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She is currently the first SEIU International Co-Chair of the Indigenous People’s Caucus, while simultaneously serving as SEIU 503 Co-Chair of Indigenous Peoples and the Women of Color caucuses and does a lot of community service/organizing. Her life experiences and struggles have helped make her who she is despite her current health conditions and unseen disabilities, along with the ongoing retaliation from her employer. She is always ready to fight for others so they don’t have to go through what she has been experiencing.

Some of the accomplishments that Paula helped create as a union leader for trainings/workshops have been the following:

• Thanks-Taking - the Untold Truth,

• The Difference Between A Land Acknowledgement vs a Land Blessing,

• Coordinating the first SEIU 503 MMIP Is A Labor Issue annual event,

• Lobbying for Oregon House Bill 2625 - which directs Oregon State Police to conduct a forced study on our missing and murdered relatives,

• House Bill 2025 - all our public Indigenous students can now wear regalia and have an eagle feather on their graduation cap without any consequences,

• ICWA is a Labor Issue, and 

• Lobbying for rent control for all Oregonians.

Because of her mixed heritage and as reconnecting Native, Paula has been working on bridging the gap between Natives in the USA/Canada and our Indigenous relatives in the South via community education on how the we didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed us with the signing of the Treaty of Hidalgo, the Indian Intercourse Act, and The Indian Removal Act.

She is a firm believer in the wise words from Chief Joseph Medicine Crow “ Education makes us the white man’s equal, the lack of it will make us his victim.” 

More about Paula: 

Paula is Lipan Apache, and a 1st generation Mexican-American. She is also a momma of 5 boys ages 7-26, mother-in-law to 2 beautiful ladies, and recently celebrated her 27th wedding anniversary with her husband in October. 

She enjoys cooking for her small family. One of her favorite pastimes is knitting and crocheting. One can often hear her muttering while working on her craft “Stab it! Strangle it! Scoop out its guts and throw it off the cliff”. She also likes to play practical jokes. Her children and sister, and her many cousins can all tell you stories of how she would start and finish things, but everyone else would get in trouble and she never got caught.

She is the eldest daughter to Reyes Peña-Martinez (3-16-55 to 3-17-23) and Irma Morales-Peña. They themselves had to overcome many obstacles in Oregon. Her dad was part of the grassroots unionization for farm workers known back then as Oro (now PCUN) and was an expert in agricultural sciences and her momma went back to school in her late 30’s and became a social service worker for early intervention.

Paula seldom lets folks know that she actually has a colonizer education, because she enjoys watching folks freak out after they have underestimated her. Education background:

• Hospitality and Tourism with a minor in Business Administration 

• Early Childhood Education with an ESL endorsement

• General Psychology with a double minor in Biblical Theology and History

• Business entrepreneur - Farm Labor Contractor for over 20 years and sell jewelry, ordained minister, catering and the occupational bartender. 

• Former DV advocate 

• Public speaker 

Paula is surviving and refuses to let her chronic health issues hold her back: 

• Chronic Kidney Disease (stage 3)

• SLE Lupus

• Fibromyalgia

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

• Multiple TBIs with permanent brain damage

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