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
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
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.
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.
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.
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