So what happened was… Terri Davis

I'm standing outside the gym at Southwest Community Center, looking in at a preschool gymnastics class, when I start thinking about how all of this began.

I'm back here a lot now, even though I'm not the one running it anymore. Once in a while I see someone who's been coming here since the day we opened in 1999.

It still surprises me sometimes, because none of this was ever the plan.

I didn't set out to build a career in parks and recreation. I was a stay-at-home mom. My days were filled with running my kids from one activity to the next.

A friend told me about a weekly exercise class at Fulton Park Community Center that offered childcare. I could work out and still be close by.

Shortly after joining the class, the instructor asked if I could fill in.

At the time it felt like I was just helping out. Then, a few months later she asked me to take over the class permanently. 

I remember thinking, "I don't have any experience doing that."

I said yes anyway.

You wouldn't think that one decision would shape the next thirty-plus years of my life.

I did some training, got certified, and before I knew it I was teaching my own classes at Fulton and at a nearby school. I even taught through my third pregnancy, then came back to teach after my baby was born. I brought her along in a stroller.

Two years later, I was offered a seasonal job in Outdoor Recreation. I worked downtown and started to understand just how much the community cares about its parks and its recreation programs.

I got to know some incredible people, including the great Charles Jordan, who was bureau director at the time.

When a permanent position came open supporting Outdoor Recreation and Aquatics, I applied. That's when I became a full-time Parks employee.

People trusted me. They gave me room to try things and improve how we worked. I've always been someone who looks at a process and asks how it could work better.

For Outdoor Recreation, I helped create a summer camp program called "Out and About." It was basically all the things I used to do with my own kids. In Aquatics, I helped streamline the hiring process to support the citywide system.

When we opened Southwest Community Center, I joined the team responsible for Portland's newest community center. That's when it really hit me how much this work affects people and families.

Way before the opening, there were concerns from the community. "There's going to be too much traffic. It'll be too noisy. Should park space be taken over by a building?" We listened and did what we could to put people at ease.

View full size image of Recipient of the 2025 David E. Clark Professional Honor Award, Oregon's highest parks and recreation award

Then opening day came. 

We planned for about two thousand people.

Twelve thousand showed up.

I couldn't leave my desk, couldn't even go to the bathroom. From the moment the doors opened until after dark, the building was packed.

We weren't prepared, and I was overwhelmed.

But in the end, it all turned out okay. It felt like the building was handed over to the community that day.

Some of the people who were most worried about the project became some of its biggest fans. A few even came to work as center employees.

There are still people who've been coming here since 1999. Last week, a woman stopped me and said, "Remind me your name."

I told her.

She said, "Terri, I just love it here."

Twenty-seven years later, she's still a regular here. That says a lot.

This work is about relationships and building trust with people. It's about doing what you said you would do.

Years later, when I became the West Services Zone manager, I faced a different kind of challenge. I had experience in recreation programs, but was new to overseeing maintenance in developed parks, including some of the city's biggest and most visible spaces.

Some of the maintenance guys weren't sure about me at first. "Here's this girl coming in. Who do you think you are?" That's what it felt like.

I wasn't there to boss anyone around. I was there to work with them. To learn from them and help them do their work. I needed them. Once again it goes back to relationships and trust. 

They taught me a lot.

I learned that I didn't have to be a great gardener to respect what great horticulturists do. I didn't have to know everything. Those maintenance folks were pros. My job was to make sure they had what they needed to succeed.

In the early days, I thought being a good leader meant fixing everything.

If there was a problem, I was ready to solve it. Quickly.

Then one day, someone on my team said, "Terri, I just want you to listen. I don't want you to fix it."

That was an aha moment.

I realized that sometimes people don't need answers. They need space, they need to be heard.

People skills didn't come naturally to me. But I've learned a lot from working with all kinds of people. 

Over the years, I've taken on some of the hardest parts of this job. Facility closures. Budget challenges. Layoffs. Staffing shortages. Hard conversations with staff, community, and elected officials.

You learn not to take everything personally. There are things you can control and things you can't. I try to go with the flow in what can sometimes feel like chaos.

What's kept me here is the people.

The people I work with and the culture we've built together.

In my role now, as the manager of our recreation-focused community centers, I spend a lot of time trying to make things work better.

How we create a shared workplace culture. How we support supervisors. How we make sure that no matter which center someone walks into, they feel welcome.

I think about the person I was when I first walked into that class as a parent. My focus back then was taking care of my kids. I wasn't looking for a career.

And I think about how many people are standing in that same place right now.

People work in parks and recreation because they love what they do. Because, at the end of the day, we want to make people's lives better.

That matters to me.

When we opened Southwest Community Center, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. But I will never forget what it felt like to see that building full of people.

Wow.

That feeling stays with you.

And now, in the work I do every day, I try to protect that feeling for myself and for others.

So that years from now, someone else can look up and see a space full of people, take a breath, and know that we're all going to be okay.