Email: clairea@traveloregon.com
Title: Destination Services Coordinator
Organization: Travel Oregon
Community: Portland
Population: 652,500
County Served: Statewide

Meet Claire Albright (she/her):

Claire Albright grew up in Astoria, Oregon and spent most of her childhood exploring the beach, the woods and the waterfront landscapes through recreation and art. She’s uber competitive when it comes to sports and games and played soccer all throughout her youth. In 2022, she graduated from the University of Oregon with a major in Art and a minor in Environmental Studies. Through their Urban Farm course, she developed a deep love for food systems and gardening. The last couple of years she has spent working in different areas of the social work world as a Personal Support Worker, a Paraeducator, and last year serving as a Community Food and Garden Coordinator with the Housing Authority of Clackamas County for a public housing development. Through this position her passion for fighting food insecurity deepened and her desire to make wider changes grew and ultimately led her to her new role. Claire loves to spend her free time soaking up the beautiful outdoors, doing yoga or swimming in any body of water she can find. Gardening is one of her favorite pastimes as well as painting and really any creative hands-on activity that has the potential for messiness and play.

Community and Organization:

Claire is serving as Destination Services Coordinator with Travel Oregon; the statewide Destination Management Organization that works to inspire travel that uplifts Oregon communities. Travel Oregon collaborates with industry stakeholders to align as stewards of Oregon. They work to “optimize economic opportunity, advance equity and respect the ecosystems and places that make Oregon…Oregon”. While serving with Travel Oregon, Claire will be focused in the culinary and agritourism sphere, as well growing Travel Oregon’s work in support of strong local food systems.

Projects:

Claire will be leading an assessment of the Oregon Food Trails program, through which she will engage every level of the structure that supports the food trails via surveying and interviews. This includes but is not limited to food trail business, organizations leading food trails at the local level, Regional Destination Management Organizations and Destination Management Organizations and local partners in supportive roles, as well as collaborators within Travel Oregon. Engagement at every level will capture the full picture of the health and sustainability of the program and will allow for targeted refinements and adaptations to be made. In tandem she will be exploring ways to encourage sustainable business practices through statewide programing and kicking off a new learning community to explore the intersection of tourism and resilient food systems. Lastly, Claire will be helping develop county-based agritourism handbooks to support Oregon farms in their Agritourism ventures. These handbooks will help clarify local zoning designations, land use permits, legal obligations and provide resources such as contact information for the local county planning offices.