Sharon Meieran

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the daughter of a scientist and an artist, in a family that valued curiosity, compassion, and public service. I studied Economics and English at UC Berkeley and spent seven years practicing law before deciding, at age 30, to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. It was a daunting decision, but I knew I didn’t want to look back years later regretting I hadn’t tried.

I attended medical school at UCSF, where I met my husband Fred, a former professional musician. During med school we volunteered in international health work in Peru, Mongolia and Cuba, and worked at the Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. After medical school, we completed residency in Emergency Medicine in Cincinnati, where our two children were born.

We moved to Portland, where Fred and I worked in local ERs. From the beginning, I was committed to advocating for my patients, particularly for access to care for the marginalized and underserved people I saw every day. People who fell through the cracks in the systems of care supposedly designed to support them. I saw incredible frontline workers trying to help within systems that often made their jobs harder instead of easier.

During this time I also served as the Medical Director for the Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health, where I advocated for a common sense approach to decreasing unwanted pregnancies and making all pregnancies as planned, wanted and healthy as possible.

I served in leadership capacities in hospital administration in areas of compliance and treatment of patients with mental illness, and advocated at the state level around policies involving addiction, mental illness and civil commitment, and coordination of care.

Over the years, I worked on statewide efforts to improve mental healthcare, coordinate services, and address the opioid crisis. I successfully advocated for policies that helped connect providers, improve accountability, and better serve vulnerable people long before many of these issues became national headlines.

But the more people I connected with in the ER and in the community, the more I realized the impossibility of accomplishing the systems-level changes needed to address both root causes and crises related to homelessness, mental illness, and public safety as an individual physician.

I found it frustrating having to rely on politicians with good intentions but no front line experience and little understanding of the policies they were seeking to implement. And so, having a unique combination of expertise and skills in doctoring, law, and policy work, I decided to run for Multnomah County Commissioner in 2016.

During my eight years on the County Board, I focused on mental health and addiction reform, homelessness, public health, and government accountability. I spoke openly and honestly about the dysfunction I saw because I believe authentic conversations are necessary if we want to solve real problems.

Despite having been an elected official, I’m not a politician. I’m a doctor, a problem-solver, a mom, and someone who cares deeply about this community. My approach has always been grounded in frontline experience, data, collaboration, and listening closely to the people most affected by the challenges we are trying to solve.

I still believe meaningful change is possible. And I believe the first step is being willing to tell the truth about what’s working, what isn’t, and what we need to do differently moving forward.