Testimonials

“This was an incredibly challenging assignment. I was one of the participants in the ISSR rewrite process and witnessed Ms. Jensen’s skill in managing a room full of managers, passionate about the subject and often with competing interests. Ms. Jensen is a highly skilled facilitator who was able to take an emotionally charged area and keep people focused and able to develop shared recommendations. She is an organized and skilled facilitator who grasps difficult concepts and facilitates with equitablilty with everyone feeling as if their voice was heard.”

Project Description:
Ms. Jensen served as neutral facilitator of the ISSR Revisions Work Group made up of representatives of Coordinated Care Organizations, Community Mental Health Programs, providers, and staff members of the Addictions and Mental Health Division of Oregon Health Authority. This was a consensus-based, negotiated rule-making process in which external stakeholders and the agency met directly together to discuss and negotiate agreement to changes in administrative rules. Ms. Jensen helped structure the process and guide the group through its deliberations. In Phase 1, the group reached consensus on 87% of suggested changes, agreeing to 20 of the 23 items raised.

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Rita Sullivan, PhD
Executive Director, On Track, Inc.
541-944-2816
ritaontrack@gmail.com

“As Director of Oregon Consensus, a program of Portland State University, I assisted ODOT in selecting Theresa Jensen to facilitate this group. Ms. Jensen was on Oregon Consensus's list of approved providers, and had the particular skills that I thought would be most helpful to this project.

I and the "client" agency were very satisfied with Ms. Jensen's services. She was very adept at helping everyone to be heard on a very sensitive topic, and to help them develop some substantial recommendations for the agency. This project involved much cross cultural communication, with which Ms. Jensen is especially competent.”

Project Description:
Ms. Jensen served as facilitator and consensus-builder of the Small Business Initiative Workgroup, formed by the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2006 to understand, and ultimately reduce, the barriers facing small businesses as they pursue contracts with the state and with ODOT. Members included ODOT staff, general contractors, small businesses, including firms certified as women/minority small businesses, the Association of General Contractors, and the Governor’s office. The workgroup met monthly for a year and accomplished significant results. In addition to planning and facilitating meetings, Ms. Jensen provided summaries of each meeting, facilitated a monthly steering group of key representatives of all interests at the table, and authored a 33-page final report. 180 hours.

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R. Elaine Hallmark

Past Director
Oregon Consensus Program
Portland, OR
503-781-0116
hallmarkelaine@gmail.com

“Theresa supported me as the District lead for the School-Based Health Center state grant. We co-planned and co-facilitated the large working group meetings. Theresa facilitated public input meetings, a focus group for teen mothers, coached and organized student input, and was in charge of outreach to the local Latino community. She also designed surveys for a variety of stakeholders.
The District's satisfaction level was very high. Theresa was able to successfully facilitate a very high profile topic and project. She was conscienctious about gathering feedback from all stakeholders. During the survey development portion of the project she spent considerable time making sure the questions were authentic and bias-free.”

Project Description:
School-Based Health Center (SBHC) Community Engagement and Outreach Coordination
Role: Coordinator of Community Engagement & Outreach
Client: Medford School District 549C
Location: Medford, Jackson County, Oregon
Dates: November 2014 – June 2015
The Medford School District was considering the need and community interest in a school-based health center (SBHC) at one of its three high schools. Ms. Jensen coordinated outreach to parents, students, school staff and larger community members, including the Latino community; assisted with data research involving community needs; designed surveys; co-facilitated a multi-stakeholder planning committee and several sub-committees; and conducted a variety of community engagement and feedback efforts, including focus groups and community forums. (145 hours)

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Tania Tong
Director of Special Education and Student Services

Medford School District
tania.tong@medford.k12.or.us

“I am the faculty department chair for the Parenting Education and Family Connections at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC). I was a member of the core group of individuals who wrote the first proposal for an Early Learning Hub which was not funded. Our region had several issues to work through before the next application, and the State provided mediation services to support our efforts. My first contact with Theresa was during a phone interview targeted at gathering information from multiple stakeholders in our ElHub effort. Theresa facilitated multiple mediation sessions which I attended as a stakeholder. An outcome of this process was that LBCC was asked to be the backbone organiization for a three-county application. I served as the lead person from the backbone agency during the application and early implementation phase. Following the successful application I worked with Theresa on the development of a charter and board training for the new Early Learning Hub.

I was highly satisfied with Theresa’s services. We evolved from a group of stakeholders with little understanding of each other and a lack of trust to a highly functional, productive Early Learning Hub. Decision making processes that were modeled during the consensus process became a foundation for how we work together and respectfully make decisions for the common good. Individuals from multiple sectors of our region are bringing resources to the table and engagement has remained high in our activities.

If I have need for these services in the future, Theresa would be the first person I would check with.

Forming our EL Hub region was a very challenging process on multiple levels. There were many days when I pondered how we were going to be able to move forward. During that time and still today I feel that having Theresa’s services was crucial to addressing the concerns, developing relationships and forging a new system for serving families with young children in our region.”

Project Description:

Early Learning Hub Collaborative Support
Role: Mediator and facilitator
Client: Oregon Consensus
Location: Linn, Benton, Lincoln, and Polk Counties
Dates: February 2014 –April 2015

Ms. Jensen provided mediation and agreement seeking support to community partners and county decision-makers in Linn, Benton, Lincoln and Polk Counties regarding what alignments would form Early Learning Hubs. In the subsequent phase of the project she supported the newly-formed Linn Benton Lincoln EL Hub in agreeing on an organizational charter, and facilitated board development for the new governing board and one of its key work groups.

Jerri Wolfe, Ph.D.
Linn­Benton Comm. College
(541) 917­-4891
Wolfej@linnbenton.edu