CHSS Connection

The College invites undergraduate students to present their research, scholarship and creative works at the first annual CHSS Undergraduate Showcase, to be held at the Seven Hills Conference Center on Thursday, May 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All CHSS undergraduate students, regardless of their research experience, are encouraged to enter their projects. Student work from Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 is eligible, and presentation formats will include posters, models, dress forms, interactive displays and other appropriate formats. Both individual and group projects from capstone/culminating experience courses, independent studies or developed as class assignments are welcome.

Given the size of the conference center, we will be limited to 70 projects for our first year. We will accept applications in the order that they are received until the showcase is full.

In recognition of the importance of the acquisition of scholarly skills and the development of new research activities, the College of Health & Social Sciences is offering professional development grants this semester for faculty to acquire or expand new competencies, pursue new directions and support the dissemination of their scholarship.

Priority review begins March 20, 2023

Tenured/tenure track faculty at all ranks and lecturers are eligible for the award. Please direct any questions to Kate Hamel, assistant dean for faculty development and scholarship: hamelk@sfsu.edu.

The award will cover approved expenses (described below) up a maximum of $2000 per faculty member; the maximum for lecturers below a .6 timebase will be prorated based on their timebase this semester; lecturers at a .6 timebase or above will receive full funding up to the maximum of $2000. Funds must be used for the approved purposes only and spent by June 10, 2023.  The spending and request for reimbursement deadlines are firm. The College will not process reimbursements after this date and will not approve exemptions.

Nominations for SF State’s 2023 Distinguished Faculty and Staff Awards (DFSA) are now open. These awards are an opportunity for our campus to recognize and honor outstanding tenured faculty, full-time lecturers and staff who have demonstrated significant, long-term contributions to the University and to their disciplines. By recognizing the achievements of distinguished faculty in the areas of teaching, professional achievement and growth, and service (faculty and staff), the campus community celebrates the University’s climate of excellence. Visit the Academic Senate website and the Faculty Honors and Awards Committee website to complete the online nomination form by Monday, April 10.

The DFSA committee will identify five award recipients. Serving on the DFSA committee will be:

• Fatima Alaoui
• Leia Bagesteiro
• Rosa Carmoa
• Catriona Rueda Esquibel
• Zhaoshuo Jiang
• Mohammed Nadeem
• Todd Roehrman
• Aiko Yoshino

If you have any questions, please contact members of the DFSA committee.

Nominate a faculty colleague for CHSS Excellence Awards in Teaching, Service and Scholarship

The College of Health & Social Sciences is deeply committed to excellence in teaching, service and scholarship. We are now accepting nominations for the 2023 CHSS Excellence Awards, which will be presented at the Fall Opening next year.

Each faculty award includes $750 and a certificate signed by the dean and associate dean of the College of Health & Social Sciences. The recipient’s name and year of award will appear on a plaque displayed near HSS 238. Student research assistants involved in the faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award will also be honored at the Fall Opening, where they will receive an award certificate and gift from the College. Awardees are required to be present at the Fall Opening in order to receive the award. 

Nominations are due by April 14.

Provost Amy Sueyoshi announced that Professor Andreana Clay will be the interim dean of the College for one year starting July 1, 2023. Clay holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Davis, an M.A. from University of Memphis and a B.A. in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Missouri – Columbia. She has been at SF State since 2004 and is the author of “The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth, Activism, and Post Civil Rights Politics.” She has additionally published numerous essays in publications such as Social Justice, Critical Black Studies Reader, and the Journal of Lesbian Studies. She is currently the chair of the Department of Sociology & Sexuality Studies, the first Black woman to hold the position. Clay has served on a wide range of committees — supporting faculty of color retention; promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including the training of hiring committees across campus; and advancing English writing proficiency university-wide.

SF State’s School of Social Work has received a $4.8 million three-year grant from the Department of Health Care Access and Information Social Work Education Capacity Expansion Grant Program. This grant will be used to expand the Master of Social Work program at SF State, which will enable the program to admit more students, offer clinical training opportunities for current students and help them prepare for LCSW licensure. These students will be trained to work with marginalized and diverse populations in Integrated Behavioral Health settings in San Francisco Bay Area counties.

Pictured (left) SF State MPA students; (right) winning team “Code Red” 

On March 4, four SF State Master of Public Administration (MPA) students joined fellow graduate students from all over the country to participate in a wildfire simulation competition sponsored by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), the accrediting body for SF State’s flagship graduate program in public affairs, the MPA.

Stephen Kraemer, Forest Kerstetter, Sally Mei and Shae Hancock (MPA candidate and chief of operations with SF State’s University Enterprises) all joined national task forces charged with developing a fire mitigation plan for the fictitious town of Westmount. 

Each player was assigned a role on a task force (mayor, forest service ranger, water authority manger, environmental organization representative or a local citizen coalition representative). All the roles had well-developed personal and professional motivations, but players had to negotiate a plan that would work for the citizens of Westmount as a whole.

SF State MPA candidate Shae Hancock was on the winning team, “Code Red,” which will have its presentation and policy brief submitted to a global competition later this year. 

In the wake of unprecedented complexity and mounting challenges to health and human existence, the Institute for Holistic Health Studies invites interested students, faculty and community “thought leaders” for a collective “think tank” (new type of conference) to help us creatively engage with the core issues of our time. 

The conference, “From Polarization to Integration: A New Vision of Health, Activism & Cultural Evolution,” will explore the possibility that by changing how we think and relate to each other and our environment, we can help create the world we want.

The event will be held Friday, Aril 21, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. in LIB 121 and via Zoom.

Pictured: Ann Hallum

The Ann Hallum Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund was recently established by Professor Emerita Sandra Radtka and her husband Michael Patterson to support physical therapy students in the joint UCSF/SFSU Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and honor the memory of Professor Emerita Ann Hallum. It provides financial support for Physical Therapy students who demonstrate excellence in academic work and community service and need financial assistance.

Hallum began her career at SF State in 1990 as the founding chair of the joint UCSF/SFSU Graduate Program in Physical Therapy. She was a dedicated teacher and promoter of Physical Therapy student success.  She had extensive clinical experience in pediatric physical therapy and the provision of community service for disabled children. In 1997, she began her administrative career at SF State as the associate dean of the College of Health & Human Services (now the College of Health & Social Sciences). In 2005, she assumed the position of SF State dean of Graduate Studies. During her administrative career, she continued to teach the course on psychosocial aspects of physical therapy and served as guest lecturer in physical therapy classes in pediatric neurorehabilitation. She retired in 2017 after 12 years of service as dean of Graduate Studies and passed away in 2020.

See the SF State Impact Report 2023 for additional details regarding Hallum, her scholarship and how to donate to the fund.

Associate Professor of Nutrition & Dietetics Gretchen L. George and Associate Professor of Kinesiology Nicole Bolter published their recent work, “Changing perspectives among pre-health undergraduates through a brief weight bias pedagogical intervention,” in the Health Education Journal. This project and paper were the result of collaborative support from two student authors from the Kinesiology graduate program and two student researchers from the Nutrition undergraduate program.

Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Kathryn (Casey) Nesbit co-authored a chapter titled, “Social Determinants of Health and Pediatric Healthcare,” in the textbook, “Campbell’s Physical Therapy for Pediatrics,” 6^th Edition. The chapter, co-authored by Kim Nixon-Cave and Senobia Crawford, is a new addition to this extensively used textbook for pediatric physical therapy (edited by Robert Palisano, Margo Orlin and Joseph Schreiber). The chapter includes an introduction to social determinants of health, root causes and system drivers with an upstream perspective, health equity concepts, trauma-informed care, cultural responsiveness, implicit bias, racism, microaggressions, and social determinants of health and clinical-decision making. A case study in the chapter highlights strategies for optimizing health outcomes.

Associate Professor of Counseling Tiffany O’Shaughnessy (pictured far left) concluded her three-year term of service as the collective coordinator/president of the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) on March 5 at the organization’s annual conference, held in Atlanta. She also served on the planning collective for the conference that was led by Department of Counseling alumna shola shodiya-zeumault (pictured second from left, with child). The conference drew an international audience of more than 200 feminist psychology activists, scholars and practitioners with the theme Engaging Transformative Justice as Feminist Praxis. Talks focused on integrating abolitionist feminist approaches into mental health and psychology research, and there were opportunities for activism integrated throughout.

During her term leading the organization, O’Shaughnessy focused on collaboratively implementing ways that feminist organizations can be more gender inclusive and actively fight cissexism, including helping to create a gender inclusivity coordinator position on the board and supporting the development of healing spaces within future conferences. She is continuing this work as a member of AWP and as a newly appointed member of the American Psychological Association, Society for the Psychology of Women, Realizing Division 35’s Practice as a Feminist Community Inclusive of Gender Identity Task Force.

Professor Erik Peper (Institute for Holistic Health Studies/Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism) authored the article, “Relive memory to create healing imagery,” in Somatics, Vol. XVIII, Number 4. The article describes how recreating positive memories with sensory stimuli can enhance relaxation.

Peper also gave the Invited webinar, “Breathing to Reduce Anxiety and Improve Health and Well-Being,” a Healthy Living class at Stanford University, on March 7.

An article by Linda M. Platas, associate professor and chair of Child & Adolescent Development, was included in the revised edition of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s book, “Spotlight on Young Children: Social & Emotional Development.” The article is titled, “Three for One: Supporting Social, Emotional, and Mathematical Development in Preschool and Kindergarten.”

Associate Professor and Chair of Child & Adolescent Development Linda M. Platas (pictured right) and Yasmin Sitabkhan of RTI International (pictured left) co-authored a presentation, “Preschool Teachers’ Math Knowledge from Kenya,” at the Comparative & International Education Society’s 67th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on March 22.

This presentation shared the results of a study in Kenya in which two groups of preschool teachers were provided with differing supports for early mathematics teaching in their classroom. The overarching goal, in collaboration with national and county governments, was to improve instruction for 4- to 6-year-old children. Findings showed that teachers who felt that classroom support for early mathematics development was age-appropriate also had stronger confidence in their mathematics teaching and gained marginally more knowledge about early math development.

Ricka L. White-Soso, a lecturer in the School of Social Work and an SF State alumna (MSW, ’99), was a mental health panelist at the Hope Is On The Horizon Health Fair on February 18 at the Calvary Hill Community Church in San Francisco. The event was hosted by the San Francisco Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., in collaboration with sister chapters, Berkeley Bay Area Alumnae, Contra Costa Alumnae and Oakland East Bay Alumnae, in recognition of Black History Month and American Heart Month. The program focused on “Mind, Body, Soul and Mental Wellness.”

A recording of the panel is now available online.