Jennifer Baker ’00 Named President of the Columbia River Economic Development Council

Jennifer Baker ’00, former deputy district director for the Portland office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), was named the new president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council (CREDC). As the president, she will oversee the CREDC’s staff, funding, budget, program, initiatives, business support, recruitment activities, and will be responsible for the development and execution of the strategic direction of the organization, which is the economic development agency for Clark County, Wash.

She has worked for the SBA’s Portland office for the past eight years while serving as an advisory board member for the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs and the Women’s Business Center at Mercy Corps Northwest. She has also worked in a number of different business and trade fields prior, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Institute of International Education in Ethiopia, as well as serving in Vanuatu as a senior trade policy adviser during preparations for negotiation of the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus, a regional trade agreement involving Australia, New Zealand, and several Pacific Island countries.