Michael Calcagno

After reporting local news as a photojournalist, Michael became an independent freelancer. In 2015 voters elected him to the school board at Mt. Hood Community College where he championed affordable tuition, housing and child care for students in need. Michael ran for state legislature as independent and refused to accept special interest funding. He fell short of victory, and then worked with the Oregon Secretary of State on voting rights and government transparency. Michael then rallied the local community to successfully pass a funding levy to save the regional library in the small town of Stayton, Oregon.

He's had experience at a bakery, movie theater, live television newsrooms and Tesla. Several Fortune 500 Companies and more than a dozen Oregon-based social safety net philanthropies are among his clients. Michael’s training and career as a broadcaster, filmmaker and field producer have taken him to Costa Rica, the U.K., and across America.

Michael was born in Portland and is one of five children whose parents were the first in their families to go to college in America. His degree in Journalism is from the University of Oregon in Eugene, a shared alma mater of his partner, a former public school teacher. His family resides in Southeast Portland and are members of the League of Women Voters, City Club of Portland, Oregon Historical Society, Portland Business Alliance, and Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Currently Michael is working to create open nonpartisan primary elections in Oregon with a statewide ballot measure for the 2024 general election. He’s passionate about structural and social reforms that return modesty and moderation to modern life. This is why I care: http://simp.ly/publish/ZFp41y

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
—Dr. Seuss

Personal triumphs & tribulations

• Lost 100 pounds since childhood obesity http://simp.ly/publish/ZZBfn2
• Faced death of a brother at 14 https://vimeo.com/79197793
• Managing condition of cyclothymia (mild bipolar disorder)
• Nearly died in car wreck
• Studied at University in Europe
• Worked the graveyard shift commuting by bicycle+mass transit
• Filmed out the side of a helicopter
• Broadcasted on CBS News radio nationally
• Flown by Gulfstream G6 jet airplane
• Lived with grandparents while saving to start a business
• Celebrated ten years in business
• Elected to public office at 27
• Published an alternative weekly newspaper in high school
• Cooked/sold food at farmer’s market booth
• Faced loss of two babies to miscarriage
• Father of two wonderful daughters
• Walked Ellis Island where my great-grandfather immigrated in 1914
• Self-taught sourdough bread baking
• Acknowledged and overcoming damaging influences of patriarchy