Kathryn Firestone
Executive Director, Emerge Oregon
Former President, Oregon PTA
Kathryn Firestone has been a public education advocate and political leader for nearly 20 years. She is currently the Executive Director of Emerge Oregon, an organization that trains and prepares Democratic women to get elected to public office. She has served in a wide variety of roles, including Co-Director of a Parent Resource Center and Volunteer Coordinator for North Clackamas Schools, committee member for the Oregon Department of Education Communications committee, Vice President and President of the Oregon PTA.
Firestone has also been a spokesperson for more than 15 ballot measures, as a trainer on tax policy for Citizen’s for Oregon’s Future, the OPTA co-chair for the Million Mom March in 2000, and on the board of directors of Oregonians Against Gun Violence. In 2004, she mounted an impressive campaign against an Oregon House Republican incumbent in a district that hadn’t elected a Democrat in over 20 years. She came within 5 points of winning and still says it’s one of the best things that she’s ever done; she highly recommends it to everyone once. The seat was taken by a Democrat in 2008.
