OPAL Staff
Please contact OPAL at [email protected] for all inquiries.
Calaix Alexander She/They Executive Director
Calaix (like "ballet") has been a social justice warrior from an early age. She is warm, yet assertive and passionate in her care and support of our most marginalized community members. When she's not streamlining systems, you can catch Calaix cracking jokes on stage or slaying monsters in Dungeons and Dragons.
Cameron Chambers She/Her Operations Manager
Cameron is a self proclaimed townie who grew up in North and Northeast Portland. She has been involved in activism her entire life. Early memories include Take Back the Night marches downtown in the '80s with her mama and putting together anti-war pamphlets with her papa. A life long non-driver, Cameron has been aware of OPAL’s work in transit justice for many years, and was able to participate in the 2023 SOL program to oppose Trimet’s fare increase.
While living in Chicago in the early to mid 2000s, she enjoyed the robust transit that city had to offer and grew a heightened awareness of how transit access and affordability impacts the lives of individuals and communities. She believes in the interconnectedness of liberation for people and for the environments they exist in. Cameron still lives in North Portland in a houseful of roommates and a dog - the love of her life, Penny Laverne.
OPAL Board
Jorge Sanchez Bautista He/They Interim Board Chair
Jorge is a community organizer and a high school student at McDaniel (formerly known as James Madison). He first joined Bus Riders Unite (BRU) in the summer of 2023 to work on making TriMet more equitable for its users. Jorge and his family have lived next to the 72nd (Swan Island to Clackamas) bus line for almost two decades. He currently works at Portland Parks and Recreation, working with youths ages 3-15, and at Portland State University under the Department of Community and Civic Impact. For the past two years, Jorge has been doing work related to youth involvement, equity, and social justice issues.
Aaron Golub he/him Board Treasurer Professor and Director, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University
Dr. Golub has twenty-five years of experience working in the advocacy and academic arenas on issues of transportation equity and justice. Examples of his past work include his involvement in advocacy efforts to affect the equity outcomes of several transportation plans in the San Francisco Bay Area, his work on a federally-funded toolkit to advance transportation equity practice in the US, and his research support for two civil rights legal cases in the area of transportation plans and policies. He teaches courses at PSU on urban planning research methods, environmental justice, public transit planning, and transportation policy.
Deborah Olson She/Her Bus Riders Unite! Steering Committee
I have been doing volunteer work since the last century (Yes, I am that old!). I joined OPAL and Bus Riders Unite! around when BRU persuaded TriMet to allow more time on a single bus ride fare. Since I am in my 60s, I'm concerned about leaving this planet in good shape, with cleaner air and giant trees for future generations.
Pam Phan They/Them Board Member
Pam was born and raised in Portland, OR to a large and raucous Vietnamese refugee family. In 2001, Pam spent time at Community Alliance of Tenants, Oregon’s statewide tenants union. As organizing director, they ran grassroots campaigns building people power to win protections that include statewide rent control in 2019. They started out organizing Queer, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, Black, and Latine youth to demilitarize schools and offer alternatives to police and gun violence in Portland.
They’ve worked in local and regional government as an urban planner and also earned a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. This is how Pam learned the complex language of administration and bureaucracy, which is almost always used to dispossess our communities. Armed with this knowledge, they helped build Anti-Displacement PDX, a coalition of Portland area grassroots groups taking a stand against wave after wave of gentrification and displacement, and for community control of development in neighborhoods throughout the Portland Metro area. Pam joined the Right To The City Alliance at the very beginning of the global pandemic in 2020.
When not organizing, they enjoy tree bathing, foraging for mushrooms+ anywhere they grow, and preparing for a near future where societies in the Global North consume less resources in order to gain greater balance with earth and all its inhabitants.