MEET JAMIE
HI. I’M JAMIE DUNPHY.
East Portland is on the cusp of amazing things. Let’s guide it in to it’s next great chapter, together.
Just like Portland, I’m a lot of different things: Portland raised, public servant, policy wonk, musician, artist, outdoor lover, advocate, former small business owner, father, and husband.
I’ve been working in public policy for 14 years, including five years working for US Senator Jeff Merkley and another five years as Senior Policy Director for former Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. I’ve learned how to get real results out of Portland’s complicated system of government. For 20 years I’ve been serving the community of East Portland, finding ways to improve the lives of individuals and the broader community. From working directly with children experiencing extreme economic and social hardships to serving the citizens of Portland on issues ranging from comprehensive plans to filling potholes. And I’ve learned that government can be a tool to make people’s lives just a little easier.
I moved to Portland as a teenager to go to Grant High School. I met my wife when we were summer camp counselors at the YMCA Camp Collins, graduated from Portland State University, and now I live in the Parkrose neighborhood with our daughter and our dogs, cat, chickens, and two goats.
I always wanted to be a musician, and I fell in love with the guitar at an early age. I spent my twenties trying to make it as a professional musician. I got to record albums and tour the western states in a smelly van with my best friends. We gave our best, but we never made it to that next level.
While I was in college, first at PCC and then at Portland State, I worked in the David Douglas School District focusing on gang-prevention and crime reduction in the newly opened Ron Russell Middle School. (Side note: we need to dramatically increase after-school programs, childcare, and community centers in East Portland!)
At PSU, I majored in Political Science and spent a lot of time considering how I could use what I was learning to do some good in the world. I got an internship with US Senator Jeff Merkley’s office. I thought I wanted to go to law school, but after talking to some lawyers, I knew that that wasn’t it.
When I graduated, I was almost immediately hired by US Senator Jeff Merkley, fighting for Social Security benefits, preventing foreclosures, saving Veteran’s food stamps, and fixing the law to ensure that every student, even those with Modified Diplomas, had access to Pell grants.
After five years in Congress, which is too long for any sane person, I took a job with Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish as his Senior Policy Director. At first I had a hard time going from working on Social Security and Department of Education issues to now being in charge of filling potholes. But I quickly realized that I could spend my entire career focused on fixing Social Security and never make an impact. But I could actually fill that pothole. It fundamentally changed my approach to public service.
I worked side-by-side with Comm. Fish for his last five years in office, finding meaningful solutions to the issues Portland was facing.
Nick was known as a coalition builder, and was often the one bringing together his colleagues to move policy forward. My job was to be his voice in every meeting I went into. I got a lot accomplished for Nick, including converting over 1,600 single-stall restrooms into All-User restrooms, creating the nation’s first official Musician Loading Zone program, and writing the city’s Affordable Arts Space plan.
One of my proudest accomplishments was saving the Portland Film Office from being eliminated and creating the Universal Film Permit, which has put the office on a sustainable financial path to avoid future budget cuts.
Following Commissioner Fish’s premature death from cancer, I joined the board of the local nonprofit MusicPortland, which serves as the trade advocacy organization for Portland’s music industry. I’ve spent the last few years lobbying for specific policy changes to support the music industry in a strategic ways.
And in my day job with the American Cancer Society, I’ve helped lead the fight against Big Tobacco, including getting flavored tobacco sales banned in Multnomah and Washington County. Oh, and I serve on the Parkrose School Board Budget Committee, where we are the only school district in Portland that doesn’t have to cut any jobs in this budget!
What else? My wife and I owned a coffee shop and restaurant called Lovecup in the Sellwood neighborhood for five years. I have volunteered for years on different boards and commissions, from the Community Police Relations Committee for the City of Portland, to the Supervisory Committee of the Pacific NW Federal Credit Union. I host a monthly podcast and radio show called “Stumptown Soundcheck” about music and public policy that airs on the Portland Radio Project 99.1fm. I love backpacking and hiking and being outdoors so much that I’ve spent the last few years hauling thousands of pounds of trash and repairing a long-neglected hiking trail on Rocky Butte I’ve affectionately called the Jamie Dunphy Wilderness. Wanna go for a hike?
