Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News + ICT
PORTLAND, Ore.— Oscar Arana, Chichimeca, has served as interim CEO for over a year at the Native American Youth and Family Center and has worked at the organization for 14 years. On Wednesday, he stepped into his new permanent role as CEO.
“It’s a huge honor,” Arana told Underscore/ICT. “This is an incredible organization that I’ve been a part of for a very long time. It’s an organization and a community I care about deeply. So I’m really humbled that so many folks encouraged me to apply and that the board selected me.”
When former CEO Paul Lumley, citizen of the Yakama Nation, announced his departure in June 2023, the board of directors began a nationwide search for a new leader. While they searched, the board selected Arana to serve as interim CEO. Now, Arana will fill that role permanently.
“NAYA is in great hands with Oscar,” Lumley said. “He has done so much for the Native community.”
For some community members, Arana’s leadership is evident throughout the work he does. Much of that means showing up consistently and providing an example for other community members, according to Ach’ Sheila Davis, Orutsararmiut Native Council and Calista Corporation.
Davis first met Arana through the Native American Youth and Family Center Leadership, Entrepreneurial, Apprenticeship, and Design program from which she graduated this year. The Native leadership program works to support Indigenous community advocates.
“Oscar as an individual really leads with fostering that leadership and cultural pride, and that is something to be honored,” Davis said. “Especially with our youth and being in that space of ‘how do we continue to impact and walk with our community?’ And he’s done a really good job at walking with our community.”
Arana first started in a leadership position at the Portland center 14 years ago as a youth services manager. But Arana has been involved with the center’s community for even longer than that.
While attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, Arana spent multiple summers coming home to Portland and volunteering as an intern at the Native American Youth and Family Center. He graduated in 2003 and spent a few years as a journalist, including with the Associated Press in Mexico City.
Arana returned to the University of Oregon in 2010, where he earned his master’s in business administration.
Prior to his work at the Native American Youth and Family Center, Arana worked at other nonprofit organizations including the Immigrant Refugee Community Organization and El Programa Hispano.
Since 2008, Arana has served in various leadership roles at the center — from education manager to director of strategic development and communications to community development director. After a year as interim CEO, Arana is stepping into his permanent position as CEO with a sense of enthusiasm.
“I’m excited about the advocacy, continuing to grow and improve our organization as an advocacy organization, to make sure that we continue to lift the voices of the community and get them to our elected leaders,” Arana said. “To make sure that they are really listening to the community needs and making sure that they’re responding to [those needs].”
The organization did just that during the 2024 legislative session.
One of Arana’s goals as CEO is the continued expansion of affordable housing opportunities for the Native community in Portland.
In June, Arana helped celebrate the grand opening of khwat yaka haws, meaning Auntie’s Place in the Chinook language. The new family housing shelter in Milwaukie is meant to provide support to Native families experiencing homelessness.
Addressing a crowd of community members gathered at khwat yaka haws on June 25, Arana talked about how he has seen the Native American Youth and Family Center’s mission at work over his past 14 years with the organization. Through wraparound services, including housing, the organization has been serving the Native community in the Portland metro area for half a century.
“NAYA’s mission is to enhance the diverse strengths of our youth and families in partnership with the community through cultural identity and connection,” Arana told the crowd. “Auntie’s Place is going to be yet one more incredible program and service that we’ll be able to provide to the Native urban community.”
As the center celebrates its 50th anniversary, it continues to expand its services, from Many Nations Academy to affordable housing to elder services and so much more. As an organization with such a wide reach of services and over 150 employees, serving as CEO is no small task.
For Molly Washington, N’dee/Apache, chair of the board of directors, it will be a huge asset to have a CEO who has worked in many of the center’s different departments, and has been there for over a decade.
Asked why Arana rose to the top as an ideal candidate, Washington was quick to respond.
“His years of experience with NAYA and his deep knowledge of all of the areas in which we serve,” Washington said. “Because it is a complex organization that provides support in a lot of areas and the diversity of needs of the Native community.
“Having somebody that deeply understands all of those pieces is incredible.”
This story is co-published by Underscore.news and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. Funding is provided in part by Meyer Memorial Trust.
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