Profile: Meet Professor Dilafruz Williams

Dilafruz Williams, PhD, is a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy in the Graduate School of Education and also professor of Public Administration in the Mark O' Hatfield School of Government, at Portland State University. She served as department chair from 2003 to 2007.

Dr. Williams is founding director of the Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Learning program and of the Learning Gardens Laboratory at Portland State University (www.pdx.edu/elp/lecl.htm). She also co-founded the Environmental Middle School (6-8) in 1995 which has now expanded to the K-8 Sunnyside Environmental School in Portland Public Schools (www.sesptsa.com/index.php). These successful initiatives have been designed with the goals of addressing the ecological and cultural underpinnings of education in K-12 schools and in higher education, and to build strong community-school-university partnerships.

Dr. Williams was elected city-wide to the Portland Public School Board in 2003 and again in 2007 (www.board.pps.k12.or.us/.docs/pg/10497).

She is the recipient of the prestigious Ehrlich Award for Faculty Service-Learning in 2001 and has recently been selected to the Fulbright Senior Scholar Roster, 2007-2012. She is also selected to the "100 District Leaders for Civic Engagement and Service-Learning Network," by the Education Commission of the States National Center for Learning and Citizenship.

She is frequently invited to give seminars, workshops, and talks both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Williams is the co-editor of Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving Education, Culture, and the Environment. She has authored over 50 chapters, journal articles, and curriculum resource guides and has given over 100 invited lectures, symposia, and/or conference papers. With graduate degrees from Bombay, Syracuse, and Harvard Universities in the Sciences, Public Administration, and Philosophy of Education, Dr. Williams' areas of expertise are:

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  Dilafruz Williams, PhD
  Portland State University
  Graduate School of Education
  PO Box 751
  615 SW Harrison
  Room: 506W
  Portland, OR 97207-0751
  Phone: 503-25-4676
  Fax: 503-725-3200
  Email: williamsdi@pdx.edu
  
• Community-Higher Education-Schools Strategic Partnership Development
• Civic Engagement/Service Learning; Professional Development:


--Curriculum and pedagogical integration; Teaching reflections;
--Scholarship of engagement; Partnerships and diversity; Assessment


• Sustainability Education; Environmental Education
• Learning Gardens-Based Education: Curriculum Design and Research
• K-12 Public Policy