The Arc of Leadership – Part 6
Written by Tim Buckley, August 2025
Parents and schoolteachers can spot leadership qualities in kids before the kids do. For some people, natural leadership talent emerges positive and fully functional. For others, leadership disguises itself in foolishness or foul play, because being popular and belonging are more important than being “good”. Ramiro “RJ” Navarro, Jr., a founding member of the Cummings Neighborhood Family Council, was a handful as a kid.
Today, with combat PTSD effects, substance abuse, and a prison term behind him, RJ has emerged as a civic leader in the Mid-Willamette Valley. Finding the right counselor helped him get his mental health back. Having children gave him a sense of purpose. Leadership qualities that emerged included focus, determination, self-confidence and a generous attitude. When asked whether leadership had ever been a goal, he said no. “It seems I was led by life experience and opportunity,” he said.
The US Army was a way for RJ to clean up his adolescent track record with the justice system, but exposure to extreme violence while deployed in Iraq triggered mental health issues which he attempted to cover with drugs when he got back. “I got clean in prison, but being locked alone for most of each day in a 6 x 8-foot cell did nothing for the PTSD, the nightmares and the voices in my head,” he said.
The GI Bill, a benefit of his military service, gave him entry to Chemeketa Community College and, coincidentally, a leadership role. While still on County supervision, living in a transition house, and enrolled in a County reentry program called SOAR, RJ began taking business classes. A chance meeting with other veterans got him inspired to become an advocate for the group. That turned into a half-time job for a year as the veteran’s representative on campus. While there, RJ also learned to be a welder.
His other path to leadership was in childcare, and that came about because growing needs his own children had that local daycare and the school system were unable to satisfy. Teaming up with other frustrated parents with similar complaints, they formed the Oregon Childcare Coalition (OCC). Among the list of other civic leaders joining the team were Lisa Harnisch and Sam Skillern. A founding board member, RJ last month was hired as the Coalition’s executive director. The organization is helping Marion and Polk Counties overcome what the media refer to as a “childcare desert” in Oregon. Locally, the nonprofit runs Amiguitos & Family Child Care Center and has just secured grant funding for putting in overhead sprinklers in the center which will allow them to offer 24-hour care.
“In addition to childcare,” RJ continued, “OCC also provides workforce development opportunities to train people wanting to work in childcare. And we provide mentorship and coaching to other childcare providers in things like logistics, legal issues and business management….basically helping them be successful.”
While he was sorting out ways to make life easier for his children, and based on his reputation for championing veteran’s services at Chemeketa, he was hired at Project Able, setting up a peer-to-peer support effort that he ran for five years. “Their support of me as a dad was amazing,” RJ said. “I left a good welding job once because the boss said I had to make a choice between working there or being able to take time off for parenting a son whose febrile seizures were creating classroom behavior issues. Project Able folks basically said, ‘We get it! Go take care of your son!’ That kind of compassion was huge for my own mental health recovery,” he added. “I went back to the VA and sought counseling again, this time finding a therapist who really understood what revisiting a ‘nexus event’ means to a combat vet, and how to handle it without retraumatizing the client. I stopped having hallucinations and hearing voices after that.”
For a year after leaving Project Able, RJ ran a recovery program for Latino organizations (in Spanish) called Recuperación en el Rio. Kayaking on the Willamette from Salem to Keizer Rapids Park, and stopping for lunch at McLain Island, participants learned about and experienced aspects of emotional wellness through nature, mindfulness and sensory awareness practices, and personal connections.
In 2022, RJ was hired by the Oregon Legislature as the Veteran’s Caucus Coordinator, a fulltime job during the legislative session. “At first, I was working with 10 members of the legislature who are vets,” he said. “But, because veteran’s affairs are such an important part of the state’s overall mission, my job with veterans has grown to include their families and helping with legislation to better serve that population.”
Another quality of leadership has to do with vision, and a capacity to accomplish more through efficiency and teamwork. When the Cummings neighborhood was chosen as a site for CBEL’s work, the Neighborhood Family Council Director Eduardo Angulo asked RJ to consider joining the Council. “I met Eduardo about 10 years ago, when I was at Chemeketa and he was teaching a class called ‘The People’s Rep’. Since I have kids going to Cummings and have intentionally been involved in their school life, I said, ‘Sure!’ My son benefited a lot from the emotional regulation work being pioneered at Cummings, so I was eager to be part of any effort to further support that work.”
“I have found the Neighborhood Family Council (NFC) to be very useful to me personally, while it has also been of great help to the school and surrounding neighbors,” he continued. “I’m a single dad again, and so the Council and our events have been very important as a way to meet new people. The Council is a portal through which the neighborhood gets to experience self-care. It’s a source of comfort to me, and to hundreds of families who regularly participate.”