City College of San Francisco strives to inspire participatory global citizenship grounded in critical thinking and an engaged, progressive student body. The institution offers a wide variety of leadership development opportunities.

Leadership Fireside Chat Series
Beginning in the Fall 2021 Semester, the Downtown Center Associated Students Council, in partnership with the Student Activities Office, launched a new Leadership Fireside Chat Series. The series features dynamic speakers from a variety of industries and fields, all in conversation with City College of San Francisco educators.

Each semester spotlights five leaders, one per month during the term, for a total of ten Leadership Fireside Chats per year. Current City College of San Francisco students who attend at least seven of the ten chats during the academic year will receive a certificate of participation at the end of the spring semester.

All students and City College of San Francisco community members are welcome to watch the recordings of previous Chats to gain the insights, advice, and lessons learned from our community and industry leaders.
Spring 2025 Speaker Lineup

Marquis Cabrera is the Founder and CEO of Stat Zero, an award winning platform company focused on reimagining and capturing future value in global industries, global markets, and global industries—all the while nudging the world towards zero-disease, zero-poverty, and zero-pollution.

Marquis has been a plenary speaker at the White House, VC Taskforce, Harvard Law, IMF, Boston Children's Hospital, United Way Youth Venture, and his TEDx talk at Columbia University on 'How To Build a Social Enterprise' received 100,000+ views. He has been featured in Reuters, NPR, Sydney Herald, and Forbes. Marquis has written over 60+ for CIO.com, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and The Huffington Post.

  WHEN: Friday, January 31 | 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

  Click Here To Watch the Recording

Kathy Chang is a strategy consultant passionate about social impact, philanthropy, and community advocacy, who loves translating strategic vision into action. Her experience includes managing, developing, and executing cross-functional strategic initiatives within the national nonprofit space, as well as for a large highly matrixed Fortune 500 company. Her professional background spans across healthcare industry, but she is also excited by social impact work across a wide range of issues and industries.

  WHEN: Friday, February 21 | 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

  Click here to watch the recording.

Mukund is a Patent Portfolio Director at Align Technology.  He manages the Invisalign(R) patent portfolio, supporting R&D, digital transformation teams, marketing teams, and other business units identify and protect the company’s innovations.  His current push involves creating biomaterials and 3D printing patent portfolios.  He also manages the company’s biomechanics and digital treatment planning software patent portfolios.  At a large law firm for 8 years (2010-18), he wrote and litigated patents and helped with corporate transactions.  He was a criminal defense attorney from 2006-09 and was as an electrical engineer from 2000-03.  He graduated from law school at UC Law SF in 2006 and from college at UC Irvine in 2000.

WHEN: Friday, March 21 | 4:00PM - 5:30PM
WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

Click Here to Register to Attend Virtually

Photo of Hanson Chang

Hanson Chang currently serves as Vice President and General Manager at CSBio, overseeing the instrumentation business and engineering. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has a range of experience from managing complex multi-million-dollar projects, overseeing product portfolios >$250 million, managing R&D budgets up to $10 million, a track record of P&L responsibilities with growing revenues by over 70%, and leading cross-functional teams in operations, R&D, and commercialization.

His expertise spans across automated pharmaceutical equipment and medical devices, holding several patents in innovations with peptide synthesizers and medical devices.

WHEN: Friday, April 18 | 4pm - 5:30pm
WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

Click Here to Register to Attend Virtually

Photo of Rueben Smith

Dr. Rueben Smith is a distinguished leader with 25+ years of experience in client relations, strategic growth, facilities management, and educational infrastructure development across both public and private sectors. As Chief Growth Officer & CM Education Lead at Harris, Dr. Smith drives strategic growth initiatives, ensuring Harris continues to address the industry’s evolving needs with innovative solutions.

 

 

WHEN: Friday, May 2 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm
WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

Click Here to Register to Attend Virtually

Fall 2024 Speaker Lineup

Photo of head coach Justin Labagh

Join us for a leadership discussion with men's basketball head coach, Justin Labagh, as he talks about his leadership journey and provides insights on how leadership informs his work on and off the basketball court.

  WHEN: Friday, Sept 6 | 4:00PM - 5:30 PM
  WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

  Watch the Recording Here

Photo of Norman Yee for Leadership Fireside Chat

Hear from Norman Yee, a prominent figure over the past few decades in shaping community support and government resources in San Francisco. Normal shares his leadership insights and story with the CCSF community. 

  WHEN: Friday, Sept 27 | 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

  Watch the Recording Here

Photo of Jazmin Eusebio for Leadership Fireside Chat

Jazmin Eusébio has been doing leadership work in her 9-5 job and in the non-profit space. Hear about her experience with leadership, how it impacts her work and her connections with others.

  WHEN: Friday, 10/18 | 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

  Watch the Recording Here!

Jason is a United States Navy Veteran and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Criminal Justice from Eastern Gateway Community College. Jason is eager to share his leadership journey, tips and advice to emerging CCSF student leaders.

    WHEN: Friday, 11/15 | 4:00PM
    WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

    Watch the Recording Here

Lucy Alvarez is a dedicated and results-driven Director of Human Resources at Gavilan College, with 20 years of experience in Human Resources. As a proud first-generation college graduate, leadership is at the core of her being. 

   WHEN: Friday, 12/06 | 4:00PM
   WHERE: Virtual on Zoom

   Watch the recording here.