Denny Zane – Move LA
Denny Zane is Executive Director of Move LA, an organization working to coalesce environmental, labor, business, community and student leaders and organizations to ensure sufficient funding to provide a clean, efficient, and robust transit system for Los Angeles County. Move LA played a key role in moving Measure R, which provided for a 1/2 cent sales tax increase for transportation purposes, to the Los Angeles County ballot where it was approved by 2/3 of voters on November 4, 2008. Measure R will generate nearly $40 billion in new transportation dollars over 30 years.
Zane is also formerly the Mayor and for 12 years a city council member in Santa Monica, California and formerly the Executive Director of the Coalition for Clean Air.
Denny Zane began his advocacy career as co-manager of the Santa Monica rent control campaigns of the late 1970’s. He was elected a Santa Monica City Council member in 1981 and Mayor in 1988.
Click here for Denny’s full bio.
Gloria Ohland – Move LA
Gloria Ohland is a communications and policy expert who for the past dozen years served as vice president at the national nonprofit Reconnecting America and its Center for Transit-Oriented Development, which is funded by Congress to promote development around public transportation. She has recently returned to LA to work locally with the Move LA coalition, which championed the 30-year Measure R sales tax to build 12 new rail and bus rapid transit lines including the “Subway to the Sea.”
Ms. Ohland has actively promoted transit and TOD nationally and has written many publications on these topics, including the award-winning book “Street Smart: Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century.” Ms. Ohland has worked closely with the federal government and other national partners to link transportation and land use with the goal of increasing affordability, sustainability, and economic development. Previously she was a journalist, writing about everything from politics to fashion to people. She lives in Los Angeles near downtown and within walking distance of the Gold Line.
Beth Steckler – Move LA
Before joining Move LA, Beth was ClimatePlan’s Southern California Organizing Director overseeing organizing in the six county region that make up the Southern California Region of Governments. Prior to that, Beth was the policy director at Livable Places, a non-profit that both built entry-level homes near transit and advocated for livable communities. Working with the Southern California Association of Non Profit Housing, Beth played a key role in Housing LA’s work around housing element, mixed income housing and creation of a housing trust fund for Los Angeles.
Beth is the author of “Affordability Matters: A Look A Housing Construction and Affordability In Los Angeles.” She graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Economics and is an Adjunct Professor at Occidental College. Beth lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Virginia Madueno – Consultant for ClimatePlan – San Joaquin Valley
Virginia Madueño has served as a consultant for ClimatePlan in the San Joaquin Valley since August of 2010. In addition to her work with ClimatePlan, Virginia is founder and owner of Imagen PR and has more than 20 years of private and public sector experience in advertising, public relations, social marketing, grass roots outreach, and event coordination.
Virginia is a graduate of California State University, Stanislaus with a degree in communications. She graduated in 2006 from the National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI), a fellowship program of which recognizes 22 women in the nation to further develop their leadership abilities. Through this program Virginia completed the Executive Leadership Program at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University as well as the Center for Creative Leadership in La Jolla, California.
Virginia also currently serves as Mayor for the City of Riverbank, California, and is dedicated to promoting programs that promote a healthier environment and safer community for all citizens.
