Alumni Profile: Brett Burmeister '92

Managing Editor and Co-Owner
FoodCartsPortland.com
Major at Linfield: History

What are you doing now?
I'm currently a self-employed writer, consultant and tour guide. As the owner and managing editor of Food Carts Portland (foodcartsportland.com), I have been tracking and writing about Portland's dynamic street food scene for four years. As an expert in the field of mobile vending, I have provided consulting services to municipalities and cities throughout the U.S. and Canada and have been invited to speak at multiple conferences. On the lighter side, I offer tours of the food carts in downtown, espousing the glory of street food and telling the vendors' stories.

Tell us about yourself.
I'm a Portlander through and through. Born and raised here, I now live in North Portland, a neighborhood I have called home for 16 years. Married to my lovely wife, Anna Villnes, we have a few Chihuahuas who get chased around the backyard by our urban chickens. Always looking for the next new project, I'm a gardener, a remodeler, a bicyclist, a traveler. When I can, I carve out time in the day to write and am actively working on a fiction novel. I enjoy a nice vintage suit.

How did Linfield help prepare you for your career?
Linfield taught me that I could do anything. After college, when starting my first career in information technology, I enjoyed success because I didn't have fear of failure. I had written a senior thesis and graduated conversational in both German and Russian. Not much can't be solved with a little hard work and Linfield taught me how to overcome those challenges in a methodical way. In my current adventure, I keep thinking of how I wrote and wrote and wrote at Linfield and it has taken me almost 20 years to realize I have the passion and skill for it. My history professors taught me how to research and write in a way that engages the reader andI thank them for that. Go Wildcats!