Annual Report 2022-2023

Our Vision

The Lam Family College of Business aspires to be a leader in advancing transformative change globally and locally. We strive to be an inclusive place to learn, teach, create, innovate and work.

(adopted September 2022)

Our Mission

Embracing the diversity, global outlook, and entrepreneurial spirit of the San Francisco Bay Area, we provide access to quality education. We empower students to succeed and contribute to society through innovative teaching and learning, impactful scholarship, and engagement with businesses and the community at large.  

(adopted May 2022)

Our Seven Strategic Priorities

Curricular Innovation

We develop curricular innovations that meet the changing demands of the business world and streamline the path to graduation, while ensuring that our students are well-rounded and prepared for the challenges of the workplace. We recognize and celebrate each faculty member for the long-lasting impact their teaching and service contributions have on our students.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We are proud of our University’s pioneering legacy in this space. We prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in our classrooms and workplace to help our students, faculty and staff thrive and succeed. We commit ourselves to the continual, iterative process of removing systemic roadblocks in higher education.

Student Engagement

We create an inclusive college community by engaging students in meaningful experiences that provide exciting and enlightening opportunities to network and build skills. Our students help inform and shape impactful activities, including dynamic student organizations, professional development events with alumni and industry partners, and leadership opportunities.

Research Activity, Productivity, Orientation and Approaches

We invest in the scholarly work of our renowned faculty who have been trained in the leading doctoral programs and have published their research in leading journals in the field and authored influential books. Through faculty research, we generate new knowledge that impacts teaching, industry practices and society.

Community Engagement

We develop strong and sustained connections, and work collaboratively with the business, academic and alumni communities to execute specialized programs, events, research projects and other engaging activities that expand the knowledge, skills, opportunities and networks of our students, faculty and staff.

Build the Lam Family College of Business Brand

We invest in building our brand reputation to sustain a competitive advantage in the dynamic higher education market.  By increasing visibility and affinity for our brand, we attract new students, create new partnerships and maximize the success of our alumni and current students.

Friend-raising and Fundraising

We cultivate relationships with alumni, friends and the business community.  We value their commitment and engagement, which enhances student experiences and broadens opportunities for them through unique partnerships and transformative philanthropic investments that enable us to elevate the execution of our mission to new heights.

The Lam Family College of Business receives the majority of its funding from state support and student fees, but this covers only a portion of the full cost of delivering a high-quality education.  In addition to campus and endowment reserves, the college is also funded by non-state sources, such as graduate student professional fees, non-degree programs and philanthropy.  State funding has declined or remained flat over the last six years.  As this trend continues, the Lam Family College of Business is implementing new initiatives that focus on expanding non-state revenue sources.  

The Lam-Larsen Community Engagement Initiative develops strong and sustained connections with business, academic and alumni communities. Through community collaborations, the Initiative organizes and supports specialized programs, events, research and other activities that expand the knowledge, skills, opportunities and networks of our students, faculty and staff. Below are some highlights from this year’s many activities.

Mini-Grants Program

Now in its second year, the initiative's Mini-Grants program received 7 proposals from LFCoB faculty and staff. Six proposals received small grants to help fund a wide range of projects benefiting our students and local communities, including the following:

• Camille Antinori (Economics): Camille incorporates a detailed field research component to her class where students are engaged in the valuation of local recreational and subsistence fishing access where undetermined number of fishers and other regional users of the Berkeley waterfront, Berkeley City Council, Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission, Berkeley residents, other local public water and coastal agencies and nonprofit organizations are impacted.  The work has the potential to influence the narrative and planning around the SF Bay coastline, where proposed development options range from highly commercialized designs perceived to generate explicit revenue but could limit public access to designs geared to support low-cost access to water recreation, which generates indirect, implicit value as measured in Camille's study. The class project also has social equity implications. Data collected to date show that lower income and underrepresented socioeconomic groups use this space at a greater rate than other socioeconomic groups to fish.
• John Logan (Labor & Employment Studies): John's project invests in our students through a workshop called "Inside Organizing and the Revival of Worker Voice at US Corporations," where they play a leading role in building the first unions at Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. According to John, this is the first time these corporations have had any independent worker voice. Since these companies are household names and because people have a very direct relationship with them, union-organizing campaigns at Starbucks and Trader Joe’s attract enormous media and social media attention, and this is how they inspire young workers to try to organize their own workplaces.
• Julia Miyaoka (Decision Sciences): Julia's project brings real-world math applications in business to incoming high school freshmen participating in the four-week Summer Bridge Academy at Mountain View/Los Altos High School District. These incoming freshmen have been identified in middle school as having struggled in math. About 80% of the students are Latino/Latina, and about 50% are from low-income families. In addition to helping students increase numeracy skills, these activities will allow students to see the value of math and how it is applied to solve business problems. 
• Theresa Roeder (Decision Sciences): Theresa serves as a volunteer faculty and board chair at Mount Tamalpais College (MTC), which offers students at San Quentin State Prison an in-person, accredited associate’s degree. They will be offering a pilot program to give incarcerated students SF State classes in collaboration with CPaGE. Students will have the opportunity to earn transferrable credits from a well-known university. Working with underserved students, like those currently incarcerated, strongly supports our university's social justice mission.
• Lihua Wang (International Business): Through generating more engagement with the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT), Lihua's project aims to strengthen the partnership with local communities and business leaders, enhance the LFCOB brand, and involve more senior and graduate students in international business-related learning, networking, and volunteer and employment opportunities. OWIT is a global association with a focus on adding value for corporate, mid-sized, and small business and individual members around the world. Chapters like OWIT-NC are governed and operated at the local level, hosting programs and events that enable members to learn, network and forge professional relationships in their business communities.
• Min Chen and Lena Yang (Accounting): Min and Lena work with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program operation, including recruiting and training LFCOB student volunteers who will assist with income tax preparation during the tax season, communicating and working with the IRS to support our student volunteers licensed through IRS exams, working with CPA review firms to secure free studying materials for the volunteers, supervising 5 managers and 50 tax preparers, and communicating with clients.

Women’s Emerging Leadership Forum

Held annually, the Women’s Emerging Leadership Forum (WELF) is a lively, engaging forum designed to help attendees achieve their full potential in the workplace by bringing together a diverse group of successful and aspiring women leaders to exchange stories and hard-earned insights. Participants learn how to avoid common pitfalls on the path to career advancement and identify ways to enhance their leadership skills, while making meaningful connections and expanding their professional network.

On October 13, 2022, the Lam Family College of Business (LFCoB) at San Francisco State University hosted its eighth annual Women’s Emerging Leadership Forum in collaboration with KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, at their San Francisco office, located at 55 Second Street. Billed as a lively, one-day, interactive event designed for women seeking to advance in their profession, WELF 2022 featured informative and inspiring presentations tied to the 'Blazing Your Path' event theme and delivered by prominent community thought leaders and top managers, along with activities to stimulate the minds and bodies of the sold-out audience. Representing a wide range of industries and professions, the 90 people in attendance had time to network with one another during breaks taken throughout the day. The event proved to be a huge success with a sold-out audience and great feedback.

To learn more, please visit the Lam-Larsen Community Engagement Initiative website. To explore partnering opportunities, please contact the initiative director, Professor Gulnur Tumbat, at gulnur@sfsu.edu.

New Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Lounge

Opened in December 2022, our new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Lounge, located in BUS 221, helps make visible the LFCoB’s commitment to ensuring that all students, faculty, staff and administrators feel encouraged to thrive.  

During the opening celebration, we provided snacks and support for students taking final exams, and hired Kaitlin Holbrook, Finance major in her junior year, to shape the future of the space.

Kaitlin decorated the office with inclusive signs, books, and games and created a welcoming atmosphere for students to meet, learn and connect. Collaborating with Professor Venoo Kakar, Kaitlin developed questions and interactive posters with engaging questions for students, from “What does International Women’s Day mean to you?” to “What do you want to accomplish before you graduate?” Kaitlin also filled a bulletin board with summaries of recent DEIB research published by more than 25 LFCoB faculty for perusal by students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus.  This research highlights the depth and breadth of expertise our faculty contribute to academia.

Professors Theresa Roeder, Sybil Yang, Joanne Sopt, and Lena Yang, as well as Dean Eugene Sivadas and  Associate Dean Yim-Yu Wong, help staff the Lounge.  Professor Ramesh Bollapragada kicked off 2023 by hosting a celebration for Holi, the festival of colors, love and spring; Professor Mehmet Ergul brought in artisan-crafted Turkish baklava for our celebration of Eid al-Fitr; and several faculty and staff, including Professors Lihua Wang and Ryan Smith, Jeanette Wright, Jeffrey Chun, Yim-Yu Wong and Janet Remolona helped plan an informative International Day Against Transphobia, Homophobia and Biphobia to wind up the semester.

In April 2023, Director of Career Services Paul Glanting collaborated with several students, including Kaitlin Holbrook, Sarai Argueta Teran, Carolynne Zimmerman and Jean-Michael Arraki, to provide free gently-used interview clothing and professional headshots for over 200 students. Faculty, staff, and professionals from BDO, Uber, KPMG and other firms donated appropriate clothing, and the students served as stylists and floor managers.  The event was so popular that it took over both the Career Services office and the DEIB Lounge, and we are already planning to repeat it next year.

Business Literacy at Oakland High School

The DEIB Initiative took the lead in monthly financial literacy workshops at Oakland High School, working with students taking classes in business and economics as well as leadership programs for Black and recent immigrant students.  More than 40 LFCoB students and 50 professionals from the Bay Area community participated, working in small groups with high school students on hands-on marketing, accounting, finance and management activities.  Several LFCoB alumni are key to the success of this program, including Dominique Crawley (MSA, '14) of Frank Rimerman and Jeff Franco (BS, '83), retired partner at EY, who volunteered regularly and encouraged their colleagues to do the same. 

Student Participation in DEIB Conferences

The Initiative supported student attendance at several annual conferences, including the American Indigenous Business Leaders, the National Black MBA Association, Reach Out MBA (which promotes LGBTQ+ graduate students in business) and ALPFA (the Association of Latinx Professionals).  Six students were thus able to network with professionals in their fields as well as enhance their leadership in LFCoB student groups.

If you are interested in partnering with us, please contact Initiative director Theresa Hammond at thammond@sfsu.edu.

The main objectives of the Lam-Larsen Finance and Technology (FinTech) Initiative are to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the intersection between finance and technology, increase financial literacy in a technology-driven world, and improve students’ job prospects in the fintech industry. This Initiative offers a variety of programs and activities in the growing fintech field.

This year, the Fintech Initiative conducted the following major activities:

Fintech Fellows Program

The Fintech Fellows Program wrapped up its second full year with 7 students completing all the required activities. This program consists of two fintech courses, attending the Lam-Larsen Fintech Conferences, and an alumni career mentorship program to help students land internships and jobs at fintech organizations. These courses were built from scratch and cover topics in this fast-changing field, such as cryptocurrency, blockchain, digital payments and more. Each student met one-on-one with alumni who provided guidance on resumes, interviews, and other aspects of the job-search process.

Two Fintech Conferences

The Initiative held two conferences in 2023 that were both deemed successes by the attendees and speakers. We achieved high attendance rates for both conferences and were able to get great speakers.

In partnership with the Federal Reserve of San Francisco and the Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN) at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz, we organized the Fintech Conference held in person on February 23, 2023. Over 300 students, alumni, and others registered for the conference to hear talks on distributed ledger systems and its impact on financial markets. The in-person attendance was around 100 people. The speakers included the Chief Financial Officer of the IMF, Tobias Adrian, speakers from the Federal Reserve system and Bank of International Settlements, along with several industry speakers.

Over 160 people registered for our second Fintech Conference, held in-person at our Downtown Campus on May 11, 2023, to hear talks from distinguished speakers, such as Chris Larsen, Chairman and Founder of Ripple, Christine Parlour, Sylvan C. Coleman Chair of Finance and Accounting at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and many more.

Students who attended these two conferences had the opportunity to engage in enriching discussions about the most critical issues in fintech and sustainable finance and to network with fintech experts.

New Elective Courses

To center our college’s finance curriculum around finance and technology, the Fintech Initiative faculty created new elective courses focused on modern finance, including real estate, financial analytics and entrepreneurial start-up finance.

Through these activities we have been able to expand our network, enabling us to provide students with more opportunities to build contacts and improve their job prospects.

The Fintech Initiative plans to increase its impact in the coming year. Next year’s conference will feature three partners, Leavy School of Business, Federal Reserve of San Francisco, and UC, Santa Cruz. We also look forward to expanding our activities in the upcoming year by bringing in faculty from abroad and developing new courses.

Visit the Lam-Larsen Fintech Initiative webpage to learn more. If you’re interested in partnering with us, please contact Todd Feldman, Professor of Finance and Lam-Larsen Fintech Initiative Director, at tfeldman@sfsu.edu.

The overall mission and goals of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) Initiative is to find, nurture and maximize the viability of student innovation and entrepreneurship. This year, the I&E initiative developed new programming and continued to iterate on existing programming with the focus on creating a culture of innovation and building out a resource pipeline for SF State students to not only innovate, but to commercialize their innovations.

Pitch Competitions

The I&E Initiative hosts innovation and business pitch competitions to motivate and showcase student innovation and business successes.

On April 28, 2023, we held our 5^th annual Innovation Pitch Competition, and out of 28 pitches, external judges awarded $10,000 in seed funding to three startup concepts:

• Green Solutions, a recycled plastics tile concept by Heven Kibreab (B.S. in Business Administration, International Business, '23);
• Green Collar Workwear, a zero-waste sustainable workwear concept by Dillon Cowell (B.S., Apparel Design Merchandising, '23)
• CurlyCrownz Haircare, a haircare company by Amylah Charles (B.A., Broadcast Electronic Communication Arts & Africana Studies).

Seed funding for these student concepts was made possible by a grant from the MUFG/Union Bank Foundation.

We held our second annual LFCoB Pitch Contest on February 10, 2023, and the following student teams won:

• First Place:  Green Solutions – Heven Kibreab (B.S. in Business Administration, International Business, '23), Founder
• Second Place:  New Intern – Sean Matturano Sebers (B.S. in Business Administration, Marketing, '23), Founder
• Third Place and Voted Fan Favorite:  BrewIT! – Santiago Escobedo (B.S. in Business Administration, Marketing candidate, anticipated graduating class of '24), Founder

(Photo of student winners, left to right:  Heven Kibreab, Sean Matturano Sebers, Santiago Escobedo)

The Pitch Contest judges included:

• Michelle Bogen, Senior product manager, Gridtractor
• Mike Cating, Director of Software, GAF Energy
• Sheetal Kapani, VP of Life Sciences, Silicon Valley Bank
• Joy Montgomery, Founder, ReBootCamp.US

We also hosted our first Computer Science Department Pitch Competition.  We believe these smaller, preparatory competitions will help students gain experience pitching their ideas, expose their concepts to a more interdisciplinary network, and give them valuable industry feedback on their ideas.

Also new for this year, the I&E Initiative enabled SF State representation at innovation and entrepreneurship events at the California State University (CSU) level. In November 2022, we sent IncuGator concept, KOOB, to the CSU’s Demo Day at Cal State Long Beach, and in May 2023, two other IncuGator concepts, PotionSlingers and GreenCollar, represented San Francisco State at the CSU-wide pitch competition at San Jose State University.

Alumni Entrepreneurship Affinity Group & Demo Day

This year also saw the launch of an SF State Entrepreneurship Affinity Group. The launch was held in conjunction with the first SF State Demo Day on February 23, 2023, where PotionSlingers co-founders Mateo Fasano (B.A., Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, ’20) and Denzill Loe (B.S., Computer Science, ’22) demonstrated physical and digital versions of their first game of the same name; and Scott Drapeau (M.A., Design, ’22) showed prototypes from his medical device concept, StomaMate.

(Photo:  Student and alumni entrepreneurs and faculty attend the first SF State Demo Day & Networking event on February 23, 2023, held at the Vista Room student-operated restaurant on campus.)

Workshops & Resource Archives

We have also started to record and archive our workshops and lecture series in an effort to create an evergreen repository and reference for students and the extended SF State community. Access to recordings of past workshops, pitch competitions, and symposium speakers are now accessible throughout the I&E website.

US Tri-Services and Army Educational Outreach Program Partnership

The Lam Family College of Business continues to serve as the Northern California regional high school STEM research outreach partner for the United States Tri-Services and Department of Defense through a partnership with the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP). Through the Lam-Larsen I&E Initiative, our faculty review, judge, and select the best high school student STEM research from Northern California to compete for over $190,000 in scholarships at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). This year, we hosted over 200 attendees at the regional competition in March 2023.

To learn more about other programming not mentioned in this summary, please visit the Lam-Larsen Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative webpage. If you are interested in partnering with us, please contact Sybil Yang, Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, at sybil@sfsu.edu.

The main goal of the Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Initiative is to support high-impact and rigorous scholarship in the realm of Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI&E), such that it supports innovation and ethics-oriented elements of San Francisco State University’s mission. This initiative is the first of its kind in a business school in the United States.

Broadly, the Responsible Innovation & Entrepreneurship Research Initiative had two types of activities for 2022-2023: Research and Engagement.  Following are some highlights from our extensive research and engagement activities.

Research Activities

1. Grants

   • Two types of awards, Advance to Submission (AtS) and Revise and Resubmit (R&R), were introduced in AY 2022-23.
   • Four applications for AtS grants were received, and three were awarded. Awarded faculty were able to avail assigned time to conduct their research.
   • Three student assistantships were granted during the year.

2. Tools

   • A literature review was initiated in Fall 2022 to identify survey items for measuring Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI&E) practices.
   • Forty-nine items, spanning the pillars of responsible innovation, are being considered.
   • A workshop in January 2023 and the creation of a YouTube channel support responsible innovation and entrepreneurship research.

3. Original Research Output

   • Three publications in peer-reviewed journals and 11 peer-reviewed conference papers were produced in the first operational year.
   • A Journal of Product Innovation Management Special Issue on Responsible Innovation is led by the RI&E Initiative, anticipated to be published in Summer 2026.

4. Research Collaboration

   • Collaborations were established with researchers from Babson College and the University of New South Wales for scale development.
   • A partnership with Kiel University's Kiel Institute for Responsible Innovation led to a scholar exchange program with one SF State faculty traveling to Kiel in the summer.
   • Potential collaborations with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and other institutions are currently being explored.

Engagement Activities

We primarily focused on three major activities: establishment of infrastructure, launching the Research Brown Bag Seminar Series, and planning and hosting the inaugural Responsible Innovation and Entrepreneurship Annual Conference.

1. Infrastructure Establishment:

   • The RI&E initiative focused on creating a website, recruiting graduate student interns, and graphic designers.
   • With the help A faculty database was developed, proving valuable for identifying potential speakers and participants.
   • Visual promotional materials were created for effective communication.

2. Research Brown Bag Seminar Series:

   • Four research brown bag seminars were conducted, featuring speakers from Kiel University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Florida State University, and the University of Chicago. There were 132 registrations and 98 online attendees of which 52 were from SF State and rest from other institutions, including San Diego State University, other CSUs, Oakland University, University of Texas at San Antonio, Central Washington University, and others. 
   • Topics ranged from visionary leadership's impact on ideation contests to multilevel modeling.

3. Inaugural Annual Conference:

   • The conference, held on April 21-22, 2023, featured distinguished keynote speakers Phil Macnaghten (Personal Chair in Technology and International Development, Wageningen University, Netherlands) and Doug Galen (Co-Founder and CEO of Rippleworks). Other industry experts included founder-directors of Responsible Innovation at Meta (Zvika Krieger), Google (Jen Gennai), and Melody Ivory (Thrivafy) who participated on panel discussions with LFCoB and external faculty.
   • We conducted an in-person Paper Development Workshop (PDW) with the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM) Editors in Chief. We garnered nine high-quality scholarly submissions from across the United States and internationally. During the highly intensive, full-day, in-person PDW - for which the JPIM Editor in Chief, Charles Noble, traveled to SF State and Jelena Spanjol joined remotely - participants were given intensive training to develop their papers into a JPIM submission. Three participants were from the Lam Family College of Business and the others were from the following institutions: Aarhus University, Babson College, San Diego State University, University of North Dakota, Auckland University of Technology, and the University of Burgundy.
   • Collaboration with Kiel University resulted in a conference with 95 registrants and over 90 people attending over two days and engaging in though-provoking discussions in various sessions.
   • Path Water’s Gulshan Kumar provided us in-kind sponsorship of water bottles.

Please visit the RI&E Research Initiative website for more detailed information about these activities and more. If you are interested in partnering with us, please contact one of the initiative leaders:

• Minu Kumar, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing and Founder-Director of the Lam-Larsen RI&E Research Initiative.  Email: mkumar@sfsu.edu
• Chenwei Li, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management and Associate Director for Engagement for the Lam-Larsen RI&E Research Initiative. Email: cwli@sfsu.edu
• Ian Clark Sinapuelas, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing and Associate Director of Research Programs for the Lam-Larsen RI&E Research Initiative. Email: sinapuel@sfsu.edu

(Photo: April 21, 2023, RI&E Conference audience)

The Lam Family College of Business is committed to connecting students with co-curricular development opportunities. The Student Engagement Initiative is designed to help students find and participate in college activities occurring virtually, on campus and in the Bay Area. The mission of the Leadership EDGE program is to provide students with opportunities and experiences to help them grow to their full potential.  

To support this effort, we implemented several different strategies:

First, we revamped the main Student Resources webpage and created a few new pages to make it easier for students to find and learn about valuable resources, programs and activities offered by the college and the University. 

Second, we launched the Leadership EDGE program by partnering with Suitable, a centralized gamification app students can use to find relevant and interesting events where they earn points for attending those events. The Suitable app allows us to link our college events and activities into four critical competency areas – networking, community engagement, career and professional development, integrity and ethics – and to track student participation. In addition, we held a Student Organization Round Tables in May 2023, inviting student leadership from college professional and social organizations to meet bi-annually to encourage event synergies and promote networking. Grant funds were awarded to seven different student organizations to host events and drive increased membership across departments.

To assist in developing interesting and relevant co-curricular events and activities, we launched a new Student Ambassadors Program, and selected and trained 10 Student Ambassadors. These volunteer student leaders promote and create professional and enriching social activities where Lam Family College of Business students can participate, develop a wide range of skills, build their network, connect with each other, and have fun. Some examples of these events include:  the student organization Beta Alpha Psi’s Meet the Firms event, which brings accounting firms on campus to connect directly with our business students; Chai and Chat, where students can enjoy chai tea and meet peers and faculty; and Promoting Yourself Right, where students can learn how to develop their own brand and make themselves more distinguishable.

(Photo:  Students participating in various events and activities held in FY 2022-2023 and organized or supported by the Lam-Larsen Student Engagement Initiative.)

Finally, our Mentorship Program – a career-readiness program that brings together professionals, most of whom are alumni, as mentors to our business students – successfully launched its webpage in July 2022. We held six mentor spotlight events during the fall and spring semesters. All mentor spotlight events held during spring 2023 were also included on the Suitable app and open to all students. Three tracks were established for students to enter: 1) “Setting up for Success;” 2) “Professional Engagement;” and 3) “Exploring Life and Career Goals.” Over 114 students and 94 mentors participated in the Mentorship Program this past fiscal year.

(Photo:  2023 Mentorship Program students, alumni, and faculty.)

Please visit the Student Engagement Initiative website to learn more about our programs.  If you would like to partner with us, please reach out to Smita Trivedi, Director of the Lam-Larsen Student Engagement Initiative and Associate Professor of Business and Society/Sustainable Business, at strivedi@sfsu.edu.

Read about the amazing faculty at our college who were recognized with two-year Lam-Larsen Professorship Awards for their distinguished teaching, research, and service contributions to San Francisco State University, their fields, and the community at large:

Distinguished Teaching Professorship Awards

The Distinguished Teaching Professorship Awards recognize faculty for their long and distinguished record of outstanding, high-impact teaching and mentoring, innovative instruction and significant contributions to improving the curriculum in our college. The three awardees for 2023 are:

• Robert Bonner, Ph.D., Management
• Stewart Liu, Ph.D., Decision Sciences
• Smita Trivedi, Ph.D., Management

Distinguished Research Professorship Awards 

The Distinguished Research Professorship Awards recognize faculty for their research impact, including productivity, publishing, and awards, as well as societal impact, and fostering multi‐disciplinary collaborations within the Lam Family College of Business, across San Francisco State University and broader society through community engagement, research, partnerships, and more. The five awardees for 2023 are:

• Foo-Nin Ho, Ph.D., Marketing
• Venoo Kakar, Ph.D., Economics
• Antoaneta “Toni” Petkova, Ph.D., Management
• Robert Saltzman, Ph.D., Management
• Lihua Wang, Ph.D., International Business

Distinguished Service Professorship Awards

The Distinguished Service Professorship Awards recognize faculty for their outstanding and diverse service contributions to our campus community and the general community at large. This year's two awardees are:

• Anoshua Chaudhuri, Ph.D., Economics
• Theresa Hammond, Ph.D., Accounting

Over this fiscal year, the Career Services and Professional Development (CSPD) Center provided over 1,128 LFCoB students and alumni with assistance and resources to begin their career journey through personalized advising, workshops, employer and alumni panel talks, student fellowship programs, internship/job postings, and more.

CSPD provided holistic and responsive one-on-one advising to our students in all aspects of career planning. Students were given help in creating the critical pieces of the job-hunting process, including resume writing, creating and/or updating their LinkedIn profile, and more. They were also given help with developing the interpersonal skills necessary for career-readiness, including networking, strategic job searching, and interviewing. Additionally, CSPD collaborated with LFCoB faculty in conducting in-class workshops, with 25-30 students in each class, on topics ranging from creating meaningful content on LinkedIn to working with a mentor and writing industry-specific resumes.

CSPD held 22 workshops and panel talks where partners from organizations like Google, TikTok, Enterprise Holdings, Amwins, Withum, and COOP worked with students to sharpen their skills and make lasting connections. We invited alumni to return to campus and talk about their career paths, and recruiters and business developers were also invited to help students optimize their LinkedIn profiles and strategize plans for landing a summer internship. Our events were attended by more than 900 students.

The year culminated in a professional development event called "Suits, Snaps, and Snacks," where students received complimentary office attire, generously donated by Uber, BDO, and KPMG, and professional headshots to ensure they were set up for success. The event was a huge success with participation from over 200 students.

CSPD wrapped up its ninth student cohort for the Commercial Real Estate Fellows Program in partnership with the Commercial Real Estate Alliance for Tomorrow's Employees (CREATE) organization. During the fellowship program, students learn from specialists who work in various fields within commercial real estate, such as asset management, leasing, construction and property management, and beyond. The program is held over two semesters and is designed to prepare students up for an entry-level role in commercial real estate. Highlights of the program included a tour of a San Francisco high-rise with sweeping views of the gorgeous Bay Area and an end-of-semester mixer, where several of the program's speakers returned to celebrate the students' completion of the program and to help them plan their next steps in commercial real estate.

CSPD also held workshops at SF State's Dream Resource Center, a program that supports undocumented students. Beyond the SF State campus, the CSPD director, Paul Glanting, appeared on career-focused panels held by the San Francisco Giants community fund and by the "Business of Imagination," a think-tank held by Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin Prison.

The efforts of CSPD helped students and alumni to secure job offers and internships at companies like Goldman Sachs, TikTok, Provident Credit Union, Sanrio, Enterprise Holdings, The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Blueprint Studios, Bloomberg Terminal, Netswitch Technologies, NAI NorCal, FDIC, UCSF, Delicato, Carle Health, The Port of Richmond, and more.

Please visit the Career Services and Professional Development Center website to learn more about the advising services, career exploration and recruiting events, and skill-building workshops we offer to LFCoB students and alumni. You'll also find links to an array of valuable career resources and job/internship opportunities.

If you are an employer interested in partnering with us on career or professional development opportunities for our students and alumni, please contact Paul Glanting, Director of the CSPD Center at pbg@sfsu.edu.

The mission of the Center for Ethical and Sustainable Business (CESB) is to advance business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability in collaboration with Bay Area businesses and their stakeholders through excellence in education, engagement and research. This year, we increased the scope and reach of our offerings. Overall, the total number of participants across all CESB events grew by 32%, from 455 in 2022 to 601 in 2023. 

Below are some highlights of the many activities we hosted, launched or participated in this year:

Business Ethics Week

Now in its 17th year, Business Ethics Week (BEW), the center's annual flagship event, brings in business and industry experts on topics at the intersection of business ethics, social justice, the environment, and innovation.

We expanded BEW by adding two more events, recruiting speakers from a wider range of disciplines, and increasing attendance by 20% compared to the prior year. The center worked with other organizers to coordinate BEW events with the SF State Climate Symposium and Earth Week.  Almost all BEW events were video recorded and the Zoom video links were shared on the CESB website to expand reach. In fact, BEW event recordings will be shown at Mt. Tamalpais College to incarcerated learners at San Quentin Prison who are earning their associate of arts degree.

2023 Business Ethics Week Events Calendar

(Photo:  Vegan buffet served during "Food For Thought," a Business Ethics Week speaker event held on April 19, 2023)

Teaching, Research, Collaboration and Networking

The center worked to increase student, alumni, and community involvement in the CESB and to advance ethics and sustainability principles in a variety of ways, including the following:

• We worked with faculty to embed ethics and sustainability principles into their teaching. The CESB also encouraged faculty to do research in ethics and sustainability.
• We collaborated with the directors of other Lam-Larsen Initiatives to promote ethics and sustainability in their initiatives and otherwise leverage dynamic synergies.  As an example, the center recruited judges and pitch-application reviewers for the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative's sustainability-themed LFCoB Pitch Contest.
• The center held our second annual CESB Teaching Awards for faculty, receiving 10 applications (up from five applications in 2022) and selecting seven awardees.
• CESB also held our second annual Faculty Research competition, with seven applicants (up from five in 2022) and four were selected to receive an award.  
• In Fall 2022, we held a reception to recognize and honor all the prior year (2021-2022) faculty recipients of the Teaching Awards and Research Awards.
• CESB held Case Writing Workshops, attended by 15 faculty, to encourage faculty to publish cases, especially on ethics and sustainability, in PRJ publications.
• The center created a CESB LinkedIn group to engage with other ethics and sustainability professionals, and it already has 65 members.
• We re-engaged with Net Impact and restarted a hybrid chapter, with two events held in spring 2023 and attended by a total of 15 people.

Please visit the Center for Ethical and Sustainable Business website to learn more about the events and programs we offer. If you are interested in partnering with the center, please contact us at cesb@sfsu.edu.

LFCoB Student Success Center (Advising Team)

The 2022- 2023 academic year was the start of a new era in academic student support.

In late summer 2022, San Francisco State University announced that its current academic advising model would go through another transformation with the soon-to-be renovated Undergraduate Advising Center (UAC) facility expanding in order to house all the professional college advising teams under one roof. While largely a response to student demand, the University recognized this change would streamline the transition from first-year student caseloads to college advising support, centralize advising, and provide more consistent support for all students throughout the year.

The Lam Family College of Business Student Success Center advising team moved to the Administration building in February 2023, where they are now part of the larger UAC team.

Starting fall 2023, in collaboration with faculty liaisons, the advising teams will start whole-degree advising. This will allow the Lam Family College of Business's advising team to further advance its efforts to provide accessible and quality support for all its students.

Key Services offered by the LFCoB Advising Team

• Academic Advising: Common services we provide include degree planning, choosing/registering for classes, major exploration, academic success strategies, and policy clarification and appeals. The availability of in-person support was also expanded.  
• Study Abroad: In keeping with the college’s focus on providing students with a global perspective, we encourage students to study abroad for one semester or a full year at one of our 20 partner universities worldwide.
• Graduation Applications: Supporting students with navigating the graduation application process, as well as collaborating with students on creating pathways to graduation when they receive denials.  

This year, the college’s Student Success team’s newest Graduation Specialist conducted a successful advising campaign to provide proactive advising to high-unit undergraduate students.  Although only four graduation workshops were conducted, the team did extensive outreach for students who applied to graduation and prioritized students who received preliminary denials from the registrar.  In addition, the LFCoB advising team, for the first time, launched specialized retention campaigns to target 180 students who were identified as at-risk students and not enrolled after priority registration.

Dean’s List

Each semester, the University recognizes undergraduate students who have attained high scholastic achievement. The following criteria are used:

• The student registered for and completed a minimum of 12 semester units for the semester. Only those courses where A-F grades were assigned are counted.
• The student attained a GPA of 3.25 or better for the semester.
• Only resident courses are used in computing the grade point average.
• Only grades for the semester under consideration are used in computing the grade point average.

For the fall 2022 semester, 1,452 LFCoB undergraduate students made the Dean's List.

For the spring 2023 semester, 1,238 LFCoB undergraduate students made the Dean's List.

Beta Gamma Sigma

Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) is the prestigious International Business Honor Society. Since 1913, BGS has recognized and honored top performing students from around the world in business schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International.

Membership to Beta Gamma Sigma is by invitation only. Each September and January, eligible graduate business students and eligible seniors are invited to become members.

Eligibility Criteria

• Advanced master's students with:
  • 3.75 G.P.A. or above
  • 21 credits earned and recorded at SF State
  • Completed seven 800-level courses
• Advanced senior students with:
  • 3.50 G.P.A. or above
  • At least 105 credits earned and recorded at SF State
• Advanced-level juniors with:
  • 3.65 G.P.A. or above
  • 75-89 credits earned and recorded at SF State

LFCoB Qualified Students Invited to join Beta Gamma Sigma:

The following 11 outstanding LFCoB undergraduate students in the graduating class of 2023 were selected by faculty as Honorees for their exceptional academic achievements and service contributions to the Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University and their communities. In addition, one of them received special recognition as the Lam Family College of Business Hood Recipient and served as the college’s undergraduate representative at the Commencement ceremony on May 26, 2023.

• Hood Recipient:  Michelle Fu – Accounting
• Maria Austin-Castillo – Labor and Employment Studies
• Nora Engelmann – International Business
• Alejandro Aceves Madriz – Finance
• Noah Esequiel Melgoza Ortega – General Business
• Cecilia Hanna Romanus – Management
• Denis (Dzianis) Shakhalevich — Information Systems
• Alyssa Tran – Marketing
• Steven Truong – Decision Sciences
• Wallace Lee Vincent – Economics
• James Zablotsky – Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management

(Photos (left to right): Top row: Hood Recipient Michelle Fu, Accounting; Maria Austin-Castillo, Labor and Employment Studies; Nora Engelmann, International Business; Alejandro Aceves Madriz, Finance. Middle row: Noah Esequiel Melgoza Ortega, General Business; Cecilia Hanna Romanus, Management; Denis (Dzianis) Shakhalevich, Information Systems. Bottom row: Alyssa Tran, Marketing; Steven Truong, Decision Sciences; Wallace Lee Vincent, Economics; James Zablotsky, Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management.)

Please visit the 2023 Undergraduate Hood Recipient and Honorees page to read more about these outstanding students.

The following seven distinguished LFCoB graduate students in the graduating class of 2023 were selected by faculty as Honorees for their impressive academic achievements and service contributions to the Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University and their communities. In addition, one of them received special recognition as the Lam Family College of Business Hood Recipient and served as the college’s graduate representative at the Commencement ceremony on May 26, 2023.

• Hood Recipient:  William Thomas Brogan, Master of Business Administration (MBA)
• Mark Belocura, MBA
• Joshua Bonse-Davis, MBA
• Kelsey Brown, Master of Science in Quantitative Economics
• Karen Orta Gonzalez, Master of Science in Accountancy
• Saumya Jaiswal, Master of Science in Business Analytics
• Kratika Sharma, Master of Science in Business Analytics

(Photos (left to right): Top row: Hood Recipient William Thomas Brogan, Master of Business Administration (MBA); Mark Belocura, MBA. Middle row: Joshua Bonse-Davis, MBA; Kelsey Brown, Master of Science in Quantitative Economics; Karen Orta Gonzalez, Master of Science in Accountancy. Bottom row: Saumya Jaiswal, Master of Science in Business Analytics; Kratika Sharma, Master of Science in Business Analytics.)

Please visit the 2023 Graduate Hood Recipient and Honorees page to read more about these outstanding students.

Review the list of this year's Faculty Research Accomplishments, which include awards, seminars and publications. The research publications are presented by academic department and faculty name.

The Lam Family College of Business welcomes the following new faculty members who join us in the fall 2023 semester. Please visit their profile pages to read more about them:

• Dwayne A. Banks, Associate Professor of Economics
• Bahar Javadi, Assistant Professor of Management
• Nasrin Mohabbati, Assistant Professor of Information Systems

The Lam Family College of Business congratulates the newly tenured and promoted faculty members (effective fall 2023)!  Please visit their profile pages to learn more about them:

Promotion to full professor:

• Shuming Liu (Finance) 

Tenure and promotion to associate professor:

• Robert Bonner (Management)
• Rex Cheung (Decision Sciences)
• Shih-Chu Chou (Accounting)
• Ian Dunham (Management)
• Snow Han (Finance)
• Nara Jeong (Management)
• Yifan Li (Accounting)
• Ryan Smith (Hospitality and Tourism Management)
• Christopher Yost-Bremm (Finance)

Below is the list of our tenured/tenure-track faculty by academic department for Fall 2022.  You may click on their names to view their faculty profiles (note that a few faculty profiles may not be available).

Accounting

Chun-Chia Amy Chang, Ph.D.

Lesley Chen, Ph.D

Min Chen, Ph.D.

Shih-Chu Chou, Ph.D.

George Frankel, Ph.D.

Theresa Hammond, Ph.D.

Shuoyuan He, Ph.D.

Katherine Hetherington, Ph.D.

Su-Jane Hsieh, Ph.D.

Wei Huang, Ph.D. 

Jai Kang, Ph.D

Jung Hoon Kim, Ph.D.

Yao-Tien Lee, Ph.D.

Yifan Li, Ph.D.

Bing Luo, Ph.D.

Lufei Ruan, Ph.D.

Joanne Sopt, Ph.D.

Inae (Lena) Yang, S.J.D.

Decision Sciences

Ramesh Bollapragada, Ph.D.

Rex Cheung, Ph.D.

Susan Cholette, Ph.D.

Jamie Eng, Sc.D.

Stewart Liu, Ph.D.

Julia Miyaoka, Ph.D.

Leyla Ozsen, Ph.D.

Minh Pham, Ph.D.

Eghbal Rashidi, Ph.D.

Theresa Roeder, Ph.D.

Robert Saltzman, Ph.D.

Sada Soorapanth, Ph.D.

Yabing Zhao, Ph.D.

Economics

Dwayne A. Banks, Ph.D.

Michael Bar, Ph.D.

Sudip Chattopadhyay, Ph.D.

Anoshua Chaudhuri, Ph.D.

Kirill Chernomaz, Ph.D.

Chenghao (Matt) Hu, Ph.D.

Zuzana Janko, Ph.D.

Venoo Kakar, Ph.D.

Maxine J. Lee, Ph.D.

Sepideh Modrek, Ph.D.

Lisa Takeyama, Ph.D.

Finance

Todd Feldman, Ph.D.

Snow Xue Han, Ph.D.

Alan Jung, Ph.D.

George Li, Ph.D.

Ming Li, Ph.D.

Shengle Lin, Ph.D.

Shuming Liu, Ph.D.

Yuli Su, Ph.D.

Brian Yang, Ph.D.

Chris Yost-Bremm, Ph.D.

Yi Zhou, Ph.D.

Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management

Brian Aday, Ph.D.

Mehmet Ergul, Ph.D.

Bo Ferns, Ph.D.

Colin Johnson, Ph.D.

Susan Roe, Ph.D.

Ryan Smith, Ph.D.

Andrew Walls, Ph.D.

Sybil Yang, Ph.D.

Information Systems

Paul Beckman, Ph.D.

David Chao, Ph.D.

Tai-Yin Chi, Ph.D.

Guillaume Faddoul, Ph.D.

Leigh Jin, Ph.D.

Lutfus Sayeed, Ph.D.

Nasser Shahrasbi, Ph.D.

Sameer Verma, Ph.D.

International Business

Bruce Heiman, Ph.D.

Yikuan Lee, Ph.D.

Gerardo Ungson, Ph.D.

Lihua Wang, Ph.D.

Labor and Employment Studies

John Logan, Ph.D.

Management

Sally Baack, Ph.D.

Robert Bonner, Ph.D.

Geoffrey Desa, Ph.D.

Ian M. Dunham, MBA, Ph.D.

Connie Marie Gaglio, Ph.D.

Ebru Ipek, Ph.D.

Nara Jeong, Ph.D.

Priyanka Joshi, Ph.D.

Yeonka (Sophia) Kim, Ph.D.

Denise Kleinrichert, Ph.D.

Eric Lamm, Ph.D.

Chenwei Li, Ph.D.

Antoaneta Petkova, Ph.D.

Ronald Purser, Ph.D.

Verónica Rabelo, Ph.D.

Manely Sharifian, Ph.D.

Tom Thomas, Ph.D.

Smita Trivedi, Ph.D.

Dayna Herbert Walker, Ph.D.

Marketing

Subodh Bhat, Ph.D.

Yiwen Chen, Ph.D.

Foo-Nin Ho, Ph.D.

Nga Ho-Dac, Ph.D.

Mahmood Hussain, Ph.D.

Sungha Jang, Ph.D.

Minu Kumar, Ph.D.

Kathleen O'Donnell, Ph.D.

Veronika Papyrina, Ph.D.

Sanjit Sengupta, Ph.D.

Ian Clark Sinapuelas, Ph.D.

Judi Strebel, Ph.D.

Gulnur Tumbat, Ph.D.

Deanna Hui-Ming Wang, Ph.D.

The Business Advisory Council supports the dean and the Lam Family College of Business in fundraising, business and corporate engagement opportunities, and general promotion in support of the mission of the college.

Specifically, the council enables effective partnerships between the business community and the college in integrating business education with real-world innovations, developing a pipeline for student careers and faculty research, and developing sources of investment in support of the goals of the college.

Meet the Dean’s Business Advisory Council members.

The Lam Family College of Business has over 30 scholarship opportunities (some offer multiple awards) to support our students’ educational goals. Funding for our scholarships has been provided by generous donors and organizations who believe in higher education and our students’ ability to achieve academic success.

Scholarship Funds Distributed:  $131,100

Scholarships Awarded:  66

The list below reflects student scholarship opportunities offered between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023:

We are pleased to acknowledge the following donors for their generosity and support from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 to the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this listing, which is organized by donation level and the first name of the donor.

$1,000,000 and Above

• Arline and James Van Ness

$100,000 – $999,999

• Pramukti Surjaudaja

$25,000 – $99,999

• David and Adrienne Yarnold

• Goldman, Sachs & Co.

• James and Ann Swinehart Foundation

$10,000 – $24,999

• Arthur Wallace
• Jeffrey Franco and Denise MacGregor-Franco

$5,000 – $9,999

• Bill Cecil
• Ernst & Young Foundation
• Leona M. Bridges
• Marcum Foundation
• Schwab Charitable
• State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

$1,000 – $4,999

• Baker's Dozen San Francisco
• CalCPA
• Carolyn L. Hee
• Christopher A. Sia
• CIO Scholarship Fund
• David Lo
• David Odato
• Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
• Germaine Bickel
• James Douglas Family Foundation
• Jeffery and Pamela Kawaguchi
• Linda B. Lee-Loza
• Luca E. Donisi
• Merilynn Yamada
• Shelly and Cory Douglas

$250 – $999

• Alan M. Tsuda
• Amanda Y. Chen
• Anonymous (3)
• Brett M. Gajda
• Brian D. Dell
• Charles Schwab Foundation The Matching Gift Center
• Clarice Turner and Rob Cherry
• Daniel Dea and May Choi
• Eugene Sivadas and Amanda Chen
• Genevieve G. Luis
• Kenneth Shew Jew
• Laini Tsang
• Lannie J. Adelman
• Nancy Kux
• PG&E Corporation Campaign For the Community
• Suki Lee and Kevin Yamamoto
• Tarik and Tina Dudum
• The Benevity Community Impact Fund a fund of American Endowment Foundation
• The Blackbaud Giving Fund
• Yas and Midori Suzuki

$1 – 249

• Albert K. Fong
• Anonymous (5)
• Barry D. Lichtman
• Betty K. Oen
• Charlotte Wall
• Cleopatra Kiros
• Craig and Renee Harris
• David Hixson
• David J. Lippi
• David Kuchenthal and Janet Olson
• Debra M. Wraa
• Desmond and Karen O'Reilly
• Donald Zheng
• Douglas S. Hill
• Fred and Eda Lucas
• Frederick V. McFadden
• Gary and Susan Gutowsky
• Irene Oi L. Cheung
• Jack and Gail Osman
• James and Maryann Barry
• John and Joanne McGlothlin
• John Barous
• Jorge Cordova
• Jorge L. Rey-Prada
• Kenneth E. Fowler
• Kenneth W. Fong
• Lauren G. Irwin
• Leonard K. Tom
• Lisa M. Galan
• Mark P. Ciotola
• Matthew P. Cooley
• Nicola J. Gabancho
• Sheri Carroll
• Sokichi Takahashi
• Takashi J. Nikaidoh
• Ti Wu
• Timothy and Mary Sheehy
• Vaughn and Spencer Gregory
• Victoria R. Fowlis-Porchia
• Warren Gabrielli
• Wells Fargo Community Care Grants Program
• William and Roberta Kuhlman
• William M. Gonsalves

NOTE:  We regret any errors to the above list. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inaccuracies or omissions.  If you would like to contact us, please send an email to Marcelyn Potter, Senior Director of Development, at mbpotter@sfsu.edu.

Your Support Makes a Significant Difference to Today's Students, Faculty and Programs

The Lam Family College of Business is San Francisco’s public business school embracing the area’s rich diversity.  The college relies on private support to fulfill its mission and provide a high-quality education to students from the Bay Area and well beyond. Many of our students are the first in their families to pursue a university degree, and their ambition and success add economic, cultural and social vitality to our community. A scholarship can mean the difference between graduating on time or never graduating at all, and you can make that happen. You can also help us continue to offer innovative and effective academic programs, and attract and retain stellar faculty. 

Ways to Give

• Make your gift online at https://develop.sfsu.edu/college-business
• Donate stock and securities
• Leave a legacy by naming the Lam Family College of Business in your will or living trust

For more information on giving to the Lam Family College of Business, please contact: 

• Marcelyn Potter, Senior Director of Development. Email: mbpotter@sfsu.edu
• Julianne Zuniga, Associate Director of Development. Email: jmzuniga@sfsu.edu