Personal Stories

Molly Jean Oberweiser Kennedy (she/her, white-bodied, cisgender, queer, woman) was born and raised primarily in Montana with a few years in Washington State. She left Montana at 18 to attend college in Minnesota, remained there for 13 years, and then moved to Oregon in 2009. She knew at just 15 [...]

Melissa Smith comes to Change Matrix (CM) with a wealth of experience empowering individuals and communities through education, coaching, and advocacy. She grew up in Virginia and found her calling as an educator early on. After obtaining her bachelor's and master's degrees, Melissa worked for over 15 years as a [...]

As a creative, Jennifer Wilkins has made a career of collaging opportunity, interests, and passions. Earning her bachelor’s degree in fine art, she quickly headed creative production teams to apply creative problem-solving skills and curiosity to program start-up and development. She was the founding administrator of the Pediatric Surgery Residency [...]

While foundational concepts like critical thinking and analysis are taught in schools, it isn’t so common to find classrooms that are dedicated to experiential learning. From a young age, Alina Taniuchi was not only taught to learn by doing, but she was encouraged to think through the interconnected nature of [...]

While Change Consultant and Administrative Assistant Ciara Collins only joined Change Matrix (CM) a few months ago, she has quickly adapted to CM’s company culture, jumped into multiple projects like Expanding the Bench® (ETB) and The National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED), and become an essential part [...]

After seven years working alongside Change Matrix (CM) helping the Expanding the Bench® (ETB) Initiative, Project Manager Karla Mendez moved on to pursue another position. We are sad to see her go, but we wish her all the best in her new endeavors! Read this blog, originally posted to the [...]