WARREN T. FURUTANI

Warren T. Furutani was elected to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees in 1999. Mr. Furutani was elected President of the Board in July 2002 and served as First Vice President in 2001. He is the only person ever to be elected and re-elected to both the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

A native Californian and fourth generation Japanese American, Mr. Furutani is a product of the Los Angeles public education system. He attended schools in the 50's and 60's graduating from Gardena High School in 1965. He then attended several community colleges including Los Angeles City College, El Camino College, and the College of San Mateo in the San Francisco Bay area. He graduated from Antioch University with a liberal arts degree.

Warren has always been a staunch advocate for equal opportunity especially as it relates to education. An activist starting in the 60's, he worked to establish admissions programs for students of color at colleges and universities throughout the United States. He also worked tirelessly to establish ethnic studies programs and departments at these same campuses.

Interviews with Mr. Furutani from that era were published in UCLA's Asian American Studies Center's first edition of its academic journal, Amerasia Journal (Vol. One, Number One). Another interview is published in the Center's first Asian American textbook entitled, "Roots: An Asian American Reader." Since then, Furutani has also had his writings published in these same journals and he served on the staff of the Center in the 80's. (Warren's activism from those days is further documented in the Japanese American National Museum's exhibit "Common Ground.")

Warren Furutani was first elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in 1987. He was the first Asian Pacific American ever to be elected to the Board. In 1991, he was reelected and served as the Board's President. He is noted for helping open up the school district to more concrete parental, community, teacher, and staff involvement in the education system.

Since leaving the Board, Mr. Furutani has served as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Community Fund, a philanthropic organization, and as the President and CEO of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. A3PCON is an umbrella organization comprised of over 50 human service organizations serving the greater Los Angeles area.

Concurrently, Mr. Furutani is a senior consultant to the Speaker of the California Assembly, the Honorable Fabian Nunez.

July 2004