I developed the Chef Fellowship program at Zenger Farm, an educational urban farm in Portland, Oregon. I manage evaluation, partnerships, participants, and programming centering around Zenger Farm's Community Kitchen. This includes coordinating with Community Chefs to lead partner workshops and engage in workforce development opportunities. I manage the commissary kitchen space use, upkeep, and maintenance. I manage all aspects of Zenger Farm's newly relaunched Community Chef Cohort which supports women and non-binary folks of color launching food businesses by offering leadership opportunities, creating avenues for small business education, and providing support in growth toward economic opportunities. I develop partnerships with individuals and organizations to lead training sessions for cohort members and hold space for networking strategic relationships. The Community Kitchen Program Manager is a highly organized independent worker, excited about women-led food business, racial/cultural/gender and sociological equity, micro-entrepreneurship, and feeding our communities.

PositionThe Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator works closely with all Zenger Farm programs to support volunteerism, events, and creates an inclusive space to facilitate community connections. The position is responsible for coordinating volunteers and planning engagement opportunities, including community events at the farm to engage our neighbors and people experiencing food insecurity in order to build community capacity. The objective of our community engagement strategy is to increase food access, elevate community voices, build support, and strengthen connectedness in our neighborhood.

The Community Engagement and Community Chef Program Coordinator works closely with all Zenger Farm programs to support community-led programming and general community outreach. The position is responsible for coordinating volunteers and planning engagement opportunities. The objective of our Community Engagement program is to increase food access, elevate community voices, and strengthen connectedness in our neighborhood within communities experiencing food insecurity in Portland. The Coordinator also works with the Community Chef Program to support women of color leaders who nourish and strengthen communities with food, knowledge, and solidarity, so that we can shape a just food system together. The coordinator works closely to support Chefs through their development, logistics, and workshop planning for cooking demonstrations. Through meetings and training sessions, this position works to provide a caring, supportive, and open relationship with Chefs to develop and uplift their leadership.

Community Engagement & Food Access Interns work with a team of staff, volunteers and community leaders to facilitate community engagement and educational activities focused on improving equitable access to nutritious foods in East Portland. Activities utilize our Community Kitchen in our Urban Grange facility, with adjacent classroom and gardens, which provide opportunities for education, community building, empowerment, and food entrepreneurship, such as cooking, gardening, business and leadership workshops.  Interns expand and strengthens Zenger Farm’s community engagement efforts through our Cooking & Nutrition Education program, Community Chefs program and CSA Partnerships for Health Program. These programs create access to nutritious foods, strengthen community relationships, and create a more inclusive community through cross-cultural sharing. The Cooking & Nutrition Education program provides opportunities for participants to build community around food, learn and share cooking and gardening skills, and support one another to access healthy options. The Community Chef program supports participants from immigrant backgrounds and communities of color to be leaders in their communities by inspiring families to learn about and celebrate food and health traditions. This highly collaborative internship involves many professions and skills. Interns strengthen skills in community development, public health, food access, nutrition and local food systems.

Independent and team oriented program implementation. Skills include but are not limited to 1:1 assistance with financial management, all practical and functional needs, safety protocols, Hoyer transfers, transportation, activity planning and time management. Incident reporting, daily activity and medication documentation, advocacy, and multiple modes of communication to care providers outside of the agency for UCP consumers. Knowledge of up to 40 consumers life saving protocol from seizure activity to medication administration as well as, behavioral needs. Autism Spectrum Disorder Program Facilitator, 2007 - 2008Son-Rise Program 1:1 program implementation within a small team for a specialized intervention program based on joining, acceptance, and mirroring behavior under strict environmental boundaries followed with intensive team oriented feedback.

Safe Landing Program is a pilot program that provides rental assistance to families at risk for eviction due to unpaid medical bills or an ongoing physical/mental health issue that prevents them from working. My position as the Program Specialist is responsible for screening participants to receive rental assistance. In addition, this position is responsible for critiquing forms and processes, coordinating with partner organizations, ensuring program quality, and reporting and assisting with evaluation.

Independent and team oriented program implementation. Skills include but are not limited to 1:1 assistance with financial management, all practical and functional needs, safety protocols, transportation, activity planning and time management. Incident reporting, daily activity and medication documentation, advocacy, and multiple modes of communication to care providers within and outside of the agency.

The Oregon LEAD Program is a year-long curriculum that develops leadership and professional skills. Networks and relationships are deepened in monthly trainings and workshops as the cohort expands their ties to community and each other by learning from Native professionals different styles of leadership, community organizing, communication, advocacy, fundraising and organizational management.LEAD professionals are the future leaders in Oregon who will advocate for the improved lives of Native American children and families. Participating in a culturally relevant experience, LEAD participants work closely with a mentor and have hands-on learning experiences that can be applied to important work done in our community. LEAD participants hail from a variety of Native American supportive organizations and agencies; National Indian Child Welfare Association, Oregon Food Bank, Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, Portland State University, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, OHSU, and many more. The program fosters a collaborative statewide network of Native leaders that re-establish the interrupted cultural ways of knowing and being by an Inter-Tribal support network, transformative leadership development gatherings, and cohort-alumni community projects. The Oregon LEAD Program came into existence in 2008 and expanded in 2011 as one of six culturally specific Leadership Development programs within the Coalition of Communities of Color. The Native American Youth & Family Center, in partnership with the Portland Youth & Elders Council, has received generous support from Meyer Memorial Trust, the Collins Foundation, and Oregon Community Foundation to bring this vision to fruition.

Preventing Intimate Partner Violence among Women Receiving Home Visitation Services, Nurse and Family Partnership (NFP+)First-hand research experience while in the field collecting data through 1:1 survey interviews. 2007 - 2009. Data collection through survey work in the field under PI, Dr. Lynette Feder. CDC funded longitudinal study at Portland State University. The study is designed to assess the effectiveness of a new component to the Nurse-Family Partnership Program (NFP). NFP is a federally funded, nationwide program that pairs community health nurses with first time, low income, and high risk, mothers to be to promote healthy mother and baby development and relationships. Fall 2007 to 2009.

The Portland State University Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program works with motivated and talented undergraduates who want to pursue PhDs.  It introduces juniors and seniors who are first-generation and low-income, and/or members of under-represented groups to academic research and to effective strategies for getting into and graduating from PhD programs. The McNair Scholars Program has academic-year activities and a full-time summer research internship. Scholars take academic and skills-building seminars and workshops during the year, and each scholar works closely with a faculty mentor on original research in the summer.  Scholars present their research findings at the McNair Summer Symposium and at other conferences, and are encouraged to publish their papers in the McNair Journal and other scholarly publications.The Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program was established in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Education and named in honor of Challenger Space Shuttle astronaut Dr. Ronald E. McNair. The program, which has been on campus since 2003, is funded by a $1,155,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and institutional cost-share funds.The McNair Scholars Program's student-centered approach relies heavily on faculty and university commitment. Activities and opportunities provided by the program focus on building a positive academic community for the scholars while they are undergraduates at PSU.

Responsibilities included management of a rotating team of counselors to facilitate overnight care for 32+ campers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and co-occurring special needs.

Event planning and implementation on all levels from budget to advertising. General office skills with receptionist responsibilities. Data entry. Group advocacy and trainings involvement.