Ann Curry-Stevens, PhD, MSW
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Portland State University
Ann is currently the lead researcher in a research partnership with the Coalition of Communities of Color. Her work has led to the release of a report, “Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile” that details deep racial disparities between Whites and communities of color across 27 institutions and systems. The depth and breadth of disparities is alarming. The work has catalyzed much support for reforms, with progress being seen in several arenas.
Ann is on faculty with Portland State University’s School of Social Work where she leads the school’s community practice concentration. Her teaching work centers on community practice, critical social policy, advancing social justice, and building student competencies in undoing racism, poverty and other forms of oppression.
Her research interests have been on the growing gap between rich and poor, social movements, anti-oppressive practice, racial inequality and also in how to teach effectively on these issues.
She is a relatively new academic, graduating with her PhD in 2005 at age 44. This transition followed 22 years of practice in social work – beginning in counseling practice and group treatment, and transitioning upstream to work in violence prevention, community development, policy practice, community research and social justice advocacy work. In Canada, she has been employed with the YWCA, the Centre for Social Justice, the Metro Network for Social Justice, the Jesuit Center for Social Faith and Justice, Women’s Resources and the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
She moved from Toronto (Canada) to Portland in 2007 with her daughter (now aged 13) and her partner.