Sandra Ericson is an author and educator. She chaired the Consumer Arts and Science Department at City College of San Francisco for nearly three decades.
Latest by this author
From resilience to resourcefulness, human ecology education offers the life skills our schools forgot—equipping the next generation to navigate adulthood, climate challenges, and complex social systems with confidence, care, and collective strength.
As a post-war child during a time of national restructuring, Sandra Ericson migrated with her family to different states looking for a new beginning. She realized then how important it was to have survival skills, which led her later to study home economics at San Jose State University for her BA and then to go on to an MA in Human Relations from San Francisco State University.
As a home economist, she chaired the Consumer Arts and Science Department for 28 years at City College of San Francisco. Those were tough years as the Bay Area experienced political upheaval and the fallout from the Vietnam War, the Free Speech movement, and the Black Power movement. It was a difficult time for new immigrants and returning veterans. Her classes featured 11 languages, and all students were trying to assimilate into a new culture and to find a future. Helping them do so became Ericson’s mission.
Ericson has been actively involved with her community in many different capacities, teaching English as a second language and serving on many boards, commissions, and task forces. She was, for example, a founding member of the Marin County chapter of the National Organization for Women, one of the first chapters.
She established the Center for Pattern Design, an international for-profit publishing company for professional apparel pattern designers, and Antiquity Press, specializing in the home and lifestyle genre. Her knowledge of textiles and design made her an expert consultant for Entertainment Research Group, Napa, California, in designing and producing character costumes for Fortune 500 companies, Disney, circuses, theater groups, and significant seasonal parades.
Ericson is a strong advocate for the critical educational need for human ecology education in all public schools.External
College Women, Face Reality, Then Do This
EdSurge | July | 2022
Sandra Ericson argues that U.S. history and culture is founded on discrimination against women. This is a reality too few young women grasp, she says, and it’s essential for them to understand as they make decisions about education and the rest of their lives.
EdSurge | March | 2022
Home economics—now called “human ecology”—taught civilian survival and resilience. It protected health and mental stability and delivered the confidence that you had some control over human failure. Now that life in the United States is more precarious than ever, these skills are essential.
Co-authors: Deepika | Pattern Review | July | 2011
A transcript of a chat with Sandra Ericson about her life and interest in fashion and design.
Co-authors: Geneva Anderson | ARThound | May | 2011
Geneva Anderson turns to Sandra Ericson to find out what were the precise techniques that made Cristóbal Balenciaga the consummate designer and master sculptor in textiles that he was.
Publications by this author
1930ʼs Draping Methods Designing Techniques
Antiquity Press | January | 1992
An introduction to a 1930s system of draping, including the basics of creating a bodice, skirts, sleeves, and collars.
Antiquity Press | January | 1992
A how-to book showing how to create dresses using the draping method rather than pattern designs.
Media by this author
Interview | June | 2024
The concept of “human ecology” is an American bildung invention that integrates all aspects of life in the modern society, not least how one runs a healthy household. Some may know parts of Human Ecology from their school days, where it was often called Home Economics. Sandra Ericson chaired the Consumer Arts and Science Department at City College of San Francisco for 28 years, and taught inner-city students, Vietnam vets, new immigrants, single parents, and lower income as they began to live independently in a new culture or a new country.
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