Who's Who at City Club: Board of Governors

Pat McCormick is a partner in AM:PM PR, a Portland public relations firm he founded with his daughter, Allison. For 20 years Pat was a partner in Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, a public affairs, research and public relations firm with offices in Portland, Salem and Washington, D.C. He brings nearly 40 years of experience in Oregon public policy and communications to the counsel he offers clients and colleagues. In 1999 his Portland PR peers honored him with the prestigious William Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award. Pat’s public policy role began as chief of staff to Oregon House Majority Leader Les AuCoin, then as Oregon staff director after AuCoin was elected to Congress. Pat returned to the state capitol as chief of staff to House Speaker Hardy Myers. He then founded his own public affairs firm and directed the state’s high tech trade association. He later managed state affairs for Tektronix and served as senior VP at Pihas Schmidt Westerdahl advertising and PR agency before joining CFM in 1991. Pat has been a City Club member since 1969.

Mac Prichard is founder and president of Prichard Communications, a public relations and social media firm that serves foundations, non-profits and public agencies across the country. Mac earned a Master of Public Administration degree at Harvard University and a degree in political science at the University of Iowa. Mac has been a spokesman for City Club of Portland Board of Governors 2011-2012 the Oregon Department of Human Services and other state agencies, was a speechwriter and deputy legislative director for Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, and served as communications director for Earl Blumenauer at City Hall. He also served on the board of The Bus Project. Mac joined City Club in 2004, served on the Agora committee for two years and has served on the Board of Governors for one year.

Naomi is a Program Manager for the Portland Sustainability Institute and leads the EcoDistricts Initiative. Previous experience includes a role on the Sustainable Design Team at ZGF Architects and as a sustainability consultant with Konstrukt. Naomi is a Portland native, and after several years back east, she returned to her hometown, determined to invest her life and career in the place that so many look to for sustainability leadership and that was so formative to her own development. She has an interdisciplinary degree in architecture, environmental science, and urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Naomi chairs the City Club New Leaders Council. In her spare time she makes and sells jewelry locally and designs and bakes one of a kind cakes.

Barnes H. Ellis recently retired as a partner from Stoel Rives LLP where he practiced in the area of business litigation. Barnes previously served as a member of the City Club Board of Governors in the 1970s. He has been a continuous member of the Club since 1964, except for the period when the Club voted to decline admission to women and Barnes, along with many others, resigned until members reversed that decision. He served on two City Club study committees relating to the form of city governance: one in 1968, and as chair of the other in the 1990s. He acted as chair of the Oregon Commission on the Judicial Branch, was a White House Fellow assigned as a special assistant to the United States Attorney General and is currently chair of the Oregon Public Defense Services Commission. In 2007 he received the Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.

Karen Kervin is the chief marketing officer for Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, with firm-wide administrative responsibility for all facets of the firm’s client relations, marketing, public relations and business development activities. She joined the firm in 1985 as a litigation paralegal, assuming supervisory duties of the firm’s paralegals and project assistants in 1996 while continuing to practice as a paralegal. In 2000 Karen assumed the role of director of legal recruiting and paralegal manager, and in 2006, director of client relations and marketing. In 2010, she became the firm’s first chief marketing officer. Karen has been a City Club member since 2003.

Su is the Managing Partner of Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, Inc. (DHM Research), a non-partisan and independent public opinion research firm specializing in public policy issues and social causes. Su has been in her field for close to 15 years and feels privileged to work on important reform issues like education, health and wellness, alternative transportation and renewable energy. She strives to bring more awareness of the values and beliefs of 18-24 and 12-17 year-olds on these issues. Su came to the US from South Korea to take advantage of our great public education, eventually graduating from the University of Tennessee in Marketing and Psychology, before finding her home in Portland. Su has been a City Club member since 2008.

Ken is a senior public affairs coordinator at Metro. His professional background is in public affairs and communications, having worked as a staff member in the Oregon Legislature as well as at KVO Public Relations and at Oregon Partnership. His community leadership includes service as treasurer of X-PAC and as member and chair of the Multnomah County Citizen Involvement Committee. He also served on the board of directors of the alumni association at Willamette University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and American Studies. In addition he holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Portland State University. A Portland native, Ken joined the City Club in 2001 and has participated in the Club’s New Leaders Council, Programming (now Friday Forum) committee, and a ballot measure study committee.

Bill Wyatt is the executive director of the Port of Portland. Prior to his appointment as the Port’s executive director, Bill served as chief of staff to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber for seven years, preceded by six years as president of the Oregon Business Council and five years as executive director of the Association for Portland Progress (then Portland’s Downtown Development Association). He also served as a state representative from the Astoria area from 1974 to 1977.
Bill was appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski in January of 2008 to serve on the Board of the Oregon Global Warming Commission. He formerly has served as board chair of the Urban League and as a board member for Oregon Public Broadcasting and the Oregon Historical Society. Bill has been a City Club member since 1982 and served on the Board of Governors in the 1980’s. He has been a member of several research committees and has spoken at City Club’s Friday Forum multiple times.