Four individuals, who have made substantial contributions not only to their respective professions but also to the greater community, were inducted into Cal State San Bernardino’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Hall of Fame at a special ceremony on April 22.

CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales said the annual induction ceremony “celebrates the many outstanding accomplishments, contributions and service of alumni and faculty from the college. Once again we have a group of outstanding individuals being inducted to the college’s Hall of Fame.”

The dean of the college, A. Rafik Mohamed said each of the honorees represents the best that Cal State San Bernardino has to offer.

“Each one of our honorees has made a great impact on the lives of our students, our alumni, and in our extended community,” Mohamed said.

Inducted in to the CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Hall of Fame were:

  • Frances Berdan, emerita professor of anthropology
  • Stuart R. Ellins, emeritus professor of psychology
  • Gary McBride, chief financial officer, San Bernardino County
  • Mary Schmidt, retired staff member, CSUSB Department of Criminal Justice

Dr. Frances 'Frannie' Berdan

Berdan joined CSUSB’s anthropology faculty in 1973 straight out of the graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin. From then until her retirement at the end of the 2014 academic year, she served the department and university in various capacities, including as co-director of the university’s Laboratory for Ancient Materials and chair of the anthropology department for 17 years.

Berdan is a renowned scholar of the cultures of Mexico, and is an expert on Aztec civilization. Berdan specifically focused on the Aztec economy, imperial strategies, and their hieroglyphic writing system. She also focused on experimental archaeology research on ancient and contemporary Mesoamerican adhesives, such as feather work and stone mosaics. Her work established her as one of the world’s leading authorities of Aztec culture, which included 13 books that she authored and co-authored. One of them was the four-volume “The Codex Mendoza,” co-authored with Patricia Rieff Anawalt and published by the University of California Press in 1992. She also developed “Ethnoquest,” an interactive computer program that allows students to perform virtual ethnographic fieldwork in the fictional village of Amopan ('Nowhere”) in Mexico.

Berdan’s achievements in and out of the classroom have been recognized at CSUSB—she was named the university’s Outstanding Professor in 1982—and statewide when she was selected as the California State University Professor of the Year in 1983.

Berdan earned her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Stuart R. Ellins

Stuart (Stu) Ellins, a comparative psychobiologist who spent most of his career in the study of animal behavior, joined the CSUSB psychology faculty in 1973. In addition to his teaching duties, he served coordinator of the graduate program in psychology and department chair in 1991-92 and 1999-2004, when he retired after 31 years of distinguished service. He was also the founding faculty advisor of the first chapter of Psi Chi, the National Psychology Honors Society, and chair of the University Faculty Affairs Committee that established the Outstanding Professor program.

Ellins has had an illustrious teaching and research career. His challenging classroom instruction, inspirational student mentoring, exceptional student research training, first-rate theoretical and applied research in animal-behavior, and devoted campus leadership were the basis of his extraordinary contributions to CSUSB.

His early research was on discrimination learning in amphibians and on visual orientation in echolocating bats. His work with bats was presented at the American Society of Mammalogists, the Animal Behavior Society, the Eastern Psychological Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ellins research has also been published in various journals, including Psychonomic Science, Behaviour and Brain, and Behavior and Evolution.

Ellins performed extensive research on food aversion conditioning in rats, coyotes and wolves, which led to projects throughout California applying taste aversion conditioning to coyote predation on domestic animals. His later research was published in a number of journals, including the Journal of Comparative Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Behavioral and Neural Biology. Ellins is also the author of two books: 'Living with Coyotes' published by the University of Texas Press, and 'John Garcia, Life of a Neuroethologist and History of Conditioned Taste Aversion,' published by Outskirts Press.

Ellins earned his B.A. in psychology at the University of Miami in 1967 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Delaware in 1971.

Gary D. McBride

Gary McBride is currently the chief financial officer for San Bernardino County and has served in that capacity since May 2013. McBride earned his bachelor’s in economics in 1994 from CSUSB, and, balancing his studies as he worked his way through college, he graduated with departmental honors, served as president of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, was an inductee into the economics honor society, and served in the University Ambassador program. McBride was also the 1993 recipient of the Janczyk Family Economics Scholarship. After graduating from CSUSB, McBride steadily rose from an entry-level position in with the San Bernardino County government to the chief of administration of the Public Health Department, deputy executive officer of the county, and to his current position as chief financial officer. In 2008, McBride earned his master’s in public administration from CSUSB and was named Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year.

McBride is very active in the community. He serves as an appointee for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, representing the public on the Redlands Oversight Board, and he is a passionate advocate for animals. He is a founding officer of the Animal Alliance Rescue Foundation (AARF), a local nonprofit that strives to support animal rescue groups and San Bernardino County’s Animal Care and Control program.

He remains involved with CSUSB and serves on the Public Administration Advisory Board for the Department of Public Administration in the College of Business and Public Administration. McBride and his family also support CSUSB students through the establishment of the McBride Family Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to students majoring in economics.

Mary R. Schmidt

Mary Schmidt, a former staff member for the CSUSB Department of Criminal Justice, served the university for 39 years before retiring in 2015. At the time of her retirement, she served as the department’s administrative support coordinator.

Schmidt’s service to CSUSB has been called invaluable. She helped and mentored many new faculty members, including the department chairs, and provided exceptional advice, support and assistance to many criminal justice authors and publishers. Schmidt assisted with 'Criminology Theory' by criminal justice professor Stephen G. Tibbetts, and multiple issues featured in the Western Criminology Review with Tibbetts and criminal justice professor Gisela Bichler. She was also on the organizing committee for the 2013 Network Analysis for Crime Prevention Networks Workshop and was recognized on the 'Wall of Fame' for the Distinguished Divisional Service Award Winner for Academic Affairs in 2001-2002.

Schmidt had a rare and unique ability to establish trust and important relationships with students. Her knowledge of CUSUB enabled her to provide them with immediate assistance and wise counsel. Many CSUSB alumni would return to campus to visit with Mary specifically—because she made their experience at CSUSB a positive and memorable one.

About the Celebration of Excellence and Hall of Fame Induction: The 2016 Celebration of Excellence and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held on April 22 at the university’s Santos Manuel Student Union Events Center.

For more information, please contact the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at (909) 537-7550 or visit the college website.

About California State University, San Bernardino: Set in the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, Cal State San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in inland Southern California. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015-2016, CSUSB serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually. For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.