Meet Sisters’ New Executive Director
Sisters of the Road Board of Directors is pleased to announce Kathleen (Kat) Mahoney as our new Executive Director. She has been the Acting Executive Director for the past nine months leading us through the first stages of our move to a permanent home.
Kat starts today in this new role at Sisters. She is a highly experienced, successful, and well-regarded organizer and leader. Kat owns a solo law firm focusing on family law in Portland, has been an ACLU Legal Observer since 2017, and started working with the Sisters staff in 2021.
She is a Korean adoptee who moved from Brooklyn, New York to Portland in 2009. She earned her BA in English Lit and minor in Women’s Studies from SUNY College at Fredonia, a MA in Criminal Justice from Boston University, and a JD from the University of Oregon School of Law. She has been active in the Portland community for several years and worked at various non-profits in the last twenty years, often in management and leadership positions.
We asked Kat a few questions to help our community get to know them.
How did you first get involved with Sisters?
I was contracting with the ACLU of Oregon in 2021. I was the point person for a coalition of groups working on issues affecting poverty and homelessness and started attending meetings. Sisters of the Road was one of the groups in that coalition. From there, I joined the Board of Directors in 2022 as the organization was working on a plan to move forward as COVID restrictions were lifting in Portland.
I was also a legal observer. Legal observers would act as witnesses to the sweeping of sites around Portland after we received reports of hostile treatment towards people living in tents from police and clean up crews.
What motivated you to get involved with defending the unhoused community from sweeps?
Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. Witnessing the sweep process from start to finish, police often intimidated and humiliated people being displaced. This angered me. Sweeps destabilize people and there was no reason for cops to say some of the biased and cruel things they did. It motivated me to want to take more responsibility towards advocating for change. Sweeping people is not a solution, it’s just kicking a can down the road.
In addition to working at Sisters, you’ve maintained a private law practice. What’s your practice like?
My law firm is a solo firm that I started in Dec 2019. Then the pandemic hit in March 2020. So it took a while for it to get off the ground. The main focus is on family law. I primarily serve those in the lower income bracket, who make $52,000 and less a year, and slide my scale accordingly.
Which of Sisters’ philosophies do you most strongly identify with?
Anti-oppression. It supports the other philosophies of Sisters for me. Anti-oppression requires active listening, non-defensiveness, and respectful communication. Things we can practice at work and in our own lives. It allows us to identify power and privilege dynamics. Anti-oppression challenges me to be honest and open, and willing to take risks to address racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other oppressive dynamics head-on.
Buying a building and relocating Sisters is a huge project, how do you stay grounded and focused on the end result?
I’m lucky to have amazing people who want to help us. Sometimes when doubt creeps in, I look at the list of people, companies, and friends who have already lent their time, energy, and efforts to helping us.
What are your biggest hopes for the future for Sisters?
Immediate future: the new space is welcoming, well designed for our customers, and helps create a new sense of community.
Long term: Sisters last at least another 44 years. We thank you all for your continued support and partnership as we welcome Kat in her new permanent role and we grow stronger together!
We thank you all for your continued support and partnership as we welcome Kat in her new permanent role and we grow stronger together!
Thank you,
Sisters Board of Directors
