Nearly 100 new faculty members have joined Portland State University this year from across the country, bringing with them a wealth of academic and professional experience.
Here’s an introduction to some of the new professors on campus this fall.
Stephanie Bryson (right), Social Work, comes from the University of British Columbia, where she was an assistant professor in their School of Social Work. She received her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Brandeis University, where she was a National Institute Mental Health Predoctoral Fellow in mental health services research. Bryson conducts research on the rights and needs of children who are involved in multiple systems of care, including mental health, child welfare, and developmental disabilities.
Tomas Cotik (right), Music, was a first-prize winner at the National Broadcast Music Competition in his native Argentina in 1997, and the winner of the Government of Canada Award for 2003-2005. An avid recording artist, Cotik is currently involved in more than a fourteen CD recordings for Naxos and Centaur Records, which have received over a hundred reviews and the highest praise from some of the best-known publications such as Fanfare, American Record Guide, Downbeat, and MusicWeb International. Cotik has performed hundreds of recitals and chamber music concerts across the globe. Since 2011, he is a member the Cotik/Lin duo. He was also a member of the acclaimed Amernet, Delray, and Harrington string quartets. Cotik earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami.
Scott DuHadway, Supply Chain Management, received a Ph.D. degree in Operations and Sourcing from Michigan State University in 2016 and a B.S. degree in both Operations Management and Business Administration from Utah State University in 2012. His research focuses on the interface between risk, buyer–supplier relationships, and organizational behavior with an emphasis in supplier relationship management.
Anna Goodman (right), Architecture, has focused her work on the politics of architectural practice and the role of making and craft in defining the borders of professional identity. Her most recent project examines the concept of the citizen architect and the ways in which architectural educators have influenced the development of the profession through the instigation of humanitarian design-build projects in the twentieth century. She received her doctorate in Architecture with an emphasis on Global Metropolitan Studies, from University of California, Berkeley, in 2015.
Winston Grady-Willis is director of Portland State University’s new School of Gender, Race and Nations and a scholar of African-American history. Previously he served as professor and chair of African and African American Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His book, “Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights, 1960-1977,” seeks to provide a gendered examination of the contemporary Black Freedom movement. His articles and book chapters have focused on the Black Power movement, neighborhood activism, and the Black Panther Party.
Jill Hoffman (right), Social Work, draws from prior experience with the early intervention system in Philadelphia for her research on social-emotional development in vulnerable young children. Throughout the first five years of life, young children may come into contact with educational, social service, and health care professionals. Hoffman's research specifically examines how professionals across a variety of service sectors support young children’s social-emotional development. Her dissertation investigates the relationship between Head Start center characteristics, teachers’ classroom practices, and low-income children’s social-emotional development. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from Ohio State in August 2016.
Michelle Illuminato, Art Practice and Core First-year Program Coordinator, is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including Key to the City of Aliquippa and Best Event in Pennsylvania, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Last year she was an artist-in-resident at the Internationales Waldkunst Zentrum in Darmstadt, Germany and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France as part of a year-long sabbatical from Alfred University, where she is an associate professor.
Shirley Jackson (right) is professor, chair, and undergraduate advisor of Black Studies at Portland State University. Jackson's areas of research specialization are race/ethnicity, gender, and social movements. She also does work on African American women's organizations, race and class in Cuba, the United States, and Brazil. She is the editor of “The Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender” and is currently working on two book projects. The first is an socio-historical exploration of U.S. and global themes of race/ethnicity and gender in political cartoons during WWII, the Civil Rights Movement and post 9/11. The second is a co-authored book on women and prison.
Jungmin Kwon, Film, specializes in fan culture, specifically the straight female fans of gay media in South Korea. Her research and teaching interests include film and digital media, gender and sexuality, entertainment industry, fan culture and Korean film and media. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the International Journal of Communication and Journal of Fandom Studies. Her book manuscript, titled “FANtasy Changes the World: Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Imagination,” is under contract with the University of Iowa Press.
Andrew Santa Lucia (right), Architecture, comes from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he most recently taught courses in architecture, interior architecture, and designed objects. He runs the architecture collaborative Office Andorus, which, as part of the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, designed No Place like House, a two-room installation of ritual and performance altars inside Mies van der Rohe's McCormick House at the Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois. Office Andorus also provides design services to community activists with the goal of influencing public policy through the architectural discipline.
Julius McGee, Sociology, completed his dissertation at the University of Oregon, where he earned his Ph.D. in sociology in May of 2016. McGee’s research highlights the economic and environmental impacts of urban and rural development. He will extend existing departmental strengths in environmental sociology and urban sociology.
Jada Phelps Moultrie is a new assistant professor who will be working with the Educational Leadership program this fall. She has a PhD in urban studies from Indiana University, a master’s in educational leadership from Indiana University and in recreation and sport management from the University of Tennessee. Her undergrad is in secondary education and social studies from Ball State University. She has worked as a teacher, curriculum developer, and principal and also taught Community College. Moultrie is one of eight women who broke a record at IUPUI as the largest group of black women to receive a PhD together.
Aaron Roussell, Sociology, comes to PSU from Washington State University, where he is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Roussell earned his Ph.D. in Criminology, Law & Society in 2013 from the University of California, Irvine. Roussell’s work focuses on conceptions of race and class as they relate to policing, public disorder, and drug law. Roussell will expand on existing departmental strengths in the sociology of crime and deviance.
Marylynn Steckley, International and Global Studies, did fieldwork in Haiti for five years as a Policy Analyst and Advocacy Coordinator and did immersed ethnographic research in the rural town of Desarmes. She also conducted research in the Dominican Republic exploring experiences of violence and social exclusion experienced by ‘illegal’ Haitian migrants; worked in Thailand analyzing the post-tsunami policy framework and governance of post-disaster aid; and in both Cambodia and Indonesia studying the methods for overcoming livelihood constraints for waste picking communities living on landfill sites.
Mathew Uretsky (right), Social Work, is a social work practitioner and researcher with rich experience in and a deep passion for working with schools, families, and community organizations to improve outcomes in underserved communities. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa developing community-based programs for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS. Uretsky has helped students experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area connect with services and support through his work as the McKinney-Vento liaison for the Oakland Unified School District. As a statistician and doctoral research fellow in the School of Social work at University of Maryland Baltimore, he worked with state agencies to improve their capacity to use administrative data for policy and program development. His research interests include the development and evaluation of interventions to support positive youth development.