February 2022 Southern Oregon Business Journal

Proudly Serving Benton, Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln & Linn Counties Since 2015

SouthernOregonBusiness.com

February 2022

SBDC - A QUICK PRIMER FOR HOW WE ASSIST BUSINESSES - PAGE 24

MEET DR. RICK BAILEY, THE NEW PRESIDENT OF SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY - PAGE 28

The Journal for Business in Southern Oregon BASE - HELPING TO BUILD AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY IN SOUTHERN OREGON - PAGE 6

Sponsored by

We Celebrate Black History Month by Meeting a Few Black Business Owners in Southern Oregon

The Southern Oregon Business Journal extends sincere thanks to the following companies for sponsoring the journal. Without their support we could not produce a FREE resource for Southern Oregon businesses.

A Few Words from Jim

Black History Month Every February for the last 5 years we have been celebrating Black History Month at 1000Museums.com by showcasing Black artists and their amazing art. It’s pretty cool and I’m proud of our little company for doing that. This year I’m excited to do something just as cool. I interviewed several Black small business owners in Southern Oregon and I’m excited to share their inspiring stories here.

I left each interview inspired and excited.

All of them came to Southern Oregon intentionally and never looked back.

The natural beauty of our region and the “chill” lifestyle was listed as primary motivators for each of them.

I hope you read each story and get as inspired as I did when I interviewed them. I hope their stories inspire more people of color to pick Southern Oregon as a safe and wonderful place to run their small business and raise a family. Special shout out to Vance Beach and BaseOregon.org. They helped me pull this issue together.

Start by reading “Black Business Matters “on page 5.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AMERITITLE - PAGE 4 ONE BANK, ONE NAME - PEOPLE’S BANK - PAGE 26 MANAGED HOME NET - PAGE 27 SOU - LEADERSHIP BEGINS HERE SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY PAGE 29 UMPQUA BROADBAND - PAGE 31

Another cool part of this issue is that I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Rick Bailey, the new president for Southern Oregon University and dive deep into a couple of cool thoughts he has on how his unique background will enable him to lead the University into the future for our entire region.

Something that is interesting is that several times while putting this issue together, people referred to me as a journalist. I do not think I am. Journalists are special people. I’m just a small business owner and a publisher. I love meeting other small business owners and community leaders and sharing their inspiring stories. A journalist sounds too sophisticated for what I do.

I’m just a scrappy story teller.

Jim Jim@SouthernOregonBusiness.com

Founder Greg Henderson ghenderson703@gmail.com Greg started the Southern Oregon Business Journal in 2015 and retired in 2020.

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Cover photos provided by each interviewee.

5350 HWY 66, Ashland, Oregon 97520

www.SouthernOregonBusiness.com

A JOURNAL FOR THE ECONOMICALLY CURIOUS, PROFESSIONALLY INSPIRED AND ACUTELY MOTIVATED

FEBRUARY 2022 - TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL SECTION - BLACK BUSINESS MATTERS - PAGE 5 BASE - HELPING TO BUILD AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY IN SOUTHERN OREGON - PAGE 6 MEET JOHN SCOTT AND HIS FAMOUS FOOD TRUCK “FATSO’S CHEKETOS” - PAGE 8 MEET DR. KIMANI BORLAND, A NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN, FROM JAMAICA, IN THE ROGUE VALLEY - PAGE 10 MEET SIMON TURNER, OWNER AND OPERATOR OF BLAHQ SAGE MEDIA LLC - PAGE 12 MEET LAKIESHA SHEAFFER, NURSE PRACTITIONER AND CO-OWNER OF ROGUE VALLEY HEALTH & WELLNESS - PAGE 14 MEET DEITRA PIPPINS, OWNER OF L & D ENTERPRISES - PAGE 15 MEET JULIUS BRANNER, OWNER OF NOW WOKE INVENTIONS - PAGE 16 MEET KENDRA MOLLETTE OF DIVINE STEAMING & DOULA SERVICES - PAGE 17 MEET SHAYLEE GRAHAM, A PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING TRAINER IN SOUTHERN OREGON - PAGE 18 MEET MIKE AND EMILY GREEN AND COMMON GROUND CONVERSATIONS ON RACE IN AMERICA - PAGE 19

SBDC - A QUICK PRIMER FOR HOW WE ASSIST BUSINESSES - PAGE 24 MEET DR. RICK BAILEY, THE NEW PRESIDENT OF SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY - PAGE 28 MEASURING THE ECONOMY - PAGE 30

SPECIAL

Black Business Matters

By Jim Teece

Screenshot of BASEOregon.org website

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y nephew married his rst sweetheart, who happens to be Black, and moved her from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern Oregon so that he could come to work for me. It was hard on her at rst. We could all see how she struggled to t in.

Now they have two beautiful sons that because he is Filipino and she is Black, are dark skinned and they were born and raised in Ashland, Oregon and are doing very well.

When I think about their future, I only want them to be able to grow up in a safe and loving community, get the same access to the highest quality education that my kids had and be given every opportunity to change the world and make it a better place, as they make their way through it.

In the summer of 2020, Vance Beach reached out to me to ask for advice about

a new non-pro t he had started called BASE - A community in Southern Oregon for Black Southern Oregonians - and when I heard the way he wanted to be positive and inclusive, I pledged 100% of my support.

We donated the website and all the hosting.

I have worked with Vance on the SOU foundation board for years. We tailgated at SOU games together. He is a great guy and I knew he would do great things with BASE. We were catching up on some changes he wants on the website, now that it’s been up for a year or so, near the end of 2021 and an idea jumped into my head.

“Vance, I want to interview and feature Black Owned Businesses in Southern Oregon in the February Issue because

February is Black History Month, at no cost to BASE or any of the businesses featured.”

And he got excited and this issue slowly came together with his help. Then Vance and his BASE community took it further and interviewed the businesses as well, on video, so that the story can be shared on different platforms over and over again.

I did the interviews for the journal and met some inspiring entrepreneurs.

I’m very excited to share their stories with you and hopefully inspire us all including my nephews two sons.

I want to read these stories to them, so that they can see that southern Oregon is home to dreamers, who work crazy long hours making positive change happen in their lives and in the communities they serve.

Find out more at https://baseoregon.org/

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 5

COMMUNITY BUILDING

By Vance Beach BASE Founder/Chief Director

BASE - Helping to Build an Inclusive Community in Southern Oregon

Photos provided by Vance Beach - BASE Founder/Chief Director Vance Beach welcoming people at Juneteenth Celebration in Downtown

There are so many amazing things to love about Southern Oregon. We’ve each got our stories about what brought us here and what made us never want to leave. For people that are drawn to living in this special part of the world, they should be able to feel at home in the place they reside. Many, however, have historically existed here without that all-important sense of belonging.

Black people currently make up less than 3% of the state of Oregon (1% in Jackson County), and

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understanding this number requires a little history lesson. Many of us are only just learning about this piece of our past: Oregon began as a whites-only state, through a series of Black exclusionary laws that were designed to discourage Black Americans from living here in the rst place. These exclusionary laws, even once repealed, effectively disrupted the ability to create and maintain Black community presence.

The Black communities that have survived in Oregon have done so with courage and perseverance, against the odds. At BASE (Black

Alliance & Social Empowerment) Southern Oregon, we recognize that in order to create a sense of belonging here for Black people, we must also counter the racial disparities, inequities, and other issues rooted in this history. If we want our Black communities to not only survive, but to thrive, there is work to be done.

BASE is a non-pro t, volunteer-run organization that provides a platform through which Black community members can connect, collaborate,

Our youth program, AfroScoutz, provides education and empowerment outside the classroom for children of African descent.

Essential to our work are the partnerships we’ve fostered here in the Valley. Our mission is not one we can achieve on our own - nor would we want to. All of the aforementioned programs have been borne out of relationships with other community-building organizations.

BASE Founder/Chief Director Vance Beach

One of the best parts of what we do is meeting people from across the community, hearing their stories, and creatively nding ways to work towards our goal together: an inclusive community for all of us. At BASE, we say “A thriving community is when it feels good to be home,” and we want everyone here in Southern Oregon to feel that sense of belonging.

There are lots of ways to support the work we do, including simply coming to our events and showing up for the community.

To learn more about BASE, our mission here in Southern Oregon, and how we can work towards it together, visit baseoregon.org.

The Cookout - Grill & Chill Competition

and ultimately prosper in Southern Oregon.

We do so with events for the communityat-large, like our commemorations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. We host cultural celebrations like Juneteenth and Kwanzaa and the occasional Food Truck Friday. We have a directory of Black-owned businesses you can access on our website. We support important community-led initiatives, like the Say Their Names Public Art Installation. We provide crucial resources, like Southern Oregon’s rstin-the-nation Equity Liaison Program.

AfroScoutz, provides education and empowerment outside the classroom for children of African descent

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SPECIAL Interview by Jim Teece

Meet John Scott and his Famous Food Truck “Fatso’s Cheketos”

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ohn Scott is the owner of “Fatso’s Cheketos” a Keto Food Truck at 807 South Central in Medford.

He’s typically there from 11 to 3:30 Monday through Friday and when he’s not there it’s because he is out doing a catering job somewhere.

That location has been his permanent location for the last two years. He started the business just before the pandemic shutdown and hasn’t looked back.

While restaurants were closed for the pandemic, he enjoyed success in a food truck.

I met John over Zoom and asked him a few questions about how he got into the business and what brought him to Southern Oregon.

“When I started the truck, I was only doing the truck on the weekend. I was an IT tech at the Rogue Valley Manor. But cooking has always been my passion.

Ever since I was a little kid, I used to work in restaurants when I was younger, and then I went back to school for electronics. So I did electronics for years and years and years. And then when I moved here to Southern Oregon, still doing electronics, I got the bug to cook again. Around the same time I became keto. And I found out there were a lot of people in the area that were Keto and there was really nowhere to actually go get true keto food… low carb, no sugar.”

“At rst, I had switched my IT job from Monday to Thursday doing fourteens. I was running the truck Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it was doing great.

And then it got to the point where I I couldn't continue to do the truck and work at the manor because the truck was taking off. And that was my passion anyway. So I talked to the manor and they were they were good about it. They understood and I'm still here. And it's growing. It's growing every day.”

He and his wife moved to Medford in 2013 from Portland. She's a respiratory therapist and was

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Photos provided by John Scott, owner of “Fatso’s Cheketos” Food Truck

transferred to Medford to open up and manage an of ce. It was easy for him to nd work in IT. He started at the school district before making his way to the Rogue Valley Manor. They rented at rst and then decided to stay, so they built their house and never looked back.

sleep apnea… so many ailments besides losing weight. And I'm not just a person who cooks keto, I actually live that lifestyle. I put that out there a couple of weeks ago on a Keto blog that I'm on, to let people know what I looked like before and what I look like now. “

When the bug for cooking came back, he knew he had to open his own restaurant. “I just didn't want to go work for anyone else because of the way I was cooking. I like to be very creative in the kitchen.”

“It’s been a great journey. I have one customer that comes in from Yreka at least twice a week.

She's been with me from day one. She's my success story. She's lost roughly 114 pounds since she's been with my food truck. It's awesome. So it's not just actually running a business, it's more of being able to make people aware of eating healthy. And the reviews, I get the people coming back the next day and from word of mouth. I even have some clinics and doctors that send their patients to our truck. It's quite rewarding.”

“It’s all about the Keto lifestyle. There's no one else here in Medford, actually no one in Oregon that does what I do.”

John is passionate about KETO and proudly shows how it changed his life. “I don't even call KETO a diet, I just call it a different way of eating. It's a different healthy lifestyle. And there's more and more people that are starting to do it because it helps with diabetes, lupus,

I asked him how many employees he has and what the food trucks are like.

“It’s just me and my wife. She's actually still doing respiratory therapy and she's also a Keto coach. She's working on teaching people how to eat healthy by putting them on meal plans.”

“I have two food trucks. I started with a yellow truck. That was the rst one I bought. And I have this green one now. This new truck used to belong to the franchise on Shark Tank, called My Cousin’s Maine Lobster. I got it out of California. This truck is fully equipped. I mean, it even has two televisions on the outside. It's like a serious sports bar restaurant on wheels. It has a built in Cummins generator, which is powerful enough to run three houses and it's quiet. It’s also quite a sight to see on the inside.”

Our interview was via Zoom and he proudly walked me around his Big Green Truck. It’s covered in logos from all the shows and channels the truck has been on from Shark Tank, Oprah Winfrey, NBC, CNN and many Continued on page 22

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 9

SPECIAL Interview by Jim Teece

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r. Kimani Borland was born in Jamaica, earned her naturopathic medical degree in the US in 2018 and went back to Jamaica to work part time for a year and a half.

Meet Dr. Kimani Borland, A Naturopathic Physician, from Jamaica, in the Rogue Valley

Photo provided by Dr. Kimani Borland, ND - Naturopathic Physician

I interviewed Dr. Borland over Zoom and asked how she ended up in Southern Oregon with the Siskiyou Vital Medicine (SVM) team.

freshman, he was a senior on his way out. His wife and I became really good friends. He and my husband became really good friends, our kids became really good friends. He had some family in the area, and he moved here and opened a clinic here. So anytime we would visit or call, he would always be like, come work with me, come work with me, and I never took him seriously until COVID hits and we had kind of a random interaction. And then me and my husband were like, you know what, we might just do that, and we did.”

“We both were at Bastyr University in Washington State together. And he was maybe three years ahead of me. So when I was a

It’s been a year. How has the transition been from life in Jamaica to life in Southern Oregon?

Then the pandemic hit and in February 2021 she decided to move her family to Medford to work with a friend she met in Medical School.

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“It's really good. I mean, you should know that when you're kind of buried in work, then you just kind of do what you have to do. But it's beautiful.

This area is really amazing. And, you know, when I was in Seattle, I was even more busy, so I really didn't get out much. McClane and his wife and his family and the whole clinic, they’re always outdoors and always doing something. So we're trying to learn the ways of southern Oregon and do all the hikes and all the trips. It's really, really beautiful. The smoke was a tough season. So I'm trying to be just stay ahead of that this year, and maybe plan a trip or something… that was rough. But apart from that, great, it's really chill.

As compared to some of the other cities I've lived

immigrants and Black people look for this kind of approach. It’s more natural prevention focused. I actually think that's a big reason why, people might be attracted to come and see me.

So many of us have that, as part of how we grew up. Our mom made us tea when we're sick. We didn't go to the doctor. “ Dr. Kimani is currently accepting new patients and clients. Please schedule an appointment to get your rst visit or online consultation.

Dr. Kimani Borland Siskiyou Vital Medicine 940 Ellendale Drive Medford, Oregon 97504 Phone: 541-210-5687 admin@siskiyouvitalmedicine.com

Dr. Kimani Borland, ND - Naturopathic Physician - From her Personal Website - wellnesswithdrk.com

in. Kind of a nice, everyone's really nice. So no complaints so far.”

What challenges have you faced being Black in Southern Oregon?

“I’m from Jamaica, my experience of being Black is a little bit different. In Jamaica everyone's Black. And that's not true, of course, but as a general rule its a predominantly Black country. So the kinds of biases and discriminations are different. Sometimes they're more based on class. For me, I grew up as a Rasta and so a lot of that was based on, what my hair looks like and what my faith was.

So I came with a little bit of a different experience to America and had to kind of learn what it means to be Black in America, and that continues to be a learning process. I would say the most challenging part being here is just that the the diversity is so low.

So even for my kids, it’s lack of exposure to different types of people. I would say that's probably the biggest thing.

And then of course, my patient population also re ects that lack of diversity. So just personally,

I would like to see and be around more Black people just culturally, that's probably the biggest way. “ How about your kids?

“I have a 13 year old and a six year old. My six year old is at a Montessori school, which we really, really love. I think, sometimes when you go for those more alternative schools, you tend to attract a little bit more diversity. So I'm really pleased at that school and my older one is at a private school here, and it's rough. It's rough on many levels. He's probably literally one of three people in the whole school that has some color, although they do have a large Asian population. I think that is helpful in some ways as well. So I would say I have not found my most ideal schooling situation for my oldest yet, and I'm still looking, but I do think that the options we have for more alternative schooling options are pretty minimal. If I compare it to Seattle or California.”

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

“It's still primary care. But the approach is a little bit different. And I do think that a lot of

Dr. Kimani Borland is a naturopathic physician from Kingston, Jamaica, now practicing at Siskiyou Vital Medicine Clinic in Medford, Oregon. With an undergraduate degree in Human Biology and International Public Health from Stanford University, Dr. Kimani was exposed to a diverse range of cultural approaches to health around the world. After one year of medical school in Jamaica and two yoga teacher training courses, it became clear to her that a holistic approach to medicine was the only way to foster true healing. In an attempt to expand her knowledge and experience of this approach to medicine she left Jamaica and found her new home at Bastyr University in Washington state to study Naturopathic Medicine: a comprehensive system of health and medicine that fuses the global healing arts and philosophies with science and conventional medical care. She earned her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine in 2018 and moved back home to practice alongside her mentor at an Integrative Medical Clinic in Kingston, Jamaica before moving to Oregon to join the Siskiyou Vital Medicine (SVM) team! SVM is a direct primary care practice that provides comprehensive primary care as well as specialty naturopathic care to hundreds of patients in the Valley. Dr. Borland’s clinical interests include all aspects of primary care medicine and prevention, with a particular focus on women’s health, cardiovascular disease, digestive health, counseling and stress management. She invites the Black community in the Valley to experience the compassionate and competent care of Siskiyou Vital Medicine for all their primary health care needs.

Personal website: https://www.wellnesswithdrk.com Clinic website: https://siskiyouvitalmedicine.com

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 11

SPECIAL Interview by Jim Teece

Meet Simon Turner, Owner and Operator of Blahq Sage Media LLC

Photo provided by Simon Turner, owner and operator of Blahq Sage Media LLC

Simon Turner is a US Army Veteran and the owner and operator of Blahq Sage Media LLC in Roseburg, Oregon.

He started the business in 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, but has been doing DJing and wedding photography for about 5 years, since moving to Southern Oregon from Bakers eld, California.

Growing up in Southern California, he always thought it was appealing when he saw people online, living in the green forests and in the

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mountains. Then while ying to work in the canneries of Alaska, after he got out of the Army, he looked out the window of the plane and saw southern Oregon and told himself that one day he would live there. Later he met his girlfriend in California and she was from Oregon and they both decided to move there and they ended up in Medford.

When everything shut down because of COVID he found himself watching a lot of YouTube videos and decided to pull the trigger and start his business.

“When COVID kicked off, I was starting to DJ a lot of clubs in Medford. The bulk of my DJing was weddings, so when all the venues shut down, work dried up.”

“When everything opened back up, I ended up doing 2 or 3 weddings a weekend. I moved into a new place on the rst of September and lost it all 8 days later in the Almeda Fire. Almost Everything. No renter’s insurance. No business insurance. Gone.”

“But it ended up being one of the best things that happened to me”

“I worked as a drug and alcohol rehab counselor, so I had a decent job and no bills to pay and I was able to stack my money. I saved one camera and 1 lens from the res and started booking small gigs and rebuilding with that.”

“I was slowly piecing my gear back together and it’s grown now so the only thing I do is my business.”

“I was able to buy a house in Roseburg. It took me losing everything I owned in a re, to get here, but I’m very, very grateful.”

After the res his girlfriend and their daughter moved to Coos Bay while he stayed in Medford looking for work. That’s when he met a man that would challenge him to change his life.

Rick Valencia, a mentor, challenged Simon to buy a house with the help of the Army Veteran VA Loan program.

Simon served in the military from 2008 to 2012 as a military police of cer. He was stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia and then was deployed to Kandahar City, Afghanistan for one year before he was stationed in Seoul South Korea for the nal 18 months of his military career.

“I grew up in the system. In foster care and group homes. My mom passed away doing drugs and I never knew my dad. I went through a lot of pain and heartache as a kid so when I turned 18, I wanted to experience as much as I could, because I was raised in a room. Out of site, out of mind. When I got into the military, I thrived on getting out and meeting people and going places.”

“I just love being in different places, I feel like there's so much to see and I feel also the more places you go and the more people you interact with, you're able to gain something from all that. I feel that the more you gain, the more that makes you a well rounded person. It's kind of like a meal. If you have a meal that only consists of one food or using one seasoning,

it's only going to be that, but if you incorporate many different things, meats and starches and different seasonings and get kind of complicated with it, it makes it a better meal.”

“So I really enjoy getting out and meeting people in different cultures and different societies. It's very interesting. “ “Just the fact of seeing all one nationality was mind blowing to me and that rst happened when I went to Afghanistan. Everybody there is Afghani and it's pretty much only America where American isn't one thing. In America, you’re just a person born here, not one set skin tone, so when I went to Afghanistan and saw that one set skin tone, one set hair texture, it was really weird and when I went to Korea I was like, man it's nothing but Koreans here. I've always been fascinated with people and psychology and sociology and all that kind of stuff. I love traveling.”

During our Zoom interview, I notice his workspace.

It’s lled with video cameras and editing systems. It’s pretty impressive, so I asked him about his studio.

“Yeah, this is my garage man. Bare Bones. I did the insulation work by myself. I went on YouTube and learned everything. Oh, by the way everything I learned as far as DJing, photography and video… no school… all from YouTube then going out and messing things up.”

He went on to explain how he will try something and then questions why it came out that way and how to improve it. He is naturally inquisitive and a self taught learner, but he is also eager to learn from experts as well.

"I have been working with a guy who has been giving me a lot of video gigs and he makes well over six gures a year so he's working with Asante and the colleges and I'm skilled enough to bene t him when I'm there and I'm learning all the time while working with him.

I put it all into practice on the interview that I did for all these Black owned businesses. All the camera angles that I'm using, the three points of lighting and the sound equipment, it's all the things I'm learning with Jared.”

“But yeah, everything is YouTube. So I went on YouTube and looked at how to insulate a garage. And it was pretty easy to buy these strips and put them into slots and staple them.

So I did that, then I threw up a little plywood that was in the top of the garage, I've insulated the roof because it's cold in the garage in the winter time. I’m making it work, man, I'm making it work. It's awesome.”

He brings the same passion for learning into his work. At one point I asked him how he makes videos.

“Let me go take make a video of a dog taking a bath. I can do that but I have make it cinematic.

It’s going to be the most cinematic dog bath you've ever seen in your life. I’m going to tell the whole story beautifully. You're gonna know little Johnny pup like no other and he will be your favorite dog when I'm done with this” I asked him about his plans now that he has moved to Roseburg and bought a house.

“I'm gonna be here in Roseburg for quite some time. I don't really see me in my near future moving out of here” “I'm just getting ready for the growth that has been happening and hasn't slowed down since those res. It’s just like a 300,000,000% increase from Bitcoin in the last ve years, it's been going crazy and but now it's getting to the point now that my limitation is that I don't have any more cinema cameras. I need to hire a crew. I’m getting gigs that are that are a little outside of my paygrade, you know, but that pushes me to book more gigs on my paygrade.

Get that gear. Upgrade the gear to be able to further keep climbing.”

Woven throughout the interview with Simon are these stories about mentors. Random Continued on page 23

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 13

SPECIAL

Meet Lakiesha Sheaffer, nurse practitioner and coowner of Rogue Valley Health & Wellness

by Lakiesha Sheaffer

Photo provided by Lakiesha Sheaffer, nurse practitioner and co-owner of Rogue Valley Health & Wellness

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ogue Valley Health & Wellness is owned by local family nurse practitioners Lakiesha Sheaffer and Taira Warren.

Mission We are trusted local providers whose goal is to promote the health and wellbeing of our community by providing accessible, high quality medical pare for people of every age, race, and gender.

They have decided that the timing was nally right to join forces and open Rogue Valley Health & Wellness.

Together, they believe your health comes rst.

Taira and Lakiesha met in 2014, at the time they were both bedside nurses in a local hospital. They both made it a goal to become nurse practitioners because they wanted to be able to help people get to the root of their disease/problem. Both partners have spent the last few years getting their feet planted under them.

• Education related to disease prevention or treatment

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Following is a description of their family practice services: • Disease prevention and screenings • Diagnosis and treatment of many types of illness • Management of chronic diseases • • • • •

Injury care Counseling Coordination of your care Pediatric care to patients 2years and up Cosmetic Services

Our cosmetic services include botox and ller.

We offer products to include Botox, Xeomin, Radiesse, Jeuveau, Revanesse, Juvederm, Dysport, and Restylane.

Rogue Valley Health & Wellness Website: https://roguehealthwellness.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ roguevalleyhealth/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rogue-ValleyHealth-Wellness-100368848999753/

SPECIAL

Meet Deitra Pippins, owner of L & D Enterprises

Interview by Jim Teece

Photo provided by Dietre Pippins

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eitra Pippins owns L & D enterprises, a virtual assistant company that can help you run your business and help you prepare your taxes. She can also help you nd loans to get your business off the ground.

She moved to Medford from Dallas, Texas in the fall of 2020. Her husband’s brother lives here and he told them is was a pretty laid back area.

I interviewed her via Zoom and asked her about her business.

What is a virtual assistant?

“I make appointments, do data entry and provide email and social media support for businesses. “ “I have a client now that repairs and services, ultrasound equipment. I basically am his Virtual Receptionist and I do a little bit of cold calling for him. This is a small business owner that has admin tasks that need to be done, but they don't have the time to focus on it, and that's where a virtual assistant comes in for the small business owner.”

You also help businesses with tax ling and small business loans?

“I handle the tax preparation and I'm an advocate for small business funding. If they qualify I can get them up to $25,000” You can nd Deitra online at : https://www.facebook.com/Bosschic11/ Tax email: Deitra.Pippins@myonestoptaxes.com Business Email ldenterpriseintllc@outlook.com Business Website https://ldenterpriseintllc.wixsite.com/ website/services

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SPECIAL Interview by Jim Teece

Meet Julius Branner, owner of Now Woke Inventions

Photo provided by Julius Branner, Inventor of “Woke” an alarm to help you not lock your keys in the car

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ulius Branner moved to Medford when he was 16. That was 16 years ago and today he is working hard to bring an idea of his to market.

I interviewed him via Zoom and asked him a few questions about his business, and how he ended up moving to Southern Oregon.

“I left the San Fransisco Bay Area because of Poverty. It’s very destructive and persuasive. A lot of people were selling drugs or getting killed.

You didn’t have much to live for. I had a choice in my life. It was either stay there or I removed 16 | Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022

myself from that environment. I have had many moments were I fell on my face. I had my trials and tribulations, but it made me a stronger man.”

“I’m in the process of getting the company and product developed and I need help getting a good foundation for the business.”

Today, he is working on a prototype and patent for a new device he calls “Woke”. It’s an keychain alarm to help you not lock your keys in the car.

“I call it ‘woke’ because at one point in time, I felt like I used to be asleep. I used to be roaming the world without knowing the sense of purpose.”

“I want to sell it in Walmart and Target but also auto parts stores. I’ll have Disney and NBA licensing and eventually sell the company to car companies because it can be incorporated into the car”

Julius is working on “Generation 1” now and if you would like to know more, please contact him at juliusbranner89@gmail.com

SPECIAL

Meet Kendra Mollette of Divine Steaming & Doula Services

Interview by Jim Teece

Photos by Kendra Mollette

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endra Mollette moved to Southern Oregon in 2016 from Florida. Her husband graduated from Ashland High School so they decided to move back to Southern Oregon after they got married, for the peaceful and quiet outdoors and haven’t looked back.

She is the owner of Divine Steaming and Doula Services. She is a full spectrum doula which means she offers support from conception through postpartum.

She started the business in 2018 because she didn’t enjoy how she was treated at the local hospital in the NICU. “I decided to start school and help out with lactation because Black women have the lowest breastfeeding rates and that affects our health and our infants health. We have the highest maternal morbidity and infant mortality rates. So I started at RCC and then transferred to the PSU lactation program. As the CBS (certi ed breastfeeding specialist) I realized I wanted to do more and be more hands on. So I shifted gears and completed my Doula training. I actually had a couple of births this past fall and winter. And

then I worked towards getting into the midwife school because I feel that I can help be effective by creating safe birthing spaces.”

“I offer doula services, which include lactation support. We do prenatal appointments. We come up with a plan that ts the parents. I also offer steaming, which is a holistic service. I have a postpartum package with that as well, which promotes afterbirth healing. It all just kind of ties in the birth work.”

You can nd out more at https:// www.facebook.com/DivineSteaming/ and you can reach Kendra at divinesteaming@gmail.com.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 17

SPECIAL Interview by Jim Teece

Meet Shaylee Graham, a Psychotherapist and Motivational Interviewing Trainer in Southern Oregon

Photo provided by Shaylee Graham

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haylee Graham is a psychotherapist in Southern Oregon. She has a small private practice where she sees clients. Because of COVID and Zoom she is able to see clients all over Oregon from Ashland to Eugene to Portland.

She moved to Southern Oregon 8 years ago from Portland. Her daughter’s father had family here so she relocated to be able to get help with child care.

“When we moved down here, I had just also graduated grad school from Portland State University, with a master's degree in social work.

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So I started working at the hospitals and doing medical inpatient social work, which was great. It was a good experience. And then I left there and moved into education, which I love higher ed, I'm a rst generation college graduate. Community colleges gave me great opportunities, I started teaching and doing mental health with the students. Now I have my own private practice where I see clients.“ During our Zoom interview I asked her if she has been dealing with patients with COVID related stress issues.

“Yes. People are often sharing about their stress from COVID related issues, such as family illness, isolation, increased anxiety due to work and childcare concerns. However, that may be what people lead with when they come to see me, but we often spend more time talking about old coping skills that are no longer serving them and attachment patterns in their relationships. People are used to dealing with everyday life disruptions but COVID made life disruptions more pervasive" I can tell you that I felt very good about life after our short interview. I hung up smiling and feeling comfortably inspired.

Shaylee Graham, MSW, LCSW https://www.shayleegraham.com/

SPECIAL

Meet Mike and Emily Green and Common Ground Conversations on Race in America

By Mike and Emily Green

Photos provided by Mike Green

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o-founded in 2019 by Mike and Emily Green, a biracial couple living in southern Oregon, Common Ground Conversations on Race in America (CGC) began as a workshop for parents and teachers on “How to Talk to Kids About Race in America.” Emily’s background in social work and her experience in managing wraparound services for at-risk families, coupled with Mike’s unique lens as a cultural economist and national consultant on Inclusive Competitiveness® strategies, laid the foundation for a rst-of-its-kind approach to informing,

educating and equipping leaders across industry sectors who engage the public and grapple with issues of race. The CGC journey began with a series of inquiries to Emily regarding the homeschool training of their two young boys on issues of race.

community environments, with practical engagement tools to cultivate a culture of collaboration and belonging. In less than three years, CGC has grown from a workshop for schools and churches into a national consultancy with institutional clients.

CGC is an education and training consultancy headquartered in southern Oregon. CGC equips businesses, organizations and institutions that value diversity, equity, and an inclusive welcoming culture in their workplace and

Today, CGC offers training for school districts, universities, churches and nonpro t organizations, municipalities, businesses and police departments. CGC also provides introductory facilitations (online and of ine) for Continued on page 20

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Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 19

Meet Mike and Emily Green and Common Ground Conversations on Race in America continued from page 19

groups of any size in any industry to experience a qualitative difference that CGC delivers from other forms of racial equity training. The initial facilitation introduces paradigm-shifting new knowledge and understanding through a lens of historical context and collective learning within a no-blame, no-shame conversational environment that fosters productive dialogue through a “conversations journey” leading to actionable steps. CGC purports to be a prerequisite, not a replacement, to other racial equity and antibias training options.

“Participants typically enter their rst CGC facilitation with a fair amount of skepticism, as they do most any training offered by their employer,” CGC cofacilitator Mike Green said. “But during our unique process we witness a consistently remarkable rise in interest, engagement and energy levels reaching a crescendo that’s palpable and felt by everyone in the room. By the end, we see participants engaging in impromptu conversations and asking for more CGC training time. That’s not the kind of responses we hear from other similar types of training. That’s why we believe CGC is a valuable prerequisite that can prepare participants for engaging in

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additional types of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training.”

“We prepared our young boys, Josiah and Caleb, to give a presentation about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Day a few years ago when they were six and seven,” Emily said. “Their teachers were impressed with what they learned from our boys, and around that same time, I began to receive inquiries about how we navigated conversations about race in our home. I consistently heard feelings of hesitation and uncertainty about how – or if – to talk about race.

As word spread, the inquiries increased to a point where I talked with Mike about it, and the idea was born to develop a workshop to equip parents and teachers with con dence to teach their kids about race in America. We wanted to help parents better understand the societal dynamics they are witnessing and accurately translate it to their children. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the demand for our services dramatically increased despite the pandemic, which caused us to pivot to online engagements that have proven to be effective.”

In his national role as Chief Strategist at the National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness®, Mike helps institution and business leaders, along with public policymakers, design and

develop strategies that address entrenched systemic racial problems in educational and economic ecosystems, workforce and entrepreneurship pipelines, and workplace environments.

“Racial discrimination is one of the most challenging and unresolved intractable problems underlying many of the most important challenges we face in each generation, from education and economics, business growth and job creation, to social engagement, religion and politics,” Mike said. “Most of the nation is not suf ciently knowledgeable, con dent and comfortable with discussing racial issues and therefore ignores the problems until they rise to a level at which they can no longer be ignored.

Unfortunately, most Americans were never provided any serious insights and understanding of the widespread systemic racism of the 20th century, which was passed down unresolved to 21st century generations. We inherited problems of the past that we did not create. But we own responsibility for the society we pass on to future generations.”

To learn more, visit commongroundconversations.com or contact Emily at greener27@gmail.com or Mike at mike@niicusa.org.

Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 21

Meet John Scott and his Famous Food Truck “Fatso’s Cheketos” continued from Page 9

more. “I see people taking pictures of the truck all the time. It's been pretty cool.”

“A lot of my catering jobs have just been from word of mouth. The Millionaire hanger at the Airport reached out to me for their Christmas party and I catered their Christmas party and then the Medford airport heard how great the food was. And they reached out to me and I catered the Medford airport Christmas party.

Business has just been growing and like this coming up weekend. I'm catering a youth hockey tournament. The week after that I'm catering a competition. It's been growing and it's really busy.

“I have my challenges, you know, like anything.

Weather is a challenge. But I have DoorDash and Grubhub. So that kind of covers a lot of that.

People don't want to come out in the rain and so forth. So GrubHub and DoorDash helps with that side of the nances coming in. The biggest challenge I think I've seen is to be honest, with not just food trucks, but restaurants in general.

The price of food skyrocketed. I mean, through the roof. In six months my food costs have doubled.

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Yeah. And that’s on everything. The biggest challenge right now that's hitting everybody is the lack of being able to get food and the food cost. I've seen a lot of other food trucks not open or they shut down early. Because of the food availability. What makes me a little different, is my truck is not just one option, I take everyone's favorite foods, and I create them on my truck. So I do have a set menu. But I add specials every week. If our suppliers out of something I will make do with what they have and create a meal. My customers love it. They always ask, “what’s going to be the special next week?” I also have a hidden item menu. And it makes me feel good. I have customers who will come up to the truck. “John, can I get the hidden item menu?”, and not even knowing what it is or what it costs but they'll buy it?

It's like Chef's Choice. The chef special."

“Another reason that I decided to change my way of eating to this lifestyle is I'm the youngest of nine. I'm originally from Texas and you know, that's just unhealthy eating in general there. My parents and a couple of my siblings, have dealt with high blood pressure and diabetes and I've lost family members and siblings to diabetes. “

“I didn't want that. I didn't want that to follow me. So that's one of the reasons I changed my lifestyle. My eating lifestyle.”

Fatso’s Cheketos 807 S Central Ave, Medford, OR 97501 https://fatsosketotruckmedford.com/ https://www.instagram.com/fatsoscheketos/

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Meet Simon Turner, Owner and Operator of Blahq Sage Media LLC continued from Page 13

people that he met in funny places like in a line at an ATM machine. Because he’s so personable he connects and somehow these connections turn into life changing opportunities.

Time and time again Simon shared fun stories about random meetings with people that changed his life.

One time an “old man” that looks like Santa Claus, asked him if he wanted to learn how to DJ while in the line at the ATM and took him to his rst wedding to watch him (DJ Opie) in action and it got Simon hooked.

The stories go on and on like this.

You can’t help but be inspired by him when he shares his life story so-far and I can see why so many people offer to mentor him.

No matter what life throws at him, he just wants to “rebuild back from that, bigger and better and just keep climbing” BLAHQ SAGE MEDIA LLC Simon Turner

Professional Photographer, event DJ & Videographer

blahqsagemedia@gmail.com blahqsage.com https://www.instagram.com/ blahq_sage_media/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCIZrGbWULs_2Ofzi6xsH-Ww

Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 | 23

SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER

By Marshall Doak, SOU SBDC Director

A Quick Primer for How We Assist Businesses

24 | Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2022 Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Startup: Initiating a business venture from a thoughtful, reasoned approach saves time, money and a lot of heartache in the long run. As soon as you start thinking about your business, you are investing resources (money) into it. Taking the time to plan, set goals and timelines, and deciding on the mileposts or markers for achieving your goals makes the work understandable and can be a guide to early-stage business development. We offer introduction classes, business planning and work with various programs for business initiation to give you the start you need.

Business Assessment: Working with businesses as they grow or want to grow market, geography, or look into new products and services can be assisted through our assessment of plans to be put in place for achieving the desired results.

Accessing Capital: Arguably the most important part of business building in the short run. Presenting a coherent plan with supporting nancials is mandatory for receiving loans. We help through reviews, instruction and support for plan writing and loan package development. We help clients access capital through the private sector, through public/private partnerships, and through various public sources as the need presents itself. Teaching business people to

read nancial statements for good decision making is a standard. Teaching clients Quickbooks and accounting fundamentals are parts of this service. SBA lending program assistance has been a particularly active part of our service delivery these past two years.

Lifelong Learning: Customized training and educational offerings are standard fare, from beginning entrepreneurism through numerous topics for speci c skill development. Review this newsletter for our upcoming classes! Better yet, contact us to put your name on the list for the next cohort for our ‘Small Business Management’ Class.

This is a nine-month course for intensive business development taught by Leo Hull, a strong adherent to developing a systematic service delivery that can make the difference between success and failure.

Human Resources: You need human resources, and we assist through helping you develop a great HR system with support materials to help smooth the employer/ employee relationship, and for assistance in nding and retaining great employees.

Licensing and Contracting: From assisting businesses register for obtaining government contracts, contractor’s licenses from the State, local business licenses, and for putting together a business format and structure to support your businesses are capabilities we have.

Specialized Services: Through our center, we deliver speci c services with Market Research and acquisition, in Cybersecurity, assist with connecting you to Patents and Trademark service providers, disaster preparedness, and for accessing markets on a global scale. We assist directly and through partnerships to get you the resources you need.

Exit Planning: Going into business can be intensive work, but exiting a business on favorable terms can be very dif cult at times.

Advance preparation for consideration of family, retirement goals, employee retention and recognition, succeeding ownership structures, owners’ legacies, and understanding the value a business has are some of the areas we work with when owners consider selling or gifting their businesses.

To give you the broad range of services we offer, not only do we hire the most capable experienced advisers and instructors we can nd who exhibit the traits of service to community, but we rely on our Partner organizations to coordinate service delivery with us. These partnerships have been formed and reinforced over years of working together to help us declare we are “Helping Build Oregon’s Best Businesses!”

—Marshall Doak is the Director of the Southern Oregon University Small Business Development Center and a huge supporter of innovation and the community that forms around innovation in the economy. In private practice, he works with businesses that plan to transition to new ownership within the next ve years, assisting them to build value that can be converted to retirement income when the business sells.

He can be reached through: mdoak06@gmail.com or 541-646-4126.

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o start a New Year in a recovering economy it seemed appropriate to remind our readers about the many services we offer through our Small Business Development Center. Please review this article for insights to how we may assist you in your business situation. Our services center around Technical Assistance and through providing business education. We offer our services regardless of the demographic group our clients are from and are delivered in a con dential manner and setting. Areas we work in:

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We knew that bringing Willamette Community Bank and People’s Bank together would be a strong combination. Now, almost a year later, we are ready to exhibit that strength under one name – People’s Bank.

We are excited about this next evolution and are committed to providing our communities with the same high level of service our clients have come to expect from us.

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Grants Pass Branch

Lebanon Branch

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Central Point Branch

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315 Commercial Street SE Suite 110 Salem, OR 97301 503-468-5558

Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 27

EDUCATION

Meet Dr. Rick Bailey, the New President of Southern Oregon University

Interview by Jim Teece

Strategy comes down to two things.

1. How do we understand the environment?

2. How do we adapt to uncertainty?

I have proudly served on the SOU Foundation Board for over 20 years. Over those years I have had the pleasure of serving under 6 presidents.

The SOU Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Rick Bailey, as the latest president for the university after an extensive national search and unanimous vote. He started on January 15th and from what I can see has hit the ground running. He is charismatic, caring, likable and a great leader.

I attended the introductory press conference and watched and read all of the stories about him as they ooded in afterwards. I also watched YouTube videos he made in his prior college president position to the faculty and students as they all navigated COVID together.

Welcome to the University Dr. Bailey. You have an interesting background that I don’t normally nd in University presidents. You retired as a full colonel from the U.S. Air Force after a 24 year career and you were a command pilot with over 3,500 ying hours. Then you went on to teach Strategy and Security at Air University before taking the reins at Northern New Mexico College for over 5 years where you increased enrollment by 20%, decreased student loan defaults by 50% and more than doubled the college’s graduation rate. How does a professor in cyber military strategy translate into the success you had being president and hope to continue to have at SOU?

And then I was granted an hour long interview with him (via Zoom) so that I can share with all of the Southern Oregon Business Journal readers a little about his unique background and his vision for the future of the University.

“My PhD was in Political Science and Government. As a professor, I learned to grow as a strategic thinker, because I was surrounded by students and that's what they were focusing on.

It was just incredible.

We live in a highly complex and dynamic environment. It’s constantly changing. So there is no way to understand our environment fully, but we should still endeavor to do it. We have to try the best we can to understand our environment in order to make better strategic decisions. But also, because our environment is evolving constantly. There's always uncertainty.

So the second part of strategic thinking is how do you adapt to that uncertainty. Organizations, like universities, in my opinion, are most successful, when they create an environment that is intentionally adaptive and nimble, it’s the same thing in the business world. The more nimble and adaptive you can be to that ever changing environment, and the more accepting you are, that there is uncertainty, omnipresent in the environment, the better. Those are two sides of a coin, as institutions, we need to instill.”

Sometimes you think of a university as a free and open place where ideas can oat, mix and intermingle but sometimes in reality, it's not that way. How do we get the university to be more nimble?

“I think that's true for any organization, I agree with you, I think universities are probably better suited to accept that reality only because we live in the life of the mind here. I do think there is likely a greater willingness to be creative that way. But I think every organization, universities included, have those challenges of what I would call a calci cation of an almost intentional or unintentional and conscious or subconscious framing of possibilities. So if you're not careful, there is always a limitation to what is possible, if you're not forcibly challenging the assumptions that cause that framework. At my last institution, where the institution was really experiencing existential crises, even then, conventional wisdom would say, when things are that Continued on page 34

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“SOU gave me the opportunity to grow and to change my life and to help change the lives of other people.”

ANGELICA RUPPE MS ’86

sou.edu • 855-470-3377 Southern Oregon Business Journal November 2021 | 29

by Greg Henderson

Measuring the Economy

Photo by Austin Neill on Unsplash

We measure things with some of the oddest sort of ideas and statistics. Something big happens, say a big event like a war or a pandemic, or the government handing out money to keep the economy strong – or to maybe keep the citizens from revolting. But how big is the debt of our government that is drawing interest – and don’t forget the large piece we call unfunded debt, like buying a car on credit with no income to make the payments? Thirty trillion dollars – Yeah, $30 trillion dollars – has been bandied about. In politics really big numbers are better than medium sized numbers, because the constituents can’t understand how much a trillion actually is. So, they will ignore it.

Now I have read that we know the economy must be doing well because of two things: Full Garbage Cans and people quitting jobs without having another one in hand.

Strange things happen when we’re suddenly secure in money, for a little while, anyway.

Trained economists at high levels have thought long and hard about these two statistics. Not enough people in high places where decisions are made have been doing enough long and hard thinking. Where we

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once were concerned about leaving debt to our children, it is now our grand children and great grandchildren who will be receiving the bill for our short-sighted actions.

If there is an extra amount of garbage going to the land lls then people must be buying a lot of stuff. Anyone who buys a lot of stuff must have a lot of money to buy it. Right?

Money sitting in a bank doesn’t help an economy much, but if that money “turns over” a few times the favorite term Multiplier Effect revs up. If I spend my money at your store, then you spend that money on paying your help, and your help takes her family out to eat at the local diner, and the owner of the diner buys a new stove, that money I spend at your store has been used four times – or, has a Multiplier Effect of four (or something to that effect). One dollar has turned into four. And that’s an economic good thing according to the experts. Its also a place where the popular idea of “Buy Local” originated.

Unfortunately, all this talk about our strong economy, multiplier effects, low interest

rates and price appreciation (in ation?) convinces those of us in our neighborhoods that everything is just ne, or will be soon.

And our city leaders, politicians, and candidates to be politicians, keep telling us they have “A Plan” that will keep us safe and secure for the rest of our lives; so just don’t worry.

Covid has become quite annoying. So is climate change. So is the inevitable tsunami that is going to hit our western coast. And whatever it is that Russia is doing on the border of Ukraine that has a lot of people in a tizzy. Too much salt in our diets, obesity, ice cream and not enough exercise already keep us awake at nights.

How do you measure your success? What is a good economy? Its good to know that we have politicians with “A Plan”.

Greg Henderson is the retired founder of the Southern Oregon Business Journal. A University of Oregon graduate and a six year U.S. Air Force veteran, he spent nearly 30 years in banking and nance. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications concentrating on some 20 industry sectors.

Contact him at ghenderson703@gmail.com

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Southern Oregon Business Journal March 2021 | 33

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Meet Dr. Rick Bailey, the New President of Southern Oregon University - Continued from page 28

desperate, people are going to be a little bit more willing to think differently, because we're obviously in this really chaotic situation. Even in that environment, there was this limited framework. I nally had to pull a lot of the leadership of the institution together. And I said, ‘You know what, I'm going to make this a challenge. Right now, we're going to have some crazy ideas that we're going to come up with, and the goal should be to start with Yes.’ Start with Yes. I have the good fortune that in ve and a half years at Northern New Mexico college, there were so many things that we tried that conventional wisdom said, and people in power, said, ‘Rick, that cannot happen.’ When we nally got those things to the nish line, after a while those voices stopped. Because they said, ‘Well, you know, I was caught on the wrong side on this one.’ They were able to prove that this impossible thing was possible. Over time, the culture of the organization shifts to one that is a little more innovative, and a little more risk tolerant, because recalculations of risk play into this. I think the culture can transform that way.

And you know, doggone it, that's an exciting place to be when institutions start to make that transformation. That's exciting.”

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This issue of the Southern Oregon Business Journal is featuring a section on “Black Business Owners in Southern Oregon”. SOU recently hired a VP for

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. How does D.E.I. play out in your vision at SOU? “Dr. Toya Cooper, is our vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. Even before she arrived, there were some really impressive thinking happening at the university. We have a DEI committee that has been doing really, really good work for a long time.

I came from an institution where 91% of our students self identi ed as students of color. The student body almost perfectly re ected the cultural demographics of the entire region.

Diversity, as an initiative, at that school wasn't proactive.

We need to continually celebrate the diversity that we enjoy here and continue to make sure that every person in that environment knows that they are in a safe, mutually respectful place.

Here at SOU, I think it's actually twofold. I think we have to still do that work.

We have to make sure that every student, every staff member, every faculty member, every community member who comes to the campus knows that this is a place with a respect of all people and a celebration of diversity.

Educational Institutions are the perfect vehicles for this because as an educator, diversity leads to a more robust marketplace of ideas. The more diverse the classroom is, in every way that you can identify diversity, the more rich the educational experience is going to be, when you

have that multitude of perspectives, and backgrounds and experiences.

Here, we need to be more proactive. We shouldn't set the same goal to say, as long as the student body perfectly re ects the cultural demographics of Jackson & Josephine County, that we're at the nish line. I think we have to be different. I think we have to be proactive in actually striving beyond that. I don't have the laundry list of actions that will achieve that result. I think, Dr. Cooper, me, the DEI committee, the rest of the university, need to start having conversations about how those things happen.

The nice thing is that I met with Governor Brown this past week and she has an initiative in concert with the legislature where there's a $30 million investment in scholarships for students from tribal communities. That's a proactive thing that can actually help change the dynamic and bring more diversity into the higher ed space.

We need to engage in ways where there's already opportunities for us to do that work” The interview continued and we touched on workforce housing and ideas on how the university might play a role in nding solutions for all of Southern Oregon and we spent time talking about how it will be important to diversify the income streams of the institution moving forward.

I left the interview excited to continue to serve on the Foundation Board under his leadership.