Chico State Announces 2024 Lantis Endowed Chairs
The University has named three Chico State faculty members as recipients of its annual Lantis Endowed University Chairs. The awards, which recognize distinguished scholarship and promise for impact, provide funding to advance research and enrich student learning. This year’s honorees—International relations professor Angela Gapa, criminal justice professor Amy Magnus, and marketing professor Matthew Stone—will each pursue projects that connect classroom ideas with real-world outcomes across the globe and the North State.
What the Lantis Endowed Chairs Mean
Endowed chairs like the Lantis provide essential support for scholars who balance teaching with innovative research and public engagement. The awards range from $20,000 to $40,000, allocated to release time, travel, equipment, student stipends, or summer salary. Created through the generosity of David Lantis, a former Chico State geographer, and his wife Helen, the endowments honor a commitment to expand educational opportunities and community impact. President Steve Perez described the honors as a testament to the university’s ethos of connection, excellence, inspiration, and innovation.
Angela Gapa: Voices from Botswana and a Global Collaboration
Angela Gapa has spent more than 14 years exploring Botswana’s resource-driven development, a topic she has chronicled through research, publications, and fieldwork. Her Lantis-funded project, Beyond the Diamond Glow: Botswana Through the Eyes of Its People, aims to tell Botswana’s story through the voices of its own citizens. In addition to a feature-length documentary, Gapa plans a museum exhibit at the Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology. Both initiatives will foreground perspectives that have historically been underrepresented in Western-centric narratives.
Part of the project includes a collaborative production with Botswana filmmaker Mmakgosi Anita Tau and a robust student-mentoring component that engages Chico State and University of Botswana students across research, storytelling, and exhibition curation. This teacher-scholar model aligns with Gapa’s aim to decenter the Western gaze in international relations research while providing hands-on opportunities for students to practice global collaboration.
Amy Magnus: Advancing Rural Health Equity through Research and Advocacy
Amy Magnus has long focused on rural communities and the practical dynamics of health care access. Her Lantis-supported work will examine how people in the university’s North State service region navigate reproductive health services—mapping barriers, enablers, and the political and logistical factors that shape access. The goal is to translate findings into actionable insights for policymakers, health providers, and community advocates, helping to design more equitable rural health systems.
Magnus emphasizes the realities of rural health access: tense political discourse, policing and surveillance of service use, uneven service provision, and, in some areas, the absence of nearby care. Partnering with organizations such as First 5 Tehama and local health care providers, she plans to launch the Rural Justice Alliance at Chico State, a platform to advance research, advocacy, and university-community partnerships in the North State.
Matthew Stone: Elevating Food Tourism on the Global Stage
Matthew Stone is recognized as a leading authority on food tourism, a field that links what people eat with where they travel and how destinations craft their stories. Stone has previously led large-scale surveys for the World Food Travel Association and now seeks to expand his global benchmark study of culinary travelers’ attitudes and behaviors. His work demonstrates how food experiences drive travel decisions, support local economies, and shape destination images.
Beyond research, Stone will develop a comprehensive teaching guide for food and beverage tourism. The guide will help educators design and update courses to reflect evolving travel trends, culinary cultures, and hospitality practices. His interdisciplinary approach blends tourism studies with business principles, communications, and cultural analysis, preparing students to lead in a rapidly evolving industry.
<h2 Why This Matters for Chico State and Beyond
These awards embody Chico State’s mission to connect scholarship with community impact. By funding research that addresses global issues—Botswana’s development story, rural reproductive health, and the dynamics of food-focused travel—the Lantis Endowed Chairs help students gain practical experience, while scholars extend their reach beyond campus boundaries. The invited collaborations and regional partnerships reflect the university’s commitment to inclusive, real-world learning and to building bridges between local communities and the wider world.
About the Endowment
The Lantis Endowed University Chairs honor Professor David Lantis, a former geography faculty member, and his wife Helen, whose $2 million gift established annual chairs to enrich teaching and learning through endowed support. The program continues to fund faculty who demonstrate exceptional scholarship and a sustained impact on students and communities.
