Elizabeth Steiner, Chair

Oregon State Treasurer

Elizabeth Steiner is Oregon’s 30th Treasurer. She is the first woman and first physician to hold this office. Born in New York and raised in Massachusetts, she moved to Oregon in 1991 for her family medicine residency at OHSU. Within in six months of arriving she knew Oregon was home and has been here ever since.

Elizabeth served in the State Senate for thirteen years prior to being elected Treasurer. She served as Senate Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Ways & Means for six years, gaining expertise in managing the state’s budget, engaging in economic development across the state, and working closely with Treasury regarding bonding. Her policy work focused on upstream public health including raising the legal age for tobacco & e-cigarettes to 21 and creating the nation’s first universally-offered home visiting program for families with new babies.

As a family physician Elizabeth knows that financial security is critical for good physical and mental health. She is excited to help more Oregonians achieve better health by building financial security through financial empowerment programs and use of various savings programs offered through the Oregon Treasury.

The State Treasurer is a voting member of the Oregon Retirement Savings Board per ORS 178.200.

Appointed by Governor

Mr. Anderson was Secretary-Treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, prior to retiring August 1, 2021. UFCW 555 represents 30,000 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington in retail, manufacturing, food processing, health care, building maintenance, and legal services. He also had served as Trustee/Secretary on the Oregon Retail Employee Pension Trust, Trustee of the UFCW Local 555 Employers Health Trust, and President of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council (Portland) prior to his retirement. Aside from labor, Jeff has served 37 years on the Salem Electric Co-op Board and is a member of the Claggett Creek Watershed Council. Jeff also served for ten years on the Oregon Wage and Hour Commission, for five years as Chair of the Oregon Working Families Party, and for eight years as President of Northwest Hope Foundation.

Kara Backus

Appointed by Governor

Ms. Backus is an employee benefits attorney at the Pacific Northwest law firm of Lane Powell. She is a member and past president of the Portland chapter of the Western Pension & Benefits Council. She has experience with qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, executive compensation issues, and employee benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions. She works with clients to design and draft benefit plans, to monitor compliance with new legislation under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, and to interact with the IRS and the Department of Labor regarding plan issues. She regularly writes and speaks on employee benefits issues impacting Oregon and Washington employers. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree at Amherst College and her Juris Doctorate at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Maria Gonzalez

Appointed by Governor

Ms. Gonzalez is responsible for leading a 500+ person service and operations organization for the Retirement Plans division at The Standard and serves as President of StanCorp Investment Advisers. The Standard Retirement Services is a top-tier recordkeeper for small to mid-sized plans valued for their unique blend of expertise and employer focused service excellence. The Standard has a long history of designing, administering, and providing investment options for 401(k), profit sharing, money purchase, 403(b), 457 and defined benefit plans.

Maria joined The Standard in 2003 and has held leadership roles in Corporate Finance, Individual Annuities, Marketing and Employee Benefits. She joined the Retirement Plans senior leadership team in 2010 and has led a mix of operations, service, finance, actuarial and business improvement teams.

Prior to joining the Standard, Maria worked in investment banking and equity research for Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Maria received her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Society of Portland.

Maria serves as Treasurer on the board of Metropolitan Family Service, a nonprofit whose mission is to help people move beyond the limitations of poverty, inequity, and social isolation. She is also the executive sponsor of The Standard’s LGBTQ employee resource group and has served on the advisory board of The Standard’s racial and ethnic diversity ERG. She is a member of Schwab’s Trust and Custody Advisory Board and LIMRA’s Retirement Plans Committee.

Maria resides in Portland with her wife and two young children. In her spare me, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and going to plays with her family.

Joyce DeMonnin

Appointed by Governor

Ms. DeMonnin is an Oregon native and served as Director of Communications and Media Relations for AARP Oregon until her retirement in 2021. She has extensive experience in program development, strategic and operational planning, public speaking, communications/media relations and event management. With AARP, her key impact areas included health care reform, access to affordable prescriptions, economic security, older worker equity and retirement security/Social Security. Joyce was AARP Oregon’s lead staff and advocate, helping to create OregonSaves. Joyce worked to pass legislation in 2013 and 2015 and assisted with promoting the program when it went live in 2017. She was also instrumental in expanding the Oregon Prescription Drug Program statewide and was on the board of the Oregon Patient Safety Commission for eight years; two years as Chair. In 2017, Joyce was awarded the national AARP Award for Communication. Joyce also founded the ElderSafe Program in Washington County in 2000, creating one of the first stand-alone victim assistance, education, and advocacy programs in Oregon to combat elder abuse and support victims of crime. The program won the national Archstone Foundation Award of Excellence. Joyce has a BA in Journalism, and Master's degrees in Public Health and Business Administration.

Senator Dick Anderson

Senator Dick Anderson was elected to the Senate in 2020. He is the former Mayor of Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast and serves on the North Lincoln Health District Board, as well as the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Board. While Mayor, Anderson served on the Lincoln County Foundation and the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Executive Committee.

Senator Anderson was raised in Wallowa County and has lived in the Northwest in several areas over the course of his career before retiring. He worked for 35 years in the financial industry where he honed his collaborative approach to issues before moving to the Oregon coast.

Dick and his wife, Sue have been married for 50 years and have two children and 5 grandchildren. They purchased their home on the Oregon coast to retire, but state and local government have become part of that equation.

Locally, Senator Anderson has also been active with the North Lincoln County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), B'nail B'rith Camp and Family Promise of Lincoln County as a volunteer, Lincoln City Chamber of Commerce and is an avid golfer.

Representative Daniel Nguyen

Representative Daniel Nguyen is a son of Vietnamese refugees who came to the United States in 1975. Daniel was born and raised in Camas, Washington. Daniel and his wife, with their entrepreneurial spirit, founded and operate Bambuza Vietnam Kitchen, located in the South Waterfront community since 2008. Daniel was elected to the Lake Oswego City Council in 2018, the first person of color elected to serve on City Council.

Daniel also serves as a community volunteer and as a Director on several organization’s boards -Immigration Counseling Service Business for a Better Portland and Co-Chair of PCC School of Business & Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee, and was elected to the state legislature in 2023 as State Representative.

Upcoming Meetings, Agenda, and Details

For prior meeting dates and agendas, please see the Treasury Calendar

The meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. A request for an interpreter for the hearing impaired or for other accommodations should be made at least 48 hours before the meeting to: Missy Simpson at RetirementSavings@ost.state.or.us or 503.373.1903.

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Meeting Books, Minutes, and Audio

For older meeting materials, fill out a Public Records Request.