Our Team
Staff
Education & Program Director
Amanda Hudson (she/her) leads educational programming and PB project design and implementation. Amanda came to PB through her research as a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Studies at Portland State University. Learning how PB emerged from radical democracy and popular education movements in the Global South, she became passionate about how it can redistribute knowledge and power in order to create community-led change. She has a vision for PB as the first step in transforming our local democracies into spaces where ordinary people can exercise their civic & political agency to access systemic power. In addition to being PB Oregon's braintrust on PB implementation, Amanda is our certified fun expert. She views fun, games and art as strategic tools for dismantling embedded power hierarchies. She employs a playful approach as an intentional tool to enable participants to bring their full selves to participate. She lives in SE Portland and in her free time can be found planning a game night, passionately discussing fantasy literature, or watching entirely too much TV.
Amanda
Hudson
Blanca Gaytan Farfan
Blanca Gaytan Farfan (she/her/ella) has a deep passion for building power with marginalized communities by combining leadership development, civic education, and advocacy tools. She brings a strong community and relationship focused framework and experience in issue-based and electoral campaign organizing. Born in Michoacán, Mexico, Blanca immigrated at the age of five to Gresham, Oregon. She is a first-generation college graduate, graduating from Warner Pacific University with a B.A. in History and double minor in Political Science and Sociology. In her free time, Blanca enjoys spending quality time with family and friends, reading at coffee shops, and going on nature walks.
Policy & Communications Director
Steering Committee
The PB Oregon Steering Committee has the Board-delegated role of helping shape staff priorities and operations to ensure alignment with our mission, vision, values, and theory of change. Steering Committee members are offered compensation for their time and expertise which include directly supporting operations through special projects.
Isabela Villarreal
Isabela (she/her) is a queer Latina youth advocate and educator. She received a BA in Community Development from Portland State University and currently works as the Policy and Communications Manager at the Oregon-based non-profit Next Up. Her experience co-founding a non-profit during high school and subsequent work with the Institute for Sustainable Solutions (PSU), Verde, SOLVE, and Habitat for Humanity instilled in her the power of youth and community work to bring about social and political transformation.
*Also serves on the Board of Directors.
Jim Labbe
Jim (he/him) grew up in Oregon with a life-long passion for activating municipal and regional democracy for people and the planet. His work has broadly focused on community-based organizing and advocacy around natural resource conservation in Oregon. Jim has research interests and professional publications that span history, regional equity, urban forestry, and watershed science and management. Jim serves as PB Oregon Board President, assists with administration, government affairs, strategic partnerships, and project development.
*Also serves on the Board of Directors.
Maria Gabrielle Sipin
Maria Gabrielle (they/she) is a transportation planner and public health professional whose goals for her government and nonprofit work are sustainable communities and racial justice. She applies her lived experiences in Manila, Los Angeles, and Portland—from her sports fandom, queerness, and immigrant status—to her advocacy, planning, and relationships in Oregon and beyond.
*Also serves on the Board of Directors.
Jonathan Cruz
Jonathan (he/him) is a Native Hawaiian living in Portland. He is currently a community partnership coordinator and community information specialist. His background is in environmental education, providing engaging facilitation to diverse audiences, coordinating events, grant writing and grant management. His lived experience of environmental stewardship through Indigenous ecological practices frames his understanding of PB. He sees the potential for PB to reorient our perspectives on land use and public spaces, in order to realize climate justice goals for all. His research interests include traditional ecological knowledge, decolonizing data, and community organizing. At PBO, he is working on building an equitable organization and building program capacities.
Ty Wilkins
Ty (he/him) received a B.S. in Political Science with a focus in public service and a Minor in civic leadership from PSU. He is working on his Masters in Public Administration with a focus in local government. Ty has a deep commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and working alongside communities to push for a democracy that works for everyone and allows us to practice self-governance. Ty worked as a community organizer in Cape Town, South Africa and educated communities on issues like gentrification, food sovereignty, agroecology, and land rights.
Board of Directors
Eddy Morales
Eddy Morales (he/him) has grown up in Oregon since age 6. He attended the University of Oregon. He has served as Vice President and President of the United States Student Association (USSA) giving voice to students across the country in the White House, Congress, and the Department of Education. A small business owner and community organizer, Eddy spent the last 18 years working for multiple national organizations dedicated to community change. His work proved successful, allowing him to collaborate with policymakers from around the country and give back to the community that has given him so much. In November 2018, Eddy was elected to a four-year term for Gresham City Council Position 2 and sworn into office on January 8, 2019.
Gayle Palmer
Gayle Palmer (she/her) is an East Portland resident and civic activist currently pursuing community engagement at the neighborhood level. Gayle is a Board Member of the Centennial Community Association and is a member of the East Portland Action Plan committee, where she focuses on Economic Development and Operations Sub-Committee assignments. Since moving to Oregon in 2014, as a retired Librarian and Digital Collections Consultant, Gayle has spent her time as a free-lance grant writer and instructor in fundraising and grant writing with several regional colleges. She spends as much time as possible with her grandchildren and enjoys discovering Portland area music and food venues.
Isabela Villarreal
Isabela (she/her) is a queer Latina youth advocate and educator. She received a BA in Community Development from Portland State University and currently works as the Policy and Communications Manager at the Oregon-based non-profit Next Up. Her experience co-founding a non-profit during high school and subsequent work with the Institute for Sustainable Solutions (PSU), Verde, SOLVE, and Habitat for Humanity instilled in her the power of youth and community work to bring about social and political transformation.
Jim Labbe
Jim (he/him) grew up in Oregon with a life-long passion for activating municipal and regional democracy for people and the planet. His work has broadly focused on community-based organizing and advocacy around natural resource conservation in Oregon. Jim has research interests and professional publications that span history, regional equity, urban forestry, and watershed science and management. Jim serves as PB Oregon Board President, assists with administration, government affairs, strategic partnerships, and project development.
Maria Gabrielle Sipin
Maria Gabrielle (she/they) is a transportation planner and public health professional whose goals for her government and nonprofit work are sustainable communities and racial justice. She applies her lived experiences in Manila, Los Angeles, and Portland—from her sports fandom, queerness, and immigrant status—to her advocacy, planning, and relationships in Oregon and beyond.
Advisors
Linn Davis
Linn Davis (he/him) is a Program Manager at Healthy Democracy (HD). HD is best known for designing and facilitating the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) which convenes random, representative groups of voters to evaluate ballot measures and produce balanced, informative, and accessible voter information. Panels of everyday folks question advocates and experts, and then write a statement on the most important information for voters to know – which is typically printed in the voters' pamphlet. The Oregon legislature made the CIR an official part of the state's election process in 2011. Linn also manages HD's other process design and implementation work including emerging work in bringing random, representative policy deliberations (known as citizen juries) to the local government and high school levels. He holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University and a BA in History from Grinnell College.
Jamal T. Fox
Jamal T. Fox (he/him) currently serves as the City Administrator for the City of Camas, Washington. Fox's professional experience ranges from the private sector to public politics, from education to government. In 2013, Fox was elected to City Council representing District 2 as the youngest ever elected in Greensboro, NC. During his term of service (ending in 2017), Jamal played an instrumental role in bringing participatory budgeting to Greensboro – the first municipality to implement participatory budgeting in the South. Prior to his elected office, Fox worked in Greensboro's City Manager's office and the Department of Planning and Community Development. Fox most recently served served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. Fox is a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and now lives in Camas with his family.
Amy Nguyen
The amazing Amy Nguyen (she/her) currently serves as Public Space Management Program Development Supervisor, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). She brings an enormous depth and breadth of experience and knowledge as a public servant and a practitioner of participatory budgeting. From Spring of 2017 to Summer 2019 she served as the Civic Engagement & Leadership Development Strategic Lead for Department of Neighborhoods (DON) where she managed Seattle's participatory budgeting program. Beyond that, her experience in policy analysis, nonprofit management and community organizing spans New York City, New Orleans and Seattle. Amy served as a Legislative Aide for a Seattle City Council member and a Program Manager for Seattle-based APACE (Asian Pacific Islander Americans of Civic Empowerment). Amy received a Master's degree in Urban Policy and an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies from the New School in New York.