Ph.D. Advanced Candidates

Susan is working to advance community and individual well-being in housing. In her three-paper dissertation, Susan is studying residents’ experiences in inclusionary housing (IH), which requires developers of new apartment buildings to include below-market-rate housing for those with lower incomes. The first paper (under review), coauthored with Amie Thurber, explores how municipalities and external researchers evaluate IH programs in the US, and whose perspectives are included in those evaluations, finding that few municipalities or researchers consider residents’ experiences in IH evaluations. The second and third papers utilize a case study of IH in Portland, combining administrative data, a resident survey, and semi-structured interviews with residents. The second paper (under review) tests the IH assumption that living in proximity to valuable resources, services, amenities, and networks facilitates inclusion in those resources, services, amenities, and networks by describing how residents of market-rate and below-market-rate apartments experience different forms or degrees of social exclusion. The final paper (in progress) compares social exclusion in two forms of affordable housing: below-market-rate IH and housing created through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). She aims to complete her dissertation this academic year. In addition, Susan teaches research methods courses in SSW and facilitates a series of transformative participatory evaluations in the community. 

Kelly Myers Sugahara, LCSW, MA

Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research (CV)

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Alma Trinidad, Ph.D.  (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Committee:
Dr.  Stephanie Bryson (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Stephanie Sundborg (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Miriam Abelson  (College of Liberal Arts and Science, Portland State University)

I’m a Clinical Social Worker engaged in mental health, addiction, and trauma recovery. I work as a psychotherapist serving the queer community, women, and college students throughout Oregon & Hawai’i.

In October, I presented my dissertation research in a program titled, “Creating a Culture of Care: Learnings from a Case Study of the PATH Clinic” at the Hawai’i Behavioral Health & Wellness Convention in Honolulu. The project was inspired by the Perinatal Addiction Treatment of Hawai’i (PATH) and their way of caring for pregnant, substance-using people. PATH Clinic has created and maintained a unique culture of deep caring to address the needs of this highly vulnerable population, resulting in improved access to care and health outcomes. It has also produced a clinic where both patients and staff report feeling cared for, known, respected, and welcomed.

My dissertation research included interviewing staff at PATH to learn from their lived experience of this workplace culture and to consider ways it might be shared with other human services. I am now analyzing the data and writing about my findings. It is my intention to complete this project for use by the PATH Clinic, along with a gift about their history in thanks for their sharing of wisdom. 

Grace A. Pappas, MSW

Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research (CV)

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Ben Anderson-Nathe (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Committee:
Dr. Stephanie Bryson (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Roberta Hunte (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Kali Simmons (Indigenous Nations Studies, Portland State University)

Grace’s research explores questions related to child welfare, discourses and regulations of the family, and social welfare history. They are particularly interested in where these lines of inquiry intersect with conversations about gender, sexuality, white supremacy, and US evangelicalism. A former child welfare worker, they are interested in the histories that shaped US child welfare services and ways of keeping children and families safe without relying on State and carceral systems. Grace’s dissertation is a critical discourse analysis of evangelical sermons on foster care and adoption. They are also exploring evangelical sermons on voting during the 2020 election, the historical intersections between Christianity and early child welfare work, and are part of Interrupting Criminalization’s Beyond Do No Harm Network mandatory reporting work group.

Meghan A. Perry, MPA

Advanced Candidate, PhD Program in Social Work and Social Research (CV)

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Ben Anderson-Nathe (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Committee:
Dr. Roberta Hunte (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Staci Martin (School of Social Work, Portland State University)
Dr. Alma Trinidad (School of Social Work, Portland State University)

Meghan’s scholarly interests are in the intersections of equity and wellbeing. She is deeply curious about the ways social conditions interact with individual and collective experiences of consciousness. She leans into intersecting critical standpoint positions, including Critical Race, Indigenous, Critical Disability, Queer, Feminist, and Post-Structuralist theories. Through these vantages, in her teaching and scholarship, Meghan aims to support paradigmatic shifts that create openings for a range of intersectional orientations to knowing and being. Meghan is passionate about supporting young people, families, and child and youth care workers to explore action-oriented change processes alongside one another in ways that empower people to navigate oppressive environments safely and build agency to actively unsettle oppressive, dehumanizing systems. In all her endeavors, Meghan is deeply committed to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, teaching, and scholarship that reinforce individual and community-centered healing.  (Research abstract)