At Portland State, we move forward with bold resolve to affect positive change. We offer a different kind of opportunity, one where we build something meaningful together. Here, youll discover an urban learning environment unlike any other in Oregon.
Building on a storied history of providing thousands of women community support and resources for career growth and transformation, the center is looking to expand the ways it supports women and gender expansive people as they face challenges in their pursuit of leadership.
Some of Oregons most distinguished leaders have been associated with CWL, including its founders former PSU vice provost Melody Rose, Oregon State Representative Gretchen Kafoury, Oregon Supreme Court Judge Honorable Betty Roberts and Gov. Barbara Roberts as well as past board members Gov. Kate Brown and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.
The founding of the Center for Womens Leadership on the Portland State campus brought excitement, new programs and expanded thinking about womens roles in both leadership and political opportunity, says former Governor Barbara Roberts. CWL has changed the university and changed Oregon.
The investment will also support expansion of NEW Leadership Oregon, an annual six-day residential leadership and civic engagement program for female and non-binary students enrolled in any college or university in Oregon.
For nearly 20 years, NEW Leadership Oregon has been dedicated to training diverse leaders across the state. Last years cohort came from 11 different schools and 13 different counties; 61% identified as people of color and 63% were first-generation college students. The cohort included students with 22 different majors and included students earning associates, masters and doctoral degrees.
Sentilla Hawley is CWLs communications and marketing associate and participated in the NEW Leadership Oregon program last year. She says the program taught her a lot about what it means to be a leader, how to lead with empathy and the importance of taking healthy risks.
We really got to open up with each other and to talk about our own life experiences, and it did become very vulnerable, she says. That was really comforting, in a way, knowing that I can be in a professional setting and that doesn't mean I have to be a robot.
That was really helpful for me because sometimes I think about a leadership role that I would like to be in, but it's hard to imagine how to get from point A to B, and they described that, says Hawley.
I had always been someone whos been very scared of confrontation, but NEW Leadership Oregon taught me that it doesnt have to be scary, Hawley says. As long as what Im doing is for the greater good then I can feel confident in whatever situation Im in.
Hawley says the skills she developed with NEW Leadership Oregon have also had benefits in the classroom where she now feels more confident and comfortable speaking up and taking the lead on group projects.
Being a part of NEW Leadership Oregon and working for the Center for Women's Leadership, I can confidently say completely shaped my whole university experience in the best way possible, says Hawley. It is something that has forever made a stamp on my life.
There was one girl who was from a different part of the state, a different political affiliation and had a very different view on the subject [we were discussing], says Baker. She and I were able to have a very open and honest and respectful conversation that I think outside of that context would have been hard to have.
Baker is well on her way to a career in public service. She is in the middle of an internship with the State Departments Office of the Historian and last term interned for Congressman Earl Blumenauer. Shes also a finalist for the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship. Once she graduates this spring term, Baker plans to pursue a career in international relations or foreign affairs.
More than 550 people have gone through NEW Leadership Oregon since the program began in 2003, providing a robust alumni network that helps launch the careers of new graduates and supports the career advancement of fellow alums. Program alumni currently serve in leadership positions across the state as business owners, nonprofit executives and community leaders.
Evidence suggests that the program is also helping to increase the number of women in the Oregon legislature. Last year, Representative Wlnsvey Campos was sworn in as the youngest female state legislator in state history and, in January, Rachel Armitage was appointed to fill Betsy Johnsons Senate seat when Johnson resigned to run for governor. Both Campos and Armitage are NEW Leadership alumni.
The Center for Womens Leadership holds a special place in my heart, says Representative Campos. There are so many opportunities, connections and friendships I can trace directly back to the investments that the CWL has made in our communities and in women across Oregon. The Center has created a space that empowers women to lead with heart, with creativity, with tenacity, with conviction and with integrity, and Im eternally grateful to have been a part of it.
While its core mission has stayed the same since it was founded in 2009, CWL has continued to evolve its focus and programming over the years. While it once ran leadership programming for high school students, other organizations have taken on that work, leaving the center to focus on college students and emerging leaders.
One of the current goals of the center is to increase its focus on intersectional feminist leadership, which has involved opening up a dialogue with CWL alumni, current students and community stakeholders about the future of the center and how it can better support its members.
How do we expand and acknowledge that there's intersecting oppression that we need to address in order to have better representation and leadership? asks Mole Heilman. How do we build spaces that really allow people to safely show up and belong as their full selves?
While these conversations are underway, the center is also expanding its programming while keeping intersectionality top of mind. In her role as CWLs communications and marketing associate Hawley is involved in developing and advertising the centers programs, including CWLs lunch with the leader series, which is open to anyone. I'm really excited for the programming this year, says Hawley.
From the founding of Vanport Extension Center to the current day, Portland States Black alumni have an important role in the history of Portland. Here are just a few of our alumni who have shaped our city.
Richard Dick Bogle Jr. was born in Portland in 1930 to Richard Bogle, a businessman, and Kathryn Hall Bogle, a social worker and activist who made a point of taking her son and his friends to tour different workplaces around townfrom a bakery to the Oregonian newsroom. As a teen he became passionate about jazz.
Bogle attended Washington High School, Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) and the Vanport Extension Center (now Portland State University). Over the course of his career he wore many hatsinsurance fraud investigator, police officer, sports reporter, jazz reviewer among them. In 1968, he was hired by KATU and became the Northwests first Black television news reporter.
In 1984, Bogle became the second Black person elected to Portlands City Council where he was known as a progressive voice. On his final day as commissioner he said: 'I promised I would work to make Portland a city my grandchildren would be proud of. I have and it is.'
Retirement didnt slow Bogle down. He continued his interest in jazzhosting a show on cable news and writing music reviewsand also delved into photography. In 2008, he volunteered for the Portland Police Cold Case Homicide Unit. Bogle died on February 25, 2010.
Despite his education, discriminatory hiring practices made it so he was unable to get a job with Portland Public Schools. For more than a decade he worked at Woodburn Boys Home (now MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility) before he became part of the first group of Black educators in the Portland Public School system. He began as a counselor at Adams High School and then Madison High School where he served as principal from 1983 and until his sudden death in 1987 at the age of 51.
Besides being one of only a few Black principals in Oregon in the 1980swith the challenging task of leading the school through desegregation and busingMcDaniel is remembered for his kind demeanor, contagious laugh, absolute integrity, and his instinctual ability to deeply connect with all people.
Gladys McCoy was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1928 and grew up in Tennessee. The first in her family to attend college, McCoy graduated from Talladega College in Alabama in 1951. She moved to Portland for a job at the YWCA where she met her husband.
In 1970, she made history by winning a seat on the Portland School Board, becoming the first person of color in elected office in Oregon. While on the school board, she worked to desegregate Portland elementary schools and helped working mothers extend their education. In 1987, she was the first Black person elected to the Multnomah County Board of Commissionersand later she became its first Black chair. In these roles, McCoy focused on issues related to public health, social services, diversifying public workplaces and human rights. McCoy died on April 11, 1993.
McCoys legacy lives on. In 2018, the Gladys McCoy Standard was adopted by the Multnomah County Commission. The standard requires interviewing qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for leadership roles in county departments. Each year, the Multnomah County Office of Community Involvement presents the Gladys McCoy Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteer service dedicated to improving the county community. Several locations around Portland honor McCoy, including the Gladys McCoy Health Department Headquarters and McCoy park.
Mel Brown grew up in Portland and began soaking up jazz lessons from local musicians before joining the Portland Junior Symphony at age 15. By the age of 17 Brown was playing in local nightclubs. He later attended PSU on a music scholarship and took several classes but did not graduate.
With the swing feel of classic drummers such as Jo Jones, colorful cymbal work, dramatic press rolls, and an entertainers sense of timing, Brown is a consummate extrovert modernist, writes Lynn Darroch for the Oregon Encyclopedia.
As a house drummer for Motown Records, Brown played and recorded with several famous musicians, including the Temptations, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. In the 1970s and 80s he toured with Diana Ross.
In Portland, Brown has played a vital role in the jazz scene as a musician, drum shop owner and mentor for young musicians through his Mel Brown Summer Jazz Workshops. A stage at the famous Jimmy Maks jazz club was named in his honor, and he was named to the Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame in 1999. Brown continues to be a mainstay in the Portland jazz scene and can be seen playing at the Jack London Revue.
Sources:Mel Brown (1944-) - Oregon EncyclopediaDrummer and local legend Mel Brown endures as the humble godfather of Portland jazz - NPRMeet Mel Brown, the Portland jazz legend who plays for something greater than himself - OPB
Margaret Carter was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1935. After graduating from high school as salutatorian, Carter attended Spaulding Business College for a year before having her first child. She worked evenings in an ammunition plant while her husband served in the military.
In 1967, she fled her abusive marriage and moved her five daughters to Portland, following a call from a friend who told her about the lush Willamette Valley. She enrolled at Portland State and graduated in 1972 with an education degree, which was followed by a Master of Education degree from Oregon State.
For 27 years she worked as a counselor and faculty member at Portland Community College before she was recruited to run for a House District seat in Northeast Portland in 1983. She won both the Democratic primary and the general election to become the first Black woman in the Oregon Legislature. She served for seven terms. In 2000, she was elected to the Oregon State Senate where she became Senate President Pro Tempore in 2005.
While in office, Carter led initiatives to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official holiday and to mandate divestment from apartheid-goverened South Africa. She also championed education programs and workforce training opportunities.
After her time in the legislature, Carter served as Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon Department of Human Services until her retirement in 2014. In 2020, USA Today named her one of Oregons Women of the Century.
Sources:Margaret Louise Carter (1935-) - Oregon EncyclopediaMargaret Carter Oral History Interview - Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History ProjectMargaret Louise Carter (1935- ) - BlackPast
Avel Gordly was born in Portland in 1947. Gordly graduated from Girls Polytechnic High School and worked at Pacific Northwest Bell until 1970. In 1974, she became the first person in her family to earn a college degree when she graduated from PSU with a degree in administration of justice. After graduation she worked as a womens work-release counselor for the Oregon Corrections Division.
In 1991, Gordly was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Oregon House of Representatives and was reelected. In 1996, she became the first Black woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate where her legislative initiatives focused on criminal justice, mental health and cultural competency in education. Gordly also championed the formation of the Governors Environmental Justice Task Force, which continues to advise the Governor and natural resource agencies on environmental justice concerns.
Gordly also has had key roles in activist and public service organizations, including the Black United Front, the Urban League of Portland, the American Friends Service Committee, and Portlanders Organized for Southern African Freedom.
In 2008, Oregon Health and Science University unveiled the Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which provides culturally specific mental health care. After retiring from public service, Gordly published a memoir and also taught at PSU in the Black Studies department. Her papers are part of the librarys Special Collections.
Charles Moose was born in New York City in 1953. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he joined the Portland Police as a patrol officer. In 1984, he earned a Master in Public Administration from Portland State and later earned a PhD in urban studies and criminology and taught courses at PSU. Moose became Portlands first Black police chief in 1993.
As chief Moose sought to expand the role of community policing. In his dissertation he argued for an expanded role for police to promote the common good, serve as community social workers as well as law enforcers and supported addressing societal issues like job training and gentrification as ways to prevent crime. He also worked with Mayor Vera Katz to incentivize Portland police officers to buy homes in Portland neighborhoods. Moose himself captured attention by buying a house in the King neighborhood.
Sources:Charles Moose Had a Radical Idea for What Portland Police Officers Should Do: Live Here - Willamette WeekCharles Moose - WikipediaThe Theory and Practice of Community Policing: An Evaluation of the Iris Court Demonstration Project - Charles Mooses PSU Dissertation
Shamsud-Din graduated from Jefferson High School and eventually made his way to Portland State where he studied art. Feeling alienated as the only Black art major, he left school before graduating and became an organizer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, helping with integration efforts in Arkansas. He later moved to San Francisco where he continued his activism workincluding organizing a conference on Black Power and Black Artall the while continuing to paint about the experiences of Black Americans. Over time, his work gained critical acclaim and was featured in books and exhibits.
Shamsud-Din returned to Portland where he was commissioned to do several murals and wall paintings across town including for the Portland Justice Center and McMenamins Kennedy School. He returned to PSU in 1998 and earned his bachelors at the age 57, followed by an MFA.
As a student, Shamsud-Din painted Vanport, a mural of the Vanport flood, which is featured in PSUs Smith Memorial Center. The painting was personal for Shamsud-Din whose family was one of many to have lost their homes in the flood. Shamsud-Din later taught art and Black studies courses at Portland State.
In 2019, June 19 was declared Isaka Shamsud-Din Day by Portland City Hall, honoring both his social justice and artistic work. Shamsud-Din still lives in Portland where he continues to paint. The Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages exhibition is currently on display at the Portland Art Museum and online.