Jennifer Jardee-Borquist
Board Secretary
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I am a proud sixth-generation Oregonian, with two children at Trillium Charter School. I grew up in West Linn, but yearned to move to the big city. After telling my grandfather this, he informed me “You’re going to end up at the bottom of the Willamette!” With that vote of confidence, I moved to Portland, and still have not ended up in the Willamette. My husband and I have lived in Seattle twice, but I missed our friends and family in Portland so much that we decided to come back here for good in 2001.
I started volunteering with my neighborhood association about 10 years ago, and served on the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood board for several years. My children have been attending Trillium since preschool (in the old building), where I started chaperoning field trips and helping out in the classroom. I served on the Steering Committee for the Capital Campaign for the new building. I became a member of the Food Team and joined the board during the 2010/2011 school year. My goal is to see Trillium renew its charter and continue to evolve into a school that fulfills its mission.
Heather Blackbird
Board Chair
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My husband (Ness) and I have 3 kids at Trillium (K, 1st, & 3rd Grade), and our nephew is in the High School and will be graduating in ’12.
We own a small software company called Ticket Turtle which we donated the use of, and is what you use when you donate to Trillium. The work on our company has given me experience managing projects big and small and in the many aspects of building a successful business. I have a BA from the Evergreen State College and an and MA in English from Portland State. I was a community college writing teacher teaching research, and essay writing before we started our business.
I am grateful to have found Trillium for our kids. The teachers are phenomenal and the learning culture is inspiring. My gratitude for this community continues to grow as I get to know more of the incredible people who have worked so hard to build it and am able to work alongside yet more wonderful people who keep showing up to nurture it.
James Frost
Board Fundraising Committee Chair
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I come to the Trillium Board with a background in marketing as a copywriter and project manager, hoping to help the school with its grant writing and fundraising efforts. My daughter Ava is in the 3rd grade at Trillium, and my son Atticus is in the preschool. I’m also a novelist, with a book coming out this April through local publisher Hawthorne Books.
Emily Swensen
Board Development Committee Chair
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I started life on the drier side of the state, in The Dalles. Rural life was not for me, and attending college at Lewis & Clark let me try out urban living, which definitely suited me better. I’ve not since been able to break free of Portland’s gravitational pull.
After graduating I spent about 9 years working in nonprofit administration, focusing on all aspects of fundraising and volunteer coordination. I ended up back at my alma mater in the early ’90s as part of the development team assembled to launch a $50 million campaign and earned my law degree at the same time. I currently work for the legal department of the Portland Development Commission and am proud to be even a small part of work that has such a dramatic effect on the city I love so much. My public law experience enables me to provide guidance as the board reviews its policies and governing documents to make sure Trillium is in compliance with state and federal law.
I am the mother of 13-year-old twin boys, Monroe and Parker, who attended Trillium for the past two years. Each made the decision to move to different schools this year, but my passion for Trillium’s teaching philosophies and its incredible, inspiring community led me to join the board and contribute all I can as the push toward charter renewal continues. There is a mountain of work to be done this year, and I want to encourage everyone to find a place where he or she can contribute. Whether you have tons of time or hardly any, whether you’re a jack of all trades or an expert at just one thing, no matter what your Myers-Briggs or enneagram profile is, there’s a place for you to notch in and make a difference.
Ryan Belding
Board Finance Committee Chair
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I am a native Oregonian and live with my wife near the Woodstock area of SE Portland. Upon graduation from PSU, I began my career as a financial advisor. As my career grew over the years I developed a clientel with a fairly high percentage of educators.
While working with educators for nearly a decade it has become very clear the current public school system is in disarray. I was drawn to serving on the board at Trillium because of the opportunity to make a difference at the local level and help improve the situation for current and future students.
John Parsell
Board Communications Committee Co-Chair
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I grew up in upstate South Carolina near the Blue Ridge Mountains. My parents taught French and although they never gave me French lessons, I learned from them the value of education, language and culture. At Furman University, I took an interdisciplinary approach to my studies and majored in German. I applied to the Peace Corps shortly before I graduated with a B.A. in 1999. I began my service as Community Education volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga in 2000 and for two years, I taught English and worked on community-based development projects. My experience living and working in Tonga was amazing and I extended my service as a volunteer for a third year as Volunteer Coordinator. Upon completing my service, I traveled through New Zealand, Europe and South East Asia for about a year.
Once I returned to the U.S., I enrolled in the World Learning SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. Following a year of experiential learning among a student body that was 25% international students, I began a practicum focusing on immigration policy. In this role, I built collaborative relationships with activists, organizers, elected officials and local law enforcement and contributed to the formation of a statewide response network for immigrants’ rights advocacy. In 2007, I presented my capstone paper and earned an M.A. in Sustainable Development.
I moved to Portland in 2008 and my partner, Kayla, and I became working owners of the Alberta Cooperative Grocery. For the last three years, I worked as Para-Educator with Portland DART School, a Portland Public Schools program for students who are placed in treatment programs. My interest in education, policy advocacy, and the community of North Portland drew me to apply for a position on the board of directors of the Trillium Charter School. I look forward to contributing my skills, background and energy toward to ensuring that this dynamic learning community can continue to grow and thrive. This is the first board I have served on and I am excited about this opportunity to work among my co-directors to serve Trillium.
Brooks Cooper
Board Member
Bio and Picture coming soon!
