By: Mia Maldonado

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has appointed her chief of staff to temporarily lead the state’s transportation agency.

Chris Warner, who has worked with Kotek since 2023, will serve as the Oregon Department of Transportation’s interim director until the agency finds its next director.

He is taking over Lisa Sumption’s interim position so she can return to role as the director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department as it undergoes long-planned changes to improve the state park system. Sumption has led the agency since January, when former ODOT director Kris Strickler left the state government. Strickler now works as a senior vice president at a national engineering firm. 

Before joining Kotek’s team, Warner held leadership roles at the Portland Bureau of Transportation for six years — including three as the local agency’s director. He previously worked as a legislative aide to former U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who spent years as the chair or ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and a transportation adviser for former Gov. Ted Kulongoski. 

Warner will be leading a state agency that doesn’t know how it will fund basic road maintenance and operations at its current levels beyond the 2025-27 budget cycle. Last month, Oregonians overwhelmingly voted against hikes to the gas tax and other transportation fees that would have covered the agency’s budget shortfalls for the next decade. 

Kotek has tasked transportation and business experts to find and propose a solution by the end of the year for lawmakers to consider during the 2027 legislative session. That’s when lawmakers, like in 2025, will once again have six months to compromise on a transportation package.  

Warner joined Kotek’s office as deputy chief of staff at the start of her term, and the governor promoted him to chief of staff after her initial chief of staff, Andrea Cooper, and several other top employees abruptly left the office over concerns about the increasingly influential role of Kotek’s wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson. Kotek walked back plans to create an office of the first spouse amid scrutiny of those plans. 

“I’m grateful to Lisa and Chris for being willing to step in and serve the people of Oregon who depend on a safe and reliable transportation system,” Kotek said in a statement. “Their efforts allow the state to take the steps needed to find the best director for Oregon’s transportation future. Chris has the experience needed to keep the organization moving at this truly critical juncture. He has my full confidence.”

Emerald Bogue, who joined the governor’s office in early spring as a special adviser under a temporary agreement with the Port of Portland, will fill the chief of staff role. The changes will take effect at the end of June. 

The Oregon Department of Administrative Services is still conducting a nationwide search to hire a new transportation director to lead the more than 4,500 employees that maintain the state’s transportation system.