Ben Cannon (born 1976) is an American educator and policymaker from

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He was elected in 2006 to the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

, representing the state's 46th District, which covers portions of southeast and northeast

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

. He won re-election in 2008 and 2010. In 2011, he resigned to become the Education Policy Advisor to Governor

John Kitzhaber John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician and physician who served as the 35th and 37th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2015. In February 2015, shortly after beginning his fourth term, ...

. In 2013, he was appointed to lead Oregon's new Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

Early life

A graduate of

West Linn High School West Linn High School (WLHS) is a public high school in West Linn, Oregon, United States. It is one of three high schools in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Academics In 1984, West Linn High School was honored in the Blue Ribbon School ...

West Linn, Oregon West Linn is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A southern suburb within the Portland metropolitan area, West Linn developed on the site of the former Linn City, Oregon, Linn City, which was named after U.S. Senator Lewis F. Linn ...

, Cannon was educated at

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, where he edited the campus newspaper and co-authored ''Walking Historic Downtown St. Louis'' (2000). He won a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

to Oxford University in 1999, and went to

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

. There he studied

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in PPE was the Unive ...

before taking a graduate degree in Comparative and International Education. Cannon returned to Oregon to become a middle school teacher at the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences in Tualatin.

Political career

Cannon was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2006. He served as chair of the House Environment and Water Committee in 2009-2010 and as its co-chair in 2011. In 2011, he teamed with Rep.

Vicki Berger Vicki Berger (born 1949) is an American businessperson and politician in the state of Oregon. A native Oregonian, she is a Salem civic leader and a former Republican member of the Oregon House of Representatives. Her father, Richard Chambers, ca ...

to pass a sweeping expansion of the iconic

Oregon Bottle Bill The Oregon Bottle Bill is a container-deposit legislation enacted in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1971 that went into effect in October 1972. It was the first such legislation in the United States. It was amended in 2007 and 2011. It requires ...

. He was also responsible for successful legislation promoting car-sharing, clean fuels, and online voter registration. In 2009, he gained notoriety for proposing a major increase to the Oregon beer tax, which is among the nation's lowest. Cannon was distinctive as the only member of Oregon's Legislature who refused to accept campaign contributions from political action committees. A
online video
promoted his effort to fund his 2010 re-election campaign by receiving $20 contributions from more than 1000 individuals.

Education leadership

In August 2011, Cannon resigned as State Representative when Governor

appointed him as his education policy adviser. Cannon helped shepherd the state's efforts to win a waiver from

No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a 2002 United States Act of Congress promoted by the presidential administration of George W. Bush. It reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included Title I provision ...

and was an architect of an overhaul of Oregon's higher education system in 2013. In October, 2013, he was appointed Executive Director for the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, a newly created position that is the state's top higher education official.

External links

Project Vote Smart – Representative Ben Cannon (OR)
profile *''Follow the Money'' – Ben Cannon
2006
campaign contributions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Ben 1976 births Living people American Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Members of the Oregon House of Representatives Politicians from Portland, Oregon People from West Linn, Oregon Washington University in St. Louis alumni 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly Schoolteachers from Oregon