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 (3rd Ed., 2026).

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.