Susheela Jayapal
Susheela serves as a County Commissioner for Multnomah County, representing North and Northeast Portland, a position she has held since 2019. She was born in India and moved to the US for college. She attended law school and worked as litigator in San Francisco and Portland and went on to work as the General Counsel at adidas America. After leaving her legal career nearly 20 years ago, Susheela served in various nonprofit leadership positions, including on the boards of Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Willamette, Portland Schools Foundation, All Hands Raised, Literary Arts, Metropolitan Family Service and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. She decided to run for elected office in order to work on the issues of displacement, houselessness, and income inequality that she saw affecting the lives of people in Multnomah County, and those have continued to be her priority. As Commissioner, Susheela has secured wage increases for nonprofit workers on the front lines of the homelessness crisis; created structure for improving services to immigrants and refugees; strengthened policy around clean air; and championed services for survivors of domestic violence and sex trafficking. Susheela lives in the Sabin neighborhood of Northeast Portland, has two children who graduated from Grant High School, and enjoys spending time hiking in the Columbia Gorge, reading, playing tennis, and regularly traveling back to India to visit her parents.