CTE names Karmen Fore to Policy Board

The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) has named Karmen Fore as the newest member of the Policy Board. CTE’s Policy Board is focused on strengthening CTE’s advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, Calif. Fore’s decades of experience in public policy will be instrumental in guiding CTE through the unprecedented levels of transportation and infrastructure policy activity now taking place at national, state and local levels.

Fore is recognized as a national leader on a broad range of transportation issues including port infrastructure and rail safety issues. She is currently the director of Oregon Solutions—a program of the National Policy Consensus Center that uses collaborative governance to resolve community-based problems to some of Oregon’s most complex public policy issues.

Fore previously served as the senior director for Federal Affairs & Transportation to Oregon Govs. Kate Brown and John Kitzhaber. As senior director, she devised and executed the 2017 plan that led to the passage of a $5.3 billion multimodal statewide transportation package that created new investments for roads, bridges and highways; intermodal infrastructure; first-time statewide investments in transit and electric vehicles and new funds for bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

She also served U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio as deputy chief of staff overseeing his Oregon offices and as professional staff to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee where she worked on multiple federal transportation reauthorization bills.

As a member of the Policy Board, Fore will support the implementation of CTE’s legislative agenda. This agenda is developed each year by CTE’s federal affairs representative, Sullivan Strategies, working closely with CTE Leadership Circle members to establish CTE’s legislative priorities.

“Fore has led efforts around multibillion dollar transportation legislation before, which is precisely the experience we need after the passage of the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” said Dan Raudebaugh, executive director of CTE. “CTE has a lot of work ahead of us to help achieve our vision of a zero-emission US transportation system, and we look forward to Fore’s guidance and input in the days ahead.”

Fore holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with a minor in Planning, Public Policy, and Management from the University of Oregon.