Portland State Magazine Winter 2016

winter 2016 pORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 11 Keeping Hillsboro’s small town flavor while absorbing growth is a goal that Colin Cooper MURP ’99 takes seriously. Cooper is director of planning for Hillsboro, a city that has seen its population increase by more than 6 percent in the past five years compared to the state’s growth of 4.6 percent in the same time period. Most of the expansion is due to the influx of employees from the surrounding high-tech companies. Projects such as the proposed AmberGlen Community, led by Cooper, will answer these new citi- zens’ call for big town amenities in a hometown atmosphere. The plan reimagines a typical suburban business park into a vibrant neighbor- hood with office, retail and housing surrounding a large central park. AmberGlen is a good example of the kind of private-public partnerships that Cooper facilitates. He contributed to the final phase of the similar Orenco Station development and led a team of land-use and transportation planners as they crafted a finance plan for South Hillsboro, a 1,400-acre area that may include 8,000 housing units. “As an urban planning student, you’re all about utopian visions,” Cooper says, remembering his days at PSU. “But one of my profes- sors, Sy Adler, said something that totally changed my thinking: As an urban planner, you’re part of the whole development scheme. “That one comment made me open up and decide to learn every- thing I could about the private sector. Being able to see and balance both sides—public and private concerns—has been a huge part of my success.” Michelle Medler ’01 was the Lisa Simpson of her day. In her heart she was—and is today—a jazz saxophonist. But with no band until she reached fifth grade, she first took up the violin in her school orchestra. She picked up the saxophone a year later and has never put it down. Now Medler and her husband, Ben ’01, are all about providing opportunities for budding jazz musicians. Fifteen years ago they founded the Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra (PYJO). Today it includes 80 young musicians from the Portland metro area who rehearse, study and perform jazz in six PYJO bands. The youngest musicians are 11 years old. As if running a music program were not enough, the Medlers together and separately perform with the Shanghai Woolies, The Quadraphonnes, Trombone 8, the Medler Septet, the Chris Baum Project and ever-changing trios, quartets and quintets. Teaching seems to come naturally for the couple, who have always taught as they performed and perfected their own music. From 1994 to 2001, they built an award-winning band program at Wilson High School while attending Portland State. During their own education, Michelle remembers being encour- aged by PSU faculty to go to clubs, listen to live music and network in Portland. “By the time we graduated, we were completely integrated into the Portland music scene.” Colin Cooper Michelle & Ben Medler c i t y B u i l d e r jazz mus i c i ans “Being able to see and balance both sides—public and private concerns— has been a huge part of my success.” “By the time we graduated, we were completely integrated into the Portland music scene.”