2012 GSE Faculty Scholarship Series—Volume I

Lisa Aasheim announces a new book on clinical supervision

A valuable resource for counseling supervisors is now available from Professor Lisa Aasheim. Practical clinical supervision for counselors: An experiential guide, (2011, New York: Springer Publishing), was released in October.

Dr. Aasheim was particularly interested in gathering information that would bridge the gap between theories and ideas about clinical supervision and the actual practice of clinical supervision. She shares these results in a new book that will assist clinical supervisors across several helping disciplines. “Few aspects of the mental health profession are as illogical, inherently risky, and anxiety-provoking as clinical supervision,” she says.

GSE mourns the passing of friend and colleague Dr. Mary Elizabeth York

Professor emeritus Mary Elizabeth York passed away January 1, 2012. She came to PSU in 1972, as the coordinator of PSU’s new Early Childhood Teacher Education Program and worked in the Helen Gordon Child Development Center. Dr. York joined PSU after a successful career as an elementary teacher and an administrator for day care centers working with the Migrant Opportunity Program in Arizona.

As a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), she regularly met with other university teacher educators and eventually became a founder and the first president of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE). Upon moving to Oregon, Dr. York became an active member of the local affiliate OAEYC, where she successfully lobbied for a state-approved Early Childhood Certificate.

Alumnus of the Month – Claire Welander

Claire’s interest in education and helping others started at a young age. She remembers her grandmother, a teacher in a one-room North Dakota schoolhouse, telling animated stories about the children in her class. Since those impressionable early days, Claire has gone on to pursue a career in education, earning her BS in speech pathology and her master’s in infant and early childhood special education.  Her career has included time as the director of an early intervention program in Vancouver, WA and now as an early childhood specialist with Clackamas County ESD. Her teaching philosophy is, “if you treat a child as he is, he will remain as he is. If you treat a child as you expect him to be, he will be all he can be.”

Claire continues to support the GSE by welcoming students as  student teachers and as a cooperating professional for practicum.

School administrator and PSU alum Chuck Clemans passes away

Long-time educator and Clackamas Community College board member Chuck Clemans died in a car accident in Mulino Thursday evening, December 22, 2011. He was 77 years old.

He was one of the first education graduates of Portland State University in 1956, and a long-time friend of the GSE. Dr. Clemans helped start the Friends of the GSE and served as chair of the organization for the first four years. He was instrumental in initiating the Friends of the GSE Scholarship Fund, a central part of the GSE scholarship program today.

PSU welcomes Indian education speaker Melody McCoy

Melody McCoy (left)

How much do you know about the U.S. responsibility to Indian tribes and how it frames the educational rights of Indian children? Tribal Education Sovereignty was the topic of a talk by Ms. Melody McCoy, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in Boulder, Colorado. She was the guest speaker at an event on PSU campus marking the finale of National Native American Heritage Month, November 30, 2011. As a tribal education legal expert she shared insightful views on the sovereignty of Indian nations.

Alumnus of the Month – Betty Komp

Betty Komp always wanted to be a teacher. But early in life she chose to take a family pathway instead, having her first child at the age of 18. Seventeen years later, when her last child was in third grade, she went to college and refocused on that childhood dream of becoming an educator.

Since that time, Betty has helped Oregon children as a school board member, teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Betty currently serves as the State Representative for Oregon’s 22nd District where she continues to be heavily involved in shaping education policy.