Keynote Dinner: Singing in the Dark – Embracing Care & Compassion

Alejandra Ferris, PsyD, is a bilingual and bicultural licensed psychologist. She received her PsyD from Pacific University’s School of Graduate Psychology in Hillsboro, OR. Dra. Ferris is passionate about bringing mental health to the people and ensuring that services are appropriate and accessible to our community’s underserved groups. Born in Venezuela and raised in Miami, FL, a predominantly Latine immigrant community, Dra. Ferris’ upbringing empowered her identity as a Latina. It also provided her with the lived experience and understanding of the nuances and idiosyncrasies of culture that are so often overlooked and misunderstood within health settings. She strives to educate and encourage her colleagues on how to reflect on their diverse identities, how their identities influence the services they provide in clinical settings, and how to creatively reduce systemic barriers to ensure equitable access to care for all patients.

Creative problem-solving is at the heart of how Jackie approaches her work. After nearly a decade in environmental consulting, she has seen firsthand how difficult it is for people to care about environmental issues when their basic needs aren’t being met. With a “reach across the table” approach, she hopes to find solutions that improve meeting people’s basic human needs and work toward positive environmental change. She works with rural communities addressing water infrastructure needs through the EPA’s Environmental Finance Center for Region 10, facilitating collaborative working groups in the Klamath Basin aimed at increasing water security, and a suite of other smaller projects requiring a technical perspective. She holds an MS in Environmental Science – Water Resources and GIS Certificate from Oregon State University and a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz.

Pam Marsh is currently serving her fourth term as State Representative for House District 5, Southern Jackson County. She currently serves as Chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness and as a member of the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment and House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Water, and Natural Resources. Pam’s legislative priorities include clean energy development, wildfire recovery, broadband expansion and solutions to the housing crisis. Pam’s work with wildfire survivors has reinforced her understanding of the impact of multiple factors on health outcomes, especially the availability of safe and healthy housing.