Two state prisons have new superintendents.

• Joe Woodland heads Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, where he began work in 2001 as a correctional officer. After serving as an assistant superintendent at SRCI, he did a job rotation as chief of security for the Department of Corrections.

•Ryan LeGore is superintendent of Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla. He had been an assistant superintendent at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, where he joined the agency as a correctional officer in 2006. LeGore also is president of the U.S. Deputy Wardens Association and is part of hosting the 78th annual conference in July in Salem.

Willamette Week reported this week that CFM Advocates added Tesla Inc. as a client last October. That came after Crosswater Strategies and CFM Advocates established a partnership. Crosswater, led by Dan Jarman, had represented Tesla at the Oregon Capitol. The Capitol Club directory lists Tesla’s current lobbyists as Jarman, Jessica Adamson, Waylon Buchan and Dale Penn II. 

Ben Lazarus, who led opinion research at TargetSmart, joined Patinkin Research Strategies as a principal. The Democratic public opinion research firm serves Pacific Northwest clients and is expanding to the East Coast, where Lazarus is based.

Oregon state Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, and Nevada Assemblymember Howard Watts, D-Las Vegas, will co-chair The Council of State Governments West’s new Wildfires and Disaster Preparedness Committee for the 2025-26 biennium.

Marcus Mundy, executive director of Coalition of Communities of Color, is on sabbatical. Deputy Director Jenny Lee is filling in. Alex Riedlinger joined the organization as advocacy manager. He was policy advocacy coordinator for the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.

In addition to his regular duties, Evan Sorce has been serving as Western Oregon University’s acting executive director of government relations. Ricardo Lujan Valerio left that role to become a deputy chief of staff for Secretary of State Tobias Read. Sorce was the longtime chief of staff for Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, before joining WOU, where he is secretary to the board of trustees and special assistant to President Jesse Peters.

Former political communications consultant Kevin Curry was awarded tenure at Linfield University and a promotion to associate professor of journalism and media studies. Curry, who earned a Ph.D. from Portland State University in 2018, was communications director for House Republican Leader Mike McLane during 2013-14, communications director for Knute Buehler’s secretary of state campaign in 2012 and a consultant for Rick Dancer’s run for secretary of state in 2008.Chien Crisp joined the League of Oregon Cities as administrative assistant in the Operations Department.