by Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
March 11, 2026
Three top employees who have worked for Gov. Tina Kotek since her first day in office will leave during the next month as the governor ramps up her reelection campaign.
The departing employees are Taylor Smiley Wolfe, Kotek’s deputy chief of staff for initiatives; Legislative Director Bob Livingston and Elisabeth Shepard, public affairs and communications director. Smiley Wolfe and Shepard are taking new jobs, while Livingston plans to retire.
Kotek also announced that Emerald Bogue, director of government affairs and strategy at the Port of Portland, will join her office through a temporary intergovernmental partnership as a special adviser. Bogue will help oversee legislative affairs, communications, federal response and Kotek’s economic agenda.
And Amelia Porterfield, who now serves as Kotek’s regional solutions director, will oversee initiatives on Kotek’s key policy areas of homelessness and housing, mental health and addiction and education.
In a statement, Kotek thanked the departing employees and described the end of the 2026 legislative session and preparation for a likely second term next year as a “time of staff transition.”
“Over the last three years, the team in my office has served Oregonians with distinction,” she said. “Together we have taken on big challenges while standing up for Oregon values in the face of actions from President Trump’s administration. The work is not done, and the year ahead will be a busy one.”
Smiley Wolfe will take over as policy director at the Ford Family Foundation, a nonprofit that provides grants in rural Oregon and Siskiyou County, California. She worked for Kotek during her tenure as speaker of the Oregon House, and her last day is April 24.
Before serving on Kotek’s transition team and joining her administration, Livingston had worked for more than 30 years with the Oregon Fire Service, with 20 years as president or legislative director of the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council. He’ll retire April 17, and Danny Moran, current deputy legislative director, will serve as the interim legislative director.
Shepard started with Kotek as a press secretary after serving as communications director for former Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt. She’s moving to Washington, D.C. to serve as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum, an Oregon Democrat first elected in 2024. Her last day is March 23. Lucas Bezerra, the governor’s deputy communications director, will take over as interim public affairs and communications director.
Two other members of Kotek’s communications team also left in the past few months. Press secretary Roxy Mayer is on temporary assignment with Kotek’s reelection campaign, while Anca Matica, a natural resources communications and policy adviser, left to serve as political director of the labor coalition Our Oregon.
While employees have left the governor’s office or temporarily moved from official work to her campaign, the governor last lost multiple top employees at the same time under very different circumstances in 2024.
That spring, Kotek’s chief of staff and several other top employees quit or took leave. Public records released by the governor’s office a month later confirmed that Kotek’s top staff were concerned about the growing role of Aimee Kotek Wilson, Kotek’s wife, in influencing policy and acting as a public face for the governor.
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Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: [email protected].