowns, pearls and lipstick. If you wore jeans, you had to cover them up with a raincoat if you wanted to go outside, regardless of the weather!” Today, Craig says, Sweet Briar is transformed, which would have thoroughly delighted Gearhart, who often spoke fondly of her experiences there. At Sweet Briar, Gearhart made lifelong friends but had to hide deep in the closet. Sweet Briar’s LGBTQ+ grow GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whoever), welcomed Craig to talk about her documentary-in-progress. Craig says that plans are afoot to interview some current Sweet Briar students about Gearhart and her work and to screen the film there when it’s completed — next year, she hopes. 

Professors Richard Harvey and Erik Peper (Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism/Institute for Holistic Health Studies) recently presented the “Breathwork Workshop for Self-Soothing and Calming,” an online program of Mission Hospice & Home Care for staff, caretakers and family. 

Kohinoor Joshi, an MPH student mentored by Assistant Professor of Public Health Supriya Misra, presented a poster at the UCSF Health Equity and Anti-Racism Research Symposium on October 13. The poster, titled, “Review of Empirical Studies on Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Diagnoses among Immigrants in the United States,” was part of the “Chronic Disease Disparities” session.

The CHSS Task Force on Teaching has appointed Sarah Pawlowsky, associate clinical professor of Physical Therapy, to serve as a member of the CHSS Teaching Academy and represent lecturer faculty. The mission of the CHSS Teaching Academy is to support CHSS teachers at all ranks and levels of experience and to foster a communal culture of reflective, inclusive and intentional teaching practices. These practices are aimed at creating CHSS teaching that is accessible, community-engaged and informed by social justice pedagogy.

San Francisco State University Nursing student Molly Shannon was honored by Hep B Free - San Francisco Bay Area at the 15^thannual B-A-Hero Celebration and Fundraiser, held at the Intercontinental San Francisco on October 13. Each year, the the organization's Governance Council awards the B-A-Hero cape and trophy to individuals who have played an important part in the volunteer efforts in the previous year. 

Shannon is working towards a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at SF State. She was elected to the school’s Nursing Student Association as a Hep B Ambassador, which gave her the opportunity to volunteer with SF Hep B Free for the last year. She has supported the organization at many events during the pandemic and worked to recruit other student nurses to volunteer when needed. Shannon is passionate about helping those in need, and it has been an honor for her to be able to give back to the community by spreading awareness about hepatitis B. She will be graduating this December and plans to continue to contribute to public health efforts here in the Bay Area throughout her career as a nurse. 

In a cross-college collaboration that is the first of its kind at SF State, “Project ARISE: Adversity and Resiliency Interventions for Social Emotional Development in Early Childhood” — a proposal by project directors Maryssa Mitsch from Early Childhood Special Education and Jocelyn Hermoso from the School of Social Work — was funded by the U.S. Department of Education for $1,100,000 over five years. This represents a unique opportunity for faculty and students in two colleges to bring their teaching and scholarship together around common goals. Project ARISE will focus on inclusionary practices and early childhood mental health supports for young children with disabilities and their families. The first cohort will begin in fall 2023. Reach out to Maryssa Mitsch or Jocelyn Hermoso with questions and student application information.

According to Justice in Aging (JIA) and in a very significant Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a host of changes to Medicaid regulations that, taken together, are likely to positively impact the ability of millions of low-income older adults and persons with disabilities to enroll in Medicare Savings Programs and other Medicaid programs, and to retain enrollment during redeterminations and renewals.

The changes include three main areas for commenting for individuals serving older adults and people with disabilities:

1. Streamlining and making enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs more automatic
2. Addressing the institutional bias in Medicaid by allowing for the projection of predictable costs in the community for home and community-based services (HCBS)
3. Streamlining and making enrollment and renewal processes simpler in the Aged Blind and Disabled Medicaid programs to promote enrollment and retention in Medicaid for older adults and people with disabilities

The Gerontology Program urges you to submit comments to CMS. Your comments are needed to create a strong record and ensure that these changes become final. Information from advocates in the field carries weight. The comment deadline is November 7, 2022.

What to include in your comments

JIA created template comments to guide you. For each area for commenting, JIA has provided a summary of the issue and examples of what would be helpful to include in your comments. Please address as few or as many areas as you wish. Even one or two examples showing the impact of one of the proposed changes would help. Organizations that have the bandwidth to go deeper — please do!

How to file comments

Filing comments is easy. Go to the comment page for this rulemaking on Regulations.gov. Follow the simple directions for identifying yourself and your organization and drag your comment document into the comment area.

Note that the NPRM also includes significant proposals to improve the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Look out for information and comments from other advocacy organizations on CHIP issues.