NLO alum Rachel Biscoe campaigns for Linn Benton Community College board position
PSU’s Center for Women’s Leadership (CWL) has always attracted remarkable talent and Rachel Biscoe, a 2024 alum of CWL’s New Leadership Oregon (NLO), is no exception.
Biscoe recently took the next step in her leadership journey by filing to run for a Linn Benton Community College (LBCC) Board of Education position. As a 2023 graduate of LBCC, where she served as Student Leadership Council President, Biscoe brings the power of lived experience to her candidacy. An Oregon Promise Grant and an impressive ability to juggle several part-time jobs—firefighter, emergency medical technician, pet sitter—helped her cover tuition costs. Despite this industriousness, Biscoe is clear that she still struggled to make ends meet. Nor was this the first time that she’d faced economic insecurity: her family had been hit hard by the 2008 recession.
“I grew up poor,” she pointedly says. “It’s one of the reasons I got involved with a gleaners program as a kid in Philomath and one of the reasons I care so much about food insecurity, housing affordability, and tuition costs.”
After earning an associate’s degree in human development and family studies, Biscoe immediately began tackling important socio-economic issues: first by stepping into a part-time role at the South Benton Food Pantry, where she manages fundraising efforts, and then by taking a full-time position at the Oregon Employment Department, where she helps workers access the state’s paid leave program. She also holds a seat on the Higher Education Coordinating Committee, where she advocates for the needs of students across the state.
In addition to addressing students’ food insecurity and reducing financial barriers to college entry, Biscoe’s campaign platform calls for making sure LBCC can meet the diverse needs of all learners.
“I’m still close to the struggle,” she explains. “Sometimes politicians and board members either don’t come from that struggle or they’ve forgotten it. I want to bring a fresh viewpoint. I will advocate for people in need.”