First District

Second District

Third District

Forth District

Fifth District

Labor

First District

JEFFREY J. PENICHET

As a business owner and longtime board member for multiple non-profit organizations and previous commission appointments, he is experienced in organizational management, quality effectiveness analysis, policy development, financial statement evaluation, and investment recommendations

He founded, managed and grew from a start-up to a medium sized business entity Bilingual Educational Services, Inc. Over time, he developed systems for producing and publishing education materials; moved from manual records to computerization with specialized software; analyzed financial growth and contained labor and production costs; and, developed organizational structures for a 65,000 square foot storage and distribution warehouse.

As a Commissioner for the Los Angeles City Employee Retirement System for four years, he helped evaluate and recommend investments for a $14 billion portfolio in several investment categories including stocks and private equity.

He is a long time Board Member of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF), an organization that provides preschool and family services to over 100,000 clients annually. The organization has expanded its budget from $20 million to $87 million. For the last five years, he has been serving as Chairperson of Properties, Inc., supervising the acquisition of two buildings and increasing income substantially for the parent organization.

Penichet holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Washington.

TERESA DREYFUSS

Teresa Dreyfuss worked at Rio Hondo College for 32 years. She retired on June 30, 2019, after serving for six years as Superintendent/President of the College. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Dreyfuss first came to the college in 1987, and previously served as Interim Superintendent/President, Vice President-Finance and Business, Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Business Manager, and Senior Accountant.

Ms. Dreyfuss holds an MBA from the University of Laverne and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Chinese Culture, Taipei, Taiwan. She worked as a part-time instructor at both Rio Hondo College and Los Angeles City College, teaching accounting and business classes for ten years, and as the Director of Business at Riverside Community College.

She serves on several Boards, including as an Advisory Member to the El Monte/South El Monte Chamber of Commerce, Board Member for the Los Angeles County Successor Agency Oversight Board (Fourth District appointee), and Member of the Los Angeles and Orange County Regional Consortium Governance Council. She is also active with the Soroptimist International of Whittier, and Soroptimist International of South El Monte and El Monte, and the Whittier Historical Society. Ms. Dreyfuss is also a Member of the Chancellor's Office Facility Task Force and Chief Business Officials California Community College, and a Faculty Member at the Leadership Development Program for Higher Education.

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Second District

NANCY G. HARRIS

Nancy G. Harris is a mortgage broker with ten years experience in mortgage lending industry. She previously held the positions of Regional Vice President, Corporate Trainer, and Loan Originator with Home Savings of America. Ms. Harris is currently a Board member of the West Angeles Community Development Corporation, member of The New Leaders Organization, affiliate member of the Consolidated Realty Board, and arbitrator for the NASD.

ANDRES CUERVO

Andrés is a long time advocate of public education and empowering youth. He currently serves in the Workforce Development and Education team of the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, where he manages a new workforce initiative to transform and empower career pathways for underrepresented youth.

Prior to this role, Andrés worked at UCLA, where he led two campus-wide initiatives, one focused on community engagement and one on innovation. As Director of UCLA Tech + Innovation, he coordinated the launch of the university's first innovation portal, an annual student competition to develop tech for LA, the Bruin Code Summer Academy for students in South LA, the Luskin Automated Robot Assistant, and partnerships with tech companies. As director of UCLA’s Centennial Celebration, he oversaw over 80 outreach events and four community initiatives.

Prior to these roles, Andrés managed communications for UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, which trains over 20% of LA’s teachers. There, he led a brand revamp, the launch of seven new websites, an online magazine, and a digital newsletter. The latter was recognized by the Council for the Advancement & Support of Education as a best practice for two years in a row.

Before UCLA, Andrés coordinated workforce development programs for the Riverside Chambers of Commerce, including the Small Business Resource Expo, the Business Education Partnership Council, and the Riverside College & Career Fair.

Andrés earned his B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from the University of California, Riverside. Andres currently serves on LA County’s Quality and Productivity Commission and has served on the boards of Urban Teens Exploring Technology, Out in Tech LA, New Leaders Council LA, and the Palms Neighborhood Council. In 2018, he was recognized by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the Empowerment Congress as one of 40 under 40 leaders in Los Angeles.

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Third District

J. SHAWN LANDRES, Ph.D.

Connecting people, ideas, and resources, Shawn Landres, PhD, has earned international recognition for his leadership in social innovation. A widely published essayist and editor whose work has been featured by the White House and covered by TIME, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, he is co-founder and Board co-chair of Jumpstart Labs, a philanthropic research and design consultancy

A Senior Fellow at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Landres is a City of Santa Monica Planning Commissioner and an appointee to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Financial Oversight Committee. He is a former chair of the City of Santa Monica Social Services Commission.

Landres brings to the Commission more than two decades of experience in academic, nonprofit, and philanthropic leadership, social entrepreneurship, network building, and organizational development, including the Clinton Administration's Reinventing Government initiative and projects funded by the U.S. State Department and the British government

In 2015, Landres led the Commission’s Strategic Plan Update and shepherded its “Digital by Default” report; he also chaired the Santa Monica Public Library's Innovation Technology Task Force. In 2016, he co-authored the UCLA/California Community Foundation report, “The Generosity Gap: Donating Less in Post-Recession Los Angeles County.” In 2017, he co-authored co-authored the Future of Cities LA/USC Huntington Institute report, “Space to Lead: A Century of Civic Leadership in Los Angeles."

A Los Angeles native who grew up in Santa Monica, where he now lives with his wife and two young daughters, Landres holds degrees from Columbia University (BA cum laude, religion), the University of Oxford (MSt with distinction, social anthropology), and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned a PhD in religious studies. He has co-edited four books and published award-winning articles and essays that advance intergroup understanding.

In 2013, the Liberty Hill Foundation honored him with its NextGen Leadership Award. He was a 2015-16 California Connections Fellow of the Southern California Leadership Network, which in 2017 selected him as a 30th anniversary “30-in-30” alumni honoree.

Landres has served a non-executive manager for and/or advised numerous early-stage ventures and social enterprises.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Relations Council - Santa Monica Bay Area.  Other advisory commitments include the Southern California Grantmakers Public Policy Committee, NEXUS, and the Liberty Hill Foundation.  Landres, whom the Forward recognized in 2009 as one of America's 50 most influential Jewish leaders in 2009, also serves on the Jewish Federation's ChangeMaker Challenge Steering Committee.

CLAIRE PEEPS

In her role as the Durfee Foundation’s executive leader, Claire is responsible for conceiving, shaping and implementing the foundation’s programs, working in close association with a board of directors and staff.

The Durfee Foundation is a family foundation that invests in people and possibilities in Los Angeles. With annual giving of about $3 million, the foundation is best known for its work in leadership development, community building and civic problem solving in Southern California through four cornerstone programs: 1) the Durfee Sabbatical program, which offers capacity building and renewal to nonprofit organizations and has supported more than 100 leaders in Los Angeles during the past 20 years; 2) the Stanton Fellowships, which support accomplished leaders in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to ease out solutions to problems that face the future of Los Angeles; 3) the Springboard Fund, which provides seed funding to new grassroots ventures that are testing innovative strategies toward a community need; and 4) Ignite LA, a program that seeks to stimulate student curiosity and interest in science through field research.

Claire is recognized for her progressive leadership in both the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the Chair of Southern California Grantmakers, Chair of Grantmakers in the Arts, President of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Vice Chair of the California Council for the Humanities, and is a Senior Fellow of the Luskin School of Public Policy at UCLA. She is an adjunct professor at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, where she was named Outstanding Faculty in 2016. In 2015, she received the Award for Excellence in Leadership from the Joint Affinity Groups for her mentorship through Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy.

Prior to joining Durfee, Claire was the associate director of the Los Angeles Festival, an international arts festival led by Peter Sellars; the publisher of High Performance Magazine; and the director of education at The Friends of Photography/The Ansel Adams Center. Her book, Activists Speak Out, was published by St. Martins Press in 2001. Her writing has appeared in Zocalo, Time, Saturday Evening Post, the Getty Iris and Good Magazine.

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Forth District

JACKI BACHARACH

Jacki Bacharach served for 14 years as Mayor and Councilmember in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (a predecessor agency to the LACMTA) for 12 years. On the Commission, she chaired the overall Planning Committee, the Rail Construction and Planning Committees as well as the full Commission. She led the committees through the development of the overall rail plan for L.A. County and oversaw the construction of the Metro Blue and Green Lines.

Since 1985 she has been a member of the Los Angeles-San Diego Rail Corridor Agency overseeing and improving L.A.-San Diego Amtrak service representing LACMTA serving as the Vice Chair which she remained until the end of 2012 when her appointment ended.

Jacki Bacharach was a charter member of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority dealing with landside access to the Ports of LA and Long Beach and served as Founding Chair of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority - the five-county agency that operates the Metrolink commuter rail system.

She served on the State Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century and as a member of the National Commission on Intermodal Transportation as well as serving as a member of President Clinton’s Transition Team Transportation Cluster Group. In both of these positions, she was the only member from California.

Her first job after graduating from UCLA was as a social worker for L.A. County Department of Social Services.

MAXWELL BILLIEON

Maxwell Billieon is the CEO of The Billieon Group. His professional experience includes executive business development of branded intellectual properties with an emphasis on the specialty markets of commercial land development, residential real estate development, entertainment multi-media, textile manufacturing, crypto-currency mining and luxury lifestyle goods development, manufacturing and distribution.

He is a best-selling author and globally requested professional speaker with expertise in Generation X, socio-politics and business entrepreneurship. He is the recipient of a Gold Seal commendation from the City of Los Angeles and is a respected national television and radio host and multi-media personality.

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Fifth District

VIGGO BUTLER

Viggo Butler brings many successful years of experience as an airport executive, where he was President of Lockheed Air Terminal, Inc. and Corporate Vice President of Lockheed Corporation. He is currently Chairman of United Airports, Limited, Inc., a privately held company specializing in privatization of businesses and airport operations and security. Previously he held the position of Chairman of Avicom International.

He is known internationally for his expertise in privatization of government enterprises, international financing transactions, airport operations, security, finance, and airline services. Mr. Butler has testified before the U.S. Congress and British Parliament, and has spoken at forums around the world, including the World Economic Forum.

Also active in the community, he serves on the Boards of Pepperdine University, Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, and the Business Advisory Board of the Reason Foundation. Viggo was honored as the distinguished graduate of the Pepperdine Business School as well as California Polytechnic University. He earned his undergraduate BA in Business from California Polytechnic University, Pomona, and his MBA at Pepperdine University.

E. SCOTT PALMER

Scott Palmer is an experienced business litigator and a founder of Palmer Hunter, Attorneys at Law. Previously, he was a partner with the law firms of Keesal, Young & Logan and Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue. Mr. Palmer has received Martindale Hubbel’s AV rating, a testament to the fact that his peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence. He has also been identified as a Southern California Super Lawyer every year since 2009.

Mr. Palmer was appointed to the Quality and Productivity Commission by the Board of Supervisors on October 30, 2018, as an appointee of Supervisor Kathryn Barger. He also serves as the Los Angeles Chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and a board member of the Pacific Battleship Foundation which operates the USS IOWA in the port of Los Angeles.

Mr. Palmer is a graduate of the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley (B.S.), and the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California (J.D.).

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Labor

BLAINE MEEK

Blaine Meek was appointed to the Quality and Productivity Commission on May 19, 2017. Since 2006, he has served as Chair of the Coalition of County Unions. He also serves as General Counsel for the California Association of Professional Employees and has represented other County Unions. He has a juris doctorate from the Pepperdine University School of Law and earned a Master of Law in Dispute Resolution from the same university. He graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelors in Political Science. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

NICHELLE HENDERSON

Nichelle Henderson is an educator and union activist committed to grassroots capacity-building around the issues of education, labor and women’s rights. She is an alumnus of California State University, Los Angeles, where she is employed as a Lecturer with the Cal State Teach teacher preparation program and a member of the California Faculty Association - Los Angeles Chapter Executive Board and Statewide Representation Committee. Nichelle was born and raised in Los Angeles County. She is very active in local politics; holding the position of 1st Vice President of the Los Angeles African American Women’s Political Action Committee (LAAAWPAC) and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

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