| | |  | | Chair, Commissioner | June 30, 2023 | |
Executive director--now serving as senior advisor--of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), a policy and advocacy organization for Indian children and their families. Mr. Cross has 40 years of experience in child welfare; he is an author and national expert on child welfare issues, and served on the faculty of Portland State University School of Social Work for fifteen years.
| 1 | | terrycross | | | |  | | Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | June 30, 2025 | |
Ms. Adams serves as Chief Investment Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the largest charitable foundations in the Pacific Northwest, where she is responsible for leading all investment activities to ensure the long-term financial strength of the organization. Before joining Meyer, Ms. Adams ran the $6.5 billion capital markets fund at The Standard, then a publicly traded company. She was the recent chair of the prestigious Oregon Investment Council, the board that manages approximately $100 billion of public pension and other assets for the State of Oregon.
| 3 | | rukaiyahadams | | | |  | | Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | June 30, 2025 | | Dr. Fajardo is Senior Director of Technology at ATI Specialty Alloys & Components, a manufacturer of specialty materials products in Millersburg, Oregon. Dr. Fajardo has served in numerous leadership and research roles in technology development, and has been serving on the Board of Governors for the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) since its launch in 2017.
| 8 | | arnelfajardo | | | |  | | Vice Chair, Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | June 30, 2025 | | Editor and civic leader who served as editor of The Oregonian newspaper from 1993-2010. She has served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, chair of the board of the Pulitzer Prizes, chairman of the international Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2010 and 2011, Rowe was the Knight Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School. Rowe currently is on the board of the Oregon Nature Conservancy and is a trustee of Willamette University. She previously served on the Board of Visitors of James Madison University in Virginia. | 2 | | sandyrowe | | | |  | | Executive Director | | Ben Cannon |
Executive
Director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission since 2013. In this position, Cannon oversees state funding allocations, policy-setting, and coordination for Oregon's higher education system, including community colleges and public universities. Cannon is a former teacher, state representative and education policy advisor to the Governor. Elected three times to the Oregon House of Representatives (2006-2011), he chaired House committees with jurisdiction over environment, energy, and water policy. From 2003 to 2011, he taught humanities at a middle school near Portland. He earned his BA from Washington University, St. Louis, and attended Oxford University, England, on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning graduate degrees in comparative and international education and philosophy, politics, and economics.
| 16 | Ben Cannon | bencannon | | | |  | | Commissioner, university faculty position | June 30, 2024 | | Dr. Emily Simnitt teaches courses in first year writing, scientific and technical writing, community literacy, and digital humanities and directs the Writing, Public Speaking, and Critical Reasoning (WSCR) program at the University of Oregon where she has worked since 2015. Originally from Idaho, Commissioner Simnitt formerly worked as journalist and served as the public information officer for Idaho’s health and human service agency for more than a decade. During that time, she also taught writing at Boise State University and was part of a team who developed a statewide placement and support curriculum now used at all Idaho higher education public institutions to remove barriers to completing the college writing requirement, particularly for underserved students. Dr. Simnitt studies developing multilingual writers and works to create community partnerships to support student success.
| 13 | | simnitt | | | |  | | Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | June 30, 2023 | | Principal and Founder of V Consulting & Associates Inc. in Roseburg, Oregon, focusing much of her consulting practice on leadership and organization development in rural areas. Vanessa Becker recently served two terms as a trustee for Umpqua Community College, five of the eight years as chair of the board, and her service to the community college system was recognized with the Howard Cherry Award in 2016. Ms. Becker is an American Leadership Forum fellow, and was also recognized by Harvard in 2017 as a co-presenter and alumni of the Harvard Kennedy School Crisis Leadership in Higher Education program. She has been appointed and served on several nonprofit and government based advisory boards, largely focused on health and human services.
| 5 | | vanessabecker | | | |  | | Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | June 6, 2025 | | Dr. Greg Hamann is President Emeritus of Linn Benton Community College (LBCC). Dr. Hamann led LBCC in its commitment to student success and completion from 2010 through 2020, and has advocated for community colleges and their impact at the state and national level. Under his leadership, LBCC implemented Guided Pathways which is now used as a model for other institutions, expanded programs and facilities, championed community collaboration, deepened university partnerships, and launched equity and affordability initiatives. Dr. Hamann previously served as president at Clatsop Community College, and has served on numerous task forces, boards, and leadership positions. | 9 | | greghamann | | | |  | | Commissioner, community college faculty member | June 30, 2024 | | Fernando Rojas-Galván is an instructor of Spanish, English as a Second Language (ESL), and Developmental English at Clatsop Community College (CCC), and an educator for 24 years and counting. Commissioner Rojas-Galván was raised in Hood River and The Dalles, Oregon. He began college studies at Portland Community College, later earning BA degrees in Political Science (University of Portland), Secondary Education (College of Santa Fe), and an MA degree in Spanish/Border Studies (University of New Mexico). During the summer of 2021, he embarked on a 1400-mile bicycle ride through Oregon visiting 16 of the 17 community colleges as a fundraiser for the CCC Foundation to raise scholarship money to reduce the cost of textbooks.
| 12 | | rojas-galvan | | | |  | | Commissioner | June 30, 2023 | | Co-founder of Sonder Studio, a venture studio that designs products and businesses using human-machine systems which leverage the best of artificial and human intelligence. Speaker, facilitator, researcher and writer on AI ethics and human-centered design. Contributor at Quartz. Entrepreneur and technology executive.
| 7 | | helenedwards | |  | |  | | Commissioner | June 30, 2025 | | Ricardo Lujan-Valerio is director of advocacy for Latino Network, and an immigration, education, and election policy advocate. He previously served as legislative director for the Oregon Student Association, policy associate for the ACLU of Oregon advocating for Title IX protections in higher education, and as student senator and associate justice with the Associated Students of Southern Oregon University. At OSA, he he worked with student leaders across the state to draft The Student Voice and Transparency Act (HB 4141 - 2018). Lujan-Valerio also serves as board member of Causa, Oregon’s immigrant rights organization and Vice Chair of City of Portland’s Open and Accountable Elections Commission. He was born in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, and graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BS in Business and a certificate in nonprofit management.
| 10 | | RicardLujanValerio | | | | | | Commissioner, community college student position | | | The community college student position is currently vacant. For information on this position, or for how to apply, contact Commission Administrator Guthrie Stafford at guthrie.stafford@hecc.oregon.gov or by calling (971) 273-9222.
| 15 | | PositionVacant | | | |  | | Commissioner, member of the Funding and Achievement Subcommittee | February 28, 2026 | | Richard Devlin has served for 31 years as an elected official and brings to the Commission a lifelong interest in evidence based public policy, most recently as State of Oregon Senator and Representative. His public policy work began at the local and regional level, where he focused on open space preservation, habitat conservation, land use planning, and transportation. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, he continued his interest in transportation, and expanded into education, economic development, election law and natural resources. Elected to the Senate in 2002, he served on the Joint Ways and Means Committee and would chair subcommittees on education and natural resources. He was the Majority Leader of the Senate (2007-2010), Co-Chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee (2011-2017), and member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (2018-2021), where he served numerous leadership roles including Vice-Chair and Chair.
| 6 | | richarddevlin | | | |  | | Commissioner, graduate student position | February 29, 2024 | | Motutama Nogotau Sipelii (he/him) is a first-generation Asian Pacific Islander from American Samoa who graduated from Portland State University (PSU) with a BS in Pre-clinical Health Sciences. He is currently an MPH candidate for the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) PSU School of Public Health and serves on multiple non-profit boards, including other student-led advocacy groups in Oregon. He previously served as the first Asian Pacific Islander-identifying student body president for the Associated Students of PSU.
| 14 | | motusipelii | | | |  | | Commissioner, university student position | June 30, 2024 | | Natalie Arnot (she/her) is a student at Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT). Natalie Arnot grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, and is now an incoming junior, double majoring in civil engineering and environmental sciences at Oregon Tech, Klamath Falls campus. Commissioner Arnot is going on her second year serving on the Associate Students of OIT (OIT student body government), where she will be serving as Academic Affairs Officer for 2022-23, and she has been involved in other campus wide committees. She is also involved in the Klamath Falls community through maintaining the local community arboretum. Since being diagnosed with a learning disability, Commissioner Arnot has been passionate about connecting with people and advocating for individuals’ uniqueness in the school setting.
| 4 | | arnot | | | |  | | Commissioner | February 29, 2024 | | Aislyn Matas is a staff coordinator for the Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University and is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the program. Prior to her lead staff position at PSU, Aislyn worked at Hawaii Pacific University, and during her student years, she was employed by Evergreen State College and Tigard High School. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from the Evergreen State College and a Master of Arts in Global Leadership and Sustainability from Hawaii Pacific University.
| 10 | | asilynmatas |
|