Cascade Views Podcast

Micaela Guthrie has loved the Pacific Northwest since attending the University of Puget Sound and is thrilled to have called Bend home for the last 10 years. Micaela has been drawn to immigration law since college where she majored in Comparative Sociology and discovered the power of the personal narrative. Micaela graduated from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to...

Stephanie Alvstad is the CEO and President of J Bar J Youth Services. She started with J Bar J in 1989 and began working with teens and families providing mediation, shelter, groups, and individual case management at Cascade Youth & Family Center. In 1997 she became CEO and over the past 30 years, Stephanie has developed the organization with the addition of multiple programs serving youth. Th...

Sheriff Nelson has been in law enforcement since 1993 and is in his second term as Sheriff.  The Deschutes County Commissioners unanimously appointed Nelson as the 9th Sheriff of Deschutes County in July 2015. He was voted in by the citizens of Deschutes County in November 2016. He was born and raised in Bend and graduated from Mountain View High School in 1988.  After graduating from Oregon State...

Brad Porterfield serves as the Executive Director of the Latino Community Association here in Central Oregon.  The Latino Community Association, or LCA for short, has a mission is to empower Central Oregon Latino families to thrive, creating opportunities for advancement and building bridges that unite and strengthen everyone in our region. LCA is an essential connecting point for our immigrant co...

Josh Lair is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Ideal Option which covers the State of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Ideal Option is one of the nation’s largest outpatient providers of evidence-based medication-assisted treatment for addiction to opioids, alcohol, methamphetamine, and other substances. Founded in 2012 by two emergency medicine physicians, Ideal Option’s mission is to provid...

Megan Martin is “in the house” today. Megan serves as the Executive Director of Furnish Hope, which is a local nonprofit organization that collects, warehouses, redistributes and delivers donated home furnishings and household essentials to individuals and families transitioning into stable, affordable housing.  Furnish Hope operates on a referral basis, working with over 54 community partners con...

Our guest for this episode is Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone. Commissioner DeBone will discuss the challenges, opportunities and strategies for managing a multitude of county-wide issues in this season of great change. In this far-ranging discussion, you’ll hear Tony’s ideas on housing, apprenticeship programs, homelessness, and regional growth. You’ll also get a sense for the magnitude...

Leanne serves as the Executive Director of Pregnancy Resource Centers of Central Oregon, which has been serving our region for over 25 years.  As indicated by the name, Pregnancy Resource Center serves as a place for free pregnancy counseling and support – whether the pregnancy is planned or unplanned. The Pregnancy Resource Center understands that the decisions surrounding a pregnancy can lead to...

Tammy is the Executive Director of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council; the region’s Council of Governments, referred to for simplicity as COIC. COIC provides services to the counties of  Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson, the cities of Bend, Culver, La Pine, Madras, Metolius, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters, as well as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.  It has offices located through...

Gwenn serves as the Executive Director of Bethlehem Inn since 2010.  Before joining the nonprofit world, she served as a member of the Inn’s board of directors for a year and a half. The organization currently has two facilities (one in Bend and one in Redmond) that offer emergency shelter and supportive services for men, women and families.  It has as its mission to transform lives together throu...

Jason has extensive experience as a police officer on the street – and as such he’s had to deal with all manner of human behavior issues – criminal and otherwise, as you might expect. I invited him on the show specifically today to talk about issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, and homelessness – from the perspective of a street cop. It’s a perspective that, as ordinary citizens...

Ranae is the Executive Director of the Giving Plate. In my view, the Giving Plate is one of the most heroic organizations in Central Oregon. It’s the largest food pantry in Central Oregon, serving about 2700 people a month.  Since opening in 2010, The Giving Plate has helped 76,000 families with a week’s worth of food – equating to 5.75 million pounds of food! You can learn more about the Giving P...

Chris is the General Manager at Technology Design Associates, here in Bend, which is a full services technology integration firm. In his current role and in his business career, Chris has excelled at developing and executing business strategies using strong business acumen, team building, decisive problem-solving and enduring partnerships built on trust. Chris is currently serving as a Board of Di...

Joni is a long time Central Oregon resident and marketing communications professional. Chances are if you’ve been around here very long you know of her firm Max Marketing.  I invited Joni on the show however, not to talk about marketing, but to talk about a topic that she calls Kissed by Cancer. She’s joined by her daughter and partner in the Kissed By Cancer Project – Lauren Nelson. I’m not going...

I invited Mike on the show because he’s one of my Central Oregon heroes. All of us who live here know how special this region is, and one of the things that makes it special is the international impact people from Central Oregon can have. Mike Silva is one of those people. After losing his father in a tragic car accident when Mike was only six years old, he found the forgiveness and comfort he lon...

Alison Perry is a Licensed Professional Counselor and military-family member who has worked with veterans for over 15 years in government, private, and nonprofit settings. Her passion is healing combat trauma across the lifespan. After six years'  clinical counseling in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Alison left to pursue her vision of "a place where veterans could work on the land,...

This interview with Alex was recorded in the summer of 2020. Although some of the discussion reflects that time period, the lessons Alex shares about life, about Uganda, and about community transformation are timeless. Alex's message will move, shock, inspire and encourage you greatly. 

Judge Vance Day has enjoyed a distinguished career as an attorney, and as a Circuit Court Judge in the Third Judicial District. While serving as a Circuit Court judge, Vance started a veteran’s treatment court in Salem, Oregon. The goal of this innovative court was to target the root causes of veterans’ criminal behavior through a program tailored to address their needs that is created by the pros...

Jeff Eager is a business attorney and former mayor of Bend. He has amassed a loyal following for his blog and newsletter "Oregon Roundup" which blends political commentary with his experience as a lawyer to provide a conservative synthesis of the prominent issues of our time. I’ve asked Jeff on the show today to share his perspectives on the Oregon state political climate and our transit...

My guest today is my longtime friend Andi Buerger. Andi is a lawyer, community leader, author, speaker and nationally known advocate for homeless teens and the victims of human trafficking. She has two books to her credit so far: A Fragile Thread of Hope and Voices Against Trafficking. Both books are available on Amazon.   Andi knows of what she writes, as she survived 17 years of sex trafficking...