Jae Rutherford, Vice Chair
Bio coming soon.
Allan Lazo
Allan Lazo is the executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO), a statewide civil rights organization founded in 1990 whose mission is to end housing discrimination and ensure equal opportunity to housing. FHCO provides access to education, enforcement, and public policy advocacy. He has been a long-time community advocate for civil rights and social justice, especially in the areas of housing, homelessness, and racial equity. Allan currently serves on the City of Portland Housing Bureau’s Affordable Housing Bond Oversight Committee and served on the state of Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development Housing Rulemaking Advisory Committee. He is a long-time resident of Portland.
Ashley Miller
Ashley Miller is a jurisdictional partner on the FHAC, representing the City of Gresham. Ashley is the Housing Services Manager for the City of Gresham. She oversees Gresham’s Rental Housing Inspection Program, Federal CDBG and HOME grant funding, Gresham’s Metro Housing Bond Program, and housing policy.
Barbara Geyer
As a woman of color, Barbara was very eager to implement fair housing laws into real estate transactions when entering the real estate industry in 1977 in California. She currently holds active business-level real estate licenses in both California and Oregon and has represented consumers of real estate including owners, developers, buyers and renters. With decades of education and industry practice, she has extensive knowledge of fair housing and real estate laws and has taught first-time homebuyer classes to anyone interested in real estate education.
Barbara is committed to eliminating housing discrimination through outreach, education, and enforcement of fair housing laws.
Caroline Jackson
Though originally from the East Coast, Caroline Jackson has been a resident of Portland for over 12 years as well as a rental tenant in several different Portland neighborhoods. She currently works as the Volunteer Manager at Outside In, a local nonprofit that supports youth experiencing houselessness and other vulnerable community members as they move toward improved health and self-sufficiency; additionally, she frequently coordinates community resource events and supports Outside In's COVID-19 outreach efforts. Caroline recently completed a Master's degree in Public Policy from Portland State University with a focus on social services and affordable housing policy analysis. In her free time, she is involved in Portland's vibrant music community, often performing at local venues, and she enjoys spending time outdoors with her partner and her rescue dog.
Christina Dirks
Christina (she/her) has spent her career advocating for vulnerable renters. After graduating law school, Christina worked at Oregon Law Center and then Legal Aid Services of Oregon as a Staff Attorney and then a Supervising Attorney. Through her 18-year practice, Christina focused on represented low-income tenants in all types of housing related legal matters, including fair housing matters. In addition to direct client representation, Christina conducted extensive training on fair housing and landlord/tenant law and served in various housing policy forums. After stepping away from the practice of law, Christina joined the Rental Services Office of the Portland Housing Bureau as a Rental Policy and Program Coordinator. While with the Portland Housing Bureau, Christina helped to develop and implement the City’s Eviction Legal Defense Program and the Landlord-Tenant Mediation Pilot Program as well as coordinated the Rental Services Commission. Christina currently serves as the Interim Director of Policy and Planning at Home Forward where she centers the voices and experiences of Home Forward’s residents and participants and brings a race equity lens to internal and external policy change work.
Dung Ho
Dung Ho (she/her) is the Tenant Education and Support Director at the Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT). She has worked at CAT since 2009 and has 20 years of experience in educational work at non-profits.
She was born and raised in Oregon, and her parents were refugees from Vietnam. As a long-time renter in Portland, she has witnessed how the city's changes impact different communities.
With a heart-centered approach, Dung hopes to contribute to meaningful change for everyone in our city and state, especially for those who are least likely to be heard. Dung is most proud of her work with Staying Sacred, an Indigenous youth program run by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA (MMIW USA). In her spare time, she enjoys reading, exploring local restaurants, and sharing laughs with friends over bubble tea.
Fanny Adams
Fanny Adams is the Program administrator for Multnomah County’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. CDBG is a grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that provides resources to state and local governments to fund a wide range of community development projects for low- and moderate-income people to build stronger and more resilient communities. The Multnomah County CDBG program is administered through the Department of County Human Services, Youth and Family Division.
Holly Stephens
I have an M.B.A. in Human Resources Management and a Masters degree in Teaching. I started my career in education, building academic programs and curriculum. I led projects bringing together school districts and communities to implement programs and student support services in various districts. I currently work as a project manager driving projects that deliver outstanding training and benefits to state employees with a focus on equity and worker-employer collaboration. My overarching goal throughout my career has been to achieve outcomes and make a positive impact for groups who need it most. I am grateful to be a member of FHAC and push forward the important work of ensuring access to safe, affordable, and accommodating housing for Oregonians.
Irina Alonso
Irina Alonso is currently the Bilingual Bridges to Housing Case Manager at Clackamas County Social Services serving chronically homeless families and providing intensive case management and rent assistance support. Irina also works with the Hosing Stabilization Program in collaboration with DHS to provide short term rent assistance and stabilization of households receiving TANF & SNAP.
Jesse Neilson
Having experienced housing insecurity at a young age, Jesse Neilson (he/him) has long appreciated that housing is essential in order to thrive. Jesse is an attorney with experience both in fair housing and renters’ rights and currently works as a policy analyst in the Civil Rights Division at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. He previously served as a legal aid attorney serving those experiencing poverty, focusing on the intersection of poverty and immigration status and advocating for disabled seniors in affordable housing. Residing with his family in North Portland’s Kenton neighborhood, Jesse also serves on the PBOT North Portland in Motion Community Advisory Group. With his experience, Jesse is grounded not only in fair housing law, but in the realities that people face when their housing experience lacks basic dignity.
Mara Romero
Mara Romero (she/her) is an advocate for affordable and accessible housing across the Portland Tri-County Area. She spends her time sharing information on the attainment of housing independence from a peer perspective. She firmly believes housing is a human right.
Most recently, Mara served her community as a Housing Advocate for Independent Living Resources. She previously served as the Community Living Advocate for Oregon’s Protection and Advocacy organization, Disability Rights Oregon. She is personally and professionally invested in sustainably healing our housing ecosystem.
Mara earned a Masters of Social Work from Portland State University and serves on the Metro Housing Bond Oversight Committee. She has been in Oregon for over fifteen years and currently rents on the Portland/Beaverton line with her partner, kid, and pug.
Olia Gorelkina
Olia Gorelkina is currently a Housing Coordinator at Slavic Oregon Social Services with Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. She is working with immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence, helping them overcome the barriers to housing. In addition, she brings her own experience as a renter and a person who experienced housing instability as a young adult refugee. Her knowledge of the growing community of Slavic-speaking refugees and their housing needs will be beneficial for the work of RSC.
Rachel Nehse
Rachel is a jurisdictional representative from the City of Gresham. She is a Program Analyst for the Community Revitalization program and has worked with the City’s CDBG and HOME funds since 2017.
Stephanie Grayce
Stephanie Grayce will graduate with her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in May, 2023. While at Lewis & Clark, she has been a board member of the Public Interest Law Project and is a member of the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic. In addition, she has received special honors for both her pro bono and community service work. She has dedicated the past three years to advocacy for housing and employment barrier reduction, particularly those from marginalized communities and also participates in advocacy work for veterans. Additionally, she serves as a board member for Brain Injury Connections NW.
Taylor Smiley Wolfe
Taylor Smiley Wolfe is the Director of Policy and Planning for Home Forward, the largest provider of affordable housing in Oregon. She leads policy change and long-term planning work at Home Forward with a focus on reducing barriers to accessing Home Forward programs, promoting housing stability, and advancing racial equity. Prior to joining Home Forward, Taylor was the Policy Director for Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek and she played a major role in the passage of the first statewide anti-rent gouging and tenant protections legislation, Senate Bill 608 (2019) and the first statewide legalization of middle housing, House Bill 2001 (2019). Taylor has also served as a policy analyst and researcher for PolicyLink, Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and the Dellums Institute for Social Justice. Taylor has a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P) from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.