News

Dr. Laurie Powers, a national expert on disabilities and self-determination, has joined the faculty of Portland State University’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW). Prior to PSU, Powers was an associate professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Public Health at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and co-director of OHSU’s Center on Self-Determination.

Powers came to Portland State as a part of the University’s focus on making investments in the recruitment of nationally recognized faculty members in areas critical not only to PSU’s mission, but to the region.

Currently, Powers is director of the National Center for Self-Determination and 21st Century Leadership, a partnership of universities and national organizations committed to advancing self-determination. The Center identifies, develops and shares approaches that promote the self-determination of people with disabilities and ongoing health conditions.

Since 1995 Powers has been principal investigator or co-investigator on 42 externally funded research, demonstration and training projects supported by $28.7 million in federal, state and private foundation funding.

“Dr. Powers, along with the faculty and staff she brings with her, complement the Regional Research Institutes’ strong emphasis on empowerment of families who have children and youth with serious mental health issues and helps us build a strong center of research excellence in the area of disabilities that will benefit not only social work students and PSU, but the greater community,” said Kristine Nelson, interim dean of the GSSW.

In addition to Powers, three researchers from OHSU’s Center for Self Determination have moved to the Graduate School’s Regional Research Institute for Human Services. They are accompanied by 14 staff members and $2.9 million in transferred projects on youth in transition, leadership development and self-advocacy, violence prevention and independent living, involving individuals with mental health, cognitive, physical and sensory disabilities. These projects, conducted in partnership with an extensive network of universities and national and state organizations, are also supporting the development of organizations, such as the National Youth Leadership Network, the Office of Consumer/Survivor Technical Assistance and Self-Advocates as Leaders, which are led by persons with disabilities and focus on increasing opportunities for people with disabilities to direct their lives and to fully participate in their communities.

Since arriving at PSU, Powers and her colleagues have secured an additional $720,000 in funding to launch a national youth information center for young people with disabilities, to examine the benefits of peer run mental health services in Oregon and to provide technical assistance to make voting more accessible to citizens with cognitive disabilities.

Powers has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oregon, a M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Rochester. In 2002 she was the United States delegate to the Disabled Peoples’ International convention and in 1998 she received the Distinguished Faculty Leadership Award at OHSU.

The Graduate School of Social Work offers the only accredited graduate programs of social work in the state and currently has 24 faculty members, 440 graduate students, including 40 doctoral students, and $7.3 million annually in externally funded projects. This year 60 students from southern and central Oregon joined the School’s Distance Graduate Education Option, a three-year program that enables them to study in their home communities during their second and third years of the program.

A high-resolution photograph of Laurie Powers can be downloaded at http://www.pdx.edu/media/f/a/faculty_Laurie_Powers_hi-res.jpg.

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Source:
Kristine Nelson, dean, Graduate School of Social Work (503-725-3997)