Jude Anderson jumps into helping Oakridge with experience and a commitment to helping

By CHAELA CARLSON/for The Herald  —  Jude Anderson is a professional urban planner with a specialization in economic development who hails from Houston, Texas. He has recently taken up the position of president of the Chamber of Commerce for the Oakridge and Westfir area.

Anderson also serves as a commissioner for the Oakridge Planning Commission. Other positions that he has taken on is serving on the Oakridge Economic Development Advisory Committee (OEDAC), the city’s administration committee, and RAIN (Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network), where he gives training to small business owners.

Jude double-majored in Anthropology and English at the University of Texas, and afterward attended graduate school in New York, where he received his master’s degree in economic development.  He also interned for various companies during that time. Since then, he’s helped 40 communities in 9 different states.

His “day job” is working remotely for the Goodman Corporation as a senior associate consultant, which focuses mainly on transportation systems planning.  

Anderson came to Oakridge after being hired by Lane County as their Community Economic Development Manager. He wanted to see the rural towns of Lane County to get an understanding of the entire economic landscape and range of partnerships.

Around this time, Anderson met Michelle Emmons, who was the interim president of the Oakridge/Westfir Chamber of Commerce, and discovered there were vacancies on the board. He eventually became a member of the Executive Leadership Board and then became its president.

While learning more about Oakridge, Anderson had meetings with Oakridge mayor Bryan Cutchen, Oakridge city administrator James Cleavenger, and attorney Sarah Altemus-Pope.  

He was given a tour of the Oakridge Industrial Park, where he learned about Altemus-Pope’s work with the Wood Resource Innovation Hub, which utilizes leftover materials from slash and burns, and turns the remains into products that will benefit the community.

“They were very gracious, and I was very impressed by their creativity. There were really off-the-wall ideas that I was like, oh, I’ve never heard of a community trying that. And then some other things that I was like, wow this is really challenging but compelling work,” said Anderson.

“Honestly, Oakridge was a big reason I took that county job,” Anderson revealed. He had worked for Lane County for nine months; at which time they decided to change the strategic plan under which he had been hired. Andersen realized their focus was not where his expertise lay.  Now his focus is on Oakridge.

“I left on really good terms, but honestly, when I returned to my former employer (Goodman Corporation), and I work remotely for them, I had the option to live wherever I wanted to. I actually chose to come here because I still loved what they were doing, and I can get involved on a volunteer basis and still support the community,” said Anderson.

Since then, he’s joined numerous local councils and administrations. “I just thought, where do I have the skills and experience, where do they need help the most?”  

Anderson studies the transportation infrastructure systems, land use, and zoning, to see how to best serve the private sector as well as promote job growth.

“What I do mostly is I look out the door and I see people driving around trying to get their day done, trying to go to work and if you can grease the wheels of how all these things come together, then business owners can really just do what they do best,” Anderson explained.

Jude became intrigued with infrastructure planning during his anthropology studies as he learned about Jim Crow legislation, when state and local statutes legalized racial segregation in the United States from 1865 to 1968. He saw how segregation was implemented through the mechanism of city planning, the remnants of which still remain to this day.

Master plans, comprehensive plans, and “redlining,” which denied loans and mortgages to people of color within segregated “redline” zones, were just a few of the tools used to maintain segregation.

“So, in my mind,” said Anderson, “I thought if those are the tools we use to divide each other, then they should be at least part of what brings us back together, and could you reverse engineer it somehow?” 

Anderson also does one-on-one training with business owners to help them grow and learn.  He believes half the battle is keeping people motivated. He sees himself as a coach. He explains that a coach doesn’t score goals, but they’re with the team and give the support and resources players need in order to thrive.

When it comes to the economy of Oakridge, Anderson doesn’t believe there will be a “magic employer,” or replacement for the mill, but he says there are bright spots, such as the tourism industry.  

“The state of the economy is in transition right now,” Anderson says, “I think that this stuff is a marathon, not a sprint, and there isn’t ever an easy fix.”

So, what’s Jude’s plan? “The first thing I’m going to do, until it feels right to do anything else, is listen and nurture what’s here and what’s already being done,” he explained. “So there’s not some grand vision or grand plan.  There are a lot of people in this town with big visions and plans that I think they’ve been here a lot longer than I have.  It’d be way cooler to have that stuff come to pass than create something totally new and different,” states Anderson.

Ultimately, Jude wants the community to know that he is approachable and wants to get excited about what excites the community.  He looks forward to working together for the benefit of all.

Outside of the Chamber of Commerce and his many other pursuits, Jude enjoys reading, and writing short stories and poems. He also loves exploring the outdoors of Oakridge, hiking Deception Creek Trail, visiting the local hot springs, and trail running with his dog.

Chaela Carlson is fresh on the Journalism scene and excited to be joining us at the Highway 58 Herald. Born in Eugene, she moved to Oakridge at the age of 9 and graduated as Valedictorian of the Oakridge High School Class of 2024. She’s looking forward to getting more involved in the community. You might see her around town or down at the river going for a dip.