Archive for category: MPP Alumni Awards

Valeria joined NDIA in October 2022. She has over 12 years of experience with nonprofits. She has worked on various initiatives, from health, education, and human rights to immigration and food security. She is a community leader who advocates for …

Isaac Bryan represents California’s 55th Assembly District, which consists of Baldwin Hills, the Crenshaw district, Culver City, Ladera Heights, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Palms, Pico-Robertson, Beverly Grove, Mid-Wilshire, and parts of South Los Angeles.

In the Assembly, Isaac serves as the Chair of the Elections Committee, fighting to protect the right to vote and to keep our elections free and fair. He also serves as the Chair of the Assembly’s first Select Committee on Poverty and Economic Inclusion. In 2022, he was elected Secretary and Treasurer of the California Legislative Black Caucus. He is Vice Chair and a founding member of the Renters Caucus.

In the Assembly, Isaac secured funding to found the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA School of Law; the first Climate Change Education Center in the California Community College system at West LA College; a stipend program for students in the trades to earn a living wage while studying for certificates, and millions of dollars for other projects across the 55th District. Isaac’s legislative accomplishments have included phasing out the Inglewood Oil Field and other oil drilling near homes and communities in California (SB-1137), ending prison gerrymandering (AB-1848), ending punishing fees for parents with children in foster care (AB-1686), protecting students from predatory insurance practices (AB-1823) and strengthening online campaign finance disclosure requirement (AB-1848).

Isaac is a community organizer, highly regarded policy expert, and a published academic. Prior to his election to the Assembly, Isaac led a ballot measure that brought millions of dollars a year to address racial injustice and strengthen communities in Los Angeles. He served as the founding Director of the UCLA Black Policy Project – a think tank dedicated to advancing racial equity through rigorous policy analysis – served as the first Director of Public Policy at the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center, as well as Director of Organizing for the nationally recognized Million Dollar Hoods project, a community-based participatory research project. He authored the first holistic report for the City of Los Angeles on the needs of the formerly incarcerated Angelenos, and exposed a gap in youth justice policy. For years, his academic and organizing work has been at the intersection of environmental, economic, education and housing justice.

Employment:  https://a55.asmdc.org/

Profile:   linkedin.com/in/isaacbryan

Twitter:   @isaacgbryan

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Bryan

Jason Ballou is a Master of Public Policy candidate at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs where he is an advocate for long term solutions for homelessness.  Prior to graduate school, Jason was a case manager with Lutheran Social Services helping individuals who were chronically homeless and disabled. In this role he helped people re-engage in physical and mental health care and gain a steady income, with the ultimate goal of securing good permanent housing. For his work with some of the community’s most challenging cases, the City of Long Beach Prosecutor’s Office recognized him with its annual Impact Award in 2019.

Believing that kindness and compassion are the best guides for policy making and social change, Jason is very active in volunteering and service.  Through his church, he has coordinated several Habitat for Humanity projects building housing for the working poor. He has assisted with the LA LGBT Center’s Community Action Network and was elected president of the Association of Master of Public Policy Students.  Jason recently completed the Los Angeles Marathon, his first marathon ever.  He also enjoys playing dodgeball, great LA hikes and trips to see his family in Ohio.

Dylan Presman is Budget Director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In this role, Dylan oversees NPPD’s $2 billion budget.

Dylan joined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in May 2009, working initially in the Budget Division of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer before moving over to CISA in 2017.  Dylan served in a number of positions at DHS before joining CISA including as Assistant Director of Budget, overseeing the budgets of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as a congressional liaison for the Budget Division overseeing relations with the appropriations committees, and as the Budget Division Desk Officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Previously, Dylan worked for the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. At the U.S. Department of Education, Dylan worked in Budget Service on a variety of accounts in the Office of Postsecondary Education, with a particular focus on the issues of improving teacher quality and minority-serving institutions. Prior to that, Dylan served at the U.S. Department of Justice as national program director for a program designed to improve after-school programs in high-crime neighborhoods. While at the U.S. Department of Justice, Dylan also served as a grant manager, a financial analyst and a congressional liaison specialist. Dylan was also detailed to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.

Prior to joining the federal government, Dylan served as Executive Director of the United Nations Association-USA, a nonprofit organization focused on education and advocacy on international issues. In that position, he led delegations to the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the 2nd World Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul in 1996.

In June 2016, Dylan earned a Masters of Science in Government Leadership from the National Defense University. Dylan previously earned a Masters in Public Policy from UCLA and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Affairs from the University of Durham in England. Dylan also studied at Alexandria University in Egypt and Jerusalem University in Israel. Mr. Presman is married and has two children, Sarai, 23, and Henry, 20. Mr. Presman recently added DHS Chief Financial Officer “2019 Awards for Excellence”  and cancer survivor to his list of achievements.