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1999 Homecoming

Wildcats on the Move

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	Wildcat Highlight: John Lane Wildcat Highlight: Karen Seccombe In Memoriam Ella C. Sapp 1898 - 1999

Chapters & Clubs

From dancing at "The Bear" and tubing down the Sacramento River to spirited intellectual exchanges with faculty and discussing politics on Friday afternoons at LaSalle's, Karen Seccombe has many wonderful memories of Chico State.

While in Chico, Seccombe kept very busy. She worked as a CAVE big sister to a young girl who came from an impoverished family where few members had finished high school. Seccombe says, "It was wonderful to be able to introduce this young girl to the benefits of college." Seccombe was also AS. vice president and assistant director of Rape Crisis Intervention for two years. Her experience at Rape Crisis gave her a close-up view of this serious social problem, "one that touches the lives of so many people," she says.

After leaving Chico Seccombe earned a master's in social work from the University of Washington in 1981 and a Ph.D. in sociology from Washington State University in 1985. She has taught in the B.S.W. and sociology programs at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and the University of Florida. Currently, she is a professor at Portland State University, where she was hired to develop a Ph.D. program in medical sociology. She teaches a wide variety of classes, from Introduction to Sociology to graduate seminars in health and illness.

Seccombe's current research examines the health care needs of families transitioning off welfare and the effectiveness of the Oregon Health Plan in aiding this transition.

Seccombe is the author of thirty articles on the health and well-being of poor families, all published in peer review journals. She is also the author of So You Think I Drive a Cadillac?: Welfare Recipients' Perspectives on the System and Its Reform, a book based on interviews with women on welfare about their experiences being in the system and their ideas on welfare reform. She is also the author of the upcoming decade review article for the Journal of Marriage and Family on families in poverty. Seccombe came back to Chico last fall to give a lecture in the President's Lecture Series, discussing the causes of poverty and the welfare system.Seccombe is active in and has held elected offices in the National Council on Family Relations, the American Sociological Association, and the Pacific Sociological Association.

In January, Seccombe began a new kind of research project into marriage and family issues-she got married. Her husband is an economist and conducts health-related research for Kaiser Permanente.

Seccombe remembers Chico teachers who challenged her intellectually and developed within her a love of sociology. In particular, Professor Kathy Kaiser, Sociology and Social Work, was an important mentor and friend to her. "It was through her support and encouragement that I decided to pursue a Ph.D."

-- Cynthia Andersen, University Publications