Meet Dani Dorroh: Building a Voice for Workers and Patients with Legacy United

For Dani Dorroh, the path to unionizing didn’t start with a grand plan; it started with a team.

Dani is a speech-language pathologist at Legacy Good Samaritan’s Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon (RIO), where she works closely with patients recovering from strokes and brain injuries. She helps people regain critical skills like speech, cognition, and even the ability to safely swallow. It’s complex, deeply human work.

And it’s work that depends on collaboration.

“I really like our team approach,” Dani said when asked about her job. “We work closely across disciplines, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and nursing. We have a good collaborative model, and we’re a pretty close-knit group.”

That sense of teamwork is part of what drew Dani into organizing with her coworkers. Like many workers at Legacy RIO, she hadn’t been part of a union before. At first, the process felt unfamiliar and even overwhelming.

“It’s very grassroots,” she said. “There are so many moving pieces. Honestly, the whole thing has been surprising to me.”

But even without prior union experience, Dani recognized the possibilities organizing a union brought

“I felt really strongly that my patients and my coworkers needed to be represented,” she said. Now, as workers bargain for their first contract, that voice is taking shape around some clear priorities: protecting what works and improving what doesn’t.

In a high-stress healthcare environment, maintaining work-life balance can be a challenge. Dani says that’s one of the issues she and her coworkers are thinking about as they negotiate.

“We deal with some heavy stuff,” she said. “You’re always striving for better balance, trying to get out on time. That’s not always easy.”

For Dani, one of the biggest shifts since organizing hasn’t just been about a future contract; it’s been about awareness.

“It’s easy to be a passive employee,” she said. “Policies can feel boring or overwhelming. But they actually matter a lot; they impact our work and our patients.”

Being part of the union has changed that perspective.

“I feel more aware of what’s going on in the background,” she said. “You start to see the bigger picture, not just your day-to-day work.”

As Legacy RIO workers continue bargaining their first contract, members like Dani are helping lay the foundation—not just for themselves, but for the patients and communities they serve.

Because in healthcare, having a voice on the job doesn’t just improve working conditions, it helps ensure better care for everyone.

Interested in learning more about Legacy United? You can follow them on Facebook and Instagram. For bargaining updates, visit https://legacy-united.org/.