Name: Mike Fong

Occupation: Member of the Board of Trustees, Los Angeles Community College District, Seat 7

During his time on our Community College Board, Trustee Mike Fong has created job-training programs and collaborated with Mayor Eric Garcetti on the Los Angeles College Promise program making two years of community college tuition-free expanding college access and opportunity for thousands of local students.  As Trustee, Mike led efforts to increase student success, expand dual enrollment programs, create high growth sector job training programs, and make the Colleges and District more responsive to the needs of students and the local community.

Now, Mike is running for re-election to serve as your Member of the Board of Trustees for the Los Angeles Community College District, Seat 7 to serve as the effective and progressive advocate that we need embracing the hopes and aspirations of our students.

As our Trustee, Mike Fong will work to: 

-Expand workforce education and high-growth sector job training programs.

-Increase student success.

-Expand dual enrollment programs enabling high school students to enroll in college courses.

-Fully fund community colleges.

-Increase access to resources bridging the digital divide in distance learning.

-Modernize classrooms and facilities for our students, faculty, and staff.

-Expand diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

-Protect students, staff, and faculty in a safe learning environment.

-Ensure every student has access to a quality education.

Mike Fong is endorsed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Congressman Ted Lieu, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, State Controller Betty Yee, Senator Maria Elena Durazo, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, Assemblymember Mike Gibson, Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, Los Angeles City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, along with dozens of local community leaders because he has a proven record of getting things done for students, families, and communities of the Los Angeles Community College District.

“I am running for re-election to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees Seat 7 to continue finding commonsense solutions to the problems we face and ensure that the our colleges remain a bastion for progressive values and good public policy embracing the hopes and aspirations of our students, families, and community. I would be honored to earn your vote.”

-Mike Fong

Questions?   Please email Mike at mikefong4laccd@gmail.com or visit www.MikeFong.org

"we believe challenger Han, a lawyer and adjunct instructor in business law at L.A. Mission College, is the better choice for this seat. Han has direct experience with students within the district, which gives him a ground-level perspective on district policies, and he espouses a wider, more macro view of the role and mission of the LACCD. He also pushes for more robust relations with mentoring and apprenticeship programs, which could be crucial in the next few years as the region continues to claw its way back from the economic disruptions of the coronavirus crisis." - Los Angeles Times 10/4/2020 

Reference to the above. 

 I have been in education since 1979 when I taught middle and high school. I have taught at community colleges and universities from the late 1980s to present except for the sixteen years I was a trustee and not allowed to teach in the LACCD.

I have created 2300 radio documentaries and 600 television documentaries with three EMMY-nominations. 

I have traveled to over 90 countries to support conservation efforts, ecotourism and sustainabliity efforts as a consultant and media producer and host.

I ranked number five in the world in the fifty-miler and completed the Western States 100 mile running race and the Ironman Triathlon and bring my competitive drive to every endeavor including the LACCD.

I am an environmentalist, anthropologist, feminist, humanitarian, civil rights activist, and documentarian.  

I started with the Los Angeles Community College district as a student at City College in 1968. I have been a part-time instructor from the 1980s to 2002. From 2001-2017 I was a Trustee, Since 2017 to present I have been a part-time faculty member.

 I  am the most qualified having been with LACCD for over thirty years.

Why did I chose Seat 7? Because for four years when I worked on the Board with Mr. Fong he did not speak for or against any agenda item except the “feel good” resolutions. I ask tough questions, read the fine print, and provide oversight. The board needs a leader committed to the colleges not someone like Fong who is using it as a political stepping stone.

I led the efforts to get the nine billion dollar building program to be LEEDS and sustainable. I worked to get all operations and academics sustainable. Fong opposed my sustainability committee.

I support: gender parity and women in leadership roles and in the teaching positions.

I support diversity among students, faculty and staff.

I support: pathways to suceess

I support: oversight of budgets

I support: fairer pay for the over 50% faculty who are parttimers so they get paid for required work.

 I am an progressive policy maker not beholden to special interests.

The trustee challenges this year and next: 

* make the campuses safe for return to classroom

* hire presidents of the nine colleges that will stay with the District

* refocus the budget to provide more resources for students and not faculty

* set policies for student success

I want LACCD to be best in the nation.