SR 06-13-2017 13C 13.C
June 13, 2017
Council Meeting: June 13, 2017 Santa Monica, California
1 of 1
CITY CLERK’S OFFICE - MEMORANDUM
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Denise Anderson -Warren, City Clerk , Records & Elections Services
Department
Date : June 13, 2017
13.C Appointment to one unscheduled vacancy on the Social Services
Commission for a te rm ending June 30, 2020
13-C
June 13, 2017
SPECIAL VACANCY APPOINTMENT WORKSHEET
13-C
June 13, 2017
SOCIAL SERVICES
COMMISSION
NEW TERM
ENDING
SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS
REQUIRED
Unscheduled vacancy (Anita
Prentice, resignation
accepted 4/25/2017)
06/30/2020 Must be a resident of Santa Monica.
City of Santa Monica
Board and Commissions Applicants
Social Services Commission
Name
Brian Stedge-Stroud
Jennifer Cowan
Ann Thanawalla
Total Number of
Applicants: 3
Original Application
Date
03/09/17
03/09/17
03/22/17
Last Application Date
Social Services Commission Applicant
Brian Stedge-Stroud
Application Date: 03/09/17
PROFILE
brianstedge@gmail.com
1955 18th St
Unit 4
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Home: (818) 376-4246
Home:
INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE
Current or prior service on city boards/commissions:
I have not yet had the honor of serving on a Santa Monica City Board or Commission.
Community activities:
I am the District & Communications Director for California’s 46th Assembly District. I oversee 96 yearly
events coordinated with a wide range of community organizations. Through the office, I have organized
free women’s self-defense classes, educational forums, Map Your Neighborhood with the Red Cross,
Destress Through Art, an Art Walk in partnership with the California Arts Council and LACMA, CPR
classes, health fairs, and Senior Scam Stopper forums.
Qualifications, experience, education, and technical or professional requirements:
I have more than a decade of experience in coalition building, social justice advocacy, and problem
solving through my work in government, politics, and non-profit organizations. As a campaign manager
on several successful State Senate campaigns in New York, I honed my instinct for messaging,
communications (paid, earned, and social media), policy, and grassroots advocacy. I then served as
Deputy Communications Director for the New York State Senate, enhancing my skills advocating for
public policy and coalition building through communications and grassroots outreach to constituents. I
also founded a non-profit, Long Island Wins, that brought together a diverse group of foundations,
immigration advocacy groups, communication specialists, think tanks, and unions as board members to
combat the political exploitation of immigrants while educating the community on the positive
contributions of immigrants to the local economy. Currently, I work as the District & Communications
Director for the CA 46th Assembly District. One of my favorite accomplishments in my two years as
Director was working with Poverty Matters to help bring the coordinators of Utah’s Housing First
program to a forum in Los Angeles. Though my role was small, providing logistical help and staffing, I was
thrilled to see the idea spawn legislation at the State level – SB 1380.
Areas of demonstrated expertise:
Policy development; Community outreach and involvement; Advocacy; Government or private funding;
My expertise in the areas of community outreach and involvement, advocacy, policy development, and
government or private funding stem from my years managing political campaigns and my work in both
New York and California governments. I have over a decade of building grassroots support for different
candidates and policies. I developed and executed grassroots engagement with a staff ranging from 30
full-time and 20 part-time to 70 full-time and several hundred part-time employees, depending on the
budget. My philosophy is to harness data modeling to maximize direct engagement through one-on-one
meetings, door-to-door, high-touch phone calls, and meet & greets. This type of community organizing
must be layered with a compelling story through paid and earned media. My experiences with funding
streams stem from my work in state government and from building a non-profit in Long Island through
seeking private donations and working with foundations to secure grants.
Goals:
My goal is to help enhance Santa Monica’s already world-class social services. I hope to learn from the
wealth of knowledge of those currently serving on the Commission and from experts with hands-on
experience working with our underserved population. As I learn about the challenges our social services
professionals are currently facing, I will utilize my decade of coalition building, communications, and
policy experience to enhance our approach to social services. I’d love to identify successful programs in
other cities, states, or countries and recommend these plans to the Santa Monica City Council. My goal
would be to leverage the expertise of the Commission to craft progressive and fiscally responsible
programs that our City Council could consider or test. Then, I would utilize my years of coalition building
and advocacy work to build community support for these proposals.
Vision:
The City of Santa Monica is a leader of forward-thinking public policy in Los Angeles County and the
region. The Social Services Commission can play a dynamic role for the City of Santa Monica by
advocating for and studying social service policies outside the established norms. The Social Services
Commission could work with the City of San Francisco’s Office of Financial Empowerment to better
understand the effects of Basic Income. We could hold hearings on establishing child savings accounts
for low income families, identify effective affordable housing programs in other cities, and work with
think tanks to bring a wealth of new ideas on how to best serve our most vulnerable citizens. While
homelessness is a critical issue to the quality of life in Santa Monica, it is also the end result of many
challenges that the Social Services Commission can explore to prevent even more from falling into
homelessness. We can be advocates for pro-active policies that raise the standard of living for all our
citizens. My vision is to harness the vast experience and knowledge of the Commission to craft
progressive and fiscally-responsible program recommendations to the City Council, while also leveraging
my experience in coalition-building and advocacy to inspire community support so that new initiatives
are known, understood, and welcomed in advance.
Personal Qualities:
I thrive in a team environment with a robust exchange of ideas and I value the importance of finding
common ground to craft a solution in any situation. My passion for consensus-building has been shaped
by my work managing political campaigns, establishing a non-profit organization, and advocating for
legislation. Most importantly, my leadership positions have taught me the importance of listening to
advance team goals. I have managed staff for most of my professional career and though my leadership
style has changed with experience, my core belief has remained the same: lead by example. I am not just
an applicant for the Social Services Committee -- I am a passionate and dedicated member of the Santa
Monica community.
Will you be able to commit the necessary time to perform your duties if appointed to the board?
yes
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Occupation: Communications & District Director
Business name: California State Assembly
Business address: 6150 Van Nuys Blvd.
Suite 300
Van Nuys, CA 91401
Business phone: (818)376-4246
Social Services Commission Applicant
Jennifer Cowan
Application Date: 03/09/17
PROFILE
jennifermcowan@gmail.com
1210 Washington Ave
Apt. B
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Home: (917) 945-9160
Home:
INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE
Current or prior service on city boards/commissions:
None
Community activities:
I currently serve on the Roosevelt Elementary School Site Council/Governance Committee and the Santa
Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Parent Advisory
Committee, and I am an Advisory Board member for LA’s BEST—a nonprofit that provides a safe and
supervised after-school education, enrichment and recreation program for over 25,000 school children in
the City of Los Angeles. I also regularly attend the Santa Monica Cradle to Career (SMC2C) initiative’s
Child Care and Early Education Task Force meetings.
Qualifications, experience, education, and technical or professional requirements:
My professional experience includes over 20 years working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to
benefit children and families. Throughout my career I have successfully facilitated partnerships among a
broad spectrum of stakeholders—from staff at community-based organizations to leaders at school
districts, foundations and public institutions—to accomplish our mutual goals. I have extensive
experience developing and implementing strategies for leveraging public and private funding to support
education and social services and to advance policy and systems-change. I have led education initiatives
in museum and after-school settings and hold a MA in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of
Education. I currently work at the Los Angeles County Children and Families First Commission (also
known as First 5 LA) and understand the valuable role Commissioners play in advising staff on program
and policy development and the allocation of limited public resources.
Areas of demonstrated expertise:
Knowledge of social services, healthcare and supportive housing; Policy development; Community
outreach and involvement; Education; Advocacy; Government or private funding;
For over 7 years, I have worked at First 5 LA (F5LA), a publicly funded early childhood advocacy and grant
making organization, whose mission is to maximize positive outcomes for children prenatal to age 5 in
Los Angeles County. I accomplish this by cultivating and facilitating partnerships with foundations,
nonprofits and public agencies aligned with F5LA’s strategic goals. On behalf of F5LA, I partnered with
the LA County Office of Child Care, The California Community Foundation and the Low Income
Investment Fund to identify policy and systems-level solutions to support local child care providers who
experience recurring cash flow issues (due to delays in disbursement of government-contracted funds) in
order to maintain services for low-income families and ensure employment of parents and child care
providers. I worked with our community partners to articulate and elevate these policy
recommendations to the F5LA Board of Commissioners, the philanthropic community, and ECE
advocates. I also championed F5LA’s investment in the City of LA’s 50 Parks Initiative that leveraged
government and private funding to create three new neighborhood parks. As part of this process, I
collaborated with F5LA colleagues, the LA Parks Foundation, and City of LA representatives to seek
community input at key points throughout the design and construction process and to involve
community members in park events. At The After-School Corporation (TASC) in New York City, I oversaw
the implementation of the Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention (AIDP) initiative—a
collaboration between TASC, the United Way of NYC, NYC Department of Education and community-
based organizations to provide after-school education, enrichment and support services for youth who
are at risk of dropping out of school. I provided guidance to school and nonprofit partners in the design
and implementation of the AIDP model and budget, which braided funding from various sources, in
order to maximize resources and student outcomes. I also oversaw the collection, analysis and reporting
of student data to monitor and assess impact and to inform program refinements.
Goals:
My goal for serving on the Commission is to leverage my experience as funder, my expertise in
developing public-private partnerships, and my first-hand knowledge as a resident to ensure Santa
Monica remains a diverse and inclusive community, where all residents feel safe and supported and have
access to the public services they need. I am particularly interested in promoting the use of data from
the Wellbeing Project and other vetted data sources to inform the City’s program, policy and resource
decisions and in identifying new and emerging opportunities for partnerships that will help the City make
progress towards its five strategic goals. Further, I am interested in deepening my knowledge of the
extent of social services currently provided to all Santa Monica residents, including older adults, and
serving as an ambassador to communicate what the City is doing to address high profile issues, such as
affordable housing and homelessness, to my neighbors and community stakeholders. I have lived in
Santa Monica for nearly a decade and my family has benefited from the City’s extensive programs and
services. I am committed to ensuring that all Santa Monica residents have continued access to the
resources and assistance needed to enhance their quality of life.
Vision:
I believe the Commission should serve as an effective resource and advisory body to the City Council and
City staff, providing innovative recommendations and solutions to address residents’ critical needs and
strengthen social services in the City. Further, I believe the Commission can work collaboratively with
other City and County efforts to address complex social issues such as homelessness. Santa Monica has
an opportunity to collaborate and coordinate with cross-sector efforts such as the Home For Good
initiative, a partnership of the United Way of Greater LA and the LA Area Chamber of Commerce, to
support the City’s strategic goal around homelessness.
Personal Qualities:
I am a creative, mission-driven leader with extensive experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic and
private sectors, and a seasoned improvisational theater performer. This combination of skills and
experiences enables me to thrive in uncertainty and to produce creative solutions under pressure. My
background also gives me a unique perspective on how to successfully build, lead and participate in
teams. Guided by the tenets of improvisation, I believe that it is critical to develop trusted relationships
and to use a “yes and…” approach, to encourage positive contributions, risk-taking and innovative
problem solving. Being present, flexible and adaptable to constantly changing circumstances, and open
to unforeseen outcomes are qualities that have served me as an effective leader. I am energized by the
possibilities created through partnerships that leverage both fiscal and nonfiscal resources to bring about
social change. Throughout my career I have built a network of relationships among colleagues at
community-based organizations, foundations, public institutions and in business to address our
competing priorities and accomplish our mutual goals. My experiences working within nonprofits as well
as at grantmaking organizations allows me to thoughtfully consider differing perspectives to achieve
desired results.
Will you be able to commit the necessary time to perform your duties if appointed to the board?
yes
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Occupation: Manager, Strategic Partnerships
Business name: First 5 LA
Business address:
Business phone:
Social Services Commission Applicant
Ann Thanawalla
Application Date: 03/22/17
PROFILE
annmaggio@gmail.com
1012 7th Street #16
Santa Monica , CA 90403
Home: (310) 849-4958
Home:
INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE
Current or prior service on city boards/commissions:
I served on The Santa Monica Art Public Art Committee for approximately 10 years, ending in 2014.
Community activities:
Roosevelt Site Council (2015-Present) SMMUSD District L-Cap Committee (2015/15, 2016-17) SMMUSD
VAPA DAC - (2014-2018) Member,CRJ Education Committee I attend and participate at at neighborhood
community meetings, SMMUSD School Board Meetings, City Council Meetings, Zoning and Planning
Meetings, Housing Commission Meetings and Civic Working Group Community Meetings. I am an
advocate for Family Housing, Low Income housing for families, Seniors and disabled. I am also an
advocate for Student and Resident Privacy.
Qualifications, experience, education, and technical or professional requirements:
I have a background in advertising, media and art, a BA from Bowling Green State and an Associates
Degree from FIT in NY. I spent a year serving hot meals to the homeless with Coalition for the Homeless
in NYC and served on their fundraising board and auction committee. I am an 18 year resident, former
Santa Monica business owner, and current public school parent. I've familiarized myself with the many
services offered by the city of Santa Monica. Additionally, I have communicated with residents
throughout the city to gain opinions of these programs as well as interviewed several program recipients
of various programs to gain insight and perspective. I am a people person who believes Santa Monica is
responsible for caring and taking care of our community in a respectful, considerate, equitable and
accommodating manner.
Areas of demonstrated expertise:
Knowledge of social services, healthcare and supportive housing; Community outreach and involvement;
Education; Advocacy;
Supportive Housing I am familiar with the process and policies involved in our affordable housing and
Section 8 programs. I have worked with our HA to gain greater inroads for families whose children attend
our public schools. I have friends who've utilized a variety of services in Santa Monica and view their
perspectives as vitally important to the role as a commissioner. Education, Policy and Advocacy I am a
huge supporter of the Arts and particularly in arts in education. I am working currently advocating for
the SMMUSD's arts to written into our L-Cap plan. I closely monitor data collection and can speak to and
document how improper targeting of individuals and families is being used to segregate and shift
populations. I'm currently studying how algorithm bias threatens the of well being targeted populations
du jour.
Goals:
My goals for the Social Services Commission are to improve the delivery of support services, to evaluate
the costs/benefits of programs and to ensure that all residents have a platform to participate without
feeling targeted by our government. We need to understand that assessment bias exists. It's far too easy
to view residents as data sets and not human beings. I am a people person who believes those less
fortunate deserve our help. I want to encourage both subjective and objective views when evaluating
success. Difficult topics such as resident data collection and the storage of that data in longitudinal files
must be addressed. Who and how policy gets made from who's data requires careful consideration.
Parents deserve transparency when providing their children's data to city services providers. Checks and
balances are questions that are not yet addressed and this is where my expertise can enhance the
commission. I bring uncharted territory and a fresh perspective to the table.
Vision:
I'd like to provide invitations to county officials to explore the best parts of Santa Monica's services so
these can be replicated.
Personal Qualities:
My ability to empathize with both commissioned artists and city staff advanced my call for an ad hoc
committee. Our ad hoc reviewed and revised the public art committee policy book to ensure a smoother
and more reasonable process. As a member of SMMUSD's VAPA DAC and L-Cap committee, I seek to
leverage my knowledge to coordinate policy change. I believe threats to arts education will diminish if
we encapsulate the arts into our local area control plan.
Will you be able to commit the necessary time to perform your duties if appointed to the board?
yes
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Occupation: Activist
Business name:
Business address:
Business phone: