Bend husband, wife run for COCC, Bend-La Pine school boards

Oliver Tatom filed Monday as a candidate for the Central Oregon Community College Board of Directors, while his wife, Amy, filed to seek a seat on the Bend-La Pine School Board.

Oliver Tatom is running to represent COCC Zone 7, which extends roughly from the High Desert Museum south of Bend through Newberry Country to Fort Rock and Gilchrist. The seat is currently held by Vikki Ricks, who is not seeking reelection.

“As a third-generation Oregonian and a second generation COCC student,” Oliver said, “I am committed to a thriving community college that provides a ladder up to residents in all six counties of the college district.”

A second-year nursing student at COCC, Oliver currently serves as president of the 2019 nursing class. He is a nationally registered and state licensed paramedic, and for the past four years he has been employed by Jefferson County EMS in Madras.

He contracts as an American Heart Association certified instructor for Cascade Training, teaching courses on basic and advanced life support. And he serves on the board of directors of the Central Oregon Disability Support Network.

Oliver said he was motivated to run by his experience as a student leader working to overcome barriers to higher education for working parents and rural residents.

“The college has had several years of declining enrollment,” he said in a news release. “Rather than making low-cost investments to attract and retain non-traditional students, the college continues to cut and wait for the next recession. I love COCC, but we deserve better.”

Oliver Tatom lives in rural Deschutes County southeast of Bend. He graduated from Bend High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Southern California, and trained as a paramedic at the Yale-New Haven Sponsor Hospital Program in Connecticut.

The election will be held on May 21.

Amy Tatom is a Family Nurse Practitioner with St. Charles Family Care who filed as a candidate for the Bend-La Pine School Board, running to replace Ron Gallinat, who is not seeking reelection.

Amy’s experience in health care was an important factor in her decision to run for the office.

“As a primary care provider to people across the life-span, from babies to men and women over 100, I see how closely education and health are related,” she wrote in her news release. “Kids who get plenty of sleep, food, and emotional support are more successful in school. And successful students tend to be healthier adults.”

“At the same time, as a member of the school district budget committee, I appreciate the enormous challenges we face in finding the funding to provide meaningful supports to our kids. That’s why I’ll push to strengthen relationships with community partners like Deschutes County, Mosaic, St. Charles, and other nonprofits. We have to be creative and collaborative if we want to improve outcomes.”

Amy Tatom sits on the St. Charles Medical Group board of directors and chairs that organization’s wellness committee. She said she plans to draw on this experience as a school board member.

“Just like we need to take care of our physicians and nurses if we want them to provide good care to patients, we have to take care of our teachers if we expect them to provide high-quality education and emotional support to our children.”

Amy studied nursing at Yale University after earning her BA from UCLA. She has been a St. Charles employee since 2014, when she moved to Central Oregon to be closer to family.

With her husband, Oliver, they have two children, a first-grader at Jewell Elementary and a preschooler at Inspire Early Learning.