Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene announces new executive director
The Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene has announced Julie Collins as its new executive director.
Collins will be the 35-year-old center's second executive director.
Collins, who started out as a volunteer at the center six years ago, first got inspired to help out after moving to the area and asking her 11-year-old son what her next volunteer endeavor should be.
“He was like, ‘You’ve got to volunteer at the Raptor Center, Mom!’” Collins told The Register-Guard. “For a little boy, it was just the coolest thing ever, which I now realize was the coolest thing for me, too.”
Collins replaces Louise Shimmel, who retired from the position in March. Shimmel founded the center in 1987.
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Shimmel said she was “delighted” to congratulate Collins on her promotion.
“Julie is outgoing, personable and skilled – she has great contacts in the local community and has done an excellent job supporting the interim executive director in her role as deputy director,” Shimmel said.
Danny Mankin from Portland served as the interim executive director.
The nonprofit raptor center is a nature and wildlife hospital open to the public. It houses nearly 40 resident birds of prey and provides treatment and rehabilitation for more than 300 sick, injured and orphaned raptors each year.
Prior to becoming executive director, Collins worked in various positions at the center. In the last year and a half she has moved from development director, to deputy director and now executive director.
Before joining the center, Collins worked as a community liaison for a hospital. She thinks her communication skills have helped her grow the center over the years.
“I started really engaging with and building relationships with donors and helping with that, and then I've just continued to wear different hats and keep growing,” she said.
In her early days with the organization, Collins fondly recalls the therapeutic feeling of going in during the winter months to the center at 32275 Fox Hollow Road near Spencer Butte.
"I was learning something new, and for me I used to say, 'Oh, it's my Tuesday morning therapy session,' " she said. "I'd get to come up here and clean aviaries."
Some of Collins’ goals are to grow connections and support in the community and to ensure the center is inclusive and welcoming to anyone who wishes to visit.
“I want anyone and everyone that loves birds and wants to be out in nature to feel that they can come up here and enjoy it,” she said.
The board for the raptor center acted as a hiring committee, and selected Collins from a 24-person pool of applicants.
Collins grew up in Milwaukie, lived in Eugene in the late 1990s and moved away for about 15 years before returning with her family in 2015.
If she wasn’t chosen as the new executive director, she said she would have stayed on in her deputy role.
“I want to be here for great things that happen in the future, which a lot of that will be expanding,” she said.
Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Cascades Raptor Center names Julie Collins as new director
