Lee Weinstein is 25-year public relations and public affairs veteran, having directed communications at Nike, worked for an Oregon congressman and governor, and served on numerous community service projects.From 1981-84 Lee was a legislative assistant to Congressman Ron Wyden. He was assistant dean of admissions and Lewis & Clark College from 1984-86. From 1986-88 Lee worked asexecutive assistant to Oregon Insurance Commissioner Ted Kulongoski, and from 1988-91 was deputy press secretary to Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt. Lee worked for the first AIDS/HIV food program in the nation, Project Open Hand, in SanFrancisco, as marketing communications director, where he began the nation’s first newsletterAIDS/HIV nutrition newsletter. He returned to Oregon in 1992 to become internal communications manager for Nike, Inc. From 1995-1997, he ran Nike’s New York City PR office, opening NikeTowns New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and directing apparel PR and product placement. He returned to Oregon in 1997 to become director of US public relations, launching the Jordan Brand, NikeShox, Nike Presto, supervising PR campaigns, working with top athletes and on the company’sPR efforts at the Sydney and Salt Lake City Olympic Games. From 2002-2005, Lee directed Nike’s corporate responsibility communications. He developed a strategic communications plan to build Nike’s reputation as a responsible company by earning credibility through media story placement, third-party recognition and awards. In April 2005, Lee directed communications for the release of Nike’s second corporate responsibility report, which helped to reposition the company’s citizenship reputation. He was one of the architects behind NikeGO, the company’s community affairs initiative to increase physical activity among young people. In June 2003, global employee communications was added to Lee’s portfolio. Lee’s team produced an innovative employee e-newsletter, “The Sponge.” Lee oversaw the creation of Nike’s Global Maxim Awards, recognizing the best work by teams and individual employees around the world, and began new employee engagement programs, including a regular intranet radio show for the Nike president and the “Nike Exchange,” an up-close-and-personal dialogue between employees and senior executives.
Lee departed Nike in 2007 to start LWA PR, a public relations agency based in the Columbia Gorge and Portland, which focuses on communications strategy and public affairs. Agency clients include Icebreaker of New Zealand, Nike, Cole Haan, KEEN Footwear, Avamere HealthServices, Coffee Bean International, SeQuential Biofuels, REC Solar, HOTLIPS Pizza and others. Lee founded Our Children’s Store in 1993, a non-profit gift store that has now raised more than $2.5 million to help charities providing services to children in crisis. He is a member of board of trustees of Maryhill Museum of Art and a board member of Columbia Riverkeeper. He also chairs the marketing committee for The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce. From 2005-2006, Lee worked on the committee helping Oregon First Lady Mary Oberst and the Oregon State Parks Trust to restore the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day Oregon. He is first vice chair of Oregon 150, the non-profit organization charged with planning Oregon’s sesquicentennial birthday celebration in 2009. A member of S.N.O.B. — the Society of Native Oregon Born — Lee was born in Eugene. His great grandfather was sheriff of Harney County. His father was born in Burns and mother in Klamath Falls. Lee grew up in Salem, attended The Catlin Gabel School, and graduated from Portland’s Lincoln High School. He earned his undergraduate degree from Lewis & ClarkCollege, where he majored in political science and was student body president and was selected as “Outstanding Young Alumni.” Lee lives in The Dalles, Oregon with his wife, Melinda Weinstein. They have two daughters,Emma (17) and Sophie (14).
