Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Mark Ridley-Thomas has represented the nearly 2.3 million people of the Second District on the Los Angeles County  Board of Supervisors since December 2008. During his first year in office, he shepherded through an agreement with the University of California to provide medical services at the new Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital, scheduled to open in late 2012. He also persuaded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to fund a light rail system from Crenshaw Boulevard to Los Angeles International Airport and move up the opening from 2029 to as early as 2016. Together, the hospital and rail projects will generate more than $2 billion in spending and create over 16,000 jobs.

Ridley-Thomas is the first African American man ever to serve on the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. His district  includes Carson, Compton, Culver City, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lynwood, portions or all of 10 Los Angeles City Council Districts and the unincorporated communities of Alondra Park, Athens, Del Aire, Dominguez, East Compton, El Camino Village, Florence, Ladera Heights, Lennox, View Park, West Athens, West Carson, West Compton, Willowbrook and Wiseburn.

Prior to his election to the Board, Supervisor Ridley-Thomas served the 26th District in the California State Senate where he chaired the Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development and its two subcommittees on Professional Sports and Entertainment, and The Economy, Workforce Preparation and Development. In addition to his chairmanship duties, Ridley-Thomas served on the Senate Appropriations, Energy, Utilities and  Communications; and Health and Public Safety committees.

In January 2008, he became Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and led the Caucus in unprecedented levels of cooperation and collaboration with counterparts in the Latino, and Asian-Pacific Islander Legislative Caucuses.

His legislative work addressed a broad range of issues with implications for economic and workforce development, health care, public safety, education, budget accountability, consumer protection and civic participation.

Mark Ridley-Thomas was first elected to public office in 1991 and served with distinction on the Los Angeles City Council for nearly a dozen years and  departed as Council President pro Tempore. He later served two terms in the California State Assembly, where he chaired the Assembly Democratic Caucus.

He is widely regarded as the foremost advocate of neighborhood participation in government decision-making. By virtue of his founding the Empowerment Congress, arguably the region’s most successful experiment in neighborhood-based civic engagement, he is considered the founder of the Neighborhood Council movement.

Ridley-Thomas’ political career was preceded by a decade of service as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, which followed a brief but successful five-year stint as a high school teacher.

He is a graduate of Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles and earned a baccalaureate degree in Social Relations (minor in Government) and a master’s degree in Religious Studies (concentration in Christian  Ethics) from Immaculate Heart College. Mr. Ridley-Thomas went on to receive his Ph.D. in Social Ethics and Policy Analysis from the University of Southern California.

He is married to Avis Ridley-Thomas, director of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office Dispute Resolution Center. They are the proud parents of twin sons, Sebastian and Sinclair, who graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Contact

866 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration

Send e-mail to: [email protected]

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