By Jenni Denekas | 15-minute read
Since 2012, our Land Use Leadership Initiative has mentored more than 250 community leaders across the state on Oregon’s land use system. This year's spring cohort is centered in the Portland metro region, gathering 31 community members together to explore diverse land use issues across both sides of the urban growth boundary. This program is possible thanks to sponsorship from the East Multnomah County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Meet our 2026 cohort
Kristin Bowling
Kristin founded, and served as the executive director of, Urban Nature Partners PDX from 2014 to 2025. In this role, she connected Portland youth from marginalized communities to urban greenspaces and programming through an outdoor mentorship model.
Kristin previously served as a leader in visitor services with the National Park Service for 15 years. She has a master’s in education and an undergraduate degree in environmental policy. For her third professional chapter, Kristin aspires to put her partnership and equity-building skills to good use in Oregon's land trust sector.
Aly Chen
Aly is originally from North Carolina and currently works at Growing Gardens, a Portland-based nonprofit. Her spirit is fueled by walking around town and contemplating urban design's influence on our emotions and sense of belonging. Aly is interested in exploring how land use advocacy can remedy systemic disparities, promote ecological health, and foster community cohesion.
Colleen Dixon
Colleen is passionate about building strong partnerships and supporting organizations through periods of transformation. Known for fostering collaboration, developing teams, and nurturing positive, values-driven cultures, she helps organizations expand their impact with purpose and heart.
Colleen has worked with a wide range of grassroots nonprofits advancing equity and access in environmental justice, digital inclusion, food justice, youth empowerment, queer liberation, and more. As a fundraiser and strategist committed to social justice philanthropy, she has partnered with foundations and community-led initiatives to move resources to the people and communities driving lasting change.
José Gamero-Georgeson
José is the vice chair of the David Douglas School Board, the president-elect of the Oregon School Boards Association. He is also serving as co-chair to the City of Portland’s Sustainability and Climate Commission, after completing his service on the city's Government Transition Advisory Committee. José is involved with the Working Families Party, as well as at the county and state levels of the Democratic Party, where he is the chair of the Disability Justice Caucus.
When his life is not consumed by yet another meeting, you can find him with his husband, Steve; four-year-old little boy, Seth; and their two dogs, Philly and Bailey.
Claire Gilles
Claire Gillies is passionate about community-rooted environmental work and building a more sustainable future. With a background in social science and experience supporting local climate action and mission-driven organizations, she cares deeply about the connection between people and the places they call home.
Her professional background in healthcare has shaped her empathetic, patient-centered approach and thoughtful communication style. Outside of work, Claire enjoys barre classes, hiking with her long-term partner, and spending time with her family—especially her two-year-old niece.
Max Goldman
Max grew up in Portland and graduated from the University of Oregon. He is currently working on his master’s degree in public policy from Portland State University and expects to graduate in June. His master’s capstone project involves researching policies, regulations and proposals to enhance transit-oriented development in the Portland-Metro region—in collaboration with Cassie Wilson, legislative manager at 1000 Friends of Oregon.
Max previously lived in New York City for three years, working in several roles: as a COVID-19 Investigator, a supply chain coordinator for a food rescue nonprofit, and a group fitness coach. He went back to school because he wanted to pursue a career in public service.
In his spare time, Max enjoys working out, playing basketball, cooking, spending time outside, and testing out his new DJ controller.
David Hoang
David Hoang first got his exposure to land use planning during his time at Portland State University, where he was a leader for Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP). After supporting capital projects at the Convention Center, he began following post-pandemic trends in construction projects and real estate development, and is deeply curious about how our examination of tomorrow influences our decisions of today.
A longtime advocate for community resources and environmental education, David recently completed Metro’s Master Recycler Program and is proud of his time on the Multnomah Youth Commission during his teen years, where his cohort helped get free bus passes for high school students and hosted several candidate forums for mayoral and city commissioner candidates.
Udit Khandelwal
Udit is from Maharashtra, India and has been working as a transportation planner for the consultancy Fehr & Peers in Portland since 2024.
Before that, he graduated from Portland State University with a master’s in urban studies. During his graduate studies, Udit interned for TriMet’s transit-oriented development team, researching ways to do something better with the agency’s Park and Rides. Udit says, “My brain resides at the intersection of transportation and land use, and I enjoy comparing and contrasting the rigidity of zoning and land use in the US with the seemingly laissez-faire approach to occupying any piece of land in India. Though I’m fairly familiar with the paradigm and structure of transportation planning in Oregon, with this workshop I’m eager to better understand the land use side of the conversation.”
Shin Lee
Shin is a Taiwanese American third-culture kid born in the suburbs of New Jersey. She spends her time thinking about food systems, building community, and creating meaning while nesting, gardening, and riding her motorcycle with her pup Goose.
She’s worked in Southern California and China as a supply chain consultant for high-end consumer electronics, touched all the textiles in home decor as a buying assistant, and herded sheep and made yogurt on a family-owned dairy in the Adirondacks before finding her place in community food systems here in Portland, Oregon.
She is a community weaver and the current executive director at Oregon Community Food System Network. Curious about what’s happening across the state? Ask her about food hubs, food is medicine, policy, disaster resilience, and all things about Oregon’s food systems and she’ll point you in the right direction.
Sally Leisure
Sally says, “I am thrilled to join this LULI cohort, this group of people interested in the health and liveability of Oregon. As a life long Portlander, a lawyer, a navigator for Fair Housing Bus Tours, and a mom, I want to learn from this group how we can make good decisions about living well together. In discussions about land use processes I hope we can learn to be more thoughtful, to better understand different perspectives, and avoid unintended consequences in our pursuit of dignity for all.”
Isabelle Lishewski
Originally from Ohio, Isabelle has lived in Portland for 8 years, by way of Phoenix, Arizona. She previously worked on an organic vegetable farm and was a produce manager for natural grocers before moving to Oregon. She worked for Green Zebra Grocery for several years until moving onto her current place of employment, Organically Grown Company.
Isabelle says, “While not directly working in land use, I'm grateful to work for a company that cares about land use advocacy and farmland preservation. I am excited to expand my knowledge of land use in Oregon, so I can become more involved in preserving the natural beauty that I love so much about Oregon.”
Outside of work Isabelle likes camping, hiking, and kayaking. She also enjoys volunteer dog-walking at the animal shelter and serves on the Portland Slow Food Board.
Nicole (Nic) Luland
Nic Luland is a Preschool for All head teacher and dedicated community advocate living in Portland’s Sumner neighborhood. With 15 years in early childhood education, Nic brings a unique perspective on how housing and infrastructure impact working families to her role in the 2026 LULI cohort.
Nic is involved in local leadership as chair of the Sumner Association of Neighbors (SAN) and as a member of the Sumner-Parkrose-Argay-Columbia Corridor (SPACC) Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Community Leadership Committee. Her work focuses on proactive, equitable development, particularly through her roles on the Land Use, Transportation, Open Spaces, and Planning (LUTOP) committees for both SAN and the District 1 East Coalition. When not advocating for East Portland, Nic is likely outdoors with her partner, Dylan, and their two doodles, Phin and Bert.
Madison Moskowitz
Madison is the government relations manager at REACH Community Development, one the largest nonprofit developers and operators of affordable housing in the Portland Metro area.
Madison previously served as US Senator Ron Wyden's domestic policy director in his Washington, D.C. office. From 2021 to 2025, she served as the senator's economic policy advisor, leading efforts on housing, homelessness, small business, and real estate policy.
Madison began her career in public service after graduating from Portland public schools and the University of Oregon. She is devoted to her rescue pets and lives in Northeast Portland.
Leilani Mroczkowski
Leilani Mroczkowski (they/them) is a queer, mixed-race land tender and birthworker with lineages from the Eastern Visayas (Philippines) and Małopolska (Poland) regions.
They are one half of the team at Kasama Farm, a diversified vegetable farm specializing in Southeast and East Asian crops and varieties.
When they are not farming, Leilani can be found hiking with their dog, swimming as much as possible, cooking elaborate meals for their partner, and taking care of their family and friends. They are a big lover of the land and enjoy connecting others to the land.
Juan Muñoz
Juan M. Muñoz Jiménez was born in Dayton, Ohio and was raised half the time in the Midwest and the other half in his native home of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Juan’s love for the outdoors brought him to the southwest after completing his master’s in business administration in marketing and international business at Wright State University. He has a decade of communications and marketing experience at affordable housing, environmental education, and climate policy nonprofits.
A recent transplant to the northwest, Juan now works with the Climate Solutions communications team and coalition partners to push forward action on climate change in the state of Oregon. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, archery, judo, and general outdoor shenanigans with his family.
Providance Nagy
Providance is a parking code enforcement officer with the City of Portland. Her role supports livability and transportation safety through public engagement and the enforcement of City code. The safe mobility of pedestrians has been a foundational value throughout most of her professional career ever since a serendipitous opportunity to administer the Florida School Crossing Guard Training Program occurred over fifteen years ago.
Providance is also a veteran who served twenty years on both active duty and in the Marine Corps Reserve. Her military service included deployments to the Mediterranean Sea, Iraq, the Horn of Africa. She also had the privilege to be a member of the Transition Team for US Africa Command in 2007.
Providance moved to Portland from Florida less than a decade ago. This city reminds her of Germany where she had lived abroad as a high school exchange student (the same year the Berlin Wall collapsed). Today, she enjoys a myriad of walkabouts throughout Portland and short escapes to Multnomah Falls.
Matt Penberthy
Matt was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and moved to Oregon in 2021. Matt currently works as an agricultural land easement program coordinator, a shared position between the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). He assists in management of NRCS’s Agricultural Land Easement Program, collaborating with landowners and easement holders to acquire working lands conservation easements.
Matt first learned about Oregon’s land use system through the RARE AmeriCorps program, serving the McKenzie Valley and rural Lane County from 2021–2022. He is excited to join the LULI cohort to engage deeper with Oregon’s land use system.
Matt is passionate about natural climate solutions. He has a bachelor’s of science in environmental science, a master of arts in global environmental policy, and previous experience with nonprofit management, policy advocacy/analysis and collaborative environmental development. In his free time, Matt can usually be found outside, either exploring the PNW wonders or on the volleyball court.
Joan Petit
Joan is an academic librarian whose interest in land use is related to her passion for transportation. She’s an advocate for liveable, walkable communities and better infrastructure for transit, bicycling, and walking, facilitated by denser, more affordable housing, and much less driving for all of us.
Originally from the northeast, she moved to North Carolina for college—where she first started commuting by bike–and later worked in outdoor recreation as a raft guide and kayak instructor in the southern Appalachians. She began to appreciate cities when she realized how car-dependent it was to pursue outdoor recreation in the NC mountains.
As an early career librarian, she and her family moved to Cairo, Egypt, for Joan’s work, and they lived there for two years before moving to Portland in 2009. She’s now a bike commuter and recreational cyclist who is delighted to call Portland home. Joan is grateful for the opportunity to participate in LULI to grow her understanding of the intersection of transportation, housing, and land use in Oregon and beyond.
Ian Rees
As the Safe Routes to School Coordinator for the Centennial School District, Ian is dedicated to creating safer, more accessible neighborhoods for students and families in East Multnomah County. His work sits at the intersection of public health, infrastructure, and community advocacy, ensuring that the "last mile" of a student’s journey is the safest part of their day.
Before transitioning into urban policy, Ian spent 15 years in collegiate and professional sports, managing high-stakes environments and complex operations. A mid-career pivot led him to Tulane University, where he earned a master’s in public administration and developed a deep-seated belief in the power of multi-modal transportation and walkable cities.
Ian also serves as the chairperson of the Parks Committee for the Centennial Community Association. Whether advocating for better bike lanes or revitalizing local green spaces, he is committed to building a more connected and resilient Portland Metro area.
Heather Rockwell
Heather Rockwell is the founder and owner of Calluna Consulting, LLC, a strategic communication and legislative advocacy firm that partners with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations working to build a more compassionate and sustainable world. This year, Heather has been partnering with clients like the Oregon Chapter of the American Planning Association and Oregon Agricultural Trust to advocate for policies that protect Oregon's unique land use system and irreplaceable natural resources.
As a life-long Oregonian raised on a small farm in Junction City, this work is deeply personal to Heather. She's honored to bring both experience and passion into her work, and excited to learn from the rest of her LULI cohort what unique combinations of experience and passion led them to where they are today.
Devin Ruiz
Devin Ruiz is a queer Latina from Los Angeles, CA. She has dual degrees in political science and women, gender and sexuality studies from Portland State University. Her thesis study of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s concept of a racial grammar as a lens for examining how public policy works to exclude Black and non-white Latine communities from political participation brought her to Next Up Action Fund. This nonprofit engages the next-generation of BIPOC leaders to build political power and fight for a more just and equitable Oregon. For the last five years, Devin has been overseeing youth leadership development and electoral strategy. Most recently, she became Next Up’s Deputy Director, establishing both their co-governance at the City of Portland and deep canvassing programs.
Since 2022, Devin has been a founding board member and secretary for Verde Action. In her free time Devin loves to explore queerness with her partner, Angelica, through travel, zine collecting and making new friends.
Kelsey Shaw Nakama
Kelsey grew up in Seattle, spending countless days at local parks and beaches along the Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Those days tromping through woods and peaking in tidepools nurtured her curiosity and motivated her interest in protecting natural spaces.
Since moving to Oregon in 2010, Kelsey has continued to explore the Pacific Northwest’s forests, mountains, and rivers—adventures that eventually led her to Lewis and Clark Law School, where she earned her J.D. with a certificate in environmental and natural resource law.
She particularly enjoys opportunities to create new environmental advocates through meaningful outdoor recreation and restoration experiences that inspire lasting connections to nature.
Katie Skakel
Katie Harkins Skakel is a strategic resilience and land use planner with over 32 years of cross-sector experience in hazard mitigation, floodplain management, and climate adaptation. Throughout her career, she has bridged the gap between federal policy and local implementation, specializing in a “whole community” approach to disaster risk reduction. Katie is dedicated to advancing the conversation and action on resilience, moving communities beyond mere hazard preparation toward a future where they truly thrive.
Most recently, Katie served as the community engagement and outreach coordinator for a National Institute of Standards and Technology-funded center of excellence involving 14 universities. In this role, she translated complex resilience research into actionable strategies for diverse stakeholders.
Her background includes pivotal roles within FEMA Region X, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, and the Columbia River Gorge Commission, as well as lead planning positions for Multnomah County, Hood River County, and the City of The Dalles.
Carl Smith
Carl is from a large group of families that came to St. Paul and Mt. Angel, Oregon in the 1840s–50s and 1860s. These families are all still here farming today.
Carl says, “I’m 65 now and have worked in agriculture my entire life. I started when I was helping my sister and brother-in-law on their new farm in 1972. Now they are both 76 and planning to leave their farm to an organization that will sell it and create a fund for 1st generation college students. Most of my relatives are semi-conservative ‘ag people,’ but my family in particular was introduced to a different approach to life, mostly due to the influences of the women, like my paternal grandmother, my step mom, and others. I am very blessed."
Adam Sunshine
Adam has spent the past few years working within the Portland-metro local food system as a farm worker, a market manager at Hillsdale Farmers Market, and an advocate for smart growth on the urban growth boundary near Hillsboro and North Plains. Before shifting into local food systems, Adam spent about a decade in marketing and business development, primarily with T-Mobile. Transitioning to food systems work grew out of a personal curiosity about where his food was coming from, and over time that curiosity expanded into a deeper interest in the land, policies, and communities that make local food systems possible.
Adam says, “I’m especially interested in land access, farm viability, and how planning can support more resilient local economies. I’m excited to be part of LULI, learn alongside other community leaders, and better understand how Oregon’s land use system works in practice.”
Marissa Theve
Marissa hails from rural eastern Connecticut and has worked as a soil scientist for the last 15 years. She earned a bachelor’s of science in environmental science from the University of Rhode Island, followed by a master’s of science in natural resources from the University of Connecticut (UCONN) where she worked on soil mapping.
Then, Marissa moved to Salem, Oregon in 2016 to accept a forestry-focused position. In 2023, Marissa pivoted to agricultural soil science.
In her spare time, Marissa serves on Salem’s Planning Commission, on Salem Bike Vision’s steering committee, helps lead Quiet Clean Salem’s effort to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers, and works to combat light pollution with Dark Sky Salem.
She enjoys gardening, working out, hiking, cross country skiing, visiting hot springs, and biking and walking downtown and to parks.
Jacqui Treiger
Jacqui studied environmental earth science and public health at Washington University in St. Louis, then joined Green Corps, a training program in environmental organizing. In the program, Jacqui learned how to develop strategic campaign plans and recruit and train volunteers.
After graduating from the program, Jacqui expanded her skills at GRID Alternatives Mid-Atlantic in Washington, D.C., by managing a team and project managing two grants to install solar systems at no cost for low- and moderate-income residents, in coordination with a job training program. She also worked with the district government on improving policies to make programs more accessible. She continued organizing as a volunteer with 350DC.
Jacqui has now returned to the west coast, where she was born and raised. She is excited to bring her project management experience and passion for policy and strategic thinking to Oregon Environmental Council. She is also excited to explore her new home in Portland and to explore all the natural beauty that Oregon has to offer.
Bess Waldram
Bess is a born-and-raised Portlander who works on climate solutions in the food and agriculture sector. She currently works at the Environmental Defense Fund, partnering with food and agriculture companies to advance climate action across the dairy sector.
She studied chemical engineering at the University of Notre Dame and previously worked in corporate mergers and acquisitions, product innovation, and supply chain operations. Her work is shaped by an interest in how systems—from global food supply chains to local land use decisions—can better support a stable climate and resilient communities.
Outside of work, Bess enjoys playing tennis, skiing, and trying out new skills (lately metalworking and sewing).
Matt Wurst
Matt is originally from Houston, Texas where he grew up and attended Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, TX), graduating with a degree in political science.
After graduation, he moved to Portland, where he has been focused on learning about and developing abilities and networks to interact with and collaborate in public policy. Matt has bipartisan experience serving as a legislative assistant in the Oregon House of Representatives and nonpartisan experience within the Legislative Assembly. He also has experience organizing campaigns and with volunteer organizations.
Matt has a master’s of public policy from Portland State University, where he focused on advocacy and policy networks. He is hoping to continue to be involved in policymaking and work with communities to pursue the policy objectives and changes needed to sustain healthy and strong communities. In his spare time, he likes to read and listen to audiobooks, play video games, and spend time with his family.
Additional cohort members
Roman Patchell and Kris Willingham.
