Khanh Pham (born 1978) is an American politician and activist serving as a member of the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

from the 46th district. She assumed office on January 11, 2021.

Early life and education

The daughter of refugees from

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, Pham was born in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. She moved to

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

with her parents when she was 11. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & Cl ...

in 2001, studying sociology, anthropology, and political economy. She later earned a Master of Arts in urban studies from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

Career

In 2004 and 2005, Pham worked as a development associate at the

Global Fund for Women The Global Fund for Women is a non-profit foundation funding women's human rights initiatives. It was founded in 1987 by New Zealander Anne Firth Murray, and co-founded by Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer to fund women's initiatives around th ...

. She then worked as a development associate for

Hesperian Health Guides Hesperian Health Guides, formerly known as Hesperian Foundation, is a nongovernmental non-profit organization publishing health guides for trained and untrained people to care for themselves and others. The foundation is based in Berkeley, Califor ...

from 2005 to 2007 and as a family advocate and development associate at Refugee Transitions, a non-profit organization based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She worked as an associate director for the National Radio Project and was a PhD researcher at

, specializing in

climate adaptation Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary öller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger (eds.) InClimat ...

and equity planning. From 2015 to 2018, she was an

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

manager for the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. She also worked for OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, and helped launch the Oregon Just Transition Alliance, which spun off as an independent statewide alliance in 2020.

Oregon House of Representatives

After incumbent Democrat

Alissa Keny-Guyer Alissa Carolyn Keny-Guyer (born on May 20, 1959) was an American politician and a Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives who represented District 46 (parts of SE and NE Portland) since her September 27, 2011 appointment by the ...

announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2020 election, Pham announced her candidacy to succeed her. Pham won the Democratic primary, defeating former County Commissioner

Jeff Cogen Jeffrey Scott Cogen (born January 14, 1962) is an American businessman, lawyer, and former politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. From 2016 to 2019, he was Executive Director of Impact NW, a social service and anti-poverty organization headqu ...

. In the November 2020 general election, she did not face a Republican challenger. Pham assumed office on January 11, 2021. Following the

2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...

, Pham was chosen to lead a task force alongside representative Kayse Jama to coordinate the resettlement of 1,200 refugees from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in Oregon. Pham was reelected in the

2022 Oregon House of Representatives election The 2022 Oregon House of Representatives election was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Primary elections were held on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Voters in the 60 districts of the Oregon House of Representatives elected their representatives. The ele ...

Personal life

Pham and her husband, Hector, have one daughter. She and her family live in the Jade District of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pham, Khanh Living people 1978 births American women of Vietnamese descent in politics Politicians from Oklahoma City People from Irvine, California Oregon Democrats Lewis & Clark College alumni Portland State University alumni Politicians from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American women Asian-American people in Oregon politics