Just a note to say thanks.

Just this month, the NLC San Diego graduated its 2011 class of Fellows.

For the second year in a row, we have recruited and trained some of the most talented young people in our region. And we expect great things from them in the coming years.

You can see photos of San Diego’s graduation and our 2011 Institute here.

The NLC Institute in San Diego is a 6-month training program that provides progressive young professionals with skills and relationships to make change in San Diego. The Fellowship includes:

• Local faculty that volunteer to share their expertise in communications, political organizing, fundraising and policy.
  

• Pairing with mentors that include elected officials, Executive Directors of nonprofits, and prominent business and labor leaders.
  

• Building deep relationships with members of the NLC Community that span the breadth of San Diego's diverse and growing progressive community.
  

Our local NLC Advisory Board treats the NLC Fellowship as a collaboration of progressive stakeholders in San Diego, to invest in our community’s human capital. Our philosophy is that to move San Diego forward, we need capable progressives from the private sector, nonprofits, and in public service.

Our local chapter doesn’t require much money to operate and most of our support has come in the form of time, relationships, and skill.

On behalf of our local Advisory Board, Fellows and Alumni, we thank you for your contiuned support. We are humbled by the generosity of individuals and organizations that contribute to building our local NLC chapter.

-Colin Parent

Co-Director, NLC San Diego

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Douglas White

Douglas White

Manager of Government Affairs, Cricket Communications

Whether the commitment has been local, state or federal, Doug White has been involved in progressive politics for the entirety of his career. Starting out in Governor Gray Davis’ administration, Doug quickly cut his political teeth in Washington, DC.

Additional political and policy work with the Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly, the Obama presidential campaign and Presidential Inaugural Commission, Toni Atkins for State Assembly and Howard Wayne for San Diego City Council campaigns, only furthered Doug’s resolve to become more intimately involved with the progressive cause. Currently, Doug is the manager of Government Affairs for Cricket Communications, a national wireless carrier based in San Diego.

He grew up in small hamlet of Claremont, CA and spent a decade on the east coast. Doug returned to Southern California in 2009, relocating permanently to San Diego. He is an avid half-marathoner and dedicated New Yorker aficionado. Doug received his bachelor of business administration degree in management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his master of public administration, public and non-profit management degree from New York University.

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Note: This is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Brooke Tucker

Brooke Tucker

Law Clerk/Research Attorney, United States District Court

Brooke Tucker is a law clerk to the Honorable John A. Houston, United States District Judge for the Southern District of California. Prior to her clerkship, Brooke practiced corporate litigation in the New York office of Davis Polk & Wardwell. While at Davis Polk, Brooke worked on pharmaceutical class action litigation as well as bankruptcy and security matters. She also worked on several pro bono cases. Among those cases was a successful habeas petition for a death row inmate that resulted in a new trial for the petitioner.

Brooke received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and her Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law. While in law school, she was a member of law review and completed internships with the ACLU of Michigan and the U.S. Attorney's Office Sex Offense/Domestic Violence division. During the 2007-2008 presidential primaries Brooke volunteered as an election protection attorney. Brooke has also volunteered with Projects Abroad in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and taken a human rights trip to Israel and Palestine.

Raised in Manhattan Beach, California, Brooke has also lived in Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and New York. She currently resides in San Diego, California.

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Note: This is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Brittany Syz

Brittany Syz

Associate, Solomon Minton Cardinal LLP

Brittany Applestein Syz is an associate at Solomon Minton Cardinal LLP specializing in real estate and corporate transactional matters. She has been able to use her legal experience to work on several pro bono cases regarding affordable housing, housing rights, and real estate issues for women’s groups and food banks.

After working for a senior citizens group in Hunters Point, San Francisco, she was asked to sit on the nonprofit’s board to assist in the development of senior housing in a resource poor area. Since moving to San Diego at the end of 2009, Brittany has joined the Lawyers Club and worked with the Community Outreach Committee to construct a garden for a local women’s shelter, as well as revise their lease. In addition, she has organized volunteers to read at Porter Elementary School in Lincoln Park and to work at the San Diego Food Bank.

Brittany graduated cum laude from Harvard University, obtained her master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and received her law degree cum laude from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

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Note: this is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Denise Serrano

Denise Serrano

Education & Advocacy Associate, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

Denise Serrano is the education & advocacy associate for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, where she helps develop and implement strategies to deploy the affiliate’s 9,000 members in the region as advocates for civil liberties. Serrano builds and nurtures relationships with community leaders and coalitions that work on priority issues and statewide campaigns, including immigrants’ rights, education equality, LGBT rights and finding alternatives to the death penalty.

Serrano speaks in public and to the media on behalf of the ACLU and is the organization’s chief commentator in Spanish. She chairs one of San Diego’s most active anti-death penalty groups, Taxed to Death, which brings together local religious, civil rights and legal groups to advocate against the death penalty in the state of California and also serves on the Public Policy Advisory Committee for a coalition of LGBT organizations in San Diego. Previously, Serrano was active in the Legislative Action Committee with the California National Organization for Women (NOW).

Serrano is bicultural and binational, having been born stateside, but raised in Tijuana, Mexico. She completed all of her early schooling in Tijuana, and obtained her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University.

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Note: This is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Norma Rodriguez

Norma Rodriguez
Organizer, Center on Policy Initiatives

Norma currently works at the Center on Policy Initiatives as an organizer. Her previous work experience includes grassroots organizing mainly focusing on immigration issues and civic participation. She has also been chair and coordinator of Fiesta Del Sol, San Diego's largest Latino street festival which is a two-day event celebrating the history, diverse cultures and engagement of the people of San Diego.

Norma has also taught art and Spanish. She obtained her bachelor's degree in studio art with minors in education and Chicano/Latino studies from the University of California, Irvine and a master’s degree in Latin American studies with an emphasis on international migration from the University of California, San Diego.

She is originally from Porterville, California and her parents are from Puruandiro Michoacan, Mexico. Norma had the opportunity to participate in the Mexican Migration Field Research Program, a binational research project between Yucatan and the U.S. while doing her master's work and was one of the authors of the book which published their findings. She enjoys good books, practicing hot yoga and running.

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Note: This is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class

Meet the 2011 NLC Fellows: Jesse Mays

Jesse Mays
Council Representative, City of San Diego Councilmember Sherri Lightner

Jesse Mays is a council representative for San Diego City Councilmember Sherri Lightner, providing strategic advice on policy, politics and communications, as well as serving as liaison to the University City neighborhood of San Diego and UC San Diego. He served as campaign coordinator for Lightner's winning grassroots campaign in 2008.

Previously, Jesse worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. At ABC Studios, he worked on the creative side of top-rated network television shows. Prior to that he was selected for the Agent Training Program at United Talent Agency, where he worked for an agent representing some of Hollywood’s most sought-after television directors and writers. He has also worked for legendary feature film producers Richard & Lauren Schuler Donner and coordinated musical guests on ABC’s late night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Jesse earned a B.A. in English from Pomona College in Claremont, CA, where he wrote his senior thesis on Margaret Fuller’s call to social activism. He grew up in Lake Forest, IL and lives with his wife, a medical student, in University City.

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Note: This is part of an ongoing series introducing San Diego's 2011 fellowship class