Today I had the honor of lunching with two Portland State legends, Dr. Judith Ramaley and Dr. Norm Wyers.

Judith is president emerita of Portland State University. I got to know Judith as a fellow committee member studying a Oregon state ballot initiative for the City Club of Portland last year. Among many other amazing accomplishments in science and leadership, Judith coined the term STEM to denote the important fields of study in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As a trained biologist, she has advocated for the advancement of the hard sciences throughout her career, including heading up programs at the National Science Foundation.

Norm is faculty emeritus in the School of Social Work at Portland State. He's working on a history of the School and remains engaged with its work and programs, in particular by mentoring Ph.D. students, even though he retired over 20 years ago. Norm has been an invaluable guide as I navigated my way around my work new academic work environment and has become a dear friend. Read his brief autobiography to learn more about his life journey and reflections on retirement at age 72 (he’s a bit older now.)

Today we talked about Portland State past and present, the tricky challenge of being an effective leader, and the future of higher education. Big topics!

I am humbled by and appreciative of these two amazing contributors to Portland State and our community.