Message From the Dean

What is the cutting-edge research and practice in speech-language pathology? What should teaching and learning look, sound and feel like in the 21st century and beyond? How can practitioners, teachers and leaders be interconnected locally and globally? These are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking as a society — and that we explore in the Pacific University College of Education.

Our goal is to design learning experiences that are real-world focused, rigorous, practice-based, and personally meaningful. We pride ourselves on developing speech-language pathologists, teachers and school leaders who are profoundly skilled at what they do and who are prepared to help define what the future should be.

We have two schools within the College of Education.

The School of Communication Sciences and Disorders offers a master of science degree in speech-language pathology. The program has been awarded candidacy by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. CSD also offers an undergraduate minor in communication sciences and disorders, as well as a post-baccalaureate prerequisite sequence for those preparing for the masterʻs program.

The School of Learning and Teaching offers undergraduate education major and licensure programs, as well as programs leading to masterʻs degrees, and non-degree programs for teachers who wish to add endorsements and/or authorizations to existing licenses. The majority of students seek an Oregon Initial Teaching License through one of these programs, which are offered at Pacificʻs campuses in Eugene, Woodburn and Forest Grove. Our licensure programs are Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation accredited.

To meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, College of Education professors actively collaborate with clinic and school district partners within Oregon and across the country. We partner with key organizations, local, regional, national and international. Our faculty members are leaders in state and national discipline-based organizations as well. This work enables the college to coach and mentor its students in the reality of the work, to address the need for culturally and linguistically diverse educators and clinicians, and to develop new approaches to practice and learning.

Everything begins with a great teacher, and you can be assured that, if you join us, you will be immersed in a group of experienced, vibrant, thoughtful, and talented faculty members who will coach and mentor you along the way to be the kind of speech-language pathologist, teacher or school leader that the world needs and that you want to be.

Dr. Leif Gustavson
Dean, College of Education