25 Years of NWHF - The Board Members Who Guide Us
This year, Northwest Health Foundation hits a huge milestone: 25 years of grantmaking and advancing health in Oregon and SW Washington. In honor of that milestone, we are celebrating some of the people and organizations who have been most influential on this journey. This is the third in a series of blog posts. Read the second blog about NWHF’s staff.
Over 25 years, NWHF has had double that number in board members.
A board member’s job description is pretty unglamourous and includes:
Approving annual budget and audit
Ensuring effective staff leadership, including conducting an annual performance evaluation of the President & CEO
Approving strategic direction and major multi-year initiatives
But this doesn’t speak to the character, the values that shape tough decision-making. You would be reading for days if we highlighted the impact of each of our board members, and we are forever appreciative of their insights, humor and connections. So instead we gave our founding president and CEO, Thomas Aschenbrener, the chance to say a few words about three board members he had the privilege of working alongside.
Mark Hatfield
Senator Mark O. Hatfield was NWHF’s founding board chair. He was asked to join the inaugural board as he was ending his 30-year tenure in the US Senate. “Mark's availability and counsel to me was remarkable. He was generous with his time, his wisdom, and willingness to use his great political capital on behalf of the foundation.” Mark first served in the U.S. Navy, and then worked as an educator, before beginning his political career. Over fifty years, he served as an Oregon State Representative, Oregon State Senator, Oregon Secretary of State, Governor of Oregon, and United States Senator from Oregon. He is the reason Northwest Health Foundation originally formed as a 501(c)(4), and we can thank him and his foresight for our ability to influence policy today. Mark Hatfield passed away in 2011. For what would have been his 100th birthday, NWHF wrote about his impact across Oregon, including at the foundation.
Mitch Greenlick
“My recollections of Dr. Merwyn 'Mitch' Greenlick go back to 1974 when I was a Washington, DC based federal grants officer with responsibilities for awarding and monitoring grants for public health education throughout the country. Dr. Greenlick was one of my grant reviewers for about two years. During that time we learned how to work together and to share our sometimes differing perspectives on these projects. Those who knew Mitch understand his fondness for challenging the usual and customary thinking to build the greater good and outcome. He represented the best of Tikkun Olam, to take action to repair and improve the world. When the opportunity arose for him to join the NWHF Board, I was very pleased, and we worked along with Dr. Mel Kohn to educate the board and then build the foundations' Public Health Policy direction. It was at this time we were able to add senior program officers with public health credentials who did a great job in advancing these public health projects.”
Okianer Christian Dark
“Okianer Christian Dark joined the NWHF Board while she was the US Attorney for Civil Rights in Oregon. She was a great mentor for me as well on understanding equity and racial justice. It was Okianer who guided the board conversations on racial justice and helped the board answer the question that I raised at our board retreats of ' if we say we support non-discrimination, what does that mean in terms of our actions?' Okianer was compelling in her support for the first policy action taken by the board in the November 1997 board meeting that we require a signed statement of non-discrimination from all grant applicants. This was a new concept for the board that was not universally understood or agreed to by the full board. It was Okianer who made the arguments for this policy, which Senator Hatfield encouraged the board to approve.
“A story about Okainer that I am fond of, happened one day when I was in her office at the US Attorney's office. I noticed the screen saver scrolling on her computer "'Be a Flea for Justice" and asked her about it. I have used her response many times since then: ‘The tiniest biting flea can get the attention of the biggest dog.’ It was my joy to always have Okianer to talk with when I wanted to think through issues. Okianer and I had several discussions on board diversity; I discussed with her my two goals, first to have gender balance on the board and second to build to a majority minority board. The important question we asked when considering non-white board candidates is whether they had experiences to authentically bring the voices of POC to the board discussions. It took years to achieve this but it was worth the effort.”
Thank you Thomas for sharing your fond memories with us!