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Name: Jefferson Beavers
Title: Communication Specialist
Department: English
Academic Degree(s):

• B.A. in journalism, Fresno State
• M.F.A. in creative writing, Fresno State

How long have you worked at Fresno State?
I've worked as communications staff for the English Department since January 2015. Previously, I taught reporting, editing and media ethics as a lecturer in the Media, Communications and Journalism Department from 2002-09 and in 2014, including two years as editorial faculty adviser for The Collegian.

What drew you to work at Fresno State, and what has kept you here?
I'm a two-time alumnus of Fresno State, so I've always enjoyed being on campus, and I feel like I've been part of the university community in some way for a long time. After getting my MFA, I bounced around a little professionally. I taught classes in English, journalism and film studies at Fresno State, Fresno City College, College of the Sequoias in Visalia and elsewhere. And I also worked as a public radio producer and volunteered for several nonprofits. While I sometimes miss teaching, I have enjoyed my communications role in the English Department, and the staff position has provided me stability. I think I've learned that there are many ways to teach and mentor and write that are outside of a classroom.

What’s something about your department or role people may not know?
Fresno State's English Department has been granting master's degrees since 1950, and this year marks the 75th anniversary of the department serving as Central California's home for literary scholars. The Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing was established in 1995, alongside the M.A. program in English, and students in both programs continue to be very active. Part of my job also includes administrative support for student publications and projects, and the department's graduate students, who are often in the lead, are a lot of fun to work with and are super inspiring.

What accomplishment or project are you most proud of in your career?
Generally, I feel lucky to meet and get to know so many interesting students, faculty and alumni in my current role. Witnessing, documenting and writing about their lives and accomplishments feels to me like sacred work, and I take the relationships seriously. Specifically, I'm also proud of the volunteering I've been able to do with the Creative Writing Alumni Chapter, as part of the Alumni Association. We produced a five-year publishing project and crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25,000 over five years to create the Larry Levis Memorial Scholarship endowment, which supports MFA students. Gathering with fellow alumni, connecting students and alumni across generations, and giving back to the writing community, that's what keeps me going.

Are you from the Valley, or did you come here from somewhere else?
I grew up in Dinuba, in the heart of Tulare County raisin country. My dad was a truck driver in Sanger, and my mom worked seasonally in the family packing shed in Dinuba. We packed mostly stone fruit — peaches, plums and nectarines — and also apricots, grapes and raisins. My cousins and I started working early, mostly summers in the shed but also sometimes in winter pruning vines. I started writing and taking pictures for my hometown newspaper, the Dinuba Sentinel, in high school and early in my undergrad. Then I worked at newspapers in the Bay Area, Modesto and Fresno. I've lived in Fresno since 2001.

Are you connected to Fresno State through family or community traditions?
I'm a first-generation college student, so my initial connection to Fresno State was through sports. I was 10 years old when the Fresno State men's basketball team won the National Invitation Tournament — "we won the N.I.T. in 1983!"— so, watching the Dogs on TV and listening to the radio broadcasts, that was my introduction to the university. I'll never forget my dad bringing me to games at Selland Arena as a kid, and then years later I got to bring him to games at the Save Mart Center as an adult.

What do you enjoy most about your workday?
The favorite parts of my day are always when I get to work directly with the students who orbit in and out of the English Department office. Our department alone has 400+ students and nearly 100 employees, with just two staff members (me, plus one administrative coordinator), so there's never a lack of things to do. Right now, the students are immersed in all sorts of activities — running two national publishing projects, The Normal School magazine and the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry contest; working on several archive projects for the campus library and for YouTube; generating content for multiple department social media channels; and producing student-centered events and journals. Keeping up with them is a real challenge.

What’s one fun or unusual fact about you (past job, hidden talent, unique experience)?
Out in the community, I serve as the publisher of the newly revived Scrub Jay Press, an independent press imprint now based in Fresno. It was originally founded in 1996 by English emeriti faculty Eugene Zumwalt and Chris Henson, based in Tollhouse. The current staff who've joined me are all Fresno State alumni, and we are hard at work assembling a fourth-generation Fresno writers anthology, due to be published in fall 2026. Soy un Chicano orgulloso, and as a new publisher I believe in centering underrepresented voices. The anthology will include a majority of women and a majority of writers of color, which I believe is long overdue in the history of canonized Fresno poets and writers.

What do you like to do for fun outside of work?
I have a longstanding personal goal of trying to watch 100 new-to-me films annually. This averages out to about two movies per week, every week, for the whole year. I've only made it to my goal once, in 2024, but I try hard every year. I used to go out to the cinema a lot to see movies, and I'd drive all over the place especially to see independent films and Oscar nominees, but I catch a lot of films now streaming and from the public library. My all-time favorite filmmakers include Agnès Varda, Kelly Reichardt, Hayao Miyazaki and Werner Herzog. My favorite cinemas include the State Theatre in Modesto, the Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo and the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco. And my Kanopy watchlist currently sits at 132 titles.

Anything else you’d like your colleagues to know about you?
My wife, Dr. Tracy Stuntz, is also a Fresno State alum. She works as the instructional designer for Clovis Community College, where she recently earned tenure. We live with our little long-haired chihuahua, Ángus, who sometimes believes he is a shark.