A Message from President Wong about chief of staff and general counsel

Dear SF State community,

The new year is off to an exciting start as we welcome two accomplished staff members to my office.

Alison Sanders has been named chief of staff to the president, a cabinet-level position recently vacated by Shawn Whalen. Her appointment is effective Jan. 25, 2016. Dan Ojeda assumed the role of general counsel for the University following Patty Bartscher’s retirement Dec. 23, 2015.

A longtime member of the SF State family, Sanders brings a wealth of institutional knowledge to the chief of staff role. Since April 2015 she has served as interim AVP for the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. This followed her role as the office’s director (beginning in 2009), compliance officer (2006-2009) and special projects manager (2007-2009). From 2003 to 2006, Sanders served as grants coordinator for the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, where she worked as a research technician from 1999 to 2003. In earlier professional roles, Sanders worked as a field biologist and principal investigator for the Oceanic Society’s Belize Dolphin Project and as a research associate at the San Francisco Zoo. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from SF State.

Since joining the California State University system in 2007, Ojeda has served as university counsel and a member of the human resources team in the Office of General Counsel (OGC). Ojeda most recently represented Fresno State and previously was assigned to CSU campuses at Sonoma, Dominguez Hills, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Fullerton. At the OGC, he is a resource attorney for disability/ADA, athletics, NCAA, family leave and collective bargaining matters. Previously, Ojeda practiced as a partner and senior education and employment law specialist in San Francisco and as a litigation attorney in San Jose. He earned a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Please join me in welcoming these two new members to our leadership team.

Les Wong
President
San Francisco State University