The 2018 AIA|LA Breakfast Series serves as an opportunity for architects, designers, and community stakeholders to meet directly with key individuals transforming Los Angeles in a roundtable setting to discuss innovative ideas that will ensure a healthy, sustainable, and economically competitive future.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez was elected to the Los Angeles City Council on July 1, 2017, becoming the first woman elected to serve the Seventh District and the third Latina to serve on the City Council. A lifelong resident of the Seventh District, she brings more than twenty years of community, public, private, and nonprofit sector experience earning a reputation as an innovative, results-oriented leader.
The daughter of working-class immigrants, Councilwoman Rodriguez found her calling to public service at an early age. She began her career as an aide to two Los Angeles City Councilmembers and later served as a member of Mayor Richard Riordan’s administration, where she led community revitalization efforts and co-founded the F.I.R.E Academy, an after school program for at-risk youth. Rodriguez continued her career in public service as Chief Deputy and Senior Policy Advisor to Los Angeles Unified School Board President Caprice Young, leading reform efforts during an unprecedented era of new school construction.
For nearly 10 years, she served as an executive with the California Association of Realtors (CAR), leading an affordable housing trust fund and developed the signature Mortgage Protection Program which protected families from foreclosure during the economic downturn. In 2013, she was appointed Vice President to the Los Angeles City Board of Public Works by Mayor Eric Garcetti. As Commissioner, she spearheaded the overhaul of the City’s business portal (Los Angeles Business Assistance Virtual Network - LABAVN) and created the City’s highly acclaimed Small Business Academy, which helps small, minority and women owned businesses compete for infrastructure and public works contracts, putting more resources back into our communities while creating good jobs. She also initiated successful public-private partnerships on environmental programs, including the City’s free rain barrel initiative, to support sustainability efforts.
Her priorities as Councilwoman include prioritizing public safety, developing opportunities for youth, establishing healthy communities, building a strong local economy, supporting small businesses and creating an efficient local city government that addresses the needs of residents. She is a graduate of San Fernando High School and Occidental College. She resides in Mission Hills with her husband and two children. Councilwoman Rodriguez represents the neighborhoods of Sylmar, Mission Hills, Pacoima, Lake View Terrace, Sunland-Tujunga, North Hills, Shadow Hills, and La Tuna Canyon.
Click here to download Councilwoman Rodriguez's biography.