Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT
Location: Grand Salon at McGeorge School of Law
Join McGeorge School of Law on Wednesday, February 21, 2024 for the annual Capital Center Legislative Speaker Series, featuring California State Senator Angelique Ashby, '03. The moderated discussion will be followed by a hosted reception. The event is free and open to the public.听
To register for the Capital Center Legislative Leaders Speaker Series event, please fill out the form at the link below. The event is free and open to the public.
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Senator Angelique V. Ashby is the first woman elected to represent Sacramento in the California State Senate in more than 20 years. Prior to joining the legislature, she was elected to the Sacramento City Council, where she served for 12 years. She was the sole woman for more than half of her tenure, and is the only member in city history to serve as Vice Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem for 8 years.
During her time on City Council, she secured millions to fund schools, community centers, parks and fire stations. She brought thousands of high-wage jobs to the Sacramento region, by attracting a Fortune 500 company. She fought for and advanced major flood control improvements, and has championed programs for women and children experiencing homelessness.
After becoming a single mom at 20 years old, Senator Ashby worked full time and attended the University of California at Davis.听 After completing undergrad, she went on to the 91成人导航 McGeorge School of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree. While in school, she worked with foster youth, at a labor law firm, and in the office of the public defender in Sacramento County. She went on to use her legal training and educational foundation rooted in law and society to create a consulting firm with her father, that created opportunities for people who needed a chance to succeed 鈥� helping build best practice model programs to serve foster youth, parolees, incarcerated women and transition age youth.
Senator Ashby was the first Councilmember to give birth while in elected office in Sacramento. She and her husband Zac, who is an Emergency Room Nurse, live in Natomas with their youngest child Alia. The Senator鈥檚 oldest son Nate lives nearby in the Pocket/Greenhaven Community, and her middle son, Tyus, is a student at the University of Oregon.听
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT
Location: Grand Salon at McGeorge School of Law
Join McGeorge School of Law on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022 for the annual Capital Center Legislative Speaker Series, 鈥淪upporting Students and Battling Big Oil" featuring Senator Monique Lim贸n. The moderated discussion will be followed by a hosted reception. The event is free and open to the public. McGeorge鈥檚 Governmental Affairs Student Association, Latinx Law Students Association, Women鈥檚 Caucus, and Womxn of Color Collective are co-sponsoring the event.
SPEAKER INFORMATION
Senator Monique Lim贸n was elected to the Senate in November 2020, and represents the 19th Senate district that includes all of Santa Barbara County and over half of Ventura County.
Born and raised in the 19th district, Senator Lim贸n has worked continuously to serve her community as an educator, leader, and an advocate for causes advancing the quality of life in her community. Senator Lim贸n earned her Bachelor's Degree from UC Berkeley and has a Master's degree from Columbia University.
Before the State Senate, Senator Lim贸n served as the Assemblymember for District 37th. Serving four years in the State Assembly, Senator Lim贸n Chaired the Banking and Finance Committee and was the Vice-Chair of the Legislative Women鈥檚 Caucus.
For Senator Lim贸n, education has always been a priority. A UC Berkeley graduate with a Masters degree from Columbia University, Senator Lim贸n served two terms on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board and as Assistant Director for the McNair Scholars Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara prior to serving in the Senate.
Senator Lim贸n has worked with countless local students at Santa Barbara City College and UCSB as an advisor and mentor to help them achieve their professional and academic goals through higher education.
Women鈥檚 issues are also a priority for Senator Lim贸n. As former Commissioner on the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women she helped connect private and public resources with women in the community. She has also authored numerous environmental bills that squarely take on the oil industry in California. Senator Lim贸n has a passion for bringing community groups together and building strong coalitions among local nonprofit organizations and civic groups.
Senator Lim贸n's roots go deep in the 19th district. Her extended network of family and friends include a range of small business owners and important leaders in the community. Her husband, Michael Medel works at Santa Barbara City College as Director of Admissions and Records and serves as President of the 19th District Agricultural Association. Senator Lim贸n and Michael were both raised in the area and currently live in Goleta.
The 2022 Capital Center Legislative Speaker Series, 鈥淪upporting Students and Battling Big Oil" featuring Senator Monique Lim贸n was live-streamed on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.
Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT
Location: Grand Salon at McGeorge School of Law
Join McGeorge School of Law on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 for the annual Capital Center Legislative Speaker Series, featuring California State Senator Ben Allen. The moderated discussion will be followed by a hosted reception. The event is free and open to the public. McGeorge鈥檚 Environmental Law Society, Water Law Society, Capital Lawyering Association for Students, Jewish Law Students Association, and Public Policy & Administration Society are co-sponsoring the event.
SPEAKER INFORMATION
California State Senator Ben Allen represents the 24th Senate District, covering the Westside, Hollywood, South Bay, and Santa Monica Mountains communities of Los Angeles County. Ben was first elected in 2014 and is now serving his third and final term in the State Senate.
Ben chairs the Senate's Environmental Quality Committee and co-chairs the Legislature's Environmental Caucus, is a member of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, chairs the Legislature's Joint Committee on the Arts, and the Senate Select Committee on Aerospace and Defense. He previously served as Chair of the Education Committee (2017-2019) and Chair of the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee (2015-2016).
Ben has thrown himself into the important work of state government, focusing on wise decision-making and pushing for reforms that address systemic inadequacies in our state. He has authored in various areas, from environmental protection to electoral reform.
During his first two terms in the Senate, fighting the climate crisis and protecting our state's precious natural resources have been among Ben's top priorities. CalMatters recently recognized him as one of the Legislature's foremost leaders in the field of environmental protection. He authored SB 54, groundbreaking legislation to address plastic pollution, which Governor Newsom signed into law to international acclaim. called SB 54 "the most sweeping restrictions on plastics in the nation" and suggested the legislation is "another route for curbing carbon emissions and trying to sidestep the worst consequences of global warming" after the Supreme Court gutted the federal government's power to regulate carbon emissions. As Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, Ben worked with his colleagues to pass a powerful climate package requiring the state to become carbon-neutral by 2045 and produce 90% of its electricity from clean sources by 2035, among other measures. A member of the Ocean Protection Council and Coastal Conservancy, he has led a successful effort to phase out a dangerous carcinogen in firefighting foam, crafted a compromise to phase out destructive trawling gear, and brokered a major compromise that lessened the environmental impact of off-highway vehicle use at state facilities. "If only Congress could work out such compromises," wrote the Sacramento Bee editorial board about the bill.
Among his efforts to reform California campaign finance and elections laws, Ben authored the landmark Voter's Choice Act of 2016 to implement more flexibility in how and where to vote, creating the vote center model used in the 2020 elections, which resulted in significantly increased voter turnout. Ben also has been a leader for campaign transparency, and was a leader in passing the Disclose Act and Petition Disclose Act and other transparency measures that have dramatically improved the disclosure of donors to political causes for the public. The California Clean Money Campaign has routinely ranked him top in the Legislature for his commitment to clean money political reform.
An advocate for the Golden State's continued leadership in arts and entertainment, Ben is a member of the California Film Commission. He was part of a legislative effort to extend the Film & TV Tax Credit Program to further support and invest in California鈥檚 unrivaled film industry. Ben also authored the law that reinstated teaching credentials for theatre and dance educators, and he continues to fight for expanded access to the arts in schools and underserved communities. Ben has been a champion for science and was a joint author of the state's groundbreaking law that increased vaccination rates among school children.
Prior to his election to the Senate, Ben served as President of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education, lecturer at UCLA Law School, and worked as an attorney at the law firms of Bryan Cave LLP and Richardson & Patel and at the nonprofit Spark Program. While at law school, Ben served as the voting student member of the University of California Board of Regents and was a summer judicial clerk with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Prior to law school, Ben worked in Washington DC for the Latin American team of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and then as Communications Director for Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY).
Ben grew up in the 24th Senate District and attended public schools, graduating from Santa Monica High School in 1996. His father, Michael, spent his career on the English Department faculty at UCLA and mother, Elena, was a public school teacher and artist who served as Chair of the Santa Monica Arts Commission. Ben has a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in History from Harvard University; a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge; and a Juris Doctor degree from UC Berkeley. Fluent in Spanish, Ben is a Senior Fellow with the international human rights organization Humanity in Action, an Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellow, a Truman National Security Project Fellow, and a graduate of the Jewish Federation's New Leaders Project. He and his wife Melanie, an attorney, have a son, Ezra.
The 2023 Capital Center Legislative Speaker Series event was live-streamed on March 8, 2023.
For more information about this event, please contact Erin O'Neal, Director of the Capital Center for Law & Policy, at eoneal@pacific.edu.
