Research Fellow
Social Work Health Futures Lab
Portland State University
A fellowship sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Institute for the Future, and Portland State University School of Social work.The Social Work Health Futures Lab is an 18-month long exploration, collaborative learning network, fellowship, and playground to consider how a “foresight lens” might accelerate and improve the impact of social workers who work, do research, or teach in health and health-related areas of practice. Special attention will be paid to cultivating greater ability to navigate uncertainty and turbulence in the practice environment, engage communities in co-creating their futures, explore emerging trends and dynamics, and launch a more future-ready next generation of the health social work workforce. This community intentionally includes fellows who are looking at different elements of futures challenges. The goal of the Lab is to create spaces to foster intentional cross-fertilization, shared discovery, and meaningful contributions to intentionally evolving health-anchored social work thought and practice.Common interests and themes are a commitment to anti-racist principles, the social work code of ethics, and other cutting edge social work practice spaces such as the Social Work Grand Challenges. Interdisciplinary engagement with engineering and other sciences, the arts, other social sciences, and from a deep variety of perspectives are welcomed.