Welcome to my website! My name is Olivia Clark, and I’m proud to serve on Portland City Council representing District 4. My district has almost 165,000 residents in the west side of Portland as well as Southeast neighborhoods of Sellwood, Eastmoreland, Reed, and Ardenwald-Johnson Creek.
I come to Portland City Council as a seasoned, pragmatic professional, an optimist, and a collaborator with a record of success.
Growing up, I learned the value of hard work in my father’s 20-seat diner, where my mother worked as a waitress while my brother and I also waited tables, washed pots, peeled potatoes, and polished floors after church on Sundays.
A scholarship enabled me to be the first in my family to graduate from college. After earning a bachelor’s degree from University of Redlands, I moved to Oregon to receive a master’s degree in sociology from University of Oregon. It was there I realized my passion for making tangible changes rather than just studying them.
This led me to become a neighborhood activist, focused on affordable housing at the local and statewide level. When President Reagan cut housing programs, I shifted my focus to local government and later joined Governor John Kitzhaber’s office, where I served as Intergovernmental Relations Director and later Legislative Affairs Director from 1995 to 2002.
I then joined TriMet to secure funds for expanding our light rail system and constructing our iconic Tilikum Crossing. I successfully achieved this goal by building a strong regional coalition as TriMet’s Executive Director of Public Affairs.
I also served on the board and later as chair of Providence Health System from 2010 to 2022, overseeing quality, credentialing of doctors, and helping to implement a change in the governance model. I previously founded and served on the board for Community and Shelter Assistance Corporation (CASA of Oregon), a nonprofit to build farmworker housing.
Thanks for visiting my website and for staying engaged with your city government!