| On Tuesday, June 23 2020, our lunch speaker will be Becky Johnson, Vice President of Oregon State University – Cascades. Becky will be giving us an OSU Cascades Expansion Update and talking about the impact of COVID-19. |
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Becky’s career in higher education spans more than three decades. Prior to joining OSU-Cascades in 2008, she spent 25 years at OSU in Corvallis, rising from an assistant professor in the College of Forestry to vice provost for academic affairs and international programs.
Under Becky’s leadership, OSU-Cascades has transformed from a capstone model housed on the Central Oregon Community College campus, to a four-year university, now on a campus of its own. She is leading what has been called one of the most exciting university development projects in the country: the reclamation of under-utilized lands near the center of Bend — a former pumice mine and demolition landfill — and expansion of OSU-Cascades from a 10- to a 128- acre campus that will serve 3,000 to 5,000 students.
Becky is responsible for the financial stability of the campus through securing state funds for new land and buildings as well as philanthropic funding efforts — which have resulted in private support for academic buildings, scholarships, endowed faculty positions, and new academic programs to serve the needs of the Central Oregon business community.
Becky was named the Bend Chamber 2015 Woman of the Year, the 2014 Source Woman of the Year, and received the Bend 2030 Vision Builder Award in 2009. She received a B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.
We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.