Oral history interview with Jill Eiland

Oral history interview with Jill Eiland [Sound Recording 01] Oral history interview with Jill Eiland [Sound Recording 02] Oral history interview with Jill Eiland [Transcript]

Identity elements

Reference code

SR 2817

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Series

Title

Oral history interview with Jill Eiland

Date(s)

  • 1988-01-21 (Creation)

Extent

.1 cubic feet; 1 audiocassette (1 hr., 23 sec.) + transcript (26 pages)

Name of creator

Biographical history

Jill Wissler Eiland, nee Jill A. Wissler, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1951. In 1973, she earned a bachelor's degree in business from Oregon State University. She pursued a career in politics and worked on the staff of Senator Bob Packwood in Washington, D.C. In 1981, she earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University. In 1982, she joined Portland General Electric as director of federal affairs, and continued to work in Washington, D.C., lobbying Congress for PGE. She returned to Oregon in 1985, and in 1990, she became director of public affairs for PGE. From 1994 to 1997, she served as vice president and managing partner for The Rockey Company. From 1997 to 2006, she was senior director of government relations for Kindercare Learning Centers. In 2004, she joined the Knowledge Learning Corporation as vice president of corporate communications. In 2006, she became public affairs director for the Intel Corporation in the Northwest Region. In 2017, she joined Gallatin Public Affairs as a managing partner and became senior counsel in 2020.

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

This oral history interview with Jill Eiland was conducted by Judy Hartman on January 21, 1988. The interview was conducted as part of the Portland General Electric Centennial Oral History Series, which marked PGE's 100th anniversary and was used in the writing of the book "Electrifying Eden."

In this interview, Eiland discusses her work as director of federal affairs at Portland General Electric. She describes her job duties, including lobbying the U.S. Congress; talks about the people who had previously held her position; and discusses how the job has changed. She talks about some of the legislation PGE lobbied for and against. She also discusses PGE's relationship with Native American communities. She then talks about her decision to leave Washington, D.C., in 1985 to return to Oregon, and discusses how her job duties changed. She closes the interview by talking about philanthropic work and volunteering in the Portland community by PGE employees; about public opinion of PGE; and about how the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant sets PGE apart from other electric utilities.

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Physical access

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Languages of the material

  • English

Scripts of the material

Language and script notes

Finding aids

Acquisition and appraisal elements

Custodial history

Immediate source of acquisition

Gift of Craig Wollner, 1989 (Lib. Acc. 28418).

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

Accruals

Related materials elements

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related archival materials

The Oregon Historical Society Research Library also holds photographs and documents relating to PGE in Coll 415, the Portland General Electric collection, and Org. Lot 151, the Portland General Electric photographs.

Related descriptions

Publication notes

This oral history interview was used in the writing of Electrifying Eden: Portland General Electric, 1889-1965, written by Craig Wollner and published in 1990 by the Oregon Historical Society Press.

Notes element

General note

Preferred citation: Oral history interview with Jill Eiland, by Judy Hartman, SR 2817, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

General note

Forms part of the Portland General Electric Centennial Oral History Series.

Specialized notes

Alternative identifier(s)

Description control element

Rules or conventions

Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition.

Sources used

Archivist's note

Sarah Stroman

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Accession area