The annual Employee Awards celebration, which coincides with Public Service Recognition Week, honors the dedication and innovation of a select group of Multnomah County employees. Of the nine awards presented in 2016, three were sustainability-related and recognized more than 30 staff members for their meaningful work.
Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury and Commissioners Jules Bailey, Loretta Smith, Judy Shiprack and Diane McKeel presented awards to the winners, who were chosen from nominations from fellow staff.
Sustainability Award
This year’s Sustainability Award recipient is the Department of Community Justice’s Londer Learning Center staff. The Londer Learning Center is a place where adults on parole or probation work to earn their GED. Recently, the Londer Learning Center staff incorporated a 10-week curriculum teaching students about the impacts climate change has on people and communities. The program was such a success that the curriculum was shared with teachers across Oregon.
Londer Learning Center staff, winners of the Sustainability Award.
Cheyenne Tuller, who spoke on behalf of the Londer Learning Center team, said oftentimes students are not excited about the things they have to learn as part of earning their GED like decimals or presidents. But learning about climate change really captured the attention of many of the students.
“The students loved it,” said Tuller. “They were all over it. They were like ‘I’m gonna take this home and show this to my spouse [and] to my kids.’”
The Londer Learning Center team is:
- Stephanie Anderson
- Julia Brown
- Kristine Bryan
- Yvonne Flores
- Brooke Kavanagh
- Emily Laughlin
- Melinda Maiterth
- Alan Smith
- Cheyenne Tuller
- Maria Villarea
Superior Public Service to External Customers Award
The second of two Superior Public Service to External Customers Awards was given to Jerry Hunter from the Office of Sustainability(link is external). Hunter works as an urban agriculturalist and spends many of his workdays on county-owned farmland in Troutdale.
In the last year alone Hunter’s accomplishments include: growing more than 17,000 lbs of fresh produce for families in need; working with the Department of Community Justice to secure more than 2,700 hours of restorative labor at the farm from men and women on parole or probation; and providing fresh produce (picked the very same day) for cooking demonstrations at the Health Department’s Rockwood Community Health Center.
“I can’t tell you how much it’s been a blessing to be able share gardening skills and life skills with the people who come in contact with the farm,” said Hunter upon his accepting his award.
Meanwhile, members of the Office of Sustainability stood up during the ceremony, holding up five pieces of paper to spell out “J-E-R-R-Y,” in support of their colleague.
Chair’s Excellence Award
The Chair’s Excellence Award was given to a group made up of employees from the Health Department and the Office of Communications called the Air Quality Responders team.
The Air Quality Responders team won the Chair's Excellence Award.
When news broke of high levels of heavy metals in the air around neighborhoods in Portland, the Air Quality Responders team sprung into action, holding several town halls for concerned community members to voice their concerns and frustrations.
Chair Kafoury, who selected the winner of this award, said the county’s environmental health team “helped people living near the Bullseye and Oroboros glass factories at the center of the toxic hot spots get answers to their questions.”
“It’s not easy to work on an issue like this one,” continued Kafoury. “Where parents are terrified for the health of their children and they feel like government has ignored them -- or worse, lied to them.”
Environmental Health Director Jae Douglas, who spoke on behalf of the Air Quality Responders said that it was the team’s “technical capacity, engagement response and leadership capacity” that allowed it to respond to the community’s air quality crisis.
She also stressed the importance of connecting with residents in order to address such a controversial issue.
“We’ve had to have the relationships and the trust of the community that we’ve cultivated and continue to nourish.”
The Air Quality Responders team is:
- Rachael Banks
- Christina Brown
- Jae Douglas
- Joanne Fuller
- Amy Gredler
- Brendon Haggerty
- Andrea Hamberg
- Matt Hoffman
- Kevin Kitamura
- Uei Lei
- Dr. Paul Lewis
- Loreen Nichols
- Consuelo Saragoza
- Tricia Tillman
- Dr. Jennifer Vines
- Julie Sullivan Springhetti
- Randy Cox
- Mark Baker
- Andrea Coghlan
- Kate Willson
