Dr. S. Renee Mitchell is an educator, artist, entrepreneur, a poet and performer, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated former newspaper journalist and a nationally recognized expert on culturally relevant social-emotional learning (SEL). She is the founder of a nationally award-winning and transformative, youth leadership-development initiative called: I Am M.O.R.E. (Making Ourselves Resilient Everyday).  She is on numerous community advisory committees, including one dedicated to reopening the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center as a Black cultural center. She was also selected as the Grand Marshall for the 2023 Good in the Hood parade. Mitchell's dedication to community uplift has garnered her numerous local and national awards, including the 2021 Gladys McCoy Lifetime of Excellence Award, the 2021 Liberty & Hope Award and the 2019-20 Spirit of Portland Award.