Meet Our Staff

To contact a member of our team, please call the front desk at 503-935-5243.

Arlen

Personal Agent Specialist

Arlen joined Community Pathways as a personal agent soon after it opened in 2008. He began serving as a personal agent specialist in 2018.

His interest in working with people experiencing developmental disabilities began at the end of college when he started working with a direct care agency. He worked for the agency for almost 5 years before moving to Portland in 2007.

Initially, Arlen had not considered working in case management. But he soon realized that becoming a personal agent was the best way to continue working with the people he most wanted to serve: individuals with developmental disabilities.

Arlen values Community Pathways' commitment to putting the needs of its customers first. As a personal agent specialist, he appreciates the experience of connecting with customers, providers, and coworkers; mentoring personal agents; and sharing in parts of life together.  

Fun Fact: Arlen spent most of his childhood growing up in the tropical city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Bracken

Personal Agent

Bracken joined Community Pathways as a personal agent in summer of 2023.

Prior to pursuing a degree in Social Work, Bracken participated in an international volunteer program where he developed a desire to advocate for marginalized people. That experience, in addition to other volunteer and internship experiences, propelled him to pursue formal education in this area.

Bracken has work experience as a skills trainer with youth in foster care and has supported youth with developmental disabilities as an educational assistant at a middle school. His experiences personally connecting with the students led him to search for other jobs in the developmental disabilities field and ultimately to working as a personal agent.

Outside of work, Bracken enjoys spending time outside, camping, hiking, driving back roads, and exploring new places, both local and far away.

Fun Fact: Bracken has a Blue Healer named Jimmy!

After that, he worked as a personal agent for another Portland area brokerage for about four years.

One of Carl’s favorite parts of being a personal agent is connecting with people from all walks of life and learning each person’s sense of humor and how they see the world.

Carl is happy to be working at Community Pathways and looks forward to building rapport with his customers over the coming months.

Fun fact: Carl has been keeping fresh water aquariums for over 25 years and currently keeps wild Betas.

Christine

Personal Agent Specialist

Christine joined Community Pathways as a personal agent in 2016 and became a personal agent specialist in 2018. Christine has three adult children—two daughters and a son with autism.

As a PA, she enjoys meeting with each person she serves and learning about their lives to understand what is important to them. She values using her knowledge of the state system and available services to help people get the support they need to achieve their goals, and mentor new personal agents.

What Christine values most about Community Pathways is the cooperation and collective knowledge shared by her coworkers, which helps with addressing issues experienced by customers and their families and helping them to problem-solve and find the best outcome.

Fun Fact: Christine lives on a small farm in Yamhill where she raises goats and other livestock.

Desiree

Personal Agent

Desiree started working with Community Pathways in May 2020. She began working with people who experience developmental disabilities over 20 years ago. She became a case manager a few years after she began working in the field. She was formerly a Program Supervisor, but she missed working more directly with her customers and decided to make her way back to case management.

As a PA, Desiree loves finding new ways to create success in her customers’ lives. Connecting with the individuals she works with makes her smile every single day.

Desiree started working with Community Pathways because she has always been interested in providing supports from the state level. Her goal is to ultimately use all of the resources available to create meaningful lives for her customers, and with Community Pathways, she feels that she has the collective support to do just that.

Fun Fact: Desiree grew up with seven siblings and her mom taught them all how to play instruments and sing. Music is a very important part of Desiree’s life.

Jessica

Personal Agent

Jessica joined Community Pathways as a personal agent in May 2018. She has worked in the field of developmental disabilities for 12 years. Jessica has experience working as a job coach, skills trainer, and direct support provider.

Jessica is passionate about advocacy, empowering individuals, and communication. Communication is important to Jessica, as this assists with having a thorough understanding of each customer. As a PA, Jessica helps support individuals to express, seek, and reach their goals with the support of their ISP team.

Fun Facts: Jessica has three sons and became a first-time grandma in September 2018. She has a Boston Terrier named Ruby who she adores.

John

Personal Agent

John joined Community Pathways as a personal agent in May 2018. He has worked in the field of developmental disabilities for about two years, first as a DSP at a day program, then as a job coach working with a small group and providing supports in community employment. John previously worked with people without homes in both Portland and Chicago.

As a personal agent, John looks forward to empowering individuals with a developmental disability to be self-determined and make responsible choices. The professional values that drive John’s personal best practices are respect, camaraderie, trust, and challenge. He is excited to apply them in his role as a PA.

John’s favorite thing about Community Pathways is that it is a supportive environment where people are committed to helping each other better support the individuals we serve.   

Fun Fact: John enjoys taking his two cats on long walks near his apartment complex.

Leigh

Personal Agent

Leigh joined Community Pathways in February of 2022. Leigh earned her degree in Family and Human Services, with a focus on Special Education and music. After graduating she moved back to Portland and began working for a local school district in their Community Transition Program as a Vocational Specialist. Leigh worked with 18-21 year old students transitioning from high school to adulthood, and that position sparked her interest in employment services. Leigh moved on to be an Employment Coordinator for a provider agency before joining Community Pathways. Leigh is excited to use her first-hand knowledge of direct services to support her customers.

Leigh enjoys getting to know her customer’s goals, skills, and sense of humor, and is excited for her new role at Community Pathways. In her spare time, Leigh likes to take her dog to the park, travel along the coast, and go swimming.

Fun Fact: Leigh sang in Notre Dame Cathedral while on tour with a choir in Europe.

Linda

Personal Agent/ONA Assessor/QA

Linda joined Community Pathways in 2017. With 10 years of experience working in the field of developmental disabilities, Linda has held positions as a direct support professional, case manager, behavior specialist, and program manager before becoming a personal agent.

As a PA, Linda assists people with developmental disabilities to access the supports they need in order to live the lives they want.  She assists customers with many different activities, ranging from helping individuals to get a bus pass, guiding them through the process of hiring a support provider, to helping them move into their own home. 

Linda advocates for her customers and monitors their services to ensure supports are being delivered in a safe and responsible manner.  She feels that PA's are crucial to the process of helping people access the support services needed for them to reach their goals and thrive.

Fun Fact: Linda names all of her cars. Her current vehicle is named “Mercer” after the character from the “The Walking Dead” TV show.

Mary Jane (MJ)

Personal Agent

Mary Jane joined Community Pathways as a personal agent at the end of 2020.

MJ first entered the field of developmental disabilities as a direct care worker in a southwest Portland children’s residential care home. She worked for that agency in a variety of roles, then as a 1:1 assistant in a self-contained classroom and as a case manager for Multnomah County DD. The most enjoyable part of every job was the chance to connect with the people she served. After a long hiatus from the field of social services, primarily to parent her daughter, MJ is pleased to be at Community Pathways. She’s impressed by the commitment of her coworkers to do the best job possible while still enjoying each other’s company.

Fun Fact: As a teenager, MJ was hired by a Chicago Bear to sign his autograph on letters to his fans. He was promptly injured and she lost her job.

Rachel

Personal Agent

Rachel is a personal agent at Community Pathways and started in the Summer of 2021.

Rachel started her career in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, a little over five years ago. When she first started, working as a life skills coach at a local provider organization, she realized she found a passion and something she truly connected with. She moved onto employment supports, becoming a job developer and job coach and graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in Social Science. Rachel then worked as a personal agent at another metro-area brokerage before joining the team at CPI.

Rachel continuously looks forward to building relationships with her customers, their families, friends, and providers, while also getting to know what is important to them. What Rachel values most about working at Community Pathways is the supportive environment and person-centered approach shared by all her co-workers. Rachel enjoys advocating for and empowering her customers to progress towards their goals and to ensure they have access to the supports they need to live happy, healthy, independent, and self-directed lives.

Fun Fact: Rachel is in the process of starting a community garden for individuals within the I/DD community at a local church in Milwaukie. During her free time, you can find her watching a Portland Trail Blazers game, hiking with her dog, Dexter, and exploring various cities and towns in Oregon.

Sara

Personal Agent

Sara joined Community Pathways as a personal agent in the spring of 2024

One of Sara’s older sisters worked as a personal support worker, and later a personal agent in Yamhill County. She introduced Sara to working with folks with developmental disabilities. Sara worked as a personal support worker starting in March 2013, and immediately found joy in connecting with customers and helping them work towards their goals and addressing their needs. She did everything from supporting customers on outings to waterfalls and comic book conventions, communicating with customers’ medical teams and property managers, to helping customers locate and apply for affordable housing.

Sara is excited to use her experience as a PSW and her background in writing and film to continue helping customers as a personal agent.

Fun Fact: Sara was once cited as a source on Wikipedia.

Sarah

Personal Agent, QA, ONA Assessor

Prior to joining Community Pathways in February 2019, Sarah worked several years as a direct support worker at a foster home for men experiencing developmental disabilities. During this time, she decided to go to college and study social work. She is now able to use her training as a social worker and her passion as an advocate to better serve those in her community as a personal agent.

Sarah is proud to work for an organization that emphasizes self-determination and respect for personal choices. She enjoys developing relationships and learning about what is important to each individual. She values the teamwork mentality at Community Pathways, knowing she can call on others to explore options. Having this support means better outcomes for all customers served.

Fun Fact: Sarah enjoys board games and puzzles and her favorite game show is Family Feud.

Sophie S.

Personal Agent

Sophie joined Community Pathways in the fall of 2023.

She has been working in the developmental disabilities support field for 8 years.

Prior to becoming a personal agent, she was a residential coordinator at a supported living program in the metro area. In this position she helped provide and coordinate supports and advocated for people who experience developmental disabilities. 

Sophie enjoys integrating her knowledge of navigating the developmental disabilities support system to help her customers access the resources and support available to them. She is passionate about helping people feel seen and heard so they can achieve their goals and live their lives to the fullest. Her favorite part of what she does is connecting with people and celebrating their innate gifts.

In her free time she enjoys being in nature, watercolor painting, and cooking for her friends and family.

Fun fact: Sophie loves to search for and collect gemstones and rocks on the Oregon coast.

Sophie W.

Personal Agent

Sophie joined Community Pathways in the Spring of 2023. 

She started her career in the developmental disabilities field in 2020, when she began working as a provider coordinator at another local area brokerage.

Prior to brokerage services, Sophie worked in childcare as a toddler teacher and a nanny. She has a degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from Western Washington University, with a focus on History and Political Science.

Sophie’s favorite part of being a personal agent is getting to know people on an individual level.  She finds it very rewarding to see people overcome barriers and achieve their goals. She believes that everyone’s hopes and dreams are valid and worthy – no matter how big or small.

Sophie is very excited to be working at an organization that values teamwork and collaboration.  

Fun Fact: Sophie has lived in the Netherlands and speaks Dutch. Hoi!

Tracy

Office Support

Tracy joined Community Pathways as the Office Support in 2015. She gained office work experience in high school that prepared her for positions she took at a few different organizations before joining Community Pathways’ team.

Tracy joined our team after learning about her current position from a personal agent at Community Pathways who she knows. They told her the organization needed help with filing and related administrative tasks and encouraged her to apply. In her position, Tracy provides support to personal agents and the administrative team.

What Tracy enjoys most about working at Community Pathways is meeting other people and learning about her co-workers.

Fun Fact: Tracy loves to bake.

Kaaren

Front Desk Support

Kaaren joined Community Pathways as the Front Desk Support in November 2018.

She supports our team by providing front desk coverage, greeting visitors to our office, and letting staff know their visitors have arrived. People really enjoy her friendly welcome.

Kaaren likes coming to work, being a team member, and helping co-workers. She is a happy person who likes making people smile.

Fun Fact: Kaaren was named 2018 Self-Advocate of the Year by OSAC. She advocates for the rights of all people with a disability to live self-determined lives in the community throughout Oregon.

Fun Fact: Barry was once mistaken for a department store mannequin.

Kristine

Project Manager

Kristine is a project manager who oversees several projects funded by the American Rescue Act Plan Grant CPI was awarded through the Office of Developmental Disability Services. The two main projects Kristine is working on are aimed at equitably distributing emergency supplies to individuals based on their needs and strengthening communication and collaboration between CPI’s staff and Standard Model Agency providers, respectively. This is not Kristine’s first time working at CPI! Between September 2017 and July 2019, she served as the Communications and Administrative Specialist, leading the redesign of CPI’s website and supporting the PSW enrollment and renewal process. She is excited to be working with CPI’s wonderful team again and leading projects aimed at strengthening collaboration and supporting self-determination.

Fun Fact: Kristine enjoys running around with her dog Jakobi and hanging out with her family and friends.

Olivia

Administrative Assistant

Olivia joined Community Pathways in the summer of 2018.  As the administrative assistant, she supports the fabulous personal agents and enjoys helping providers and customers.  She appreciates the care and thought the CPI team put into their work, their dedication to supporting their customers, and the fact that everyone has a good sense of humor. 

Fun Fact: Olivia plays mandolin in multiple bands. You may have seen her at a farmers market.

Scott

Administrative Specialist

Scott joined Community Pathways as the administrative specialist in June 2019.  He has a background in library cataloging, data entry, and records management. He is excited to be able to use those skills to help people in the community. 

Fun Fact: Scott spends the majority of his free time on his three favorite activities: listening to music, reading, and watching movies.

Terisa

Executive Coordinator and Communications Manager

Terisa joined Community Pathways in May 2022. In her current role, she provides support for the CPI Operations team, as well as communications and additional support for the organization.

For over 20 years Terisa has lived her passion for serving the community through her work as a public librarian.

She is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue serving others through Community Pathways, and is happy to learn something new every single day.

Terisa loves that CPI’s goal of supporting individuals to succeed is evident in the care given both to customers and towards everyone on the CPI team.

Fun Fact: Terisa’s mom came up with the winning slogan “One Stop Shopping” for Fred Meyer as part of a contest in the early 1970’s. 

Marie

QA and ONA Manager

Marie has worked at Community Pathways since fall of 2016. She started as a personal agent before moving into quality assurance work. In her current role she ensures documentation meets requirements, works with staff on quality improvement and, conducts ONA assessments.

Marie began working in the field as an Americorps member placed at a provider organization. Prior to coming to CPI she worked as a provider, job coach and manager at a local provider agency. Marie’s favorite part of all of these positions was building relationships with individuals and staff and working collaboratively to help people achieve their goals. Marie values Community Pathways’ dedication to providing individualized supports to help each person meet their goals.

Fun Fact: Marie enjoys outdoor activities, including camping and hiking.

Nina

Fiscal Director

After many years of work in corporate environments, Nina joined Community Pathways in 2015. She enjoys working in a non-profit where her contributions feel more  meaningful.

As a fiscal manager, she works mainly behind the scenes. Among other duties, Nina works to ensure providers are paid for the services they provide individuals. She also helps ensure that PA’s have the tools and data they need to support individuals.

Nina has a B.A. in digital communications from Washington State University. Her work experience includes clerical, accounting, IT, and graphic design and she manages to use all of these skills in her job. Her favorite part of working at CPI is the staff she works with. Nina really values these hardworking and dedicated people who are some of the nicest, friendliest people she’s ever worked with!

Fun Facts: Nina likes to spend time with her family and pets, take photographs, and collect old cameras and toy robots. She plans to someday revisit Southeast Asia, where she lived as a child.

Zoe

Resource Director

Zoe began working at Community Pathways as a personal agent in summer 2015. In her current role as the resource director, she works with CPI staff in human resources, oversees the personal support worker qualification process, interacts with provider agencies, is the designated referral contact for foster and group homes, and helps develop policy and procedures. She is happy to still carry a small caseload, which helps her to remain connected to the individuals CPI serves.

Zoe has extensive experience working in the field of developmental disabilities. Her first job in the field was over 20 years ago working the weekend graveyard shift at a group home for middle-aged women who had all grown up in institutions. Her previous positions include: direct support professional, job coach, house manager, OIS trainer, and personal agent.

What Zoe values most about Community Pathways is its dedication to the mission of self-determination for individuals with developmental disabilities. She enjoys working with a team of people who are creative, compassionate, and dedicated, but also know how to have a good time.

Fun Fact: Zoe’s dream for the future is to live on several acres of property just outside of Portland with dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and maybe a pig or horse.

Marek

Operations Director

Marek has been with Community Pathways since it opened in 2008. He was a personal agent before taking on the role of program supervisor.

He continues to provide case management support by assisting PA's with navigating services, rules, and complex systems, problem solving roadblocks, finding resources, as well as reviewing documents for quality assurance.

Marek enjoys working collaboratively with individuals on creating goals, finding creative solutions and strategies to achieve them, observing how goals change over time, and learning about their successes.

What Marek values most about his role in case management is the ability to work directly with people benefiting from access to services, while gaining insight into how policy is created and implemented and supporting the advocacy involved in maintaining and enhancing services.

Fun Facts: Marek likes playing disc golf with friends, race walking, eating, watching movies, Lego-ing, playing video games, and spending time with family.

Tricia

Assistant Director

Tricia is the assistant director at Community Pathways.  She has been involved in helping build CPI from the ground up since it first opened in 2008. 

Tricia began her career in the field of developmental disabilities almost 20 years ago. When she first started providing direct care at a group home, she realized she had found something she truly connects with.  She moved into the field of supported living, working as a supported living coordinator for almost three years before becoming a personal agent at a metro area brokerage when brokerages were still fairly new. Tricia connected with the philosophy of self-determination and self-directed supports. 

She served as a PA for a few years before joining CPI. Her current role is to support and supervise personal agents. It is her goal to ensure CPI’s practices are person-centered and that individual customer voice is at the heart of what we do. Tricia values CPI as a team of professionals who truly care about and love what they do.

Fun Fact: Tricia is on a Portland-to-Coast walking team. They’ve been in the Top 3 of their division for the past five years.                                                       

Jennifer

Executive Director

Jennifer has been the executive director of Community Pathways, Inc. since its establishment in 2008. She and a small team of dedicated employees started the agency and have built it from the ground up. The goal was and is to build an environment that supports people to live self-determined lives that encompass a full range of choices, changes, struggles, and successes.

Jennifer has been working in the field of developmental disabilities for over 21 years. Her experience has taught her there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Different agencies and supports work better than others for different people, for different reasons. She believes the same is true for work environments. As an organization, CPI strives to be a flexible and rewarding place to work for every member of its staff, so they are better able to serve the community.  

As the executive director, Jennifer is focused on offering support where it is needed to ensure that everyone working at CPI is able to focus as much of their attention as possible on fulfilling our person-centered mission to assist adults with developmental disabilities to live empowered, self-determined lives through community connections.

Fun Fact: Jennifer and her husband got engaged on the summit of Mount St. Helens.