About Katelynn Essig
Katelynn received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Environmental Science from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Upon graduation, Katelynn interned with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as the Environmental Data Operations Technician, where she helped coordinate the move of 7,000 facilities from an old online data entry system and paper submission system to a new online data entry system. Katelynn went on to earn a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Policy. Katelynn hopes that the RARE AmeriCorps program will give her the opportunity to explore many different areas of sustainable development. After her year with RARE, Katelynn hopes to use her newly gained knowledge and people skills to facilitate awareness and change.
About Oregon City
Oregon City is located southeast of Portland on the east side of the Willamette River and was the first incorporated city west of the Rocky Mountains. Oregon City offers a full service local government organization located at the southern edge of the Portland Metropolitan Region serving approximately 35,000 citizens and 1,700 businesses and is the county seat of Clackamas County. For much of its existence, Oregon City’s economy was dominated by the forestry industry, until the decline of the Pacific Northwest lumber industry started in the 1980s. Currently, the Oregon City is home to several notable high technology and light manufacturing companies.
Katelynn is placed with Oregon City and will take on an array of economic development projects with the overall purpose of increasing local tourism and business activity. Katelynn will assist in the development of a citywide marketing/branding strategy; conduct a comprehensive inventory of local businesses relevant to Clackamas County targeted industry clusters; organize and facilitate a series of open forums for Oregon City developers and business owners; create a community profile for regional economic development efforts; and create a template and well documented strategy for responding to State business leads.