Who We Are
We are mothers. Oregon mothers. We envision a better Oregon with strong, pro-family public policies. And we’re fighting for it. Because we know from experience how dated and inadequate our current system is for families–especially for mothers.
How We Got Started
In the spring of 2010, a group of Oregon mothers came together to start The Mother PAC because of a shared concern that mothers – and the issues that matter to them – are being overlooked by those elected to represent us. There aren’t many mothers in elected office, and due to the various constraints on our time, it can be challenging for us to develop our political voice.
So we started a political action committee (PAC) to raise awareness about the public policy issues that matter to families and to help elect candidates for public office who will champion the kinds of policies mothers and families need.
The beauty of a PAC is that we pool our resources to send a message to legislators from mothers about mothers. When candidates get money from The Mother PAC, they’ll know our vision, and getting our support means working with us to turn our vision into a reality for *all* Oregon’s mothers.
Our Board
The Mother PAC was founded and is run by an all-volunteer committee of Oregon mothers:
Caitlin Baggott jumped on the Bus in 2002 to get Oregonians engaged as volunteers and voters from Portland to Ashland. She currently serves as the strategic director for the Bus Project and runs a national leadership development program called PolitiCorps. She balances life with her daughter, Augusta (age 3), with a handful of civic activities, including serving on the boards of Bitch Magazine and Oregon Voice, a new organization building infrastructure for progressive civic organizations around the state.
Shauna Shindler Ballo has provided strategic communications for progressive causes for longer than she cares to admit, advocating for reproductive freedom, the rights of working people, and LGBT equality. As a member of the endangered species of Kansas Democrats, she has a particular soft spot for political underdogs. Shauna adopted NE Portland as her home in 1999, where she and her husband are outnumbered and outmaneuvered by their precocious daughter, an enormous lap dog and a cranky cat who has seen her through 18 years of political campaigns.
Grayson Dempsey has spent over a decade advocating for women and families through her work in the Reproductive Justice movement. She is the Founder of Backline, a nonprofit organization that promotes connection, conversation and support around all aspects of pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption, and served as the organization’s President from 2003-2009. In recent years she has served as a consultant to organizations such as the Abortion Care Network, Ipas, the Abortion Access Project, OHSU, Spence-Chapin Adoption Services, the Center for Health Training and Pro Kan Do. Grayson currently works as a Childbirth Educator at OHSU, and in addition to The Mother PAC she sits on the Board of Directors for Open Adoption & Family Services as well as the Advisory Boards of Backline and Nursing Students for Choice. She is inspired daily by her husband and two daughters and envisions a future in which all families have the resources they need to thrive.
Lisa Frack has two children, born in Oregon in 2003 and 2006. She’s been fired up about the lack of family-friendly public policies in the U.S since learning she had no paid family leave as a pregnant federal employee. Since simply being fired up doesn’t equal change, she decided to do something about it because, well, we mothers are ready for some serious policy change. She is also a founding board member of Family Forward Oregon, The Mother PAC’s sister organization. She has a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University and works as a Social Media Manager for a national environmental non-profit.
Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis grew up in Oregon thinking that families everywhere recycled, composted, spent summer vacations camping at public access beaches, and staged local protests to get duck crossings put in on busy streets. After a decade in the Midwest, she realized that there is no place like home and Oregon is unique. Since returning in 2000 with her husband, she has been engaged in trying to keep it that way by instilling an appreciation of all things “Oregon” in her two children (and everyone else that will listen) and through her work as the Environmental Health program director at Oregon Environmental Council. Renee’s involvement with The Mother PAC allows her to feed her passions beyond environmental issues and dream of a future where all Oregon families have the support and tools necessary to be happy and healthy.
Beth Kapsch is the mother of two children. She was struck early in her social work career by the policy barriers to families being successful. She became dedicated to working for more family friendly policies. Before her children were born, Beth worked at the Oregon Commission on Children and Families as the state director for Healthy Start and then as a policy advocate for Children First for Oregon. After her daughter was born, she started a business with her sister as way to achieve better work/family balance. Beth owns Global Sistergoods, a fair trade online boutique supporting the economic empowerment of women worldwide. The Mother PAC provided the perfect opportunity to get back involved in a meaningful way with Oregon’s family policy.
Andrea Paluso is a social worker turned community activist. She directs the efforts of The Mother PAC and it’s sister organization Family Forward Oregon and was a founder and spokesperson for the grassroots group Parents for Paid Leave. She has Masters degrees from Columbia University in social work and public health and a work history in non-profit program management. As the mother of two young children, Andrea has been struck by the widening gap between contemporary American families and the policies designed to support them. She is committed to re-defining what it means to be “family-friendly” by advocating for policies that support the work of caring for kids and families and by supporting the candidates who will fight for them, too.
Mary Peveto is the co-founder and president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a grassroots organization devoted to empowering citizens to advocate for stricter regulation of toxic air emissions. She is passionate about the work to support political candidates who will champion work policy that meets the needs of 21st century working families and regulation that will ensure a toxic free environment for our children. Before becoming mother to her three daughters, she spent a decade specializing in international women’s brand marketing for Nike and Adidas. It was while employed with the latter, and upon the birth of her first child in Germany (well-known for its progressive public policies for working parents), that Peveto first experienced the discrepancies in global family employment policy, and how the United States lags. Peveto and her husband have owned a house in Portland for 20 years, grounding them in Oregon in between professional stints in California, Germany and Italy. They intend to stay put and allow their daughters, ages 14, 12 and 5 a chance to catch their breath and practice their English.
Tara West has spent the last 10 years loving being a teacher, but concerned about the public school system — its inequities, lack of stable funding, and school lunches, for starters. Beginning in high school in Ohio, through college and working for an environmental nonprofit in DC she has been concerned about what is happening to the earth. Seeing friends struggling with health care, maternity leave and being told they cannot marry has angered her. But since becoming a mother four years ago, each of these issues has become a lot more personal. BPA in her son’s baby bottles and sippy cups? Pthalates in his toys? 35 kids in his kindergarten class? Half of them with no health insurance? A couple of them who stay home to help with new babies because mom has no sick leave from work or can’t afford daycare? This is Oregon — we can do better — and we will!
Sarah Wetherson is a full-time mom and a full-time wage earner. Juggling these two identities leaves her little time but even greater motivation to continue her activism to improve the lives of women. The Mother PAC gives her a family-friendly way to volunteer. Sarah holds a Master’s degree in public policy and women’s studies and has worked on a variety of issues in Oregon, from reproductive rights to labor to health care and campaign financing.
