About Mike

Hello neighbors!

When my wife and I were deciding where to settle down and start a family, one of the driving factors was the quality of local schools. We've happily lived in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District for almost 14 years now, and we have two wonderful children, one of whom will soon be entering kindergarten this fall.

Playing around in Oregon City, 2022

Like many parents, we tend to worry about the future our kids will be facing... and whether they'll be adequately prepared. We do everything we can, but we are also counting on a K-12 school district that is able to provide them with a quality, welcoming, and safe space to learn and grow. I'm proud to have helped contribute to that through a career of driving supportive public policy for our K-12 system, and I'm asking for your vote to continue on that course as one of our school board members.

Selected Community Involvement and Public Service:

Policy Director, Oregon State Treasury (2009 - 2014)
County Services Planning Council (2012)
Higher Education Coordinating Commission: Student Aid Task Force (2013 - 2014)
Chair, Willamette Neighborhood Association (2015)
Clackamas County Economic Development Commission (2014 - 2016)
West Linn Historical Society (2014 - )
West Linn Police Review and Recommend Committee (2023 - )
Member, West Linn Chamber of Commerce (2018 - )

My day job is as a communications consultant, with a focus on public policy development and advocacy, with a specialty of advocating for workers and families. I'm not always on the winning side of every issue, but I'll stand behind everything I've stood up for. Some things I'm most proud of are:

Working to pass Oregon's "Chelsea's Law" in 2005 to protect child survivors of sexual assault.
Leading the effort to qualify Measure 98 for the ballot in 2016, which mandated investments in K-12 career technical education, college readiness programs, and dropout prevention.
Negotiating protections for the Elliott State Forest in 2017 which preserved huge areas of some of Oregon's oldest growth forests and ecologically sensitive areas.
Working to get PTSD recognized as a workers compensation injury for our first responders in 2019.

These and other examples of hard-fought issues illustrate my approach to difficult public policy challenges. These successes were not unilaterally won, but the result of hard, detailed work and significant planning with those who were on the opposite side of these issues. Oftentimes, I had to push back hard against significant "institutional inertia," where bureaucrats would oppose a plan simply because it's not the way things had been done. Through shared respect and a willingness to come to a mutually-acceptable outcome, we were able to cut through the political noise and arrive at solutions that everyone could celebrate. Those experiences taught me (and continue to teach me) lessons about not accepting the status quo and the importance of pushing back against "the way things have always been done."

I hope you'll help me bring those values and those lessons to our West Linn-Wilsonville School Board. I'm asking for your vote.