LWVOR Leaders
Members of the Board 2011-2012
Members of the LWV of Oregon Board of Directors are elected by League member representatives at our annual meeting in May. All Board members are volunteers and are members of the LWV of Oregon.
Officers
Robin Wisdom
President 2011-13
LWV of Umpqua Valley
Robin was the first born to a family of three girls in San Diego where her father was stationed in the Navy in 1949. In her early years she lived in Newport, Rhode Island, and Athens, Georgia for short periods before her father retired from the Navy in San Diego. She went to junior high and high school in Chula Vista, south of San Diego, After graduating from high school in 1967, Robin traveled for a few years in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii before meeting her husband Gerald. They married and settled down just west of Roseburg near Porter Creek in 1976. Gerald was hired and later retired from the Roseburg City Fire Department. Robin returned to school where she earned an Associate degree in Applied Science in Computer Programming in 1990 at Umpqua Community College.
Robin worked professionally in credit reporting, in communications at a printing factory, for an environmental group in Roseburg, and as an office manager for a women’s medical clinic. She joined the League in 2001 and retired from work in 2005. In 2006 she was LWVOR’s development chair for one year and from 2009 to 2011. She has served as the Umpqua Valley’s League president for three years and as Treasurer. In May 2011, Robin was elected as President of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, the state League, 2011-2013. Robin is also an avid beader, sewer, traveler and rafter of Oregon rivers, and advocate for increased wilderness designation in Oregon.
Contact Robin: R.Wisdom[at]lwvor.org
Mary Sinclair
1st Vice President 2011-13
Technology Co-Chair
LWV of Rogue Valley
Mary often says everything she knows, she learned in the League of Women Voters. She is an alumna of UC Davis, (BS, teaching credential) and the College of William and Mary (MBA). Mary first joined the League in Palo Alto, CA in 1974, and served on the League Board as Director of several portfolios and President before managing two grants for LWVC—Energy Information Exchange among Local Governments, and coordination of the first public meeting on The Long Range Plan for the Desert. Mary has been a League member since first joining, and has served also on the Boards in Williamsburg, VA, Ithaca, NY, and Medford, OR. In 1987 Mary moved to Virginia and was elected in 1991 to the Board of Supervisors in York County, VA and was a candidate for Congress in 1994. During her time on the Board of Supervisors, the county constructed a state-of-the-art prison facility, a new bridge over the York River and a creative middle-school/high-school complex. While in Virginia she championed municipally run solid waste disposal, curbside recycling, and yard debris composting; was a founding board member of a health center that provided services to the uninsured and under-served; and served on many Boards including Habitat for Humanity, the Williamsburg Aids Network, the Historic Triangle Community Services Center, and Transitions – Family Violence Services. In 2001, Mary moved to Ithaca, NY. As a volunteer, she did data entry and interpretation for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. On retirement in 2007, they moved to Medford, Oregon where Mary served on the Rogue Valley Audubon Board and currently manages the database for the Disaster Registry in Jackson and Josephine Counties. Mary has lived, volunteered and worked in Seattle, Guatemala, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Williamsburg and Ithaca. She has been social worker, lab technician in pharmacology, and teacher; she worked for the YWCA and was involved with political campaigns before being hired by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce to develop the first Leadership Palo Alto program. Mary has trekked many times in the Himalaya, bicycled in Inner-Mongolia, led bicycle trips to wilderness regions of the US and Mexico and continues to backpack and hike. Gardening is a passion. Everything she knows, she learned in the League of Women Voters……
Contact Mary: M.Sinclair[at]lwvor.org
Marnie Lonsdale
2nd Vice President 2010-12
Program
LWV of Portland
Marnie Lonsdale recently retired to Portland, Oregon. Prior to moving to Portland she lived in Duluth, MN, where she was a project coordinator for Duluth Storm and Sanitary Sewer utilities. Her experience includes education, grant and permit writing and technical support. She was recognized by the South St. Louis Soil and Water Board and the St. Louis River Citizens Action Committee for her work to create public awareness of water issues and was a principle investigator in developing the award winning Great Lakes Stream/Duluth Streams website. She also has 20 years of experience in quality control and environmental management in chemical, medical and cleaning manufacturing. He past experience includes serving as president of the Park Forest, Illinois, school board. She has been a League member and served on local boards in Illinois, Minnesota and Oregon. She co-chaired the recently completed LWVOR Water Study and is chairing the Coastal Management Study. Marnie graduated from Cornell University and holds a MS from Purdue University and a MBA from Nova Southeastern University.
Contact Marnie: M.Lonsdale[at]lwvor.org
Becky Gladstone
Secretary 2011-13
LWV of Lane County
I grew up as an Army (Intelligence) Brat, mostly overseas, moving an average of every three and a half months by the time I started at UW in Seattle, graduating from the School of Fisheries in 1979. My husband and I met in Honors Organic Chemistry, where he was top of the class and I wasn’t. While I began working, he went on to UW Medical School. I proceeded to become a very active Navy Wife, enjoying my new family, one daughter born in Virginia, another in Bethesda, Maryland, ten days before two years on Guam. I had an early subscription to Ms. Magazine, knew that NOW stood for both National Organization for Women and Naval Officers’ Wives, comfortable with both.
I volunteered along the way: Red Cross, Smithsonian greenhouses, Navy Relief budget counseling, selling jewelry for scholarships at the Wives’ Club Bazaar on Guam, reading the Children’s Story Hour at the Orange, Ct. Public Library.
When we moved to Oregon I learned about Measure 5 and immediately became involved in Public School support, from Parent and Site Council service and leadership at each of my daughters’ schools to school district committees for Technology, Netiquette, and the early district Parent Council. I chaired Parent Library Volunteers, magazine sales, and an all-night graduation party. I costumed six high school musicals, with casts of about a hundred with costume changes. I started an ongoing e-newsletter and student directory at South Eugene High School. I was a six-year career center counselor.
I enjoy cooking, belong to a couples dinner group exploring cuisines. We use veggies, fruits and flowers from our yard. We’ve restored Oregon Supreme Court Judge Lawrence T. Harris’ Eugene house, built in 1925. I belong to a quilting group, a book group, and knit and sew concertedly. I have served on our church vestry and I formatted a church cookbook. I have been President and have printed several yearbooks for my study group, known as the first Women’s study group west of the Rockies, founders of the Eugene (Carnegie) Public Library, which we still support. I have done website work for Eugene City Club and a couple of political party sites.
My public school support led me to lobby in Salem, more political activism, campaign and party work including volunteer coordination, county, congressional district and state-wide outreach and two national conventions as a delegate. I served as an elected state secretary.
I am married to Igor, a Eugene neonatologist. My daughter Anna graduated in theoretical math and computer science. My daughter Laura is completing a particle astrophysics PhD. I have served as Secretary for LWVLC and look forward to being on the slate as Secretary for the LWVOR.
Contact Becky: B.Gladstone[at]lwvor.org
Pamela Ashland
Treasurer 2010-12
LWV of Clackamas County
Pamela Ashland is a native Oregonian. She started volunteering as a Camp Fire leader when she was in college. Her volunteering has been primarily youth based until she joined the League of Women Voters of Oregon (and Clackamas County) seven years ago. She is currently volunteering as a reading tutor in the local school. Other volunteering has been with Girl Scouts (leader, day camp coordinator, and board member), library (board member and helper), and Camp Fire (leader, alumni member, and volunteer helper.) As a League member, she has worked on studies, observed local government, written ballot measure information articles, and worked on various committees. She is currently serving on the LWVOR board as the treasurer. Her other interests include: reading, knitting, walking, and other outdoor activities.
Contact Pam: P.Ashland[at]lwvor.org
Directors
Alice Bartelt
Director 2010-12
Member at Large
Alice joined the League as a member at large in 2009. She became Action Chair at the state level in 2010. She was elected to the state board in 2010. She also serves as the Bylaws Committee Chair and the Personnel Committee Chair. Alice worked as an attorney for 25 years, and retired in 2007. She is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian, and serves a number of clients to do training and to assist at meetings. When Alice moved to Oregon in 1970, she joined the American Association of University Women. She has held many offices, including state president and served on the Association board. She has served on the state Public Policy Committee for many years, and worked with the League on many workshops and on many bills.
Contact Alice: A.Bartelt[at]lwvor.org
Trish Bowcock
Director 2011-2013
Media/Communications
LWV of Rogue Valley
A Georgia native, Trish migrated with her family to Texas in 1969. While in Texas she earned a BA in Political Science followed by a Doctor of Jurisprudence. She worked as a litigator in Austin, specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury cases. In 2001 she and her husband semi-retired to the small town of Jacksonville Oregon where she lived for 9 years, training as a Master Gardener and immersing herself in the League. Big city life began to call so Trish and her family relocated to Portland Oregon where she works part-time in the field of labor law arbitration and enjoys creative writing, video filmmaking, good food, theatre, yoga, travel, movies, long walks in the park, and of course the League!
Contact Trish: T.Bowcock[at]lwvor.org
Rita West Fawcett
Director 2010-2012
Voter Service Co-Chair
LWV of Portland
League member since 1983; served on Portland board of directors from 1996 to 2008, LWVOREF State Voter Service co-chair 2010-2012. As a young woman raising three boys throughout the 1970′s and 80′s, no matter where our family life took us, I found that the women I most admired belonged to the League of Women Voters. I still feel that way.
Contact Rita: R.Fawcett[at]lwvor.org
Marianne Germond
Director 2011-2013
Voter Service Co-Chair
Member at Large
Marianne grew up in Ohio and graduated from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. After spending a couple of years in Washington, DC she moved to Oregon where she met her husband, Jon. They lived in Pendleton for over 12 years, where Marianne joined the Umatilla County League and later served as its president. In Pendleton she worked for the local community action agency and later became self-employed as a researcher/writer. Marianne served on the Pendleton Planning Commission and on the board for the Children’s Museum of Eastern Oregon. After moving with her husband and two girls to Tualatin in 2002, Marianne continued to volunteer with the League, first as a ballot measure researcher, and later as Voter’s Guide editor. She now serves as Voter Service co-chair and on the Development Committee.
Contact Marianne: M.Germond[at]lwvor.org
Rose Lewis
Director 2011-12
Local League Liaison
LWV of Marion/Polk Counties
Rose was born in North Bend of pioneer Oregon families; B.A. University of Oregon 1955 and M.A. Boston University 1958, philosophy and work toward a PhD in Political Science at University of California at Berkeley.
Rose has done extensive volunteer work and travel throughout the world, including Western Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, including the USSR. She participated in work camps in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Greece; American Friends Service Committee seminar in Poland; taught in refugee camps in Austria. She co-directed, with her husband Dick Lewis, work Camps in East Asia; projects in Korea (terracing fields for cured leper village; road-building for pioneer farm), Japan (home for mentally-handicapped children; earthquake relief) and Okinawa (planting windbreak trees). They traveled throughout SE Asia; including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and returned home via Trans-Siberian Railway, then through India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, to Europe and US.
In 1980 they bought 10 acres in Willamette Valley to develop a Permaculture project. In 1983 they adopted Mayan Indian orphan sisters from Guatemala, Carmen (6), Marta (3). The girls were the primary focus of her life and work during their growing-up years. They are currently working Portland, one as a dental assistant and the other as a medical assistant.
After retiring in 2002, Rose and Dick taught English at Chengdu University of Information Technology for two years. They continued to travel extensively-26 of the 29 provinces in China–as well as Tibet, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea and Japan; and took part in work camp in Mongolia.
Rose is an activist in numerous organizations and commissions. Her priorities include: racial equality, economic justice, simple living, family farms, peace, children and families and community.
Lately, she has focused mainly on the Alternatives to Violence Project, organizing and facilitating non-violence training workshops at Oregon State Penitentiary and the federal prison at Sheridan, as well as community workshops. In 2008, they traveled to Africa to take part in AVP work in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and learn about related a program, Healing and Rebuilding our Communities, bringing together Hutus and Tutsis.
Rose joined the League of Women Voters in 1974, and considers the education she gets from League on a par with her graduate program at Berkeley. Rose has served in many roles for the League, including several terms as local League President and service on the state Board of Directors as Liaison Coordinator.
She has found her work on the state board as Local Liaison Coordinator very satisfying. Keeping abreast of the variety of League work being done around the state is both inspiring and challenging. It is a pity so few people realize the absolutely central work being done by League volunteers to make our democracy work.
Contact Rose: R.Lewis[at]lwvor.org
Betsy Pratt
Director 2011-13
Chair, LWV of Oregon Education Fund
LWV of Portland
Betsy, a third generation League member, has lived in Oregon since 1981, and has served in multiple League roles, most recently as Portland president. She retired in 2008 from 30+ year career with the Bonneville Power Administration, where she held a series of diverse jobs, including library manager and facilities manager. She has a BA from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and an MPA from Syracuse University. She enjoys hiking and traveling with her husband, Philip Thor, and also does weekly cat care sessions at the Oregon Humane Society.
Contact Betsy: B.Pratt[at]lwvor.org
Nominating Committee
Lorie James, Chair
LWV of Clackamas County
Deanie Anderson, Member
LWV of Marion/Polk Counties
Marge Easley, Member
LWV of Clackamas County
Jane Gigler, Member
LWV of Portland
Staff
Rebecca Smith, Executive Administrator
Kathy Greysmith, Database Manager
Contact information:
1330 12th St. SE, Suite 200
Salem, Oregon 97302
Ph: (503) 581-5722
Fax: (503) 581-9403
Board members and staff can be contacted through their email address (replacing [at] with @) or through the state office.
