Lynn Green is the new director of the Helen Gordon Child Development Center at Portland State University.
Portland State University’s College of Education is pleased to announce Lynn M. Green as the new director of the Helen Gordon Child Development Center (HGCDC). Green recently served as interim director, and has worked as an early childhood educator, teacher-trainer and adjunct faculty at PSU during most of her career that spans three decades.
“I am delighted and humbled to appoint Lynn Green whose vision and dedication towards the HGCDC will strengthen its mission and commitment towards our staff, families, and most importantly the children we serve,” said Dr. Jose Coll, dean of the School of Social Work and interim dean of the College of Education. “I also want to thank the remarkable work of the search committee for their diligence and service.”
Lynn Green has been the Infant and Toddler Transition Coordinator at HGCDC for 19 years, and an adjunct faculty member at PSU since 2004. She first became a lead teacher and program instructor at the center in 1990. She is an alumna of Portland State, earning a Master’s in Early Childhood Education, and was certified as an Oregon Childhood Care and Education (OCCE) Master Trainer in 2014.
“I could not be more thrilled to be here,” says Green. “Early childhood education is a profession we choose, knowing it is foundational to success of young children. As a lab school in a university setting, we are in a position to help bring its importance into the light across our nation. I get excited.”
In June of 2020, Green received the President’s Diversity Award – Distinguished Staff Recipient for 2019-2020. This award celebrates members of the PSU community for their outstanding accomplishments in making PSU a more diverse, inclusive and equitable university. As an adjunct professor, Green taught courses in the College of Education and School of Social Work. For 16 years, she has taught, “Working with Diverse Families,” teaching theoretical perspectives on working with families from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
“I began by co-teaching Diverse Families with Ellie Justice, who was the 31-year director of Helen Gordon before Mary Schumacher-Hoerner. Ellie and I teaching this course as a team was very effective. We brought our sometimes very different, and sometimes very similar experiences and views into the body of the course and shared them under the magnifying glass of the course participants. It was beautiful how we could provide that living example of perspective, support and respect for not only each other, but for them as well. It worked wonderfully!” she says. “I’m relationship based in the work that I do and that includes my commitment to families. My very being is based on relationships and how I work supporting staff is about helping them put forth their best and most authentic self in the present moment,” says Green.
As the College of Education prepares and trains the teachers of tomorrow, a growing importance is placed on diversity, equity and inclusion beginning with early childhood education. Green plans to expand partnerships within Portland State to enhance the research aspect of the school, which currently provides practicum hours for students in Counseling Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Special Education, and Educational Leadership and Policy. She will also be working to develop awareness of the need for federal funding for early childhood education programs.
The Helen Gordon Center is licensed for 200 children in 12 classrooms (ages six weeks to five years). Approximately two-thirds are the children of PSU students, and one-third are the children of PSU employees, with some from the community, and a wait list. Green will supervise more than two dozen full-time staff and 30 to 40 PSU students, as well as a $3 million budget.
In addition to the annual operational budget, the PSU Foundation helps raise funds for scholarships for families. As a mother of three, and grandmother of four, whose own children went to Helen Gordon, she hopes to bring more scholarship funds in for student and staff families to attend. “Parents are struggling. It’s a national issue,” she notes.
It is a mission that will require strength and energy, and for that she has just received good news. She’s been declared cancer-free after going through surgery and chemotherapy over the past eight months. Put a checkmark next to victory as a breast-cancer survivor. She shares her diagnosis and recovery to encourage and uplift others as she moves through the world.
Congratulations, Lynn!
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