The easiest way to measure Carmen Steggell’s impact on Oregon State is the number of stories there are to tell about how she has helped and inspired others.
As the colleagues, friends and current and former students stood up to talk and share their appreciation of Steggell Friday at the Hawthorne Suite at Milam Hall, that impact seemed to grow larger and larger.
This year Steggell, School of Design and Human Environment Associate Professor & Graduate Program Coordinator, is retiring after 14 years at OSU.
From current Professor and former SDHE Associate Dean Leslie Burns’ story of Steggell filing in for her while Burns took a sabbatical to the numerous students who mentioned how her classes inspired them to continue in design, there was no shortage of remembrances of how Steggell made an impact at OSU.
Steggell served as Program Leader for the Housing Studies Program and as Core Director for “Gerontechnologies” in OSU’s Center for Healthy Aging Research. Her research has focused on the interactions between human behavior and seniors’ residential environments, with an emphasis on supportive technologies for aging in place.
Her undergraduate teaching included light frame construction, kitchen and bath design, housing policy, housing for the aging and real estate finance. Steggell is also the author of educational materials used extensively by affordable housing providers across the nation, including “The ABCs of Homebuying,” “The ABCs of Community Land Trusts” and “Ready to Rent.”
