Raul Woerner

Raul Woerner

President

Raul is a professional land use planner with the firm CSA Planning, Ltd. in Medford and a University of Oregon alumni with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He was born in Puerto Rico where his father was stationed with the Army Corps of Engineers. He first moved to the Rogue Valley (Foots Creek area) in 1979 with his parents and returned with his wife Jennifer in 1998 to live in Medford. He fondly remembers all the times their parents would drive them to Medford to use the parks and pools over summer vacations. Medford Parks & Recreation promotes “Community Connections” really for everyone in the region, young and old and in between.

Raul strongly support the Medford Parks & Recreation Foundation’s efforts to facilitate access to all through its support of youth program scholarships and development of parks and trails.

Julian Cordle

Julian Cordle

Vice President, Commission Liaison

Julian moved to the Rogue Valley in 1996 from his home state of Alaska. He has a 25 year career in the IT industry, specializing in support of Enterprise Cloud Services, Software Development Operations and Business Intelligence.
Julian has been a Medford Parks and Recreation Commissioner since 2013, serving 5 of those years as its Chairman. He has contributed to the design and planning elements of dozens of Medford’s parks over the years, offering guidance and feedback in an advisory role to the Parks Director and the Medford City Council. Additionally, Julian is a strong supporter in the soccer community, having served as a Board Member and President of the local recreational soccer league and is a USSF-certified Soccer Referee. Following in Julian’s footsteps, his son Jeremiah excels in many different sports throughout the Rogue Valley. You can frequently find Julian along the sidelines of local sports events with his camera in hand, taking pictures of local all-star athletes.

Zach Jamieson

Treasurer

Zach is a Financial Advisor and University of Oregon alumnus with Masters degrees in both Educational Leadership and Business Administration. A native of the Northwest, Zach was born in Washington and has lived in Medford since he was six years old. His past work has included corporate financial consulting and educational management, and in his current role he serves as financial adviser to a select group of families, small businesses, foundations, and endowments in the Rogue Valley and surrounding areas. Zach holds six advanced designations in the fields of financial planning, investment management, and financial consulting. Along with his wife and two young children, Zach loves to enjoy Medford’s many beautiful parks, pools, and amenities. He is especially grateful to have been able to help build the original Bear Creek Park as a student at St. Mary’s, and to have worked with his son nearly 30 years later on the park’s beautiful revitalization effort.

Zach’s goal is to foster and promote the mission of the Parks and Recreation Foundation, and to ensure that everyone can utilize and benefit from the incredible natural resources, youth programs, and facilities that Medford enjoys.

Joe Brett

Joe Brett

Board Member

Joe Brett has been a Medford resident since 1984 when he arrived as the TV Sports Director at KOBI. A state high school champion pitcher, Joe played college ball in Arizona and at Division 1 Lamar University while doing undergraduate work in Communication. He has been a television, radio, and internet sportscaster for 32 years and continues to provide high school coverage for KTVL and Table Rock Sports. Joe first worked to support Medford Parks and Rec in the 80’s through news coverage, was appointed to the Parks Commission in 1995 where he served six years, and was a founding member in 2005 of the Parks Foundation Board.

He has served as President of the Board the past three years. Joe credits his older brother Michael, who just concluded a distinguished Parks and Rec career in Maryland, as being his inspiration to volunteer to support the Medford department over the last three decades.

Brian Sjothun

Brian Sjothun

Board Member

Brian Sjothun was appointed as Medford’s City Manager in 2016. Prior to his current role, he served as Medford’s Parks and Recreation Director for 12 years.

Passionate about leadership, Brian has extensive experience with public administration and has helped lead the development of innovative local government programs, performance management initiatives, leadership and teambuilding efforts and strategic planning activities which include the 2021-23 Council Biennial Goals and Medford 2040 Community Vision and Action Plan.

Brian has coordinated capital improvement projects in excess of $70 million, including the largest municipal installation of FieldTurf in the United States at Lithia & Driveway Fields. The park has generated over $120 million in economic impact since opening in May 2008.

In 2005, he helped establish the Medford Parks and Recreation Foundation, which has since generated over $1 million in property donations, $750,000 in park development funding and over $150,000 for youth recreation scholarships.

Rich Rosenthal

Rich Rosenthal

Staff Liaison

Rich Rosenthal has been the Medford Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department director since August 2016, and his service to the City of Medford started in Sept. 2006.

Under his stewardship as director, and in collaboration with the Medford Parks and Recreation Foundation and other community partners, the City has opened Village Center Park and Cedar Links Park, expanded Donahue-Frohnmayer Park and Lone Pine Park, acquired Howard Memorial Sports Park, and completed a major refurbishment of Bear Creek Park, including the Olsrud Family Community Playground.

After gaining voter and City Council approvals, the Department is currently working on building the 140,000-square-foot Rogue Credit Union Community Complex.

Mason Carhart

Mason Carhart

Board Member

Mason Carhart was born and raised in the Rogue Valley and graduated from Crater high school, where he played baseball and was the president of the local Sparrow club. After High School he attended the University of Oregon and acquired his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2020 and 2021, in Applied Economics. Mason has always enjoyed studying Economics and teaching others and has carried those skills with him in his career as a financial advisor.   He enjoys working with individuals and small businesses in the rogue valley to help others achieve financial comprehension and independence.

In his free time, Mason enjoys hiking and spending time in the mountains, or outdoors. He helps teach portions of a first-time home buyers course at ACCESS, as well as other community-focused programs.

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