Gov. Tina Kotek Appoints Two New Members to OHSU Board

The university’s board is expanding after the passage of a 2023 law.

The OHSU Skourtes Tower at the Robertson Collaborative Life Sciences Building. (Jake Nelson)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Gov. Tina Kotek released a slate of appointments today to state boards and commissions.

Among the most notable changes: two new board members for Oregon Health & Science University, the city’s largest employer. As WW has reported, OHSU is going through a difficult time financially, which recently led to the layoff of 500 staffers. It is also working through perhaps the most complex transaction in its history, a planned merger with Legacy Health.

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that will add two new board members to the university’s current nine-member board. One must be a faculty member and one a non-faculty staff member.

Kotek today tapped Dr. Maria Rodriguez, director of OHSU’s Center for Women’s Health, as the faculty member of the board, and Claire Irvan, financial coordinator for OHSU’s Adult and Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and CAR-T program, as the non-faculty member. Kotek also reappointed Jim Carlson, the former longtime head of the Oregon Health Care Association, to the board.

Kotek has not yet selected a replacement for current OHSU board chair Wayne Monfries, whose second four-year term ends Sept. 30. An OHSU spokeswoman earlier told WW that Monfries plans to step down as chair on Oct. 1, although an OHSU spokesperson said he may remain on the board until the governor finds a successor.

The Oregon Senate Rules Committee will consider Kotek’s appointments Sept. 23-25.

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