The research and creative activities of our San José State University faculty help shape the future. A gift from you can make a concrete impact by supporting the efforts of our faculty to deepen our collective knowledge and provide amazing and transformative learning opportunities for SJSU students.
Inaugurated in AY 2014-2015, the Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association’s (ERFA) Faculty Research and Creative Activity Awards have been granted to faculty members each academic year to provide funding in support of their scholarly and creative activities.
Since 2015, ERFA has proudly supported faculty-led research and creative activity projects across a wide range of disciplines - from chemistry and anthropology to public health and art. More than 25 faculty members have benefitted from funding from the ERFA Faculty Research and Creative Activity Awards program since its inception.
These competitive faculty awards are made possible through donations to the ERFA Faculty Research and Creative Activity fund. Your donation will directly help our faculty, many of whom are facing significant barriers to funding their work.
“Drops in state and federal funding have diminished the capacity of our faculty to pursue Research Scholarship and Creative Activity to their fullest extent.” - Dr. Marc d’Alarcao, VP for Research & Innovation
“Award funding matters because it validates the scientific merit of the research, enables student-centered scholarly activity, and provides a foundation for future external funding and impactful outcomes” - Dr. Ismaila Diallo, 2025-26 awardee
Please help us support faculty research and creative activity through a gift to the ERFA Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award Fund.
2025-26 Award Recipients’ Projects
Dr. Edward Cohen, School of Social Work
Dr. Cohen’s research will evaluate a family-based program, Celebrating Families!, an innovative program that addresses families at risk of, or currently involved with, the child welfare system, with at least one caregiver who has a substance use problem. The focus will be on development and testing of new adolescent and parent pre- and post-treatment survey instruments, to supplement current instrumentation geared mainly towards younger children.
Dr. Ismaila Diallo, Department of Meteorology and Climate Science
Dr. Diallo is studying shifts in wild fire risk using the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) in California. This project will assess future wildfire danger across California and its northern and southern subregions focusing on the core fire-season (June-October). The project also seeks to identify the key meteorological factors influencing future wildfire conditions.
Dr. Scott Shaffer, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Shaffer’ research seeks to understand how predators' function in their environment relies on quantifying the energy content of their prey. With samples collected from 65 tracked red-footed boobies (seabird) the project will examine their foraging success using miniature cameras placed on the birds to see what they see when foraging.
Donors
View All Donors