Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Photo of EDI Coordiantor JoeHahn. He is wearing a green sweater and black glasses. He is facing the camera smiling. He has short black hair and brown skin. The image has a rainbow border of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple.

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Program for Benton County started in January 2021. The program aims to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts in Benton County by training staff, creating and updating policies and practices, and supporting community members and organizations serving Benton County.

The program is run by the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Program Coordinator JoeHahn. JoeHahn uses a mononym of their first and last name as one word. He uses both He and They pronouns. Prior to joining the county, JoeHahn was a Resident Director at Western Oregon University where he still co-advises the Black Student Union. They received their Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Western Oregon University and Master of Science in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Colorado State University.

JoeHahn currently has a hybrid work schedule working in person at the Kalapuya Building at 4500 SW Research Way and remotely from home.

If you'd like to meet with JoeHahn to discuss any EDI issue. Please contact him at joe.hahn@co.benton.or.us or 541-766-6851.

EDI Updates:

6/9/2022:

Hello everyone! Today is the launch of the EDI page on the Board of Commissioners website. Over the past year and a half I have been mostly during internal work of staff training, policy implementation, and support for staff members facing EDI issues. Today we finalized the Translation & Interpreting bid contract where 16 bidders from throughout the country applied to be Benton County's service provider for all translation and interpreting needs. I'm proud to announce Linguava as our selected bidder. We are excited to implement their services county wide in the upcoming weeks.

In collaboration with our social media team, we are launching the People of Benton County series. This series will feature voices of community members from around the county. For June, we are focusing on LGBTQ+ community members.

More updates to come! Please keep checking back and I look forward to more interaction with our community members soon.

-JoeHahn