Avel Gordly

Avel Louise Gordly (born February 13, 1947) is an activist, community organizer, and former politician in the U.S. state of Oregon, who in 1996 became the first African-American woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate. She served in the Senate from 1997 to 2009. Previously, she served for five years in the Oregon House of Representatives.

Gordly was born in Portland, Oregon, to a mother active in local leadership within the Order of the Eastern Star and a father who worked for the railroad. She graduated from Girls Polytechnic High School in 1965 (which later became James Monroe High School). After five years at Pacific Northwest Bell, she enrolled at Portland State University, earning a degree in the administration of justice.

Gordly was appointed to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1991, to replace Ron Cease, and later elected to the seat, ultimately serving three terms, representing parts of north and northeast Portland. In 1996, she won election to the Oregon State Senate, the first African-American woman to do so; she served in the Senate from 1997 to 2009. She was a member of the Democratic Party until late 2006, when she dropped her party registration, becoming a nonaffiliated voter. She chose not to run for re-election in 2008.

In 2008, while serving as senator, OHSU opened the Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which provides mental health and psychiatric services.

Gordly is an adjunct professor at her alma mater, and with Patricia A. Schecter, is the author of Remembering the Power of Words (2001, ISBN 0-87071-604-2), her memoirs, published by Oregon State University Press.