Profile: Ask Professor Christine Cress

Dr. Cress is department chair in the Graduate School of Education and professor in the Postsecondary, Adult, and Continuing Education (PACE) at Portland State University where she teaches courses in adult learning and professional development, and leadership and ethics in higher education. She received the PhD in higher education and organizational change from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (1999), the MA in higher education from UCLA (1996), and the MEd in student personnel administration (1990) from Western Washington University.

Dr. Cress is an accomplished scholar with over 50 publications and 100 professional presentations focused on learning environments, community-based learning experiences, and the impact of campus climate on student development outcomes and faculty productivity. She directed a comprehensive campus climate study of faculty work life at the University of Arizona (www/u.arizona.edu/~millen) and has consulted on learning, leadership, and assessment projects at over two dozen organizations across the country, including the University of Washington, University of Colorado, University of Wisconsin, North Dakota State University, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Pacific Lutheran University, Portland Community College, Pacific University, International Association of Montessori Educators, Springfield College, Whittier College, University of Mississippi, California Campus Compact, Multnomah County Health Department, and the Community College National Center for Community Engagement.

She and her co-authors published a best-selling textbook, Learning through Serving, for faculty and students on how to realize effective learning and community gains through community-based learning projects. She is working on a new textbook, The Pedagogy of Community Engagement: Best Practices for Teaching Service-Learning, expected to be published in 2009.

Dr. Cress was a research associate and affiliated scholar at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA where she worked with Dr. Alexander Astin and Dr. Helen Astin. Prior to that, she worked for 12 years in career counseling and advising and taught courses in education and human services for Western Washington University and Whatcom Community College. Dr. Cress was a member of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Project on Leadership Reconsidered: Engaging Higher Education in Social Change. She and her co-authors received the Outstanding Assessment Research Award in 2002, by the American College Personnel Association for their article on student leadership development. Dr. Cress was selected by the Kellogg Foundation as a 2002 National Emerging Scholar for "Higher Education for the Public Good." In 2003-04, she was honored as a National Emerging Scholar by the American College Personnel Association.

Currently, Dr. Cress is a curriculum designer and trainer for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching at Stanford University where she is working with 23 faculty as part of the Carnegie Foundation Fellows program on political engagement through community service.

Christine M. Cress, PhD
Graduate School of Education
Portland State University
PO Box 751
615 SW Harrison
Room 504F
Portland, OR 97207-0751
Phone: 503-725-4682
Fax: 503-725-3200
Email: cressc@pdx.edu