CBL Staff
Our program staff are available to provide the following:
- Individual consultation on integrating community-based learning into your course
- Problem solving, braining storming, sharing of best practices, and quality review
- In class assistance per your needs and requests
- A comprehensive list of recommended community-based learning sites
- Relationship building with new partners
- Support to community groups/organization/members looking to develop and/or enhance community-based learning programming
- Presentations, workshops, training, and professional development related to community-based learning
District Staff
PCC District CBL Program Coordinator
Hannah Cherry
Hannah holds a MS in Counseling with an emphasis in Student Development in Higher Education from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), and a BS in Public Policy and Management from University of Southern California. Her areas of academic interest and training include experiential learning, faculty development, culturally responsive pedagogy, and high impact/best practices in the community college setting. Hannah centers her community engagement work around social responsibility, equity, inclusion, and collaboration. Prior to working at PCC, she was the Program Coordinator for SERVE (Service Experiences for Revitalizing Education) at CSULB, a program that supports the collaboration of faculty and community partners. She has also served in a variety of other service-related settings, including a year as an AmericCorps VISTA developing volunteer management systems. As the PCC Community-Based Learning Program Coordinator, Hannah works to develop partnerships with community organizations and support faculty in developing successful community-based learning assignments for their classes.
CBL Faculty Coordinators
Ari Petrides
Ari holds a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering with Minors in Statistics and Mathematics Education from Oregon State University. Ari is a Statistics and Mathematics Instructor at PCC and has served as the chair of the Advancement of Educators Committee as well as a member of the Equity Core Team and the Preferred Future Council within the Office of Equity and Inclusion at PCC. Ari has a long record of service projects including developing drinking water systems in Ecuador with Engineers Without Borders, Portland Chapter. As Faculty representative for the Lion’s club at the University of Portland, he also collaborated with the Moreau Center accompanying students to an immersion program on the US-Mexico Border for social justice for migrant workers. At PCC Ari incorporates CBL projects into his statistics courses helping students apply their learned data analysis skills to data from community partner organizations. Ari is originally from Mexico and is passionate about building a multicultural diverse community and mobilizing faculty, staff, and students for social and environmental justice programs.
Catherine Thomas
Catherine holds a Master of Arts, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (T.E.S.O.L) and a BA in Applied Linguistics from Portland State University. Catherine has 20 years of experience as an ESOL Instructor. She has been with PCC since 2008 as a Part-Time faculty member teaching in the areas of English as a Second Language, College Reading, Adult Basic Education, and Vocational-Career Pathways. In addition to her teaching, Catherine has also served as a Student Resource Specialist for Pre-College Advising at Sylvania Campus and serves on the Advising and Placement team for incoming ESOL students at Southeast Campus.
Catherine has been an active CBL practitioner and was recognized by the program in 2014-2015 for her collaborative CBL work. CBL has been a cornerstone of her pedagogical practice at PCC’s Southeast Campus, both in the ESOL department and in the Vocational ESL/Career Pathways department. Catherine has relished the spirit of interdepartmental collaboration in a number of campus CBL projects, the opportunity to engage students in meaningful community-building and self-reflection, and the connection to peers who welcome formal and informal mentorship and a deeper understanding of the CBL process.
Taryn Oakley
Taryn Oakley has been an adjunct faculty member at Cascade for over 12 years, and during those years, CBL has become an integral part of the courses that she teaches. Taryn has also been engaged in the CBL Program’s Professional Development Continuum as a member of the 2016-2017 CBL Faculty Cohort, recipient of multiple CBL curriculum development mini grants, and participant in the CBL Professional Learning Community.
Taryn brings her experience, empathetic approach, and love of CBL to her work as a Faculty Coordinator. She is passionate about the impact that community-based learning can have, both for students and for the local community. With her strong background in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, Taryn is dedicated to furthering CBL and equity work, and is excited to help incorporate these methods of instruction across disciplines at PCC.