Joe Hewa, PhD, assumes his role—a new position at Lewis & Clark—on August 4. One of his first initiatives will be to reimagine the current undergraduate Career Center, which has moved from Student Life to the Office of the CAS Dean.
“Joe is an ideal person to lead this work. He brings expertise in curriculum design, career readiness program development, and collaborative partnerships,” Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Bruce Suttmeier said. “I’m looking forward to working with him as we build on our strengths, and develop the kind of meaningful and transformational career development possibilities students will need in the future.”
Hewa has been involved in career development for more than 20 years. He earned a BA from Whitworth University, an MA in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University, and a PhD in Communication from Washington State University, Pullman. In his current role as scholarly associate professor in the Department of Human Development and the director of the Center for Transformational Learning and Leadership at Washington State University, he developed and oversees a minor in Leadership and a certificate program in Mindful Emotional and Social Intelligence, influenced by his experience having taught 14 undergraduate and graduate courses, including developing two study abroad programs that promote career and leadership development internationally.
Throughout his career, he has been in leadership roles that required him to manage relationships with multiple stakeholders for effective collaboration, innovation, and inclusion. As an internship director, he worked with more than 500 partner organizations serving at-risk populations to facilitate more than 100 successful internship placements per year with a 90 percent job placement rate post-internship. In that role, he developed more than 100 new partnerships and initiated an international internship program that placed more than 40 students in eight different countries. He led a team of instructors that taught a general education course to more than 1,000 students per year that increased retention by up to 15 percent among students who take the course.
“I am passionate about supporting the personal and professional growth of students through career readiness programming,” Hewa said. “I look forward to bringing my energy and heart for student growth to Lewis & Clark, supporting existing programs and developing collaborations and partnerships across the L&C community, the Portland area, and beyond.”
In addition to curriculum design and coordinating programs that support students directly, he has collaboratively designed and facilitated professional development programs for faculty and staff that improve student outcomes and promote a sense of belonging and equity, such as the Core to Career and LIFT (Learn. Inspire. Foster. Transform.) Faculty Fellowship programs. Core to Career is a year-long fellowship program that trains faculty who teach general education coursework in the importance of introducing career competencies. Hewa and a team of co-facilitators developed the program and led six cohorts with 73 faculty participants from 29 different academic departments whose classes that now emphasize NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) career competencies have reached more than 8,800 students. LIFT is an initiative from WSU’s Provost’s Office that introduces psychosocial interventions that support student belonging and growth, especially for underrepresented students and those who experience stereotype threat that undermines their learning.
“A collaborative approach, drawing on the strengths and diverse perspectives of many different programs and individual collaborators, is part of what helps us create an inclusive environment where every student sees opportunities for themselves to connect, belong, and grow,” Hewa said. He is keen to bring this collaborative and inclusive approach to Lewis & Clark in developing the Career Accelerator to benefit all L&C students as they design impactful careers and deliver on the institution’s commitment to develop leaders equipped to address the world’s major challenges.
