July 23, 2020 | Safe Returns: Ensuring Safe Facilities and Student Equity for School Re-openings

Learn about brand-new updates to state guidance for schools. Explore how transportation, food service, and student activities will be addressed. Consider how equity may be ensured in new education models and how schools can anticipate and address student trauma from our current economic and social upheaval.

Panelists:

Rep. Barbara Smith Warner is proud to represent House District 45 (NE Portland, Maywood Park and Parkrose) in the Oregon State Legislature and serves as the House Majority Leader. In the 2019 Legislative Session, she chaired the Joint Committee on Student Success, which passed the landmark Student Success Act to provide dedicated stable funding for early learning and K-12 education for the first time in a generation. Rep. Smith Warner has also served on the House Revenue Committee, the House Rules Committee, and the Joint Committee on Tax Expenditures. Appointed to the legislature in 2014, she has led the charge on gun violence prevention, oil train safety and corporate tax reform. Prior to being elected, she spent her career as a labor educator and political organizer, helping people engage with and participate in their government. Originally from Erie, PA, Representative Smith Warner has lived in Portland since 1999. She is the mother of two teenagers and is an avid reader, runner and bike rider.

Rep. Smith Warner can be reached at: Rep.BarbaraSmithWarner@oregonlegislature.gov

Pat Allen is Director of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), which is working to fundamentally improve how health care is delivered and paid for, tackling issues that include costs, quality, prevention and health care access. OHA includes most of the state’s health care programs, including Public Health and the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s innovative Medicaid program. Pat, a native Oregonian, has more than 25 years in public service, most recently as the director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services for six years, where he oversaw the regulation of the commercial insurance market, worker safety and health, the financial services industry, building codes and other services. Pat’s guiding principles and his charge from Governor Brown are to promote transparency, the wise use of public dollars, and integrity throughout OHA’s many programs.

Pat Allen can be reached at: Patrick.allen@dhsoha.state.or.us

Colt Gill was appointed by Governor Brown as Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction (and as such serves as the Director of the Oregon Department of Education), and he was confirmed by the Senate on February 12, 2018. He served previously as Oregon’s first Education Innovation Officer. In this position, he focused on improving graduation outcomes by working with local communities, school districts, researchers, students, and other stakeholders to identify effective practices across the P-20 continuum and make recommendations to the Governor, state agencies, and the Legislature regarding policies, budget priorities and supports needed to increase the number of students who graduate prepared for their next steps in the work place or college. He has been an Oregon educator since 1989. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon and has served on a number of boards and commissions relating to education and children’s health and wellness initiatives.

Colt Gill can be reached at: colt.gill@state.or.us

Richard Donovan, has worked as a Legislative Specialist for the Oregon School Boards Association since 2016. Before coming to OSBA, Richard worked for four years as the Committee Administrator for the House and Senate Committees on Education at the Oregon Legislature. Richard has also worked at the New York City Department of Education in the Office of Student Enrollment, where he was part of a team responsible for placing more than 100,000 students in high school annually. Richard received a bachelor’s degree from Washington College and a Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School. In law school, he worked for a semester in the chambers of Judge Richard M. Berman in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Richard Donovan can be reached at: rdonovan@osba.org

Nathan Roedel, SFO, SNS, is an experienced school professional with broad experience in Food Services, Finance and general district operations. Currently, the Executive Director Nutrition Services in the Hillsboro School District, co-Executive Director of the OCNC Purchasing Cooperative, and the current President of Oregon Association of School Business Officials. Roedel is a relationship builder that is driven to facilitate excellence in an efficient, creative and transparent manner.

Nathan Roedel can be reached at: roedeln@hsd.k12.or.us

 

 

Jordan Ely oversees Gresham-Barlow School District business and finance department, staffing, 2016 school bond construction projects, operations, and the district’s budgeting process. Ely has served as the Director of Budget and Analysis for Portland Public Schools. Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operations Officer of the Ashland School District. Ely has a bachelor’s degree in business studies, operations, and project management from Southern New Hampshire University. He earned a master’s in business administration from Southern Oregon University.

Jordan Ely can be reached at: ely@gresham.k12.or.us

Janet Hamada, MSW, has dedicated her efforts to improve the lives of her neighbors for the past three decades. A Chicago native, she moved to Oregon in 2004 with a long history of work in the nonprofit sector, particularly in the areas of services for youth, administration, refugee resettlement, workforce development, community organizing, economic development, and health promotion. Since 2007, Janet is proud to have served as the Executive Director of The Next Door, Inc. a social service organization that strengthens children and families and improves communities in seven counties in the mid-Columbia Gorge region of Oregon and Washington. Janet earned her Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington.

Janet Hamada can be reached at: JanetH@nextdoorinc.org

Rep. Tawna Sanchez grew up in Oregon and has lived in North/ NE Portland, the district that she serves, for the past 23 years. During that time, she helped co-found the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), received a Master’s in Social Work at Portland State University, and has been a leader of international organizations like the Indigenous Women’s Network and the International Indian Treaty Council. A major focus of Rep. Sanchez’s work and advocacy has been in the areas of domestic violence as well as child welfare and addiction and recovery services on both state and local levels. As Chair of the House Human Services Committee, Representative Sanchez continues to work for reforms in the Department of Human Services and making our criminal justice system more humane.  In her own life, Rep. Sanchez has helped raise more than 18 foster kids.

Rep. Sanchez can be reached at: Rep.TawnaSanchez@oregonlegislature.gov

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