Program date: Apr. 7, 2023
Air date: Apr. 10, 2023
From The City Club of Eugene:
On May 16, voters in the Eugene School District 4J will elect directors for four positions on the school board. Eight community members with varying backgrounds and interests are vying for the openings.
In this program, you’ll hear from all 8 of them as they lay out their positions and why they deserve to serve our area’s largest school district.
City Club of Eugene hosted a candidate forum on April 7, moderated by KLCC’s Tiffany Eckert.
Michael Bratland came to Oregon at the age of 7 and graduated from Winston Churchill High School in 1991 and the University of Oregon in 1995. Following college, he moved to Roseburg to be closer to his wife’s family. After a couple of years working at Umpqua Dairy in marketing, he chose to become a dentist.
After graduating in 2005, he started his own dental practice, Crisdental, which has locations in Eugene, Roseburg, Albany, Monmouth, and Lincoln City.
Michael has been a supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and helped Sheldon High School procure new mats for its wrestling program. He’s held barbecues for the Springfield and Eugene police departments and supported the Hosea Youth Shelter in Eugene.
Michael and his wife, Jacquelyn (a kindergarten teacher at Irving Elementary School in Eugene), live in Eugene and have five children, ages 15 to 24, including two sons at Sheldon High School.
Tom DiLiberto is a 4J parent and retired in 2018 after teaching Spanish immersion, English, and social studies to thousands of students in 4J over 31 years. Tom remains in the classroom, supervising and evaluating teacher candidates for the UO.
Tom has been a strong advocate for students and staff through his work as bargaining chair for the Eugene Education Association and has served on a variety of joint teacher/administrator teams that have worked collaboratively to resolve district issues. Tom also serves on 4J’s Budget Committee.
Rick Hamilton is a recently-retired Senior Trooper with the Oregon State Police (OSP), where he served for over 30 years. He was an original member of OSP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Team and an original investigator with the Firearms Instant Check System.
Rick has been a member of the national organization of Blacks in Government (BIG) and served as First Vice President of BIG Region X and President of the Eugene/Springfield Chapter. Since 2019, he has participated in the development and production of the Annual BIG “Black History Month” programs in Eugene/Springfield area, which promote excellence, equity, opportunity, and professional development for African-American youth. Rick conducted workshops for the “Governor’s Summit for the Overrepresentation of African American Youth in the Juvenile Justice System” annual events.
Grant Johnson was born and raised in Oregon, moving from the big city to the small town of Hermiston at a young age. He has been intrigued by civics his entire life, from being senior class president to joining the Air Force after high school.
Grant served as an airman for over 20 years in locations across the country and around the globe, carrying out missions and working with a wide variety of people of diverse backgrounds and cultures. He credits his military service with learning to be decisive and to take ownership of his actions.
After his active duty military career, Grant studied human resource management and was employed in the civilian position of base training manager for Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. He is also a certified pilot and ground instructor and enjoys teaching life skills by helping people to eliminate debt and learn to manage their financial lives successfully through his business in the financial services sector.
In 2021, Grant retired after 44 years of civil service and returned to his home state with his wife, Gigi. They have five adult children and two grandchildren.
Jenny Jonak is a Korean-American parent of four children, three of whom attend the Eugene 4J schools. She has practiced law for 26 years at her Eugene-based law firm, Jonak Law Group, P.C. In addition to running a law firm, she has a real estate broker’s license and has owned and managed rental property for over 15 years.
Jenny currently serves on the Lane County Charter Review Committee; the Steering Committee for Lane County’s Campaign for Equal Justice; the Lane County Law Library Advisory Committee (where she has served as Chair for two years); the Lane County Bar Association’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; the SquareOne Villages’ board of directors; and the Council of Korean Americans.
She previously served as President of the Eugene Round Table Club; Co-Chair of Charlemagne Elementary School PTO; President of the Friends of Eugene Public Library; Director of the Eugene Public Library Foundation; board member of the Oregon Bach Festival; and on the Development Committee for Greenhill Humane Society.
Gordon Lafer has lived in Eugene for 25 years and is the father of an 11th grader at South Eugene High School. In the past, he has served as a parent volunteer at Camas Ridge Elementary School and as a religious school teacher at Temple Beth Israel. He is a professor at the UO’s Labor Education and Research Center, and a Fellow with the National Education Policy Center.
Gordon’s first-term accomplishments on the school board include restoring librarians to low-income elementary schools for the first time in 20 years, guaranteeing free pads and tampons in school bathrooms, ensuring that events such as field trips or team tryouts are not scheduled on major religious holidays, and a first-in-the-state community benefits agreement that mandates family health insurance for construction workers who build our schools (at no extra cost to taxpayers or the district).
Morgan Munro is the PTA President at Adams Elementary and has two students in Eugene 4J. She is a local small business owner with a management coaching and organizational development practice.
Morgan is a community volunteer who served as the founding President of the KLCC Public Radio Foundation and currently serves as the chair of the Lane County Charter Review Committee.
Morgan graduated from South Eugene High School and earned her BA at Wellesley College and her MBA at Case Western Reserve University. She taught at Lane Community College in the Small Business Development Center and worked at United Way of Lane County. She has previously volunteered at the Eugene Food Pantry of Catholic Community Services and Meals on Wheels.
Timothy Sean Sutherland has worked full time as a sales director in the senior insurance market for the last nine years. He moved to Eugene full-time 12 years ago from Houston, Texas to be close to his son.
“Bobby” is 13 years old and was a 4J student until this year, when the lack of safety and resources for his son with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) made Timothy feel the need to move him out of 4J.
About the City Club of Eugene:
The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.
Video and Broadcast
This program will be live streamed, and the videotape will be made available on the City Club of Eugene’s Facebook page and You Tube Channel, in addition to our website. It will be broadcast on Monday, Apr. 11 at 7:00 pm, on KLCC 89.7 FM.
Contact: For more information, contact City Club of Eugene at(541) 485-7433, administrator@cityclubofeugene.org