Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center, a nonprofit educational organization working to help all Californians prosper. Swaim began his journalism career as a business reporter in 1990, as managing editor and ultimately editor and publisher of the international business magazine, World Trade. In 1995, Village Voice Media Read more…
Adam B. Summers is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He previously worked as an editorial writer and columnist at the Orange County Register and its 10 sister newspapers in the Southern California News Group, and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Reason Foundation. Mr. Summers has written extensively Read more…
Mike Soubirous serves as a Riverside City Councilmember. Mike is a fourth-generation native Californian who attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 1976, joined the California Highway Patrol in 1982 and retired from the CHP as a Lieutenant and acting Commander in 2011. Mike developed the concept for the popular Read more…
Dr. Raphael J. Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CSU Los Angeles. Previously, he was Chair of the Division of Politics, Administration, and Justice at CSU Fullerton. He received his B.A. from Princeton, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale. He is Read more…
“Susan Shelley has been an opinion columnist for the papers of the Southern California News Group since 2014, writing on local, state and national issues. Her columns have won an enthusiastic following for the deep research and clear thinking she brings to complex and contentious problems. Prior to becoming a Read more…
Maria S. Salinas is the President & CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business association in Los Angeles County representing more than 1,600-member companies and serving the interests of more than 235,000 businesses across the Los Angeles region. Ms. Salinas took the helm of the Read more…
Angelica Salas is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and is widely regarded as one of the most gifted activist/organizers in the country today.Since becoming CHIRLA’s director in 1999, Salas has spearheaded and won several ambitious campaigns. She helped win in-state tuition Read more…
Janice’s passion for community service started when her Girl Scout troop did watershed clean-ups and worked with children with developmental delays. By high school, she was organizing fellow students to lobby the legislature for education funding, and in college, she worked for a local Assemblyman on alternative fuel vehicles and Read more…
Dr. Bob Ross is the President & CEO of The California Endowment, our state’s largest private health foundation. During his leadership tenure, the foundation has focused on the vision of health coverage for every Californian, as well as health improvement in under-resourced and marginalized communities. During the past decade, the Read more…
Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He directs the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair Read more…
Gary Painter is a Professor in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Director of the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation and the Homelessness Policy Research Institute. He recently published a co-authored book entitled, “Payment by Results and Read more…
Dowell Myers is a professor of policy, planning, and demography in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. He is a leading expert on California’s changing demographics that lead the nation’s. Dr. Myers specializes in demographic narrative that combines elements in a fusion of policy, planning and demography, termed “integrated demography,” Read more…
Senator Mike Morrell was born and raised in California. He was married here, raised his family here, and opened two corporations here, Provident Home Loans and Provident Realty, both incorporated in 1989. He now represents California’s 23rd State Senate District, serving on five Senate committees, including as Vice Chair of Read more…
Jeff Montejano serves as CEO of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, a leading advocate for thousands of building industry leaders who are committed to a better future for California by building communities, creating jobs and ensuring housing opportunities for everyone. BIASC is one of the largest building industry Read more…
REDF Chief Program Officer Carrie McKellogg joined the organization in 2015, and is responsible for implementing the venture philanthropy’s strategic plan to significantly grow and support the social enterprise sector to employ 50,000 people facing the most significant barriers to employment nationwide by 2020. Prior to her role at REDF, Read more…
Manjusha P. Kulkarni (Manju) is Executive Director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), a coalition of over forty community-based organizations that serves and represents the 1.5 million Asian Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County. Manju also serves as a Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department of UCLA, Read more…
Jay Jordan has worked at the intersection of social justice and politics throughout his career. During his tenure at LA Voice PICO, Jay was instrumental in recruiting and training churches in the South Los Angeles area. He served as one of the lead organizers for the Campaign to Ban the Read more…
Described by the New York Times as “America’s uber-geographer,” Joel Kotkin is an internationally-recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends. He authored THE HUMAN CITY: Urbanism for the Rest of Us (Agate Press) in 2016 and co-edited, with MIT’s Alan Berger, the 2018 collection INFINITE SUBURBIA (Princeton University Press). Mr. Read more…
Shelley Hoss has combined the best of the nonprofit and corporate worlds for the good of the community for over 30 years. Since May 2000 she has served at the helm of one of Orange County’s most prominent philanthropic organizations– the Orange County Community Foundation, whose mission is to inspire Read more…
As Riverside’s newly elected county supervisor Jeff Hewitt took office in January of 2019. Jeff had been the Mayor of Calimesa for three years, demonstrating competence for public service and a flair for making strong connections. He is an entrepreneur and his successful pool construction business has been in operation Read more…
Tracy Hernandez is the Founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation (BizFed), which is a massive grassroots alliance of more than 180 diverse business associations, representing 400,000 businesses that employ 3.5 million people. BizFed advocates for positive public policy, manageable regulations, taxes and fees, while educating and empowering Read more…
Dr. Fernando Guerra is the director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan and his B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California. His area of scholarly work Read more…
Alan Greenlee is the Executive Director of the Southern California Association of Non Profit Housing (SCANPH). He has served in this capacity since October 2012. Over his 25-year professional career, he has demonstrated a commitment to helping low-income families join the economic mainstream by supporting beneficial public policy at the Read more…
Shane Murphy Goldsmith is the President and CEO of Liberty Hill Foundation, one of the nation’s most admired social change foundations. She currently sits on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, and is the co-chair of the California Executive Alliance for Boys and Men of Color SoCal Region. Shane Read more…
Mary Anne is the executive director and founder of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA). OCAPICA is a nonprofit organization with over 100 staff who speak 26 languages and programs that serve more than 40,000 community members a year. The agency provides mental health, policy and Read more…
As President and CEO of Orange County Business Council, Lucy Dunn leads a dynamic organization of business members, working with academia and government, to ensure the county’s economic prosperity and high quality of life. Before joining OCBC, she served as Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development Read more…
Assemblyman Tyler Diep was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2018. He represents the 72nd District, which includes the cities of Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Westminster, portions of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, and Santa Ana, and the unincorporated areas of Midway City and Rossmoor. For the Read more…
Mr. Devereaux served in state and local government for over 40 years, holding a variety of leadership positions including City Manager of Fontana and Ontario, where he worked with the city councils to improve each city’s finances, as well as Chief Executive Officer of San Bernardino County California where he Read more…
Decker currently serves as CEO of Rural Action, a regional sustainable development nonprofit working to build a new, more just economy in Appalachian Ohio through leadership development, social enterprises, and environmental restoration. For the last 27 years Decker has held leadership positions in community economic development and has specialized in rebuilding Read more…
Carolyn Cavecche serves as President and CEO of the Orange County Taxpayers Association. She came to OCTax with over a decade of public policy experience gained from serving on numerous city, county and regional governing boards. This experience has given her insight into how government can and should keep taxes Read more…
Tom Campbell is a Professor of Economics and a Professor of Law at Chapman University. He served as Dean of the Fowler School of Law at Chapman, and, before that, Dean of the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. He was a U.S. Congressman for five terms, a California State Read more…
Cynthia Buiza is the Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) where she provides the vision for the mission of California’s leading immigrant rights organization. Cynthia has over two decades of experience in nonprofit management and human rights advocacy. She worked on international refugee, migration, human rights and Read more…
Gregory (Greg) Bradbard, President of the Hope through Housing Foundation and National CORE’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships has spent the past two decades as a community champion and nonprofit leader throughout Southern California. Greg is a passionate advocate for moving individuals from poverty to self-sufficiency. Under his leadership, Read more…
Julie Bornstein is a 35-year resident of the Coachella Valley. Currently she is Executive Director of nonprofit affordable housing developer, Coachella Valley Housing Coalition. She serves as a Board Member of the California Coalition for Rural Housing and the National Rural Housing Coalition. She is also an Ex Officio member Read more…
Evelyn Blumenberg’s research examines the effects of urban structure—the spatial location of residents, employment, and services—on economic outcomes for low-wage workers, and on the role of planning and policy in shaping the spatial structure of cities. Her recent projects include analyses of trends in transit ridership, residential location and travel Read more…
Rick Bishop is the Executive Director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG), a joint powers authority consisting of 18 cities, the County of Riverside, the Eastern and Western Municipal Water Districts, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Bishop is responsible Read more…
Judy Belk leads The California Wellness Foundation in pursuing its mission to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California. She uses her vision and her voice to help Cal Wellness “level the playing field” so that everyone has access to health care, quality education, good jobs, Read more…
Rusty Bailey is a Riverside native who has served as Mayor since 2012, having previously been a member of the City Council. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in political science in 1994, Mayor Bailey worked in a variety of public service Read more…