Governance Committee Members

Tamra Mabbott (Chair)

Education: M.A. Urban Planning, UCLA; B.A. Political Science, UCLA

Occupation: Planning Director for Morrow County, Oregon.

Biography: Tamra Mabbott grew up on a small dairy farm along the Rogue River in Southern Oregon.  While attending University of California, Los Angeles, she worked full time and volunteered with a variety of political organizations.  Hopeful about a career helping to make communities viable and healthy, she chose to continue her education in Urban Planning, followed by completion of an advanced program in Fiscal Studies.  She worked a short time for the Portland Development Commission and then began a 30+ year career as a land use planner. She spent two years working for a small city as a Community Development Director and then served as the Eastern Region Representative for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation & Development.  While she described her state position as her dream job, traveling the 10 county region and spending time with wonderful people and communities, she returned to serve as the Planning Director for Morrow County where she can focus her time in a smaller community.

Brad Stephens

Education: Harvard University, AB, 1964; Tufts University School of Medicine, MD, 1968; Dartmouth Medical School Orthopedic Residency, 1975.

Occupation: Retired orthopedic surgeon.

Biography: Brad established his orthopedic surgery practice in La Grande in 1975 and was the team physician for EOU, helping teach courses on athletic injuries. In 1993 he was named Medical Director of the United State Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. He returned to Eastern Oregon in 2007 and settled in Wallowa County, where he practiced until 2014. He has served as Secretary to the EOU Foundation Board of Directors for the past two years and is the Chair of Wallowa Resources, a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining the working landscape in Wallowa County.

Education: University of California, Berkeley Master of Arts in Zoology; University of Parma (Italy) Doctoral Degree in Natural Sciences.

Occupation: Field Coordinator with The Ford Family Foundation (TFFF); Owner/Manager of the Eccoci Ranch in Union County.

Biography: Maurizio was born and raised in Italy and arrived in the US with a post-doctoral position at UC Berkeley. He taught Cultural Tourism at the University of Verona (Italy), and worked as an Instructor in the Biology Department at EOU for several years. In his current job as Field Coordinator with TFFF, Maurizio supports community building efforts in many rural communities across Eastern Oregon. He is also actively involved in a long-term forest stewardship plan on his own land for which he received the Forest Steward Award for Union County 2019 and is a nominee for the Oregon Tree Farmer Award for 2020.

Christine Cronin

ccronin@eou.edu

Education:  B. S. Ed, University of North Dakota. 

Occupation:  former EOU Regional Center Director in John Day, OR. 

Biography: Christine was born in Burns and has lived in John Day for 40+ years.  For twenty-three years she served students in Grant County and beyond, through EOU’s outstanding distance education programs.   She believes that high quality K-20 public education is the key to our success as country, state, and region.  She has been an educational advocate and policy-maker through her work on the Oregon School Board Association Board of Directors, as a current member of her local ESD board of Directors, and as a former board chair and 8-year member of her local school board. She was named EOU’s Distinguished Administrative Professional in 2017.

Anna Cavinato

acavinat@eou.edu

Education: Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Bari, Italy

Occupation:  Professor, College of Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Health Sciences

Biography: Anna was born and raised in Italy and came to the US for a Postdoctoral appointment at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  After working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Memphis, she moved west and joined the Center for Process Analytical Chemistry at the University of Washington where she conducted research on non-destructive methods of analyses.  In 1992 she moved to La Grande and has been working at EOU since then, teaching a variety of chemistry and sciences courses.  She has received several research and/or educational grants that have allowed to establish a strong research program involving undergraduate students. Anna is passionate about encouraging women and underrepresented minorities to pursue science careers.  She has been the faculty mentor of the EOU Chemistry Club for almost twenty years promoting community outreach activities such as Girls in Science and Saturday Science that have garnered multiple awards by the American Chemical Society (ACS).  She currently serves as the Program Chair for the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry, leading the organization of the Division’s technical program at ACS national meetings.