Audrey Caro

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What if your access to health care wasn’t tied to your job, your partner or your age?

What if your access to health care wasn’t tied to your job, your partner or your age?That’s a future Dr. Tammy Carpenter asked Oregonians to imagine during a statewide Universal Healthcare Tour in September. She partnered with HCAO Action to talk about Oregon’s universal health care proposal, and to ask Oregonians what they want to see in the final plan.The eight-stop tour covered Bend, La Grande, The Dalles, Salem, Medford, Coos Bay, Newport and Astoria.In Salem, Carpenter was joined by State Rep. Lesly Muñoz, Dr. Trevor Phillips, State Senate candidate Virginia Stapleton and Health Care for All Oregon treasurer Anna Thom. The panel spoke with a gathering of about 13 community members, who asked questions about the proposal and expressed concerns about the current healthcare system.The Universal Health Plan Governance Board, an independent body created by the Oregon Legislature in 2023, is designing universal health care plan. It is separate from HCAO, and reports to the Oregon Legislature.The UHPGB “is going to try really hard to make sure that this cost is going to be very progressive, so that, you know, ordinary Oregonians are not going to be more than they're paying right now,” Carpenter said. “And no co-pays, no deductibles, no out of pocket costs.”Each of the panelists in Salem brought their personal and professional experiences with the current healthcare system to the discussion.Carpenter, an anesthesiologist, knows the frustrations as a patient and a provider.“It’s going to be so simple for patients,” she said. “You walk in, you see the doctor, you walk out. You don't take out your checkbook, you don't take out your credit card. As a provider, as a physician, I don't have to worry about the insurance company denying the claim.”Health care will cost less, she said, “because we are taking out the middleman.”Under the proposed plan, no provider will be out of network and administrative costs will be lower.Carpenter said they’re envisioning a nonprofit corporation for universal healthcare, similar to SAIF, a not-for-profit workers' compensation insurance company.Rep. Muñoz is on the House Interim Committee on Health Care.“For the last 2 years, I have seen how our healthcare system doesn't work,” Muñoz said.She’s concerned about the increasing difficulties that vulnerable populations will face in the next couple of years to access health care.“It costs the state money whether you have insurance or not,” she said. “In fact, it costs the state more money if you wait and go to the emergency room.”Another benefit of universal healthcare, she said, is that it will leave more money on the table for increasing wages when it comes to bargaining for contracts.Thom was inspired to volunteer for HCAO by her father, who was a first responder for 20 years.“He served on the Warm Springs reservation and due to his job, being a firefighter/EMT, he got early onset Alzheimer's,” Thom said. “So, he served our community and our state for 20 years, and now he's in a situation where he has no health care. And he's very, very vulnerable, and so that kind of got me off the couch and got me volunteering and really put the target on how we need to have universal healthcare in our state. And hopefully the whole country.”Stapleton said she thinks about access to care, the time she’s spent trying to find doctors that accept her family’s insurance and that have openings.“I think about my own personal story,” Stapleton said. “I've got two kiddos, one of which is sick quite often. This year, we paid $14,000 out of pocket for the care that they needed. I know that my kids are not the only ones that are suffering, and I want to make sure that we have just the base level of care provided by our government, for our citizens, and for anybody visiting our country.”Phillips, an emergency room doctor at Salem Hospital and former Salem city councilor, said one of his fondest memories of serving on council was being encouraged by HCAO to present a resolution declaring health care as a human right.“I was thrilled, when that resolution passed unanimously,” he said. “I was also shocked…but that just shows you, this affects everybody. Everybody at some point will go through the emergency room directly or indirectly. And I can tell you, it doesn't care if you're a trillionaire or if you have no money at all. And healthcare absolutely has to be a fundamental human right, and we do live in a country where more than 50% of bankruptcies are due to medical bankruptcies.”Carpenter pointed out that Canada’s universal healthcare system started with one province and eventually was established nationwide. She hopes Oregon can do the same in the United States.The goal is to deliver the plan to the Oregon Senate in December, resulting in a bill.“What advocates are hoping for, what legislators are hoping for, is that we will then pass that bill, and then it will show up on the ballot for Oregonians to vote on in November of 2028,” Carpenter said.If it passes in November of 2028, a four-year implementation period is anticipated, she added.Attendees at the Salem event shared concerns about the amount of money insurance companies will spend to defeat the bill, how it will interact with Medicare and the potential for the system initially being overwhelmed.HCAO is partnering with other organizations, including unions, and has a committee dedicated to marketing the plan and meeting community members where they are.“I know that this is going to be a fight,” Muñoz said. “I know that these folks have deep pockets because I can see who they contribute to and we're going to have to fight those people. But I think that we should be ready to say, ‘If you don't get on board with the job that people elected you to do, you will be primaried.’”Since Medicare is a federal program, those dollars won’t be disrupted, Carpenter said.“We can't interrupt the federal dollars,” she said. “When you go to the doctor, the physician will submit the bills to Medicare being paid through Medicare, and anything that's additional…that's where the universal health plan makes up the rest.”Some people have expressed a fear that doctors will leave the state if it adopts a universal healthcare system.“If you'd asked me three or four years ago, before private equity started buying up anesthesia practices, I would have said that they would probably never want to do this,” Carpenter said. “We experienced that in Portland, a very long standing 36-year practice that had a relationship with the hospital system for 36 years. They said, ‘Oh, we're going to bring this private equity group. Bye.’ So we, as physicians, are learning our class position.”Muñoz, who represents Woodburn, said there is a pipeline for Woodburn High School students to work at the large Amazon warehouse. She suggested creating a pipeline to guide students to medical school.“I do think there's going to be a lot of really important story sharing, one-on-one that's going to help get this passed,” Carpenter said. “I do want to echo Rep. Muñoz, that the other side is going to be organized and have a lot of money. And I think this side is growing more organized every day, and there's a coalition.”Audrey Caro
HCAO Communications Volunteer

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Nuestra Voz, Nuestro Futuro
Our Voice, Our Future

Usually, the stories I write for Linn-Benton Community College focus on a single student, donor or staff member. I love learning about people and sharing their stories.Recently, I got to spend the day at LBCC’s third annual Latine High School Leadership Conference. It was a treat to experience the wisdom and encouragement shared in this community.The story is linked below.

• All the amazing photos are by Jess Hume. Check out her site!

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Drawing on Family

Tessa Hulls won the Pulitzer Prize for her graphic memoir "Feeding Ghosts."

Story published in the Lifestyle magazine of the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
VOL. 6 | ISSUE NO. 3 | SUMMER 2025

Port Townsend holds a special place in the heart of artist, writer, performer and adventurer Tessa Hulls.It’s where she drew most of her Pulitzer Prizewinning memoir “Feeding Ghosts.”It’s her first book and the first graphic memoir to win in the memoir or autobiography category.“I think it still hasn’t sunk in — it might never sink in — but now that I’m only 90 % in shock instead of 100 %, I’m starting to feel a lot of excitement about the ways that this now means I can get other people past gatekeepers,” Hulls said.In “Feeding Ghosts,” Hulls tells the story of her grandmother, her mother and herself in the context of Chinese history and intergenerational trauma.“I’ve led a really unusual life and so I’ve often found myself in circumstances where something falls into my lap and then I have to decide what to do with it,” Hulls said. “Obviously this is the most powerful skeleton key I’ve ever received. I feel excitement about this really validating the idea of graphic novels holding their own as works of literature and I really want to try to continue to push that for other makers and other voices.”Hulls finds inspiration in different forms of art and encourages everyone to explore outside the genres they work in.“Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’ was the first graphic novel that really showed me the possibility of the medium,” she said. “But I’ve been so multi-disciplinary that actually what influences me the most is live performance and so it was actually dance that was the first thing that led me into my book.”Being in remote wild places was also critical to her process.“Part of the reason I wanted to make myself available for a Port Townsend article is the landscape of being out on that peninsula was so crucial to why the book became what it was,” said Hulls, who was set to return on July 15 for a public reading as part of Centrum's Port Townsend Writers Conference.She also thinks having Cheryl Strayed, author of “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” as one of five jurors on the Pulitzer panel worked in her favor.Hulls observed that much of the response and press coverage about “Feeding Ghosts” has centered on the aspects of intergenerational trauma and Chinese history.“Very few people have honed in on the wilderness side of it,” she said. “I think getting a juror who understands what it means to be changed by an extended time alone in the wilderness definitely allowed for some of the nuances of what I was doing to shine.”
Port Townsend, where she stayed with friend Greg Smart from 2017 to 2022, allowed Hulls the physical and mental space she needed to focus on her work.Smart and Hulls met through a mutual friend, Mary Ann Peters, a Seattle-based artist Hulls shared studio space with.“She knew Tessa needed to get out of town. I had just bought a house in Port Townsend,” Smart said. “She was in and out quite a bit. We are both semi-nomadic.”Thinking the book would take three to five years to finish, Hulls applied for different artist residencies.“I plotted out a plan of everything I was going to need in place to pull that off and basically created the foundations of a career that didn’t exist yet,” Hulls said.She got accepted to all five that she applied to and was away from Port Townsend for about two years fulfilling those commitments.“I didn’t really plan to be gone for that long but that’s why I went on the road,” she said. “Then I went straight into the woods and came back out really knowing the thing I needed to strengthen and recommit to was community and human ties.”That was two months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.“So that is why I think Port Townsend will always hold a role in my heart of being the loneliest chapter of my life,” Hulls said. “But it also absolutely allowed me to focus on my book in a way that never would have been possible if the world hadn’t disappeared.”She worked out of a friend’s garden shed, riding her bike through Cappy’s Trails to get there.
“Mountain biking through the woods to go sit alone in a shed and draw my crying mother all day — it allowed me an intensity of focus that I think served the story but also pretty much just emotionally devastated me,” Hulls said.Smart admires the work she put into it and the end result.“It’s a pretty impressive work,” Smart said of “Feeding Ghosts.” “And seeing how truly she suffered in making it. It’s pretty impressive to see all the payoff for all that work. It’s an amazing accomplishment.”For her next endeavor, Hulls would like to work as an embedded comics journalist. She wants to avoid “being the freelancer who just parachutes in for something and doesn’t establish meaningful relationships. I want to be part of a team in the long-term ongoing sense.”As part of the Voices of Wilderness Residency, Hulls worked with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.“I got to spend nine days pack rafting the marsh fork of the Canning River,” Hulls said. “I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere by bush plane and ended up making them a 15-page comic about why the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is probably the most contentious piece of land in America. That’s touching on issues of ecology, climate change, native sovereignty, oil rights. So that’s the sort of hornet’s nest I’m interested in kicking.”

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Heading North on the PCT

Katie North and Erin Kelley starting out on the trail at Chinook Pass on Aug. 5, 2025.

It had been about 10 years since Katie North hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon when she decided to complete the Washington section.“I had done most of Oregon and about half of Washington, ending at Chinook Pass,” North said. “My cousin (Miranda) and I did a lot of it together. We’d just flip-flop a lot. Shuttled our cars back and forth.”This time, North gave herself about a month to complete the trail in Washington, and most of that was on her own.“It would have been harder to do (in sections) logistically on the trail as well within my time frame,” North said. “I also knew that if I kept breaking it in little pieces, I’d never get it done.”From Aug. 5 to Sept. 11, North traveled the 329 miles from Chinook Pass to the Canadian border and 30.6 miles back to Hart’s Pass.“The next road to cross if you just go north (in Canada) is nine miles,” she said. “You used to be able to walk to that. It was convenient because you didn’t have to walk that far. (Now) people have to walk back to Hart’s Pass because that’s the closest road to get out of there.”On Jan. 27, 2025, the Canadian Border Services Agency issued a statement announcing it “(was) discontinuing the issuance of permits to enter Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail without presenting yourself to a port of entry.”North planned to hike between eight and 12 miles per day, building up her endurance as she progressed and accounting for difficult terrain and heat. Her pace was slower than previous hikes, partly due to a 3-year-old foot injury and party due to her age; she turned 51 in September.While this was mostly a solo journey, a friend joined North the first couple of days, and she met another friend in Snoqualmie Pass at the Summit Inn in mid-August.“On some of the longer sections there was nothing to do but walk,” North said. “I looked at my map, planned out what was ahead for the next day.”Most people use an app, she said, but she didn’t trust her phone.North started preparing just a couple of weeks before she set out. She looked online for meal ideas, supplies, and to get an idea about how much everything would weigh.“You just can’t really train for it because it’s so different when you’re out there actually climbing up hills and going down hills with a pack and all the obstacles,” North said.Still, she didn’t go from sitting on the couch to going on a month-long backpacking trip. She is an experienced and frequent hiker and her day job as a landscaper keeps her physically active.“I was expecting it to be challenging and I wasn’t highly physically prepared,” she said. “I knew from past experience some days were going to be harder than others. It just balances out.”One particularly challenging section had some large fallen trees in the path.“You’re already exhausted from hiking the trail and then you had to climb over the logs,” North said. “That was hard. That and the huckleberries slowed me down. There were so many huckleberries and I needed to eat them all.”Washington experienced several wildfires during the time North was on the trail. She was able to continue but did encounter some smoke in Stehekin.“Then it rained and cleared up and it was beautiful,” North said. “When you got to the top of a summit or pass, I was amazed with all the mountains all around me.”With degrees in horticulture and biology (focusing on wildlife), North had a special appreciation for the plants and animals she encountered along the way. And she saw three bears, but not all at the same time.“One was probably 500 yards away,” she said. “Two were on the trail; the third was the last day when I was getting a ride down the trail.”Meeps of pikas and whistles of marmots greeted her in the rocky areas, and the chirps of chipmunks in forested areas.“They have very distinct habitats,” she said. “I also paid attention to the plants. I would stop and look at the plants and what insects are likely to be in those plants.”The subalpine larches were a welcome site for North.“They’re more on the east side of the mountains,” North said. “They lose their pine needles in the fall. They turn orange and lose their needles. In the spring they are a lot greener and brighter than the other coniferous trees.”She also spotted a lot of Fireweed.
“It’s a plant that will come in after an area has been disturbed by something like a wildfire or volcano erupting,” North said. “A few years later a different type of plant will come when there is more moisture and shade.”Finishing her backpacking adventure was bittersweet for North.“I was excited to be done and out of there, but I knew I’d miss it,” she said.The California section of PCT is on her mind but she has no serious plans to venture out any time soon.“If I don’t get to it, I’m ok with that,” North said. “I’ll probably do little parts here and there.”

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© Audrey Caro. All rights reserved.

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Profile: Maricela Xuncax Lazo

Maricela Xuncax Lazo paints at the Latinos Unidos Siempre Urban Art Fest in Salem, Ore. on Aug. 31, 2024.
Photo by Audrey Caro

Maricela Xuncax Lazo’s first memories of making art are from elementary school. Art-centric afterschool programs provided art supplies and crafting materials that were not easily attainable for someone in a low-income household.“These programs were often volunteer led, and the adults I interacted with would dote on me and encourage me to create essentially what my heart desired,” Xuncax said. “There I learned about scrapbooking, was able to paint, sew my own stuffed animals, and learn how to create quilts.”Family members and teachers often praised Xuncax’s creativity, which gave her the confidence to express herself and her ideas through art despite her shy nature.“I’m very thankful that I was able to have various opportunities in my childhood and adolescence to manipulate and explore so many different mediums,” Xuncax said. “Everything that I create now is due to that early exposure and is able to help me teach myself through experiences while painting.”One of Xuncax’s earliest influences was her mother, who would draw and use her sewing skills to transform and beautify their home.“I have always been a visual person and had been told that I had a grand imagination,” Xuncax said. “My artwork stems from that. Some of my current influences include Monet with his impressionist paintings. I feel like I enjoy painting the most when I paint the world as I perceive it, as opposed to through a rigid/traditional lens.”Xuncax experiences a rollercoaster of emotions when she creates.“Growing up I was used to not struggling much with learning,” she said. “Now as an adult, I try to put myself in situations where I can feel challenged, to have a healthy sense of frustration.”Often when she begins a painting, Xuncax feels a sense of lingering anxiousness about whether she can accurately represent or convey the images in her head through the medium of paint.“The hardest part is always getting started,” Xuncax said. “Other times I feel frustrated when I come across challenges, such as the paint or medium not acting the way I thought it would, or my colors not coming out right. The wonderful thing about paint is how easy it is to wipe off or to paint over. The most satisfying part of painting is when you’ve finally trusted the process and begin to see the fruits of your labor. When everything is finally coming together, I feel so elated.”Xuncax loves hearing people’s interpretations of her artwork.“By listening to others, I broaden my own perspectives,” she said. “I want people to connect and to feel nostalgic when they see my work. I hope that people can feel what I feel when creating these pieces.”~
Maricela Xuncax Lazo is a multimedia Latine artist based in Beaverton, Oregon. Themes consist of celebrating her Guatemalan, Mexican, American family histories and cultures. Many of her works also incorporate florals and magical realism, and reflect her perspectives and lens of the world as child. She loves to create with her younger siblings and creating mini foods out of polymer clay is among their favorite activities.

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Profile: Kindred Chords

Eliza Naomi and Stacy Henle perform together as Kindred Chords.
Photo by Audrey Caro

Music has been a constant presence in the lives of Stacy Henle and Eliza Naomi and they’re excited to share their collaboration, Kindred Chords, with audiences in Oregon and beyond.Henle and Naomi connected at a recent Songwriter Soiree retreat in Portland.“She’s amazing,” Henle said. “Eliza can just pick up and bring beauty and loveliness and harmonies to any song. I’m just over the moon about this partnership.”The duo plays original indie-folk music, blending their vocal harmonies.They both grew up in musical families and are multi-instrumentalists. As Kindred Chords, Henle plays guitar and Naomi plays cello.While they enjoy playing in a variety of venues, house concerts offer a distinct intimacy with minimal distractions.“People are there to listen,” Henle said. “That’s the purpose of going – to listen to music. It’s like in the olden days. I keep thinking of castles and royalty and they would bring the musicians in.”Naomi hopes her music and lyrics resonate with people.“All my stuff is kind of slow and sad, which I think is important,” Naomi said. “People can really relate to them, even the really niche ones. I also have a mix of some crowd pleasers. Some fun, upbeat stuff that gets people to want to dance.”Henle likes to write lyrics that help people think and grow.“I think for our own tingles on the own backs of our necks, once we have those, that just transfers to other people,” Henle said.

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