Phil Keisling

Email: keisling@pdx.edu
Web: www.pdx.edu/cps
Office: 650C URBN
Phone: 503.725.8168 

Phil Keisling (B.A. 1977, Yale) is the Director of the Center of Public Service at Portland State University. The Center’s mission is to connect the faculty, students, and other resources of the Hatfield School with the real world needs and challenges of public and non-profit sector leaders and managers in local, state, federal, tribal, and international settings. Keisling’s public service career includes work as a campaign aide to former Governor Tom McCall (1978); six years as a journalist for Portland’s Willamette Week (1978-81) and the Washington Monthly magazine in Washington D.C. (1982-84); and as a legislative staff assistant to then-Oregon House Speaker Vera Katz (1985-88). He served one term in the Oregon House of Representatives (1989-91) and nearly a decade as Oregon Secretary of State (1991-99). From 2000 to 2009 he was an Executive Vice President with CorSource Technology group, a Beaverton, OR-based software services company. Keisling’s non-profit experience includes being a founder of several organizations (including the Oregon Progress Forum; the Oregon Public Affairs Network; and Smart Grid Oregon) as well as service on the boards of the Oregon Business Association; the Software Association of Oregon; the Understanding Government Foundation; and Childswork Pre-school.