Centers and Institutes

The Center for Ethical and Sustainable Business (CESB) is a regional catalyst in business ethics and sustainability for the Bay Area business community in developing future business leaders and supporting Bay Area professionals to be committed to addressing ethical, social and environmental issues through business practice, research and scholarship.

Director: Tom Thomas

Cesar E. Chavez Institute (CCI) studies and documents the impact of social oppression on the health, education, and well-being of disenfranchised communities in the U.S. CCI aims to bridge academic research and the practice of community empowerment through multiple approaches, including participatory action research, that make the Institute's studies and research findings accessible and useful to policy makers, service providers, educators, and community advocates.

Interim Director:  Kenneth Monteiro / Director:  Belinda Reyes

Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality specializes in research, education, training, and policy efforts that promote healthy sexuality, while reducing gender inequality and health disparities.

Director: Andreana Clay

Health Equity Institute creates an intellectual environment that encourages diversity of perspectives, challenges conventional approaches, and produces innovative action-oriented research in the biomedical and behavioral sciences in order to improve health, eliminate health disparities, and establish equity in health.

Interim Director: Laura Mamo

Institute for Holistic Health Studies develops, coordinates, and offers curricula, studies and training in integral healing including holistic health and Chinese healing systems, as well as develops extramural funding for research and development in this area.

Director: Richard Harvey & Jennifer Daubenmier

Marian Wright Edelman Institute develops and implements an interdisciplinary cross-professional degree program(s) in Child Development with studies in children, youth, and families that incorporates research, community outreach and training components.

Director: David Anderson

Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies is the first academic institution of its kind -- dedicated to research and teaching about the historical and cultural experiences of the global Iranian diaspora community.

Director: Persis Karim

Documentary Film Institute (DocFilm)provides a structure for collaboration among artists, educators, policymakers, and scholars in the public and private sectors who are committed to exploring and developing new forms and functions for documentary filmmaking. DocFilm functions as a production hub and incubator in which individual filmmakers, researchers, community members, and entrepreneurs pursue a variety of projects, whether they are emerging talents or established veterans. In addition, DocFilm supports applied research initiatives and critical discourse, from large-scale grants relating to documentation to conferences on the documentary tradition. Dialogue, cooperation,and support among its partners across campus and in the community guide DocFilm’s activities and primary objective to make SF State and the San Francisco Bay Area a center for excellence in documentary film production, culture, exhibition, and research.

Director: Soumyaa Kapil Behrens

Michael D. Palm Center for Research Translation and Public Policy is dedicated to ensuring that SF State faculty and students can contribute to social justice and evidence based public policy formulation by informing national policy conversations with state of the art scholarship.

Director: Aaron Belkin

Morrison Center for Chamber Music RSO 
In partnership with the May Treat Morrison Foundation, the College of Liberal and Creative Arts and the School of Music, the Morrison Chamber Music Center @SF State produces a wide variety of performing and teaching activities, with resident and visiting artists, including the Alexander String Quartet, which enhance the curriculum of the School of Music, extending its reach into off-campus communities; and develops new audiences, new activities and new music majors. Annual events include the Morrison Visiting Artist Concert and Residency Series, The Galante Chamber Music Prize and The Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Festival for High School Students.

Director: Cyrus Ginwala

Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability advances research on the nature of disability while also introducing the topic into the curriculum campus-wide.

Interim Director: Emily Beitiks

Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives presents readings by poets, novelists, and other writers in accord with the highest standards of literary excellence and houses a collection of over 2,000 original recordings of poets and writers reading from their works.

Director: Steve Dickison

The Global Museum: the New University Museum at San Francisco State University is a place in which to appreciate the power of diverse communities in a globally connected world. As a responsible steward of cultural heritage, a place of scholarship, community, and engagement, the Global Museum will create experiences that foster life-long learning, collaboration with and among diverse communities, and reflection about global society and our common humanity. The Global Museum will use family- and student-oriented exhibits to offer innovative educational programming around its collections to SF State, the extended San Francisco community and Bay Area school districts. The University Museum anticipates exhibiting its outstanding collections from Oceania, Asia, North America, and Africa late in 2015, as it prepares new exhibition and collections spaces in the Fine Arts Building that will serve as a collections stewardship and exhibition hub for the greater SF State community.

Director: Lissette Jiménez; Associate Director: Christine Fogarty

Veteran Documentary Corps (VDC) acts as a hub and incubator in which documentary filmmakers, researchers, community members, and entrepreneurs pursue projects connected to the veteran experience. VDC’s goal is to facilitate greater understanding of the diverse personalities, struggles and successes that define the veteran experience through the art of documentary filmmaking.  VDC’s objective is to make SF State an international center of excellence for veteran-themed film production, culture, exhibition, and research.

Director: Daniel Bernardi

Estuary & Ocean Science Center (EOS) is a marine research field station that focuses on gaining a fundamental understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes of the San Francisco Bay, the adjacent coastal environments and marine ecosystems world-wide.

Interim Executive Director: Katharyn Boyer

Institute for Geographic Information Science provides software site licenses, a training program, and most importantly a structure for intercampus dialogue on issues confronting faculty attempting to apply GIS technology in their educational and research programs.

Director: Jerry Davis

Children's Campus: A Center for Early Care and Education, Professional Development and Research was established to provide high quality early care and education with a foundation in evidence based practice for infants, toddlers and pre-school children; to prepare future teachers with critical competencies in child development, and to engage in and support research related to child development, curriculum and teaching.

Interim Director: Melissa Castillo