Dr. Robin Beavers isn’t in the office much. As vice president of community and social impact for the Portland Timbers and Thorns, she would rather be out connecting with people.
After decades in the nonprofit and community outreach spaces throughout Portland, Beavers is one year into her first-ever sports job. She just finished her first Stand Together Week with the club, and is embracing the platform of professional sports to foment positive social change in the community she calls home.
Beavers was clearly in her element as volunteers joined PTFC staff, players and executives at the Oregon Food Bank last week to label and pack canned food. Checking in, sharing laughs, and treating the entire week’s worth of various volunteer events with the seriousness and detailed attention they deserved.
Beavers said she wants the club to do even more for the community in the coming years, and use its standing and power to make inroads in places it hasn’t before.
“The one thing that attracted me to the club in the first place was their community platform,” Beavers said. “They’ve done some work and been philanthropic over the years, and just to have an opportunity to build on what was already laid out. They’ve done a lot of great work for the community here and there, and obviously with Stand Together Week, but there are also a lot of communities — particularly marginalized communities and communities of color — that haven’t really had the opportunity to be exposed to soccer, or at least professional soccer. Having the opportunity to come to games or have the Timbers and Thorns out in front of them.”
Beavers is a third-generation Oregonian. Her mother’s parents came to the state during World War II as a boon of shipyard workers increased Portland’s Black population tenfold. Beavers’ grandmother worked in the shipyards, while her grandfather found work along the railroads.
The youngest of four sisters, Beavers grew up in Northeast Portland and attended Jefferson High School before earning a litany of degrees from Concordia and Portland State. Her parents instilled a passion for serving the community from a young age, and Beavers embraced it through her work for Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI), in the higher education sphere, and for Trillium Family Services, among myriad other organizations.
“Being able to always connect with the community, I’ve always wanted to give back to the community that raised me,” Beavers said. “It’s why I haven’t moved from here. I want to stay in the community and help grow the community that raised me. Portland is near and dear to my heart, and that’s why this job is so important to me. People have asked me what career I want, and I’ve always said, ‘Wherever I can make the biggest impact.’ For me, this platform gives me an opportunity to do that; to use my voice and my networks to actually be out in the community doing things.”
While PTFC has done its share of good works in the community over the years, particularly through Stand Together, it is no secret the club faces heightened criticism for its handling of social and workplace issues.
There was the laundry list of allegations of a toxic workplace for women and working mothers, including many leveled against former executive Mike Golub, whose perceived paternalistic response to Madison Shanley’s national anthem protest ignited the conversation. Owner Merritt Paulson and former executive Gavin Wilkinson’s failure to properly respond to former Thorns coach Paul Riley’s alleged abuse of players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly. Domestic violence allegations against former Timbers player Andy Polo.
It isn’t Beavers’ job to fix those problems — or answer for them. But she is leading the club’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work internally, and working hard to connect with and serve diverse communities externally.
Stand Together Week 2023 has been the biggest project yet and internal changes made since the U.S. Soccer investigation are a start. But Beavers acknowledged there is much more to do.
“I don’t want to do things just to be doing them,” Beavers said. “I want them to have meaning. Everyone does all these proclamations, and the city does the proclamation every year declaring Stand Together Week. But it’s one thing to have a proclamation, and it’s another if we really make it Stand Together Week, where everybody drops what they’re doing for a week and goes out to volunteer.”
She says her goal in the next three years is to ramp that effort up.
“Yes, we have our intentional events where partners come, annual members, supporters, and staff all volunteer along with the players,” she continued. “But what if it’s not just about that, but everybody who is able to in the community, including the players, are volunteering somewhere, and they volunteer because they want to do good things and are inspired by this week?”
While Beavers said it is important to be a voice for women and people of color in leadership, she wants her job to do more than just provide representation. She isn’t going through the motions, by any means. Those who work with her describe Beavers as active, intentional, and willing to go beyond just having tough conversations.
“Just to be that voice for people, especially staff, is extremely important,” Beavers said. “It’s important not to lose the voice. A lot of people think that because we promoted (CEO) Heather (Davis) and have these women in leadership … but just because women are in these roles doesn’t mean that the fight stops. I’m always trying to make more opportunities for women and people of color in the club, to do things like the Women’s Leadership Summit but also professional development opportunities and even mentoring and coaching for them. I want to help them create a more inclusive environment. Whether that’s the workplace or what we do at the stadium on gamedays or our work externally.”
Portland is a socially conscious town, but one with a history and present that demands reflection, accountability and change. The city’s character is reflected in the Timbers and Thorns fanbase, one that between taking swigs of beer with heavily tattooed arms has become a force for change in its own right, and has always been willing to put pressure on the club to reflect its values. The Timbers Army and Rose City Riveters are social organizations as much as they are fraternal ones.
Beavers realized that quickly when she attended her first Timbers game more than a year before she was hired by the team. She found herself transfixed with the crowd filling the stands at Providence Park, rather than what was happening on the field (although she now says she’s gained an appreciation for the sport itself).
Those crowds of people, united behind one cause but possessing multitudes and passion and ideas and raw humanity, are who Beavers wants to reach, collaborate with, grow in numbers, and continue to diversify.
“There is something special about this soccer,” Beavers said. “I used to go to church, and we’d have service at the Scottish Rite Center. We’d have service on matchday. And all the people just walking to the matches with all their gear on, whether it’s Timbers or Thorns, it’s just amazing. That spirit inside the stadium, we need to take that out into the streets.
“If we can take that same energy and do good out in the community, out in the city and beyond, that is my goal.”
— Ryan Clarke, rclarke@oregonian.com, Twitter: @RyanTClarke
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