I am the Baker County Commission Chair and enjoy living in Baker with my wife Alisha and daughters Adeline and Ava. Alisha also grew up in Baker City, and we first met as teenagers. She is a graduate of OHSU School of Nursing and a registered nurse at Heart ‘n Home Hospice. We are enjoying raising our young daughters in this beautiful community, surrounded by small-town values.
As Baker County Commission Chair for the past three years, I have addressed long-standing issues as well as unexpected challenges that arose during my first term. Few anticipated the closing of our rural birthing center in 2023. This essential service to our community was suddenly cut off just months before the birth of my second daughter. Obviously, this issue was very personal to me, which helped me to relate to others in our community struggling with a lack of access to resources. I have since been advocating on a state and federal level to secure funding and change policy that will allow our local hospital to resume services and neighboring hospitals to retain services.
I grew up in Baker City. My father, Buck, served in the US Army and later became a John Deere-certified diesel mechanic for Jones and Son. He also worked for the US Forest Service and Baker Sanitary Service. My mother, Doris, was a homemaker and musician. We’ve enjoyed our summers at our cabin in Sumpter, Oregon, throughout the years together. My family has called Baker City home since 1935
