Oregon PSR is actively recruiting a cohort of new Board members to help guide our work. Read on to see if you or someone you know might be interested in applying for Board membership.
Current Board Makeup:
The Oregon PSR Board of Directors currently consists of 10 members, and we are looking to increase membership to 13-15 Board members.
We are seeking Board candidates who bring one or more of the following:
- Lived experience with the health impacts of environmental pollution, climate disruption, racism, war, nuclear injustice, and/or other issues that inform our work.
- A public health lens.
- Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) health professionals, health professional students including medicine and pre-med, community health, nursing, pharmacy, etc., and early-career health professionals. We are seeking health workers from all health fields, not just physicians.
- Oregon residents from outside the Portland metro area.
Description and Expectations of Board members:
Responsibilities
Contribute in at least two of the four following areas:
- Bring substantive knowledge or lived experience in an area of interest to Oregon PSR.
- Volunteer significant time.
- Offer a viewpoint from an underrepresented community to the Board.
- Contribute or persuade others to contribute significant funds.
Participation
- Prepare for, attend, and participate in meetings of the Board of Directors (currently 4 times per year).
- Join the Oregon PSR Board member email list to keep updated about Board business between meetings and participate in occasional online decision-making.
- Become a donor to Oregon PSR by making an annual contribution that fits your budget to support the organization and its programs.
- Support Oregon PSR at special events and benefits, encouraging others to attend and provide support.
- Share time and talent in special areas of expertise and skill as the need arises.
- Serve a term of three years. Board members may be reelected to additional terms.
- Optional service on a Board committee such as our Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) committee, membership committee, finance committee, or Board recruitment committee.
Strategic Planning
Board members will participate in retreats and other planning meetings designed to accomplish the following:
- Set and review the organization's mission and goals and budget on a regular basis.
- Plan for the organization's future, on a long-term and short-term basis.
- Prioritize, plan and evaluate organizational programs.
Community Relations
- Ensure that the organization's programs and services appropriately address community needs.
- Promote the organization to your networks, including serving as a liaison between the organization and community.
- Promote cooperative action with other organizations, including activities and occasions when the organization should take part in coalitions, joint fundraising, etc.
Policy Development
Determine the organization's position with respect to new and/or controversial issues.
Financial Obligations
- Each director is expected to become a financial supporter of Oregon PSR. The size of the gift is an individual decision. Donations from individual Board members in 2019 ranged from $50-$15,000.
- Board members are expected to support fundraising efforts with one of the following: time, talent, or money with the goal of helping to raise at least $1,000.00 per year.
Organizational Background:
Guided by the values and expertise of medicine and public health, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) works to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival by striving to end the nuclear threat, advance environmental health, protect our climate, and promote peace. Oregon PSR is an organization of health professionals and public health advocates working collaboratively with community partners to educate and advocate for societal and policy changes that protect human health. Our values include: justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; social responsibility; human health and well being; and the interconnectedness of life. Our vision is of a healthy, just, and peaceful world for present and future generations.
Founded in 1981, Oregon PSR shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its work to prevent nuclear war. Recent successes in Oregon include protecting our climate and air quality by helping prevent construction of four massive coal facilities and providing leadership in a coalition that secured the strongest and most equitable 100% renewable energy resolutions in the country from the City of Portland and Multnomah County. Oregon PSR also served on the Steering Committee for the diverse coalition that successfully passed the Portland Clean Energy Fund and led successful coalition efforts for state legislation and a Portland City Council resolution in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and for nuclear justice. Our intersectional approach to peace has led to us using our health voice on issues of violence and militarism including gun violence prevention, immigrant justice, police violence, war, and racism as public health emergencies. Over the past five years, Oregon PSR has embarked on a transformative process to infuse the values of equity and justice into our organizational practices and programs. We feel that we’ve made enough internal progress on our Justice journey to begin actively recruiting leadership from underrepresented communities, including a new cohort of board members to help guide our organization forward.
How to Apply:
Prospective board members should contact Kelly Campbell ([email protected], 503-720-1815) with a brief written biography or résumé and to arrange an interview with the Board recruitment committee. Following the interview, the prospective member is invited to attend the next Board meeting as a guest. After the meeting, if there is mutual interest, the Board will vote on adding the new member prior to the next meeting.
Other ways to participate:
- Apply to become an Advisory Board member. Advisory Board members are invited but not obligated to attend Board meetings and are turned to for advice in their area of expertise
- Join our Healthy Climate Action Team or Peace Work Group to volunteer with our programmatic work
- Host an Oregon PSR fundraiser or “friend-raiser” to support our organization
- Make a financial contribution of any size to become a member
- Sign up for our email list to take weekly actions
- Follow us and amplify our work on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram
If you are interested in learning more about Board membership or other ways to get involved, please contact Kelly Campbell, Executive Director, at 503-720-1815 (call or text) or [email protected].