NEON’s BOD
NEON’s Board of directors is widely diverse group of individuals from Union, Baker and Wallowa Counties.
NEON Board of Directors
Dr. Steve Adkison, the current Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Eastern Oregon University, most recently served as the Associate Vice President for Academic Programming and Review at Idaho State University and was a tenured member of ISU’s English faculty during his decade there. Dr. Adkison earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Montana State University and his Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in English from the University of Nevada, Reno. His academic background is centered on rhetoric and composition with a primary focus on learning across and within the disciplines, most specifically the relationship between neurobiology/cognitive science and composition theory, as well as the functions and values for thinking and writing across the disciplines. He has a long experience in writing centers as well as centers for teaching and learning and views the mutual integration of teaching, scholarship, and service through outreach as the academy’s fundamental means of serving society’s needs. Dr. Adkison holds a deep commitment to university and public service, and believes that such service is the means to creating the kind of university at which he wants to teach and the kind of community he wants to leave to his children.
Jill Currey works for the Oregon Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN) at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Her work focuses on using participatory research approaches to explore and facilitate health care delivery in rural primary care settings. She has her MPH from the University of Pittsburgh and has experience in clinical and community-based research. Her previous research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center focused on the social behaviors of aging and cardiovascular functioning in women. Jill has also worked on research studies at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, involving radiation treatments for breast cancer and Hodgkin’s/Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She received her BA in Sociology, Chemistry and French from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Originally from Corpus Christi, TX, Jill is an avid traveler and is excited about the opportunity to experience all that Oregon has to offer. Her office is located on the Eastern Oregon University campus in La Grande
.
Anne Taylor was born in Ilwaco, WA and raised in Vancouver, WA. In 1978 Anne graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Interior Design. Since 1980, Anne has lived in the northeast corner of Oregon. Wallowa County is 65 miles from the nearest town with more than 15,000 people.
Over the past 30 years, Anne has worked a variety of jobs from ranch wife and mother, art marketing and sales, office support staff and retail. The past 9 years she has devoted to children and families as a parent educator and currently as the Director of the Wallowa County Commission on Children and Families. Anne has experience in coordinating a comprehensive community planning process, convening community partners and facilitating meetings and other development processes, community mobilization, grant writing, managing contracts and running the Request for Proposals process.
“Lifelong education is important to me. I have taken several distance learning college courses and numerous workshops covering personal and professional development. I am a 2005 graduate of the Ford Institute for Leadership and became an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow in January of 2010. For the past 17 years, I have played my violin with various orchestras and ensembles in the region and currently play with the Grande Ronde Symphony. I enjoy all types of skiing and spend my summers biking, hiking and trail running. I also enjoy reading, watercolor painting, cooking, sewing, scuba diving and travel.”
Lisa Dawson, the Executive Director for Northeast Oregon Economic Development District (NEOEDD) has worked in economic development since 1989. She helps organizations flourish by improving their long term viability. She has worked with elected officials, non-profit organizations and community groups. Lisa also enjoys working with entrepreneurs and appreciates their role in the region’s economy. Lisa grew up on a farm in the Wallowa Valley and enjoys working with the people and communities that define the rural region in which she makes her home.