Paid Leave Oregon Bulletin
April 2022 Bulletin - 04/25/2022
Introducing Paid Leave Oregon
As part of our efforts to create the country's best paid leave program, we are striving to make our program welcoming and most useful to the people who will be using these benefits.We have done extensive work with our contractor Brink Communications to help ensure our program's look and feel match our vision. We want our paid leave program to resonate with employees and employers in Oregon. Giving the program an easy-to-understand name and identity helps with these efforts.
Working with Brink, we have landed on our official name “Paid Leave Oregon." While this name doesn't capture every aspect of the program, its concise nature will make it easier to engage with people as we move forward. We want to start using the full name Paid Leave Oregon, with no acronym, in all communications, outreach and engagement going forward. If we need to shorten it, we can simply refer to “Paid Leave." In May, we will launch the logo for Paid Leave Oregon that was developed by Brink in partnership with our partners and staff.
Having a simple name is just one of many steps we are taking to further our equity goals. We looked for people who have a strong dedication to equity and inclusion to fill our leadership positions. We now have our full leadership team on board, introduced here. We have also been holding a series of budget community engagement meetings, which have been very well attended. At each session, community members have shared with us what resources and information our they need for the paid leave program. We also answered questions and addressed concerns from participants. We continue these sessions throughout April and then in May, we will hold three public hearings on our benefits rule making. Our outreach and engagement team will continue to build on these early efforts as they plan future sessions around the state.
New Leadership Members
Kelley Ofoni (she/her) is the new policy manager for the paid leave program. She has been with the paid leave program since March 2020. She has led both the contributions and benefits policy teams. Prior to her time at the Oregon Employment Department (OED), Kelley managed a nonprofit language school in Portland. She also worked in Kosovo in Eastern Europe as a political officer for the United Nations and as project manager for a minority rights nonprofit called European Centre for Minority Issues. She has a master's in Central and Eastern European Studies from University College London and a bachelor's in international relations from University of California, Davis.
Danielle Willey (she/her) is the new operations manager for the program. She has been with OED for almost ten years and has held several positions within the agency. She has served as the claimant reemployment program coordinator, overseeing the federal Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program for the state. Most recently, she emerged as a leader within the agency's response to the pandemic, working collaboratively across divisions to improve services for customers. She holds a bachelor's in political science from Linfield University and a master's in public administration from the University of Montana.
Michele Roland-Schwartz (she/her) is the outreach and engagement manager for Oregon's paid leave program. She joined OED in March 2022, previously serving as the Executive Director of Oregon Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force (SATF), a statewide nonprofit based in Keizer, Ore. Michele has 22 years of advocacy experience serving survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment, stalking, trafficking and child abuse in Oregon, Tennessee, and Arizona. In addition to leading legislative and public policy efforts to address gender-based violence, Michele led the Sexual Assault Training Institute at SATF and is experienced in leading outreach, engagement, primary prevention, and crisis response efforts, including community mental health services, medical advocacy, forensic nursing, and local Sexual Assault Response Teams. She has a master's in interdisciplinary studies from Oregon State University and a bachelor's in sociology from the University of Oregon.
Angela Yeager (she/her) is the communications officer for the paid leave program. Angela comes to OED from the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS), where she served for the past eight years as a communications officer for the Office of Developmental Disabilities Services' Employment First initiative. Angela also led the program's COVID-19 communications and outreach efforts. Before joining ODHS, Angela was a media relations specialist for Oregon State University. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in English.
Rachel L Bruneau (she/her) is the Equity and Inclusion Coordinator and has been with OED since August 2020, beginning as a business employment specialist, and then a manager in the claims department. Prior to state work, Rachel held a long career in the restaurant industry as a server, trainer, and manager. In June 2020, she graduated with a master's in conflict resolution and curriculum and instruction. Rachel focused on a systems-change approach for restorative justice in public schools. She worked closely with the Portland and Gresham community as a facilitator and restorative justice coordinator.
Learn more about other members of the leadership team here.
Community Outreach Continues
We invite you to attend one of our upcoming community engagement meetings for the Oregon Employment Department and specifically the paid leave program. As part of our agency's budget process, we want to hear from the people who use our services. This is your chance to tell us what you think and what you need from the paid leave program.
The Oregon Employment Department is conducting a short survey to determine employers' interest in participating in the state's new paid leave program. As an employer, you will have the choice to either enroll in the state's paid leave program or to use an equivalent plan to provide benefits for your employees.
Take the survey
This survey should take less than five minutes to complete. Your responses are for informational purposes only and are not binding in any way.
Contact Us
Email: PaidLeave@oregon.gov.
Call: 503-370-5800
