Staff
Sarah Giles
Project Manager
Sarah Giles manages collaborative projects for Oregon Solutions and leads communication efforts and manages projects for NPCC’s program Oregon’s Kitchen Table. She also researches and writes on a range of issues related to collaborative governance, and has taught a collaborative governance capstone course at Portland State.
Before joining NPCC in 2007, Sarah was a Research Assistant at Oregon Health and Science University and taught writing at the University of Arizona. Sarah has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, where she taught English to elementary school and high school students.
Email: sarahgiles@pdx.edu
Phone: (503) 725-5248
Jennah Kiefer
Project Manager
Between growing up in Paradise, California, and living in various communities around Oregon for the last fifteen years, Jennah has cultivated a deep appreciation for the natural environment and diverse human perspectives. Jennah draws from her experience in community outreach, science communications, project coordination, external partner relations, development planning, and facilitation. She roots her work in a passion for collaborative problem-solving.
Jennah previously worked at the OSU College of Forestry, and before that, a place-based environmental nonprofit organization. She studied International Development at the University of Oregon with a focus on public policy, community health, and sustainability and also conducted research in Morocco on rural and urban healthcare capacity development. A large portion of her life and work has been dedicated to the agricultural realm ranging from on-the-ground farming, to local food-focused business development, and global commodity supply chain management with an emphasis on beekeeping and honey.
Email: jennah@pdx.edu
Phone: (530) 680-8668
Manu
el Padilla
Project Manager
Since 2010, Manuel Padilla has engaged in peace building, conflict transformation/reconciliation, humanitarian development, and dialogue locally and internationally. Some of his most formative years were spent in Haiti and Chad, where he worked to support peace education efforts in Cite Soleil, and to manage the formal education system with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and refugees displaced from Darfur. Manuel has focused much of the last 5 years on facilitation: doing mediation and restorative justice work (victim-offender dialogue) for Clackamas County, traveling the breadth of Oregon conducting public dialogue and bridging work for Oregon Humanities, and running workshops and trainings on IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) toward institution and culture change. After returning to the United State in 2015, Manuel worked as adjunct professor at Marylhurst University, teaching on intercultural communication and communication for social change, and was the executive director of Portland Meet Portland, where he got to build, among other things, podcasting and transmedia storytelling programs to raise the voices of immigrants and refugees. Manuel holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from PSU and a master’s degree in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies from the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace.
Email: manuelpadilla@pdx.edu
Phone: (503) 725-9971
Kristin Wright
Project Manager
Kristen conducts assessments and facilitates collaborative processes with multi-sector groups on complex public policy issues. She also participates in research, and teaches collaborative governance to university students and public professionals. As part of her teaching and training work, Kristen acts as a student advisor for the Graduate Certificate in Collaborative Governance and the NPCC internship program.
Prior to her work with the National Policy Consensus Center, Kristen was engaged with forest collaborative research with PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions and contributed to governance research of watershed collaboratives on behalf of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Previously she founded and served as executive director for local nonprofit Betties 360 and served as a facilitator and mediator for various community groups. Kristen holds a master’s degree in public administration with a specialization in natural resource policy and governance, and a bachelor’s degree in geography.
Email: kjwright@pdx.edu
Phone: (503) 725-9078
Sofía Castellanos S.
Project Associate
Sofía provides project support and coordination to Oregon Solutions, assisting with assessments and collaborative processes.
Sofía is a political scientist with a master’s degree in comparative politics with a focus on democracy. She is currently a PhD candidate in PSU’s Public Affairs and Policy program. Her dissertation topic is a policy analysis for a data governance framework in the agriculture sector in the United States. Her professional background includes knowledge of the legislative policy-making process and political advice for public sector decision-making. Sofía recently worked as a research associate at PSU’s Mark O. Hatfield School of Government on the USAID Strengthening Provincial Capacity program for Vietnam. She has also worked as a research analyst on special projects for the Center for Public Service and College of Urban and Public Affairs, providing assistance with tools and accessible, usable, and inclusive mechanisms to facilitate adult learning and working in virtual environments.
Email: acastel2@pdx.edu
Phone: (503) 572-7398