Stephanie Sears

Program Coordinator, Galileo High School

"Though it has been decades since Dr. Sears was a staff member at Peer Resources, where she led youth empowerment programming at Galileo High School, she continues to embody its mission and vision of "creating just change through the leadership of young people." The most notable example of how she has, and continues to do this, at the University of San Francisco is through the establishment, administration, and instruction of the Esther Madriz Diversity Scholars (EMDS) Living Learning Community. Largely through her efforts, EMDS was founded at USF in 2005, with the theme of exploring issues of diversity, inequality, social justice, and social change, by challenging participants to "cross borders and discover home". Since its inception, EMDS has been a springboard for some of USF's most critical and social justice-centered student and alumni leaders, helping nurture student government executives, resident assistants and directors, and a number of notable young professionals. The legacy of this program is one that has made our department and university immensely proud, because of how profoundly it exemplifies our institution's mission to "educate leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world," and because of how we continue to witness how this award-winning program, under Dr. Sears' leadership, has enabled and empowered its participants and alumni to extend EMDS' reach through "engaging, training, and advocating for their peers" and neighbors in San Francisco and beyond."

Stephanie Sears was the Program Coordinator for the Galileo Peer Resources Program from 1989 to 1994, steering the flagship Peer Resources site through growth and transition. After Peer Resources, Stephanie received in Masters in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, and went on to receive her PhD in African and African American Studies and Sociology from Yale. She has been an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of San Francisco since 2009, serving as a deeply valued mentor to other faculty of color and scholars. She served as Department Chair from 2015-2018, has served as the Director of Esther Madriz Diversity Scholars from 2005 till 2018, and has been recognized with numerous USF faculty awards.