Sue Orris

Four Way Community Foundation Board Member
Dates of service: 2020-current

Sue Orris has a Bachelor’s in psychology from Simmons College and a Master’s of Education in community mental health counseling from Northeastern University. She received her secondary education credential in social studies from Southern Oregon College. 

When she moved to the Rogue Valley in 1977, she was hired as the youth prevention counselor and educator for the Josephine County Council on Drug Abuse. She was a commercial whitewater river guide and owner of a rafting business with her husband. In the off season, she was a relief staff member for what is now Aspire, an employee of Options, and a teacher at the Josephine County Alternative Center. When she retired from commercial guiding, she worked for twenty-two years as a counselor, psychology instructor, student life and diversity advisor, and department chair of counseling at Rogue Community College.

She has served on the board of Options and the Josephine County Human Rights Alliance. She calls herself a worker bee and has volunteered for Women’s Crisis Support Team’s My Special Wedding and biannual clothing fair, the online homeless yard art auction for Foundry Village, Exchange for Change, Rogue River Institute, and the neighborhood green bag project for the Food Bank.

Sue enjoys rafting, hiking, cross country skiing, biking, gardening, reading, her friendships, and travelling with her husband, Ferron Mayfield, and their dogs.

Sue says, “I have stayed in this community because of its generosity and caring for our non-profit organizations and their/our members. I am honored to serve on the Four Way Community Foundation board, whose values resonate with my own.”