Tam Lutz is a Lummi Tribal member with ancestral ties to the Quinault, Nooksack, Skagit, Chinook, Cowlitz, Snoqualmie, Suquamish and Duwamish Tribes. Tam has spent over 25 years working in public health in Indian Country, including over 20 years at the NPAIHB in directing maternal child health programs including chronic disease and motor vehicle injury focused projects, research studies and surveillance. Tam serves as the NW Tribal EpiCenter’s Project Director for WEAVE-NW, funded through the CDC’s Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) initiative and “Native Boost: Addressing Barriers to Childhood Immunization through Communication and Education,” a CDC funded Tribal public health capacity project.
Tam is an experienced field researcher, a developing epidemiologist, with broad experience in maternal child health at the NPAIHB and at home at her Tribe. She has directed other projects at the NPAIHB including the very successful Native CARS Study, Toddler Obesity and Tooth Decay Prevention Study and the Indian Community Health Profile Project. She has provided leadership in all aspects of program management and has been responsible for communicating with tribes, supervising and mentoring staff, providing broad expertise to the subject areas of the projects, developing collaborations, and communicating and reporting to funders.
Tam, her husband Ed, and their two children and three dogs live in Beaverton, Oregon, where she enjoys cheering from the sideline as she watches her children participate in sports, preparing for and participating in the annual Tribal canoe journeys, and spending time with her large extended family.
Based in Portland, Marilou is a health equity advocate by day and art adjacent by night. Her experiences as a Filipina and Japanese person who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, as well as her time practicing as a registered nurse, advocating for communities of color, and promoting public health have long persuaded her of the importance and imperative of sharing stories. They co-developed Elemental Eating, a storytelling platform that alchemizes ancestry, diaspora, and story through food; recognizes and honors complex, diasporic histories and origins; explores tangled and evolving relationships to food; transforms and communes through eating and storytelling; and combines the sacred and mundane. Marilou continues to partner with creatives for equity and social justice around Portland.
Marilou will be working to support our Grantmaking Committee, compile all the data they’ll need to make decisions, develop and improve materials, and adapt MRG’s processes so that we can make our Spring grants with as little disruption as possible.
Tazha Williams is an Interdisciplinary Artist, Graphic Designer, Model and Equity Advocate. All of her work is a means to explore identity, healing and freedom. Tazha’s creative process stems from her vibrant, lived experience as a queer femme of African descent. Her work is an ode to the narratives of her creative and resilient ancestors. Tazha was the 2017 Lilla Jewel Award winner of Oregon’s MRG Foundation. Her work has also been featured in the San Diego Union Tribune, on The Today Show and on KUSI news. Originally from San Diego, Calif., Tazha has lived in Portland, Ore. since 2015.
Dawn Jones Redstone is an award-winning queer, Latinx writer/director whose films have screened around the globe. Her work often features women and people of color and explores themes of emotionality, feminism and the internal machinations that help us transform into the people we want to become. She’s a former recipient of MRG’s Lilla Jewel Artist Award, was named Woman of Vision by Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce, and has been awarded four grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council to date. In addition to a commitment to having inclusive sets, she believes in using her hiring decisions to lift people up and help create a filmmaking community that reflects the world we live in.
Before becoming a full-time filmmaker, Dawn worked as a union carpenter and as training manager at Oregon Tradeswomen for a combined total of 15 years. She resides with her wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon.
Marilyn T. Keller is a 2016 Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame Inductee. A 38-year veteran of music and stage performance in Jazz, Gospel, R&B, Pop, Blues, and theater, nationally and internationally, her musical roots are diverse.
Marilyn has built a career that has taken her as a feature artist to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Russia and the UK for concerts, festivals, nightclubs and recording work. Her voice can be heard on multiple recordings, movie soundtracks, commercials and documentaries. Marilyn’s formative jazz training was as a member of the Mt. Hood Community College Vocal Jazz Ensemble and as the vocalist fronting the award-winning MHCC Jazz Lab Band.
She can be seen frequently at clubs, restaurants, festivals and holiday events throughout the Pacific Northwest. She remains active, performing with Don Latarski, Darrell Grant, Tom Grant, Black Swan Classic Jazz Band, Pressure Point Band and the Augustana Jazz Quartet, among many others.
Yulia is a Portland-based performance artist and co-founder of Wobbly – a multidisciplinary performance project founded in 2006 with her partner Erik Ferguson. Since then, they have created many original short works, a full-length group dance theatre production, performed in Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Barcelona, were part of a six-month residency at Studio 2@Zoomtopia (now N.E.W. Expressive Works), and two short art films.
Wobbly’s work is in part supported by grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Project. Yulia also works as an independent choreographer and has created original works for Polaris Dance Company as well as several solo works. In 2013, Yulia received the Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists to create a new dance work for MRG Foundation’s annual social justice fundraiser.
As an educator, Yulia has taught classes and workshops to people of all ages and abilities. She is currently teaching dance at PHAME and Public Annex.
Mario joined the MRG foundation board in July 2018 having worked with MRG through our Capacity Building Initiative for Lotus Rising Project (LRP). He co-founded LRP to fill a need for a community organization to help LGBTQ in the Medford area via social justice and services. Mario was the Executive Director of LRP and an alum to the Sexuality and Gender Alliance youth group and to LRP’s Youth Empowerment Theater program. He is also a Board member for the Rogue Action Center, another MRG grantee. Mario now lives in Portland with his partner Mike and with their beautiful daughter, Addison. He enjoys spending free time doing yard work and being outdoors.
While finishing her master’s degree in Public Administration with a specialization in Nonprofit Management, Kristie Kolesnikov will be helping MRG for the next 10 months with a technology and systems overhaul as part of her capstone project. Starting with an in-depth assessment of our current capacity, she will be developing a plan and timeline for us to transition to more robust, efficient and secure platforms.
Kristie comes to MRG Foundation with more than 10 years of experience as a project coordinator, office manager, and cat herder. She works full time at Portland State University as the Executive Assistant to the Dean and Office Manager in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and she holds a Non-profit Management Certificate from the University of Washington and a BS in Civic Leadership and Women’s Studies from PSU.
In 2016, Kristie completed her McNair program doing research on emotional intelligence and healthy masculinity, and received the Linda C. Hummer scholarship for the 2015-2016 year. In her spare time (!) Kristie is the co-chair on PSU’s Commission on Sexuality and Gender Equity (SAGE), serves on the Diversity Action Council, is an Advisory Board member for the Student Community Engagement Center, and is an elected board member for the Services for Students with Children.
Outside of her many work, academic, and civic responsibilities, Kristie can be found spending time with her family — husband, 12-year-old son, one-year-old daughter — running, and reading.
Jude Perez is a versatile professional that brings a deep understanding of non-profit operations, systems, and fundraising to the table. Prior to joining MRG, Jude was part of the Community Cycling Center’s development team where they took joy in grant writing and coordination, database management, and systems creation. Jude’s social justice journey began as an LGBTQI+ rights advocate and grassroots activist in Texas and California, and continues to this day with a broader scope including racial justice, art in activism, education, gender, and income equity.
In addition to grants management, Jude oversees the Lilla Jewel Awards, facilitating and coordinating all aspects of the awards.
Born and raised in Paraguay—and an Oregonian since 2000—Violeta has dedicated her professional career to improving access to opportunities, services and programs for all Oregonians through her work in the government and non-profit sectors. She comes to MRG from Meyer Memorial Trust, where she worked as a Program Associate with the Building Community Portfolio. A passionate advocate for social and environmental justice, Violeta has given her time and expertise to many organizations and causes, both in the US and her native Paraguay. These days, she serves as Board Chair of the ReBuilding Center, is a member of the Metro Parks & Nature Equity Advisory Committee, and a volunteer for the Asian Pacific Family Club at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
When not trapped underneath Lola, her 12-pound cat, she can be found hiking trails with her partner, growing veggies in her community garden plot, and spending inordinate amounts of time thinking about how to fix the world.
