CHSS Connection

The CHSS Teaching Academy has been working behind the scenes to continue its mission to support CHSS teachers at all ranks and levels of experience and to foster a communal culture of reflective, inclusive and intentional teaching practices. As part of its goal to support and cultivate reflective teaching practices, the Teaching Academy has:

• Expanded its podcast series that features interviews with CHSS instructors about teaching best practices, online teaching and learning during the time of COVID-19, social justice pedagogy, self-care strategies and more. Two new episodes, “Approaches to Coming Back to In Person Classes” and “Teaching Clinical Skills Remotely,” are available now.
• Launched an “Ask a Teacher” advice column. The Teaching Academy invites the CHSS community to send in any questions or concerns you have regarding teaching via the Ask a Teacher Qualtrics survey. Queries and responses will be posted on the Teaching Academy website.
• Developed the CHSS Teaching Academy Virtual Resource Center, which features a variety of annotated content on best teaching practices and critical social justice pedagogy, including resources from past workshops.

To better support you and the work that you do, the CHSS Teaching Academy invites your input on what kinds of resources you would find helpful and to provide topic ideas for podcast conversations. Please let the Teaching Academy know if you would be interested in being a guest on a podcast episode! You can send comments at your convenience via this very brief Qualtrics survey.

The Teaching Academy is also looking to appoint a lecturer to serve as a member. If you are a lecturer in the College and are interested in serving, please email Nicole Corrales at nmc@sfsu.edu. 

The CHSS Task Force on Service has updated the College website with service resources for faculty. These include Service Possibilities for Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty, a document developed to help inform faculty of the various types of service opportunities on campus; and Creating Equitable Universities: Recognizing Faculty Workloads, a presentation by Joy Misra that highlights the importance of thinking through how we make decisions about what service is and how to make it more transparent and match it with people’s interests and strengths. Faculty service resources are posted on the For Faculty & Staff page of the CHSS website.

In recognition of the importance of conferences in the professional development of scholarly skills and dissemination of research, the College of Health & Social Sciences is offering travel awards for faculty to support the presentation of their peer-reviewed scholarship at professional conferences.

Tenured/tenure-track faculty at all ranks and all lecturers are eligible for the award.

The award will cover expenses (conference registration, hotel, airfare only) up a maximum of $1,200; the maximum for lecturers below a .6 timebase will be prorated on the basis of their timebase during the semester they apply; lecturers at a .6 timebase or above will receive full funding up to the maximum of $1,200. Support will only be awarded for one trip per fiscal year.

The conference must take place by August 30, 2023. If approved, travelers must submit a) documentation to verify the acceptance of their peer-reviewed presentation and b) travel request and expenses through Concur to get their reimbursement from the University: in-state — two (2) weeks or sooner from travel dates, out-of-state — three (3) weeks or sooner from travel dates, international — seven (7) weeks or sooner from travel dates; conference registration requires approval of Concur travel request before paying for registration. Receipts will be due within 0-30 days of return and no post travel transactions will be allowed.

The review of applications will be on a rolling basis and will begin on September 26, 2022. Half of the funding will be available for applications submitted between September 26, 2022 and January 30, 2023, and the other half for submissions between February 1, 2023 and June 30, 2023. Awards will be given out on a first-come basis during each application period according to need until the funds are gone.

Please direct any questions to Kate Hamel, assistant dean for faculty development: hamelk@sfsu.edu

The voting period for the Academic Senate Fall 2022 special election will be open from Monday, September 26, to 5 p.m. on Friday, September 30. Items on the faculty ballot include the University Sabbatical Committee (USC) and the Academic Integrity Review Committee. Please use the Qualtrics Fall 2022 Academic Senate special election ballot to cast your vote.

Any questions can be directed to the Office of the Academic Senate at senate@sfsu.edu.

The University has announced that there will be two opportunities for funding for the 2022-2023 AY through the SF State Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity (RSCA) Fund Competition: the DRC grant (T/TT and all lecturer faculty are eligible) or the ORSP small grant (T/TT and lecturer faculty with PI status are eligible). 

Faculty interested in applying must submit their applications by Monday, October 10 at 9 a.m.

CHSS will be holding a workshop to help faculty prepare their grant applications on:​​​​​​ Friday, September 30, 10-11:30 a.m. (Zoom). Please RSVP to Kate Hamel at hamelk@sfsu.edu.

Longtime PACE Gerontology Lecturer Edwin Cabigao is the subject of an article in McKnights Long-Term Care News titled, “Generations’ Edwin Cabigao: Breathing new life into post-COVID clinical care.” The article discusses Cabigao’s professional contributions to the field of aging and long-term care administration.

Cabigao is director of clinical services at Generations Healthcare. He started as medical director for Generation’s Northern region and was in that role for about a year and a half before being promoted to director of clinical services.

“A centralized clinical approach and operational changes that put patient care first are critical for building a forward-thinking and sustainable long-term care organization. Those hands-on elements are guiding [Cabigao],” the article states.

Cabigao is an SF State alumnus with a B.S. in Nursing (2003) and an M.A. in Gerontology (2005). He also holds a Ph.D. in Healthcare Administration. Prior to his current position, Cabigao worked at Kindred Healthcare as district director of clinical operations and Jewish Home as chief nursing officer. He also serves as a nurse expert witness for numerous law firms.

June Parra recently joined the SOAR TRIO program as advisor coordinator. Parra has worked at SF State for four years, most recently as a retention specialist and academic advisor for the Undergraduate Advising Center and the CHSS Student Resource Center. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies and master’s degree in Counseling at Fresno State. Parra grew up in the Philippines with Tagalog as her first language. A first-generation college student, she says, “My mission is to help all first gen students achieve their personal and educational goals.”

Professors of Erik Peper (right) and Richard Harvey (left) of the Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism and the Institute of Holistic Health Studies presented papers at the 21^st Meeting of the Biofeedback Federation of Europe, held September 19-24 in Montesilvano, Italy. They presented “Optimize health with breathing” (Peper) and “The art and science of wearable instrument” (Harvey). In addition, the two presented a poster with students Nicholas Heinz and Monica Almendras, “Benefits of Holistic Health stress management classes: Outcome comparison between in-person and online classes.”

Peper gave the invited presentation, “The mind/body and body/mind connection techniques to enhance,” at a conference sponsored by University of G. d’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara and Municipality of Montesilvano on September 18.

Peper and Harvey also had an article, “Reduce anxiety,” republished in the Townsend Letter.

Linda M. Platas, associate professor and chair of Child & Adolescent Development (CAD), and Chelsea McNutt, CAD academic office coordinator, will host a workshop for the annual Teach for the Bay virtual conference for community college students, high school students, educators and future educators. The workshop, to be held September 30, will provide information on the different teacher preparation programs in the Department of Child & Adolescent Development. Teach for the Bay is a consortium of community-college-based teacher preparation programs in the SF Bay Area.

Christopher Cherney (M.A., Gerontology, ’12) is a licensed nursing home administrator; university lecturer on gerontology, health care administration and policy; litigation consultant and single-payer advocate. He is currently the principal of Skilled Review Consulting, LLC. As a lecturer in SF State’s PACE Gerontology Program, he has taught GRN 705: Aging in a Multidimensional Context and GRN 765: Aging and Continuum of Care.

Over the past five years, Cherney has worked on more than 250 cases as an expert witness in 17 states. He has given sworn testimony 32 times, including in his first trial last summer that resulted in a $13 million verdict for his clients who won the SF Trial Attorneys’ Trial of the Year Award. This year, half of his work has been for law-enforcement agencies. He is the court appointed monitor of three California Skilled Nursing Facilities; usually he site visits each facility monthly. Cherney has three current contracts with the California attorney general and a contract with another state attorney general that requires anonymity. He is in negotiations with two other state attorneys general regarding contracts for subject matter expert services.  

Since graduating from SF State’s Gerontology Program, Cherney has worked as assistant administrator at Kaiser Permanente Post-Acute Care Center; executive director at Kindred Tunnell Center; interim administrator at Cambridge Healthcare Services, LLC; adjunct Public Health faculty at San Jose State University; consultant for the Office of the New York State Attorney General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of Attorney General and California Department of Justice; court appointed quality compliance specialist for Superior Court of California, County of Kern; court appointed performance monitor for Los Angeles Superior Court and court appointed monitor for Superior Court County of Santa Cruz. 

Cherney also holds a B.A. in Biochemistry and Minor in South Asian Languages and Culture from Harvard University.