I’m thrilled to announce that Michelle J. DePass will be joining Meyer Memorial Trust as our new president and chief executive officer. After an extensive search that brought us a pool of outstanding candidates, Michelle rose to the top because of her broad experience and career-long commitment to equity and social justice. On April 30, she replaces Doug Stamm, who has guided Meyer through enormous growth, innovation and change for 16 years.
Michelle was an early leader in the environmental justice movement, and throughout her career she’s been an influential voice for equity and social justice in the governmental, academic, philanthropic and nonprofit arenas. She served in the Obama administration as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as a program officer at the Ford Foundation and, most recently, as dean of the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at The New School in New York, inspiring and educating the next generation of leaders.
For nearly two decades, Michelle has sought out and excelled in roles where she can make a difference and shift the power dynamic to improve life for people of color, women, indigenous peoples and low-income communities. Now, she brings that dedication to Meyer, where she’ll lead the charge forward on the equity journey we began under Doug’s leadership.
Here’s how she explained why a New York-based national leader with roots in academia, public service, philanthropy, civil rights and the environment was drawn to this opportunity in Oregon: “Meyer Memorial Trust believes that everyone in Oregon deserves to live in a safe place, that the educational experience that we provide for our children will provide a world of opportunity, that the environment surrounding us should be a source of strength and health, and that our communities sustain us with a sense of belonging and possibility, regardless of race or class,” Michelle said. “For this to happen and make Oregon an equitable place, we must dismantle systemic oppression and have the discipline to ask ourselves over and over again: does this decision remove barriers or reinforce them? Together, I believe Meyer’s dedicated board, committed staff and fellows, and innovative grantees can pull down those barriers. That’s why I am joining the foundation, to expand opportunity by eliminating barriers.”
Then she added: “I do not want our communities to simply be resilient; I want them to thrive.”
Michelle has strong family ties to Oregon: Her husband, Joshua Paulson, is a civil rights and defense attorney from western Oregon and a graduate of Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis. In our conversations, she’s expressed a particular interest in bridging the painful divide that exists between our urban and rural populations.
“The educational, cultural and political divides between Portland and the Willamette Valley on the one hand and the rest of the state on the other are vast,” she said “If we can begin to close these divides in Oregon, perhaps we can do so nationally as well.”
She plans to relocate with her family to Portland; her first day is set for April 30. Doug will remain with Meyer in an advisory capacity for up to six months while Michelle settles in. We are sincerely appreciative of Doug's significant contributions to the Trust during his 16-year tenure, and we will build upon the great work that he led.
Michelle’s appointment culminates a broad-based national search that began last summer. Through The 360 Group, partnering with Murphy, Symonds & Stowell of Portland, Meyer received an sizeable response to the CEO position; a diverse pool of more than 140 candidates applied, about 50 of them from Oregon, and applicants represented many types of equity perspectives and identities as well as leadership across private industry, public health, academia and the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors.
We look forward to the fresh perspective, innovative spirit and energy Michelle will kindle in Meyer’s work to create a more flourishing, equitable Oregon. Please join us in welcoming Michelle to Meyer, and read her full bio to learn more about Michelle and her experience.
— Charles
Michelle J. DePass becomes Meyer's new president and chief executive officer, succeeding Doug Stamm on April 30. Photo credit: Michael Rubenstein Photography
A brand-new year begins, filled with possibility and change.
At Meyer, we are excited about the transitions before us as we prepare to welcome a new chief executive officer. On the one hand, we recognize that foundation leadership transitions can be times of vulnerability, for foundations and their nonprofit partners alike. On the other hand, we also know that leadership change is an opportunity for fresh perspectives, deepening commitments and continual growth. We are primed to make the most of these opportunities to advance our work toward a flourishing and equitable Oregon!
Meyer has been through a lot of change over the past several years, and you’ve been right there with us. We now have our portfolios and grant programs solidly in place, an excellent staff, and trustees who are capably stewarding our strategic direction. Our trustees are excited by the opportunity to bring on the next CEO to advance our strong equity-focused vision. By all accounts, we are in a great position to launch this next step of our journey with confidence and stability in Meyer’s role as funder, partner, convener and leader. Our trustees and staff are and will remain deeply committed to our portfolio areas, our partnerships and our equity journey. And our voice will continue to get stronger in our work to help make Oregon a more equitable state for everyone who lives here.
We thank you for your ongoing support, and we hope to soon be announcing our next CEO!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to talk about Drupal 8, the tool we used to build this website. What on earth is a tech article doing on Meyer's site? Well, we believe in openness and knowledge sharing, including on the tech side.
When we built our last Drupal site, we shared the full recipe of all the modules and themes we used, and it was quite popular. We planned to do this again with this site, but developing on the Drupal 8 bleeding edge meant using early solutions rather than the best ones, making that less useful or even misleading. We still want to share knowledge, and I decided to focus on an oft neglected area, namely admin modules. Here are some useful modules that site owners and maintainers love having but all too often don't get.
This module automatically generates URL/path aliases for content (nodes, taxonomy terms, users). It builds the URL from the title so that you don't have to manually type it, including leaving out noise words such as and and the (configurable). It also follows rules you set up that help you make URLs more descriptive, for example automatically adding the /news/ part of this article's URL. You can see how closely this page's URL aligns with this article's title. This allows you to have URL aliases such as /news/amazing-news instead of ugly ones such as /node/123, and it removes hassle and human error from other approaches. A usable site really can't do without this module, and this one is usually included in new sites.
The image shows an example taken from the edit screen of this article.
This module lets you automatically provide structured metadata, aka "meta tags," about a website, which helps with SEO. It also helps you to control how shared content appears on social media (e.g. by using Open Graph Protocol for Facebook and Twitter Cards for Twitter) by letting you configure how your content should be interpreted by those services, including drilling down by content type if needed. This module is a tad cumbersome because of all it lets you do and it could use some better default values, but it is vital if you care about search engine ranking and social media control and therefore it is regularly included in new sites.
The image shows an example of the Metatag options for Twitter as associated with a particular content type, namely news articles.
I've yet to receive a site or be involved in a vendor-built site that was delivered with a module like this one installed and that baffles me. It lets you add redirects for incorrect URLs (e.g. I've added a redirect to fix issues caused by a newsletter URL typo) and for an aliased URL (e.g. redirect common URL guesses/mistakes to the intended page). It removes case errors, tracks redirect usage and errors, helps you easily fix 404 errors and helps in a number of other ways with reducing URL noise, which in turn helps with SEO, efficiency, errors and more. Alternatives to this module usually require risky .htaccesss changes or, in our case, cumbersome settings file changes. This is faster, is easier to maintain, gives you some awesome power and flexibility, has plenty of useful reporting and is doing so much for you out of the box that I think it is a must have, particularly since it is also the D8 successor to the awesome Global Redirect module.
This module shows site maintainers the differences between revisions in their content revision history for any given piece of content (assuming a content type where you have revisions turned on). At the time of writing, this module was still in RC status, but it is backend only, works very well out of the box and is also configurable.
The image shows an example of revision differences for this article being highlighted.
Those of you who have been patiently waiting for a D8 version, then this is the replacement you're looking for. This module improves the default Drupal administration menu at the top of your site by transforming it into a mouse-over drop-down menu, meaning much faster access to all administration pages. No more multiple clicks and page loads to get to some admin screens. It's really a must-have for modern sites. Note: Many folks use theAdminimal Theme to improve the overall administrative backend (we do), and if you do too, then you'll also need the Adminimal Admin Toolbar module to fix a number of CSS issues.
The image shows an example of menu mouse-over going three levels down. Note that the blue color is ours, not the module's (indicates production, see more about the Environment Indicator module below).
I've only just added this module to our site, and it was love at first sight for our Communicorns. Site maintainers are tired of the default method of adding links from a WYSIWYG editor, namely: open another tab, find that page, copy the URL, come back into their editor sesion and paste the URL, while also remembering to remove the domain part of the URL to ensure it's a relative link. It would be so much easier if there was a friendly interface with an autocomplete field to help you find links to content on your site — be it for a page, a file or even an image — and which saves relative links automatically. That's what this module does and why site owners love it.
The image shows an example of the Linkit popup where typing the word Housing has revealed loads of matching pages, images and files.
Site builders are probably more familiar with Node Clone, but the old module is currently either dead or dormant. This module was added by a team that had to rewrite it for their own D8 needs and decided to freely share their work. Thanks folks! It allows you to clone existing content, even complex content. I could clone one of our involved Portfolio pages as easily as an article. Site maintainers always want this kind of functionality, but strangely they rarely get it. And why not? They are plug and play and usually have little or no configuration. Add it and it just works.
The image shows an example of us cloning this article where you can see that all fields are being cloned.
This module simplifies the ever-so-long modules page with vertical tabs and improves the search features on that page. It also adds useful search capability to the available updates page and the permissions page. This is only for site developers, but it still gives you enough UX improvement to always have it.
The image shows an example from the modules page, where you can see how the list is compressed, the search filter and options for the search. For more examples visit the Module Filter page.
This is a terrific module for anyone with a professional site tech workflow that includes the usual development, test and live versions of your site. Have you ever accidentally changed your live site instead of your test one or some similar mishap? It's easy to do. Our web host provides dev, test and live sites automatically, but I still want to work locally so I now have four environments to get confused between. The problem I had before was having several browser tabs open for each site as I worked on a problem, and they all looked identical and had identical favicons on the browser tabs. It was a struggle to find the tab I wanted, and then mistakes were easy to make. This module helps with cutting that down by giving you some visual cues for logged in admins about which version of your site you're on. Each environment has a different colored admin menu bar and a site name (I imaginatively named mine local, Development, Test and Live). Additionally it sets an optional overlay over the favicon in your browser tab with the first letter of whatever you named your environment and the color you specified for that environment. This helps you find the right tab quicker because when I look at my tabs I can see at a glance which environment that tab is for. Further I have a grey version of our favicon set for our admin theme so I can differentiate frontend pages from backend ones in addition to the above. This module is super helpful to devs and admins alike, really to anyone with access to more than one environment.
The image shows how my four environments are given different colors and how they appear on tabs, including having an admin favicon, plus the ability to switch between environments that reinforces the color choices (I chose not to include my localhost site as it only affects me).
At the time of writing, this module was still in beta, but it's admin only and I have had few problems with it. I also love it to bits, and so do our Communicorns. It speeds up getting to Drupal admin screens even more than the Admin Toolbar moduleby letting you navigate between admin screens without using a mouse. You type alt and d and a popup appears with a search field, then you start typing and an autocompleter will show you all the available admin screens that match your text. You can then use arrow keys to navigate to the desired option and press enter to select it. The module allows you to include nonadmin menus too, but so far I haven't needed that. You can watch a short demo video of the Drupal 7 version of the module if you'd like to see it in action.
The image shows an example of the popup where I've typed "add co," and Coffee has shown me all the admin options that match.
Sometimes finding files and images already uploaded to the site is a real pain. Frustrated site owners end up uploading the same image multiple times. This module lets you browse and select from your existing files using a friendly, attractive, mobile-ready interface. You can also upload new files. It makes the experience of finding a file/image so much better.
The image shows the file browser with options to restrict to files that include the word housing sorted by name.
That's it. Let me know of any notable omissions or if you have thoughts about any of the above modules.
The cost of creating affordable housing continues to be a hot topic across the state. Caught between an urgent need to bring tens-of-thousands more permanently affordable units online and a relative trickle of public resources to make affordability possible, developers find themselves in the crosshairs of critics who, understandably, insist that we stretch every public dollar as far as possible.
This month, Meyer will convene more than 150 leaders and experts in real estate development, finance, construction, design and policy to explore genuine opportunities to deliver more housing for less.
The Cost Efficiency Summit will build on Meyer’s past engagement with these issues. In 2014 we convened a group of experts on real estate development, construction, design and finance, and issued a report summarizing more than a year of detailed explorations of the factors driving the cost of affordable housing development and possible ways to bring those costs down.
The report illustrates that many cost-related challenges are out of our hands. The price of land, the shortage of skilled labor, and the complexity of publicly funded projects set some parameters no one can ignore or work around. At the same time, there are some decisions that could be made differently, so long as we don’t lose sight of other important goals such as long-term durability, lifecycle costs and help for tenants with low incomes or special needs.
The discussion is not a simple one, but we hope to help create a larger shared framework to evaluate these tradeoffs. The summit is built around a series of wide-ranging but grounded conversations, focused on specific problem-solving strategies for getting the most out of our collective investment in affordable housing. We also look forward to sharing the progress so far (and lessons learned) from five pilot projects that Meyer has supported to test new approaches to lowering costs.
We will also share what we learn from this Cost Efficiency Summit later this year. The afternoon plenary session on Friday, January 19 event will be streamed live via Facebook (feel free to follow us, too!) and will be available afterward for viewing there.
Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio endeavours to center equity as a catalyst in philanthropy to address environmental disparities in Oregon and support work that directly benefits under-resourced and historically marginalized populations in rural and urban communities.
Recently, Inside Philanthropy examined the portfolio's approach to grantmaking and the environment in coverage of Meyer's 2017 Portfolio Grant Awards:
The foundation recently announced its second round of grants since launching a new Healthy Environment portfolio, which places emphasis on “underresourced and historically marginalized populations in rural and urban communities” in its funding for the state’s environment.
Before the new program was unveiled, the foundation was giving a lot to rivers and watersheds, and that’s still a priority. A lot of key Northwest green groups are still on the docket. But Meyer points out that in the 2017 round of green grants—totaling $3.9 million—every grantee has a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, with a half-dozen asking the foundation for training and support in developing them.
Read Inside Philanthropy’s full exploration of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio’s approach to grantmaking and the environment here.
I began my Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellowship with Meyer Memorial Trust in September 2015 when the Healthy Environment portfolio was newly formed. Two years later, I am at the end of my fellowship. In work experience terms, this was a short time. In grant period terms, this was a long time. As I transition, I have been asked to provide my outgoing thoughts. In homage to my work at a foundation, I am providing my reflections in a very philanthropic final report format.
Marcelo Bonta
11/1/2017
Final Fellowship Report
File #HE 914152111617
Were your goals achieved?
When I started my fellowship, I was really excited about achieving the following personal goals:
Contributing to the creation of an effective environmental giving program with equity at its core, and
Gaining a deeper understanding and awareness of the obstacles that are preventing environmental programs/foundations from effectively advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and to discover solutions.
Yes, my goals were achieved.
To the first goal, I believe Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio is advancing DEI effectively and, in fact, has emerged as a leading foundation program at the nexus of equity and environmental protection. The program still has much room to grow, but it has many elements that other private foundation programs across the country should replicate. For example, Meyer’s program supports environmental justice, DEI capacity building, general operating support, multi-year grants and diverse collaborations. It pays organizations for their advice and time and requires a commitment to DEI, equity outcome(s) and growth over time. It also has non-grantmaking activities to support in partnership with the movement of Healthy Environment grantees, such as a DEI capacity building workshop.
Regarding the second goal, I discovered that white privilege, trustees that “don’t get it,” and foundations (and philanthropy as a whole) steeped (and stuck) in dominant culture norms and systems are the top issues preventing environmental philanthropic institutions from advancing on DEI. Some solutions to address these challenges that I experienced at Meyer are to add diverse staff and trustees who have equity skills and experience. Also, including ongoing equity training to support personal growth and transformation helps enormously. At Meyer, we started with racial and LGBTQ equity training. Meyer has also been committed to improving and changing internal and programmatic systems.
Describe the most important way you contributed toward Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio’s vision of “nurturing a resilient natural environment, while supporting the well-being of Oregon’s diverse cultures and communities.”
Helping develop the Healthy Environment portfolio and its broader programmatic work has been one of the most fun and stimulating parts of the fellowship. With a small team, I co-created Meyer’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Spectrum Tool to help organizations assess the state of their DEI efforts. I also helped to influence creation of the Willamette River Initiative’s DEI goal to guide the program and its grantees toward DEI efficacy. Drawing from my experience at the Center for Diversity and the Environment, I supported and recommended the allocation of funds toward DEI capacity building, especially staff and board training and organizational strategy development. Meyer sees these investments as ways to deliver “more bang” for its bucks.
Although I really enjoyed the co-creation of and contribution to these achievements, the most invigorating experience has been as one of three team members discussing, analyzing and making important decisions and funding recommendations, while grounding our process in equity. I felt our small team had a healthy, inclusive approach to listening to understand, learning from each other, truly seeing each other, and making decisions on consensus. This is the work, the essence of DEI — often beautifully messy and especially uncomfortable. We created an inclusive environment where I could bring my full self.
Did you encounter any opportunities or challenges with your experience that impacted your ability to achieve your goals? If yes, briefly describe the opportunities or challenges you experienced and how you responded to them.
As the first cohort (aka the guinea pigs!) of a new fellowship coinciding with implementing a new strategy at Meyer, inconsistencies and missteps were expected. More important is the response and commitment to ironing out the kinks, listening to understand and improving, which Philanthropy Northwest and Meyer have been doing.
It’s been my experience that these organizations are committed to listening to groups and communities they serve and to do their best to respond accordingly. This approach is a key skill in DEI work. The first step is the commitment to respond (i.e., authentic intent). The next step and ongoing work is how you respond effectively so that the community you serve continues to benefit and receive higher value over time (i.e., tending to impact). Equity work is never a perfect process, but your commitment can be perfected.
Additionally, two aspects of my experience made all the difference: (1) working at a foundation that is walking its talk on equity and (2) having a cohort of fellows to lean on for support. To be honest, I don’t believe I would have stayed the full two years if I was not placed at Meyer and not part of the Momentum Fellowship. I am in a time and place in my career where I yearn to bring my authentic self to everything I do. A core piece of who I am and what I bring to the table is my equity lens. I need to work at a place that is not only open to my lens and deep passion for equity but can respond accordingly. Meyer has provided that space for me, for which I am extremely grateful. In addition, we are at a time and place in society where communities facing disparities suffer the consequences from every delay or excuse we give ourselves to not do DEI work. There are deep, impactful negative consequences when we do not act. These communities do not have the luxury of time. Over the past two decades, I have been fortunate to gain an incredible amount of experience and wisdom in the equity realm. I need an atmosphere where I can push myself and make a difference on a daily basis. Meyer has been the right organization at the right time for me.
As for the fellowship, participating with a cohort of people who have similar life experiences and entering the foundation world as newbies together has been life-giving for me in so many ways. The relationships have provided me the support and courage to stand on my two feet when there were times that I just wanted to curl up in the corner in the fetal position. I have made friendships that will last throughout my career.
Have there been any significant changes in your organization that impacted you during your fellowship?
I joined Meyer as the foundation was experiencing significant changes. Meyer was transparent with me regarding the unpredictability and growing pains that are inherent with change work. This is the type of atmosphere I prefer and in which I thrive. In the past two years, Meyer has hired more than a dozen new staff and added four of six trustees. Currently, we are experiencing a CEO transition, and three new fellows have joined.
The impact of these changes has all been positive and is part of the transformation process for groups that are truly committed to DEI. These changes were expected and have impacted me in a good way.
How will this experience affect you and your work moving forward? What are your next steps?
This experience has helped me hone my equity lens in relation to foundations. Experiencing first-hand the challenges and opportunities of change work has been invaluable as I transition to consulting with and coaching other foundations in this process.
As for my next steps, I will be joining The Raben Group as a principal, building out their DEI consulting arm. I will continue to focus on the environmental movement, including supporting environmental foundations in their overall DEI capacity building and as a program officer consultant. Also, I am starting a blog in the new year to support groups and change agents that seek guidance on the “how to”of DEI work.
My career mission remains the same: to create a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive environmental movement. Meyer Memorial Trust’s Healthy Environment portfolio and Philanthropy Northwest’s Momentum Fellowship are two such programs that our advancing that mission, and I feel honored to participate in the launch and growth of both. I especially feel privileged to work at a foundation at the beginning stages of creating an environmental program with equity at its foundation, which I foresee as becoming more commonplace as our society and the environmental movement shifts, adapts and evolves to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse society, which will ultimately lead to the successful protection of our planet.
The Housing Opportunities portfolio recently hosted a panel presentation and discussion among three nonprofit partners of Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) work on manufactured housing and our trustees to provide awareness and context for why Meyer works in this space.
The hour-long presentation was a compilation of people’s stories, pictures and data focused on the manufactured housing repair and replacement work these organizations do to help preserve some of Oregon’s most “naturally occurring” affordable housing, housing that doesn’t require government subsidies to retain its affordability.
The presentation, informative as well as emotional, caused me to reflect on what is being done beyond Meyer's effort to support manufactured housing replacement both locally and nationally.
There’s no dispute that manufactured housing has an important role in the affordable housing market in Oregon, accounting for nearly 8.2 percent of the overall housing stock. In some counties — especially rural counties — it is a much larger percentage of the housing stock. Manufactured housing offers more low-income rural individuals the opportunity to buy an affordable home.
However, many more could be served with access to manufactured homeownership, yet are unable due to specific barriers. The lack of access to fair and competitive financing (conventional mortgages) and lending policies that don’t lend themselves to manufactured housing present clear barriers, as do state manufactured housing titling policies.
Titling of manufactured homes is based on state law and thus varies from state to state. Some manufactured homes are titled as real property by default and offer a definite advantage for owners, while others are titled as chattel or personal property. Oregon uses both titling descriptions, and depending on where a home is located or placed, the property description (fee owned property), and the date a home was manufactured, they can be titled as either conventional or chattel. There are notable disadvantages of chattel titling and associated financing:
Shorter loan terms – on average 20 years;
Higher interest rates;
Fewer rights when in default;
Limited pool of lenders/reduced opportunities to shop for competitive loans; and
Chattel mortgage lenders do not provide ample opportunities for manufactured homebuyers to comparison shop for best loans prior to purchasing the home, whereas conventional lenders do
Manufactured homes titled as chattel offer an owner little if any benefits associated with homeownership, specifically the ability to earn equity, even though anecdotal evidence proves many manufactured homes are in essence real property and just as permanent as traditional homes once they are placed on private land and the axles are removed. Today the practice of titling manufactured homes as chattel is being challenged, and financial institutions are shifting toward encouraging financing of manufactured homes with conventional mortgages.
Another “roundabout” way to increase conventional financing for manufactured housing lies in the finance industry’s willingness to increase the pool of lenders who originate chattel mortgages. The increase of chattel mortgages increases the number of folks who can buy a manufactured home. With new lending policies supporting conversions of chattel loans to conventional mortgages, the number of manufactured homes financed with conventional mortgages increases.
As more lenders originate chattel loans, more individuals have access to these products. A demonstrative change in finance practices provides occasions for chattel mortgages to convert to conventional mortgages for manufactured homes set on foundations or slabs. The Oregon Housing and Community Services Department has committed to making its single-family financing program available to manufactured homes affixed on “acceptable foundations.” The push for more commitment to serve rural communities in this space is evident on a national level as well.
The agency that oversees the nation’s large federal mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has urged both to meet their obligations or their “duty to serve” three underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing. The new law, aptly titled Duty to Serve, has been in place since January 2017 and requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create plans that develop a secondary market for mortgages that serve very low-, low- and moderate-income families. Each has proposed Underserved Markets Plans, plans that describe activities they will undertake from 2018 to 2020 to meet their obligations in each market. This is a huge win for rural manufactured housing and could not have been accomplished without the support of many key players.
Yet, there’s more work to do.
Duty to Serve only serves manufactured homeowners with homes titled as real property, and therefore Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will invest only in states that title manufactured homes as such. There’s an effort through the Uniform Manufactured Housing Act to standardize titling of manufactured homes to real property nationally. Oregon is well on its way to reforming its titling laws, which will increase investments in manufactured homes for the many Oregonians who need an affordable and safe place to call home.
In addition to financing/titling barriers, high poverty rates and lower incomes endemic to rural Oregon exacerbate issues surrounding manufactured homeownership. In 2015, Oregon’s rural median incomes were around 20 percent lower than the national average and its urban counterparts while poverty rates in rural Oregon were higher than those in Oregon metropolitan areas. Both poverty and income issues alone are enough to impact an individual’s ability to access affordable homeownership. Antiquated financing and titling policies makes the quest nearly unimaginable for many rural Oregonians.
An article published in The Atlantic magazine in 2015 caught my attention. It was titled “Rural America's Silent Housing Crisis.” But what kept me reading wasn’t the title, it was the last six resounding words of the subtitle: ”Accounting for only 20 percent of the population, residents of more isolated areas struggle to find a safe, affordable place to live — and to make anyone else care.”
I am excited to join Meyer, an organization that I view as an influential leader in integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into Oregon’s environmental movement. My previous experience was working on the ground, “in the trenches,” so to speak. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nonprofits we support — and how to make an impact as a funder.
I hope to grapple with some of the complicated issues around environmentalism, privilege and systemic discrimination and talk about how to address them. I am especially sensitive to issues of rural communities, given my work organizing rural and Native communities most impacted by industrial agriculture. I’m also curious about how our diversity, equity and inclusion work can lift up groups we support and increase their impact in the diverse communities they serve.
As one of the 10 Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows, I am humbled and amazed at the depth and variety of experience of my fellow fellows. This second cohort of fellows all happen to be female, and all are women of color. Just looking at us, one wouldn’t necessarily know that. Questions like “Who looks white? Who is white? What kinds of privilege does that offer? How does this show up in philanthropy?” are part of the conversations we need to be having as we learn about our new work in this sector.
Since joining Meyer in September, I have hit the ground running. I appreciate the kind guidance of my Healthy Environment colleagues and the wealth of opportunities available through Meyer and Philanthropy Northwest, including a Skills for New Practitioners training in Anchorage in early November. I also appreciate the expertise and counsel of my predecessor, Marcelo Bonta, whose time at Meyer overlapped with mine for about two months.
I am already grateful for the opportunities and access of the fellowship. I attended a conference a few weeks ago that was of personal interest, Animal Grantmakers, where I met old colleagues and made new connections. I hope to continue the conversation throughout my tenure at Meyer about how the issues of climate change, food systems, pollution and environmental justice intersect and how I can be part of making a difference on these and other issues in my new role at Meyer.
That’s the question we keep asking ourselves as the first cohort of Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows completes their placement at Meyer. In their time with us, Sharon Wade Ellis, Katherine Porras and Marcelo Bonta have brought much to Meyer: great ideas, passion for the mission, sharp thinking, curiosity and a willingness to roll up their sleeves and do the work.
We each wanted to mention a few individual highlights ...
From Theresa
Sharon joined the Housing Opportunities team as we were busy with several Affordable Housing Initiative grant opportunities. She conducted due diligence on two housing grants in her first weeks, which was good learning for her and a tremendous relief to the team. Beyond that, she has contributed to discussion and planning around several of our new procedures and conducted research that helped shape our thinking and strategy around rural manufactured housing. Equally important is Sharon’s commitment to and enthusiasm for Meyer’s mission to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the organization and with our nonprofit partners. She has modeled our values there and raised equity concerns effectively in her work at Meyer. Her interest in social justice work clearly came through in some of her blog postings on Meyer’s website, including reflections about what she has experienced and learned about diversity, equity and inclusion — or the lack thereof. I am confident she will bring her developed equity lens to her next position and help inform the equity conversation there.
From Jill
Marcelo’s two years with the Healthy Environment team could not have been timed better. During the first year, a big focus of our work was developing the portfolio framework, our goals and outcomes. He brought sharp analysis and solid experience from his previous nonprofit work in the environmental movement. He was a key thought-partner in creating the framework that now guides our work. Outside the Healthy Environment Team, he worked as part of a cross-department team to develop Meyer’s DEI Spectrum Tool and consider equity in organizational communications, and he contributed to the ongoing development of Meyer’s equity work. In addition, he helped the Healthy Environment Team learn how to hit pause on tackling the to-do list and to also consider how were were feeling about our work as well as our collaborative approach to doing it. No doubt he will continue to do great work in his new role with The Raben Group, where he will be a principal focusing on building out their DEI consulting arm, with an emphasis on the environment. This sounds like a perfect next step for him given his passion for this work and his deep expertise.
From Rukayiah
Kat joined Meyer’s investment team in time to help us audit and formulate a process for monitoring all our investment manager fees. She saved Meyer a lot of money! She became the go-to person for manager questions and worked closely with me to get the necessary answers. She also became an investment manager contract expert and reviewed all our current and new contracts to make sure the terms are favorable. She helped us plan and execute our 2016 Roundtable, which is a conference for all our investment managers, including international, to meet and discuss pertinent issues around our investments. She has also done a review of our main investment policy documents to ensure consistency of language and message. She dove into Meyer’s equity activities, including helping to plan equi-teas where we inform and discuss current issues. I am excited to see where her talents take her next and know she will be valuable to any team.
We are grateful for the many contributions Sharon, Kat and Marcelo made to Meyer in their two short years as Momentum Fellows. They all are incredibly talented and will no doubt continue to do great work. Although we are sad to see them leave, we are excited about their next steps.
After 12 years of working with homeless and low-income families in the Pacific Northwest, I am excited to join the Housing Opportunities portfolio team as the Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellow. The fellowship, developed by Philanthropy Northwest, is designed to prepare professionals from underrepresented communities for successful careers in the philanthropic sector. Over the next two years, I will be collaborating with and learning from my portfolio teammates through every aspect of the grantmaking process, and I look forward to meeting with many of the grantees and community partners along the way.
I am also excited to bring my experience and perspective as a direct service provider. I have managed a wide array of programs for low-income and homeless families and individuals. I began my career as a counselor at a shelter for homeless and refugee youths. Most recently, I managed several site-based and scattered-site transitional housing and rent assistance programs, established a resource center for the homeless community in Southwest Portland, and oversaw the conversion of a 20-year housing program from transitional to permanent supportive housing. I have also developed trainings on housing market navigation and landlord/tenant rights, collaborated with community agencies to provide Rent Well education, and advocated for low-income renters in both private market and governmental settings.
The challenges that low-income and homeless families face in Portland’s housing market have left an indelible mark on me, and I look forward to giving a voice to that experience as we work toward more equitable housing together.
When I’m not working, I volunteer with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and various community art projects in Portland. I also love to travel, read, watch hummingbirds in my backyard, hike, forage for mushrooms, explore the Oregon outdoors and bake when I can. So please share your favorite recipes or hiking spots when you see me!
