NPAC Board

Alley Valkyrie–President

Alley Valkyrie is an artist, small business owner, and tireless supporter of the unhoused.  She currently lives in Portland and sells her handcrafted clothes and prayer flags at the Saturday Market. Since the Occupy  Movement in 2011, she has worked “full-time without  pay as an informal liaison between homeless campers and police” (Eugene Weekly) . She founded the Nightingale Public Advocacy  Coalition with her partner, John Monroe.

“Let me say first of all that I approve of the mere existence of this ‘zine, as well as Jason Pitzl-Waters’ Witchcraft Today – Witchcraft Tomorrow: A Manifesto, with which it makes a fine companion. The cover art is also excellent, and you can see more of Alley Valkyrie’s designs here.  I see this work as both a visible manifestation of a lively artistic, intellectual, and spiritual community, and the beginning of an important conversation.
By way of engaging in that conversation, I have some quibbles.  I could have wished for a little less primer and a little more Pagan.  There’s a fair amount of explanation of how and why exploitation of labor is fundamental to capitalism and the history of same, but not enough (to my mind) of what that has to do with Pagans in particular.  The most theologically profound observation in the ‘zine is made early on as an introductory remark and almost as an aside:

Lots of Pagan religions like the earth and believe in spirits, faeries, and gods of land, or in a great earth spirit or mother or goddess. That’s one of the reasons why Paganism is usually defined as an ‘earth-based’ religion. And who can own the land or the trees? Well, under Capitalism, people with money and power and access to the systems that delegate and enforce private property rights.”

John Monroe–Vice President

Activist and musician John Monroe studied philosophy at the University of Montana and has recently attended graduate school in Europe. He was an early member of the Occupy Movement, SLEEPS (Safe, Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep), and the Kesey Square Revival and founded Nightingale Public Advocacy  Coalition with his partner, Alley Valkyrie.

Louise Prevost–Secretary

Louise Prevost moved to Eugene, OR, as a child in 1963 and attended schools here up to and including the University of Oregon, where she earned a BFA Degree. In the last five years she has been homeless or underhoused for various periods, and spent time staying at the Mission, couch surfing , and earning a roof over her head via pet- and/or house-sitting and as a live-in personal home-care aid. Her experiences have instilled in her a sense of urgent need to see that the rights and basic necessities of the most vulnerable people of our community  are met through community action.

Victoria Nelson–Treasurer

Vickie Nelson is a retired librarian who has been a social activist since the 1970s when she was a founding member of Growers Market and of the alternative newspaper the Willamette Valley Observer . As a writer and editor she gravitates toward communication tasks in most of the groups she belongs to. She is currently an editor of The Eugene Occupier and a member of the board of directors of SPOT (Stop Pet Overpopulatt0n Now), a group that helps low-income people spay and neuter their dogs. She has been advocating for the unhoused for the last few years.

John Mccahill–Director

John McCahill joined the Occupy Movement in Eugene almost as soon as he heard about it. He organized the kitchen and kitchen volunteers , solicited donations of funds and food, and took on the massive task of providing several hundred meals a day and keeping activists and unhoused people fed.  He is also a regular volunteer  at the Egan Warming Centers.

Emily Semple–Director

Emily Semple is a political activist, and a member of SLEEPS, who has been put herself on the line for Constitutional Rights to free speech and assembly many times. A self-employed graphic designer at Semple Design with an AAS from Lane Community College, she brings a dramatic flair to all her activities, serves as a Eugene Slug Queen, and works as a pastry chef at Ambrosia, a Eugene  restaurant.

Mary Broadhurst–Director

Mary Broadhurst has been involved in community  organizing, first in the late 70s and early 80s as a VISTA volunteer with the Jobs and Justice Project and an organizer in the anti-nuclear movement. More recently she has been involved with Occupy Eugene, SLEEPS, and the Whoville Coalition. She is an Egan Warming Center volunteer. Mary is a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law and a practicing attorney . For over 20 years she has represented students with disabilities, ensuring that they receive the educations to which they are entitled under federal law. A highlight of her career was as co- counsel before the United States Supreme Court. She has mediation experience and extensive experience facilitating meetings with school district administrators and staff. In 2012 she completed a three day training in Dynamic Facilitation: Conflict, Creativity , and Community. She also has been trained through the intermediate level in Nonviolent Communication.