Harry Olsen, Founder and Director of Organizing

Harry is the founder of PHOENIX RISING Transitions. He has served as chaplain in the Department of Corrections since 2001 and has completed the DOC’s volunteer training. He completed the Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good’s basic training in 2001 and their advanced training in 2002. He has taught for MACG since 2004. In 2005 he took the National 8-Day training offered by the Industrial Areas Foundation. He holds an Associate Degree in General Studies from Mt. Hood Community College, which he received in 2000. Harry received the DOC's Outstanding Citizen of the Year award for a Religious Services Volunteer in 2003.

DOC Volunteer Award

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Cooper, Treasurer

Doug is the Assistant Director of Mercy Corps NW. He leads a business class at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and also provides administrative oversight for the Reentry Transition Center in which PHOENIX is a founding partner. Doug joined PHOENIX's in-prison work in 2006, bringing MCNW's small business training into one of our classes at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) on a monthly basis. Prior to his present position at MCNW he owned a graphic arts business in Portland. He holds a degree in philosophy from University of California Berkley.He is a graduate of MACG's Leadership Institutes and later served as a trainer. He also teaches PHOENIX's in-prison leadership class at CRCI. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rex Newton, Board President

Rex has volunteered with PHOENIX for nearly two years. He bring an enormous amount of experience working with prisoners as they leave prison and come home to the community. He has more than 30 years of experience working in the Oregon corrections system. He has served in various mental health positions including prison psychologist, program director of the alcohol and drugresidential treatment program Cornerstone, program director of the prison parenting program, Parenting Inside Out, and mental health consultant. His clinical interests include early childhood intervention as a crime prevention strategy. He has facilitated many prison-based therapygroups with incarcerated men. A common focus in those groups has been on dealing with early childhood trauma stemming from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and subsequent problems with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance addictions, and ongoing involvement in the criminal justice system. Rex has been developing an in-prison peer mentoring program using older inmates to mentor younger prisoners to help prepare them for life back in the community. Rex currently teaches courses for Chemeketa College at the Oregon State Penitentiary. He earned his Ph.D. at University of Oregon. He has completed MACG's Leadership Institutes for Public Life since joining PHOENIX.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Meurer, Executive Director

Karen has worked with PHOENIX for five years. She is the former executive director of Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity in Baltimore. She also served as director of education at several United Methodist churches in Maryland, and as a church relations associate at Bread for the World, an anti-hunger grassroots lobbying organiation based in Washington, DC. Karen also held a position as campaign organizer at Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland as their campaign organizer to defeat a ballot measure that would create mandatory sentences for drug and property crimes. Karen completed the DOC’s volunteer training, MACG’s Leadership Institutes for Life and IAF’s National 8-Day training. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Indiana State University; a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky; and a Master of Liberal Arts, Johns Hopkins University. She has additional training in nonprofit management, fundraising, conflict resolution and mediation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Little, Board Member

Gary joined our board in September 2011.  He has been coming to PHOENIX regularly for about 1-1/2 years (Open Meetings and Nonviolent Communications class) and has gone to the leadership class at CRCI several times. He has spoken at college classes when PHOENIX is invited. He has been active in MACG – taking the Leadership Institutes, participating in the High Road Contractors and Community Alliance (HRCCA) and helping with the Healthy Kids sign-up at Mt. Hood Community College. He was on the planning committee for Hands Across the Bridge and organized the safety team that conducts people on and off the bridge. Gary has been out of prison for 19 years. He is a former EMT. He holds degrees in both mechanical and civil engineering from Portland Community College. He also attended the Oregon Institute of Technology.