CHSS Connection

The Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellowship Program places San Francisco State University students in prestigious internships within various City and County of San Francisco agencies. Undergraduate students selected for the program are placed in prestigious semester-long internships within San Francisco’s local government and intern 16 hours per week under the guidance of a seasoned local government official. Fellows are awarded a $3,000 stipend. Applications for the undergraduate fellowship close Wednesday, Oct. 11. Interested students should visit the fellowship’s website or attend the upcoming information session on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. in LIB 286.

The Willie Brown Graduate Fellowship is open to current and incoming SF State Master of Public Administration (MPA) students. The Graduate Fellowship is a two-year program in which Fellows are responsible for substantive projects that help advance the mission of their city agency/program placement site. The fellowship begins with an onboarding process that leads to a year-long internship placement in a city-county agency. The second year focuses on professional and leadership development. Fellows are awarded a $20,000 stipend, with an additional $3,000 available for professional development activities. Applications for the graduate fellowship close Thursday, Nov. 16. Visit our website  or attend the upcoming Zoom information session Wednesday, Oct. 18, 5–6 p.m.

Stories in external news media build support for SF State and awareness of your work beyond our campus.

Please note that not all all the good work being done at SF State is necessarily going to be of interest to the media. If you're not sure whether your story idea qualifies, you can see SMC's guidelines about what might make the news. If the story is relevant to a timely issue or event (for example, National Hispanic Heritage Month), that increases the likelihood that it will be considered newsworthy.

Please send your story ideas to Michael Broder (mbroder@sfsu.edu), CHSS director of communications, who will discuss them with the team at SMC. Even if a story is not pitched to the media, it may still be publicized in the CHSS newsletter and social media and be considered for CampusMemo.

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program successfully completed its first-ever speed mentoring project with the program’s board of advisors. On Aug. 29 and Sept. 14, graduate students and recent alumni took advantage of the advisory board’s in-house expertise in the fields of government, academic, business and nonprofit leadership.

The events, conducted both at noon and in the evening, provided students nuggets of professional wisdom and lessons on civic engagement, organizational and public change management from experts such as Traci Lester, Lesley Miller, Regina Neu, Tina Olson, Maria Saguisag-Sid, Jim Schutz and Kenneth Songco. Some of the program’s advisors received their bachelor's or MPA degrees from SF State.

The speed mentoring project, led by Associate Professor Ernita Joaquin and the officers of the SF State University Chapter of the International City and County Management Association (ICMA) — Joana De Sousa, Sidney Bliss, Mikayla Denney, Yami Kofuma-Henry and Grant Miller — allowed participants to interact with the board through break-out Zoom sessions. Beside informing students of their professions and initiatives that supplement what MPA students learn from the program, the mentors shared their personal journeys, stories, job- and life hacks and trends that aspiring public executives should note.

Read more about MPA speed mentoring event

Associate Professor of Kinesiology Jimmy Bagley was recently accepted to participate in NASA’s Spaceflight Technology, Application and Research (STAR) program. This annual course targets principal investigators and research scientists. It aims to facilitate entry into space biology research and preparation for conducting spaceflight experiments using NASA and commercial platforms.

Bagley also co-authored a new article, “Gut check: Unveiling the influence of acute exercise on the gut microbiota,” in Experiential Physiology with a diverse team of collaborators from across the country. His group is among the first to show that just one bout of aerobic exercise can dramatically change gut bacteria composition and function in humans, which may ultimately lead to long-term adaptations and positive health outcomes.

Professors Richard Harvey and Erik Peper (Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism/Institute for Holistic Health Studies) presented the invited 90-minute virtual symposium, “Innovative Strategies for WRMSD Prevention,” at the 11^th PREMUS, WDPI & MYOPAIN 2023 International Scientific Conference. The virtual symposium gave an overview of why digital devices contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) and discussed prevention strategies using wearable feedback devices.

The conference, held in Bengaluru, India Sept. 20–26, focused on prevention of WRMSD; work, disability, prevention and integration; and myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia syndrome.

Janey Wang, associate professor of Public Administration (School of Public Affairs & Civic Engagement) was appointed by the BART board of directors to serve on the BART Measure RR Bond Oversight Committee. Wang holds the Budgeting and Financial Management Seat, and her term is from September 2023 until June 2025.

In this role, Wang’s duties will include oversight of the expenditure of funds from the sale of BART district general obligation bonds; assessing how bond proceeds are spent to ensure that all spending is authorized by the ballot measure; assessing whether projects funded by bond proceeds are completed in a timely, cost-effective and quality manner consistent with the best interest of BART riders and district residents; and publishing an annual report.

Professor of Kinesiology Susan G. Zieff and co-authors recently published an article titled, “Reciprocal Coproduction as a Basis for the Diffusion of Global Health Innovations,” in the BMJ Global Health supplement, “Global Health Reciprocal Innovation.” The study focused on the idea of reciprocal co-construction as a basis for the international sharing of information about innovations that exhibit potential for improving global health. Drawing on research and their own experiences across a range of health issues, the authors discussed common barriers to reciprocal co-construction and the diffusion of reciprocal innovations. They concluded with lessons drawn from dissemination and implementation science about the effective translation of reciprocal innovations from country to country so that researchers, policymakers and social entrepreneurs can best ensure equity, accelerate adoptions and heighten the likelihood that global health reciprocal innovations will make a positive difference in health.