Kristen Wright, MPA, Interim Director of Training and Academic Services & Project Manager for Oregon Solutions
kjwright@pdx.edu | (503) 725-9078
Kristen is the Interim Director of Training and Academic Services and also serves as a project manager in the Oregon Solutions program. She has been with the Center since 2015 and has enjoyed having the opportunity to blend practice and education in her work.
Kristen shares, “I am drawn to the work of collaborative governance because I see its potential to bring our collective best thinking and contributions to the issues we are facing. I am also drawn to it with a hopefulness that it could also be a place to develop and sustain mutual and healthy relationships. Our lives are so interconnected, but the social systems that shape our lives have isolated and harmed us and our ability to sustain mutual, healthy relationships. For me, collaborative governance is a humbling and alive place.”
Prior to her work at NPCC, Kristen contributed to research on collaborative governance at PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, served as a mediator and facilitator for various communities, and was the founder and executive director of a nonprofit that supported the well-being of middle school youth. Kristen holds a masters in public administration with a focus on collaborative governance and natural resources and a bachelor's in geography with a focus on cultural geography.