During the 2005 Legislative Session, Rep. Shields served his first term in the Oregon House of Representatives. In his positions on the House Committee on Education and the House Committee on Business, Labor, and Consumer Affairs, Shields successfully forced debate on adequate funding for schools and stopped attempts to repeal the voter-approved Minimum Wage. He also fought for affordable health care, living-wage jobs, affordable housing, public safety and a fairer criminal justice system.

Prior to being elected to the House of Representatives in 2004, Rep. Shields served as Executive Director of Better People, a non-profit, job placement and counseling program focused on helping people who had been in trouble with the law. Since its founding, Better People has helped hundreds find living wage jobs.

In addition to his work with Better People, Rep. Shields has been involved in a variety of community and statewide volunteer activities including:

• Working with the Oregon Center for Public Policy
• The Portland Mayor’s Gang Task Force
• Stand For Children
• The Coalition for a Livable Future
• Leading the 2002 fight to increase Oregon’s Minimum Wage, giving more than 100,000 low-wage Oregonians a cost-of-living increase each and every year

Rep. Shields graduated from Portland State University with a Masters Degree in Social Work. He lives in Northeast Portland’s Piedmont Neighborhood with his wife Shelda Holmes, who is a public-health family nurse practitioner with the Native American Rehabilitation Association