Christine M. Cress, PhD, is professor of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Service-Learning at Portland State University. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Middle East Technical University in Turkey and has conducted trainings on curricular integration of civic engagement at colleges in North America, Caribbean, Europe, Japan, and India. She directs a master's degree specialization and graduate certificate in civic engagement, and facilitates international service-learning at Lady Doak College, Madurai, India.
An accomplished scholar (70+ publications) on cognitive, cultural, pedagogical, and evaluation issues in community-based learning, Dr. Cress is lead author of the internationally best-selling textbook, Learning through Serving: A Student Guidebook for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement across Academic Disciplines and Cultural Communities (2013, 2nd edition), a book designed for classroom adoption in helping students realize effective learning outcomes and community gains through civic engagement and community-based learning projects.
She and her co-authors published Democratic Dilemmas of Teaching Service-Learning: Curricular Strategies for Success (2011), which focuses on faculty “best practices” for design of service-learning courses, facilitating effective learning, and evaluating student and community outcomes as part of the scholarship of engagement.
Her third and most recent book highlights the educational potential and power of community partners as co-educators: Community Partner Guide to Campus Collaborations: Strategies for Enhancing Your Community as a Co-Educator (2015).
Dr. Cress was a member of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Project on Leadership Reconsidered: Engaging Higher Education in Social Change; a curriculum designer and trainer for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellows Program on Political Engagement through Community Service; an educational coach for the Puerto Rican Department of Education in utilizing service-learning and civic engagement in K-12 schools as a strategy for improving academic engagement to insure that “no child is left behind;" and she conducts ongoing consultation for Campus Compact.
Dr. Cress previously served as Educational Leadership and Policy Department chair for five years and has a decade of prior experience in student affairs, including new student orientation, career services, and academic advising. But her proudest accomplishment is being mom to Beau and Suraj.