Senator Avel Gordly served Senate District 23, which included portions of North Portland. She was appointed to the House in 1991, elected and re-elected in 1995. She was elected to the Senate in 1997, re-elected in 2001 and 2005. This last session, Sen. Gordly served as Vice-Chairwoman of Health and Human Services, and served on the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee. She also was the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon Senate in the history of the state.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in the Administration of Justice from Portland State University and completed the Program for Senior Executives at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum. Her professional career includes service as an Adult Parole and Probation Officer for the State of Oregon Corrections Division, Director of Youth Service for the Urban League of Portland and Community Liaison for the Multnomah County Health Department, where she works on the County's emergency preparedness and health disparity issues. Today, she is an associate professor of Black Studies at her alma mater, Portland State University.