Mission

To recruit, train, and support women to run for office who bring progressive values to our communities in Southern Oregon and to:

• Research and identify open electoral positions.
• Offer quality candidate training.
• Train campaign volunteers so our candidates have effective teams.
• Provide candidates with support while campaigning.

Vision

We want a Southern Oregon where progressive women are strongly represented in elected positions and face fewer barriers to running.

Values

As progressive women we believe effective government will:

• Treat all people with respect.
• Ensure all U.S. residents have adequate shelter, nourishment, health care, education, opportunity, clean air and water.
• Foster social, economic, and political gender equity.
• Allow women to make decisions about their own bodies.
• Eliminate institutional discrimination based on gender, social class, race, and sexual preference and identity.
• Provide a criminal justice system that is equitable for all.
• Create an effective and compassionate immigration policy.
• Embrace gun safety as a public health issue.
• Ensure all citizens can exercise their right to vote.
• Protect democracy by prioritizing transparency and accountability.

Our Board

Regina Ayars, Board Chair and Treasurer
Denise Krause
Eleanor Ponomareff, Secretary
Tonia Moro
Sarah Settimo

Regina Ayars, Board Chair

Regina Ayars, currently chair and treasurer of the POW Board, has been involved with POW since its founding in 2019. She was part of the initial core team that developed the infrastructure needed to launch POW as the go to non-profit organization for progressive women wanting to take on leadership roles in their communities.

Regina has lived in Ashland for 21 years after leaving the technology industry in the Bay Area in California. Her civic engagement includes ten years serving on the Ashland Housing and Human Services Commission and running for City Council 2012. She worked on multiple campaigns for women running for offices including Congressional Representative for District 2 (twice), Ashland City Councilor, Jackson County Commissioner, and Rogue Valley Transportation District Board Member.

Additionally, Regina is co-president of the Ashland Branch of AAUW of Oregon and has been a member of AAUW since 2012 actively involved in public policy at the state and local levels. She has been a member of the Rogue Valley League of Women Voters since 2003 and previously served as the Voter Service chair and President of the Board.

Denise Krause, PhD

Denise is a retired professor with a PhD in preventive medicine, emphasis in epidemiology and biomedical informatics, with a research focus in public health and improving access to care and services. In her administrative role, she also served in executive management, being responsible for more than 6,000 employees, large projects, and multi-million-dollar budgets. Currently, Denise does public health consulting, is engaged in regenerative farming practices, and is dedicating this next chapter to public service at the local and regional level.

Denise ran for Jackson County Commissioner in 2022. Through that process, she met with many people, agencies, and organizations, and learned a great deal about Jackson County and what a motivated commissioner could do for the county. She was elected to the Rogue Valley Transportation District in 2023 and is chief filer and campaign manager for the Jackson County for All petition initiative to restructure the Jackson County Commission.

Eleanor Ponomareff

Regina Ayars is currently secretary of the POW Board. Eleanor (she/her) is currently serving her second term on the Talent City Council, and was Council President from 2021 through 2022. She also serves on the Rogue Valley Council of Governments’ Senior Advisory Council (RVCOG-SAC), the Rogue Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RVMPO) Policy Committee, and the Rogue Valley Area Commission on Transportation (RVACT).

A software engineer by profession, Eleanor’s volunteer interests include environmental justice, affordable housing, and transportation solutions that support safer and healthier communities for folks of all ages and abilities. Eleanor joined the POW board in 2023.

Sarah Settimo

Sarah grew up in southern Oregon and currently serves as Chief of Staff for Senator Jeff Golden.

Sarah received a double major in Political Science and Religious Studies from Oregon State University’s Honors College. She began working as a Legislative Aide for Senator Golden in May of 2020 and continued that work until 2022 when she worked as Campaign Coordinator for his successful re-election campaign. Sarah returned to work in the State Legislature for the 2023 long session and later worked on the fundraising team for Senator James Manning’s Secretary of State Campaign before re-joining Senator Golden’s office.

Sarah is passionate about southern Oregon and continuing to serve the community that shaped her into the person she is today. This passion led her to join the POW board in 2023.

Tonia Moro

Tonia has been practicing law in Jackson County since 1990, after studying environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School. A life-long Democrat and former chair of the Jackson County Democrats (2019-2022), she was recently elected to her third four-year term to the Rogue Valley Transportation District Board. Tonia ran for elected office at the local and state level in 2014 and 2016.

Our History

History of Progressive Oregon Women (POW!)

2018

In the fall of 2018, the president of Emerge Oregon gave a presentation to a group of women in Talent, Oregon. Afterwards, eight women, representatives of several organizations including ORD2 Indivisible, the Women’s March and Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (RVUUF) met to organize an effort to start recruiting progressive women in Southern Oregon to run for elected office.

2019

In the summer of 2019, POW started hosting events to recruit women for the Emerge training to be held in the fall. As a result, nine women completed the Emerge training.

POW then registered with the Secretary of state as a political action committee (PAC).

2020

In2020, POW developed a website and Facebook page and provided training for the campaign staff of the five Emerge graduates who had decided to run for office.  POW supported the five candidates with training, financial assistance and endorsements.  Three of these candidates won positions on the Ashland City Council (2) and the Medford City Council (1).

2021-2022

As many organizations, POW was in transition during 2021-2022 during the COVID pandemic.

2023

Fast forward to January 2023 and the first in person POW Board in two years was held. New board members had been recruited and began to build a new leadership team. A spring 2023 election was just around the corner with numerous open seats on boards, commissions and districts. Our goal was to fill those vacancies with progressive women. POW focused on a few races: Medford School District, County Library District, Rogue Valley Transportation District (RVTD), Phoenix-Talent School District and Fire District 5. Two endorsed candidates won their races for the RVTD.

Summer 2023 we hosted a board potluck and started looking forward to fall strategic planning to get candidates to run for important positions in the crucial election of fall 2024. We worked on getting the infrastructure in place that we would need to recruit candidates, host trainings, fundraise and educate our POW supporters. Our first recruitment event was scheduled for January 2024.

2024

More to follow!