Healthy Babies
Combating
Displacement
Improving childbirth
outcomes by breaking
cultural barrier
QR code for
Portland Observer
Online
Bureau releases
$20 million
housing plan
See Metro, page 9
page 3, inside
Volume XLIV
‘City of Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 28, 2015
Number 6
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
PHOTO COURTESY OF R ANDY C OX /M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY
Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith meets a group of Jefferson High School seniors, including (seated, from left) Sekai Edwards, Mahogany Bradford and
Savannah Carter, to help the young women make connections with leaders of color and explore career paths.
in
Investing Youth
A power luncheon for
young women of color
Dozens of high schoolers from Portland’s black
community are learning about leadership with a
powerful line-up of women.
Multnomah Commissioner Loretta Smith hosted
a “Lunch with the Leaders” event Friday for stu-
dents at the Portland Opportunities Industrialization
Center/Rosemary Anderson High School and
Jefferson High School.
Held at the nearby North Portland Library, the
gathering was an opportunity for young women to
make connections and explore career paths with
local leaders of color.
“I asked myself an important question,” said
Smith. “Do I do enough for young women of color?
And the answer was no. So, I decided I need to get
out into the community and do more. I wanted to
bring some of the people I know and let them be your
people for the day.”
Students attended the networking lunch with
women from a variety of backgrounds including
public service, education, health, law, media and
communications, corporate business, and govern-
ment.
Guests included Kimberly Howard of the corpo-
rate social responsibility team at Portland General
Electric; Kendall Clawson, director of executive
appointments with Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s
office; Former State Sen. Margaret Carter; Serena
Stoudamire, early transitions, equity and community
director with the Oregon Education Investment
Board; Marissa Madrigal, Multnomah County chief
operating officer; Antoinette Edwards, director of
the city of Portland's Office of Youth Violence
Prevention; Grace Neal, field representative with
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s office; Jessica Morkert-
Shibley, communications officer for Multnomah
County; Nicole Rose, political analyst for Commis-
continued
on page 4