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Alum Khalid Osman ’16 awarded Ford Foundation Fellowship

Engineering

April 17, 2019

photo of Khalid OsmanShiley School of Engineering alum Khalid Osman ’16 has received a prestigious Ford Foundation Fellowship. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in construction engineering and project management from the University of Texas, Austin, Osman will receive three years of support through the fellowship. Of the over 2,000 applicants, Osman was one of 70 selected.

"I am extremely proud of myself for receiving the Ford Fellowship,” Osman said. “I am the first in my family to graduate with a master’s degree, and the first to pursue a Ph.D.”

Through its fellowship program, the Ford Foundation seeks to grow the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximizing the educational benefits of diversity, and increasing the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

A Gates Millennium Scholar, Osman graduated from UP with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation management. Since graduating, Osman has received his master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas, Austin.

With the help of the Ford Foundation Fellowship, Osman will focus on the operationalization of racial equity in water infrastructure decision-making. He was inspired by recent articles suggesting that climate change will have its most adverse effects on communities of color. Osman’s goal is to inform policies around water infrastructure decisions that are inclusive and cognizant of the populations served or underserved.

“My current research was also inspired by an environmental science course I took at UP, which introduced me to the Vanport Flood that occurred in Portland in 1948,” Osman said. “The flood wiped out a majority diverse segment of the city overnight, and I want to ensure these types of disasters don’t continue to impact vulnerable communities the way that they do.”

Osman has been making an impact on his community since his time at University of Portland. On campus, he served as a senator for ASUP from 2014-2015, and as student body president from 2015-2016. Osman was also involved in the Black Student Union, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and first-generation programming.

“From my time at UP to now, service leadership has been a constant theme in my life, and I am in a position in my life where I feel as though it is my responsibility to give back in a variety of ways,” Osman said. “I hope to encourage others to give back to their communities with me.”