Notable Alumni

Melba Beals
Civil rights activist
One of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated an all-white high school in Arkansas in 1957.  this journalism grad, pictured left, is now chair of Dominican University's Communications Department. Her awards include the Congressional Gold Medal and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Excellence in Writing.

Randy Hayes
Environmental pioneer
His masters thesis in environmental planning, a 16 mm film about the desert, won Best Student Film from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and led to Hayes founding the Rainforest Action Network.

Norma Hotaling
Crusader for survivors of abuse, prostitution and trauma
She died in 2008 but her legacy lives on through Standing Against Global Exploitation, an organization she founded as part of her health education coursework at SF State.

Wilma Mankiller
American Indian activist
Long before her selection as first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985, she was an SF State student who participated in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island.

Alex Anderson
Quilter/teacher/author
The host of HGTV's "Simply Quilts" for more than a decade, she discovered her passion at SF State, when she completed a quilt as part of her work toward a degree in art. Today her award-winning quilts are displayed across the country.

Roy De Forest
Artist
Known for their rich, colorful palette, this art major's paintings hang in major museums worldwide. His "Country Dog Gentlemen" is a popular work at the San Francisco MOMA.

Lynn Hershman Leeson
Artist
Her interactive and Internet-based media art projects include a four-year private performance as a simulated person, Roberta Breitmore, who had her own apartment, handwriting, gestures, moods, and friends who became part of her fiction.

Joel Bartlett
Former TV meteorologist
During his career as an Emmy-winning weathercaster, he quipped that the fog at SF State does not come "on little cat feet" but on "heavy panther paws."

Stan Bunger
News anchor
The retired anchor for San Francisco's KCBS Radio says that his professors, the late Harb Morgan and Benjamin Draper, Spencer Michels and Ron Compesi, helped him start a successful broadcasting career.

Steve Centanni
Television correspondent
This national correspondent for the FOX News Channel has reported on numerous global news stories and events. His first on-air gig was at KBRG Radio, "giant 88 at San Francisco State."

Dean Biersch
Brewery executive
This Gordon Biersch Brewing Company co-founder has taken his love of beer to wine country with his latest venture, Hopmonk Tavern.

Barry Braverman
Theme park designer
Life after SF State has been an excellent adventure for this teaching-credential recipient. He was the lead designer for California Adventure, one of Disney's newest theme parks.

Gregory Fischbach
Video game executive
Video games were a slam-dunk for this one-time president of RCA Records International. He went on to start Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., the company responsible for bringing the top-selling "NBA Jam" to market.

Dennis Chaconas
Former superintendent
Even during the bell-bottom '60s, this former Oakland schools chief wore a suit to SF State because his immigrant father had read that respectable college boys dressed that way.

Robert Deegan
President
The ninth superintendent and president of Palomar College in San Marcos, he earned his bachelor's degree in psychology and his master's in counseling from SF State.

Brother Ronald Gallagher
President
The 28th president of Saint Mary's College of California credits influential faculty at SF State such as Richard Trapp and Mike Zimmerman with igniting his interest in higher education.

Jack Angel
Director, actor, costume designer
This veteran voice artist has done the talking for dozens of animated characters in feature films, including Teddy in "A.I.," Astrotrain in "Transformers" and various voices in the "Toy Story" franchise.

Alex Borstein
Comedian, actress
One risqué song may have brought an end to her regular comedy gigs at Mary Ward Hall, but it didn't hurt her career. After five seasons on “MADtv,” she went on to win Emmy Awards for her work on “Family Guy” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Christopher Boyes
Sound engineer/recording engineer
As an undergrad he was asked to make a film using sound only; It came out barely audible. Now a four-time Oscar winner ("Titanic," "Pearl Harbor," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "King Kong"), he's known as one of the best in the business.

Kim Addonizio
Poet/novelist
A self-described "late-bloomer," she discovered poetry in her late 20s as a liberal studies undergrad. She went on to earn an M.A. in creative writing — and critical acclaim. "Tell Me," her third collection of poetry, was a finalist for a 2000 National Book Award.

Rae Armantrout
Poet
For "Versed," her ninth volume of poetry, she received both a National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

Po Bronson
Novelist
He gave up a lucrative career as a bond trader to study creative writing at SF State, where his best-selling novel "Bombardiers" began life as a writing assignment for a class.

Peter Albin
Guitarist
This founding member of Big Brother and the Holding Company helped organize campus folk festivals that brought acts like the Chamber Brothers and Dick and Mimi Farina to campus.

Vernon Alley
Bass player
This jazz legend studied music at SFSU in 1940 but he got his real education on the road playing bass for Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald.

Sam Andrew
Guitarist
Before he met fellow SF Stater Peter Albin and formed Big Brother and the Holding Company, he was a literature major who aspired to teach university-level linguistics.

Paul Butler
Astronomer
As a young SFSU astronomy student, he and astronomer Geoff Marcy helped start a new space race by becoming the first to discover planets outside our solar system. In 2003 he was named "Space Scientist of the Year" by Discover Magazine.

Debra Fischer
Planet hunter/professor
Part of a planet-searching team formed at SFSU in 1983, she has helped locate the majority of the 130-plus known planets beyond our solar system, including three she found as a student studying under Professor Geoff Marcy.

Kenneth Fong
Scientist
He chopped vegetables to pay his way through SFSU and stayed on the cutting edge as the founder of Clontech Laboratories Inc., which makes tools for gene mapping and genetic engineering.

Kevin Anderson
University director of athletics
Before he took charge of University of Maryland's Terps, he was the director of athletics at West Point, where he turned an operating deficit of more than $1 million into a surplus of $2.73 million.

Paul Cayard
Yachtsman
A seven-time world champion, six-time America's Cup veteran and two-time Olympian, this business major was elected to the Sailing World Hall of Fame in 2002 and named Rolex of the Year in 1998.

Bud Harrelson
Baseball player/coach
He played shortstop for the 1969 World Champion New York Mets then managed the team in 1990 and '91. Today, "Buddy" is part owner and first base coach of the Long Island Ducks.

Gary Austin
Actor/theatre instructor
The creator and original director of famed Los Angeles theatre company The Groundlings, he helped launched the careers of such well-known comedians as Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney.

Martin Benson
Theatre founder/director
He was trying to break into the movies as an actor when he and fellow alumnus David Emmes started a small theatre company in an old dime store. Today South Coast Repertory remains a major force in American theatre.

Bernard Bragg
Deaf theatre artist
The co-founder of the National Theatre of the Deaf, he is the recipient of a Special Tony Award, an honorary doctorate from Gallaudet University and a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of the Deaf.