Mary Emily O’Hara

Director of Communications

Mary joined Western States Center in 2025, the same year they celebrated 20 years of living in Portland, Oregon. Born in Chicago and raised primarily in New York City, Mary fell in love with the landscape and culture of the Pacific Northwest and loves to escape to the woods for hiking, foraging, and paddling during free time. After a long career as a journalist covering social impact news for national outlets like NBC News, VICE, and Adweek, Mary pivoted to comms in 2020 to work for GLAAD’s News and Rapid Response program. After years of working on a national scale, Mary is thrilled to finally bring their in-depth knowledge of the media landscape and movement politics back home to Oregon by leading communications strategy at Western States Center.