Photo by Juan Montes
Forecast: Endless Summer
Bill Martin (attended, ’86 – ’89) gave his final forecast for KTVU-Channel 2 this winter after 33 years informing Bay Area viewers about the weather. He retired as the station’s chief meteorologist.
Martin enrolled at SFSU for postgraduate studies in atmospheric science. In 2014, he was one of eight meteorologists invited to the White House to discuss climatechange issues with President Obama.
Martin has started Weather Applied Metrics, a company that gauges the effect of weather conditions on sports, consulting with Major League Baseball and National Football League teams. He continues to spend much of his time surfing and hanging with his family and dog, Carl. Yes, San Francisco’s mystic marine layer known as Karl the Fog is named after Carl the Dog.
Martin is also still broadcasting: Watch his forecasts on YouTube.
A Giant Talent
Carolyn McArdle (B.A., ’94) has worked in Bay Area radio for 30 years, mostly as an on-air personality and DJ. As the industry changed, she wore more and more hats. She’s a morning show co-host, assistant program director and music director at iHeartMedia’s 98.1 The Breeze. Last summer, she added one more hat to the mix — and this one’s orange and black. McArdle was named the public address announcer for Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team.
Her first full season with the Giants kicked off this spring. She works 81 home games, mostly at night. With a full-time job on morning radio, McArdle will have a packed calendar. “This is my dream come true. I don’t care if I’ve got four hours of sleep or five hours of sleep. I get to call the ballgame at Oracle Park for the Giants,” she says.
An athlete herself, McArdle came to SFSU to swim on the Gators’ NCAA Division II team (which was disbanded in 2001). SFSU taught her the basics of radio: editing, copy writing, audio production and sound mixing. “The teachers were so down to earth and so real and so helpful that you just constantly felt supported,” she says.
One of her class requirements was to intern at a radio station. She shot for the moon and wound up at her favorite radio station, K101 (101.3 FM), working under the legendary Bay Area DJ Don Bleu. Years later, after she’d established herself as a pro, she and Bleu reunited when she became the co-host of his show on 103.7 KOSF.
But after three decades in radio, McArdle wanted a new challenge. “I thought, ‘What about announcing sports?’” she says.
She soon landed public announcer positions with the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. Later she was hired as a fill-in announcer for the Giants’ farm team, the Sacramento River Cats, eventually becoming the team’s full-time announcer.
Fast forward to 2024 when the Giants were looking for a public address announcer. She auditioned against other people who were equally talented, she says. “It could have gone to anybody in that booth,” she says. “I’m extra humbled and grateful that the Giants selected me.”
Photos courtesy of the San Francisco Giants
Photo courtesy of Susannah Israel
’80s
Susannah Israel’s (B.A., ’86; MFA, ’00) sculptures and mixed- media works were featured in Baltimore, West Virginia and beyond. “Connection: Artaxis” will become part of the fine-arts teaching collection at Northwest Missouri State University. “This is especially meaningful to me, as an SFSU fine arts graduate assistant and Laney College professor for 20 years,” she says. “There is no better inspiration than teaching.”
Photo courtesy of GroupGreeting
’00s
Anthony Doctolero (B.A., ’01) is the founder of GroupGreeting, a startup that helps companies like Amazon, Instacart, Nike and Airbnb send digital cards to their employees for birthdays and other special occasions. GroupGreeting made Inc. magazine’s 5,000 list honoring the fastest-growing private companies in America.
Image courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission
’20s
Marcelo Potosí (B.A., ’24) is an artist and graphic designer. The San Francisco Arts Commission selected him for its 2024 Art on Market Poster Series devoted to the Indigenous peoples of the Bay Area.
Ira B. Cooperman (B.A., ’62) is a Special Studies instructor at Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, where he has taught national security courses since 2005. The former Air Force intelligence officer’s most recent course is “The Shadowy World of Espionage.”
Anita Martinez (B.A., ’69; M.A., ’77) is president of the Board of Trustees of City College of San Francisco (CCSF). A faculty and administrative leader who has taught at CCSF and SFSU, she has served on California Community Colleges task forces and committees, winning awards and honors for her work.
George Csicsery (MFA, ’72) visited SFSU in March for a special event in the Coppola Theatre. It featured a screening and a discussion of two of his documentaries that highlight contributions of Black mathematicians over the last 100 years.
Chaz Austin (M.A., ’81) is the author of three books on self- marketing, treating oneself like a business and behaving like an entrepreneur. He is a public speaker, college professor and cancer survivor.
Jennifer Hall (B.S., ’84) is board president of Joybound People & Pets, which provides cat and dog rescue adoption and services. She enjoyed a 27-year career at Intuit Inc., where her roles included chief information officer and senior vice president of customer success.
Lucie Faulknor (B.A., ’86) is producer and co-director of “Free for All: The Public Library,” a documentary that aired on PBS’ “Independent Lens” in April.
Gary Young (MBA, ’87) retired from the Defense Contract Management Agency under the U.S. Department of Defense after 37 years of service as a supervisory price analyst, contracting officer and management analyst. He received a service medal from the agency, a flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol and a letter of appreciation from President Biden.
James Dudley (B.A., ’01) has been an SFSU Criminal Justice Studies lecturer for 13 years, hosts the “Policing Matters” podcast and cowrote “Recruitment and Retention of Gen Z Law Enforcement Officers” (Blue360).
Jerome Dees (B.A., ’06) won an Advanced Leadership Award from the National Restaurant Association in 2024. He dedicated a significant amount of time to causes in the Bay Area and helped launch a program for Tacolicious that supports San Francisco public schools.
Amy Brandt (B.A., ’10), a partner at Liebert Cassidy and Whitmore, has been named a “rising star” on the Northern California Super Lawyers list for three straight years.
Juan Acosta (B.A., ’19) is one of 30 winners of the Young Innovators in Behavioral Health Awards from the Behavorial Tech Health Conference. The award honors people nationwide ages 18 – 29 who are shaping a future where everyone, particularly young people, can access essential digital mental health resources and feel truly supported.
Carl Celedio (B.S., ’22) is a filmmaker who has transitioned from NBA videos to crafting affordable, cinematic wedding films. Inspired by his Filipino heritage, he captures love and family while addressing financial barriers in the wedding industry.
Dagny Ysais (M.S., ’23) contributed to the Aquarium of the Pacific’s inaugural Marine Species Report Card, a first-of-its- kind resource providing an in-depth look at 30 species native to California.
Photo by Juan Montes
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenneth Fong (B.S., ’71; M.A., ’74) was on hand for the opening ceremony for SFSU’s new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC) in January. A major supporter of SEIC’s construction, he got a close look at some of the building’s cutting-edge labs and met with SFSU and CSU representatives (including SFSU Professor and CSU Trustee Darlene Yee-Melichar, pictured with Fong).