After living with various challenges during the pandemic, we now have an opportunity to reset Portland, Portland State University and our School of Social Work (SSW). By collectively bringing back the community that we loved, we can build a better future for all.
As a “home-grown” School of Social Work faculty member, I have enjoyed the privilege of working with my colleagues here since 2006. As a former PhD Program Director, I truly honor our strong culture of teamwork, and now as your Interim Dean, I will continue to listen to your ideas, perceptions, and information to improve our school. I also accept that I am responsible for making the final decisions.
I not only enjoy this privilege and honor, but I also recognize it is a difficult time for our school. When various challenges confront us, it is best to get together and be creative. This is an opportunity for us to reflect how we have worked with the communities that we so deeply value, and to focus on how we can best move forward.
During my first month, I met with various community leaders to enhance our relationships with the local communities our school serves. I listened to their advice on how to strengthen our school. Here are some priorities that emerged from those conversations.
One of the leaders I spoke with was my friend and mentor, Terry Cross, the founding executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). He and I had a conversation about moving beyond land acknowledgements to action that will support our Indigenous/American Indian/Native American students. Through careful and concerted effort, we will seek to build trust with Indigenous elders and to create structures and processes that best support the retention and graduation of Indigenous students.
To build a stronger infrastructure in support of our underserved communities, I am also collaborating with our Center for Improvement of Child and Families Services to establish a workforce development/job training center at our school. We may not have the financial resources to build this center at this time, but I believe “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” I will not be shy about asking for financial contributions; I see this is one of my primary tasks as Interim Dean. This Center will diversify our revenue sources while meeting agency, workforce, and community needs.
With the leadership of our former Dean Coll, Associate Dean Bryson, and Representatives Rob Nosse and Tawna Sanchez, we collectively initiated House Bill 2485 for the 2023 Regular Session. Due to a lack of time, the bill was not reviewed. This bill is critically important and timely. If passed, it will significantly enhance our State's capacity to graduate more behavioral health providers, and subsequently meet the workforce needs of the State of Oregon. I ask that you consider how you can best support its success in ways that feel meaningful to you.
As we are a professional school, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) will review both our BSW and MSW programs for reaffirmation this upcoming year. This provides us an excellent opportunity to systematically and comprehensively review every aspect of our programs. In addition to these efforts, I am working together with other leaders at PSU to improve the pathways connecting our university with Oregon’s local community colleges.
As we strive to reset our school and move forward, we face a daunting yet important challenge, budgetary concerns. Since spring of 2023, we have carefully reviewed various potential methods of reducing our expenses. I also started exploring creative revenue sources. As previously mentioned, this will pose a challenge. However, I am confident that with your continued support, it is a challenge we can surely overcome.
I have been a faculty member at the PSU School of Social Work for nearly 20 years; the entirety of my career as a professor. Any decision I make will undoubtedly be in the best interest of the faculty and students, I consider them to be my family. As we start to think about embarking on another academic year, I hope that we can all move forward in solidarity in order to achieve our goals.
Junghee Lee, MSW, PhD
Interim Dean and Professor
School of Social Work
Portland State University