I have a very diverse background.  First, I would like to point out that I am a product of community colleges.  I attended Los Angeles City College. I completed my general education requirements at LACC.  Then, I transferred to California State University Northridge for both my Bachelor Degree and Master of Arts in Political Science.

After I completed my M.A. degree, I faced the dilemma of either pursuing a Ph.D. program or acquiring hands-on experience in public affairs.  I opted for the latter because I sought to strike a balance between theory and practice.  Hence, I spent a year in a fellowship with the very prestigious Coro Foundation, a nationally renowned institution that focuses on leadership development in public affairs.  As a Coro Fellow, I studied communities and I interacted with leaders from non-profit, business, and governmental organizations. 

After completion of the fellowship, I joined an SEIU Local Union as an Internal Organizer in the City of Los Angeles.  I was attracted to this organization for its rich history of fighting for social justice and its successful campaign of "Justice for Janitors" in the late 1990s.  The theories I learned in graduate school and my hands-on experience in the Coro fellowship have given me deep insights into the challenges of participatory democracy and how different factions fit into the political, social, and economic fabric of our society.

Furthermore, I have been involved not only with civic organizations in many communities throughout the City of Los Angeles, but also with many local elections. My civic involvements include having served as Vice-Chair for the first Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in 2003 and in 2005 I served in the election committee.  I was also appointed to be one of the fifty-five delegates for the Electoral College in California, who represented thirty six million Californians in the 2004 presidential elections. Moreover, I have been asked by media organizations to give political analysis on contemporary political issues. All these experiences in public affairs have proved to be very beneficial to the discussions held in the classrooms.

I truly enjoy teaching. Teaching for me is in itself part of my ongoing pursuit of knowledge.

Salvador Sanchez