awards

Excellence in Teaching Award (Tenured Faculty): Sherria Taylor

Sherria D. Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Child & Adolescent Development, has been awarded the CHSS Excellence in Teaching Award for Tenured Faculty for the exemplary quality and impact of her achievements in pedagogy.

Taylor holds a doctoral degree in Family Studies from Loma Linda University with a concentration in Systems-Organizational Consultation and has been involved in research funded by HUD and the Family Process Institute related to family resilience and family support services among low-income families. As the former executive director and current director of program development and evaluation for the nonprofit agency Access for Community & Cultural Education Programs & Trainings (ACCEPT) in Reno, Nevada, she has been successful in securing over 1.5 million dollars in grant funding for community programming. Taylor and colleagues have produced peer-reviewed publications and reports that seek to change the odds stacked against BIPOC communities rather than asking BIPOC communities to beat them. Her research interests include family, community and cultural resilience and survivance through a lens of Indigenous and Womanist theories, mental health, compassionate inquiry as substance abuse prevention, family life education, social justice pedagogy and the buffering effects of spirituality.

Excellence in Teaching Award (Lecturer Faculty): Martin Dixon

Martin Dixon, M.Sc., lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology, has been awarded the CHSS Excellence in Teaching Award for Lecturer Faculty for the exemplary quality and impact of his achievements in pedagogy.

Dixon specializes in sport coaching, motor learning, and research methods. His teaching is underpinned by his coaching experience across a range of elite youth and college environments, including applying the principles of skill acquisition to the classroom. Dixon’s pedagogy is also informed by his current Ph.D. research into sport coaches’ reflection and cognitive appraisals of stress.

Excellence in Service Award: Sonja Lenz-Rashid

Sonja Lenz-Rashid, Ph.D., LCSW, has been awarded the CHSS Excellence in Service Award for her dedication to service activities that impact student success and enhance the SF State community.

Lenz-Rashid is a professor in the School of Social Work and a co-founder, faculty research evaluator and clinical supervisor for the SF State Guardian Scholars Program (GSP). Launched in 2005, the GSP serves more than 100 current and former foster care youth on campus annually and has an annual budget of over $1.3 million. The program boasts a 70 percent graduation rate, a 95 percent retention rate, and an 80 percent overall persistence rate. Lenz-Rashid works countless hours on the Guardian Scholars Program each year and has studied the outcomes of, and best practice models for, former foster care youth at the national, state and Bay Area levels. Her research and publications have provided valuable feedback to child welfare administrators, legislators, and program developers on how best to serve these disenfranchised young people using evidence-based practice. She has more than 25 years of experience serving vulnerable youth in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been at SF State since 2003.

Excellence in Scholarship Award: Julie Chronister

Julie Chronister, Ph.D., has been awarded the CHSS Excellence in Scholarship award for her support of student-initiated research that evolves beyond the requirements for a degree.

Chronister is a professor in the Department of Counseling and a faculty member in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2004. Her scholarship focuses on the meaning and measurement of social support for those living with psychiatric disabilities; the experiences of family members, caregivers and case managers living or working with persons with disabilities; the psychosocial factors that protect against internalized stigma and promote quality of life and mental health recovery among persons with psychiatric disabilities; and most recently, the lived experiences of disabled people during COVID-19 and the influence of social support, coping and empowerment on their experience.

Chronister has been the chair of two dissertation committees — one focused on Disability Identity and the other focused on the lived experiences of counselors of color. Chronister has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books and has received various federal research and training grants from NIMH, HRSA, and RSA. She was recently awarded a $1.9 million grant to train counselors to work in integrated behavioral health in primary care. Chronister is co-editor of two books, has presented at numerous national conferences and is on the editorial board of several top-tier peer-reviewed journals.

Left to right (standing): 2022 Hep B Heroes honorees Horatio Jung, Gordon Mar, Jessica Ho, Molly Shannon and Dr. Rena Fox.
Lower: Hep B Free - San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Richard So

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. 

Each year, the ICMA contest awards a select few ICMA student chapters with travel funds to attend the ICMA Annual Conference. Chapters present their most successful event to members of the ICMA Executive Board, highlighting topic, involvement and impact, with a special focus on innovation this year. The SF State chapter, which is advised by Associate Professor of Public Affairs & Civic Engagement Ernita Joaquin, was one of three student chapters to win the contest.

The SF State chapter’s virtual panel introduced students to the experiences of four public service panelists and allowed the 26 attendees to gain insights into career direction and tips for landing roles. SF State ICMA Chapter President Steven Lee moderated the panel, composed of Jim Schutz, city manager of San Rafael, California; Jessica Paran, Social Services Division director of Marin County, California; Aaron Zavala, senior management analyst for Petaluma, California and Ahmad Anderson, director of people and culture at SF JAZZ in California. The conversation ranged from concrete, technical tips for new graduates, to the acknowledgment of a changing post-pandemic workplace, to inspiring reflections on a core value of public administration.

J Patterson says award will help her continue transforming lives through social work

San Francisco State University graduate student J Patterson says that during her youth, she didn’t think college was in her future. There were many obstacles — including her struggle to come to terms with her identity as a queer, transgender person — that led to mental health issues and addiction.

Patterson eventually left the area where she grew up, Del Norte County in Northern California, but returned in 2013 with a goal. “I reconnected with my community to help build the support system I wished I had had as a young, queer trans person growing up,” she said. After founding Gender Talk, a youth-centered LGBTQ and gender justice community group, she discovered a passion for social work that inspired her to rethink her future.

Fast forward to today, and higher education is very much part of Patterson’s life: This semester she received the prestigious California State University Trustee Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognizing her commitment to giving back and the challenges she’s overcome. The annual award is the CSU’s highest recognition of student achievement for those who demonstrate superior academic performance and personal accomplishments.

“This award is so much more than just a lump sum of money. It means doors opening that I dreamed of,” Patterson said. “The contributions don’t stop here because everything I’ve done is to give back to others in some way. It is such a beautiful act to give.”

Patterson, who has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from San Francisco State and returned to the University this fall to earn a master’s degree in Social Work, says one of those dreams is to become a Bay Area social worker and provide youth services. Drawing from her experience growing up, Patterson made it her mission to work on issues around intersectionality to improve the quality of life for young people.

Another dream she has is to continue advocating for prison abolition and liberation, specifically for trans and gender nonconforming people in the school-to-prison pipeline. Patterson says the scholarship will help bring these dreams to life.

​​​​​​​Every year, the CSU honors 23 students, one from each CSU campus, with the Trustees’ Awards. Awardees have all demonstrated inspirational resolve along the path to college success, and many are the first in their families to attend college — just like Patterson.

“These 23 scholars wonderfully exemplify the ideals of the California State University,” CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said. “Every year, and especially this year, our Trustees’ Award honorees demonstrate resilience, tenacity and resolve — together with a keen intellect — while making an indelible, positive impact on their families and their communities. They are truly an inspiration.”

Project will examine post-COVID 19 migrations among Filipino care workers

San Francisco State University Associate Professor of Sociology Valerie Francisco-Menchavez received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for a project titled “Migrant Care Workers and Multinational Migrations in the COVID-19 Global Context,” which considers how multinational migration strategies might shift in response to the demand for care workers globally and the restrictions that arise from the pandemic. During the Spring 2022 semester, Francisco-Menchavez will examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration aspirations for Filipinos in the Visayas region of the Philippines. Her work will be based out of the University of San Carlos in Cebu.

The Fulbright project builds on Francisco-Menchavez’s previous research, including her award-winning 2018 book “The Labor of Care,” in which she explored how migration shapes the lives of Filipina migrants in the U.S. and their families in the Philippines. Her current research has focused on Filipino migrants working as caregivers in the Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My past research program is concerned about similar topics but has dealt with the matter after Filipinos have arrived to the U.S.,” Francisco-Menchavez said. “This study proposes to examine the various processes and institutions Filipinos interact with before they migrate, to consider how these factors shape their migratory journeys, especially within the conditions of a pandemic that is demanding their labor globally.”

While most migration research in the Philippines has focused on urban centers such as Metro-Manila, Francisco-Menchavez will conduct her research from Cebu City to explore the types of labor migration patterns that emerge from the Visayas, a region that is an emerging migration hub. She will study how mechanisms and processes of pre-migration decision-making and multinational migrations are made among Visayan families with overseas worker migration histories and in response to the global pandemic.

As she did in her earlier ethnographic study of Filipino transnational life, Francisco-Menchavez will use qualitative research methods including participant observation, interviews and what she calls “kuwentuhan,” a type of focus group that revolves around a Filipino cultural practice of exchanging important details through talk-story.

“The global COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized public health, care work and health services,” Francisco-Menchavez said. “Filipino care workers have been lauded as global essential workers while statistics show an unprecedented rate in deaths because of their work on the frontlines. In the United States, one out of four Filipinos work in the health care industry as nurses, caregivers to the elderly, and personal attendants. The unprecedented global pandemic will undoubtedly call on more Filipino migrants in the care industry all over the world. And while Filipino care workers have been a historic, formidable migratory population, the aftermath of the pandemic will surely reorganize their lives, as well.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. It is designed to forge lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, counter misunderstandings and help people and nations work together toward common goals.