SF State Magazine

New issue focuses on Gators thinking globally and acting locally (and beyond)

SF State Magazine’s Fall/Winter 2023 issue puts the environment in the spotlight. Now available online, the issue includes articles about the many ways San Francisco State University alumni, students and faculty are working to explore and protect the planet.

In some ways San Francisco State’s best-kept secret, the Sierra Nevada Field Campus gets some much-deserved attention in a feature story about this bastion of earth science, art and learning in the middle of the wilderness. Another feature, “Money Matters,” explores the ways forward-thinking alumni, students and faculty are demonstrating how investors can bankroll environmental sustainability (and turn a profit doing it). The feature “Forces of Nature” offers up 14 ways the University is engaged in environmental stewardship. And a special video feature, “Driven to Help the Planet,” highlights an enterprising student’s efforts to create a mobile “tiny home” using recycled and renewable materials.

The magazine’s departments are filled with environmental angles, too, including a story about a new Sustainable Materials Learning Library that’s helping students get a handle on earth-friendly design. SF State Magazine columnist (and legendary journalist and Gator) Ben Fong-Torres contributes a conversation with alumna Allison Crimmins, director of the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment. The magazine’s Five Questions Q&A department expands to more questions (and more subjects) than usual with a discussion with the three co-directors of the University’s new hub for climate change-related activities, Climate HQ. Alumna Lisa D. White (B.A., ’84), director of education at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Paleontology, offers up a very personal “My SF State Story” exploring how her and her sisters’ endowment for scholarships for SF State students honors their remarkable parents, who met on campus in the 1950s. And, as always, the magazine is packed with profiles of amazing Gators, including:

• Activist and “environmental pit bull” (according to The Wall Street Journal) Randy Hayes
• Sustainable gardening expert and entrepreneur Lori Caldwell
• Sausalito Resiliency and Sustainability Manager Catie Thow Garcia
• And many more!

Check out the full issue of SF State Magazine now.

The Spring/Summer 2023 issue looks back at legendary football coach Vic Rowen and the support that today’s student-athletes get from the University

As thousands of newly minted Gator graduates wind down from Commencement and begin life’s next chapter, San Francisco State University’s alumni magazine is back with a new issue. The semiannual, award-winning publication is mailed to 80,000 alumni and friends of San Francisco State. It can also be found throughout the campus. 

The cover story explores how the University’s sports programs produce successful student-athletes who don’t just win games and make the Dean’s List but also learn to become champions in a holistic and healthful sense as well. It also takes a nostalgic look at the career of former Gators football coach Vic Rowen, who helped invent an approach to the game that would influence the long careers of his players and assistants — among them Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid. Online exclusive bonus content includes Rowen’s coaching universe, action photos from recent Gator sporting events and a dedication to a late colleague. 

The issue also includes interviews with: 

• Vitka Eisen, an alumna who overcame addiction and now is CEO of the same nonprofit that helped save her life 

• John Logan, the chair of SF State’s Labor and Employment Studies Program, discussing the reinvigorated union movement 

• Chanda Daniels, an alum whose wedding planning skills emphasize the unique considerations of LGBTQ+ couples and people of color on their special day 

• Ben Fong-Torres, the alumnus, famed music journalist and now SF State Magazine columnist

• And much more! 

As usual, the Class Notes section is filled with achievements of alumni spanning seven decades. The issue closes with Associated Students President (and now alumna) Karina Zamora sharing her SF State story.  

Check out the full issue of SF State Magazine and exclusive online content. 

The new issue also spotlights campus art and offers a fun new feature: an SF State-themed puzzle

Inspiring alumni stories take center stage in the Fall/Winter 2022 SF State Magazine, now available online.

The issue’s cover subject, Michael J. Payton (B.A., ’15), reveals how a video he posted to YouTube landed him his dream job: directing the recent Black Entertainment Television documentary “The Murder Inc Story.” Biomedical scientist Chinomnso Okorie (B.S., ’17; M.S., ’19) discusses how she’s using community-engaged research to track and fight health disparities in the Bayview. Señor Sisig co-founder Evan Kidera (B.A., ’04; MBA, ’14) delves into the backstory behind his growing Filipino food empire. And Juan Acosta (B.A., ’19) traces his journey from teenager campaigning for a local pride proclamation to nationally recognized activist walking the halls of the White House.

The issue also includes a photo tour of cool campus art and a Q&A with new University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Amy Sueyoshi. As always, the Class Notes section is loaded with alumni updates. And there’s a first for the magazine — an SF State-themed crossword puzzle and contest. Get all the details on the SF State Magazine website.

The magazine site also features an online exclusive: Behind the Scenes, a candid look at the creation of the new issue. Getting just the right shot for a magazine’s cover is rarely easy, but when you’ve got a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer on the job you can be confident that stunning pictures are on the way.

Have any SF State Magazine feedback or suggestions for future stories? Send an email to sfsumag@sfsu.edu.