women of achievement

Val Alexander

Val Alexander can usually be found outdoors. She might be tending to her organic fruits and vegetables, feeding her chickens or just enjoying her 65 acres in La Center. “I’m nature-driven,” she says, which is why she moved to the farm, named Coyote Ridge, more than 40 years ago.

Born and raised in Portland, Val’s family hails from the Columbia Gorge area. She’s a member of the Grande Ronde Tribe. A graduate of Grant High School, she went on to Clark College’s nursing program. She received her degree as a registered nurse and was an operating room nurse for 30 years. In the early 1980s, she spent two years as a nurse in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where she learned to speak Arabic and met people from all over the world. Val likes to travel and still keeps in contact with friends in many different countries.

Val retired from nursing five years ago and now spends most of her time on the farm, where she also operates a bed and breakfast. It’s the love of her property and the environment that has pushed her into public service. Val is a founding member of Friends of Clark County, a nonprofit membership-based organization established to educate citizens about growth management and conservation. The group was organized in 1996 in response to rapid growth in Clark County.

“I was introduced to irresponsible development many years ago” Val says. “One developer had cleared some homesites on my property. As I was preparing a lawsuit on that issue, another was trying to build a road through my front yard. Several years of litigation followed. In the early 90’s a nearby development threatened to change the entire neighborhood, so we formed a neighborhood association to stop it. At issue was the water supply and dangerous roads and our ability to continue farming.”

Val spent a lot of time learning about growth management and, after a time, she realized it was a state issue as well. “The more involved I became in these environmental issues, the more I realized you have to approach it from a political level,” she says. Val had never been interested in politics before but knew she would have to become interested to accomplish her goals. “The people that are elected to office are the ones that make the decisions that control your life and the environment,” she says. “I stepped into it bit by bit, more and more. I’m now on several boards, all of them environmental.”

Val is still on the board of directors for Friends of Clark County. She is also chair of the East Fork Hills Rural Neighborhood Association and a board member of the Clark County chapter of Washington Conservation Voters. She is a member of the Vancouver Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. She is also proud of her work as a board member of Friends of the East Fork. “We’ve managed to stop the gravel mining in the East Fork,” she says. “So far.”

It’s unlikely she will give up. Friends describe her as steadfast and reliable. As her nominator noted, “She looks for the good in people, is tireless, a gracious host and inspirational—people find it difficult to say no to her requests.”

When Val isn’t working to save the environment or farming her land, she enjoys spending time with her family, including her life partner Kelly Lindgren. She has three grown children—Lise, Andy and Simone—plus five grandchildren and several foster grandchildren.

While friends describe Val as a steadfast, passionate leader, she doesn’t think of her work as anything exceptional. “I kind of just chug along and do what I think I need to do,” she says. “I don’t think of it as being very special. I know a lot of people that do just as much.” Her friends disagree. They know that Val Alexander is indeed a woman of achievement.