San Diego Leadership Alliance Board Member Sid Voorakkara is profiled by the San Diego Union Tribune for his appointment as senior business development specialist at Governor Brown's Office of Business and Economic Development.

Katherine Poythress, U-T San Diego, May 9, 2013

San Diego Leadership Alliance Board Member Sid Voorakkara has been appointed senior business development specialist at the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Sid has been a strong member of the SDLA Board and supporter of young progressives in San Diego. Congratulations to Sid!

Governor Brown Announces Appointments

5-1-2013

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.

Sid Voorakkara, 42, of San Diego, has been appointed senior business development specialist at the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Voorakkara has been a partner at Ten Page Memo LLC since 2012. He was statewide program officer and San Diego regional program officer at the California Endowment from 2005 to 2011, field director of public affairs at the United Nations Foundation from 2003 to 2004 and director of production and client services at Home Front Communications from 2000 to 2002. Voorakkara was communications advisor to Minority Leader Richard Gephardt from 1999 to 2000, western communications strategist for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 1997 to 1998 and served as a staffer on a variety of federal, state and local campaigns from 1993 to 1997. Voorakkara is a member of the advisory council for the San Diego Community College Board of Trustees and a member of the San Diego Leadership Alliance Board of Directors and the San Diego LGBT Community Center Board of Directors. 

For more, click here.

Our Co-Director and 2010 alumnus Johanna Schiavoni spoke to KPBS about Equal Pay Day and the wage gap for women in the work place. Johanna is also the president elect of the , an organization dedicated to advancing the status of women in the law.

Equal Pay For Women - The Gender Gap
Peggy Pico, KPBS, April 8, 2013

Equal pay for an equal job still appears to be out of reach for many women in this country. The federal Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963 when women made 59 cents to every dollar a man made. It was set up to prevent wage discrimination between men and women who are equally skilled and doing the same job. Today, some 50 years later, a woman makes 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.

You can see Johanna on KPBS television here, and you can listen to her on KPBS radio here.

Our Co-Director and founder Colin Parent was profiled recently by the U-T San Diego. The profile comes as Parent returned to San Diego as the Director of Policy for the San Diego Housing Commission, after two years working in the Jerry Brown administration.

Colin Parent: Housing policy wonk
Roger Showley, March 18, 2013

Appointed policy director last month, Parent, 32, left a potentially lucrative law practice and the political rat race in Sacramento to return to his hometown to dig in the weeds of affordable housing. He isn't giving up political ambitions entirely, but for now he's happy to operate in the background.

"I've found in the last couple of years in working in the public sector, you can have an enormous, positive impact in the world around you from the back benches," Parent said in his offices at the Smart Corner, a mixed-use project at Broadway and Park Boulevard.

For more, click here.

On February 17, 2013, the U-T San Diego profiled the San Diego Leadership Alliance in a featured story.

FUTURE LEADERS LEARNING THE ROPES THROUGH PROGRAM
Mark Walker, U-T San Diego, February 17, 2013

A group of 20 civic-minded young San Diegans don’t know if they’re going to change the world, but they want to give it their best shot.

They’ve been gathering together every other Saturday to hone their civic engagement skills through a series of lectures, discussions and exercises that organizers say prepares them to become community leaders.

For more click here.

Co-Director Johanna Schaiavoni and Fellow Mark Leo recently spoke with Gary Lee on San Diego’s FM-94/9.

San Diego Leadership Alliance
Gary Lee, Living Better Radio Show, March 3, 2013

When it comes to progressive leaders in San Diego, there's one local organization working to produce the next generation of leaders. That organization is the San Diego Leadership Alliance. The SDLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.

It's New Leaders Council Institute is a program that equips Fellows with the skills, opportunities and relationships to make change in San Diego as well as providing them with the tools they need to take the next step in their careers. Joining me this morning is San Diego Leadership Alliance Board Co-Director, Johanna Schiavoni and 2013 New Leaders Council Fellow, Mark Leo.

Listen to the whole interview here.

SDLA’s Institute Co-Chair and 2012 alumni John Greenwell was recently profiled in the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News.

COMMUNITY PROFILE: Meet John Greenwell, a tireless volunteer working to make a better world
Ben Cartwright, SDGLN, February 15th, 2013

SAN DIEGO -- John Greenwell says that volunteering and giving back nurture his soul. As such, he participates in numerous organizations both in and out of the LGBT community that help those in need.

The 33-year-old seems to never have a day off. If he's not working, he's participating in a community service project, or in meetings helping to plan ways to make the world a better place, or learning how to be a better leader. As a schoolteacher, Greenwell is also able to instill his sense of service in the students whose lives he touches everyday.

For more click here.

SDLA alumni Roberto Alcantar and Trinh Le were interviewed recently on NBC San Diego. They discussed how the San Diego Leadership Alliance helped them advance their causes in the community.

NBC’s Politically Speaking with Marianne Kushi
NBC San Diego, February 10, 2013

Marianne Kushi introduces us to the young politicans who hope to end political stalemate locally and in in Washington on this episode of Politically Speaking.

The interview is separated in two parts here, and here.

On MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry called the New Leaders Council one of the country’s most important “good things” currently happening for progressives.

See the clip yourself here (skip to 4:05).