Nujhat Ahmed, Project Associate
Nujhat has completed master’s in Public Policy from Portland State University and formerly earned a Masters of Government and a Masters of Social Science in International Relations. She is currently working as a Project Associate in NPCC. She has experience as a teaching and research assistant, and prior to that was a program supervisor for a global exchange program between the UK and Bangladesh.
Eliot Feenstra, Project Manager
Eliot Feenstra (he/they) is a long-time community organizer, facilitator, performer, teacher, poet, and gardener. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and currently lives and works in rural southwestern Oregon.
During COVID, he worked with the Rogue Action Center to develop the LGBTQ+ Listening Project, a community organizing hub for rural LGBTQ+ folks in Josephine & Jackson counties. As a facilitator, he trains people to lead reflective dialogues with Oregon Humanities. He is the co-artistic director of Beyond Boom & Bust, an incubator for community-based arts projects that use theatre to explore economic and social issues in rural southwestern Oregon. He is also the co-chair of the Governance Committee for the Queer Data Design Project, an emergent statewide research project with LGBTQIA2S+ community in Oregon.
Eliot holds an MA in Performance Studies from York University; he also studied social practice at Portland State University and has a BA in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Chicago. He lives on an old commune in Takilma, OR with his wife, Sophie, and cat, Antigonick.
Sarah Giles, Project Manager
Sarah began working for the National Policy Consensus Center in 2007 and currently is a project manager for Oregon's Kitchen Table. She was previously a Research Assistant at Oregon Health and Sciences University. From 2002-2006 Sarah taught writing at the University of Arizona where she also received her MFA in Creative Writing. She graduated cum laude from Vassar College in 2001 and was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, where she taught English to elementary and secondary level students.
Wendy Willis, Director of Civic Engagement
Wendy is the Director of Civic Engagement at Portland State University's National Policy Consensus Center, where Oregon's Kitchen Table is housed, and the Executive Director of the national non-profit Kitchen Table Democracy. Wendy is a national leader in the field of civic engagement and citizen-centered decision-making. Prior to joining PCI/NPCC, Wendy was the Executive Director for City Club of Portland, one of the most venerable civic organizations in the country. She has also served as an Assistant Public Defender for the District of Oregon and a law clerk to Chief Justice Wallace P. Carson, Jr. of the Oregon Supreme Court. Wendy is also a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum Oregon, a poet, and the mother of two young daughters. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law Center and holds a B.A. from Willamette University.
Oregon’s Kitchen Table is a program of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University and is housed within the National Policy Consensus Center.