Board & Staff

The League of Women Voters of Portland is governed by a working board of directors.  Each board member takes leadership of a portfolio suited to his or her interests and skills.  Board meetings are held monthly from August through May.

League Leaders (2012-2013)

Mary McWilliams, President

Mary became a League member in 1970 in the small college town of Oxford, OH, where she joined other young women with children and longer-term League members who were mentors, to learn about our community and how to interact with elected officials. This was several years before men were full members of the League. Her family was a transplant from growing up in the Pacific Northwest to Miami University (of Ohio), where Robert was a geology professor. Mary worked in administrative areas, earned a Masters at Miami and continued to volunteer for the League and in other community activities. She always felt it was important to be involved in one’s community and join others in speaking out on issues. Their daughter Molly and husband and three granddaughters brought Mary and Robert (in retirement) back to their Oregon roots and relatives in late 2004 (but leaving son Jim and wife and two grandsons in Oxford). Mary soon joined the Portland League to learn about the greater metropolitan Portland area. The League is the perfect organization to be active in one’s community.

Debbie Kaye, 1^st Vice President Membership/Outreach

With an international relations degree from Brown University, Debbie first worked in the peace education field.  She spent two years in Santiago, Chile, where she learned Spanish (with a strong Chilean accent!), worked as a buyer for a Brazilian department store, and traveled extensively in Latin America.  Bracketing her Chilean experience, Debbie worked in finance leasing in San Francisco.  Returning to her native Portland with her husband and two young sons in 1990, Debbie joined the League and also became deeply engaged at Catlin Gabel School where she chaired the alumni board and served on the board of trustees as well as parent groups.  Volunteer coordination became her strength, first at Friendly House Preschool, and then for Catlin Gabel’s legendary rummage sale (1,000 volunteers!), Eliot Institute summer camp, and the 2008 LWVUS national convention.  She has led the nominating process for several organizations.  For the Portland League, Debbie was a unit leader for many years and now serves as Membership chair, and with Voter Service, coordinating the Speakers Bureau and   moderating candidate and ballot measure forums.  She enjoys gardening, a book group, singing, target shooting, and travel.

Barbara Fredericks, 2nd Vice President, Voters Service

Barbara was born and raised in Chicago and Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago. Her family was always involved in politics and always talking about politics. She worked as a trial lawyer in Chicago until she married Jim Jandacek, who took them to Boston, where she continued the practice of law.  In 1991 Jim moved the family (now including Paul) to Portland.

Barbara joined the Portland League in early 2000.  Starting in 2002, Barbara served as LWVOR project manager for the LWVUS Judicial Independence Project.  From 2005-2007 she chaired the LWVOR study of the Oregon judiciary.  In 2008 Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney asked then-LWVOR President Marge Easley to suggest a League member for him to appoint to the Oregon Public Officials Compensation Commission.  As a result of Barbara's work chairing the judiciary study, Marge put Barbara forward to Senator Courtney, who appointed her to a one-year term on the Commission.

Barbara has been a board member and corporate secretary of the KBPS Public Radio Foundation and a board member of Queen's Bench (the Portland chapter of Oregon Women Lawyers).

Ann Mulroney, 3rd Vice President, Member Education

Ann began her membership in the League in the early seventies in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She became President of the Winston-Salem League which at that time was active in land use, transportation and environmental issues. Her League work led to employment with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning Dept. and began her professional life.

She has also been a senior planner for the State of Montana, providing planning, zoning, and community development assistance to Montana communities. Later she  helped manage for the Montana Dept. of Natural Resources, the distribution of State Bond proceeds to local jurisdictions and irrigation districts for water supply and management projects. She served on the State Board of the Montana League of Women Voters and managed their study on state budgeting and finance.

In Oregon Ann has worked as an economic development manager for the City of Beaverton and the Forest Grove-Economic Development Partnership as well as a community advisor with Pacific University during the development of their College of Health Professions campus in Hillsboro.

 With her business partner, she developed and managed her own business, an advising service for early state technology companies. Ann became active again in the League following her retirement in 2008.

Lynn Baker, Secretary and Voter Editor

Lynn is a native Portlander who has lived for short periods in Germany, on the east coast, and in Alaska. She is married to Ray and they have five children and numerous grandchildren. Lynn retired in 2007 from 23 years of teaching in Portland Public Schools. She joined the League about the same time. League activities have included: voter registration at the monthly judicial Naturalization Ceremony, chaired the local Education position study, Voter editor, and is on the board.

Mary Hepokoski, Treasurer

Mary and her husband, Peter, are native Minnesotans. She joined the League of Women Voters of Golden Valley in 1979 when her first son, Daniel, was one. She served on their board for most of the next 23 years in one capacity or another.  Mary and Peter served as foster parents for 14 years. In 2000 the company Peter worked for was bought out in a friendly international take-over and two years later Peter was transferred to West Chester, PA. After Peter retired in 2005 they decided to move to Portland where Daniel lives. Their other son, Karl, his wife Natalie, and their now two-year-old daughter, Elodie, live in Windsor, Ontario. Mary has served as the Member Education Chair for the Portland League and co-chaired the LWV of Oregon Elections Method study. Mary enjoys among many hobbies cross country skiing and gardening. She and Peter are also volunteer tax preparers through the AARP Foundation.

Directors
Debbie Aiona, Action Chair

Debbie grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first joined the League in 1979 in Salt Lake City, UT.  Other places where she was a member include Greenville, S.C., Lexington, KY and Portland.  As a 25-year resident of Portland, she has held a number of positions in the local League including president.  She now serves the organization as a board member and action committee chair.  Issues on which she personally focuses include affordable housing, police oversight, campaign finance reform and urban renewal.  In addition to her work on the LWV Portland board, she is a board member of the Coalition of Advocates for Equal Access for Girls, a statewide organization that works to ensure that girls receive equal access to all of the appropriate gender-specific support and services they need to help them develop to their full potential.

Jessica Aiona, Publicity

Jessica has a degree in Economics and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.  She currently works at a consulting firm that provides services to utilities on energy efficiency.  Jessica was inspired to join the league after watching her mom, who continues to serve on the board, be actively involved for many years.  Her main focus will be on media relations, but she will also be assisting with tasks such as the Local Convention silent auction.   She grew up in Portland, is a big fan of the Trail Blazers and enjoys jogging and other outdoor activities.

Peggy Bengry, Voters' Guide Editor

Peggy joined the League in 2008, shortly after retiring from IBM as a software engineer. Her interest in the League came from seeing the respect accorded Kappy Eaton at a hearing in Salem on preference voting and learning from Kappy's testimony that LWVOR was doing a study on voting systems. Peggy volunteered to help with that study and, delighted with the talented, competent people she found in the League, went on to edit the Voters' Guide. Peggy lives with her partner on their 82-acre farm in Yamhill County where she has planted 10 acres of hazelnuts. Farming, gardening and sewing are her favorite activities.

Pat Chor, Voter Service

Pat moved to Portland in 1986 from California, where she had been employed as Administrative Services Manager in the Office of General Counsel at Stanford University.  Pat attended Lewis and Clark law school, graduated in 1992, and started a solo practice emphasizing family law.  After a break of several years caring for her aging mother, Pat returned to practicing law as a sole practitioner emphasizing family law and elder law in 2010.  Pat has served on the LWV Portland board as Voter Guide editor, and on the Nominating and Voter Service committees, and on the LWVOR Land Use Position update committee.  She has two sons and five grandchildren.

Jane Gigler, Co-Chair Development

Jane, formerly of North Bend, Oregon, is relatively new to Portland.  A librarian by profession, she received her MLS from UC Berkeley and worked in public libraries in California and Oregon.  More recently, she taught at Southwestern Oregon Community College.  While living at the coast, Jane was active in the public schools and served six years on her local school board.  A believer in helping her community, she served on the boards of the Women’s Crisis Center and the Coos Art Museum where she developed a strong volunteer program.  Currently, in addition to her League responsibilities, she serves on the board of the Friends of the Multnomah County Library and during the school year, reads to children through the SMART Program.  A thirty-two year member of the League, Jane values its voter services, member education on the issues, and in this time of political tensions among political parties, the League’s nonpartisan stance on candidates.

Kathleen Hersh, Web Editor

After receiving her degree in Biology, Kathleen worked as an investigator for the Food and Drug Administration, first in the San Francisco office then in the Portland office.  She then started and ran her own business, a travel agency, for a number of years.  Most recently she worked as an administrative assistant through a temporary agency at a number of Portland area businesses--large and small.  She has served the Portland League as Voters’ Guide editor, Unit Leader and is currently the Web Editor. 

Marnie Lonsdale, Co-Chair Development

Marnie Lonsdale moved to Oregon in 2007 after retiring from a long career working in environmental, chemical and microbial fields.  Her career include community college teaching, quality control and environmental management in industry and project management for sanitary and stormwater utilities. She has lived in Illinois, Minnesota, and Bermuda. She served on the Park Forest Illinois School Board as a member and President. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University, a M.S. from Purdue University and MBA from Nova Southeastern University. 

Marnie first joined the League in Park Forest Illinois in 1980 and has been active in Leagues in Illinois and Minnesota, She served on the LWVOR state board and chaired both the Water and Coastal Issues studies.  She joined the LWVPDX board in 2009.

Tia Wulff, Speakers Bureau Chair

Tia and her family came to Oregon from Vermont 33 years ago. Tia left behind her work as community human services liaison. The purchase of a century old home in Portland and start of a career in teaching marked the beginning of new adventures: A quarter century of architectural preservation and infatuation with raising children to love the arts and outdoors. During those years Tia discovered that good teaching meant caring for students in the style of a parent as well as teaching with attention to thinking skills, civic life, and wellbeing management. As an educator, she has consulted, lectured and published on the topic of "authentic assessment". Teachers, administrators and school board members use her materials. Recently Tia has worked with public affairs news boards to optimize their efforts. She is a member of The City Club of Portland and is new to the League of Women Voters as of 2 years ago.  Favorite past times include, hiking, sailing, singing, painting, cooking, and as many good books as can be squeezed in between the chores of living. Especially appreciated are the Oregon Symphony, The Portland Art Museum and Literary Arts - extensions of pleasures introduced to her in early years by a smart and creative mother.

Off Board Committee Leaders

Endowment Fund Committee
Corinne Paulson (Chair)
Anne Davidson (Treasurer)

Nominating Committee
Pat Osborn (Chair)
 
Budget Committee
Barbara Stalions (Chair)

Voter Registration/Naturalization Ceremony
Janine Settelmeyer (Chair)

League Staff

Heather Drake, Office Manager

Heather earned a MA degree in US History from Indiana University, Bloomington, and is currently studying accounting. While living in Bloomington, she helped organize the Indiana Green Party and worked hard on the (unsuccessful) petition drive to place Ralph Nader's name on the Indiana ballot in the 2000 election. She was also appointed to, and served a partial term on Bloomington's Utilities Service Board. Heather has worked as the Office Manager for The League of Women Voters of Portland since 2003. She also volunteers for her home League in Clackamas County where she has served as newsletter editor, voter service chair, treasurer, and president. In her spare time, she enjoys playing board games, walking, reading voraciously, and other mild adventure with her husband and her dog.