Dr. Trish Lichau
Contact Information
Associate Professor of EducationEducation
- B. S., University of Portland
- M.S., University of Portland
- Ed. Administration licensure, Lewis & Clark College
- Post-graduate studies, Portland State University
- Ph.D, Capella University, Minneapolis, MN
Background
From serving as an EMT/Community Health Aide in a floating logging camp on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska to being a licensed pilot, sometime tugboat operator, certified scuba diver and king salmon fisherman, Trish Lichau has followed a rather non-traditional path into formal education.
Prior to moving “down south” to Oregon, Trish taught OSHA-mandated BFA and ELS courses to loggers and fishermen, an experience that inadvertently prepared her for an exciting career teaching high school and understanding resistant learners. A passionate advocate for at-risk students, she served on the Southeast Island School Board, which at that time possessed 16 isolated multi-grade schools in a 20,000 square mile district. As a board member, she learned the value of a rigorous, research-based curriculum, which the board implemented in every school. The outcomes are being realized yet today, in the form of astonishingly successful students (they are now engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, etc.), given the agrarian lifestyle and lack of scholarly expectations in their immediate families. She also helped develop policy for school boats, school planes, school gun safety and other unique aspects of education in rural (some would say “wild”) Alaska.
Trish has been a life-long social activist, which has included flying medical mission trips deep into the heart of Mexico (El Fuerte, Ocarone, Alamos, among other villages), designing and implementing after-school programs for at-risk learners, and organizing and training a cadre of 66 tutors who served over 330 students in East County. Her after-school programs won national recognition and became the subject of the Policy Institute, Inc. research initiative on outstanding student literacy models. In her spare time, Trish volunteered as a triage specialist and coordinator of Clinica para Cuidad de la Familia, which provided basic medical care through the Farmworkers’ Health Access Project. She also worked with a local team of doctors through Northwest Medical Teams, which visited migrant camps around East County.
Trish’s formal education experiences include serving as a high school math and Spanish teacher, high school administrator, adjunct faculty at MHCC for 10 years and as an associate professor for four years at Concordia University. Her interests include neuropsychosocial studies, allopathic and emergency medicine, naturopathic medicine, transformative education (Parker Palmer, Michael Fullan), and online teaching and learning. She is currently finishing a Ph. D. (ABD) in teaching and learning.
Trish invites education students to explore a variety of multimodal, multipathway learning strategies. She facilitates an intentionally inviting (Purkey, et al., 1992) learning environment where students research and participate in activities centered on Teaching with the Brain in Mind (Jensen, 2006).
Trish's greatest joy comes from her family — husband, Dave Shields, who taught college for 31 years, sons Andrew and Gabe, and daughter Maria. Most notably, she describes grandsons, Devon, Andrew, Collin and Noah, as the most wonderful grandsons in the world!