Savannah Barrett is Exchange Director for Art of the Rural, a national organization that works to resource rural and Native artists and culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. A 12th-generation Kentuckian, she co-founded the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange in 2014, and leads this work alongside hundreds of Kentuckians to combine grantmaking, leadership and network development, narrative change, and institutional bridging to strengthen Kentucky’s communities across racial, economic, and geographic divides. Savannah holds a Masters of Arts Management from the University of Oregon and brings two decades of experience in cultural organizing and arts administration. She serves as a board member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice and an advisor to the PaX, a statewide cultural exchange developed by PA Humanities, and previously advised bridging and philanthropic initiatives in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Oregon, New York, and South Carolina. Her work has been uplifted by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Kennedy Center. Savannah is a Kentucky Colonel and a Commonwealth Ambassador.

Born in Oroville, CA ( 1947 if anyone needs to know!)
Received B.S. in Ag Science & Management from UC Davis in 1969
Received M.S. in Animal Sci. from University of Arizona in 1972
Came to Oregon in 1973 to work for Oregon State University Extension Service. Worked one year in Lake
County, the next 16 in Polk County and the next 16 in Marion County. Spent 33 years working in and
around agriculture, mostly in farm business management and community development.
Retired in 2005.
Served for six months in 2006 as interim Executive Director of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon and in
January 2007 became the Executive Director of Farmers Ending Hunger.
Served on board of Marion-Polk Food Share for 27 years and was board chair for two years
Also serve on the board of CASA of Oregon, developing farm worker housing.
Was a member of Salem Downtown Rotary for 10 years and served on the board.
Married to Debbie McCune, who is recently retired from Travel Salem and we have a son Kyle who has
been a digital marketer for Nike.

Mel Butterfield, Director of Central Oregon YouthLine, has been with YouthLine, a peer-to-peer crisis, help and support line nationally available at zero cost to the user since 2018.

Previously, she investigated child abuse as a Forensic Interviewer, Statewide Regional Trainer, and child abuse/neglect investigator with DHS. She holds a BA in Human Development and Family Services, and an MA in Counseling from Oregon State University, Cascades. Mel shares: “Almost all of my professional career has been focused on youth safety and advocacy in one way or another, especially advocating for the importance of youth voice from rural communities as they are less represented. I’m incredibly lucky to be a fourth generation Central Oregonian and will always advocate for youth in our area having opportunities and resources available to them”.

Cory Carman is a fourth-generation rancher and a recognized leader in regenerative agriculture, dedicated to advancing sustainable food systems and land stewardship across the Pacific Northwest. As the owner of Carman Ranch, a multigenerational family enterprise focused on grass-fed, pasture-raised beef and regenerative land management, she started a meat company and has grown the operation into a collaborative of like-minded ranching families committed to soil health, animal welfare, and long-term ecological resilience.

Carman Ranch has built partnerships to serve customers in Portland, including Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, PCC Markets, Burgerville, and New Seasons Market. Cory grew up on her family’s ranch in eastern Oregon and holds a degree in Public Policy from Stanford University. Early in her career she worked on Capitol Hill, gaining experience in public policy before returning home to operate the family business. Under her leadership, Carman Ranch has also expanded through direct-to-consumer distribution, strengthening transparency and the connection between producers and consumers.

Mary Collard is the Executive Director of CASA of Eastern Oregon, where she has spent nearly 25 years advocating for children and families. Her work spans seven rural Eastern Oregon counties, where she leads a dedicated team and supports volunteers who provide children experiencing foster care with a consistent voice and a caring adult in their corner.
Mary believes deeply in the power of relationships, community, and simply showing up—especially for children who need someone willing to stand beside them. She brings both personal and professional experience, along with a genuine passion for people, to her work. She is honored to share CASA’s story and the unique challenges, strengths, and resilience of rural communities.
Born and raised in South Carolina, Mary has called Baker City home since 1993. She and her husband, Bryan, have five children and seven grandchildren. Over the years, their family has also opened their home and hearts to youth of all ages through the foster care system and international exchange programs.
And while Eastern Oregon has been home for more than three decades, Mary still proudly brings a little Southern charm wherever she goes—and she’s always happy to share it with anyone who will listen.

Rev. Dr. Ryan M. Eller is a 10th generation Appalachian and Executive Director of the Appalachia Funders Network (AFN), a collaboration of 75+ funders advancing an equitable transition in Central Appalachia with $461M in annual grantmaking. Previously, he worked at Watershed Partners/Coeuraj, a global social impact firm, leading initiatives on climate strategy, Indigenous engagement, and HBCU partnerships. He also serves as President of The Beloved Community Foundation, born of his organizing faith leaders after the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Ryan was ED of Define American, the nation’s leading culture-change group on immigration and identity, twice named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and praised as “one of the most effective social justice organizations of our generation.” He also served as U.S. Campaigns Director at change.org and as ED of
CHANGE, then the South’s largest community organizing group. His commentary has appeared in Chronicle of Philanthropy, CNN, NBC, Fox News, and more. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, Wake Forest, and Appalachian State. A former Navy Chaplain Corps officer, he holds degrees from Appalachian State, Wake Forest, Penn
State, and Duke University.

JT Flowers is the founder and Executive Director of Article V, an organization geared towards helping working communities across Oregon secure an economic and political future built by our hands and to our benefit.
Prior to Article V, JT served as Senior Advisor and Director of Government Affairs at Albina Vision Trust, the largest community-led development in America, where he helped his community secure over $850 million in direct investment and notch landmark policy wins at every level of government.
JT is a lifelong Portlander born and bred in the heart of inner-NE Portland’s historic Albina district. Raised by a single mother and grandmother, neither of whom graduated from college, he went on to earn his BA in Political Science with distinction from Yale University.​
A Truman Scholar, Flowers also made history by becoming the first Black Rhodes Scholar in Oregon’s history and holds master’s degrees in U.S. History and Music Performance from the University of Oxford.​
He represents District 5 on TriMet’s Board of Directors, which encompasses large portions of North and Northeast Portland, is on the board of the Big Yard Foundation, and serves as Board Vice Chair of the Williams & Russell CDC.

Hilary Franz is the President and CEO of American Forests, the nation’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to forest stewardship and conservation, where she leads bold initiatives across 45 states to restore forests, end the wildfire crisis, and ensure tree canopy for every community. Before joining American Forests, she served two terms as Washington State’s Commissioner of Public Lands where she managed over 6 million acres of land, developed the state’s first Wildfire Strategic Plan and Forest Health Plan, restored over one million acres of forestland and secured more than $500 million in wildfire, forest restoration and community resilience funding. During her tenure, 95% of wildfires were kept to 10 acres or less – a landmark achievement. With nearly three decades of experience spanning natural resources conservation, public service and nonprofit leadership, Franz is a nationally recognized champion for forest restoration, climate resilience and healthier communities.

Named one of TIME100’s most influential people in philanthropy, Glen has worked for over two decades in partnership with philanthropists, policymakers, and community leaders to amplify their impact to advance social change. With an extensive background in human rights and philanthropy management, he has a history of building relationships based on his honest outlook and ability to cut through the noise, outlining steps necessary to effect lasting change. As the co-host of the Break Fake Rules podcast, and author of the Who Gives? Substack and his 2026 bestseller Control: Why Big Giving Falls Short, Glen questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and seeks ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting systemic change.

Omar Hakeem, AIA, is an architect and founder of To Be Done Studio, a Washington, DC–based practice working at the intersection of architecture, social justice, cultural preservation, and environmental resilience. For nearly two decades, he has partnered with communities historically excluded from high-quality design, helping translate local knowledge, cultural identity, and collective aspirations into meaningful places.

Omar’s work has taken him from disaster-recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast and affordable housing in the colonias of South Texas to cultural and community projects with rural and Tribal communities across the country. His current work includes the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center in Athens, Ohio; cultural projects with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and Crow Creek Sioux Tribe; and Building Common Ground, a national initiative providing design and planning support to rural and Tribal communities.

Through To Be Done Studio, Omar is advancing an architectural practice rooted in participation, long-term relationships, and community leadership. He believes architecture should do more than produce buildings—it should help communities build power, preserve culture, strengthen resilience, and shape their own futures.

With a Master’s degree in Community and Urban Planning, Elizabeth Johnson brings a unique public health and community development perspective to end-of-life care, focusing on education, advance care planning, and expanding access to support in rural and underserved communities.
Before co-founding The Peaceful Presence Project, Elizabeth spent over a decade directing international experiential education programs — including nine-month global service-learning programs and semester-long programs— managing cross-functional teams, multi-million dollar budgets, and complex risk management across five countries.
Her professional and personal experiences including service at Kalighat Hospice in Kolkata, India have shaped her commitment to creating compassionate, death-literate communities where individuals and families feel informed, supported, and connected throughout life’s most vulnerable transitions. Elizabeth is currently enrolled in a two-year Buddhist Chaplaincy program through the Upaya Zen Center. She is a member of the Public Health Palliative Care International leadership council, as well as a member of the Deschutes County Public Health Advisory Board. She is passionate about integrating death literacy initiatives in local communities and encouraging honest dialogue around the complexities of the dying process.

Tristen is an experienced strategic creative lead at Getty Images, managing a team of visual researchers and curators focused on both identifying and influencing the creation of powerful, resonant, and innovative visual content for the wider advertising and marketing industry. With a career spanning 15 years and varying roles in marketing, research, creative, and brand strategy, she takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how visual language is evolving and works directly with creative practitioners, brands and advertisers to find strategies that keep pace with rapid change. A passionate advocate for elevating underrepresented voices within creative spaces and the wider advertising industry, she also plays an essential role in the development and amplification of imagery collections such as the Nosotros Collection, Project #ShowUs, #AutisticOutLoud as well as partnerships and activations with advocacy organizations like SEEHER, Women’s Sports Foundation and GLAAD.

Erin Nunes is a Battalion Chief with the Lebanon Fire District and she has worked with the district in various positions since 2007. She has a Bachelors Degree in Fire Administration and she serves on several Oregon EMS committees. Overall, she has 24 years of firefighting experience. She is married to a fantastic, supportive husband, John, and has two children: Sierra (17) and Davin (14).

In 2018 she founded the Linn County Young Women’s Fire Academy, which is a free program designed to introduce young women to firefighting and emergency services. She is passionate about developing the next generation of firefighters and creating opportunities for women.

Michelle Rathman is the CEO of Impact! Communications, Inc. and a seasoned strategist with over 30 years of experience in both rural and urban health sectors. A resolute advocate for rural and population health, health equity, and protecting the health care safety net, Michelle was honored as the 2025 recipient of the National Rural Association President’s Award.
Having logged over 100,000 miles working as an embedded strategist and trusted leadership sounding board, Michelle specializes in operational Resilience, strategic communications and community engagement, advocacy for policies that support increasing access to health care.

Michelle is also the executive producer and host of The Rural Impact podcast where the focus is connecting the dots between policy and rural quality of life.

Michelle’s approach is rooted in the belief that despite the rough road ahead, the way forward is through courageous conversations, strategic communications aligned with priorities, and a surplus of fuel power through shift whenever and wherever it happens!

Ian Record is a consultant with expertise in tribal governance, economic development, workforce development, constitutional reform, federal Indian policy, and related areas. He provides consulting services to Tribal Nations and Native organizations in the United States and Canada consisting of strategic planning development and implementation, federal policy analysis and advocacy, tribal governance and policy analysis, executive education for tribal and organizational leaders, and research on trends and best practices in tribal governance and development.

From 2014 to 2021, he served as Vice President of Tribal Governance and Special Projects at the National Congress of American Indians. In this capacity, he led NCAI’s efforts to develop, coordinate, and share the knowledge, tools, and resources that Tribal Nations and leaders need to strengthen their governance systems and more effectively exercise their sovereignty. He also served as a policy lead on tribal workforce and economic development, and oversaw several NCAI projects, including its Building Tribal Economies Initiative, Ending “Indian” Mascots Initiative, Tribal Climate Action Initiative, and Tribal Food Sovereignty Advancement Initiative. From 2004 to 2014, Record served as Manager of Educational Resources for the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI) at the University of Arizona. Dr. Record obtained his Ph.D. in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. He is the author of Big Sycamore Stands Alone: The Western Apaches, Aravaipa, and the Struggle for Place, winner of the 2009 Southwest Book Award.

Michelle Singer (she/her | Navajo) is a tribal citizen and local Native professional who resides and works in Portland, Oregon.
Michelle’s professional career spans 35 years working in health, education, public policy, research, and community engagement.
Her past work experience includes working at an off-reservation Indian boarding school operated by the Department of Interior -Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oregon, two tribal colleges in Montana and Washington State, and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the national organization for the tribal college movement based in Alexandria, VA.
While in the Capitol beltway, she worked on Capitol Hill for ten years in the U.S. Senate as an Indian Affairs policy advisor. To date, she is one of the selected few Native professionals to have worked on both sides of the aisle in three separate Hill office venues (personal office, authorizing committee, and leadership).
Michelle returned to the Pacific Northwest and dedicated her professional ambitions and personal commitment to honor those who came before her and to be of service by sharing her experience, strength, and hope of helping others.
Michelle Singer is a first-generation college student and alumna of the University of Oregon.

Michael Sodini is the founder and CEO of Walk the Talk America, a nonprofit that brings the firearms community and mental health professionals together in pursuit of solutions that save lives. Since creating WTTA in 2018, Michael has become a sought after speaker, consultant, and advocate for reducing negative outcomes with firearms through education, compassion, and cultural change.

Before devoting himself full time to WTTA, Michael spent 27 years in the firearm industry as the president of Eagle Imports and co founder of Avidity Arms. His experience gave him a deep understanding of firearms culture and positioned him to create meaningful partnerships between manufacturers, retailers, clinicians, and community leaders.
Michael has been invited to share WTTA’s mission at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the White House, and numerous research conferences. He has appeared in documentaries that highlight the intersection of mental health and firearms, and continues to engage audiences at both gun industry events and mental health symposiums. His approachable style and passion for dialogue have made him a trusted voice for change.

Through WTTA, Michael has led the development of free and anonymous mental health screenings, clinician training programs to help providers better understand gun culture, and outreach that reduces stigma around seeking help. At the heart of his leadership is the belief that progress begins with listening. By creating spaces for open conversation and mutual respect, he continues to guide WTTA in advancing solutions that bring people together and strengthen communities.

Loris Taylor (Hopi Nation) is President and CEO of Native Public Media, where she advances digital access, journalism, media policy, and public broadcasting for 61 Tribal radio and television stations serving Native communities across the United States.
Throughout her career, Taylor has shaped national communications policy and expanded opportunities for Tribal media. She led the development of the nation’s first college-credit curriculum in Tribal Digital Journalism and Storytelling, helped establish the Federal Communications Commission’s Tribal Priority for broadcasting and the FCC Office of Native Affairs and Policy, and directed the landmark broadband study, New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian Country. In 2010, the FCC incorporated recommendations from that study into the U.S. National Broadband Plan.
Taylor has also contributed to influential national policy efforts through the Aspen Institute and the Knight Commission, including The Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and New Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities.
Her public service included membership on the FCC’s Diversity in a Digital Age Committee and leadership as Chair of the Economic, Finance, and Economic Development Committee and the Telecommunications Subcommittee of the National Congress of American Indians. In 2008, she represented Native Americans in briefing the Obama-Biden FCC Transition Team on telecommunications policy.
NPR recognized Taylor in 2015 for her contributions to public broadcasting. She is also a recipient of the Native Americans in Philanthropy Delgado Award and the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award.
Before leading Native Public Media, Taylor served as Executive Director of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association, General Manager of KUYI Radio, and Associate Director of the Hopi Foundation.

Governor Vilsack was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An orphan, he was adopted in 1951 by Bud and Dolly Vilsack. In 1972, he received a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. In 1975, he earned a law degree from Albany Law School.

He and his wife Christie, an Iowa native, were married in 1973. They have two sons, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren. Shortly after marriage, they settled in Christie’s hometown of Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

In 1998, he was first elected as the Governor of Iowa, where he served two terms. He became the 30th and 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture, from 2008-2017 and 2021-2025, respectively. Only five people in U.S. history have served in the Cabinet longer.

Effective March 1, 2025, Thomas J. Vilsack, became the first Chief Executive Officer for the World Food Prize Foundation. In this role, Governor Vilsack focuses on expanding the Foundation’s global network and further position the Foundation as a leader in addressing global food and nutrition insecurity, continuing his lifetime of public service.

Jim White joined NAO as its ED in October 2012. He is deeply committed to social change through private action and has worked in the nonprofit sector both domestically and internationally for more than 30 years. Jim has a passion for affecting systemic change in the way that the public, private and nonprofit sectors work together to support and strengthen our communities and civil society. He believes that one of the purest democratic values is having private individuals identify needs and solutions, and lead change in their communities for the greater good. Jim is proud to contribute to building the capacity, leadership and voice of Oregon’s vibrant nonprofit sector.

Before joining NAO, Jim worked in international disaster relief and development with Mercy Corps, the International Organization for Migration, Relief International and the American Red Cross. Jim has specific skills and experience in leading responses to natural and human caused disasters all over the world providing disaster response, recovery, and community-centered programming.