President
Priya Bhat-Patel, Council Member, Carlsbad

Dr. Priya Bhat-Patel is a Council Member in the City of Carlsbad where she grew up and currently lives. A daughter of Indian immigrants, Priya is the first Indian American to be elected to City Council in the County of San Diego, and the youngest person ever to be elected to the Council in the City of Carlsbad.

Councilmember Bhat-Patel serves on many committees, including the League of California Cities, North County Transit District, the North San Diego County Regional Homeless Committee,  Regional COVID-19 Taskforce on Equitable Recovery, Economic Revitalization Ad-Hoc Committee, City/Schools Committee, and Legislative Committee.

Dr. Bhat-Patel is uniquely poised to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with her Masters and Doctorate in Public Health. Along with Council, Priya works for a non-profit as a Policy Analyst and Manager for the California Family Justice Center Network. Family Justice Centers help provide wraparound services to victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and elder and child abuse.

​She will continue to fight for justice as she works her way to becoming the first Indian American State Senator in the State of California, representing North San Diego County and South Orange County. Priya lives with her husband, who is a small business owner. They love enjoying the outdoors with their very sweet dog, Kishmish!

1st Vice President
Quirina Orozco, Council Member, West Sacramento

Quirina Orozco was elected to the West Sacramento City Council on November 8, 2016. Prior to her election, she served on the City of West Sacramento’s Parks and Community Services Commission and Board of Appeals. She is currently the Chair of the Executive Board of the Yolo County Children’s Alliance (YCCA) and is the founder of West Sac Kids Give Back, an organization aimed at providing children with opportunities to engage in public service activities.
Councilmember Orozco has served as Deputy District Attorney with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office since 2005 where she handles cases ranging from sexual assault and child abuse to human trafficking and state prison crimes. An advocate for fitness and recreation programs, Orozco has served as a kickboxing, strength training and cycling instructor for nearly two decades. Her commitment to children’s outdoor recreation served as the driving force in the development of the City’s Disney KaBOOM Park in West Sacramento’s Bryte and Broderick neighborhood.

Orozco earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard University and her Juris doctorate at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. Prior to attending law school, she worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) where she was the lead budget examiner for President Clinton’s Hispanic Education Action Plan and other programs aimed at improving the educational outcomes for underserved children. She later returned to California, where she served as an advisor to Lieutenant Governor Cruz M. Bustamante and the Executive Director of the Commission for One California.

Orozco regularly devotes herself to her husband and four children and considers herself a proud West Sacramento Little League and soccer parent. She is an active member of the Mighty West Sacramento Rotary Club, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), and the Cruz Reynoso Bar Association (CRBA). In 2016 she was awarded the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Latina Estrella Champion Award for her leadership and commitment to fighting for victims’ rights. In May of 2017, she was recognized by Comstocks Magazine’s feature article, “She Who Leads: Annual Salute to Women in Leadership,” which recognized six women of influence in the Capital Regional for redefining leadership on their own terms.

Councilmember Orozco currently represents the City of West Sacramento on the City/County 2x2, City/School 2x2, Executive Commission for the Homeless 10-Year Plan, and Sacramento County Regional Sanitation District. She also serves as an alternate member on the Port District Commission.

2nd Vice President
Elizabeth Alcantar, Mayor, Cudahy 

Elizabeth Alcantar is an advocate and organizer by heart and trade for her community in Southeast Los Angeles. She currently serves Cudahy, CA as Mayor.

Raised in Cudahy, Elizabeth Alcantar attended Teresa Hughes Elementary School and Elizabeth Learning Center before pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. Throughout her time in college, Elizabeth worked with students and alumni of ELC to host educational workshops on applying to college, obtaining financial aid, and even fundraised for scholarships for Cudahy students. She continued her advocacy alongside carwash workers with the CLEAN Carwash Campaign and later went on to serve as a Field Deputy for former Secretary of Labor, Supervisor Hilda L. Solis and now works for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) where she works to educate and organize community on the issue of immigration and ensures immigrant community members from Northeast L.A. to Southeast L.A. know their rights and feel confident in their fight for achieving a just society for all, regardless of status.

After seeing a gap in representation for young women in Cudahy, Elizabeth filed to run for city council. In November of 2018, Elizabeth was elected to the Cudahy City Council and then named Vice Mayor, making her the city’s first Latina vice mayor. She’s honored to serve the community that raised her and is focused on increasing civic engagement, access to quality green space and multimodal transportation, and supporting Cudahy’s women and girls. She represents the City of Cudahy on the Gateway Council of Governments, the Hub Cities Job Joint Powers Authority, and the AB617 Community Steering Committee.​

Immediate Past President
​Ellen Kamei, Council Member, Mountain View

Ellen Kamei was born and raised in Silicon Valley and is the daughter of a Chinese and Puerto Rican American mother from New York City and a third-generation Japanese American father born at Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Wyoming.

Inspired by community service since youth, Ellen began volunteering in elementary school and hasn’t stopped since. Driven to service, her career has taken her from Japan to the East Coast and back home to Mountain View. Ellen’s professional experience spans city, county, state, and federal government. In November 2018, Ellen was elected to the Mountain View City Council, Member-At-Large.

Ellen completed her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where she was a student athlete on the Rowing Team and received a B.A. in English.

​​Secretary-Treasurer
Bobbie Singh-Allen, Mayor, Elk Grove 

Bobbie Singh-Allen was elected Mayor of Elk Grove in November 2020.
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Singh-Allen was appointed to the Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees on August 16, 2012 and later elected to serve two four-year terms in 2014 and 2018. She served as Board President for two years. She has helped lead the fifth largest school district to strong financial reserves, strengthened relationships between management and labor, robust Career and Technical Education programs, higher graduation rates, inclusive curriculum, enhanced Visual and Performing Arts, and more.

Singh-Allen has represented the private sector for over twenty years. She has led statewide associations representing the hotel and lodging industry, special education service providers and schools, housing and community development companies, and government relations- public affairs consultant for various clients on issues including land use development, affordable housing, real estate, and more.

She is committed to bringing her leadership skills, professional development training in collaboration, equity, and implicit bias to help lead the City of Elk Grove. Singh-Allen is a champion for good governance which includes transparency, accountability, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement.

Singh-Allen received her J.D. from Lincoln Law School of Sacramento and earned her B.A. in Government from California State University, Sacramento.
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Singh-Allen is a native of India and a wife and mother of two children. She has lived in Elk Grove for nearly 30 years. She is an elected State Commissioner for Visit California. She also serves as a member of the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Tolerance, California Chamber of Commerce, Cal-Travel, and more. Previously, she served on the Elk Grove Teen Center Board of Directors, Elk Grove Food Bank Board of Directors and was an active member of the Rotary Club of Laguna Sunrise. Her civic and community engagement earned several awards and recognitions. In 2015, she was selected as "Woman of the Year" for Assembly District 9 and recognized for her many achievements in front of the California Legislature.

Director At-Large
Jan Arbuckle, Vice Mayor, Grass Valley

Jan Arbuckle was born and raised in Southern California and relocated to Sacramento in the 1970s. Her almost two-decade career in public safety included serving with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy sheriff. She remains a reserve deputy and participates in the department’s PEER Support Program.

Council Member Arbuckle became locally involved in public service through two consecutive terms on the Nevada County Civil Grand Jury. This experience, learning how local government operates and how it addresses pressing issues such as public safety, homelessness and substance abuse inspired her further.

In February 2007, Council Member Arbuckle was appointed to the Grass Valley City Council. Elected in November 2008 to a four-year term on the Grass Valley City Council, her colleagues on the council selected her as vice mayor. The Grass Valley City Council selected her as mayor in 2010, a position she held for two years until 2012, the same year she was re-elected to the council. Council Member Arbuckle was re-elected again in 2016.

Council Member Arbuckle is active in the League of California Cities where she has served on the board of directors since 2013. She is chair of the League’s Public Safety Committee, president of the League’s Women’s Caucus, co-chair of the League-California State Association of Counties Joint Homelessness Task Force and has served as Sacramento Valley Division president twice. In addition, Council Member Arbuckle was the first women to chair the League’s Public Safety Policy Committee and served as chair of the League’s former Administrative Services Policy Committee.

Engaged throughout Grass Valley and Nevada City, Council Member Arbuckle serves on the Nevada County Homelessness Process Improvement Committee, the Grass Valley Successor Agency Oversight Board, the Nevada County Transit Services Commission and the Nevada County Transportation Commission. She helped pass a half-cent sales tax earmarked for public safety and roads, implemented a succession plan for the Grass Valley Police Department, helped create the Grass Valley Police Department Peer Support Program and facilitated a major interchange public works project.

Director At-Large
Cassandra Chase, Council Member, Lakewood 

Cassandra Chase was elected to the Lakewood City Council on June 7, 2022 by the voters of District 5 of the city. 
Cassandra was born and raised in Lakewood, and graduated from St. Joseph High School in Lakewood and the University of California, Irvine.
Cassandra’s parents instilled in her the value of service. She has been a longtime volunteer with the Lakewood Jaycees, serving as a former Miss Greater Lakewood, which has inspired her about the community’s ability to come together toward a common purpose.
Cassandra was one of the first Lakewood community members to be appointed to serve on the Measure L Citizens Oversight Committee starting in 2020.  
Professionally, Cassandra is a business strategist and social entrepreneur who works to provide marginalized groups the opportunities and access they need to succeed. She founded Chase Consulting Group (CCG), a boutique business consulting firm that provides strategic management, business development and marketing services to small businesses and non-profit organizations.
She also co-founded Read Lead, a non-profit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders through literacy-based programming.
In addition, Cassandra serves as the Coordinator of the Empowerment Congress, a model of civic engagement built on the core principles of participatory democracy, reciprocal accountability and intentional civility.

Director At-Large
Beatriz Dieringer, Council Member, Rolling Hills

Bea Dieringer has been a member of the Women’s Caucus Board since 2017 and is currently serving as its President. She was elected to the Rolling Hills City Council in March, 2013, was selected as Mayor in 2016 and began her second four-year term in 2017 after she ran for re-election unopposed.  Each year for the past five years, she has been appointed to participate as a member of the Public Safety Committee for the League of California Cities. Bea is a member of the Board for the South Bay Cities Council of Governments and for the Los Angeles Division of the League of California Cities, where she also serves on the Division’s legislative committee and as the Division’s representative on Los Angeles County’s Countywide Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee.
 
Bea represents her city within other organizations as well, such as the Joint Powers Insurance Authority and the Contract Cities Association, where she is a member of the Association’s legislative committee. In addition to her duties as a city council member, Bea works full-time as a career deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County. Since 1985, she has continued to contribute to her profession as a member of the executive committee of the Criminal Justice Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Director At-Large
Sasha Perez, Council Member, Alhambra

Sasha Renée Pérez was born and raised in Alhambra, where her family has lived for over 50 years. Her father is an electrician and her mother is a social worker. After graduating from Mark Keppel High School, Pérez became the first in her family to graduate from college, earning degrees in Political Science and Economics from California State University, Los Angeles.
In college, Pérez led a statewide campaign that successfully secured $97 million dollars to increase college access and college affordability for all California students. During the same time, she was elected to her local neighborhood council and worked on issues such as neighborhood beautification and transportation.

Since graduating, Pérez has continued her work on pressing policy issues, led statewide campaigns, and educated constituents from across California on how to effectively fight for policies to improve their community. In the last 10 years she has played an important role in passing historic legislation that increased healthcare access, expanded government transparency, and provided protections for victims of violent crimes.
On November 3rd, 2020, Pérez was elected to Alhambra City Council and immediately sworn-in as Mayor, making her the youngest female mayor in San Gabriel Valley history and the youngest Latina mayor to lead a city of more than 50,000 in California. Her historic campaign was endorsed by a coalition of cross-sector organizations, representing teachers, nurses, construction workers, environmentalist, and more.
Pérez continues to be an active community member volunteering her time at food banks, serving as a Delegate to the California Democratic Party, and a board member to Asian Youth Center, a 501(C)3 non-profit dedicated to empowering low-income, immigrant, and at-risk youth. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, supporting local restaurants, and reading with her cats.