BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Board of Directors oversees and supports the work of Boost Oregon. The Board monitors the organization’s financials and creates its strategic short-term and long-term goals. In partnership with the Executive Director, the Board assists Boost Oregon in carrying out its mission of childhood vaccination education.
Taylor Pinsent
President
Taylor Pinsent is a mother of two spirited girls and an epidemiologist. When she is not negotiating bath and bedtime, she is working to solve and improve the health of our community by studying infectious disease patterns. Taylor understands firsthand the overwhelming yet amazing transition into parenthood, and she is excited to help new parents navigate vaccine information.
Aaron Dunn
Secretary
Aaron Dunn is a Specialist Master at Deloitte Consulting LLP where he supports state and local public health initiatives. Previously, he was the Oregon Immunization Program Manager and the state’s COVID-19 Operations Director. Aaron lives with his family in Sandy, Oregon, and enjoys hiking, reading, and rooting for the Portland Thorns. He’s been a long-time admirer of Boost Oregon and is excited to join the Board of Directors.
Vanessa Becker
Director
Vanessa has over 20 years experience in nonprofit and government administration. She collaborates across sectors and has served in a wide variety of roles, including as the executive director of a rural nonprofit, interim deputy administrator of a large county health department, and chair, trustee, and director of various educational and nonprofit boards. Born and raised on Oregon farmland, Vanessa made Roseburg her permanent home in 1998. Outside of her work and various volunteer positions, Vanessa enjoys training and competing in the equestrian sport of Dressage, is a voracious foodie, loves to travel, and looks forward to the adventures that every day presents.
Dr. Erika Beard-Irvine
Director
Erika Beard-Irvine, M.D., is a board-certified pediatrician, mom of two, and the doer of all things at Erika Beard-Irvine MD pediatrics in Bend. She loves teaching her patients about health and their bodies and about evidence-based medicine. When she’s not in clinic, you can find her kitting, gardening on her farm, or training in martial arts with her kids.
Bridget Fahrland
Director
Bridget Fahrland is SVP of Connected Commerce at Edelman, which is a fancy way of saying she ensures brands are keeping up with digital trends and meeting consumer needs. She lives in Portland with her wife and daughter where they enjoy the gorgeous outdoors. Her passions are hiking, boating, and comedy writing.
Wendy Li
Treasurer
Wendy Li is a Senior Director at Nike working in the Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL). She lives in Portland with her husband and is a mom of three kids – two in college and one in elementary school. Outside of work, Wendy enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, gardening, and working on her Healthcare MBA. Wendy believes in the importance of vaccines in preventative care and overall public health of our communities. She is excited to serve on the board and contribute to Boost Oregon’s mission.
John Mansfield
Vice President
John Mansfield is a business attorney and litigator who has worked in government and private practice. His specialties include business strategy, intellectual property strategy, drafting and advising on contracts and business deals, commercial litigation, regulatory compliance, patent litigation, trademark litigation, copyright litigation, trade secrets litigation, intellectual property, privacy, and e-commerce. Born and raised in Medford, John now resides in Portland but treasures his rural roots and hometown. He is a talented musician who enjoys playing piano at parties, and he is a devoted father to two sons.
Muthoni Ehmann, PA-C
Director
Muthoni (Noni) Ehmann is a board-certified Physician Associate who works as an Equity Clinician at Oregon Health Authority. She is part of the team in the Equity Office that helps elevate voices from communities of color. The goal is to help shift the historic power imbalance between these communities and those who make decisions and policies affecting them. She also spends time with these communities, listening and engaging them in culturally-responsive health promotion. She believes in weaving together science and community wisdom to help improve health outcomes. Noni likes delicious, healthy foods (most of the time), traveling, hiking, and sometimes camping with her husband, Jim. They share their home with Fiki the Kitty.
The People of Boost Oregon
MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD
The Medical Advisory Board ("MAB") provides insight and expertise for Boost Oregon's educational resources and programs. Members of the MAB are appointed by the Board of Directors and act in an advisory capacity in all medical and scientific matters related to Boost Oregon. All MAB members contribute their expertise on a pro bono basis with no conflict of interest between their professional work and the volunteer work they do for Boost Oregon.
Dr. Joel Amundson, M.D.
Joel Amundson, M.D. is a board-certified pediatrician. Joel manages, operates, and is chief bottle washer of Trailhead Pediatrics. While his main passion is improving medical care for children through thoughtful, evidence-based medicine, on the weekends he can be found doing all things Portland, including foraging for wild edibles, woodworking, and canoeing.
Dr. Max Cohen, N.D.
Max Cohen, N.D. is a naturopathic physician and lifelong Oregonian. His goal is to inform and educate his patients on the importance of preventive healthcare. His clinical interests include diet and lifestyle medicine, bedside ultrasound, and evidence-based integrative medicine. Dr. Cohen is a contributing author to ndsforvaccines.com, an educational resource about vaccines. Prior to his medical training, he worked as a microbiologist in a lab studying the tuberculosis bacterium. When not seeing patients, he spends his time with his family and bikes, backpacks, and takes photos.
Dr. Ryan Hassan, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Hassan also serves as Boost Oregon’s medical director. Please see below to learn more about him.
Dr. Jay Rosenbloom, M.D., Ph.D.
Jay Rosenbloom, M.D., Ph.D. is a board-certified pediatrician, third-generation Portlander, and father to three daughters. To him, being a pediatrician at Pediatric Associates of the Northwest is all about teaching: helping families understand why doctors ask the questions they do or what they’re looking for when they check a body part. Dr. Rosenbloom believes in empowering parents through knowledge and helping them make well-informed medical decisions that are right for them. He loves to hike (especially Tamanwas Falls on Mt. Hood), travel, and eat spicy food.
STAFF
Nadine Gartner
FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nadine Gartner is a mom, lawyer, and Executive Director of Boost Oregon. Conceived from the depths of mother-anxiety and having the fortitude to change the conversation around childhood vaccination, Nadine created Boost Oregon. She believes in the power of sharing our stories and learning from one another. Nadine volunteers at her children's elementary school and within Portland's Jewish community. She loves books, dance, and jiu jitsu. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan Law School.
Carrie Bader, M.P.H, M.O.T
TRAINING DIRECTOR
Carrie Bader is a health educator, occupational therapist, and former New Yorker who has made Oregon her home since the early 2000s. Her training area of focus is motivational interviewing (MI), an evidence-based, collaborative approach to conversation that promotes positive change; she has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers since 2009. She has taught MI to therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and lawyers. As Training Director, Carrie teaches and promotes the use of MI to help providers best work with families. When not geeking out on MI, Carrie is busy jumping in puddles and collecting leaves with her daughter.
Ryan Hassan, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director
Ryan Hassan, M.D., M.P.H., is a board-certified pediatrician working at Pediatric Associates of the Northwest in Tigard. He lives in Happy Valley with his wife, Christen, daughter, Olivia, and chihuahua, Luna Joe. His professional work centers around improving the lives of children by promoting preventive healthcare and healthy lifestyle choices at the individual and community levels and by empowering physicians to become better advocates for their patients. Dr. Hassan is an avid outdoors enthusiast and enjoys running, biking, swimming, hiking, backpacking, climbing, snowboarding, and kite surfing.
Ari O’Donovan
Diversity Program Director & “Boosting Our Voices” Podcast Host
Ari O’Donovan is a proud native Portlander who graduated from Portland State University with honors. In the summer of 2019, she interned with Boost Oregon and researched vaccine attitudes among Black parents. As Boost’s first hired staff, Ari conducts outreach to Oregon’s minority and immigrant communities and oversees all of our programming specific to those communities. Ari also hosts Boosting Our Voices podcast, which is by and for Oregon's Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. When she’s not meeting with parents, crafting new educational materials, recording podcast episodes, or coordinating with medical providers, Ari is busy traveling with her husband, spending time with her mom, and enjoying events with friends.
Meghan Sable, M.P.H. & TM
Director of Grants and Central Oregon Programs
Meghan Sable is passionate about the prevention and control of vaccine preventable infectious diseases. She has a bachelor of science in health science from the University of Minnesota and a master of public health and tropical medicine from Tulane University. She relocated to Bend with her partner and their fur-child to grow Boost Oregon’s presence in Central Oregon. She loves exploring her new home, especially the local craft breweries, and she's always up for a good board game.
Join The Team
Employment
We are always looking for freelance grant writers, administrative assistants, graphic designers, and any other skills that benefit nonprofits. Contact us with your ideas, skills, and any other information pertinent to working with us.
Internships
Are you a college or graduate student interested in what we do? We may have opportunities for you! Contact us and tell us how you'd like to assist our work.
NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY
Boost Oregon follows an equal opportunity employment policy and employs personnel without regard to race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status. This policy applies to all of Boost Oregon's employees, volunteers, members, clients, and contractors. This policy also applies to internal promotions, training, opportunities for advancement, terminations, outside vendors, members and customers, service clients, use of contractors and consultants, and dealings with the general public.