1. Art and Diseño

MARÍA BLANCO
221 S. Figueroa St., Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-452-6223
[email protected]
EDUCATION
JD, University of California, Berkeley
BA, University of California, Berkeley
BAR ADMISSION
1991, United States Supreme Court
1984, State Bar of California
1984, United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
1984, United States District Court (Northern District)
1987, United States District Court (Eastern District)
2003, United States District Court (Central District)
EMPLOYMENT
California Community Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (2010 – Present)
Vice President, Civic Engagement
The California Community Foundation (CCF) is the community foundation for Los
Angeles County. Its mission is to improve the life of Angelinos, particularly the
most vulnerable, through grants, collaboratives and civic engagement efforts that
bring together the non-profit, public, private and philanthropic sectors to solve
pressing issues. With a staff of 62 and $1.2 billion in assets, CCF is nearing its
centennial.
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Member of eight-person leadership team responsible for stewardship of
CCF’s donor advised funds, the annual and long term budget, allocation of
discretionary and field of interest grants, special initiatives, and CCF’s
community engagement work.
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Manage three Program Officers and a Program Associate whose grant
dockets include Immigrant Integration, an Early Childhood Education
Initiative, American Muslim Civic Engagement and variety of Resident
Civic Engagement grants. The Civic Engagement department granted $4
million in grants during fiscal year 2012-2013.
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Responsible for the Foundation’s core civic engagement mission of bringing
together the public, private and non-profit sectors to jointly facilitate
solutions to pressing problems in the County.
Accomplishments
Creation of Citizenship Corners in all 72 public libraries in the City of Los Angeles
through CCF’s citizenship collaborative which is jointly funded by local, state and
national foundation partners. This library outreach model has become a national
model.
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Creation, with local input and CCF funding, of a civic engagement academy in an
large but isolated area of the county that has seen numerous instances of political
corruption and resident disenfranchisement. The academy’s 52 Spanish-speaking
participants are entering part two of a 30-week course that will culminate in real
time civic engagement activities, including policy advocacy.
Launch of a 3-year, $1 million America Muslim civic engagement initiative in Los
Angeles County, with a matching grant from a national family foundation.
As a member of California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission, drew the 2011 lines
for California’s legislative and Congressional Districts.
Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, University of California,
Berkeley, School of Law, (2007 – 2010)
Executive Director, Resident Lecturer
The Warren Institute’s mission is to engage the most difficult topics in a wide range
of legal and public policy subject areas, providing research and expertise for public
and private sector leaders, the media and the general public. The Warren Institute is
funded principally by project-specific foundation grants and donations from alumni
of Berkeley School of Law. Between 2007 – 2010, the Institute’s areas of focus
were education equity, impact of immigration enforcement by local law enforcement
agencies on local communities, and voter engagement.
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Designed research projects together with the Institute’s two faculty codirectors (Justice Goodwin Liu and Dean Christopher Edley), and with the
input of policymakers, policy advocates and research faculty at UC and
other universities.
Oversight and responsibility for development efforts. Raising money for
research projects was the joint responsibility of the director, research staff,
development director, and faculty co-directors.
Supervision of 4 research staff (2 part-time), 1 development director and 3
support staff. Supervision of research staff included joint design of research
projects, ensuring that proposed research was relevant to policy work in our
core areas, and securing funding for the research. In addition, research
supervision entailed making sure relationships with research faculty
throughout UC Berkeley and the UC system were cultivated and carefully
maintained. Finally, as Director I reviewed every report we produced for
content, methodology and presentation.
Accomplishments
Multi-year, multi-million grant to produce research white papers on bedrock
education topics to be presented by experts at quarterly roundtables held in
Washington DC and attended by national organizations dedicated to improving
educational outcomes for underrepresented communities.
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Production of a series of white papers on the economic and human rights impact of
discriminatory immigration enforcement conducted by local law enforcement
agencies.
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, San
Francisco, CA (2003 -2007)
Executive Director
The Lawyers’ Committee, or LCCR as it is known locally, is a non-profit, public
interest law firm established in 1967. LCCR provides direct legal services through a
weekly legal clinic staffed by pro bono attorneys from major Bay Area law firms.
The clinic is a major source of pro bono work for many new and long time attorneys
in the Bay Area. LCCR’s direct services are widely known for their asylum and
refugee work that has resulted in national precedent setting legal decisions. In
addition, LCCR brings impact lawsuits in the areas of education equity, immigrant
rights, employment discrimination and voting rights. With experienced in-house
lawyers, the model at LCCR is to co-counsel all its cases with major local law firms.
With this model LCCR is able to benefit from the resources of community minded
law firms and also establish a financial support from lawyers and law firms.
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Managed a staff of 6 lawyers, 3 paralegals, 4 fellows, development director,
office manager, accountant and 4 support staff with a yearly budget of $7
million. Reviewed and gave final approval for recommended litigation and
settlements. Participated in the internal litigation committee that set longterm legal strategy and oversaw existing litigation. Responsible for fund
raising through an annual event, foundation grants, individual donor
campaigns, annual board giving campaigns and securing and management of
attorney fees.
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Worked with a 14-member Board of Directors whose members came
primarily from large established law firms, and some mid-sized and nonprofit law firms. Provided guidance to the Board’s finance and membership
committees. The LCCR board meets quarterly and the finance committee
met on a monthly basis.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
LCCR had a $400,000 deficit and a systemic weekly cash flow problem
when I was hired. When I left 3+ years later, LCCR had a 6-month reserve
and an endowment. This was the result of cost cutting, increased individual
donations, new national foundation grants, and a novel strategy of having
law firms contribute settlement monies to LCCR. In 1 year, we had over
$900,000 in firm donations. For the first time LCCR received multiple
national grants.
With the help of the Board, the community and consultants, reestablished
LCCR’s work in the African-American community, which was at the heart
of it founding.
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Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, San Francisco, CA,
Sacramento, CA and Atlanta, GA (1998-2003)
Regional and National Senior Counsel
MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is the
country’s oldest and largest legal civil rights organization dedicated to legal work on
behalf of the nation’s Latino community. It has offices in DC, Chicago, San
Antonio, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
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Managed Regional Offices in San Francisco and Sacramento. The San
Francisco office had 6 full-time staff, yearly interns and fellows, and a
regional budget of $3 million. Responsibilities included producing an
annual dinner, supervision of all litigation and of the regional census
outreach program in 2000. In addition, I maintained my own litigation
caseload. I also supervised MALDEF’s legislative office of 4 in Sacramento.
This included deciding which legislation to sponsor and support, and
supervision of the staff’s work to build support for legislation, often
accompanying them on legislative visits.
When MALDEF’s San Francisco office was closed in order to open the new
Atlanta office, I was tasked with opening the Atlanta office. I also
supervised the organization’s national employment litigation and policy
work across regional offices and worked with the DC office on immigration
policy.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Opened MALDEF’s Southeast office in Atlanta, GA to address the legal and
civic needs of the new and growing Latino population. First new MALDEF
office in 12 years.
In 2001, worked successful to pass bi-partisan legislation in Sacramento that
opened the doors of higher education to undocumented students, now
known as Dreamers.
Women's Employment Rights Clinic, Golden Gate University School of Law, San
Francisco CA (1994 – 1998)
Associate Director and Associate Professor of Law
This Clinic is a self sustaining department of Golden Gate Law School that provides
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law students with hands-on clinical education that prepares them for a successful job
search and career.
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Taught and supervised law students who handled wage and hour cases, and
unemployment appeals in an administrative setting. Also created
opportunities for students to participate in larger court cases where the clinic
worked with external law firms.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Established a line of support for the clinic by adding a line of cases that brought a
steady flow of attorney fees to the Clinic. This enabled the Clinic to pay for its
overhead, thus ensuring GGU faculty support for the program.
Equal Rights Advocates, San Francisco CA, (1987-1994)
Staff Attorney
Founded in the early 70’s, Equal Rights Advocates is a public interest law firm that
specializes in legal and policy advocacy on behalf of women and girls. It is one of a
handful of remaining organizations dedicated to legal advocacy on issues affecting
women and girls.
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Handled numerous federal class action and individual cases involving pay
and pregnancy discrimination, and sexual harassment. Participated in local
and national policy work on issues related to gender discrimination and
immigrant women.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Represented the women who integrated the San Francisco Fire Department. This
was a complex and controversial case that lasted many years, as did the monitoring
of the consent decree eventually approved by the federal court. Drafted the
pregnancy policy for the department, one of the first in the country.
Litigated the first peer sexual harassment case in the country (involved bullying of a
middle school student in Santa Rosa) jointly with a New York public interest la
firm.
Litigated a case of first impression that established that undocumented workers were
covered by Title VII anti-discrimination laws. Our client was an undocumented
employee fired because she was pregnant.
Staff Attorney, United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit), San Francisco, CA
SERVICE
Commissioner, California Citizens Redistricting Commission
Board of Directors, Public Policy Institute of California
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Board of Directors, Insight Center, Oakland, CA
Board of Directors, Homeland Productions, National News Production Co.
PRIOR SERVICE
2008-2009 Presidential Transition Team, Education
Board of Directors, La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco, CA
Board of Directors, Clinica de la Raza, Oakland, CA
Co-chair, California Coalition for Civil Rights
Board of Directors California Rural Legal Assistance
REPRESENTATIVE
CASES
Castrejon v. Tortilleria La Mejor
758 F.Supp 585 (E.D. Cal. 1991)
Established that undocumented workers were covered by Title VII and federal labor
laws.
Davis v. City and County of San Francisco
890 F.2d 1438 (9th Cir. 1989)
Successful challenge to the SF Fire Department's physical and written entrance
examinations on the basis of race and sex, ongoing enforcement of innovative
consent decree.
Pallas v. Pacific Bell
940 F.2d 1324 (9th Cir. 1991), cert. denied
____ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 916 (1992)
Case of first impression challenging defendant's policy of excluding pre-1979
pregnancy disability leaves from accrual of retirement benefits.
Doe v. Petaluma
54 F.3d 1447 (9th Cir. 1995)
Case of first impression. Title IX lawsuit on behalf of junior high school student
who alleged that unremedied peer sexual harassment violated her right to an
education free of discrimination.
Alvarado et al. v. Sprint
Case of first impression in California. Lawsuit on behalf of Sprint, La Conexion
Familiar, employees who were terminated without 60 days notice required by federal
plant closure law (WARN).
Cuadra et al. v. Millan
(1998) 7 Cal. 4th 855
California Supreme Court upheld writ of mandamus striking down the Labor
Commissioner’s policy of refusing to toll the statute of limitations when workers
file administrative claims for back wages with the office of the Labor
Commissioner.
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Castañeda v. UC Regents
Challenge to UC Berkeley’s admissions policy as discriminatory policy towards
Latinos, Filipino-Americans, and African-Americans in violation of federal Title VI
law.
AWARDS
Social Justice Hero Award – Centro Legal de Oakland, 2009
Ohtli Award from Mexico State Department and Institute of Mexicans Abroad, 2
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Community Leadership Award – Anti-Defamation League, 2006
Most Influential Bay Area Latinos – San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce, 2006
Clay Award Recipient, California Lawyer of the Year, 2004
Women Who Could Be President, League of Women Voters, 2003
Recipient, Mensches in the Trenches Award, American Jewish Congress, 2000
Recipient, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association Unity Award, 1995
Recipient, MALDEF Legal Services Award, 1991
Recipient, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Award, 1988
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