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  Letter from Sarah McDowell '02
  WOW! - I just was looking at the Oxy website and saw this amazing shift in focus (although this was always at the heart of what you were teaching).  This reformulation of the anthropology program into critical theory and social justice looks absolutely fabulous.  It seems that you have gathered all my favorite professors and all my favorite subjects together. 
  
  I have been in my current position as Director of Programs and Services at Raphael House of Portland (Domestic Violence victims' services) for almost two years now.  A domestic violence emergency shelter provides an interesting environment to witness involuntary intersections of culture.  I am constantly challenged to step back from my own theoretical and cultural biases in my attempts to create a safe and supportive environment for a diverse range of survivors who are dealing with immediate crisis situations.  While we do provide some transitional housing and non-residential advocacy, I am really excited to create programming in our new advocacy center that will provide long-term advocacy, services and hopefully some financial resources for all the survivors we serve.  Emergency shelter is a band-aid solution and I hope that our ability to maintain a connection to survivors for several years instead of several months will increase their ability to realize long-term goals and decrease the likelihood that they would return to an unsafe situation.  We'll see how that goes...
  
  We are also participating in some interesting research projects as well as developing new programming.  I have been impressed by the respect that academicians working with gender based violence have for the experience of advocates and survivors alike.  The CDC funded research we are participating in to look at the connection between homelessness and domestic violence was formulated and implemented through a collaboration between programs and academics and it truly integrates the strengths of both fields. I am inspired by the idea of community-based research and love the connection to the academic world this provides me.
  
  My MPA program is not as academically rigorous as my Oxy experience, but I suppose that's good because I am working full-time while going to school...  I do find that I miss the depth of my academic experience at Oxy.  You prepared me so well for so many aspects of what I do, from my ability to produce good writing quickly to the critical and analytical problem-solving skills I developed.