By Camille Ogden, BA '06, Duck Career Network Program Coordinator
A fun, cool world
The daily downpour began—a welcome relief from the heat of Vietnam. Mia Scofield, ’84, looked around the crowded table of the Mexican restaurant. Her group was a smattering of dear friends, new business partners, and family from around the globe. The heavy rain was loud, but the conversation around her was louder. Accents, laughter, and the smell of warm tortillas filled the air. In this moment, Mia realized she was living in a “fun, cool world—so small, in a very good way.” 
It is this in-the-moment love of people, a thirst for challenge, and a constant eye on the “big picture” that has driven Mia’s successful (and winding) career. Like the world she sees, Mia has created a “fun and cool” professional experience.
The teacher, the entrepreneur, the local shoe-maker
A Psychology major turned English major, Mia completed her studies at the UO and began working as a high school teacher. She spent ten years in the front of the classroom before her interest in human behavior captured her attention again and she became a formal student at Lewis and Clark. She completed another degree in counseling and spent the next decade as a guidance counselor for high school students, advising them with a supportive, flexible, “how can we make this possible?” attitude, she received from her own mentors.
“I remember a time with my advisor. He was very, very kind. My daughter sat on his lap—poking her fingers in his ears and nose (as babies do)... He wasn’t hard-nosed or judgmental. Just so kind and supportive.” This moment with her advisor would shape Mia’s own philosophy for her students, her businesses, and her personal endeavors –she continually asks and answers the question; “What can we do to make this possible?”
Among completing multiple degrees with two darling daughters in tow, a celebrated career as a high school English and History teacher, and serving as a guidance counselor, Mia wasn’t done making things possible.
She took a year of leave to travel with her husband and together they started a “real shoe factory” in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Steelhead Manufacturing is the name of their local factory and their specialty product is high quality rubber boots made by machines purchased in Italy. 
Her husband started his import business, Chinook Footwear, twenty-five years ago, and the company has grown from a small shop creating shoes for a single retailer to an operation of more than 70 employees supplying a large line of top-tier work boots to hundreds of major retailers across the USA.
Though it has grown, Chinook is a true local-shop, family owned and operated. If you’re like me, Chinook is a brand you recognize but didn’t know was a local product (or realize your spouse has two pairs of Workhouse Romeos in the closet) until now. The success of Chinook is rooted in the quality and affordability of their product as well as their commitment to family and community. They don’t do splashy advertising –at Chinook they “keep things simple” and rely on word of mouth praise to grow. So far, it’s working.
Pioneer Roots
In 2007, another major birth happened—Mia’s first granddaughter. The successful progress of the shoe factory and looking at the world through a grandmother’s eyes, Mia decided to make another career transition by leaving education and focusing her time on a growing family, a growing factory, and a boutique designer handbag shop: Mo&Co. Bags.
In the devoted and intentional way Mia approaches all things, she crafted an import business around what most influences her—nature, true friendships, travel, artistry, and family. “I first conceived of the rugged look of the brand as something I might have found as a child at my grandparent’s lake cabin. Through my travels, I am inspired by Indian art and culture. The folks I work with in India and I do everything we can to bring the vintage handwork and traditional crafts of India to our bags."
For Mia, international business partnerships generate a stronger, “international understanding” and it is the “interdependency” of people from around the world that Mia finds tremendous joy in. She trusts her business partners because they are always “ahead of the trends” but (perhaps more importantly for Mia) because they are “true friends”. 
Mia continues to learn and is currently enrolled in a small business class where she applies her lessons to Mo&Co. Bags operations. Mia’s “life-learner” approach is likely inherited from her mother, Phyllis Collier Kerns, now 94, and the current record holder of “the most UO credits earned”–ever. Mia’s mom was spotlighted in the Old Oregon for this “claim to fame” but the Duck dynasty of Mia’s family doesn’t stop there. With “over twenty… maybe way over twenty” UO graduates in the family, Mia is also the great-great granddaughter of George Haskell Collier. His home was the Collier house on campus and the family believe his daughter-in-law, Nettie McCornack (wife of Andrew Collier and Mia’s great-great-grandmother), was a member of the first graduating class of the UO. 
Mia is also the aunt of an incoming freshman. Though he toured other institutions, his response to choosing the UO was, “…eeny, meeny, miny, moe –it’s always been the U of O.” Truly, Mia is part of a family that takes #OnceADuckAlwaysADuck to the next, brilliant, level.
Painting the “Big Picture”
As an English major; Mia finds inspiration in words. Gert Boyle’s book, One Tough Mother: Success in Life, Business, and AP, is a source of vision and wisdom because Mia herself is “one tough mother” -balancing family life and work life. To see the big picture of both, you have to “make a painting of what you want overall” –this visualization has helped Mia create a suite of multigenerational businesses where daughters and granddaughters can “see what we do and what that works means”. This instillation of work ethic goes beyond shoes and handbags into philanthropy. Each year, Mia and her girls contribute to the Power of the Purse campaign with Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest to inspire girls 6-18, to be “strong, smart and bold” young women. 
Mia is not a bored woman. Her career path and daily work is dynamic. Like many mother-leaders, she is always finding “something else to do,” constantly “switching things up” to make the most of her time, efforts, and talents. A constant in Mia’s work-life is a commitment to relationships. From teaching American Lit, to discussing designs with her international partners, Mia grounds everything in a hyper-attention to “customer service” and relationship building.
In my short introduction to Mia and her career story, I see a woman with a tenacious work ethic, a global perspective on leadership, and devotion to family love and enduring legacy. She may run a handbag boutique and a shoe factory, but Mia wears a lot of hats. A family woman, business woman, community leader, life-long-learner, and lucky us–a Duck, Mia continues to paint her “big picture” reality among her nearest and dearest, whether she is in a Vietnamese rainfall, fabric store in India, or a rubber boot factory in Lake Oswego.
A special thanks to Mia for sharing her work, her story, and her time with the UOAA Duck Career Network!
To find out more about Chinook Footwear (or shop the shoes!), please visit: https://chinookfootwear.com
To see Mia's fabulous collection of handbags, please visit http://www.moandcobags.com.
Visit her on social too: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter