CHSS Connection

CHSS “Coffee and Conversation” Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities (RSCA) Breakfast will be held tomorrow, April 27, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in LIB 121.

Registration for catering has closed, but you may still drop in!

Looking to engage in lively conversation and learn about the latest research and scholarship happening in our college? Look no further than “Coffee and Conversation,” the first in a new series of events designed to spark connection, build community and celebrate faculty RSCA in the College of Health & Social Sciences! Don't miss out on this chance to explore the forefront of health and social sciences research and connect with like-minded individuals. Whether you’re a seasoned scholar or just starting out, “Coffee and Conversation” is the perfect opportunity to learn and grow within our community. Mark your calendars and join us for fascinating lightning talks from our speakers and plenty of caffeinated beverages, bagels and pastries!

Speakers:

• Cynthia Martinez, Assistant Professor, Counseling
  Topic: On Love in Participatory Action Research
   
• Andy Yao, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology
  Topic: Sport Commitment for Individuals with Disabilities
   
• Supriya Misra, Assistant Professor, Public Health
  Topic: “No Data, No Problem”? Potential Inequities in Psychosis Among Immigrants in the United States

More than 80 students will present 39 projects across nine CHSS departments at the first-ever CHSS Undergraduate Showcase, to be held at the Seven Hills Conference Center on Thursday, May 4. Although registration has closed for lunch, please come by to view the student projects 12:30-2 p.m. No registration is needed for this portion of the program (and there will be cake and cupcakes!).

Health Equity Institute Student Scholar Research Showcase

The Health Equity Institute Student Scholar program pairs a graduate student with a faculty mentor to work on health-equity-related research projects during Spring semester. This semester, 10 student scholars will present their contributions to these projects and their key takeaways from the program through a research showcase held in the Health Equity Institute hallway (by HSS 386) on Tuesday, May 9, 3-3:45 p.m., followed by a brief ceremony at 3:45 p.m. We invite you to check it out and invite others to join!

Kickstart your summer writing project with your colleagues! CHSS is excited to host a day-long writing retreat at the beautiful Bay Conference Center at the Romberg Tiburon Campus on June 2. The free retreat will include structured writing time, lunch and goal setting for the summer. All CHSS faculty working on research or other scholarly writing projects are welcome. More information and registration will be coming soon. 

Please consider supporting a fundraiser organized by students in the Jumpstart program. You can participate by placing an in-person order or an online order from the specific Chipotle location. Please refer to the instructions listed.

Date and location: May 1, 4-8 p.m. at Chipotle, Westlake Shopping Center, 213 Westlake Center, Daly City

Online: Use Promo Code XFFAXE8 at check out for online Chipotle orders.

In person: Either verbally tell the cashier of your participation OR present the event flyer (printed or mobile) at checkout.

Proceeds will support underserved, culturally rich preschools across San Francisco that are partnered up with Jumpstart by providing them with materials to advance their educational mission and programmatic development. The fundraiser has the additional benefit of mitigating preschool teachers from using their personal funds to provide classroom materials.

Be sure to tell your students about the SF State Scholars Programs (blended bachelor’s and master’s)! Students may earn the B.A. in Social Work or B.A. in Sociology and M.A. in Gerontology. The SF State Scholars Program provides undergraduate students with an accelerated pathway to a graduate degree. Students in this program pursue a bachelor’s and master’s degree simultaneously. This program allows students to earn graduate credit while in their junior and/or senior year, reducing the number of semesters required for completion of a master’s degree. The Scholars Program offers students additional career prospects, intellectual growth and the opportunity to deepen skills and research competencies. SF State Scholars receive a unique form of mentorship that is not often expected at a large urban university.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded $5.7 million to the Department of Counseling’s Equity and Justice-Focused School-Based Mental Health training project for a five-year program to address the shortage of school-based mental health professionals. Partnering with Oakland and San Francisco Unified School Districts (OUSD and SFUSD, respectively), the Department of Counseling will train master’s students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to work with K-12 students in high-need schools. The project will be led by Department of Counseling Associate Professors Molly Strear (lead researcher) and Tiffany O’Shaughnessy and Professor Julie Chronister. 

Students in the department with a specialization or emphasis in School Counseling, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and Marriage, Family and Child Counseling are eligible for a $10,000 stipend each year they complete fieldwork in OUSD or SFUSD schools and commit to one-year of full-time employment in high-need K-12 schools after graduation. 

“As the only publicly funded school counselor training program in the San Francisco region of the Bay Area, and one of only three CACREP (Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs)-accredited programs in California, SF State has been integral in building capacity to meet the mental health needs of Bay Area youth for over 30 years,” said Strear. “Our students reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the [region], and many choose to return to work in their Bay Area communities after graduation. The high cost of living coupled with rising tuition rates and lack of compensation for pre-graduate fieldwork makes it very challenging to pursue a graduate degree.”

Two graduate students in the Gerontology Program successfully presented their culminating experience projects at SF State Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase on April 12.

Leona Zarrabi presented her culminating experience project, titled, “Ageism and Ableism: An Intersectional Consideration of Older Adults with Various Disabilities.” She conducted an in-depth literature analysis to examine how the two types of stereotypes, ageism and ableism, intersect, especially for older adults living with disabilities.

Tessa Roth presented her culminating experience project, titled, “Administrator Perspectives on the Transfer of Assisted Living Residents to Memory Care.” She conducted qualitative research about how the residents’ transitions to memory care units are handled in assisted living facilities by interviewing administrators in three assisted living facilities in the Bay Area.

In addition, Samuel Leale presented his study titled, “Analysis of Rural Barriers to Healthy Aging,” at the virtual Spring Research Showcase event hosted by California Council on Gerontology & Geriatrics April 20. He presented his analysis of the older population data in the rural region of Northern California called Planning and Service Area (PSA) 3, which includes five counties (Colusa, Butte, Glenn, Tehama and Plumas). At the end of the event, his presentation was selected as the winner of the “Best-in-Showcase Award.”

MPH student Maia Feinman-Welcher was selected as one of 10 finalists at the SF State campus-level competition to attend the CSU 37^th Annual Student Research Competition hosted by San Diego State University April 28-29. The competition recognizes outstanding accomplishments of student researchers from among all 23 CSU campuses and will be held in-person.

Associate Professor of Public Health Vivian Chávez will be a panelist on April 28 at Form + Forces: A Celebration of the Work of Trinh Minh Ha, a day-long symposium at UC Berkeley that critically engages with the creative and scholarly work of acclaimed feminist filmmaker, writer, music composer and literary theorist Trinh Minh-Ha. The symposium will bring together more than a dozen scholars and artists to engage in deep conversation about the multiple interventions she has made in feminist scholarship on aesthetics, poetics, cultural politics, identity, displacement and migration over the last 40 years. It is presented by UC Berkeley’s Department of Gender & Women’s Studies.

Chávez was also selected to participate in the NEH Disease, Pandemics & Public Health Summer Institute, a combined virtual and in-person program for 30 college and university educators focused on the history of disease and public health in the United States.

Kinesiology Lecturer Martin Dixon and Associate Professor Nicole Bolter recently published a study in the International Sport Coaching Journal on collegiate coaches’ use of reflection to manage performance demands and promote useful responses to the stress. 

Their findings reveal how coaches reflected on their strengths and previous successes to enable thriving in stressful situations, but also tended to ruminate on performance problems which could be detrimental to well-being. 

Lecturer of Criminal Justice Studies Jim Dudley moderated a live panel of three experts on “Developing effective strategies to prevent and respond to school shootings” for Police1. The panel discussion outlined the knowledge and skills law enforcement and educators need to develop effective strategies for preventing and responding to school shootings.

Panelists were Peter Blair, executive director of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) at Texas State University; Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International; and Katherine Schweit, an author, attorney, former Chicago prosecutor and career FBI agent.

The webinar is available on-demand.

Assistant Professor of Child & Adolescent Development Rachel Flynn published a study titled, “The unintended consequences of ‘lack of supervision’ child neglect laws: How developmental science can inform policies about childhood independence and child protection,” in the Social Policy Report, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development. The article reviews both U.S. and international policies regarding child neglect laws drawing attention to the fact that more stringent child neglect laws, such as those common in most U.S. states, may in fact be undermining children’s development.

The laws and policies concerning child neglect are often misaligned with what developmental scientists know about child development — namely, that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and that the milestones of development are highly child-, context- and culturally-dependent. Many states include a general age limit for when children can be left unsupervised, but these age limits likely lead to the overinclusion of children who are developmentally ready for more independence and the underinclusion of those who are not. 

The authors argue that in almost all of the U.S. laws and policies governing supervisory neglect, there is inadequate attention to the physical, cognitive and social developmental status of the children involved. Most importantly, the report points out how neglect of children’s developmental trajectories and their need for independence has led to poorly-informed social policies that may be impeding children’s healthy development and leading to families being prosecuted by child protection authorities for allowing children to participate in everyday age-appropriate activities unsupervised.

The authors also make recommendations to parents/caregivers, legislators, advocates, and developmental scientists to better align practice with research. This is a social justice issue that should resonate across party, racial and class lines.

Read a press release about the study

Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, assistant dean for restorative and transformative racial justice, is celebrating the publication of two chapters in “Closer to Liberation: Pin[a/x]y Activism in Theory and Practice,” edited by Amanda Solomon Amorao, DJ Kuttin Kandi and Jen Soriano. The anthology brings together scholars, activists and practitioners writing and reflecting on Pina/xy activism. Francisco-Menchavez co-wrote a chapter called, “A Genealogy of Filipinas in the United States Rising, Resisting and Uniting Against Macho-Fascism,” with Angelica Lim, Elaine Villasper and Irma Bajar. Her second chapter in the anthology is titled, “Kasama-Mamas, Filipina Motherwork: Reflections on Mothering and Cultivating Capacity for Movement Building.”

Pictured: Valerie Francisco-Menchavez (second from left) holds a copy of “Closer to Liberation” with the anthology’s editors.

Lecturer of Public Health Deborah Craig’s documentary-in-progress about SF State Professor Emerita Sally Gearhart has received a $20,000 grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. This organization supports organizations and projects related to journalism and the arts with a social justice focus and that can promote positive change. The funds will be used to help complete post-production. Craig and team hope to finish a rough cut of the film by the end of the year. 

Professor Erik Peper (Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism/Institute for Holistic Health Studies) will speak on “Breath, Posture & The Future of Biofeedback” at AirHeads Breathwork Masterclass Live, an online summit, on May 1. In addition to outlining how improving your breathing patterns and posture can lead to better health, the session will address the history and future of biofeedback technology for health and well-being.

Peper also had an article, “Resolving a Chronic Headache with Posture Feedback and Breathing,” republished in the Townsend Letter. It was previously published in NeuroRegulation.