About us

Advanced Career Online Resource Network (ACORN) is at the forefront of connecting counselors, therapists, social workers, prevention specialists, and educators with university professors and other highly qualified professionals willing to share their expertise. We bring more than 30 years of experience developing and delivering advanced professional education to life by collaborating with a wide range of content experts to create high-value online learning opportunities.

What we believe

ACORN is all about helping you help others! We are here to assist as you take the next steps in your career, keep up with the latest advances in your field, and move toward becoming the best professional you can be. We believe that the better prepared and more successful you are, the more likely you will remain hopeful, positive, and effective.

We're dedicated to

  • sharing the wisdom of advanced professionals through interviews and short lectures;

  • demonstrating skills by observing video clips of counseling sessions;

  • identifying core competencies and using competencies to inform courses;

  • providing up to date readings, research, and resources;

  • making professional learning accessible; and

  • helping those in counseling-related fields meet accreditation and continuing education requirements.

Our story

After years of collaborating with each other on research projects and scholarship, we decided to share our passion for discovery and learning by starting ACORN. It has been an exciting adventure! Having designed curricula for family therapy programs, completed research on core competencies for problem gambling treatment, written extensively on sociocultural attunement, and provided education and supervision for hundreds of students, we knew that ACORN was the next step in our own careers. ACORN is much bigger than the two of us. It is only possible because of our partners–including the Oregon Health Authority–and wonderful colleagues that we have worked with over the years—highly experienced clinicians, prevention specialists, educators, administrators, and clinical supervisors.

ACORN founders

Senior Instructor Teresa McDowell

Teresa McDowell, EdD, LMFT is professor emerita at Lewis & Clark, where she served as department chair and co-founded the college’s Problem Gambling Services. With over 40 years of experience as a clinician, educator, administrator, and consultant, Teresa focuses on workforce development, equity-based clinical practice, integrated treatment for problem gambling, and clinical supervision. She is a social researcher, program evaluator, and consultant with Partners in Social Research and Senior Instructor for ACORN. Dr. McDowell has authored more than 50 scholarly publications and is lead author of Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy: Applying Third Order Thinking to Theory and Practice.

Evaluation Researcher Iva Kosutic

Iva Kosutic, PhD is the founder of Partners in Social Research. She earned her doctorate from the University of Connecticut in 2010 and has led numerous program evaluations, including for the Department of Public Health’s Office of Oral Health and Genomics Office. Dr. Kosutic has taught undergraduate courses at the University of Connecticut and graduate courses in marriage, couple, and family therapy at Lewis & Clark. Her peer-reviewed research focuses on youth development, program evaluation, gambling treatment and prevention, and family therapy.

ACORN/OHA instructors

OHA Instructor David Corse

David Corse, LPC, CADC III, CGAC II has worked with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) since 2018, initially coordinating the Oregon Problem Gambling Treatment System and more recently supporting development of the OHA Integrated Co-Occurring Disorders Treatment and Recovery system. His clinical background includes crisis intervention, gambling disorder treatment, substance use disorder services, and community mental health. David has also served as a program director and clinical supervisor in nonprofit and county mental health organizations. In addition, he maintains a private practice providing therapy for individuals and couples and post-graduate clinical supervision for Licensed Professional Counselor Associates.

OHA Instructor Brandie Lyday

Brandie Lyday, MA, LMFT, CGAC II, CADC III owns and manages True Heart Therapy, a mental health group practice. She is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and serves as adjunct faculty providing family therapy supervision for Lewis & Clark’s Problem Gambling Services. Brandie previously worked as an Oregon Health Authority Problem Gambling Treatment Program Development Analyst and has extensive experience as an outpatient addiction treatment specialist, delivering individual, group, couple, and family therapies, including work with clients involved in the criminal legal system.

OHA Instructor Roxann Jones

Roxann Jones is the Problem Gambling Statewide Prevention and Outreach Specialist with the Oregon Health Authority. She brings more than 35 years of experience in designing and implementing prevention programs that address risky behaviors, as well as in managing programs in problem gambling prevention and in treatment and children’s intensive mental health wraparound services. Roxann is deeply committed to building healthy communities and has provided leadership on numerous community, state, and national task forces focused on population health and well-being.

ACORN on-demand course instructors

Senior Instructor Rick Berman

Rick Berman, MA, LPC, CADC III, CGAC II specializes in integrated treatment of co-occurring mental health and addictive disorders. He trained and supervised addictions and mental health counselors for more than 20 years. In recent years his work focused more specifically on problem gambling. He has presented at national problem gambling conferences in Canada and the United States. He is the past coordinator of Lewis & Clark’s Problem Gambling Services and instructed Gambling Counselor Pre-Certification Courses for many years.

Senior Instructor Carmen Knudson-Martin

Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD is professor emerita of marriage and family therapy at Lewis & Clark College’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling. She is an AAMFT clinical fellow, approved supervisor, and licensed marriage and family therapist, and a longtime member of the American Family Therapy Academy. An influential scholar in family therapy, Dr. Knudson-Martin has edited numerous books, published widely, and presented internationally on sociocultural attunement, power, and equity. She is co-author of Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy and a founder of Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT).

Counselor precertification instructors

Instructor Cort Dorn-Medeiros

Cort M. Dorn-Medeiros, PhD, LPC, CADC III is assistant professor in the Professional Mental Health Counseling–Addiction specialization and department chair of Counseling, Therapy, and School Psychology at Lewis & Clark. His areas of specialization include substance use and process addictions, co-occurring disorders, integrated care, and motivational interviewing and enhancement therapies. Dr. Dorn-Medeiros is co-founder and program director of the Gaming and Tech in Excess (GATE) program at the Lewis & Clark Community Counseling Center. He has published in multiple academic outlets, including a recent book chapter on technology safety and digital citizenship in school counseling.

Instructor Raul Ramirez

Raul Ramirez, CADC II, CGAC II, QMHA is a Problem Gambling Treatment Specialist with the Oregon Health Authority. He is a bilingual (English/Spanish) provider and member of the Multiethnic Advisory Committee, supporting awareness and community-building around gambling-related harm among underserved populations. Raul has experience delivering clinical supervision for professionals pursuing CADC and CGAC credentials. He is a strong advocate for equity and culturally responsive care for LGBTQIA2S+ and Latinx communities, with expertise in program and systems development, engagement and retention strategies, and community education.

Instructor Dave Hsiao

Dave Hsiao, MA, LPC, CADC III, CGAC II is Residential and Extended Care Management Unit Manager with the Oregon Health Authority. With more than 20 years of experience in counseling, he specializes in substance use disorders, problem gambling, and co-occurring mental health conditions. Dave is committed to improving outcomes through culturally responsive practice, with a focus on serving vulnerable populations and their families. His work includes training and supervising recovery mentors and counselors and leading outreach efforts across the Portland area and the Oregon coast.