Spencer (He/Him)

Spencer (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Born with a big imagination, he creates videos, lesson plans, games, and art that reflects the full breadth of the Black imagination. Creating his own after-school art program for BIPOC youth, he provides resources for young people to express themselves to the fullness of their personhood.

Tara (She/They)

Tara is an indigenous Chamoru who was born and raised on the island of Guam. Her passion for racial and social justice began as a young child during her travels throughout Southeast Asia, North and Central America.  She moved to Portland in 2010 to complete a degree in social work and then pursue further education in community development and social justice. During graduate school, Tara worked as a local barista at Cathedral Coffee for several years, the place where she grew in love for her local community – the St. Johns neighborhood. Her experiences working alongside underserved and underrepresented communities include being a program facilitator and trainer for youth in the Portland Metropolitan area, a community organizer and political advocate with Tearfund USA, as well as a volunteer in houseless services for the past 10 years. In 2020, Tara began working with Do Good Multnomah and eventually helped establish and manage 2 new sheltering programs during the pandemic – a motel shelter and the St. Johns Village. She also was a part of the formation of Do Good’s first DEI committee. During her years working and volunteering in houseless services, Tara became increasingly passionate about empowering others who are already change-makers in their own communities by providing tools, resources, and training. In addition to this lifelong work and passion, Tara enjoys adventuring with her fiancé Kimmy throughout the Pacific Northwest. They have a cat named Snax Boudreaux. In her free time, you can assume that Tara is swimming, climbing, hiking, camping, or curled up on the couch with her family eating nachos and watching a good movie.

Jamila (She/Her)

Jamila (she/her) is a southern raised Black woman who recently relocated to Oregon in 2020. She attended Wesleyan College in Macon, GA, where she earned a Bachelors in English and a Theatre Minor. Jamila has spent the last 15 years working with executive level management in supportive, project management and coaching roles. In addition, she brings her lived experience, humor, love of humanity and her experience facilitating and coaching affinity groups, equity councils and union spaces to RNW. In her downtime, Jamila enjoys reading, Hallmark movies, and traveling.

Jaclyn (She/Her/Ella)

Jaclyn is Chicana and white, and born and raised in Oregon. She has a Bachelor’s in Social Work, Spanish, and Social Justice, as well as a Masters in Social Work in Macro Global Practice, and has spent the last 7 years working with nonprofits and schools in Portland, Boston, and Mexico. These roles have included connecting families and individuals with wraparound services, early childhood home-visiting, culturally specific programming for Latine and Indigenous youth and families, and community engagement. She is grateful for the teachings, support and guidance from friends, family, coworkers, mentors, community members, teachers and ancestors who have helped shape her passion and understanding of equity work. In her space time, Jaclyn enjoys beading and birdwatching.

Brandee (They/She)

Brandee is a first generation Chicana from Denver, CO. When not on desk duty, they work weekends as a licensed massage therapist. It’s here where they are able to merge passion for their craft with their belief that BIPOC deserve equal access to healthcare and bodywork services.

They aim to provide trauma-informed, therapeutic, and accessible bodywork to BIPOC, while educating their clients on ways they can participate in their own somatic healing. When not at work, they spend their time playing the drums, practicing yoga, or relaxing outdoors.

Erion (He/Him)

Erion joins RNW as the co-director of Mediation, and has since created a mediation program for landlords and tenants. His hope is that people can resolve their issues with an open discussion before filing with courts and leaving a final decision in the judges’ hands. Conversely, mediation usually ends with everyone involved having more satisfactory outcomes. Erion has experience in different types of conflict resolution including, victim-offender dialogue, dissolutions, and neighbor to neighbor mediations. In his free time, Erion likes to watch sports and attend comedy shows. 

Ryley (He/Him)

Aloha everyone, my name is Ryley! I was born and raised in Waiʻanae, Hawaiʻi, where I lived for 18 years before I moved to Portland, OR, to pursue my initial passion of architecture and then marketing. Growing up culturally as a kānaka maoli, I understood the importance of resistance against colonialism and fighting for one’s land and people, and the value of advancing racial and social justice. Hawaiʻi all too often, is perceived as the islands of paradise; however, for my people, it is stolen land. And on a daily basis, we fight for our right to exist.

Upon moving to PDX, I continued this work in my roles at the PCC QRC as an Education & Outreach Coordinator, advocating for and supporting high school students through WA county with LGBTQ+ initiatives and at the PSU School of Business, where I assisted in recruitment and retention efforts of QTBIPOC students. In my most recent role, I worked with houseless and foster youth in their transitions towards independence. For the past eight years, I have also enjoyed volunteering with small businesses, orgs, and institutions in providing marketing consultation, as my commitment to building stronger QTBIPOC communities.  

In my free time, I enjoy woodworking, Hawaiian crafting, and playing volleyball, and am currently working to launch a business with my partner within the next year!

Best,

Ryley

Tiana (She/They)

Tiana (she/they) is an aging punk turned spreadsheet manager.  They did entomology research for several years before switching gears and working in caregiving for elders with Alzheimer’s disease and then at an organization which provided services to houseless youth. The internment of their family during WWII provided the framework of how they perceive what reparations and transitional justice should look like for all communities that have been harmed by their government.

Marita (They/Them)

Marita is a Seattle-raised queer Filipinx femme who centers equity, laughter and kindness in their work and life. Marita has worked primarily in non-profit social service organizations for the past 16 years, with a three year stint as an esthetician and makeup artist. They have experienced and witnessed the restorative power of connection, forgiveness, and moving through discomfort to heal harms, and they are energized by helping others in these ways. Marita lives with their cat, Maple, and finds joy on the tennis court and in bodies of water.

Carrie (She/Her)

Carrie (she/her/sometimes Queen) is a Xicana Fat Femme, born in Los Angeles and raised in Portland. Carrie has been working within local fat and queer community for over 10 years and working towards racial liberation since she learned about inequity from a very early age. As a trainer, consultant and facilitator Carrie uses humor and direct communication as key components to making difficult topics more accessible to folks.

Sunsong (They/Them)

Sunsong (They/Them) is a transplant to Portland: Born in Ohio and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. They moved to Portland in December of 1995 immediately from their experience attending Oberlin College. They started life in Portland as performer for Imago Theater; and worked in social services with developmentally disabled adults.  As a queer polyamorous mixed race intersexed person, they bring both lived experience as well as experience from a background working with Target communities to their work, especially in their recent time as an advocate and case manager for houseless youth. They have assisted and co-led trainings on racial and social justice. Before being hired on full time worked as a contractor doing mediations at Resolutions Northwest. They were a past equity informed mediation cohort member and have a dedication to building bridges across communities.

Teri (She/Her)

Teri has been training on topics related to racial and social justice for almost 30 years, and she has been a professional facilitator for about 15 years. Her work as a consultant, trainer, and facilitator at Resolutions Northwest and in private practice supports individuals and organizations to develop the will and capacity to bring their outcomes in line with their values, particularly around racial equity. As a white bisexual woman who grew up here in Portland, Teri is always up against her own learning edge in working for racial justice. She draws inspiration from her fabulous colleagues and from her practice of aikido, a Japanese martial art.

Maria (She/Her)

Maria’s passion for ending cycles of harm began as a young child. She saw how individuals, families, communities and systems repeat unlearned and unhealed lessons, which leads to cycles of harm. Life led her to Restorative Justice (RJ) and the philosophy has become a way of life more than a job. Maria has been a volunteer for the Dept. of Corrections and the Oregon Youth Authority since 2008 as a Restorative Justice Group Facilitator and as a Dialogue Facilitator for serious and violent harms. She completed her MS in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University in 2008 and joined Resolutions Northwest in 2011. She has taught college and high school classes in RJ and has been a trainer, dialogue and circle facilitator for youth, families, adults and organizations for over 12 years. She most appreciates the constant learning, unlearning and relationship building that is essential to dismantling the sticky webs of oppression.

“You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” Howard Zinn

Jamila (She/Her)

Jamila is a Somali writer, educator, and community organizer currently living in Portland, Oregon. As a former public-school teacher, she is a passionate youth advocate and is invested in supporting schools on their equity journeys.