Past LACCD Accomplishments

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Federal Advocacy 

• At the federal level, LACCD successfully secured an unprecedented $7.073 million in the FY 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill alone 
• Rep. Brad Sherman sponsored $2 million to expand Pierce College's Applied Biotechnology Baccalaureate Degree Program. 
• Rep. Tony Cárdenas sponsored $2 million to expand Mission College's STEM Workforce and Allied Health Programs, which support non-English-speaking, foreign-born STEM workers and those new to STEM fields interested in STEM professions.
• Former Rep. Karen Bass sponsored $1 million for the Innovation and Jobs Program at West Los Angeles College and LA Trade-Tech College. These funds will provide "Mobile Learning Innovations" at LATTC, including food truck entrepreneurship, and support the LACCD California Center for Climate Change Education. 
• Senator Padilla sponsored $1.323 million to establish the Climate Change Education Center at West Los Angeles College. 
• Senator Padilla sponsored $750,000 to bolster the academic pipeline of historically underrepresented students in STEM and medicine and connect dislocated workers to short-term credentials in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine. 

State Advocacy 

• At the State level, LACCD stands out as a statewide policy leader and influencer. Since 2015, LACCD has enacted twenty-six (26) policy and budget proposals that have been chaptered into law, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars to community colleges in California and over $60 million to LACCD. 
• During my presidency, the Los Angeles Community College District sponsored five (5) State Legislative bills. Three of these Bills were successfully passed by the Legislature. Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1151 (McKinnor) and AB 1096 (Fong) as stand-alone bills. And SB 715 (Rubio) was incorporated into the 2023 State Budget. In addition, LACCD sponsored five (5) State Budget priorities in 2023, three (3) of which were adopted in the 2023 State Budget, including $10 million for LGBTQ students, ongoing for three years for a total of $30 million, and a $2.5 million allocation for establishing the LACCD Small Business and Entrepreneur Center at East Los Angeles College. 
• Garnered over 300 million for nursing programs statewide, which resulted in additional funds for our seven nursing programs 

Local Government, Community Outreach, and Partnerships Strengthen Advocacy at All Levels 

• The District has continued its outreach to thirty-eight (38) cities and eleven (11) school districts to inform and educate the community about LACCD course offerings and academic or certificate programs. This year, we outreached to six (6) cities to make presentations about LACCD during their public meetings.

• Spearheaded the passing of Measure LA to address decaying infrastructure and increase our commitment to a sustainable building program, including watershed programs, solar and carbon-neutral criteria
• Opened the California Climate Center at WLAC
• Reintroduced Build LACCD’s Industry Day, targeting African American and LGBTQ+ firms and completing partnerships with BUILD OUT, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ construction association 
• Groundbreaking of new nursing building at LA Harbor 
• Topping off the Student Union building at Southwest College 
• Opened the new Student Services building at LA Mission College
• LA Valley College's new Academic Complex 
• Strengthened the intern and minority business outreach programs at LACCD Build by hiring additional outreach specialists to go out into our student population and business community and make them aware of the program’s opportunities. 

• Resolution passed that strengthens the local college’s Presidential hiring committee. Moving forward Trustees will not introduce candidates and only consider candidates provided by the committee. 
• ODEIA (Office of Diversity Equity Inclusion and Access) is going through a major overhaul, including expediting the processing of complaints and hiring additional staff to assist in this effort. The Chancellor has authorized ODEIA, with the support of the Human Resources Division and Office of General Counsel, to identify external resources for the purposes of reviewing our District-wide policies, plans, systems, training programs, processes, and procedures pertinent to sexual harassment and discrimination to ensure their effectiveness and compliance with changing legal standards and best practices. We will continue to provide ODEIA with the support and resources it needs to fulfill its organizational mission. A Gender Equity/Title IX Ad Hoc Committee has been established for 2024 and is chaired by Board President Henderson with the goals of reviewing Board Policies and District practices and improving our prevention and responsiveness to gender equity issues, including sexual harassment.
• We are conducting an external and independent audit of our District’s procurement process to review and validate our current processes and to make recommendations, with the full intention of implementing these recommendations from the external audit to improve our system and procurement processes. 

• Expanding non-credit education and CTE programs, including new appraiser program 
• Teamed up with the LA County Assessor to offer appraiser courses and certificates to help meet regional workforce needs
• Opened the LATTC Employment and Career Success Center 

• The successful accreditation process for all nine colleges! 
• District’s adopted FY 2023-2024 Final Budget totals $10.4 billion for all funds.
• Districtrict maintains a minimum of 6.5% General Reserve, a 3.5% Contingency Reserve, and a two percent (2.0%) Deferred Maintenance Fund, as mandated by LACCD Board Policy.
• Pushed for Cybersecurity reforms at the District to protect data and avoid ransom requests and cyberattacks. 

• Implementation of LACCD’s Framework for Racial Equity and Social Justice 
• Implementation of pride centers at each college, capturing 10 million LGBT permanently statewide. This resulted in over 1 million for LACCD. 
• Increased funding for African American programs, including UMOJA, A2MEND Outreach, Unity Ball, and Affinity graduation. 
• Increase in funding for the Black Scholar’s program
• Appointed first-ever Equity and Justice Fellow, Dr. Regina Smith to advance policies for DEIA. 
• Spearheaded the first-ever district-wide Lavender graduation.  
• First-ever participation of LACCD at LA Pride Parade to increase outreach for enrollment 
• Established first ever LGBTQ+ Affairs Committee and the historic passing of the first-ever LGBTQ+ Bill of Rights for students and employees 
• Raising Pride flags at the District and each college 

[studies show basic needs increases student enrollment and completion]

• Implemented the first-ever basic needs ad-hoc committee, which enabled the creation of physical basic needs centers at each college. 
• Spearheaded the release of the first-ever RFQ for student and workforce housing projects 
• Spearheaded the MOUs with nonprofits to provide emergency Interim housing for students, including the DePaul Center, LA Room and Board, and Shower of Hope 
• Set up and met with each County Supervisor to discuss partnerships to tackle housing issues for foster care students and solutions for mental health.
• Spearheaded efforts and advocacy to provide students with a “Go pass” from  Metro to help students meet their transportation needs 
• Produced the first-ever student and workforce housing symposium at LA City College 
• The colleges also work in partnership with local nonprofit agencies to help provide students with food assistance, such as the LA Regional Food Bank, the St. Francis Center Los Angeles, and Village Family Services.
• Reintroduced Edison Lineworker Scholarship program at Trade Tech 
• Pushed for re-entry programs at Trade tech

• Increased enrollment across the board by work-in with local leaders and communities to further market each college.
• Strengthened our college promise programs to increase enrollment
• Increased dual enrollment programs with local K-12 school districts, including Burbank Unified School District and Montebello Unified School District, ensuring job security and increase in enrollment for the district
• Implemented Guaranteed Admissions Programs with Cal State Dominguez Hills and Loyola Marymount University
• Expanded LAUSD partnerships and dual enrollment programs
• Increased number of baccalaureates throughout the district, like Avionics and biomanufacturing, resulting in further job security for faculty and an increase in enrollment
• Ensured staff produced new websites district-wide to increase enrollment

• Obtained over one million dollars for the digitization of the Vincent Price Museum collection 
• Captured over one million dollars for our Allied Health program at South Gate Educational Center  
• Obtained state dollars for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center ELAC
• Pushed for Umoja and Pride Centers at ELAC 
• Pushed for Montebello Unified AA Pathway Dual Enrollment Program