Giving Thanks: CUB Staff Share Their Stories

I love the fall: the excitement of kids returning to a new year of school, the crisp cool days and the autumn colors of the tree, the universal feeling of gratitude that prevails despite any number of difficult circumstances.

This Thanksgiving holiday, we at CUB want to let our members, donors, and our friends in the energy world to know that we are thankful for you. We could not continue to hold the utilities accountable, fight for net neutrality, or work diligently with other stakeholders to create a carbon restrained utility system without your support. We are grateful to each of you for the part you play in our success!

To celebrate this season of gratitude we asked our staff to share why they are grateful. We hope it gives you a chance to get to know us a little better! We wish each of you a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and we are hopeful that you have, as each of us do, a lot to be thankful for.

Amelia Lamb – Communications Manager
I am grateful to have a workplace that provides for and encourages a healthy work-life balance. I love the communications work I get to do at CUB, but I relish my hobbies, volunteer commitments, and family life as well. This past spring, the nonprofit for which I volunteer as a board member, Precipitation Northwest, produced our first (very successful) arts festival in north-central Oregon. And just last month, the choir I sing in, Oregon Repertory Singers, released a professional album, Shadows On The Stars, which hit #5 on Billboard’s Classical chart in our opening week. Both of these projects were a joy to work on, and helped me grow as a team member and project manager, and as an artist. I feel incredibly lucky to have these outlets available to me for personal expression and growth. And as the holidays approach, I am grateful most of all for the time and resources to travel in order to spend them with my beloved family.

Bob Jenks – Executive Director
More than anything, it is my family that I am most thankful for. This year has been a difficult year, as my wife has had health problems. But I am grateful that she is doing better. My daughter continues to amaze me. She is a senior in high school, doing well, and applying to colleges. She is smart, capable and ready to tackle the world. Taking on the utilities and planning for a carbon constrained utility system is challenging. Having a great, loving family to go home to each evening means a great deal and creates a balance for which I am truly thankful.

Essie Bender – Office Manager
I woke up. I have clothes to wear. I have running water. I have food to eat. In addition, I have an interesting and challenging job with great colleagues working for an amazing organization. I am grateful.

Janice Thompson – Advocacy Director
I am thankful that along with CUB’s great work on energy policy and regulatory matters, we have significantly strengthened our advocacy clout on telecommunication topics, particularly fair and affordable access to the Internet. I especially want to thank CUB’s Outreach Manager, Sam Pastrick, for his local government work with the Digital Inclusion Network in Portland and Multnomah County and to strengthen Portland’s Office for Community Technology. Thanks also to Sam for his advocacy in Salem on state legislation to increase affordable broadband access, particularly in rural Oregon, as well as his efforts to secure net neutrality protections for Oregonians. Oregon’s net neutrality legislation was the second in the country after the Trump Federal Communications Commission jettisoned federal net neutrality rules, and much credit for this nationally significant net neutrality legislative victory in our state goes to Sam.

Mike Goetz – Staff Attorney
As the leaves begin to fall and the season begins to shift, I try to embrace the change that fall provides and use it as an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on what I am thankful for in my life. I am very grateful for the amazing community of friends and family who continue to push me to be better and offer unwavering support. Although my family is spread out, I have met so many amazing people in Oregon over the years to the point where Portland feels more like home than anywhere I have ever lived. I am also grateful for our work at CUB. At a time when climate change effects and social inequities are ever-apparent, I find great joy in working at an organization alongside such talented individuals to help find creative solutions to both. Here’s hoping you, too, have a chance to reflect on gratitude and are filled with joy this upcoming holiday season.

Pamela White – Development and Communications Director
In the last two years I’ve lost my mom to cancer, made a life-commitment to my partner, bought/sold three homes, welcomed my first grandson into the world, broke and had subsequent surgery on my right arm, and ran a strong race against an entrenched incumbent of 16 years, which I lost by only a narrow margin. In reflecting, I have to say that 2017/2018 has been both exhilarating and exhausting.

I am fortunate to work for an organization that reflects my deeply held values of challenging the status quo, negotiating and collaborating with other stakeholders to achieve common goals, and earnestly working towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive world.

So in this season of gratitude, I’m grateful both for an amazing staff that strongly supports one another, and for an organization that espouses work-life balance. I am humbly appreciative of the additional flexibility to care for my dying parent and to run for public office. I am counting my many blessings this Thanksgiving holiday, because I work at CUB.

Samuel Pastrick – Outreach Manager
When asked what I’m grateful for in 2018 - the answer is remarkably easy, at least on a personal level: I’m grateful for marrying my now wife, Megan. We married this past June in my favorite place, Mid-Coast Maine, and pulled off, I would argue, a unique and love-filled party. Though the open, over-stocked, tender-less bar, and 80 degree, weather helped a lot.

We met (well, saw each other) at a yoga class in Northwest Portland. I don’t even “do” yoga, and nor does she. But by sheer coincidence, a mutual friend had just completed his teacher training and invited the two of us to his first class. The same friend later hosted a party and the rest is, as they say, history.

I’m privileged. But meeting and marrying Megan is my greatest fortune. She’s smarter, gentler, more patient, harder working, and all around more beautiful than anyone I have ever known or will ever know. I’m grateful for her and our new marriage in 2018.

Will Gehrke – Economist
This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for having a reliable heating system. Many people take heating service for granted. However, I am originally from sunny tropical Florida. To me, the holiday season is about going to a warm sunny beach with my family. I did not grow up with cold weather. One vivid memory from my childhood is my mother requiring me to wear a sweater, base layer, and winter coat in order to go outside during a 55 degree cold front. While Oregon’s cold and rainy seasons are beautiful, I am still getting used to the cold weather. Last year, I operated a home furnace for the first time.

My natural gas furnace has helped me be more comfortable in my household. The work I do at CUB has also helped keep my natural gas bills low and affordable. In the past year, my natural gas bill has decreased by approximately 3 percent. While I may keep my home warmer than others, CUB has helped keep my bill affordable and reasonable.

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