Andrew Bacon has spent more than two decades moving between fields that don’t usually share a resume: music, technology, education, journalism, and food security. He started as a self-taught drummer, touring and performing while working multiple jobs to support that path, before turning the same self-taught discipline toward technology. In 2000 he founded Northern Pacific Digital, a digital strategy and web development consultancy that has delivered over 300 projects for clients ranging from startups to international corporations.
In 2022, he became a 49 percent partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Oaks Center for Educational Advancement, where he built the operational infrastructure, including a $1.8 million STARBASE contract with the California National Guard, that allows the organization to focus on serving educators and school leaders. In 2023, he took over as President of Earthwise Knowledge Initiative, acquiring and converting the Columbia Basin Bulletin, a regional environmental news outlet founded in 1997, into a nonprofit publication, and rebuilding its subscription model from a single flat rate into a tiered structure that reflected actual institutional ability to pay.
In 2024, he stepped into the Executive Director role at Evergreen Produce Connection after the organization’s board dissolved, with no functioning governance structure and continued operations at risk. He rebuilt the board from scratch, kept federal and state grant compliance current without interruption, and has since grown the organization’s state grant funding for four consecutive years, most recently by approximately 33 percent over the prior cycle. He is currently developing the South Sound Fresh Access Network, a five-site refrigerated locker pilot designed to serve over 4,000 families weekly.
In parallel with this work, he returned to complete the bachelor’s degree he had started thirty-three years earlier, a return prompted by reuniting with his partner, Donna Hyatt, after eighteen years apart, a reconnection that also led directly to their partnership at The Oaks Center. He continued directly into a master’s program in nonprofit management, not to open professional doors he hadn’t already opened himself, but because the learning itself was the point.
What colleagues say:
“He built reader revenue infrastructure and strategy for a regional non-profit news outlet, managed federal and state grant compliance for a food access nonprofit through a full leadership transition, and helped stand up a Department of Defense/California National Guard education contract, all while running a digital marketing consultancy that funds much of this other work. Few people in the Rogue Valley nonprofit sector carry that combination of financial literacy, grant administration experience, and hands-on media and digital skill.”
Paul Sheldon, Executive Director, The Crest at Willow Witt Ranch
“When EPC’s board dissolved, he kept the organization’s finances and grant compliance intact without any interruption in services, then rebuilt a functioning board from scratch. Federal and state grant reporting has stayed current and audit-ready the entire time.”
Kimber Bishop, EPC Board Chair (acting)
“Without the traditional path of a college education, he built a successful career by learning technical skills on the job, earning the trust of major organizations, and eventually founding Northern Pacific Digital, a web development company that he grew successfully over the course of two decades.”
Dr. Donna Hyatt, business partner, The Oaks Center for Educational Advancement