Email: alex.staben@ohdc.org
Title: Rural Economic Resilience Coordinator
Organization: Oregon Human Development Corporation
Community: The Dalles
Population: 15,711
County Served: Wasco County (and beyond)

Meet Alex Staben (she/they):

Alex was born and raised in Corvallis, OR, and graduated from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College in June 2024 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Spanish. With a background in environmental education and community engagement she is excited to find ways to apply these skills to a new position. Moving beyond the forested Willamette Valley (albeit only by a few miles) to the high desert has been a stunning change, and she looks forward to exploring the spring wildflowers. As someone who loves staying busy, Alex enjoys biking, hiking, soccer, playing guitar, and performance art – as a performer and a spectator!

Community and Organization:

The Dalles, Oregon, or Cherry City, snakes along the Columbia River and is embraced on all sides by rolling hills. This landscape makes the area a prime producer of renewable wind, solar, and hydro power, producing more than 100% of Wasco county’s energy need. Additionally, expanses of arable land make it home to vast orchards that contribute largely to Oregon’s ranking as the country’s second largest producer of sweet cherries and pears, and subsequently also home to many seasonal and migrant farmworkers.

The Oregon Human Development Corporation (OHDC) is a Latino-led, culturally specific, nonprofit organization that serves farmworkers in offices across Oregon (and one in Nevada), connecting individuals and families to workforce development, assisting with housing, and providing weatherization upgrades. Their mission is to promote economic advancement and self-sufficiency of farmworkers and underserved communities. OHDC is also one of the few organizations that support Oregon’s 174,000 farmworkers statewide, and the state’s only culturally specific community action agency.

Alex’s work with OHDC is additionally supported by the Energy Trust of Oregon.

Projects:

As the Rural Economic Resilience Coordinator, and the first ever RARE Member working with OHDC, Alex is leading four new and ever-evolving projects to increase OHDC’s capacity to bring the best services possible to farmworkers across the state. This work includes reconfiguring the current grants procurement and management process, assisting planning and execution of regional conferences to connect diverse PNW organizations supporting farmworkers, assisting internal partnership development trainings, as well as conducting needs assessments in 5 OHDC communities and planning the preliminary stages of a culturally specific resiliency and resource center in collaboration with a yet-to-be-selected OHDC office.