The following is a list of notable people associated with San Francisco State University, located in the American city of San Francisco, California. Many alumni may still need to be added to the San Francisco State University alumni category.
Politics and government
Oscar Zeta Acosta – lawyer, Chicano activist, and author
Tom Ammiano – member of the California State Assembly (13th district)
Willie Brown – member and 58th Speaker of the California State Assembly and former mayor of San Francisco, California
John L. Burton – former president pro tempore of the California State Senate
Robert Campbell – former member of the California State Assembly (1980–1996)
Ron Dellums – former mayor of Oakland and former U.S. Representative from 1971–1998
Saeb Erekat – Palestinian chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee
Larry Galizio – member of the Oregon House of Representatives
Keith Kerr – military general and gay rights activist
Nicole LeFavour – Idaho State Senator
George Miller – Congressman
William Wayne Paul (1939–1989) – political activist
Nemesio Prudente – political activist and president of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Harpreet Sandhu – Richmond, California politician and Sikh community leader
Richard Sansoe – instructor and department head of Social Studies at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
David Schuman – Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals
Mu Sochua – Cambodian Member of Parliament and women's rights activist
Bill Thomas – former congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
Leland Yee – California State Senator
Javad Zarif – Iranian Foreign Minister
Science and technology
Yvonne Cagle – NASA astronaut
Douglas Crockford – programmer, specifier of JSON, JavaScript language developer
Hillman Curtis (1961–2012) – pioneering web designer
Gerta Keller – paleontologist, professor of Geosciences at Princeton University
Gilman Louie – technologist, venture capitalist, game designer; former CEO of Spectrum HoloByte, Inc., In-Q-Tel; Chairman of the Federation of American Scientists
Stanley Mazor – co-inventor of the microprocessor
Dan Werthimer – co-founder and chief scientist of SETI@home
Joseph White – psychologist, godfather of Black Psychology
Devin Nelson – instructor of Science at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
Herman Bottcher – decorated US Army veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II
Bebe Bryans – United States and Olympic head coach in women's rowing
Vester Lee Flanagan II – gunman in the deaths of two U.S. journalists
Lee Francis – poet, educator, and founder of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
Stephen Gaskin – author, teacher, public speaker, political activist, and philanthropic organizer
Joe Jackson – American football player
Aidan Kelly – academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca
Moin Khan – expeditionary, went on a solo motorcycle journey from San Francisco, California to Lahore, Pakistan
Russell Leong – author and philosopher
Jaime Levy – interface designer and user experience strategist
Gilbert Melendez – professional mixed martial artist; former WEC and Strikeforce Lightweight Champion, UFC Lightweight contender
Jake Shields – professional mixed martial artist, former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, and formerly competing for the UFC
Jesse Taylor (attended) - wrestler; mixed martial arts fighter
James Van Praagh – self-proclaimed medium, recipient of the 2012 Pigasus Award in the category "Refusal to face reality"
Craig Abaya - artist
Kim Addonizio - poet, novelist
Dale Allender - educator
Herbert Blau – theater director, co-director of the San Francisco Actors Workshop, 1953–1965
Zita Cabello-Barrueto - professor, activist
Philip Choy - historian
Larry Clark – member of L.A. Rebellion School of Black Filmmakers
John Collier Jr. - anthropologist
Roland De Wolk – journalist, Pulitzer Prizer winner
Richard Festinger - composer
Bennett Friedman - musician, saxophonist
Gloria Frym – poet, fiction writer, and essayist
Sally Miller Gearhart – feminist, science fiction writer, and political activist
Milton Halberstadt (1919–2000) – photographer, artist
Nathan Hare – first coordinator of black studies, founding publisher of The Black Scholar, sociologist, psychologist
S. I. Hayakawa - SFSU president, US Senator
Paul Hoover – poet
Jules Irving – actor, director, co-director of the San Francisco Actors' Workshop, 1953–1965, and artistic director of the Repertory Company of Lincoln Center, NYC
John Keith Irwin (1929–2010) – professor of sociology
Luis Kemnitzer - anthropologist, political activist
Dean H. Kenyon – Professor Emeritus of Biology, author of Of Pandas and People, one of the main proponents of intelligent design
Michael Krasny – professor of English
Catherine Kudlick - professor of history, director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability
Eric Mar - lecturer on Asian American Studies, politician, member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Geoff Marcy – astronomer, discoverer of more than 150 extrasolar planets
Sarah Ladino Manyika - writer
David Matsumoto – psychologist
Joseph McBride - author and film historian
Dave McElhatton – journalist, evening news anchor
Sandra Lee McKay - linguist
Jan Millsapps - writer, filmmaker
Wright Morris – novelist and photographer, professor of English (1962–1975)
Pete Najarian (writer) - writer
Jacob Needleman – philosopher of religion
Roger Nixon (1921–2009) – composer, musician
Peter Orner – writer
Donald Ostrowski – Distinguished Lecturer at Harvard University, Harvard's most published historian
Wayne Peterson – composer, Pulitzer Prize winner
Moses Rischin – historian
Theodore Roszak (1933-2011) - historian, author of The Making of a Counter Culture
Vic Rowen - Football player and coach
Carol Lee Sanchez - poet, visual artist, essayist
Irving Saraf – Academy Award-winning film director and producer, former professor of film production
James Schevill (1920–2009) – poet, critic, and playwright
Anita Silvers – Philosopher of Science
Nick Sousanis - Cartoonist
Bas van Fraassen (1941–) – Philosopher of Science, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SFSU, Fellow of the British Academy, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Alberto Villoldo – psychologist and anthropologist
Carleton Washburne – author and educational reformer
Roger Woodward – pianist
List of San Francisco State University people Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
