Patrick Bowden (he/him)
Email: bowden2@pdx.edu
Education
Master of Medical Science, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Bachelor of Science in Biology, Wake Forest University
Professional Experience
Patrick was selected to participate in the Nicholas A. Rango HIV Clinical Scholar Fellowship at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. Upon completion of the fellowship, he practiced HIV medicine and general internal medicine at a community health center. Most recently, Patrick has practiced medical and surgical dermatology in upstate New York.
Academic/Research Interests
Autism; Sexuality; Critical Disability Studies; HIV/AIDS
Personal Interests
Running, Yoga, improving my Spanish and playing the piano
Kevin Cherry
Email: kcherry@pdx.edu
Education
Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research, Portland State University
Master of Arts in Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
BSW, Harding University
Professional Experience
Kevin's professional experience spans the fields of child welfare, interpersonal violence prevention and intervention, housing and homelessness, and research with community based organizations and governmental agencies.
Academic/Research Interests
The politics of social work and social welfare; social movements; political economy; neoliberalism
Personal Interests
Ceramic arts; the beach; tacos
Christine da Rosa (she/her)
Email: cdarosa@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, University of Maine Orono
Bachelor of Arts, Winthrop University
Professional Experience
Research Assistant at Trauma-Informed Oregon
Academic/Research Interests
Disaster Resilience, Trauma-Informed Care
Personal Interests
Fluffy fur babies, gardening, hiking, kayaking
Erica Fonseca (she/her)
Email: ef22@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Sacramento State University
B.A. in Sociology, UC Santa Cruz
Professional Experience
Women's Empowerment, Social Worker (Sacramento); Tommy Clinkenbeard Legal Clinic, Director (Sacramento); Wind Youth Services, Director of Programs (Sacramento). In my career as a social worker, I have worked with adults and youth experiencing houselessness. Specially I have designed programs that are unapologetically grounded in housing first, harm reduction, abolitionist, queer/trans-centered, and youth-driven approaches and paradigms.
Academic/Research Interests
Exploring/using post-structuralism as a philosophy, site of radical possibility, and practice that is both at odds with and can enrich social work pedagogy and practice, critically examining social work's conceptualizations of power (within social work practices and classrooms), reading social work through 19th-century philosophers, deconstructing social work best practices and epistemological assumptions to critically assess the premise of social work and its methods for achieving social change.
Personal Interests
Sitting on porches discussing everything, solving nothing.
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Susan Halverson (She/Her)
Email: shalver2@pdx.edu
Education
Master of Science in Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University
Bachelor of Science in Biological Aspects of Conservation, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professional Experience
Susan Halverson, MS, leads Elemental Initiatives to work in partnership with residents and other community stakeholders, engaging people in the design, development and implementation of their ideas for improving their communities. Previously, at Arizona State University Entrepreneurship & Innovation, she led a team creating, funding, implementing, and evaluating programs to support to groups underrepresented in entrepreneurship. And prior to that, she led campaigns for housing, financial, environmental, and health justice with Arizona Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
Academic/Research Interests
Susan is interested in research that informs policymaking and supports advocacy on a wide range of issues that impact peoples' daily lives: housing, labor, education, and safety. She is especially curious about how communities build and lose power to make decisions in these areas. She currently collaborates on research to understand the reparative potential of a community preference policy in affordable housing.
Personal Interests
reading fiction, hiking, home remodeling, and cooking
Sam Harrell (they/them)
Email: saha2@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Indiana University
BSW, Indiana University
Professional Experience
Sam is an Instructor of Social Work for Seattle University, a Field Liaison for the MSW program at Portland State, and the Editorial Assistant for Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work. They have worked across many social service areas, including violence prevention, LGBTQ+ youth services, jail and prison re-entry, crisis intervention, legal advocacy, homeless shelter services, and child welfare. Sam gives trainings and workshops on transformative justice, sexual violence prevention, penal abolition, anti-oppressive facilitation, and many other topics.
Academic/Research Interests
Sam's research interests include social welfare history, carceral social work, penal abolition, mandatory reporting, and correctional treatment programs. They are currently a Doctoral Candidate completing their dissertation on the role of social work in Progressive Era US prison expansion.
Daniel Howell (he/him)
Email: dh9@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, University of Oklahoma
B.A., Psychology, Oral Roberts University
Professional Experience
Professional experience includes two years of Americorps service at a community-based organization dedicated to prison abolition. Following this appointment, I've worked in various levels of community-based organizations, primarily dedicated to youth services and housing. Most recently; I researched, developed, and implemented a medical self-management curriculum for long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS.
Academic/Research Interests
Substantive research areas include housing justice, youth development, queer liberation, and continuous quality improvement for community-based organizations
Personal Interests
Personal interests include long-distance running, surfing, mutual aid, and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
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Passion Ilea (any pronouns)
Email: pilea@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Portland State University
BSW, Portland State University
Professional Experience
Passion has worked on projects concerning health and wellbeing for migrant and other targeted populations, behavioral health, and health systems.
Academic/Research Interests
Passion is interested in conducting health systems research at the structural and socioeconomic levels to reduce health inequity without sacrificing efficiency.
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Hyeyoung Kang (she/her)
Email: hyekang@pdx.edu
Education
Master's in Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Bachelor's in Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Professional Experience
Hyeyoung worked as a research assistant and was involved in several Korean government research projects aimed at improving and enhancing child welfare in South Korea. Her work included setting up prevention systems for child abuse, improving programs for youth aging out of out-of-home care, developing evaluation systems for childcare centers, and advocating for children's right to participate in decision-making processes.
Academic/Research Interests
Hyeyoung has a research focus on child welfare, children and families, vulnerable children, and resilience.
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Eline Lenne (she/they)
Email: eline@pdx.edu
Education
MOT in Occupational Therapy, University of Minnesota
BA in Sociology and Anthropology, Lewis & Clark College
Professional Experience
Eline is social science researcher, licensed occupational therapist, and doula bridging social work, social justice, and medicine. Eline has nine years of research experience in public health and medicine (smoking cessation, infant and family health, parent mental health) and public policy (post-secondary education).
Academic/Research Interests
Eline's current body of research aims to improve health outcomes for children, families, and LGBTQ+ individuals using community-based participatory methods.
Martha Jean McCormack (she/her)
Email: martha2@pdx.edu
Education
Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research, Portland State University
M.S. Counseling Psychology, Central Washington University
B.S. Environmental Education, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Twenty-five years in publicly-funded mental health services for children and families as therapist, supervisor, consultant, trainer, and program director.
Clinical Manager for SAMHSA-funded Systems of Care Early Childhood Wraparound Project
Academic/Research Interests
Families Raising Children with Mental Health Needs, Systems of Care Development, Youth Mentoring, Loss and Grief Perspectives for Social Workers, Poverty, Women, and Aging.
Miriam Miranda-Diaz (she/her/hers)
Email: mirandam@pdx.edu
Education
Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research, Portland State University
MSW, Portland State University
B.A. in Psychology, Portland State University
Professional Experience
Miriam's professional experience includes working with youth, adults, and families in diverse settings such as in domestic violence, the juvenile and adult justice system, in education (K-12 and higher education), and in other non-profit organizations. This experience provided her with knowledge and skills in mental health, chemical dependency, community-based research, and youth mentoring.
Academic/Research Interests
Her practice and research areas of interest include social work with Latinos, animal (equine) assisted interventions, youth mentoring, mental health, ethnocultural empathy and social justice, and quantitative methodologies.
Personal Interests
Spending time with family, the equestrian sport, running, and walking.
Kelly Myers Sugahara (she/her)
Email: kemyers@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Catholic University of America
MA in Irish Studies, University College Cork
Graduate Cert in Gender, Race, and Nations, Portland State University
B.A. in Social Work, Catholic University of America
Professional Experience
I am a licensed clinical social worker specializing in healing practices related to trauma recovery, addiction and substance misuse concerns, and general mental health and wellness. In my private practice, I work primarily with folx in the LBGTQ+ community; and since the outbreak of COVID, have also worked at Providence Portland Medical Center as an inpatient social worker. I have 17 years of experience in clinical settings that include substance misuse treatment programs, culturally integrated treatment, and community health settings.
Academic/ Research Interests
Trauma Informed Care,Ethnic Studies, Trauma Recovery and Healing, Addiction & Substance Misuse
Personal Interests
Mythology, trail running, travel, reading for fun (fantasy, science fiction, more mythology)
Lillian Navarro-Reynolds (she/her)
Email: navar3@pdx.edu
Education
Master of Physician Assistant Studies, Northeastern University
B.S. in General Science, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Physician Assistant in Endocrinology, Family Medicine and outreach to seasonal agricultural workers. Associate Professor at OHSU Department of Physician Assistant education
Academic/Research Interests
Health Equity, Increasing access to medical education, Re-designing medical education to remove traditional power structures
Thao Thi Bich Nguyen(she/her)
Email: thaot@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Portland State University
B.Ed., English Education, Quy Nhon University, Vietnam
Professional Experience
Thao's professional experience spans the fields of child welfare, inter-country adoption, and international program development, management, monitoring & evaluation. She holds a master's degree in social work awarded by the Fulbright Scholarship.
Academic/Research Interests
Her area of interest lies in research that supports the essential aspects of social work workforce development & readiness, encompassing social work education, policy advocacy, and the effectiveness of social services and programs.
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Grace Pappas (they/she)
Email: gpappas@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, San Diego State University - Title IV-E Concentration
B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Child Development, California Polytechnic State University
Professional Experience
Grace received their MSW degree from San Diego State University in 2018 as a Title IV-E stipend recipient. They then worked for three years as a child welfare social worker in both Emergency Response and Continuing Service departments. While at Child Welfare, they also worked as a Field Instructor and were part of the intern / new worker training team. They are currently an LCSW in the state of Oregon, and work as the intern coordinator for New Narrative. Previous work also includes work with foster family agencies, a domestic violence hotline, and a case management program for mothers involved in a substance abuse treatment program.
Academic/Research Interests
Grace's academic interests primarily focus on child welfare abolition, particularly where child welfare abolition conversations intersect with LGBTQ+ youth-specific issues and/or critical analyses of Evangelicalism.
Personal Interests
All forms of outdoor biking, running, hiking, meditation, and reading.
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Meghan Perry (she/her/hers)
Email: megperry@pdx.edu
Education
MPA, Portland State University
Bachelor degree in Journalism Communication Studies, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
10+ years training, evaluation, and teaching experience in child and youth work settings. Practice experience in relational youth work with 6 years in an intermediary role providing coaching, evaluation, and capacity building support to youth serving organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Advocacy experience on behalf of child and youth care systems and settings including but not limited to local, state, and national policy initiatives tied to the delivery of child welfare, education, and juvenile justice and other community-based child and youth care services. Trained facilitator in research to practice interventions supporting child and youth care programs in continuous, quality improvement processes.
Academic/Research Interests
Research interests are in the intersections of equity, health, and wellness. Curious about the ways social contexts interact with individual and collective consciousness. Ground to critical relational constructionism that emphasizes co-construction of meaning in processes of connectedness between researchers and participants. Lean into the following intersecting epistemological and post-colonial orientations including: Critical Race, Indigenous, Critical Disability, Feminist and Post-Structuralism. Through these orientations, intent of teaching and scholarship centers on scaffolding child and youth work settings to engage paradigmatic shifts that create openings for a range of intersecting interdependent and independent orientations to knowing and being. Curious about spaces that offer young people, families, and child and youth care workers opportunities to explore action-oriented change processes alongside one another in ways that support people to navigate shifting, oppressive environments safely, while simultaneously building agency in actively shifting dehumanizing systems. Committed to contributing to teaching and scholarship that reinforce youth and community centered healing.
Personal Interests
Appreciative of opportunities to ground to being through outdoor adventure pursuits like hiking, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, and open water swimming as well as through Kundalini yoga and meditation. Favorite family pastimes include Friday night homemade pizza nights, living room dance parties, as well as camping and exploring the Pacific Northwest.
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Ellie Roberson (she/her)
Email: ellieco@pdx.edu
Education
MSSW, Abilene Christian University
BSW, Abilene Christian University
Professional Experience
Professional experience includes providing mental health therapeutic services to young adults and youth in a variety of settings, including wilderness, community-based, crisis, and within a local high school.
Academic Research and Interests
Areas of interest include sustainability for providers in the mental health field, improved service provision to young people, and increasing awareness and support for those experiencing psychosis.
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Laura Spura Rodriguez (she/her/ella)
Email: rodrig29@pdx.edu
Education
Advanced Candidate in the Ph.D. Program in Social Work and Social Research
MSW, Boston College
BSW, Florida Atlantic University
Professional Experience
My professional experience includes direct service, supervision, program development & management, policy analyst, racial equity coordinator/lead, research assistant, teaching assistant, and data collector & interviewer. I've worked within several systems including reproductive rights, elder care/case management, developmental disabilities & children & youth with special healthcare needs (CYSHCN), and public health.
Academic/Research Interests
My research interests include intersectionality, racial equity, Dis/ability Critical Race studies, LGBTQ, aging, employment support & people operations, and healthcare systems. I'm passionate about creating innovative ways to institutionalize equity within dominant culture systems while dismantling their oppressive practices, policies and cultures.
Personal Interests
Running, soccer, hiking, reading, biking and spending time with family and friends.
Sam Settelmeyer
Email: settel2@pdx.edu
Education
M.S. in Math and Science Education from Oregon State University
B.S. in Physics from Oregon State University
Professional Experience
Alternative Education classroom teacher and program evaluator
Academic/Research Interests
Unpacking and reframing foundational assumptions in learning environments for young people (e.g. how success is defined in alternative education)
Personal Interests
Forming genuine connections with my neighbors, being physically active and making stuff (food, tables, crochet, whatevah)
A.P. Spoth (they, them)
Email: spothap@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, University of Vermont
B.A. in Music, SUNY Buffalo State College
Professional Experience
My primary work post-MSW has been with folks who have experienced trauma across the lifespan, both as an advocate working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence and as a clinician in community mental health and private practice settings. I also have experience working in peer support services that emphasize a non-pathologizing, community-oriented approach to healing from extreme experiences outside of the mental health system. Most recently, my practice has expanded to include a focus on queer and trans folks, particularly those navigating their identity and their experience of trauma.
Academic/Research Interests
My research, broadly speaking, works to problematize taken-for-granted norms about social work as a field, clinical social work practice, and who social workers are. Working at the intersection of Mad studies, trans studies, and abolitionist thinking, I'm particularly interested in the concept and embodied reality of "lived experience," and how Eurocentricity, cisheteropatriachy, neoliberalism, and professionalization shape our understanding of "lived experience" in social work theory, education, and practice.
Peggy Ting
Email: pting@pdx.edu
Education
MSW, Columbia University in New York
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Human Resource Management, Washington University in St. Louis
Professional Experience
I worked as a human resource professional in the diesel engine industry for about 3 years starting in 2012. There I helped implement strategic HR initiatives, partnered with business leaders, and conducted employee trainings for managers and employees to bolster employee satisfaction and competency. During that time, I also began volunteering with the nonprofit organization, Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and joined full-time on staff as a CASA supervisor and Guardian Ad Litem in 2016. In this role, I worked to strengthen permanency outcomes for children and families in the Indiana child welfare system through individual advocacy, coaching volunteers, and collaborating with a team of community leaders to develop the county's first Family Recovery Court. These experiences eventually led me to pursue my MSW degree through Columbia University in 2019 (received 2021). I completed field internships with CASA, researching Special Juvenile Immigrant Status and streamlining data collection processes, as well as Our Children Oregon, where I supported child welfare policies during the 2021 legislative session and created community resources around Oregon child welfare system reform.
Academic/Research Interests
I'm interested in researching the relationships between intergenerational poverty, social welfare policy, and child welfare entry for families in the United States. I hope to evaluate and shape programs, policies, and strategies that support families in their communities and decrease child welfare involvement, with a special focus on the needs of BIPOC communities. With the increasing national focus on prevention (as evidenced by the passage of the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act), the aim of my research is to help policymakers and community leaders invest wisely and strengthen community provider networks' ability to deliver meaningful services to families in need.
Personal Interests
I love to travel, spend time outdoors, explore hikes in the Pacific Northwest, try local eateries, binge watch British drama series (favorites are The Crown and Downton Abbey), hang out with my dogs, serve in my church, and feed my bubble tea addiction.
Joseph Vera (any pronoun)
Email: jovera@pdx.edu
Education
MA in Communication Disorders, Louisiana State University
MPH in Epidemiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center
BA in Psychology and BS in Speech-Language Pathology, University of Texas at Dallas
Professional Experience
6 years as a clinical speech language pathologist
Academic/Research Interests
disability justice with a particular interest in autistic adults
Personal Interests
food/drink, gaming (board, video, tabletop), fishing
Hazel Ali Zaman (she, her)
Email: zaman@pdx.edu
Education
Masters of Education, Portland State University
B.S. Child and Family Studies, Portland State University
Professional Experience
Hazel's professional experience is primarily within the field of early childhood education and youth advocacy, specifically queer and trans youth and family advocacy. Within these fields, Hazel has worked with children, youth and families who experience houselessness, food insecurity, and environmental violence. Currently Hazel been teaching in higher education for over five years across various social work and sociology departments at Portland State University and the University of Portland.
Academic/Research Interests
Informed by queer and trans of color critique, Hazel engages with various interdisciplinary fields, such as transgender studies, performance studies, and critical youth studies, as a way to explore queer and trans of color ways of being and becoming through embodied art, music, and performance. Hazel's current academic writing and research looks to trans of color art and performance, specifically furry art and performances, as a site for exploring queer and trans of color life, care, anarchy, and resistance. Hazel's dissertation is an on-going phenomenological study that looks to queer and trans of color lived experiences as a way to explore the question: what does the fursona do for queer and trans people of color.