Remarkable Woman: Elle Harris, Earth mover
Editor’s Note: March is Women’s History Month. Each Tuesday during March, KOIN 6 News will spotlight a Remarkable Woman nominated by others in the community.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Elle Harris grew up around her dad’s heavy machinery. It’s not a surprise she ended up in the same line of work, but the path to this point was bumpy.
Harris said rampant sexism in the industry led her to start her own company, Harris Excavation, a few years ago. That was also bumpy.
“I faced some really horrific stuff as a woman. And one day my husband looked at me and said, ‘How long are you going to do this just to prove a point?'” she told KOIN 6 News. “I remember reading that women only get 4% of the funding, and I didn’t realize until years later and had to get creative on how to grow at the rate I was growing.”
While her business grows, she uses it as an opportunity to help others.
Recently, Harris bought a piece of land that will eventually be used to train women at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility on how to operate heavy machinery.
“Eventually our hope is to be able to do this all year long for the women that apply through Coffee Creek to do the trades program for equipment operating,” she said.
Meagan Fuller, who is serving time at Coffee Creek, is thankful for the chance.
“Nobody really wants to give us an opportunity, being felons, when we leave here,” Fuller said. “So, people standing behind us and giving us this opportunity is a real game changer for us.”
Harris also used her equipment to help clean up after the deadly 2020 wildfires in Oregon and she formed a group that helped evacuate 800 farm animals in a number of days.
“At the time I had three trucks and trailers. My neighbors and I were all lined up and down here. I was, like, ‘Call us if you need anything evacuated,’ and before I know it we have 15 trucks and trailers and my post got shared 4000 times.”
Harris also traveled to Lahaina after the Hawaiian wildfire disaster — “We washed dishes at restaurants, and were feeding people, unloaded shipping containers” — all while raising a 4- and 6-year-old in Sherwood.
Her main goal, she said, is making it a better world for them. And that’s one reason she’s on the Sherwood Police Foundation.
“I’m doing my best to humanize the badge and show people what I get to see from them. I can’t speak for every police department, but our police department — these officers are incredible.”
Then there’s her work for ALS Northwest.
Jeff Young has been fighting the progressive neurodegenerative disease (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) for 40 years. He’s found a new friend in Elle Harris, who’s been coming by to help with yardwork.
Her work with ALS Northwest is personal. She lost her stepdad to the disease in 2023, just months after he was diagnosed.
“I went to an event, Pride with ALS, the weekend after he passed,” she said through tears. “It was, like, nowhere else I’d rather be.”
She plans to help Jeff Young with more than just yardwork. She plans to make his front and backyard wheelchair accessible.
Elle Harris also volunteers to use her equipment to rescue cats in trees or dig holes to bury farm animals once they die.
But there’s even more to this Remarkable Woman.
Occasionally she has to change out of her Carhartts and into more formal wear after she was crowned Mrs. Willamette Valley 2024.
“I’ve always done what I’ve done,” she said, “but I didn’t realize there’s a whole world of women pioneering for causes they believe in and things they care about.”
The drug epidemic is one thing that has weighed heavily on her. She’s been attending town halls and talking directly with lawmakers about solutions to the drug crisis.
Again, she circles back to her kids as the inspiration, “especially since I had kids, and with everything going on, an overwhelming sense of I have to do what I can to help, especially in community my kids are growing up in.”
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