Ben Cannon *

Executive Director, Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission

Ben Cannon has served as the executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission since 2013. In this position, Cannon oversees state funding allocations, policy setting, and coordination for Oregon’s postsecondary education and training system, including community colleges, public universities, and various workforce boards. Cannon is a former teacher, state representative, and education policy advisor to the governor. Elected three times to the Oregon House of Representatives (2006-11), he chaired House committees with jurisdiction over environment, energy, and water policy. From 2003 to 2011, he taught humanities at a middle school near Portland, Oregon. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended Oxford University in England on a Rhodes Scholarship where he earned graduate degrees in comparative and international education and philosophy, politics, and economics.

Michael Dembrow

Retired Senator, Oregon State Legislature

Michael Dembrow served in the Oregon Legislature as a State Representative and State Senator for 16 years, five in the House, and 11 in the Senate. There, he chaired committees on education, higher education, workforce, environment, and natural resources. He has served on the Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC) for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), and he co-chaired the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) 2023-25 Task Force on Higher Education. Prior to the legislature, Dembrow taught at Portland Community College, serving as faculty union president for 16 of those years. Recently retired, he is co-chairing Oregon’s new Environmental Restoration Council, is a member of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, is an advisor to Jobs for the Future’s Fair Chance to Advance Initiative for prison education/reentry, and is on the board for the Oregon Center for Public Policy. In his retirement, Dembrow is spending more time with family and taking long hikes each week with his grand-dog, Aldo.

Lisa Skari

President, Mt. Hood Community College

Dr. Lisa Skari currently serves as the President of Mt. Hood Community College, a role she has held since 2018. Prior to MHCC, she spent 26 years at Highline College (WA) in roles including adjunct faculty, mid-management positions in cooperative education/internships and budgeting, and as Vice President for Advancement.

She earned her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University and her Doctorate in Education from Washington State University. Her research led to the development of a predictive model of community college alumni giving, for which she received the H.S. Warwick Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation.

Prior to her work in community colleges, Dr. Skari spent seven years in the private sector in management, buying, and corporate training.

Lew Frederick

Senator, Oregon State Legislature

Emily McIntire

Representative, Oregon State Legislature

Ricki Ruiz

Representative, Oregon State Legislature

Rob Wagner

Senator, Oregon State Legislature