ICCE Announces New Faculty Award for Research and Creative Works in Civic Engagement and Community Service: The Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship
The Eisman Award for Engaged Scholarship is named in honor of Dr. Gerald (“Jerry”) Eisman, the inaugural and former Director of the Institute for Community and Civic Engagement (ICCE). This award recognizes highly engaged community-based scholarship and creative works that positively impact both the community and the academic field.
The award was first announced at the ICCE Awards Ceremony on April 12, 2018. The inaugural award/grant process began in Fall 2018.
Dr. Eisman is known for his long-standing reputation as a change agent, demonstrating active involvement in the community.
Dr. Gerald ("Jerry") Eisman earned his doctorate in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977. In 1988, he joined the SF State Computer Science faculty, was promoted to full professor, and served as department chair for nine years.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Eisman, along with campus colleagues, founded SFSUnet, an online communication project aimed at closing the digital divide and addressing community needs. Its programs included teaching computing skills to residents of public housing, tutoring children in mathematics and computing, expanding online opportunities for minority businesses, and developing workflow systems for public health agencies. SFSUnet also hosted the first United Nations online conference on disaster preparedness, involving participants from Japan, Peru, and San Francisco.
In 1995, Dr. Eisman chaired an SF State strategic planning task force that led to the creation of the Office of Community Service Learning, where he later served as Director. This office placed thousands of students in the community each year as part of their academic study.
From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Eisman served as the first Service-Learning Faculty Scholar in the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor, where he helped promote community-based scholarship throughout the 23-campus CSU system. In 2006, he became Acting Director of the Institute for Community and Civic Engagement (ICCE) and was appointed Director in 2008, a position he held until his retirement in 2014.
In 2010, Dr. Eisman received the California Campus Compact’s Richard E. Cone Award, which recognized his impact on service-learning and community-campus partnerships across the San Francisco Bay Area and the CSU system.
Throughout his career, Dr. Eisman has focused on how the knowledge processes of universities can combine with the knowledge assets of communities to generate new knowledge that directly addresses community needs.