Petra Callin has served as a board member of the Portland Workforce Alliance since 2016, where she has worked diligently to connect students and teachers to career-learning experiences.

Petra was the longtime principal of Madison High School in Northeast Portland, where she oversaw multiple strategies to help students succeed in school. This included a dramatic expansion in the school’s CTE (Career & Technical Education) programs, which contributed to a significant improvement of the school’s graduation rate.

There was only one CTE pathway in place at Madison when she started, Callin said. Today, there are eight.

Callin recently left her position in Portland Public Schools to take a job in the neighboring North Clackamas School District as executive director of high school programs.

“It was a very challenging thing to leave Madison,” Callin told her PWA colleagues at the September 2019 board meeting. However, she added, she’s excited about the opportunity to help other principals thrive.

In particular, she’s interested in helping high schools develop systems and support equity, she said, “so that access to opportunities is not hit or miss.”

Callin has played an active role on the PWA board in supporting students’ participation in the annual NW Youth Careers Expo, as well as in Career Days at partners as varied as PCC Swan Island Trades Center, Nike and the Oregon Humane Society. She also supported PPS career learning and helped nurture the PPS-PWA partnership. At home, she has two children of her own in elementary school.

“One reason I’m involved with PWA,” she said, “is that they are a very strong partner. PWA is a newer partnership [with North Clackamas}, and there are lots of opportunities there. Students within and around Portland can gain a lot from opportunities through PWA.”

For more information about the PWA Board of Directors, go here.

For more stories on the PWA Board Members, go here.