Portland State is expanding in more ways than building new dorms.
This summer, PSU hired Erin Flynn as its new associate vice president for strategic partnerships, a position based out of the Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships. Flynn is charged with creating a network of expansion for the university by connecting PSU with local companies and establishing mutually beneficial partnerships.
Portland State is expanding in more ways than building new dorms.
This summer, PSU hired Erin Flynn as its new associate vice president for strategic partnerships, a position based out of the Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships. Flynn is charged with creating a network of expansion for the university by connecting PSU with local companies and establishing mutually beneficial partnerships.
“We are an ‘urban serving’ university interested in trying to solve real-world problems. Our goal is to raise PSU’s community profile in a few key areas,” Flynn said.
Flynn’s background in urban, regional and economic development helps her determine the areas that distinguish PSU as a school of applied research. Four have already been identified: environmental sustainability, public education, economic growth and public/community health.
Several strategic partnerships have already been established to develop these research fields.
PSU’s partnership with Portland General Electric provides strength in the development of urban sustainability and applied electrical research, and it helped make Electric Avenue, a new parking strip on campus that allows owners of electric cars to plug in and charge up, possible.
Intel is another large and local company that has close ties with PSU. A strong focus of the partnership is to supply Intel with engineering students, which helps further technological research both at Intel and Portland State. The research conducted by Intel and students and faculty from PSU also determines the curriculum for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Initiative at Portland State.
Portland State is also known for its programs in human health and health equity. Flynn is working to create a closer alliance with Oregon Health and Sciences University to ensure that issues of public and community health are researched and developed.
Besides her work on the already existing partnerships with Portland State, Flynn is identifying more partnership opportunities that will benefit students, faculty and the community. After developing a clear understanding of PSU’s most relevant and cutting-edge research, Flynn builds a clear strategy and agenda for community partners that can benefit from and contribute to PSU’s fields of expertise.
Flynn seeks partners that are willing to contribute to and work alongside PSU. “We want to serve our partners, but we also want to raise the local, national and global profile of Portland State,” Flynn said.
Most importantly, however, they “are seeking to build and strengthen our relationship with the city of Portland,” Flynn said. “It is a fundamental relationship that will help the future of Portland State.”
