BUILDING, LEADING, AND LEARNING: 2007-2026

Building Community, Delivering Care

Driven by a desire to expand affordable housing while protecting our environmental future, I co-founded Cityhouse Builders and Cityhouse Partners, with a focus on sustainably built affordable homes for first-time buyers. And, as if launching a small business wasn’t enough to do, I found myself issuing the first payroll the same week my daughter, Esperanza, was born. Partnering with the City of Portland and Proud Ground, we constructed Oregon’s very first land-trust condominium, an innovative model that allowed families who could never afford a market-rate home to build generational equity while permanently preserving the public investment, ensuring those homes remained affordable for the next buyer.

After five years in affordable housing development, I returned to community healthcare. I stepped into the role of Executive Director for the Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation, the philanthropic, communications and advocacy arm of Oregon’s second-largest federally qualified health center. Over my tenure, we scaled private fundraising from $1 million to $5 million annually, helping the center double its capacity to expand medical care from 25,000 to 50,000 vulnerable patients each year. When the pandemic hit, our team collaborated with Latino organizations across Oregon to confront glaring healthcare inequities, successfully moving the Governor to mandate equitable vaccine distribution formulas for immigrant, refugee, and BIPOC communities.

From County Operations to Lasting Policy

When the pandemic highlighted the need for large-scale, coordinated public systems, I returned to Multnomah County to serve as its Chief Operating Officer. I arrived with a deep respect for the county's mission to save lives, but I found an organization filled with departments that were experts in their own isolated lanes yet struggled to work together. My objective became clear: break down management silos, build internal trust, and connect operations across departments to deliver better results for taxpayers and neighbors.

Our greatest operational test came with the implementation of HB 4002, which recriminalized minor drug possession and required the county to launch a comprehensive addiction deflection system on a razor-thin state timeline. It meant bringing together an immense network of independent parties: the Sheriff, the District Attorney, public defenders, city governments, and mental health providers. When our original physical facility plans hit delays, we didn't pause. We rebuilt the operational framework on the fly, pivoted immediately to a mobile, field-based deflection model, and launched completely on time because our partnerships were strong enough to bend without breaking.

I stepped down from the COO role having learned more about how this $4 billion institution functions (and exactly where it stalls) than I could have from any other vantage point. That operational knowledge does not belong on a shelf. It belongs back in the policy arena, where the county’s direction is set.