Celebrating Dr. Jill Rissi: A Career Fueled by Curiosity, Systems Thinking, and Commitment to Health Management and Health Systems Education

After 16 years of exceptional service, Dr. Jill Rissi—professor, mentor, and public health systems expert—is retiring from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Since joining Portland State University in 2009, Rissi has brought a rare and invaluable combination of real-world health management and system experience, policy insight, and academic excellence to the Health Management & Policy and Health Systems & Policy programs.

Rissi’s path into health policy began at the bedside. With undergraduate degrees in neurophysiology and nursing, she started her professional journey in the high-pressure world of trauma nursing. It was during her time working in a Level I trauma center that she became deeply curious—not just about how to treat patients, but why they were ending up in emergency rooms for non-emergent issues. Realizing that her future lay beyond clinical nursing, Rissi earned a Master of Public Administration, immersing herself in the administrative and policy side of healthcare. Her early career included roles as a budget analyst and performance auditor in Maricopa County, Arizona—one of the largest counties in the U.S.—where she evaluated health programs, advocated for resources to meet community needs, and developed deep expertise in public health finance and policy.

Rissi’s trajectory continued with leadership roles in managing outpatient care clinics, HIV/AIDS services, and public health programs during the early AIDS crisis. Recognizing the need for sustainable funding and service expansion, Jill began writing grants and building programs from the ground up. This led her to a pivotal role at a nonprofit health foundation, where she led financial restructuring, built administrative systems, and eventually shifted into research and policy work. There, she championed community-led, asset-based approaches to grantmaking and social determinants of health long before they were mainstream. Despite being surrounded by scholars and academics, Jill had not yet earned a PhD—so in her 40s, while working full-time and raising two teenagers, she enrolled in an interdisciplinary doctoral program in Public Administration and Policy at Arizona State University. She completed it in five years, driven by a commitment to data-driven public health and a desire to influence systems-level change. Looking back, Jill describes her career as a “fun” and meaningful journey, one that merged hands-on experience, strategic systems thinking, and an unwavering dedication to community health.

By the time Rissi began her tenure-track teaching career at Portland State University in her late 40s, she had already lived the kind of experience most textbooks only try to describe—making her classroom a rich, engaging, and deeply practical learning environment for students. Rissi served as Program Director for the Master of Public Health in Health Management & Policy, and is the founding faculty advisor of the Upsilon Phi Delta honor society. Her service to the school and university has been profound: chairing the Academic Programs and Curricular Committee (APCC), serving on the PSU Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate Budget Committee, and the Office of Academic Innovation Assessment Council. She was also the School’s first Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

Rissi led the School’s CAHME accreditation efforts for the Health Management & Policy programs—work that not only ensured academic rigor and excellence but also earned the MPH Health Management & Policy program the 2025 OHSU Provost Excellence in Program Assessment Award.

Whether mentoring graduate students, collaborating with colleagues, or shaping health system and management education across Oregon and beyond, Rissi’s impact has been immense and lasting. Her retirement marks the conclusion of a remarkable chapter, but her contributions will continue to shape the field for years to come.

Thank you, Dr. Jill Rissi, for your leadership, vision, and unwavering dedication to health equity, education, and systems transformation. You leave behind an enduring legacy—and our deepest gratitude.