Mo Sherifdeen (Interactive Marketing, Travel Oregon): Mo is Travel Oregon’s resident "Geek-In-Chief" who's constantly dreaming up new ways to tell the Oregon story in the interactive medium. Mo spent most of his early childhood snorkeling, island hopping, and perfecting a craving for fresh seafood on the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives. He continued this need for adventure and good food through high school and college in Tucson (AZ) where he studied biochemistry and political science (he wanted to be the next James Carville), while working up a healthy addiction to spicy southwestern cuisine.

After six years at a Tucson public relations agency, the lure of green spaces, livable cities, a mild climate, and the ocean proved too strong. On a cold, dark Halloween eve in ‘04, Mo and his wife Jessica (along with the dog & the cat), piled into a little Toyota and blazed a fast trail north to live their dreams in Oregon.

Today, Mo & Jessica live in Corvallis (Go Beavers!) where they spend their time watching independent movies, wine wandering, and hiking the Oregon outdoors with their dog. |back|

Emily Aanderud, (Editor, Travel Oregon Magazine; Co-Editor Travel Oregon E-newsletter): Emily a native Portlander, grew up skiing on Mt. Hood, playing at the Oregon coast, and shooing bugs into her brother’s tent during plenty o’ family camping trips.

After college she moved to New York City, where someone hired her to be a magazine editor. Five years later, however, the lure of the Northwest was just too strong so she returned to Portland “to be a ski bum.”

Today she is the editor of Travel Oregon magazine and co-editor of the monthly Travel Oregon e-newsletter, among other travel- and food-related publishing projects.

And, yes, she’s still skiing – though the bum thing is a bit of a stretch. |back|

Ashley Moran, (Interactive Content Editor): Ashley was born in Anchorage, Alaska, among the polar bears and igloos. The majority of her memories were made, however, in the great city of Salem, Oregon. She spent a great deal of her childhood and adolescence in dance classes, camping with the family, and chasing after her Boxer puppy, Molly. Ashley later left the state capitol to pursue her love for writing at the University of Oregon. After obtaining her journalism degree, she returned to her hometown to join the Travel Oregon team. Today Ashley spends most of her days with her kitten, Jordan, baking delicious chocolate desserts and pursuing her secret love of break dancing.|back|

ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Kevin Wright is our marketing savant, guru of consumer marketing programs and guide through the brambly recesses of the consumer mind. We admit it is often more twisted than ours, and Kev gets it. That’s because wherever an Oregon visitor is likely to go, he’s likely been there. He gets his best inspiration on mountain bike trails and grassy fishing banks, where you might find him whistling hypothetical Oregon jingles or squaring budgets in his head. (We can’t stop him. We’ve tried.). Raised in upstate New York, Kevin’s steady migration west began in Colorado in 1996, where he worked in the ski industry and married his high school sweetheart, Kelly. But Colorado couldn’t hold this dreamer. In search of adventure and a progressive city (you know the one) as close to as many outdoor recreational activities as brewpubs, Kevin packed for his ultimate Oregon getaway in 2005, with black lab Samba’s nose to the windshield. Since then, we can’t coax him (or Samba) off the river, but with wireless available in every corner of the state, at least now we don’t have to worry about him falling in unnoticed.|back|

Michelle Godfrey is our resident wordsmith and PR spinster, dedicated to keeping Oregon top-of-mind for visitors across the U.S. Imported from Chicago in 2003, her residency is younger than some of Oregon’s nouveau-est pinot noir. But we don’t hold it against her. She discovered Oregon during a family trip in 1998, imagined what it would be like to live here, and five years later forged her own Oregon trail to settle here. Born in New York and raised in the Midwest, Michelle calls herself the iconic Oregon Dreamer. And that’s not just the starry look in her eyes. She’s got big city ideas and a small town ethic, with a native Oregonian’s love of rivers, streams, coasts and mountains. She talks pretty, loves dogs, makes a wicked margarita, and laughs all the time. We think we’ll keep her.|back|

Born in the small town of Aberdeen, WA, known for also being the birthplace of Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana, Carole Astley, moved around a lot as a child through Washington state, Arizona and California which is why she has a bit of gypsy in her today! After realizing that California was not the best place to raise role-model children, her family moved to Oregon when she was in junior high and she’s never left, nor does she ever want to!

Carole grew up in a restaurant family with no time off for fun, so since she was deprived of vacations as a child she decided to study tourism at Oregon State University so she could dream about all those exciting and exotic places she had never been! That was so fun that she ended up working in the tourism industry during college and ever since.

Since joining Travel Oregon in July 2006 as Tourism Development Manager, she’s been to exciting places like Burns, Bend, Ashland, Enterprise, Klamath Falls, Joseph and Brookings! Carole is a brochure-aholic, there isn’t a place or a road trip that Carole would turn down, if she hasn’t been there she wants to go there!

Everyone loves a parade and so does Carole, so much so that she plans the annual Tualatin Crawfish Festival Parade in her free time ( www.tualatincrawfish.com) as well as enjoys bicycling, skiing, hiking, and anything else that involves getting out of the house and having fun with her new husband, Greg, (they had a winter ski wedding at Timberline Lodge) and his two sons, Connor and Matthew. |back|

Born an Army brat in Washington, Lisa Richardson’s home base was Coos Bay, OR. After placing in the Oregon spelling bee, she went to college in Arkansas, where she turned her love of words into a job at the local newspaper.

Growing up in Empire, blocks from the ocean, she still recalls the little train at Charleston harbor, the lullaby of the buoys at night, and the curious odor of Crab Flats. Unique farm stands, the beauty of the Oregon byways, and clam chowder at Dory Cove are part of what brought her back to Oregon again.

Today she is the Consumer Marketing Coordinator for Travel Oregon, where every day on the job is a new adventure. Besides reading, and occasionally making sure the casinos are still open, she hunts dinosaurs with her 4 yr old grandson. |back|

Born and raised in Ashland, OR, Michelle Westerberg joined the Travel Oregon team after spending seven years working in the Athletic Department at Oregon State University. While at OSU she traveled to nearly all 50 states, but realized what an amazing place Oregon is each time she returned home. With a longing to become more grounded and finally have a “normal” work schedule, Michelle stepped away from her comfort zone of Athletics and entered the world of Tourism Development. So far, so good – her love for adventure and exploring new places throughout the state coupled with now having weekends off have become a most-welcomed combination.

A former college basketball player (whose team reached the NAIA Final Four), Michelle is always ready for some good competition and facing the next challenge. She holds the title of being the Oregon State Athletic Department’s Watermelon Seed Spitting Champion but is still uncertain if that is truly an honor or really an embarrassing accomplishment that should be kept secret! Michelle can most often be found spending time in the outdoors and finding new ways to stay fit, while making even more memories with her friends and family. |back|

Carina Reed, our operations assistant, was born and raised atop the mountains of Northern Idaho. In 1994, however, Carina decided to head West to Oregon with her newborn daughter, Kembrah. Carina is one of Travel Oregon's most impressive adventurers, as she has also traveled to twenty-two countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Carina describes herself as "artsy craftsy" as she enjoys scrapbooking, painting, wood burning, and collages. She also loves to sing anywhere she can- in the shower and in the car, just to name a few! When she's not busy with arts and crafts, Carina can be found camping, fishing, boating, rock-hounding, skiing, or adding to her impressive collection of stuffed and ceramic frogs. |back|

Jerry Krieg is from the South. Houston, Texas to be exact.

He can’t help but appreciate what Oregon has to offer. Jerry likes to call Oregon his “Outdoor Playground.” He arrived in Portland in August 1996. The lifts turned in October of that year, and in November, he packed his bags & boards and moved to Mt. Hood.

Growing up 14 hours from the closest mountain, he was drawn to the light, white, fluffy stuff. Volcanic Mountains in the middle of beautiful, tree-laden, rolling hills and desert-like terrain, are you kidding? Jerry was hooked!!

He spent the next 6 years migrating between Portland and Mt. Hood. In 2002 Jerry moved to Baker City, Oregon and was fortunate to move into the Marketing & Events position at one of Oregon’s Beautiful ski areas, Ski Anthony Lakes. Eastern Oregon was his “Playground” for 4 years. In 2005, Jerry stepped-in as the Marketing director for Ski Oregon. He moved back to Portland this past summer, and is now taking on the Ski Oregon challenge of riding every Oregon Ski Area this year, twice. |back|

Amy Nyberg was born in a log cabin hand-built by her parents just outside of Bend, but was soon whisked off to Colorado and then to Utah where most of her childhood was spent on the ski slopes or in the dance studio studying classical ballet. Amy’s thoughts of becoming a professional dancer were overcome by her love of travel, however. This love led to pursuing her degree from the University of Utah in Travel and Tourism. After 13 years in Utah, she returned to her native land. Amy can still be found in the dance studio from time to time and on the slopes. She also enjoys camping, hiking, and she is looking forward to learning how to sail this summer. |back|

Gloria Zacharias spent most of her childhood in the wilds of eastern Oregon, but she did live for a few years in the jungles of South America. She graduated from Joseph High School and then left the state for her freshman year of college. Gloria spent one year in Missouri at a girls school before returning to Oregon for good. She lived and worked in Portland for over fifteen years before returning to small town life in Baker City, where she began her career in the economic and community development arena. Gloria was the first person in the state of Oregon to become a certified community developer through the NW Community Development Institute in Boise, Idaho. While her passion will always be for small town community development, she now lives in Salem with her husband and four teenage children. She is the only mom at West Salem High School that can say she has a freshman, sophomore, junior and a senior for the school year 2006-07! |back|

Dawn Rasmussen, President of Pathfinder Writing and Career Services, began her career in the hospitality industry at an early age when her mother, a professor, had the summers off and the family traveled extensively around the United States. It was then that her interest in travel and hospitality got started.

Dawn’s career has taken her on many adventures since then, including working as an assistant producer at KATU-TV in Portland, touring the inside of a nuclear reactor, being a presenting speaker at the US Embassy in Berlin, Germany, recognition from the White House for co-authoring two national cultural tourism itineraries, dining with the culinary elite at the national American Academy of Chefs annual dinner, visiting Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, speaking to homeless and at-risk youth in a hospitality academy through New Avenues for Youth, receiving several top industry awards for her efforts in hospitality, including the Meeting Professionals International (Oregon Chapter) President’s Award. Mentor of the Year Award and the Oregon Governor’s Tourism Achievement Award, and watching students develop their careers in the hospitality industry through the ProStart program which she administers through the Oregon Restaurant Education Foundation.

Currently, Dawn is very active with many Oregon hospitality industry groups, and spends her free time volunteering or celebrating her love of the outdoors by hiking, biking, snow shoeing, or dragon boat paddle racing.|back|

Greg Robeson, Oregon Bounty Manager, was born for this job. A fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up in Central Oregon, food was always part of his recreation, whether hunting for wild asparagus, baking with his mom, or cooking family meals to avoid doing farm chores (yep, that’s right, Greg used to live on a pig farm). In college, full menus from the makeshift kitchen in his dorm room became somewhat of a post-midnight legend.

In the mid-1980s, Greg’s work in public relations and marketing and penchant for volunteering introduced him to the pioneers of the Oregon wine industry and the leaders of Portland’s culinary evolution. At the time, the concept of fresh-from-the-farm cooking (led by another guy named Greg – Higgins) was just being planted. Working with some of Portland’s top chefs as clients and through volunteer projects, Greg watched and learned. It helped hone his passion for food with some actual cooking skills. Today, he cooks nightly for his wife Kelli and two year-old son Milo (who already has his own chef jacket and toque).

Of all the pro bono work he’s done, Greg’s proudest moment was convincing Alice Waters to come to Portland for a fundraiser to build a vegetable garden at an inner northeast Portland school.

In addition to the Oregon Bounty project, which consumes half of his year, Greg is president of Robeson Communications, a firm providing a full range of advertising and marketing services to clients in the Pacific Northwest. His culinary clients have included Archery Summit Winery, Carlton Farms, Domaine Serene Winery, Henry Weinhard’s, Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, and Seafood Oregon.

If he can be allowed to brag a bit, in 2006 Greg’s work on behalf of Oregon Bounty was recognized with PRSA’s highest national honor, the Silver Anvil. Then again, he’d just as soon be thinking about what to make for dinner tonight. |back|

Noreen Wineland is the Fiscal Manager in the operations department of Travel Oregon. A native Oregonian, she has always lived in the Willamette Valley. She describes herself as a devoted aunt to her 14 nieces and nephews. She shares a duplex with her sister and niece #14. In addition to her Bichon Poodle she has three birds, a pair of lovebirds and her talking parrot, a Sun Conure. She spent a great deal of her childhood camping and fishing all around Oregon with her parents, two sisters and four brothers. Today she enjoys staying in cabins versus tents but otherwise still gets out to the beach or a mountain lake whenever possible. She has pretty much given up her fishing pole for a good novel by John Grisham or Dean Koontz. |back|

Andrea Hartman was born in the town of Aberdeen, WA, where she spent exactly three and a half months of her life. A military brat until middle-school age, Andrea spent her growing up days in the likes of Sabine Pass, TX (population: 990), New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and a few medium-sized towns in-between. When her family settled down in Oregon after their military adventures, Andrea attended high school, college (Go Ducks!) and even got her first “real job” in Eugene, Oregon. When she married a fellow Oregonian, the deal was sealed: Oregonian for life. Andrea can confidently say she has been there, done that, when it comes to the other 49 states, and knows for certain that Oregon rocks.

Andrea spends her spare time making care packages for her husband, who’s currently stationed in Iraq, honing her knitting skills, and of course traipsing around the great state we call home. Her favorite things to do include taking fall walks, reading at her favorite coffee shops, visiting wineries and skiing at Willamette Pass. She thinks someday she might sum up the courage to be a runner too. In between weekends you’ll find her at the Convention and Visitors Association of Lane County (CVALCO), where she helps peddle Lane County to tourists through the national media. |back|

Jamie Porter graduated from Oregon State University in 2007. She earned an English degree with a minor in Spanish. She was born and raised in Salem, Oregon but enjoyed the 4 short years she lived in Corvallis, Oregon rooting on the Beavers at every home football, basketball and baseball game. She is passionate about college football and although her college days are over she finds herself returning to Beaver Nation as a dedicated fan and enthusiastic tailgater. When she is not working as the Operations Assistant at Travel Oregon or watching the Beavers, she can be found browsing used bookstores, running, traveling to Spanish speaking countries (she has spent her traveling days in various parts of Mexico and Spain), or traveling throughout Oregon ready to pitch a tent and throw in a pole.

Jamie has a great appreciation for the Oregon outdoors as she was raised camping, fishing, and skiing—her first experience water skiing was at 5 years old! Her latest interests are learning all about Travel Oregon, real estate, and spending weekends in Corvallis and Bend, Oregon. She is addicted to Google-ing anything and everything and eating Reese's Peanut Butter cups on the regular. Although she grew up with a passion for teaching children she now has this unexplainable desire to teach everyone about Oregon since working for Travel Oregon.

Larry Moran was born in Winnipeg, Canada. His earliest memories are of snowdrifts as tall as houses. At the age of 5 his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he spent the remainder of his early life basking in the summer sun and listening to Beach Boys albums. In 1973 he was invited by a friend to spend the summer in Eugene. Summer seems to have never ended, as he’s been in Eugene ever since, except for a few years where he split his time between Eugene and England.

Following a long stint as a legal secretary, Larry discovered the world of travel and tourism in the early 90’s. He’s worked as a travel agent, a travel consultant, and a tour guide taking small groups of people all around the United Kingdom. He landed at The Convention & Visitors Association for Lane County (CVALCO) some 8-1/2 years ago, and “they haven’t been able to figure out a way to get rid of me yet!” At CVALCO he works in Visitor Services, greeting visitors and helping people on vacation have a good time. “It’s a pretty easy job,” Larry says. “Lane County, and all of Oregon, have so much to offer visitors that the hard part is helping them choose which thing to do today.”

In addition to being a diligent but not very proficient golfer, Larry’s main hobby is cooking. He’s attended culinary schools in Italy and the UK, and says that his favorite activity is feeding his friends. He also enjoys wine, gardening, walking, and European travel with his wife, Sarah. |back|

A former newspaper reporter and editor himself, Marcus Hibdon is the communications and public relations manager for Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory, which includes the glorious Mt. Hood and much, much more. He now spends his days working with journalists from around the world on stories about the Mt. Hood/Gorge Region.

Originally from Washington state, Marcus spent nearly half of his 30 years in Montana where attended high school and college while exploring the rugged backcountry, snowboarding the Rocky Mountains and fishing the many rivers, lakes and streams. After a brief stint in California, Marcus relocated to Oregon - drawn by the beautiful vistas and wilderness of his Montana youth in addition to the cosmopolitan energy and culture of Portland. He loves the wonderful people, amazing recreation and diverse attractions of the Beaver State and he’s developed a fondness for the food, wine and beer. |back|

Raised on the East Coast, Stephen Landau didn't realize he was an Oregonian in a previous life until he moved to Portland in 1999. From that moment on, he realized he had finally found the perfect city to call home.

Stephen spends most of his time living his dream: thinking up new digital concepts as the co-founder and Creative Director at Substance. Fortunately, it's the kind of Pacific Northwest dream that also allows for camping trips at the coast in the summer, carving runs on Mt. Hood in the winter, and a beautiful bike commute to the office no matter what the weather. And if that wasn't enough, he gets to enjoy and share the Oregon life with his wife and kids. A dream come true.