Rockin' with Dr. Lisa White

Scientist on a mission

Since graduate school, Dr. Lisa White has operated culturally-responsive programs to teach geology to underrepresented students through SF Rocks, and here leading a session for Potrero Progress

SAN FRANCISCO-- It is basic human nature for toddlers to pick up rocks.  Adults usually tell them to stop.

Dr. Lisa White suggests young people should never stop rockin'.

Dr. Lisa White, professor of geosciences and associate dean of engineering and science at San Francisco State University, studies siliceous rocks from the Miocene epoch between 25 and 5 million years old around the Pacific Rim and in the Gulf Coast. These are the rocks which often have deposits of oil.  

White, whose grandfather moved to the Potrero neighborhood during World War II, is the daughter of the first black dean at San Francisco State.  

From grade school to graduate students

Dr. White presents scientific topics in ways that the entire spectrum of students can appreciate

She also graduated from State and converted to geology after a summer internship with the U.S. Geological Survey.

For Potrero Hill students of today, she explained how the topography of the Gulf of Mexico affected the Gulf spill, giving them a completely different context on geology.

The second generation professor turns science into an adventure, recently shipping out on a Pacific expedition with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

She is principal investigator of the SF-ROCKS program (Reaching Out to Communities and Kids with Science in San Francisco, http://sf-rocks.sfsu.edu) and coordinates a geoscience education project with high schools in the southeastern part of San Francisco.

Her work with the SF Unified School District extends beyong the SF-ROCKS project to collaborations with scientists at the California Academy of Sciences, the UC Museum of Paleontology, and the SFUSD Project INQUIRES to develop inquiry-driven standards-based activites for middle school science teachers on California Landscapes and the Dynamic Earth.