Spotlight on Roosevelt Alumnus Mayor Keith Wilson

Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland is a Roosevelt alumnus of 1981 and he’s also on the board of directors for the Roosevelt alumni association as representative of the 1980s class. He took office the first of January 2025, and is the first mayor to run Portland’s new form of government. Wilson has sworn to tackle major problems like homelessness, last year even saying he would have all homeless people in a shelter, employed or off the streets by 2026. 

Portland’s new form of government is a Mayor-Council system, leaving behind the city commission system Portland has been loyal to since 1913. This means Portland now has a larger city council, as well as a city administrator that will handle day to day city operations. The voting method also had some tweaks. We now use a ranked choice voting system for city elections, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of their preference. Portland adopted this new form of government after voters approved it in November of 2022. 

Wilson graduated from Roosevelt High School and went on to Portland Community College to pursue his associates degree in Business Administration and Management before going to Oregon State University and acquiring a bachelors in Business Administration and Marketing. He finished his education by getting a masters degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Portland in 1998. He is the former CEO of Titan Freight Systems, a position he had held since 2006, stepping down in 2024 because of his mayoral win. 

Earlier this month, I had the chance to do a virtual email interview with the mayor Keith Wilson himself. He told me that “[his] time at Roosevelt was incredibly positive as it taught me the value of community. Being surrounded by supportive friends helped shape who I became, and those relationships showed me how important it is to build connections and look out for one another”. Wilson also shouted out Columbia Park and B&R restaurant that has unfortunately closed as being a huge part of his and his friends childhood. 

Keith Wilson is an accomplished business man as well as a husband and a father to two children. Even though he is a political outsider, he has been deeply involved in the Portland community even before he took his position as mayor. For example, Wilson spearheaded the creation of the Multnomah County Homeless Court Program, which is designed to help vulnerable people transition from the justice system and into employment, supportive services, and even into stable housing. He also founded Shelter Portland in 2023, a non profit organization composed of federal and local providers that uses a proven blueprint to help eliminate homelessness based on similar successful initiatives in other cities. 

According to an article from FOX 12 November 4th, homelessness has grown 67% in Multnomah County since 2023. They find this out through a one night count required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In January 2025 they counted a total of 12,034 in the Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. In 2023 they counted a total of 7,483. Likely the actual number is higher due to possibilities like 2 people sleeping in one tent or someone sleeping in a more hidden location. 

According to a Roosevelt student “When i go downtown i don’t see much change, its a very sad thing for our community to go through” However it’s important for us to remember it’s only his first year in office. You might not have seen it, but there have been some accomplishments announced by Keith Wilson that are worth sharing. In the beginning of December 2025 Wilson announced that they had just met one of their campaign goals of increasing the overnight shelter capacity by 1500 beds. These beds are important in case of an emergency like a snow storm or flooding. Many people have nowhere to go, and these beds provide them with a warm and comfortable sleeping arrangement. 

Wilson also has many long term goals that he hopes to achieve by 2030. These goals include seeing foot traffic downtown surpass pre-pandemic levels, rekindle the city’s struggling economy, and construct over 2,000 new housing units, to help combat the homelessness crisis.