A "born here" Oregonian, Dr. LM Alaiyo “Dr. A” Foster, EdD, NCC, QMHP, CCHW (she/they), fell in love with nonprofits when she was only a child. Inspired by her parent’s insistence on volunteerism at an early age, she quickly developed a deep passion for charitable work, education, and justice work. Dr. A remembers volunteering at the Black United Fund of Oregon as early as age 10, and counts it a blessing to come full-circle to visionary executive leadership for the Foundation and believes their work as an Adjunct Professor @ PSU lends to this cause.
An earned BA in Black Studies with a focus in Community Development from Portland State University, along with a second bachelor of science in Sociology, and graduate degrees in Education & Community Counseling (PSU), Nonprofit Management and Development (Capella University) and a doctorate in Leadership along with Administration credentials from Lewis and Clark College Graduate School of Education & Counseling makes Dr. A both astute at working with students but also holding them accountable. Exploring their affinity for peer-based education models, Dr. Foster now has almost 30 years of experience both locally and nationally, educating, creating, and revamping educational programming. Dr. Foster now heads the dynamic team at the Black United Fund of Oregon and is happy spending her days visioning and ushering the Foundation into its next iteration and displaying her own presence has power.
Research Interests
Doctoral dissertation research: Dreaming Bititi's Harvest®: An exploratory study of Afrocentric rites of passage as a means of mitigating HIV transmission among metropolitan, African American, adolescent females available at https://www.proquest.com/openview/c5321ddc86ceedea52c56b5b78f4ab5a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
Black female leadership; black girlhood and womanhood; black educational achievement; rites of passage; HIV prevention