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Wendy Willis

Executive Director

Wendy Willis is the Executive Director of Kitchen Table Democracy and Director of Civic Engagement for the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University, which houses Oregon's Kitchen Table. Wendy is a national leader in the field of civic engagement and citizen-centered decision-making.  Prior to joining KTD/NPCC, Wendy was the Executive Director for City Club of Portland, one of the most venerable civic organizations in the country.   She has also served as an Assistant Public Defender for the District of Oregon and a law clerk to Chief Justice Wallace P. Carson, Jr. of the Oregon Supreme Court.  Wendy is also a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum Oregon, a poet, and the mother of two daughters.  She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law Center and holds a B.A. from Willamette University.

 

  • Field Notes

    Begin at the Kitchen Table

    The great Native American poet Joy Harjo writes: The world begins at a kitchen table, and then goes on to describe all that happens there:

    The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.

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