Ava-Maria Stevens

AvaMaria Stevens brings 17 years of experience across higher education and DEI advocacy. She launched her teaching career at a community college after a friend from grad school recommended her to the dean, later taking a student affairs manager role at Portland State University in student financial services. Seeking a return to the classroom, she transitioned back to instruction and then into an embedded counseling position supporting computer science and engineering students with career development and workforce transition, later expanding to include business administration students for four to five years. She was subsequently drawn to government work, joining the state of Oregon in advocacy, where she has spent the past four and a half years in a full-time DEI capacity while maintaining adjunct teaching responsibilities. Stevens holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Portland, an MBA from Merrillhurst University, and a second master's degree. Her volunteer efforts include consulting with SCORE, the volunteer branch of the Small Business Administration, on marketing and other business issues, as well as communications work for a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. As a first-generation college student who graduated in the 1980s, she values guiding students through the transition from academic life into the workforce.