Katherine Richardson Bruna

A professor of Sociocultural Studies of Education at Iowa State University, Katherine is an Oregon native.  She credits her community-engaged scholarly activities to the influence of her father, the Reverend Austin Harper Richardson, who was the pastor at Centenary-Wilbur Church in 60s-70s era Portland.  Centenary Wilbur is acknowledged as a hub of Portland's progressive activism, seeding a variety of political, artistic, and charitable outreach efforts that contributed to Portland's forward-looking character. Her father's prevailing principle, that the church should  serve the interests of the community and prioritize the needs of those on the margins,  made it a landmark for social justice organizing at the time, an influence that endures in the Portland ethos today.