Holly Brunk is Family Forward Oregon’s Board President. With 8 years of experience in sustainable business development and 12 years of social services management (and a Masters degree in Learning and Organizational Change on the way) Holly has enjoyed working to engage organizations in strategic sustainability practices through social, economic and environmental perspectives. She currently works for Ecova, providing Awareness and Training services to Fortune 500 companies who are actively reducing carbon emissions and reliance on energy and natural resources. She also founded and developed a local, family owned business called Entermodal. Holly likes to think big and back up the high level goals with tangible and strategic action. Holly is the mother of two boys and the wife of an amazing father and husband who bends over backward to help maintain a semblance of work/life balance in their home.
Nancy Davis is Family Forward Oregon’s Board Treasurer. She has served on the board of directors for family-focused organizations as varied as the Children’s Relief Nursery, Childpeace Montessori, YWCA of Greater Portland and Zimmerman Community Center. Nancy worked in recruiting and workforce development for more than a dozen years before transitioning to nonprofit work. This change has allowed her to create work that links her passion for families, children and strong communities.
Barbara Dudley is a lawyer turned activist and teacher; a mother and a grandmother. She worked with the Alliance for Displaced Homemakers and wrote the first Displaced Homemakers Legislation in 1974; she represented farmworkers through California Rural Legal Assistance and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. She has been President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild and Executive Director of a New York based Unitarian Universalist charitable foundation. From 1992 to 1997 Barbara was the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA and in 1998 was appointed Assistant Director for Strategic Campaigns of the national AFL‑CIO. Barbara moved to Oregon in 1999 where she has been a partner in a family owned vineyard, Bethel Heights, since 1978. Barbara is co-chair of the Oregon Working Families Party and teaches at Portland State University.
Veronica Ericksen is on the board of Family Forward Education Fund. She works as a nurse for Multnomah County’s Nurse Family Partnership program, doing home visits with new mothers beginning in pregnancy and extending until their child is 2 years old. She also has experience as a community health worker and is trained as a popular educator. A few years ago, she joined a Family Forward Oregon reading group which then helped spawn a workplace affinity group called County Parents. She also participates in an affinity group for employees of color at the county. She is a Latina mother of two.
Rujuta Gaonkar has been living and working in the Pacific Northwest for the past 12 years, doing research, evaluation and program development in the public health field, always focused on the intersection between public health and social justice. She currently coordinates the Health Promotion Change Process at Multnomah County, an internal initiative focused on grounding the work of the county’s health department in empowerment and health equity. Since her transition to motherhood in early 2010, Rujuta has become more keenly aware of and passionate about the importance of assuring that all parents and caregivers have the support they need to maintain healthy families.
Dr. Mary King is a labor economist on the faculty of the Economics Department at Portland State University, where her teaching and research focus on the economic experience of women and members of ethnic minorities. She has a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.
Juan Carlos Ordóñez is a father and serves as the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s Communications Director. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he practiced commercial litigation in New York City for six years. He left the practice of law and returned to his native Guatemala, where he worked as a freelance journalist and supported numerous civic projects, many of which focused on the sustainable development of indigenous communities.
Dr. Kim M. Williams is a political scientist and Academic Director of the Center for Women, Politics & Policy at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. Before joining the faculty at Portland State in 2011, she taught at the Harvard Kennedy School (2000-2010). Her research and teaching focus on immigration and race in American politics. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley and a PhD in Government from Cornell University. Kim and her husband, Mingus, are the parents of two adorable young sons: Langston and Coltrane.
