Terrence R. (Terry) McDonald is the hands-on visionary leader of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Inc. (SVdP). With degrees in Political Science and History and a Master of Education from the University of Oregon, Terry’s energies are focused on social services, homeless services, affordable housing, and economic development projects that create jobs while improving the environment and the community.
SVdP is the largest non-profit humanitarian agency in Lane County, Oregon, with nearly 700 employees, 1800 units of affordable housing, five emergency service programs, thirteen retail thrift stores, online book, and jewelry shops, a vocational services department, an appliance shop, mattress recycling operations in California and Oregon and a used car lot.
Terry’s passion is creating avenues out of poverty through a unique kind of reclamation: finding new uses for consumers’ “useless” discards, creating new strategies and community coalitions to deal with old problems, and giving low-income and homeless people a chance to reclaim their dignity through employment and self-sufficiency. His mission statement is: “Do good, avoid evil, leave the world a better place.”
St. Vincent de Paul is an internationally recognized expert in the area of waste-based business development. These economic development programs divert roughly 41 million pounds of materials from the waste stream each year and provided revenue to assist the needy, supply job-training opportunities, and create permanent jobs for community members.