Meet Our Team
Annie Lindekugel, Executive Director (she/her)
Annie Lindekugel brings experience in social justice, education, and entrepreneurship. Under her guidance, the CSN has grown to more than 1,000 members from the Portland-area nonprofit community.
Annie’s work continues to focus on collaboration, education, and reduction of siloed approaches to serving our community in need. In her off time, she can be found spending time with her family, exploring the natural beauties this incredible part of the country has to offer!
Ruth Neuhauser, Volunteer and Events Coordinator (she/they)
Ruth joined the CSN in April 2022. She previously worked as an Event Runner doing logistics and team coordination on the Covid-19 Response Team at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. Ruth is a native Oregonian, having grown up in Yamhill before moving to Boston for college. She studied International Affairs and worked in environmental education and as a support for nonviolent resistance training.
Ruth’s focus is on developing the CSN’s Volunteer Program, and coordinating its Community Resource Fairs.
Advisory Board
The CSN Advisory Board is made up of employees from local nonprofits, government agencies and community groups who are active in the CSN. Their role is to assist with the growth and direction of the CSN for the Portland area.
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Alisa Kajikawa received her master’s degree from Portland State University in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) after spending 4 years in Japan teaching English to elementary and junior high school students. She worked at a local nonprofit for 5 years serving as a Community Outreach Supervisor for Refugee Services, and is now APANO’s Community Development Manager for the Jade District Program.Alisa feels very lucky and grateful that her work has allowed her to meet and learn from people from different backgrounds, cultures, and communities. She is passionate about equity and justice, and strives to foster welcoming and respectful environments. In her downtime, Alisa enjoys cooking and (especially) eating different world cuisines, and spending time with her partner and dog.
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Laila Hajoo has served as President of the Islamic Social Services of Oregon State (ISOS) for the last 20 years. The nonprofit organization serves anyone qualified in need in Oregon and SW Washington. She has lived in Portland for the past 35 years and is deeply involved in the community, having volunteered with organizations like the Muslim Advisory Council (MAC) of the Portland Police Board and in multiple roles with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO).Laila worked in the tech/software field with Mentor Graphics and Intel before retiring in 2016. In her free time, she loves to garden and take walks.
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Tatyana Chukhrii is the Community Partnership Coordinator with the Oregon Department of Human Services. Her job is to create partnerships within the community with partner agencies to provide services to families that are in need of support.Tatyana truly believes in the wraparound approach, as this process brings families, providers and key members of the family’s social support network together to collaboratively build a customized plan that responds to the individual needs of the family in their way of achieving wellbeing and independence.
In her free time, Tatyana loves spending time with family and being an active member of her community.
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Caroline Pope is responsible for Community Outreach and Engagement with the Portland Street Response. Caroline has worked in various social service agencies throughout Portland for the past 15 years, with an emphasis on resource and referrals, strengthening access to safety net services and supporting community members facing barriers in accessing health care. She approaches community work with compassion and care and knows the importance of relationship-building.When not working Caroline enjoys spending time in nature with family and friends, biking, hiking and camping.
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Leigh Bohannon serves as the Community Outreach & Resource Manager for Black Parent Initiative. This includes events, classes, workshops and activities, as well as being a support to individuals and families with their various needs. Leigh also serves in creating and maintaining partnerships with local organizations, programs and businesses.Graduating Cum Laude with a bachelor’s in marketing from the HBCU, Alabama A&M University, Leigh has had a chance to pursue many different aspects of the marketing and business field, one of which landed her as an on-air radio personality for the first black owned radio station in Alabama. This led her to later pursue an associate’s in integrated media with a focus on radio broadcasting. While in college, Leigh worked as a civilian employee for the Aviation and Missile Command center on Redstone Arsenal, where she got her first experiences in the areas of Continuous Improvement and Lean Six Sigma, and future jobs working in quality improvement for other organizations and nonprofits.
Since high school Leigh has mentored youth, curated culturally specific community engagement opportunities and advocated for Black families and individuals. Leigh is a member of the Portland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and on the executive board, and serves as a youth advisor for Les Femmes Debutantes. Born and raised a Portland girl with southern roots and a mother of 3, she enjoys music, technology, reading, the outdoors, dancing, and cooking, while also hosting a podcast around topics of love, relationships and self awareness.
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Michael comes with 30 years of experience in client-centered engagement. He started his career long before academia and human resource systems intentionally focused on or even acknowledged trauma-informed or client-centered care. Michael credits his three decades of human engagements as being his primary source of education, lessons and teachings; often crediting clients as PhDs in life experiences, resilience and empowerment. Michael’s passion and dedication is to all humans who have experienced any and all cages. Whether that's the carceral system, victimization, perpetration, grief, addiction, mental illness, houselessness, systemic bias/discrimination and blatant hate, body, gender, orientation shaming, and the aloneness that comes with being “othered.”Michael was introduced to the understanding of Insight to Wellbeing. He was profoundly impacted by the simple formula: all humans have innate resilience and well-being; healing, change and escape from the cages truly comes from inside each of us. Michael is committed to collaborating and partnering with dedicated and compassionate communities to provide care for humans, with the core value of unconditional inclusivity. Care, compassion and love are the most important when they're the most challenging to give.....and the most challenging to receive.
Join us
Interested in joining the CSN’s Steering Committee? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch!