Bay Area SEC
Bay Area Social Equity Caucus
The Bay Area Social Equity Caucus holds decision makers accountable to the San Francisco Bay Area’s low-income communities and communities of color by uniting organizations across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors and building power around a shared regional agenda for environmental, economic, and social justice. Urban Habitat founded the Bay Area SEC in 1998 and continues to serve as the lead organization.
More than 75 organizations comprise the membership of the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus and are committed to moving a regional equity agenda. Caucus participants represent economic, social, and environmental justice community-based groups, as well as, labor, faith, and youth organizations—our diverse coalition represents a wealth of ideas, energy, talent, and leadership.
Related items:
Michelle Romero, Redistricting Fellow, The Greenlining Institute
Michelle Romero, Redistricting Fellow, The Greenlining Institute Michelle Romero is an alumna of the Greenlining Leadership Academy’s Fellowship programs, where she served as Redistricting Fellow from 2010-11. Today, as the Claiming Our Democracy Program Manager, Michelle directs Greenlining Institute’s voting rights & registration advocacy, redistricting, and ballot reform efforts. Michelle believes that an empowered, engaged citizenry is the key to effective government. She received a Bachelor of Arts in World Literature & Cultural Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010, where she worked to focus university attention on immigrant student issues and access to higher education. She served as the Legislative Liaison for her campus, was a member of the UC Student Association’s board of directors, and was undergraduate representative to the UC-wide faculty Board on Admissions & Relations with Schools. With experience in both state-wide and national policy organizing, Michelle has expertise in grassroots and direct action organizing.
Please listen to her presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting, Assessing the Redistricting Process: What It Means for Our Communities
Paul Mitchell, Political Consultant and Owner, Redistricting Partners
Paul Mitchell, Political Consultant and Owner, Redistricting Partners Redistricting Partners is headed by Paul Mitchell, a Democratic political consultant in Sacramento. Mitchell has a Masters in Public Policy with a focus on urban planning and econometrics. For the past 20 years he has been involved in campaigns from San Diego to Marin, California to North Carolina. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Political Director of EdVoice, an education advocacy group based in Sacramento. In this position he directed and oversaw over $15 million in political spending. Some of his most successful work was in state legislative races where he used data and mapping to help drive successful independent expenditure efforts. Redistricting Partners brings this same focus on winning, paired with the best data and mapping. The team gathered to help you include attorneys with years of experience with political law and redistricting, GIS experts, over 40 years of legislative and community advocacy, and a partnership with one of the nation’s best political data companies. Please listen to his presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting, Assessing the Redistricting Process: What It Means for Our Communities
Connie Galambos Malloy, Senior Director of Programs, Urban Habitat
Connie Galambos Malloy, Director of Programs, Urban Habitat As Director of Programs, Connie leads the organization's climate, transportation, land use and affordable housing work and advances UH's agenda on key partner coalitions. While a Program Coordinator, Connie led the Social Equity Caucus through a 10 year Evaluation and Strategic Plan, resulting in UH's launch of the State of the Region, Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute, and Speakers and Writers Bureau programs. On behalf of UH Connie has completed the Women's Foundation of California's Women's Policy Institute training, the University of Southern California's Ross Program in Real Estate, and the National Development Council's Real Estate Finance Certification. Prior to her years at Urban Habitat, Connie coordinated the Regional Sustainability Initiative at Redefining Progress. Through a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Connie has worked with a variety of California organizations on urban planning issues, including the Earned Asset Resource Network (EARN), Unity Council, and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE). She has also worked as a planner and funding liaison for United Way of the Inland Valleys in Riverside, CA and as a Peace Corps volunteer leading sustainable tourism development projects in Bolivia’s Amazon Basin. Connie is a founding board member of AFAAD: Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora and has directed the Children's Program at Pact Camp, training families adopting and fostering children of different races. She previously served on the board of the California Planning Foundation, and is currently serving as Diversity Director on the California Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Northern Section board. Connie earned her M.C.P. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelors Degree in Communications & Spanish from La Sierra University. Please listen to her presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting Assessing the Redistricting Process: What It Means for Our Communities.
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, President and CEO, Community Coalition of South Los Angeles
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, President and CEO, Community Coalition of South Los Angeles Beginning in his teens, Marqueece has been active in the community for more than twenty years. Currently he is President and CEO of the Community Coalition, a community-based organization in South Los Angeles. Marqueece was the organization’s second Executive Director, following its founder, current California State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.
The organization is best known for leading grassroots campaigns to close over 200 liquor stores and other nuisance businesses in South Los Angeles and to win College Prep courses for all LAUSD high schools. For five years, Marqueece was the director of the Community Coalition youth project, South Central Youth Empowered Through Action. During that time, Marqueece led a campaign to expose poor conditions at South Los Angeles high schools. Student members of South Central Youth Empowered Through Action were armed with disposable cameras to document the conditions at their schools, and trained to advocate for badly needed repairs at their campuses. The students won $153 million in repairs for their schools. Following up on his work to improve conditions at South LA High Schools, Marqueece and the Community Coalition spearheaded a movement to guarantee universal access to college prep courses at every high school in Los Angeles.
In addition to his work at the Community Coalition, Marqueece has extensive experience in electoral politics, and is a key participant in the progressive movement in Los Angeles. During his time completing a Bachelor’s degree at Morehouse College, Marqueece cut his activist teeth on several important community issues including ending South African Apartheid, police brutality and youth and family services. Along with a host of Board and Committee posts, Marqueece boasts several community commendations, recognitions and awards including the coveted Do Something “BRICK” Award and Liberty Hill Foundation’s Upton Sinclair Award. Marqueece recently received a certificate in non profit management from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and is a currently an Aspen Institute Fellow for New Leaders.
Please listen to his presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting, Assessing the Redistricting Process: What It Means for Our Communities
Assessing the Redistricting Process: What It Means for Our Communities - SEC Fall Quarterly Meeting, Sept. 23, 2011
California voters, frustrated with Sacramento’s political gridlock, twice went to the polls to divest elected officials of their authority to draw the state’s political districts. Voters granted that power instead to the citizens of California through the establishment of the 14-member, multipartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission.Barely one week after the Commission adopted 177 newly created state legislative, congressional, and Board of Equalization districts, equity-minded individuals and organizations are wondering whether this more transparent, public process will result in better representation for low-income people and communities of color.
On September 23, 2011, a panel of redistricting experts to discuss the following questions:
- Why and how was the Citizens Redistricting Commission created?
- How has this redistricting process differed from other processes?
- How well were low-income people and communities of color represented?
- What impact will the new maps have on the voice and political power of low-income people and communities of color over the next decade?
- Should all levels of government enact similar redistricting reforms? And if so, how can processes be structured to maximize the political power of low-income people and communities of color?
Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:
*Marqueece Harris-Dawson, President and CEO, Community Coalition of South Los Angeles*Connie Galambos Malloy, Sr. Dir. of Programs, Urban Habitat and Commissioner, California Citizens Redistricting Commission
*Michelle Romero, Redistricting Fellow, The Greenlining Institute
*Paul Mitchell, Political Consultant and Owner, Redistricting Partners
Related items:
Bob Allen, Director of Transportation and Housing Programs, Urban Habitat
.thumbnail.jpg)
Bob Allen, Director of Transportation and Housing Programs, Urban HabitatHis background and experience include community planning and policy work both in the United States and overseas with international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). While at UH, Bob led the successful 2008 Campaign to help pass a regional measure, Measure VV, which raised funds to keep bus passes affordable for seniors, youth, and disabled riders. Currently, Bob is leading UH’s efforts on federal and state transportation advocacy. Bob received both his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and History and his Masters in Public Administration from Rutgers University.
Please listen to his presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting, Equitable Alternatives to AB 32's Cap-and-Trade Program.
Adrienne Bloch, Senior Staff Attorney, Communities for a Better Environment
Adrienne Bloch, Senior Staff Attorney, Communities for a Better Environment Adrienne Bloch is the senior staff attorney at Communities for a Better
Environment, an environmental health and justice organization located in
Oakland and Huntington Park, California. CBE works with communities in low income
communities and communities of color on leadership development, education, organizing
strategies, and provides scientific and policy research, and legal assistance in CBE campaigns.
CBE believes in building community power to help achieve the basic human right to clean air,
clean water, and clean land and public space. Adrienne consults as part of CBE campaign
teams, brings lawsuits using federal and state environmental statutes, and acts as in-house
counsel for the organization. She also engages in regional and statewide policy issues including
climate change and cumulative impacts. Adrienne graduated from Oberlin College and from
University of California Hastings School of Law with an international law concentration.
Please listen to her presentation at the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus Quarterly Meeting, Equitable Alternatives to AB 32's Cap-and-Trade Program.
Equitable Alternatives to AB 32's Cap-and-Trade Program: Summer Quarterly - June 10, 2011
Equitable Alternatives to AB 32's Cap-and-Trade Program
In 2006, environmental justice advocates helped pass California's first-ever climate change legislation (AB 32), which requires the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The passing of AB 32 was a significant victory for environmental justice communities, and set a precedent for future federal legislation. However, in April of this year, environmental justice advocates won a federal lawsuit that brought the implementation of AB 32 to a halt, claiming that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) did not adequately evaluate alternatives to its proposed cap-and-trade program, which could disproportionally impact low-income communities and communities of color.
On June 10, 2011, environmental justice advocates, decision makers, and policy experts from throughout the Bay Area discussed AB 32, the lawsuit that halted its implementation, and identified equitable alternatives to CARB's cap-and-trade program. Chione Flegal, Senior Associate at PolicyLink and member of the CARB's Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC) shared the concerns and recommendations raised by the EJAC; Adrienne Bloch, Staff Attorney at Communities for a Better Environment and one of the lead attorneys in the aforementioned lawsuit provided an overview of the case and the opportunities it is providing environmental justice advocates; and Bob Allen, Director of Transportation Justice for Urban Habitat presented on challenges and opportunities of conducting an equity analysis. Other advocates from throughout the Bay Area were also on hand to provide updates on their environmental justice work as well.
Read the speakers' bios and hear the podcast of their presentation:
*Chione Flegal, Senior Associate, PolicyLink
*Adrienne Bloch, Staff Attorney, Communities for a Better Environment
*Bob Allen, Director of Transportation Justice, Urban Habitat
Oakland Forum Debates Cap-and-Trade
OAKLAND--California’s landmark climate change law, AB 32, would reduce polluting greenhouse gases from a range of sources—car and truck emissions, industrial sources, electricity producers and other sources—with each source slashed by a certain percentage. For example, 36 percent of the greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions will come from transportation—24 percent from cars that produce lower emissions, 9 percent from cleaner-burning fuels, an 3 percent from smart-growth development that decreases dependency on cars and encourages public transit.
Related items:
