Those of you with communications chops looking for a place to make a difference should check out the communications director job opening at the Oregon Environmental Council.

Oregon’s residents, the best mix of hippies and hillbillies in the lower 48 (Groundwire Portland office, you know where you fit), have one thing in common -- they pretty much love the great outdoors no matter what side of the aisle they come from and provide a great opportunity for marketing and outreach.

For over forty years, the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) has brought together a broad range of citizens including outdoor enthusiasts, farmers, educators, and conservationists to work in creating a clean and healthy Oregon for future generations. We've had the wonderful opportunity to work with OEC the past few years and want to take a quick moment and recognize outgoing Communications Director Jeremy Graybill.

Jeremy led OEC through an online communications transformation resulting in true and measurable impact on the lives of Oregonians. In 2008 we worked with Jeremy to implement a new website that has seen tremendous growth in traffic; we also helped Jeremy and the team at OEC launch an email communications program (Action Alerts, The Healthy Kids Campaign and Climate Coolers) that has seen a 7,000% increase (!) in email signups over the past few years.
 
As part of the National Eco-Healthy Child Care Initiative, Jeremy worked with our web developers to integrate OEC’s website and database so childcare facilities get the information they need to apply for eco-healthy certification. Parents and caretakers can also search the site and locate Eco-Healthy Child Care endorsed facilities anywhere in the nation. These innovations have saved OEC huge amounts of valuable staff time, and the Eco-Healthy Child Care program now certifies 1,100 childcare facilities serving nearly 47,000 children around the country.
  
In 2009, Jeremy and the OEC team worked with a broad-based advisory committee to create high-performing schools that reduce student and staff exposure to chemicals of concern, improve academic performance and staff productivity, and reduce facility maintenance and operational costs. Two out of four healthy schools bills were passed, and OEC also provided strategic support for passage of two additional bills that reduce toxic pollution.

Jeremy, from all of us here at Groundwire, thank you for your incredible work with the Oregon Environmental Council. You can sleep well at night, buddy. Have fun at the Multnomah County Library. Maybe the Decemberists will end up writing a cool song about you.