Meet the Team
Policy and Communications Director
Blanca Gaytan Farfan
Blanca (she/her/ella) has a deep passion for building power with youth and immigrant 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 where she has developed a deep sense of community. ​
Education Program Director
Tyler Wilkins
Ty (he/him) is a community organizer and educator and has helped build the groundwork for participatory budgeting in Oregon since 2018. He brings his radical curiosity to explore how to transform our relationships with ourselves and our communities to be more just and resilient. Ty graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelors in Political Science and a minor in Civic Leadership. He is working on completing his Masters in Public Administration. His favorite academic accomplishment was his studying community organizing in Cape Town, South Africa addressing issues like gentrification, food sovereignty, agro-ecology, and land rights.
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In his role at PB Oregon, Ty leads our programs and is excited to launch the second cohort of our Student Leaders for Participatory Budgeting program. He really working with youth and is always impressed by their critical consciousness and appetite for justice. Ty thinks he’s the funniest person you’ll ever meet and always brings playfulness to spaces as a way to make our environment more human and accessible.
Interim Executive Director
Jim Labbe
Jim (he/him) assists with administration, government affairs, strategic partnerships, and project development. He grew up in Oregon with a life-long passion for activating municipal and regional democracy for people and the planet. He got his start serving on the Multnomah Youth Commission in 1985. Since then 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.
Board of Directors
Board Secretary
Eddy Morales
Eddy (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.
Board Tresurer
Gayle Palmer
Gayle (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.
Board Chair
Jim Labbe
Jim grew up in Oregon with a life-long passion for activating municipal and regional democracy for people and the planet. He got his start serving on the Multnomah Youth Commission in 1985. Since then 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.
Board Member
Karol Wai
Karol is a first-generation Burmese-Karen immigrant who believes in the power of youth voices and choices to develop equitable solutions. She is a MD candidate at Oregon Health & Science University and attributes her experiences growing up in an underserved community of immigrants and refugees, as the catalyst for her passions building community resilience and capacity.
Advisors
Advisor
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.
Advisor
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.