YEO Policy Academy Books 2010 Policy Academy: Foreclosure and Stabalization | Page 16

A New Generation of Leaders on the Front Lines of C h ang e M. Janet Chin Board of Education Member - Vice President, Rosemead, California Board of Education Member M. Janet Chin was elected to the Garvey School District Board of Education in 2007 and is currently serving as vice president. She is the founder and president of the M. Janet Chin Youth Foundation, a non-profit organization that produces youth leaders through civic engagement, service learning, and leadership training. Board Member Chin has been awarded the Los Angeles Bilingual Directors Association Award and honored as a Woman of Distinction by former Congresswoman and current Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. She currently serves on the U.S. Army Los Angeles Recruiting Battalion Community Advisory Board, and has previously served as PTA president, chair of the English Learners Advisory Council, and chair of School Site Council. Henry Davis, Jr. City Councilman, South Bend, Indiana Councilman Henry Davis, Jr. has been serving South Bend as a city councilman since 2008, where he helped make history by being part of the largest number of minorities to serve on the council simultaneously. Councilman Davis is chair of the Community Relations Committee and vice chairman of the Community and Economic Development Council. He is also employed as a child support services caseworker with the county prosecutor’s office. Asa Dodsworth Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner, Berkeley, California Commissioner Asa Dodsworth was elected to the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board in November 2010. Previously, he served for three years as a commissioner for the City of Berkeley Zero Waste Commission, where he worked to expand existing municipal recycling and composting services into apartment complexes. Commissioner Dodsworth successfully worked with Berkeley Coalitions, a local non-profit, to canvass constituents to challenge an unpopular land use policy. Commissioner Dodsworth has over eleven years of community service experience feeding the homeless, building community gardens, and educating constituents about their constitutional rights. Jamie Eldridge State Senator, Boston, Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 2009, after previously serving as a state representative. He is the only “Clean Elections” candidate to be elected to public office in Massachusetts’s history. During his time in the legislature, he has been one of the leaders of the movement to protect marriage equality in Massachusetts; proposed and passed the state’s newest antipoverty program (Individual Development Accounts), helped lead the successful effort to close corporate tax loopholes, and was part of an effort to overhaul the way education is financed in Massachusetts. Sen. Eldridge is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Boston College Law School. Mae Flexer State Representative, Danielson, Connecticut State Representative Mae Flexer, before being elected to the state legislature, was the youngest person in Connecticut ever elected as Town Committee chairwoman. She has previously served as a field organizer for both the Courtney and Sullivan campaigns, as legislative aide for Senate President Don Williams, and worked six sessions at the capitol in various roles, including a stint with the Judiciary Committee and in the legislative commissioner’s office. She recently returned to the University of Connecticut to pursue a master’s degree. Y EO P o l i cy A ca d e m y v P ag e 14