Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty,
Welcome to the spring 2026 semester after what I hope was a restful winter break. May all of your efforts this upcoming semester—to teach, to learn, to advocate, and to generate knowledge—serve as an antidote to the conflict and discord we are seeing and experiencing locally, nationally, and around the world.
Despite these challenging times, the Lewis & Clark community has a lot to celebrate. Did you know Lewis & Clark Law School has the highest pass rate on the bar exam of any law school in Oregon? Did you know that over the past ten years, Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling educated more mental health counselors than any other program in the state? Did you know that a short film that features a history class at the College of Arts and Sciences earned inclusion on the shortlist of documentaries being considered for an Academy Award?
As meaningful as these accomplishments are, we are also planning for deeper impact to come. It has been about a year and half since the board approved The L&C Advantage: Three Strategic Imperatives for Lewis & Clark’s Future, a roadmap to guide institutional efforts over the next five to seven years. The focus of the plan, developed after a robust community engagement process with staff and faculty across the institution, involves leveraging the strengths of our three schools—CAS, the graduate school and the law school—to enhance our offerings and bolster Lewis & Clark’s position as a higher education leader.
Last summer, I worked with leaders across L&C to identify five priority initiatives to focus on during the 2025–26 academic year to advance the three imperatives. These priority initiatives grew out of recommendations from an advisory committee made up of L&C staff and faculty. Our progress so far includes launching the Career Accelerator, an initiative to reimagine undergraduate career preparation and to make career readiness a part of our institution’s DNA. We are moving steadily toward actualizing the vision of the Career Accelerator as a four-step commitment to supporting students in gaining the skills, experience, guidance and connections needed to finding real and meaningful work upon graduation.
At the undergraduate college, we are building on our academically rigorous foundation to add new programs that reflect emerging technologies and in-demand fields. Plans are in the works to strengthen pathways between the undergraduate college and our top-tier professional schools in education, counseling, and the law to better prepare students for post-graduate opportunities. You will hear more about specific programs and initiatives in the coming months.
Lewis & Clark’s historic partnership with Albina Vision Trust, an institution-wide initiative, is the first major partnership of several we intend to forge in order to achieve greater engagement with the Portland metropolitan area and to scale our impact in the region and in our communities. As residents move into the first building that has opened in the reimagined Albina neighborhood, I am looking forward to the ways the partnership will grow.
Last, but certainly not least, we are taking the first concrete steps to establish a cross-institution Center for Environmental Innovation, which will leverage our strengths in climate, health, and community. The center’s signature initiative, the Environmental Innovation Lab, will develop future climate leaders by offering students opportunities to work with community partners to address complex, real world challenges. It will also build on the great work of several impactful law school programs including the Earthrise Law Center and the Green Energy Institute. We intend to have a director of the center hired later this spring.
These are just a few of the top-level initiatives we are pursuing this year. If you are curious about any of these efforts or want to learn how you can get involved, reach out to strategicplan@lclark.edu. We welcome your feedback.
Meanwhile, I hope you have a productive, safe, and inspiring semester making progress toward your goals. Your persistence is reason enough to celebrate. I applaud it!
Sincerely,
Robin H. Holmes-Sullivan
President
