Local Heroes

Alfred Herrera has devoted 37 years to helping students achieve their educational goals at UCLA. His work is focused on developing academic enrichment programs dedicated to preparing underserved students to become competitively eligible for research universities and the UC System.

Alison Suffet Diaz is the Founder of Environmental Charter Schools (ECS). Under Diaz’s leadership as the Executive Director & CEO for the majority of the last 20 years, ECS has flourished into an award-winning educational institution with a dynamic team of commended staff members.

Don Larson, alarmed by the rapid outbreak of tent, makeshift shelters, RV, vehicle and open-air dwellers that is now overwhelming our region’s communities, organized the Clean Streets Clean Starts Program (CSCS) to offer homeless people a hand-up.

Jerry Herrera launched San Gabriel Junior Golf (SGJG) in January 2007 with the goal of turning neighborhood kids into college-bound golfers.

Ken Fong has served as the host and co-producer of “Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast” since its debut in 2015.

Lois Arkin, founder of the nonprofit CRSP (1980), a co-op resource center, also known as the Institute for Urban Ecovillages, launched the Los Angeles Eco-Village (LAEV) in 1993.

In 2001, Mari Morales Rodriguez founded the non-profit One For All (OFA), a foundation whose mission is to empower youth by getting them involved in community-based programs throughout the year.

Marsha Garnett sits on the AT&T Pioneers National Board of Directors, one of the largest non-profit active and retiree volunteer organizations consisting of 194,000 members.

Marta Khadija Felicitas Galedary, is the Founder of La Asociación Latino Musulmana de América (LALMA) based in Los Angeles.

Mary Vu Iammarino and Steve Kim co-founded Project Kinship (PK) in 2014, an Orange County-based nonprofit that works to reintegrate former gang members and the incarcerated into the community.

Godoy was the first in his family to attend college and worked with the Early Academic Outreach Program at the University of California, Irvine to ensure more students of color from underserved communities had access to higher education.

Representing their Southern California districts in the U.S. Congress, the two share interest in issues that matter locally: environmental and health justice, strengthening the economy, comprehensive healthcare and accessible education.

Sam Lewis was recently promoted to Executive Director of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and previously served as the Director of Inside Programs.

Stephen Cue Jn-Marie founded The Row LA – also called “The Church Without Walls” 13 years ago. The former Virgin Records rapper turned evangelist, activist and organizer, left the music business in 1994 to follow a religious calling.

Sir Chef Bruno Serato was selected for his humanitarian work feeding hungry ...

Professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez was chosen for the work she has done promoting ...

Alex Sanchez is an internationally recognized peacemaker and co-founder of Homies Unidos in Los Angeles where he has developed and implemented innovative violence prevention and intervention programs since 1998 and has also led the organization as Executive Director since 2006.

Arya Marvazy is a first-generation American working tirelessly to expand LGBTQ+ advocacy work within the Persian & Jewish Communities in Los Angeles and nationally, much of which began after his viral public coming out on Facebook.

In July 2018, as President and CEO of the non-profit Northridge Beautification Foundation (NBF), Don Larson received LA County Board of Supervisor Commendations “In recognition of dedicated service in the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all citizens of Los Angeles County.”

Franco Vega founded the RightWay Foundation. It’s mission is to build a prosperous future with the right foundation, one foster child at a time.

Hue Nguyen is the managing partner of GDBRO Burger. Besides making globally delicious burgers, GDBRO's mission is to engage and create an emotional connection to its community and campaign around supporting local and minority owned small businesses for an equal playing field & a voice for inclusion.  

Jim Hannon founded Beach Cities Cycling Club (BCCC) in 2006, a non-profit corporation that promotes bicycling, fitness and community involvement in the Redondo/South Bay Area comprised of male and female members of all ages and skill levels.

Kelly Lytle Hernandez is a UCLA Professor of History and African American Studies at UCLA and the Interim Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA - considered one of the nation’s leading historians of race, policing, immigration, and incarceration in the United States.

Larry Gross has been working at the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) for 45 years, since its inception in 1973. CES is a grassroots, multi-ethnic tenants’ rights organization serving low- and moderate-income renters throughout the greater Los Angeles area, committed to organizing tenants to fight to ensure tenants’ rights and preserve affordable housing.

Louis Tse became inspired to start Students 4 Students (formerly known as Bruin Shelter) while a graduate student at UCLA, studying mechanical engineering. 

Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and her mother, Owliya Dima, co-founded The Tiyya Foundation in 2010, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing community support for families of refugees, low-income immigrants, and displaced Americans in the Orange County and Greater Los Angeles regions.

Milton Hernandez Nimatuj is the Southern California Program Director for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). It is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation, with a mission to build people’s power in California’s communities of color and low-income communities to achieve environmental health and justice.

A lifelong South Central L.A. resident committed to the fight for human and civil rights, Pete White founded the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), a grassroots organization working to ensure the human right to housing, health and security are upheld in Los Angeles.

Ricardo Rosales is a member of the executive team of Midnight Mission, responsible for overall operation of Homelight Family Living which provides a path for families in crisis to reunify, rebuild and restore their lives.

Finley has turned his property into a thriving community garden, creating a source of free organic produce for a neighborhood where the obesity rates are said to be three times higher than those in West Los Angeles. In 2017, with the help of funds from such organic company supporters and individuals who admired his work such as Nell Newman of Newman’s Own, Bette Midler, Annie’s Organic, Clif Bars and Dr. Bronner’s, Finley bought the property.

Meet the local teenager who took on big oil in LA after she says drilling made ...

An Islamic school in South LA is determined to renew and restore its ...