Lori Saldana Campaign Website

Assembly Member Saldaña Biography

Lori

Assemblymember Lori Saldaña, now serving her second term in the California Legislature, serves as Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore, Vice-Chair of the Women's Caucus and Chair of both the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development and the Assembly Subcommittee on Base Closure and Redevelopment. Other committee assignments include: Veterans Affairs, Natural Resources and Elections and Redistricting.

Among her legislative success in 2005, Assembly Member Saldaña is particularly proud of AB 599, a bill she co-authored with the late Assembly Member Mike Gordon. This bill provides veterans increased access to mental health services by including them among the populations to receive Proposition 63 Mental Health funds. For her work on behalf of veterans and active military, she was named the 2006 "Legislator of the Year" by the California Association of County Veterans Service Officers.

In 2006, the Governor signed Saldaña's "California School-Age Military Dependants Act," which requires school districts to develop mechanisms to ease the difficulty with transfer and graduation requirements frequently experienced by military dependents. In 2007, she authored AB 7, which would enact protections for service members from payday lenders, and AB 170 which would extend free state preschool to a greater number of the state's military dependants.

Ms. Saldaña is the author of landmark environmental legislation that would prohibit the use of hazardous materials - including lead and mercury - from most electronic devices sold in California. This would prevent these toxic materials from presenting a health hazard by aggregating and seeping into the soil and groundwater.

She also authored AB 1640, a consumer protection bill that requires insurance companies to notify policy holders when information about their insurance claims is sent to a claims information database. This provides consumers with the opportunity to correct inaccurate reporting about their policies that may result in increased premiums or ineligibility for coverage. The law went into effect on January 1st, 2006.

During her second term, Ms. Saldaña has introduced ambitious legislation on a broad range of issues, including measures to increase penalties for repeat hit-and-run drivers who cause serious injuries or death, to protect state public tidelands from predatory development, to expand access to preschool for children on active duty service members and to prevent hackers from gaining access to electronic voting machines.

As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, Ms. Saldaña has worked to address the state's affordable housing crisis through increased funding for local affordable housing trusts and incentives for building affordable housing for seniors.

She has also introduced legislation to expand the use of energy efficiency, renewables and sustainable building methods and to increase local control of development standards by changing the state's density bonus law.

Ms. Saldaña also fought to resolve the increasing conflicts between homeowners and HOAs by increasing the accountability of HOA boards and improving access to information for homeowners and dispute resolution for homeowners.

Ms. Saldaña was born in San Diego in 1958, the third of four daughters. After her father retired from a 20-year career in the Marine Corps, Lori's parents, Virginia and Frank, moved the family to the San Diego community of Clairemont. San Diegans may remember Frank Saldaña from his post-military career as a reporter for the San Diego Tribune.

Ms. Saldaña attended San Diego public schools, graduating from Clairemont's Madison High School in 1976. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor's of Arts Degree in Physical Education and later a Master of Arts Degree in Education, each from San Diego State University. She began her career as an educator coaching field hockey at Clairemont and Madison high schools and women's basketball at San Diego City College. She also worked as a carpenter's apprentice and attended classes in the carpenters training program in San Diego in the early eighties.

  • President Clinton's appointee to the Border Environment Cooperation Commission's Advisory Council (1999) to review, plan and fund water quality improvement projects in San Diego and Tijuana. Ms. Saldaña served as United States Co-Chair of Advisory Council and managed over $60 million in investments in local potable water, reclamation and sewage treatment projects, and cleaner water at the US-Mexico border. As a result of this work, she received an environmental policy research fellowship at the Center for US-Mexico study at UCSD.
  • Chairwoman, City of San Diego Wetlands Advisory Board for the City of San Diego (1992-94).
  • Chair, Sierra Club, San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter, 1995-1997, Legal Committee Chair and Political Committee Chair. Recipient of the Sierra Club's "Conservation Activist of the Year" Award (1995), and Sierra Club's Special Achievement Award for Conservation Activities (1999)

Believing in the importance of a skilled and educated workforce to San Diego's economy, Ms. Saldaña has devoted much of her 20-year career as an educator in San Diego to workforce development and programs providing educational, vocational and public service opportunities for at-risk youth. Additionally, she has spent a majority of her career in education as a professor of Business Information Technology throughout the San Diego Community College District. Ms. Saldaña developed and managed several educational and technical job skills programs, including a $1.5 million Technology Workforce Development grant for the San Diego Community College district.

In 2002, Saldaña was named Associate Dean, Director of Service Learning Program, at San Diego Mesa College. This successful program provided students with experience working in local volunteer organizations while earning college credit.

Assembly Member Saldana has translated her interests in vocational and technical education to her work in the state legislature. She is a member of the Legislature's California Technical Education Coalition (CTE). The CTE is a coalition of Legislators interested in the advancement, promotion and expansion of Career Technical Education.

As a lover of the outdoors, Ms. Saldaña has been involved in activities that allow her to enjoy San Diego's unique weather and topography. Among her interests are sailing, hiking, golfing, kayaking, swimming, and snorkeling. She is also an enthusiastic camper and an author of a how-to book on backpacking.

"Since my election, I have made transparent, accountable and trustworthy government my top priority."
- LORI SALDAÑA