Mission: Common Sense California seeks to strengthen civic engagement in order to solve public problems and strengthen citizen participation in and ownership of state and local government.

Common Sense California Leadership

Executive Director

Board of Directors (as of 1/1/2008)

Participating as individual citizens, not as organizational representatives:

  • Co-chair. David Davenport, d.davenport@commonsenseca.org, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Former President of Pepperdine University, Malibu*.
  • Interim Co-chair. Steve Weiner, s.weiner@commonsenseca.org, Co-founder, Campaign for College Opportunity, former Provost and Dean of Faculty, Mills College; former President of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges; former Associate Dean, Graduate School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, Piedmont*.
  • Bill Hauck, President of the California Business Roundtable, former Chair of the California Constitutional Revision Commission, Sacramento.
  • David Wolf, Co-founder, Campaign for College Opportunity, Member of the Sonoma County Board of Education, former President of West, Metropolitan and Pierce Colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District; former Provost of the California Maritime Academy, Santa Rosa*.
  • Bev Perry, Manager of Member Relations, Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), and Chair of the Democratic Governance Panel, National League of Cities, Los Angeles.
  • Vincent Robinson, Founder and Managing Partner of The 360 Group, a consulting and executive search firm in San Francisco. He was formerly Executive Director of Social Venture Partners Bay Area.
  • David Smith, Executive Director, National Conference on Citizenship, Washington, DC. Founder, mobilize.org.
  • Hanna Skandera, Senior Policy Advisor at the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. She recently took this position after working at senior levels at both the California and Florida Departments of Education.
  • David Boatwright, Counsel, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, San Diego. He is also fully involved in the leadership of the Monarch School in San Diego, a K-12 program geared towards homeless and at-risk youth.

City/Regional Task Force (as of 3/28/2008)

  • Bev Perry (Board Rep/Co-Chair)
  • Ed Everett (Co-Chair, fmr. City Manager - Redwood City)
  • Terry Amsler (Dir. - Collaborative Governance, Institute for Local Government - ILG)
  • Rick Bishop (Exec. Dir., Western Riverside Council of Governments - WRCOG)
  • Rod Gould (City Manager - Poway)
  • Bridget Healey (Assistant City Manager - Indio)
  • David Knapp (City Manager - Cupertino)
  • Ken Hampian (City Manager - San Luis Obispo)
  • Mark Linder (fmr. City Manager - San Jose)
  • Seth Miller (CEO (interim) - California Center for Regional Leadership)
  • Tim O'Donnell (City Manager - Brea)
  • Mike Parness (City Manager - Napa)
  • Rich Ramirez (City Manager - American Canyon)

Advisors (as of 1/1/2008)

Participating as individual citizens not as organizational representatives

  • Lupe Alonzo-Diaz, President and CEO, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
  • Kristen Amyx, Chair of the Regional Legislative Alliance of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties; President and CEO, Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce, Goleta
  • Jane Arnault, President of JurEcon Inc., member of the boards of directors of the California Chamber of Commerce and the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles
  • Mike Babcock, Member of the Board of the Pasadena Unified School District; former Headmaster, the Polytechnic School, Pasadena
  • Jill Blair, Principal, BTW--Informing Change; Former Executive Director, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, Berkeley
  • Christopher Cross, former CEO of the Council for Basic Education and former Assistant Secretary of Education in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, Danville
  • Anita DeFrantz, President, Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
  • Bob Gibson, retired Foreign Editor and member of the Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles
  • Charles McCaffree, former Sales and Marketing Manager and Training Leader with Chevron Oronite Company and former member of the Novato School Board
  • Lia Margolis, President and CEO, Lia Margolis and Associates; former President and CEO, the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California and Member, Board of Directors, California Medical Association Foundation, Los Angeles
  • Steve Morgan, President, the University of LaVerne
  • Virgil Roberts, Board Chair Emeritus, California Community Foundation; Managing Partner, Bobbitt and Roberts, Los Angeles
  • Steve Rosell, President, Viewpoint Learning, San Rafael
  • Anthony Tansimore, Chief Financial Officer, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; former Chief Operating Officer of the San Francisco Foundation. Los Angeles.
  • Robert Wycoff, retired President of ARCO, former Chair of the California Business Roundtable, and current chair of the Board of Trustees of the Huntington Library, Pasadena
  • Michael Parks, Director, School of Journalism, University of Southern California and former editor of the Los Angeles Times
  • Frank Quevedo, Vice President, Southern California Edison, Rosemead
  • Roberto Haro, Former Executive Director of the Cesar Chavez Institute, San Francisco State University, Larkspur*.

Funders

Common Sense California is most appreciative of the financial support received from organizations and individuals. These include:


* Also a member of the Organizing Committee
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