Portland State Magazine Fall 2021

36 // PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE ALUMNI IN THE NEWS Sara Jean Accuardi ’06 won a $3,500 Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship in Drama from the nonprofit Literary Arts. Marwa Al Khamees ’19 is Willamette University’s new assistant director of student engagement and leadership. Heidi Allen MSW ’00 PhD ’08 , an associate professor of social work at Columbia University, was appointed to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). This federal, nonpartisan, legislative branch agency provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states. Leila Aman ’99 was sworn in as city manager of Manzanita, Oregon, in June. Osvaldo Avila ’07 MA ’14 , Talent, Innovation and Equity Grant Administrator for the State of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, was elected to the Salem-Keizer School Board and voted in as board chair. He and two other newly elected members are the first Latino representatives to serve on the Salem- Keizer School Board. Dawn Babb Prochovnic ’89 published the children’s book Lucy’s Blooms with West Margin Press. Marcy Bacon ’94 and her Rochester,-New York- based modern chamber music group, fivebyfive, are launching their debut album, which will be crowdfunded through the Eastman School of Music/ ArtistShare New Artist program. Learn more at fivebyfivemusic.com . Chelsea Bieker MFA ’12 was a finalist for the 2021 Oregon Book Awards’ Ken Kesey Award for Fiction for Godshot . Alexis Braly James ’08 , lead consultant at Construct the Present; Domonique Debnam ’08 , senior director of fitness and tennis footwear at Nike; Edward Dominion ’05 , president and founder of D6 Inc.; Liz Fuller ’08 , president and CEO at Gard Communications; Emily Henke MPH ’14 , executive director of Oregon Public Health Institute; Caroline Lewis MBA ’11 , managing partner for Rogue Women’s Fund; Emielle Nischik MPA ’09 , executive director of College Possible; and Jacob Pavlik MRED ’19 , research manager at Colliers, were named to Portland Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list of the region’s most influential young professionals in 2021. Miriam Calderon MSW ’02 was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Early Learning, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education for the U.S. Department of Education by the Biden-Harris Administration. Previously, she served as the early learning system director for the state of Oregon. HIS GOOD NAME The local hero behind the new name of Portland’s McDaniel High School WHEN LEODIS V. MCDANIEL became principal of Northeast Portland’s Madison High in 1983, he was one of the few Black principals in Oregon. In that role, he led the school through the difficult task of desegre- gation and busing. Nearly 40 years later, the high school is one of the most ethnically diverse in the state. After two years of a temporary relocation and remote learning, students returned this fall to a fully mod- ernized facility. Along with that new home comes a new name to honor a respected leader: Leodis V. McDaniel High School. McDaniel ’57 grew up in Vanport, a temporary city built in the lowlands near the Columbia River to house World War II shipyard workers. It was one of the few places in the area that Black families were allowed to live. (Vanport was also the first home of the school that became Portland State University.) After the devastating 1948 flood wiped out the community, his family was moved to Guild’s Lake Courts, a public housing project in Northwest Portland, with other evacuees. “He was one of the greatest guys you’d ever meet,” says John Mangum, his long- time best friend who also lived in Guild’s Lake. “If you didn’t like Leodis, you didn’t like people. He was a people person.” Together with a third friend, they were considered “The Three Musketeers.” Regina Flowers, who was in the same grade as McDaniel’s older sister, Barbara Jean, remembers his sense of humor, teasing personality and “excellent voice” from their bus rides to Lincoln High School. He had a special “oomph” to him. “He had aspirations,” she says. “I always thought that whatever he said he was going to be, he was going to be.” Ed Washington ’74, who met McDaniel through his older brother, says McDaniel’s parents were likely a driving force behind him going to college. “I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel encour- aged Leodis to take a step farther than what they were allowed to take,” says Washing- ton, director of community outreach and engagement for PSU Global Diversity and Inclusion. “Even for him, I’m sure that step was not easy.” After graduating from Portland State, McDaniel was unable to get a job with Portland Public Schools because of dis- criminatory hiring practices. He was offered a job at Woodburn Boys Home—now MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility— where he spent more than a decade. McDaniel eventually became part of the first cadre of African American educators in Portland Public Schools—originally as a counselor at the experimental Adams High School. He started at Madison High School in 1974 as a counselor, then became vice principal before taking the helm as principal in 1983. He served in that role until his sudden death in 1987 at the age of 51. “If you didn’ t like Leodis, you didn’ t like people. He was a people person.” McDaniel (left) jokes around in the 1980 Madison High yearbook. PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS