Carmen Thompson
Carmen P. Thompson is a historian and author of The Making of American Whiteness: The Formation of Race in Seventeenth- Century Virginia. She earned her PhD in U.S. History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and her Masters of Arts in African American Studies from Columbia University in New York. Dr. Thompson is a highly sought expert on Race and Whiteness in America. Her scholarship was quoted in the December 2022 Oregon State Supreme Court decision, Watkins v. Ackley, in support of the Court’s conclusion of disparate racial impact of non-unanimous jury decisions. She wrote the introduction to the newly published book, Protest City: Portland’s Summer of Rage, a photo book that chronicles the yearlong protests in Portland, Oregon after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. And she co-edited and authored articles in the peer reviewed journal, Oregon Historical Quarterly, 2019 special issue on White supremacy in Oregon. Currently, Thompson holds a visiting scholar appointment in the Center for Black Studies at Portland State University. She has also held visiting scholar appointments at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University in New York and in the Black Studies Department at Portland State University, and has taught a wide range of courses on the Black experience and Whiteness at Portland State University and Portland Community College.
Andrew DeVigal
Andrew DeVigal holds the endowed chair in journalism innovation and civic engagement and is the director of the Agora Journalism Center, the forum for the future of local news and civic health at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism & Communication. Our work stems from the belief that vibrant local information ecosystems are critical to civic health–defined as the ability of diverse communities to engage and work together to address shared problems. Community-centered journalism can provide quality, trusted information and improve understanding across community differences. Read Agora’s latest report, Assessing Oregon’s Local News & Information Ecosystem 2022, which DeVigal co-authored.
A constant connector and bridge builder, DeVigal’s leadership at the school has led to industry-recognized initiatives such as Gather, a platform to support community-minded journalists, and the Doers Gathering, a toolkit to drive community-driven solutions addressing pressing local issues. Prior to joining the UofO, DeVigal was the multimedia editor at The New York Times where he directed the multimedia team and conceived and produced ground-breaking story forms and processes that continue to shape the industry today.
Promise King
Promise King is the Founder and President of the League of Minority Voters. Prior to this role, he served as Deputy Public Affairs Director and Senior Policy Advisor for the State Treasurer. He then transitioned to the City of Portland, where he worked as Senior Policy Advisor and Director to the City Council, overseeing franchise agreements, systems review, crisis communication, and community and economic development.
Mr. King, a Nigerian immigrant, has a distinguished career as a strategist for presidential, gubernatorial, and municipal political campaigns. He is also an award-winning political columnist for the Portland Tribune. An accomplished journalist and veteran campaign strategist, he has served as a senior advisor to elected officials, a system thinker, and a C-suite non-profit executive. Mr. King has written extensively on race, politics, and the impact of public policies on minorities, earning numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists as one of Oregon’s best columnists. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Salem Business Journal, where he writes a column on business and politics.
Mr. King began his journalism career as a City Hall reporter for the Portland Observer, the oldest black press in the Northwest. He then covered the Oregon State House of Assembly for the Skanner News Group. Leaving journalism, he became the first black Chief of Staff in the State House, working for several elected officials. Mr. King currently serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board for Washington State University, Vancouver, and the DEI Advisory Board for the Oregon Institute of Technology. He is also a member of the budget advisory board for DEI at the Portland Fire Bureau.
A graduate of University College, London, with degrees in Journalism and Public Policy, Mr. King resides in Oregon but travels nationwide, advocating for bipartisanship and racial inclusion. He is an avid soccer and polo player and enjoys exploring ethnic cuisines.
Daniel Pimentel
Daniel Pimentel is an Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology at the School of Journalism and Communication in Portland. Daniel’s research primarily focuses on cross-reality (XR) media platforms: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Specifically, he conducts experimental research examining how XR storytelling experiences can contribute to prosocial attitude and behavior change across various contexts, including climate action, wildlife conservation, and mental/physical well-being. His XR projects and prototypes have been funded by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Thompson Earth Systems Institute (TESI), and the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC). His work has also been featured in peer-reviewed journals such as New Media and Society, and reputed technology conferences such as Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHIPLAY), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Games, Entertainment and Media (IEEE GEM), and IEEE VR. Daniel also carries several years of XR industry serving as a researcher at various technology companies, including Magic Leap, XR Americas (New York), and Yellow Wood Immersive Media (Miami). Daniel is a proud McKnight Doctoral fellow and member of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.
Eric Friedenwald-Fishman
Eric is a social impact pioneer. He designs large narrative change initiatives and public will building campaigns to drive changes in policy, practice and social norms that advance a more just, healthy, and sustainable world. He has been MG’s key strategist on hundreds of international, national and regional projects, with particular focus at the intersections of public health, environment, and social justice. He specializes in initiatives that bring together movements across issues and that engage stakeholders and partners across the public, non-profit, philanthropic, and private sectors. Over the last three years, Eric has led work to deconstruct authoritarian and democratic narratives, to test more effective narratives and messaging to bolster support for inclusive democracy and counter authoritarianism globally and in 12 countries on 5 continents. His team has recently released research, narratives and resources on Democracy Narratives in Action. He has also worked extensively with NGO’s, coalitions, and movements defending against authoritarianism in countries around the world.
Eric is the principal author of MG’s Public Will Building Framework and co-author of MG’s Shifting Narrative Framework of Marketing That Matters, a book on socially responsible marketing, published in five languages.
Sam Pape
Sam (they/them) is a born-and-raised Portlander, and lover of all things Oregon. After spending most of their twenties traveling the country playing music, they returned home to study writing and philosophy at Portland State University. Since then, they’ve done freelance journalism for publications like Portland Monthly Magazine and the Mercury, and communications for the Montavilla Guitar Studio.
During the many camping trips they took as a child, their dad would always say, “Leave the campsite in better shape than it was when we found it.” Now, Sam hopes to bring that same philosophy to Oregon as a whole with the OEC.
Suzanne Savaria
Suzanne Savaria, MAT, NCTM, is a storyteller, a musician, and a teacher who engages in a range of art practices to celebrate and uplift community. She is the co-director and developer of the Artist as Citizen Initiative, an arts and social justice program founded in 2016 at Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon. She has been a faculty member at PSU since 2007 teaching art activism and advocacy, trust-based philanthropy and grant-making for arts and culture, storytelling for social impact, piano classes and design thinking. In the summers, she develops curriculum and leads international capstone fieldwork in five regions of Spain, centered on topics identity-formation and civic engagement. Outside of PSU, she teaches and manages her private piano studio. Suzanne works to empower others to explore their creativity, discover the importance and impact of their voice and be curious citizens of the global world.