I was born in Pasadena, and my dad was a college professor. My parents moved to Costa Mesa when I was young and I attended public schools in Costa Mesa. I graduated from Estancia High School in 1975. I attended UCLA and received my B.A. in Mathematics in 1980. I attended the UCLA School of Law and received my J.D. in 1983.
I worked my way through school in a variety of jobs, including working as a bodyguard, a computer programmer, working on the UCLA campus as a Community Service Office, a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the campus police department, and as an Emergency Medical Technician with the campus ambulance program.
As part of my EMT duties I was involved with planning emergency medical services for the UCLA Olympic Village. That led me to a position with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, where I worked during the 1984 Olympics. After the Olympics I began my career as a prosecutor with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office in 1985. For most of my career with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office I was a DUI prosecutor, and then I served as the Supervising Attorney of the Strategic Data Systems section, focused on using data, analytics, and technology to assist our prosecutors.
My wife Andrea and I have been active La Canada residents for 19 years and we are the proud parents of 5 children. Our oldest daughter graduated from UCLA, and our second daughter graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and Stanford Law School. We have one daughter at Princeton, a son in 11th grade at LCHS, and our youngest is in 9th grade at LCHS.
I have met many wonderful families in La Cañada as an AYSO Coach and Referee for 26 years and as a member of the AYSO Board of Directors, where I am currently the Safety Director for AYSO Region 13.
We have a great community, and La Cañada has been very good to our family. Our family has a vested interest in our schools – as do all La Cañada residents. What is good for our schools is good for our children, and we all know that our property values are closely linked to the high ranking of our excellent schools and the great reputation of our community. I have proven my dedication to our schools and community over the past nine years, and I will use my past success to keep pushing LCUSD and our community to new heights.