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Laurie Schell began her career as a dancer and teacher before serving for ten years as the Executive Director of the California Alliance for Arts Education (now merged with Create CA). Under her leadership, the Alliance played a pivotal role in the successful 2005 campaign that secured the largest state-funded expenditure for arts education in [...]
Lark Galloway-Gilliam was the founding Executive Director of Community Health Councils (now Rising Communities), a consumer-oriented health advocacy organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality for uninsured and underinsured communities. Lark played an active role in shaping the policies and debates on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families implementation, nonprofit hospital conversions, health disparities among ethnic communities, and [...]
May To founded the Asian Youth Center in 1989 and served as its Executive Director, guiding its growth from three to 35 staff members. Operating in a multilingual and multicultural environment, Asian Youth Center offers programs in delinquency and substance abuse prevention, tobacco control, HIV/AIDS education, testing, and counseling. The organization also offers an after-school [...]
Abby Leibman is the Founder and former Executive Director of the California Women’s Law Center (CWLC), a statewide policy and support organization focused on women’s rights. The Center specializes in issues of sex discrimination, violence against women, family law, childcare, and reproductive rights. In addition to protecting and advancing the law as it relates to [...]
Debra Suh is the former Executive Director of the Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF), which opened the nation’s first multilingual and multicultural domestic violence emergency shelter for Asian Pacific Islander (API) women and their children. CPAF also operates the only rape crisis center in the US dedicated to serving API survivors, along with [...]
Larry Gross has served as Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) for over 50 years. Since its founding in 1973, CES has organized tenants and low-income residents of Los Angeles to advocate for tenant rights, manage affordable housing, abate lead paint hazards, and preserve safe, affordable housing stock. Larry played a key [...]
Jeff Carr is the former Executive Director of the Bresee Foundation, which provides health services, literacy and academic enrichment, technology and employment support, outreach, and recreation in one of central Los Angeles’s poorest and most densely populated communities. Jeff joined the Bresee Foundation in 1987 as a college intern and was charged with creating a [...]
Bill Watanabe is the former Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), a nonprofit organization that provides a comprehensive array of social welfare and community development services. LTSC supports low-income Angelenos, promotes community revitalization and cultural preservation in Little Tokyo and among the broader Japanese community in the Southland, and serves the broader [...]
Arturo Ybarra founded the Watts/Century Latino Organization (WCLO) in 1990 and served as its Executive Director for 32 years. WCLO is the only Latino multicultural nonprofit organization specifically serving Latinos and African-Americans in South LA, despite Latinos making up more than half of the residents in the area. Long known for his ability to work [...]
Normandie Nigh is the former Chief Executive Officer of A World Fit For Kids! (AWFFK!), an organization pioneering a model after-school program focused on sports, fitness, and wellness. The organization employs college students to mentor inner-city teens, who then guide younger children through sports, recreation, and enrichment activities. AWFFK! operates in many LAUSD schools and [...]
