Mortensen joins Oregon Community Foundation board
Oregon leaders Romy Mortensen, Roberta (Bobbie) Conner and Peter D. Nickerson have been elected to serve four-year terms on the board of directors of The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF). Their terms began on Thursday.
Born and raised in Salem and a graduate of the University of Oregon, School of Journalism, Romy Mortensen now lives in Bend, where she is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Brooks Resources Corporation.
Romy has served on a variety of boards and councils throughout her career, including the Central Oregon Visitors Association, The Boys and Girls Club of Central Oregon, and OCF’s Central Oregon Leadership Council. Fond of the arts, Romy has also served on the Advisory Committees for BendFilm and Caldera and is a board member of Art in Public Places. Outside of her professional life, Romy and her husband can likely be found outdoors with their two pit bulls.
Bobbie Conner is the director of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, the 45,000-square foot tribally owned museum on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton. Prior to moving to Pendleton, Bobbie worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration for 13 years starting as a Presidential Management Intern and departing as the Sacramento District Director. She also worked for an Indian nonprofit organization in Seattle, serving Indian education projects in the Northwest for five years. Bobbie is Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce and is enrolled at the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla. She is a graduate of Pendleton High School, the University of Oregon, and Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management. In addition to her role on the OCF Board of Directors, she is the Vice Chair of Eastern Oregon University’s inaugural Board of Trustees, is on the Ecotrust Board of Directors, and serves on the Tribes’ Land Acquisition Committee and the Wallowa-based Tamkaliks Celebration Committee. Bobbie co-authored a chapter in As Days Go By (2006), the tribes’ own history book, and penned a chapter in Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes (2006, edited by Alvin Josephy) in addition to other published pieces. Bobbie also served on OCF’s Eastern Oregon Leadership Council.
Pete Nickerson founded and developed trading, investing and manufacturing businesses in Hong Kong, China, Vietnam and India during nearly 40 years of living, working and investing in Asia. Leveraging his experience and active involvement in Asia, Pete co-founded Chinus, a fund of offshore emerging market funds that focuses on passive investment in China and India. In addition to serving on the OCF Board of Directors, Pete sits on several public and private corporate boards, as well as other not-for-profit boards. A fluent Mandarin speaker, he and his family have lived in Taiwan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Singapore. He currently resides in Portland.
“OCF is enthusiastic about these three engaged and passionate community leaders joining the board of directors,” said OCF President and CEO Max Williams. “We value their commitments to the communities they work and live in and know they will help us with OCF’s important work to promote philanthropy and serve communities around the state.”
The OCF Board of Directors provides effective governance and leadership to the Foundation, with the responsibility to ensure the endowment is managed in an efficient, thoughtful way.
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About The Oregon Community Foundation
The mission of The Oregon Community Foundation is to improve lives for all Oregonians through the power of philanthropy. OCF works with individuals, families, businesses and organizations to create charitable funds to support the community causes they care about. Through these funds OCF awarded more than $118 million in grants and scholarships in 2017. For more information about OCF, please visit: www.oregoncf.org.
