Thanking our outgoing executive council (EC) chairs
The start of the new academic year also marks a transition in your union’s EC. Join us in giving thanks to your outgoing leadership:
Vasiliki Touhouliotis, a cultural anthropologist and adjunct faculty member in the Honors College, worked as executive council co-chair and chair of bargaining for PSUFA. Previously your union’s chair of membership, Vasiliki had served on the bargaining team during the successful 2023 contract re-opener. She went on to lead your union through the grueling 2025–2026 campaign, fighting back against unprecedented encroachments upon your rights and playing an indispensable role in PSUFA’s fair contract victory. We are indebted to Vasiliki for her strategic insight, her courageous activism, and her tireless commitment to organizing, all of which she has used to advance the interests of adjuncts and to foster our collective power.
Erica Thomas, an artist and adjunct faculty member in University Studies, worked as executive council co-chair, having served in multiple roles within your union, including chair of communications and chair of political action. Under her leadership, Erica has helped PSUFA to develop dynamic outreach strategies and to broaden your union’s sense of its purpose and scope. She has worked to connect PSUFA to the wider network of activist organizations in the region, building adjunct faculty power for the collective benefit of the larger political movement. Erica is serving her remaining months on the EC as interim chair of political action, providing support and mentorship for your new leadership during this transitional moment. We are deeply grateful to her for her commitment to solidaristic organizing and her vision.
We’d also like to thank Adam Gitler and Tim Finn. Adam is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Business who has worked as PSUFA’s treasurer since 2025, ensuring the smooth economic operation and fiscal soundness of your union. Also an adjunct faculty member in the School of Business, Tim served as your chair of grievances and was an essential member of your bargaining team in the successful contract negotiations of the 2025–2026 campaign.
Meet your new EC
PSUFA is governed by an executive council made up of adjuncts just like you who work collectively to make union decisions and best represent our members. In accordance with the PSUFA constitution, your union holds membership-wide elections every two years to choose its leadership. When a vacancy opens up between elections, the remaining members of the executive council can vote to appoint interim chairs to join them on the EC. Many of the adjuncts currently on your executive council have interim appointments. All seats on the EC will go up for election in Spring 2027.
As the academic year begins, your incoming executive council is committed to enforcing the new contract and continuing to collaborate with campus allies in the fight for labor justice at PSU and beyond. Unlike other unions of our size, PSUFA does not have any hired union staff. This means that the work of organizing membership, planning events, and overseeing the contract is up to your fellow adjuncts on the EC AND YOU!
Interim Co-Chair & Chair of Bargaining
Alli Schisler-Blizzard (Contact)
Alli (she/her) is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work who teaches in the undergraduate program. Alli's background as an MSW is in human resources research and evaluation, transforming family-serving systems, and addressing racial disparity in the child welfare system. Recently, Alli has moved more fully into the labor movement as an organizer. Alli's a graduate of AFT's Member Organizing institute and served on the 2025-2026 Bargaining Team, and was previously PSUFA’s Membership Chair.
Interim Co-Chair & Chair of Communications
Jacob Tootalian (Contact)
Jacob (he/they) is an adjunct faculty member in PSU’s English department who teaches courses on technical writing, science writing, and science fiction. His scholarship focuses on the relationship between literature, rhetoric, and the history of science. He is working on a book manuscript that explores rhetorical artistry and poetic possibility in seventeenth-century science writing. He has served as one of his department’s adjunct liaisons since 2023, an initiative supported by the adjunct inclusion funding that PSUFA bargained for and won. He worked as a member of the bargaining team during the 2025–2026 contract campaign.
Chair of Operations
Mychel Estevez (Contact)
Mychel (she/her) teaches In University Studies and the School of Social Work at PSU as well as in sociology at UP and Clark College. She believes that all of higher education has been and continues to be harmed by the movement toward adjunctification and casualization.
Interim Chair of Diversity Equity Inclusion & Justice (DEIJ)
Tomás Zurita (Contact)
Tomás (He/Él) is a public health educator, advocate and student. He earned his MPH from OHSU-PSU School of Public Health and is now pursuing a PhD in Community Health. His background includes coordinating community-based research on health inequities, lived experiences, and equity-centered projects. He's created educational content on public health topics, led cultural humility workshops, and presented at conferences as an adjunct faculty at Portland State. His ongoing commitment to public health equity is rooted in cultural resilience, collaboration, and centering community voices. In his free time, Tomas enjoys spending time with friends and family, fishing, gymmin, cooking, or messing around with music production.
Interim Chair of Grievances
Katie Van Heest (Contact)
Katie teaches in the Book Publishing program within the PSU English department and works as an academic book editor. Her degrees are in religious studies and gender studies. She served on the PSUFA bargaining team for the 2025–2029 CBA and welcomes adjuncts' questions about their contract!
Interim Chair of Membership
Sarah DeYoreo (Contact)
Sarah (she/they) is adjunct faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and a restaurant worker in the service industry, where she is currently working to unionize her workplace. Following completion of their MA in English at PSU in 2015 and a brief stint in a PhD program, Sarah spent years teaching community classes on race, capitalism, and ecological crisis, before returning to academia in 2025. These days, Sarah’s reading, writing, organizing, and teaching is motivated by questions of collective refusal, withdrawal, and non-participation, and by the new worlds and ways of being that refusal makes possible. Sarah is thrilled to join the Executive Council of PSUFA to continue exploring these questions in practice, and to build relationships with her fellow adjuncts.
Interim Chair of Treasury
Jessica Rutledge (Contact)
Jessica (she/her) is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Business and teaches in both the undergraduate finance and MSF programs at PSU. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Washington and had a career as an equity analyst in New York before moving to Portland. Her door is always open to fellow adjuncts.
Accepting applications for Chair of Political Action
The chair of political action position will soon be vacant, and your union needs your help to ensure that our EC is fully staffed.
As your union’s constitution explains, the chair of political action is “responsible for the political education of the membership and the University community in legislative and governmental matters.” This is an adaptable role on the executive council, with its focus and direction varying depending upon the interests and skillset of the particular chair.
Please email communication@psufa.com if you have any questions about this position.