Her Own Wings

Susan Wahlke was first elected in 2014 to the Lincoln City City Council. She later was elected fulfill the previous mayor’s term. In 2022, she was elected to a full 4-year term as Mayor.

Susan is a 30-year resident of north Lincoln County. Born in Tacoma, Washington and having moved to Oregon in the 5th grade, she considers herself a native Pacific Northwesterner. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a degree in Elementary Education, she moved to Stuttgart, Germany where she substitute-taught in Department of Defense Schools. After three years in Europe, she was able to drive cross-country from New Jersey to Oregon, settling again in Eugene. After working in day care centers for a few years, she moved to Portland and began her 30-year career as a legal secretary. She moved to the Lincoln City area in 1992 with her two daughters. She now has four young grandchildren who she spends as much time with as possible.

Soon after moving to Lincoln County, Susan was hired by the City of Lincoln City and worked in the City Attorney’s office and also for the Chief of Police. After leaving City employment, she worked for attorneys in Lincoln City until her retirement a few years ago.

Married to a musician, they attend as many live music events as possible.

First appointed to the Newport City Council for a two-year term in 2018, Cynthia then won her seat in 2020. She is currently running unopposed for another four-year term. Cynthia reflects on the fact that the City has spent six years investing in her education about the city. She wants to give back as it takes a while to learn to ask the right questions. She never thought she would be in an elected position, but friends urged her on. She says, “So, I went for it, surprising myself most of all.”

Cynthia has observed that the conversation changes when more women are in policy-making roles. She has been a strong, primary advocate of childcare, playgrounds, public safety, and housing the unsheltered.

She serves on several city committees: Airport, Budget, Public Arts, Commercial Core Revitalization Plan. Additional city/county committees are Solid Waste Advisory, County Consortium, Public Safety, and Lincoln County Housing Advisory.

In Cynthia’s career as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and Advanced Practice Nurse (retired), she has built a life of serving others. She tends to look through the lens of public health in every policy of her city.

Among her leisure activities are gardening, painting and writing poetry. She lives with her husband and black Chihuahua, Ser Jorah of Mormont, overlooking the ocean on the Oregon Coast where she marvels at her extraordinary luck to be in such a place.

Thank you to our sponsor: Allied Video Productions

Cec grew up in Salem, but has been a member of the Monmouth-Independence community for over 40 years. She has volunteered with organizations from the cooperative preschool to the Chamber of Commerce, to the Monmouth-Independence Community Foundation, where she has served on the Board since 2001 (with almost 20 years as its treasurer).

Currently, Cec works as the Director of Finance & Operations for the Central School District and just completed 10 years of service on the Board of Trustees of Western Oregon University. She has served in both appointed and elected positions in the City of Monmouth, beginning with the Economic Development Commission and four years on Council. In 2018, Cec became the first elected woman Mayor. 

Besides raising a fantastic daughter (who lives in Independence!), her proudest accomplishments are those which help to create a more vibrant, connected community; she enjoys working with partners to deepen collaboration, respect differences, honor history and move everyone forward together.

Thank you to our sponsor: Allied Video Productions

Oregon City Mayor Denyse McGriff has extensive experience in government. She was the Principal Planner for the city from 1988 to 1996. Now retired, she has has worked for a number of local governments, including the Lane Council of Governments, Columbia County, City of Tillamook, Deschutes County, City of Oregon City and rounded out her career at the Portland Development Commission. Her public service career was multifaceted with an emphasis on historic preservation/conservation, adaptive reuse and land use planning. 

Denyse was first appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Commission in 2019, and then won a four-year term in 2020. She was elected to complete Mayor Lyles Smith’s term in August of 2022 before winning a full term in the next election. As the first woman of color to be elected mayor in Oregon City, she continues to champion a government and community where everyone has a voice. She has been active in the League of Oregon Cities DEI and the founding of the People of Color Caucus. 

She is active in several organizations and efforts in the Portland metro area such as the Oregon City Planning Commission, the Clackamas Heritage Council, McLoughlin Memorial Association, 1000 Friends of Oregon, Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center, National Trust for Historic Preservation among many others.  In 2013, she was awarded the Ruth McBride Powers Memorial Award for Service. The award notes the following: “Denyse’s passion for preservation and love for her community is very evident. No matter what hat Denyse has worn over the years, she continuously pushes everybody she meets to try a little harder and aim a little higher”- Vicki Yates, Oregon City Historic Review Board member. In addition, in 2018, she was a member of the Rose Farm Management Committee who received the Ruth McBride Powers Memorial Award for their service.

Denyse grew up in a military family and gained an appreciation for the small older communities adjacent to the bases. She arrived in Oregon in 1975 to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon and went on to graduate with degrees in Political Science (MS) and Urban and Regional Planning (MURP).  While at the University of Oregon, Denyse had a work study job with the Bureau of Governmental Research and Service/League of Oregon Cities.  She has now come full circle!

As an adult living in Seattle, Shoreline and Mukilteo, WA, Tita considered herself apolitical. She researched candidates and issues and voted but she had no thoughts of being involved in local government. But, when she moved to Seaside in 2002, she started attending city council meetings, as well as commission, committee and board meetings because she thought that’s what a responsible citizen should do. Within a couple of years she was elected to the board of the downtown development association and became the Chamber President. In 2004 she led a group which sued city hall for the right of citizens to vote on whether to allow ODOT to make 101 through Seaside into a five lane highway. Not many people can say they sued city hall and won! Not only did the citizens get to vote, 57% of those voting turned down ODOT’s proposal which would have destroyed 17 businesses and more than 70 homes. You could say that most of the city council members were not her fans. When she ran for office in 2006, the other guy got ONE more vote than she; but, in 2010 she was both appointed and elected to the council where she has served the city of Seaside for the last 14 years. During her years in Seaside, Tita has also co-owned a fabric store, worked as the Business & Community Liaison at Tongue Point Job Corps Center as well as the executive director of the Seaside Downtown Development Association. She estimates she has served on twenty or so boards, councils and commissions during the past 22 years. And this is the person who just had her sights on being a Library Board member when she moved to Seaside.

Mayor Engelke was elected by her community to serve the City of North Bend as Mayor in November 2022 and was the first female mayor. Her current term expires in November of 2024. Mayor Engelke had served previously as a North Bend Council Member after being elected as mayor in November 2018. 

Jessica Engelke is a longtime North Bend resident invested in making our community a better place. She is a tenured Business Professor at Southwestern Oregon Community College and teaches a variety of business classes. 

Jessica is very active in the community, besides her volunteer position as North Bend's Mayor she serves on several local boards and, in 2017, was the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce President. 

After having the opportunity to live in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Amsterdam, she returned home to North Bend in 2010 with her husband, Steven Ryan, and two daughters, Emily and Sophia, and has remained active in the community ever since. 

Jessica has over 30 years of hands-on experience in the business community.

www.instagram.com/mayorjessicaengelke

www.facebook.com/JessicaNBmayor

Kori Rodley is a lifelong Oregonian who was elected to the Springfield City Council in 2019 and she is the first out lesbian to serve on the council. Currently, she serves as chair of the Springfield Economic Development Agency (SEDA), chair of the Lane County Human Services Commission, and as a voting member of the League of Oregon Cities General Government Policy Committee. Her past service has included Springfield Utility Board budget committee and the 4J school district Equity Committee. In her day job she works with Lane County Developmental Disabilities Services.

Kori and her spouse, Teri, are the proud parents of five adult children and the extra-proud grandmas to 7-year-old Calvin and 3 year-old Penny.  In her “spare time” she loves digging in to renovate their “empty-nester” 1949 home and garden in the heart of Springfield. Kori is passionate about improving the housing and livability in Springfield, as well as creating an environment that supports diverse small businesses and building a community that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all.

https://kori-rodley.com/

Beatriz Botello Salgado has been serving as a Newport City Council member for the past 5 years. She was appointed in January of 2019 and ran for election in 2020 to a 4 year-term. Beatriz has lived on the Oregon Coast for 28 years and actively volunteers and participates in various community committees. For the past 20 years, she has been a part of the OSU Extension team as a nutrition educator. Beatriz collaborates on projects between agencies and non-profits that promote diversity and equity by using different communication strategies. She advocates for the advancement of community and the preservation of the environment. 

Beatriz enjoys living in Newport with her husband and has three adult daughters who all live in different cities in Oregon. In her free time, she loves talking with family and friends, reading, and learning about other cultures. 

www.NewportOregon.gov

Amanda Fritz was first elected to Portland's City Council in 2008. Prior to being elected, Commissioner Fritz was a neighborhood activist and seven-year member of the Portland Planning Commission. 

Upon moving to Portland from New York, Fritz began working at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) as an inpatient nurse in the hospital's psychiatry department. 

She was also the first candidate to win public financing under Portland's Clean Elections system in 2006, though she lost to incumbent Dan Saltzman in the first round of that year's election. 

Fritz won re-election in 2016. During the city's fiscal year of 2017-2018, she cast the deciding vote on the Council to adopt the campaign financing reform program "Open and Accountable Elections," which would award public matching funds to candidates who agreed to not take large contributions, or any contributions from corporations and PACs. The system was launched in the 2020 election cycle. 

On April 5, 2019, Fritz announced that she would not seek re-election to Portland City Council, saying that she hoped a larger field of candidates would run for her seat using the Open and Accountable Elections system. She retired in January 2021.

Lacey Beaty was elected Beaverton’s Mayor in 2020, and took office in January 2021. Prior to serving as Mayor, she served for six years on Beaverton City Council. Before joining the City Council, she was a volunteer for the city’s Visioning Advisory Committee, serving as vice-chair. She is engaged in the community including serving on the boards of HomePlate Youth Services and Community Action. She commits to making our community even more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming.

Mayor Beaty previously worked in public health, managing school-based health centers in five school districts and two counties. She served five years of active duty in the U.S. Army as a radiology specialist and combat medic and served in the 1st Infantry Division during the Iraq War. Mayor Beaty has shared that her military background is the relentless driving force that keeps her moving forward everyday. Her daughter Aella is the one who inspires and motivates her to keep doing the work every day to improve our community.

As Mayor, she brought together public and private partners to establish and facilitate the first COVID-19 mass vaccine POD in Washington County. In addition to the City of Beaverton’s direct allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funding ($16.85M), she brought an additional $5.1M to support projects in Beaverton. Mayor Beaty was instrumental in establishing a year-round shelter with a health clinic and behavioral health resources to serve those experiencing homelessness.

She is the youngest-ever elected official and the first woman Mayor in Beaverton’s history. Mayor Beaty is married, and her husband Ian is a Major with the U.S. Army and a full-time officer in the Oregon Army National Guard. Mayor Beaty has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Oregon State University, a graduate degree in Management and Organizational Leadership from Warner Pacific University, and a certificate in Public Leadership from the University of San Francisco.

www.BeavertonOregon.gov