OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Kara Inae Carlisle is the President and CEO of The Ford Family Foundation. Kara brings deep experience in place-based philanthropy, with over 20 years in the social sector. She has worked in the fields of child and youth development, postsecondary success, community economic development and more. Kara’s connection and commitment to rural communities is lifelong. She spent much of her childhood in rural Indiana, in a town of fewer than 500 people. Kara holds a master’s in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, as well as a master of divinity degree in Urban Studies and Education from Claremont School of Theology. She serves as board secretary for Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement and on the board of the National Center for Family Philanthropy.

Chair

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Carol is the CEO of The Collins Foundation. Adopted with her twin from South Korea and raised in Maryland and rural Oregon, she is driven by a passion for equity and deep inclusion and a conviction that each of us has a role in creating a just society for everyone. Prior to joining The Collins Foundation, Carol served as a program officer and as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager at Meyer Memorial Trust. She has also worked as a farmworker, domestic violence advocate, health educator, nonprofit consultant and trainer, and policy and community engagement manager for the Oregon Health Authority’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. Carol has served on the boards of Seeding Justice (formerly the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation), the Hambleton Project, and the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, and is currently a board member of the Pride Foundation. 

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Truman serves as the President of The Collins Foundation, a board member of The Collins Companies, and as a trustee of Willamette University and the Collins Medical Trust. He earned his undergraduate degree from Willamette University in 1986 and his Master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1987. He worked for 25 years as a software developer in the field of electronic design automation.

Treasurer

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Based in Klamath Falls, Jessie is a longtime leader and advocate working at the intersection of youth development, food systems, and community-wide well-being. She is a program manager with the Southern Oregon Educational Service District, working alongside community members to support student success through the ​​Southern Oregon STEAM Hub, dual-credit coordination, and the Klamath Promise initiative. She is also a former small business owner, has worked in the Oregon Department of Human Services, and led the first Blue Zones Project community in the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised on her family’s multi-generation farm and ranch, Jessie is a board member for the Ross Ragland Theater and Cultural Center, serves on the SMART Reading Leadership Council for South Central Oregon, and helped create Klamath Farmers’ Online Marketplace (KFOM). Her two children are now the fifth generation on their family farm.

Secretary

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Toya is President and CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust. She is the former Executive Director of Stand for Children, Oregon, where she worked to ensure schools are equitable for all as one the primary authors of Ballot Measure 98 and a leader who played a pivotal role in the Student Success Act. Her determination to help Oregon youth succeed is rooted in her own upbringing as the first member of her extended family to graduate from college, and in her previous experience as a middle school teacher in Baton Rouge and in Washington, D.C., an education policy staffer for former Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and as an advocate with the Alliance for Excellence in Education.

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Carrie Hoops is the Executive Director of the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. For over thirty years, she has fostered institutional growth, strength, and leadership at a wide range of nonprofits spanning social services, arts and culture, humanities, and education. Prior to joining the Foundation, Carrie served as Executive Director of William Temple House, a social services agency providing low/no-cost mental health counseling, food pantry, and navigation services across the Portland metropolitan area. She has also served as Executive Director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, leading its strategic shift into statewide membership association advocating for a more visible, influential, and resilient nonprofit sector in Oregon. A lifelong Oregonian, Carrie loves gardening, hiking the state’s beautiful trails, and laughing as often as possible.

Vice Chair

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Peter, a principal of Koehler ADR LLC, is a mediator and arbitrator and a member of the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation’s board of directors. In 2020, he was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve as the mediator between timber and environmental groups during a collaborative effort to re-craft Oregon’s forest practices, leading to a historic agreement to sustainably advance both a thriving forestry economy and fish habitat conservation in Oregon streams. Peter previously served as corporate counsel for Nike, Inc., including as vice president responsible for managing the global legal team. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Oregon Environmental Council and Classroom Law Project. He lives in north Marion County on a working farm.

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Lisa Mensah is the President and CEO of Oregon Community Foundation. Her illustrious career has taken her from working on rural poverty with the Ford Foundation to serving as an Under Secretary for Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to leading Opportunity Finance Network. Lisa Mensah serves on the Boards of Ecotrust, Feeding America, Fidelity Bank of Ghana, and Heritage and Cultural Society of Africa (USA). She also serves as a member of the Advisory Committees of Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women and Gaia Impact Fund. Lisa Mensah holds an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from Harvard University. Born and raised in Oregon, Ms. Mensah is the daughter of an immigrant from Ghana and a former Iowa farm girl.

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Carina Miller is a proud Warm Springs, Wasco, and Yakima mother. She lives on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon and aims to use teachings from her upbringing to help transform the world into a more equitable and sustainable future. She currently works for the Warm Springs Community Action Team and previously worked for her tribe's Children's Protective Services, where she ran the independent living program and handled assisted guardianship cases. She also worked as a Head Start teacher, production assistant for TV news, and served as a Tribal Council member for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs from 2016-2019. A co-founder of multiple organizations, she holds a degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of Oregon.

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D.L. is an educator with over 25 years of experience in teaching, diversity and equity training, and public speaking. He is the Southern Oregon Black and African American Student Success Specialist with the Southern Oregon Education Service District, and a leader with the Black Southern Oregon Alliance, a community-based organization. Based in Ashland, he has also taught communication courses at the high school and university levels, including public speaking, journalism, media and civil rights history, and public relations. D.L.’s leadership includes service with the Oregon Cares Fund for Black Relief and Resiliency, the Oregon African American/Black Student Success Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Healthy Schools Reopening Council, the Oregon Racial Justice Council’s Education Recovery Committee, and the Jackson County United Way Board of Directors.

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Barbara is the Executive Director of National Vote at Home Institute. She served as an Oregon State Representative for nearly a decade, elected to represent communities including Northeast Portland, Maywood Park, and Parkrose. Inspired to seek public office after volunteering at her children’s local public school, her tenure in the Oregon Legislature included serving as House Majority Leader from 2019 to 2022. In 2019, she led the Joint Committee on Student Success to pass Oregon’s largest new investment in early learning and K-12 education in a generation, and rethink how schools engage their communities to provide an excellent and equitable education to all children. Throughout her career as a labor educator, political organizer, and lawmaker, she has remained deeply committed to supporting Oregonians to participate in an open, accessible government. The fifth and youngest child of an English teacher and a public television executive, Barbara now lives in Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood with her husband and two teenagers.

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Carrie co-owns and operates Thompson Timber Company in Corvallis, and serves on the board of The Ford Family Foundation. She previously worked as an elementary and middle school teacher for Corvallis Public Schools, and holds a current Oregon Teacher’s Certificate as she continues to substitute teach in the Corvallis and Philomath areas. In addition to managing a family foundation and a family-owned private equity fund, Carrie serves on the board of the Corvallis Youth Symphony Foundation. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington.

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Vanessa Wilkins is a strategic advisor who believes all schools should be places of joy and discovery where every child has the support and inspiration to fulfill their potential. Currently, Vanessa serves on the Oregon Community Foundation board of directors, as a venture partner at Oregon Venture Fund, a board advisor at Lightspeed Technologies, and an Expert-in-Residence at Harvard Innovation Lab. Previously, Vanessa worked at NIKE on the Nike School Innovation Fund, co-founded Partners in Scale, and served as Managing Director at Friends of the Children where she also served on the board for 17 years. Vanessa grew up in Portland, attending Portland Public Schools before she graduated from Boston University and Harvard Business School. Vanessa lives in Sisters, where her daughters both attended Sisters High School.