Archive for category: MPP Alumni Awards

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 serves as Director for Budget and Assessment in the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD). Mr. Presman is responsible for budget oversight and assessment across the federal enterprise.

Dylan has worked for the U.S. government for 20+ years and served under five Presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden) at three different federal departments (U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Education, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security) as well as having worked for the U.S. Senate. Prior to joining ONCD, Dylan served as Budget Director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where he oversaw the formulation and execution of the agency’s $2.5 billion budget.

Dylan joined DHS in May 2009, working initially in the Budget Division in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer before moving over to CISA in 2017. Previously, Dylan worked as a budget analyst at the U.S. Departments of Education and as a program manager at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dylan earned a B.A. in Middle Eastern Affairs from the University of Durham, a Masters of Science in Government Leadership from the National Defense University and a Masters in Public Policy from UCLA.

Emily C. Williams is the CEO of the UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN), housed within the  UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. UCAAN operates the ACEs Aware initiative, which is committed to reducing the toxic stress  resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) by 50 percent within one generation. UCAAN is the brainchild of former California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and is financed by the CA Department of Healthcare Services.

Emily also operates a consultancy, Emily Presents, through which she delivers training and strategic guidance on communications, diversity, equity, leadership, organizational development, policy, and related subjects. At the height of the pandemic, she served as the lead strategist on the County of Los Angeles’ groundbreaking initiative to embrace remote work as a permanent reality and reimagine the workplace of the future for its employees.

For six years, she served as Senior Policy Deputy for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In her role, she shaped budget, legislative, equity, and human services policy for the largest County in the nation and oversaw child welfare, education, social services, and workforce development initiatives for the district’s two million constituents. Prior to joining the County, Emily worked for The Princeton Review, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and the City of Los Angeles. During her 14-year career with the City, she worked first as a policy advisor with the Human Relations Commission, then as a civilian commander overseeing non-tactical training for the Los Angeles Fire Department, and finally as deputy chief of staff to former City Councilmember (now U.S. Representative) Tony Cárdenas (CA-29).

Emily earned a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and an M.P.P. from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she was recognized as Alumna of the Year in 2005 and currently serves as a Senior Fellow. She was also a 2017-18 Fellow with the USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. She is an adjunct instructor at the Los Angeles Police Academy, a founding board member of A Better LA, and a former board member of the American Association of University Women – Beach Cities branch. She is currently a member of the SAM Initiative, the Polytechnic School Alumni Board, and the New Village Girls Academy Board of Directors.

Employer: Hon. Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Profile: linkedin.com/in/emilypresents
Twitter: @emilypresents
Media: CityWatchLA, UCLA Luskin, UCLA Luskin, Los Angeles Sentinel

Veronica Melvin joined the LA Promise Fund as its CEO & President in November 2011. Passion, activism, empowerment, and learning are four key qualities that are present throughout Veronica Melvin’s dedicated work in the fields of education and health for children and families. These attributes, that have defined her life and career, are the reason why she received a Presidential appointment to a White House commission on educational excellence.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of LA Promise Fund, Melvin guides a dedicated, reform–minded education organization with a mission to raise private funds to improve public education opportunities across LA County, while simultaneously leading a network of schools in South Los Angeles.

Known for her organizational leadership and unwavering passion to uplift and empower communities, Veronica Melvin is a champion of children and families. Melvin envisions building a kindergarten-to-college pathway for our students and constructing a career pipeline laid upon a foundation of access to excellent academic, health, and enrichment opportunities for the LA Promise Fund youth in South Los Angeles.  She also understands the needs of schools to be provided additional opportunities for students to access enrichment opportunities to ensure every child’s success.

Melvin has a solid track record of building effective coalitions comprising educators, students, parents, and community stakeholders who make a firm commitment to work collaboratively to constantly improve education opportunities for struggling populations of students.

Melvin served as Chief Operating Officer of the national organization Communities for Teaching Excellence, and as Executive Director for the Alliance for a Better Community (ABC), an organization working to improve the quality of life for Latinos in Los Angeles through systemic policy reforms. In her management role, Melvin has also been instrumental in launching community–based campaigns to advance issues crucial to student academic achievement and success.

Melvin earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Economies of Industrial Societies from UC Berkeley. She earned her Masters of Public Policy from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Employer: LA Promise Fund
Profile: linkedin.com/in/veronica-melvin-876b6854
Twitter: @LAPromiseFund
Media: Los Angeles Standard Newspaper, Los Angeles Sentinel, Annenberg Foundation, Ed Source, Fox6

 Jennifer White is a true global citizen whose passion for Africa inspires her to create safe spaces for African and African-American women to connect, heal, and do business. She organizes annual healing and investment trips to Africa to connect Africans annually, on both sides of the ocean. Starting with the healing act of “Sharing Our Stories”, connections are made and trust is built, opening the door to business collaborations, economic empowerment and community development around the world.

As a lifelong learner, Jennifer earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s degree in Public Policy from UCLA, as well as a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Howard University. As a student leader and community activist, she remained passionate about Africa. Her first journey to the Motherland in 2004 was a graduate student at the University of Ghana, where she initiated study groups in Development Studies, Gender Studies, and Political Science. She organized study groups to share Ghanaian and African American perspectives and hold thought-provoking discussions about Africa’s evolution, establishing strong bonds of friendship maintained to this day.

Jennifer’s experience as an educator spans from kindergarten to college, where she has worked as an instructor, counselor and grant writer at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. For the last 10 years she has organized healing and investment trips for African American professionals to Africa, including Ghana, Egypt, Togo, Benin, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Ethiopia. As founder and CEO of SISTERcircle, she is a staunch advocate for “Doing Business in Africa”, recently launching “SISTERcircle Fine Wines” a collective investment by African American women to import South African wine made by Black women, opening up the US market for Black winemakers.

Profile: linkedin.com/in/jennifer-white-1b976123
Media: GridAlternatives