For over 40 years, Kathleen has served Oregon as mentor and advocate, particularly in the queer, feminist, and black communities.

Kathleen supported groups and organizations, such as: Freedom Socialist Party; Radical Women; Black Women’s Rap Group; Las Mujeres de Colores de Oregon; International Women’s Day Celebrations; Bradley Angle House; Lesbian Community Project; Portland’s African American Alliance; and African Americans Voting No on Nine. In 1976 she, along with six others, organized Portland’s first gay rights march.

She has touched all levels of government in Oregon, and held positions as diverse as Contracts Monitor and Program Analyst for CETA Programs, Director of Affirmative Action for the State of Oregon, Assistant to Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury, Diversity Director for Cascade AIDS Project and the City of Portland’s Diversity Development/ Affirmative Action Manager.

With Keeston Lowry, she worked to craft the City’s Civil Rights Ordinance banning discrimination against gay and lesbian people. In 1992, she served on the steering committee for the campaign against Ballot Measure 9.

Kathleen believes that it is only by working together that we can help to build the just and inclusive world we want.