As Portland State University prepares for commencement, a new group of graduates is ready to carry their research, creativity and public service into communities in Portland and beyond. Among them, Akasha Lawrence-Spence, Nadeem Sadek and Shelby Morgan reflect the spirit of curiosity, resilience and civic engagement that defines PSU.
From studying how planets form under microgravity conditions to reimagining affordable housing systems and uncovering connections between ancient art and contemporary culture, each student used research as a way to better understand the world around them — and make a meaningful impact within it.
Although their journeys to PSU were different, together they embody the university’s commitment to letting knowledge serve the city.
Akasha Lawrence-Spence
For Akasha Lawrence-Spence, urban planning is about understanding how policy shapes everyday life.
“It is the manifestation of our policy in the built environment,” she said. “How people actually experience policy.”
Lawrence-Spence entered PSU’s Master of Urban and Regional Planning program after already building an accomplished public service career. She was the first member of her Emerge Oregon cohort — a program that trains Democratic women to run for office — to serve in the state legislature. First in 2020, when she was appointed to represent Oregon’s 36th district. And again in 2022 when she joined the Senate serving Oregon’s 18th district. Both districts include Portland State. But even while working in government, she wanted a deeper understanding of how policy shapes communities.
At PSU, she found a program that connected her background in politics, architecture and community advocacy.
“Urban planning is where policy and the built environment come together,” she said. “It’s the confluence of all the things that I’m interested in.”
Her passion for community-centered development grew out of personal experience. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Lawrence-Spence witnessed neighborhoods rapidly transform through gentrification. She watched new transit investments, businesses and services arrive in communities that had long been overlooked — while longtime residents risked displacement.
“I started to think, how could we ensure that the people who were already living there gained access to these new resources?” she said. “How could we ensure people had decision making power over what happens in their communities?”
That question continues to guide her work.
Lawrence-Spence launched Fifth Element, a community development and consulting business in 2019 with that question as her guidepost, and while at PSU helped lead conversations around alternative housing systems.
One of her most influential projects centered on social housing, a model where residential properties are owned, subsidized, or managed by nonprofits and government entities
Inspired by Vienna’s century-old model, where social housing is broadly available and deeply integrated into city life, Lawrence-Spence co-organized a study trip in 2025 that brought Portland city councilors, architects, developers and housing leaders to Austria to study the system firsthand.
“They have decommodified housing and made it accessible for the commons,” she said.
The work is already contributing to broader conversations in Portland, where housing leaders are studying policies connected to social housing and land banking.
“Housing is foundational to everybody’s story,” she said. “If you don’t have stable housing, that can become a crippling part of your story.”
Now, she is preparing for her next chapter with Albina Vision Trust, where she will join the real estate team in August to explore ways of building housing that's affordable across the income spectrum and building economically diverse communities.
Reflecting on her time at PSU, Lawrence-Spence points to the potential impact that stems from people willing to transform ideas into action.
“‘Let Knowledge Serve the City’ — the knowledge cannot reside simply in the books,” she said. “It’s in the people who write them and the people who make them actionable.”
She encourages students to approach PSU as a place where passion and collaboration can create tangible change.
“You’ve got to knock on the door and be persistent,” she said. “You’ll get out of it what you put in.”
Nadeem Sadek
When Nadeem Sadek talks about engineering research, he describes it with the curiosity of someone who genuinely enjoys figuring out how the world works.
“At its simplest form, it’s literally smashing materials,” he said. “How does it break?”
Sadek — who is earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering before returning next year to complete a master’s degree through PSU’s 4+1 program — studies collisions under microgravity conditions using the drop tower in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. His work focuses on understanding how celestial bodies form with the help of simple materials: powder mixed with water and molded into spheres that represent porous planetary bodies. Inside the drop tower, Sadek launches the spheres under simulated microgravity conditions and studies how they fragment when they collide.
“Over time, this clump of mass will just grow larger and larger and eventually become large enough to be its own planet,” he explained. “We’re trying to understand how those collisions happen.”
By changing variables like density, speed and water content, Sadek is exploring why some objects bounce while others shatter.
The implications stretch far beyond planetary science.
Sadek points to volcanic eruptions, where understanding particle dispersion could help communities better predict where ash will travel. Similar physics can also apply to satellites and spacecraft impacted by asteroids or debris.
“Research as an undergrad is nice because you get to work on stuff earlier and actually apply what you’re learning,” he said. “You just learn by trying. That’s what I like about it.”
Sadek’s own journey into engineering began early. Through Portland Community College’s Early College High School program, he started taking classes at PCC in 2022 before transferring to PSU in fall 2024. Engineering was already familiar territory thanks to his older brother, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at PSU.
“Having an older sibling in that field, I was always exposed to what engineering is,” Sadek said. “I kind of knew it was an option, and I liked it.”
Now, he is helping design and test a capstone project that studies fluid interfaces and droplet ejection under microgravity conditions — research with possible applications for atmospheric modeling and sea spray research.
Faculty members describe Sadek as an exceptional student whose research ability, academic excellence and collaborative spirit have already made him a valued member of the Microgravity and Atmospheric Turbulence Lab (or MEAT for short).
Still, he believes the most important lesson from engineering is persistence.
“Just enjoy it,” he said. “At the end, you’ll be equipped with the right skill set because you put all that time into it.”
Shelby Morgan
Shelby Morgan spent years working in the fashion industry, including co-founding her own women’s apparel brand. But in the back of her mind, she couldn’t let go of a long-standing desire to pursue a traditional college education.
“I’ve always wanted a traditional education,” she said. “Life kept happening and I kept trying to get an education.”
That dream finally became reality when Morgan decided to take the opportunity to apply to Portland State University's Honors College after helping her son complete his own college applications.
When the acceptance arrived, she made a life-changing decision.
“I put in my work notice,” she said. “And decided that I was going to study art history.”
Morgan, graduating from the Honors College with a B.A. in Cultural History of the Arts, quickly immersed herself in research, study abroad opportunities and scholarly work focused on ancient history.
Her academic journey has taken her from London to Bologna to Rome, and eventually to Milan, where she conducted primary research at the Luigi Rovati Foundation.
There, she deepened her study of the Etruscans — an ancient civilization that profoundly influenced ancient Rome.
“I fell in love with the Etruscan culture,” she said. “The ancient past is an ongoing active space in world knowledge, and with the uncovering of ancient civilizations happening at record speeds because of technology-aided archeology, we’re learning more than we ever did before.”
Her honors thesis explores connections between newly discovered Etruscan artifacts and the work of contemporary Italian artist Giuseppe Penone.
The research began almost accidentally.
After discussing her thesis ideas with an Honors College professor, Morgan discovered an exhibition in Milan pairing Etruscan artifacts with Penone’s work — exactly the connection she had hoped to explore.
“It added this confidence,” she said of the research process. “Keep digging. Keep finding the connections.”
Her work has already earned national recognition, including selection for the prestigious SUNY New Paltz Art History Symposium.
But Morgan’s journey through PSU was shaped by more than academic success. After her first study abroad experience in Rome, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I didn’t stop going to school,” she said. “I had really great support from my professors.”
The experience changed her perspective, reinforcing that she was already pursuing the life she wanted.
“I was really glad to know that I was already doing that by going to school,” she said.
As a parent of three children — with her daughter set to attend PSU next year — Morgan said returning to school later in life helped her see herself not only as an artist, but as a scholar.
“At first I thought I had to get rid of my artistic side and just be an academic,” she said. “Then I realized I’m both — each approach informs the other. That’s my academic superpower.”
Her background in research and design continues to shape the way she approaches cultural history and research.
“My collections were always based in history and cultural art,” she said. “I really loved that research part.”
This fall, Morgan will continue her studies at the American University of Rome, where she plans to explore cultural heritage, museum studies and research.
She hopes her story encourages others to pursue education no matter where they are in life.
“It’s never too late to do anything,” she said. “There are many transitions in life. I don’t think of it as reinvention. I think of it as an extension.”