- Upcoming meeting
- get involved
- Black Lives / Diversity matters
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past meetings
- April 2023
- 12/1/22 Dana Haynes
- September 2022 - Hear from our local candidates
- August 2022 - Standing up to the Supreme Court
- July 7: Our Featured Speaker - you
- June 2, 2022 How do we govern well?
- April 2022 - CD6 forum
- March 3, 2022 - Washington County candidates
- February 2022 - K-12 public education: Build Back Better
- January 2022 Healthcare
- past meeting notes
- July 2 meeting
- MAY 7 - FESTIVAL OF THE LAST MINUTE
- May 2021 - Eitan Hersh - Politics is for Power
- covid -19 resources
- WHO WE ARE
To introduce myself , I am posting a longer version of the statement I wrote to run as a delegate for the National Democratic Convention. Thank you - Carol Greenough
I hesitated to run for this position because I support the diversity goals of the DPO and I am a late-middle aged white woman. But I have spent my life hearing others’ stories. I want to participate in the convention to echo their lives. Many of these people would never think of asking to be a representative so I hope to carry their voices.
When my African American grandson lived with me, I learned the day to day vigilance that a young black male has to live with in our society. My goal is that my great-grandsons won’t have to experience the same thing.
When it took almost a year to obtain Medicaid and Developmental Disabilities services for my brother with Down Syndrome, I realized that many people with fewer resources would give up before obtaining needed help.
After fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ people ever since the days of Lon Mabon, I watched my daughter and her wife change their marriage date so that they wouldn’t risk losing the chance to marry because of Trump.
As I cared for my husband through eight years of two kinds of stage four cancer, I learned about the power of the human spirit but also the strengths and frustrations of our current medical system and the financial burden placed on family caregivers.
In my professional life, I have worked as a community/clinical psychologist primarily in towns and rural areas in Oregon and Alaska. My work has been in mental health centers, schools, and working with clients of Vocational Rehabilitation and Social Security Disability. I have seen the devastation of a man who couldn’t read as plywood mills closed - depriving him of a well paying job and ripping his family from the middle class. I have been witness to the inter generational trauma of so many indigenous people. I have cheered the woman who has stopped the generational cycle of child abuse by standing up to domestic violence. I have sat with young people in despair and helped them find hope.
I have for years run my own business and understand the challenges of being a small businessperson.
I commercially fished for several years and know how a demanding job such as this or timber work shapes a person’s self concept and self esteem - and how devastating the loss of that can be.
I currently serve on the Washington County Behavioral Health Council and was a member of the Student Success Act development team for Tigard Tualatin School District.
I turned to political involvement because I realized that a strong positive government could enable changes in life circumstances of the people I worked with. In 2004 I developed the first PCP training for WashCo Dems and trained over 100 PCP’s in the first year. I continue to work as a Neighborhood Leader, PCP, and House District Leader in HD37.
After serving as the Tualatin-Sherwood group leader for the Obama campaign in 2012, I helped co-found East Washington County Democrats as a way to keep volunteers involved. We continue to meet monthly and provide programs that bring policy makers together to talk about policy, neighbors together to share community and voters together to encourage voting and activism. In these two roles - as chair of East WashCo Dems and House District leader, I helped turn two representative seats from red to blue as we elected Rachel Prusak and Courtney Neron to our legislature.
I have spent countless hours in the legislature testifying and talking to legislators because policy change is the reason I am involved in politics.
I hope I have a chance to speak with the voices of the multitude of people that echo in my head during these hard times. I am a progressive because that is the only way that all people can thrive. We have so far to go.
I hesitated to run for this position because I support the diversity goals of the DPO and I am a late-middle aged white woman. But I have spent my life hearing others’ stories. I want to participate in the convention to echo their lives. Many of these people would never think of asking to be a representative so I hope to carry their voices.
When my African American grandson lived with me, I learned the day to day vigilance that a young black male has to live with in our society. My goal is that my great-grandsons won’t have to experience the same thing.
When it took almost a year to obtain Medicaid and Developmental Disabilities services for my brother with Down Syndrome, I realized that many people with fewer resources would give up before obtaining needed help.
After fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ people ever since the days of Lon Mabon, I watched my daughter and her wife change their marriage date so that they wouldn’t risk losing the chance to marry because of Trump.
As I cared for my husband through eight years of two kinds of stage four cancer, I learned about the power of the human spirit but also the strengths and frustrations of our current medical system and the financial burden placed on family caregivers.
In my professional life, I have worked as a community/clinical psychologist primarily in towns and rural areas in Oregon and Alaska. My work has been in mental health centers, schools, and working with clients of Vocational Rehabilitation and Social Security Disability. I have seen the devastation of a man who couldn’t read as plywood mills closed - depriving him of a well paying job and ripping his family from the middle class. I have been witness to the inter generational trauma of so many indigenous people. I have cheered the woman who has stopped the generational cycle of child abuse by standing up to domestic violence. I have sat with young people in despair and helped them find hope.
I have for years run my own business and understand the challenges of being a small businessperson.
I commercially fished for several years and know how a demanding job such as this or timber work shapes a person’s self concept and self esteem - and how devastating the loss of that can be.
I currently serve on the Washington County Behavioral Health Council and was a member of the Student Success Act development team for Tigard Tualatin School District.
I turned to political involvement because I realized that a strong positive government could enable changes in life circumstances of the people I worked with. In 2004 I developed the first PCP training for WashCo Dems and trained over 100 PCP’s in the first year. I continue to work as a Neighborhood Leader, PCP, and House District Leader in HD37.
After serving as the Tualatin-Sherwood group leader for the Obama campaign in 2012, I helped co-found East Washington County Democrats as a way to keep volunteers involved. We continue to meet monthly and provide programs that bring policy makers together to talk about policy, neighbors together to share community and voters together to encourage voting and activism. In these two roles - as chair of East WashCo Dems and House District leader, I helped turn two representative seats from red to blue as we elected Rachel Prusak and Courtney Neron to our legislature.
I have spent countless hours in the legislature testifying and talking to legislators because policy change is the reason I am involved in politics.
I hope I have a chance to speak with the voices of the multitude of people that echo in my head during these hard times. I am a progressive because that is the only way that all people can thrive. We have so far to go.
