Candidate for
Member, Rent Control Board; City of Santa Monica

Alan is a long-time community organizer in the disability community, working to increase individual and community-based empowerment. He teaches in the School of Public Policy and Social Research at UCLA and is Project Director at the Advanced Policy Institute, where he is spearheading an online project to assist people with disabilities with their day-to-day independent living needs. Previously, he was the Community Advocate for policy and legislative affairs at the Westside Center for Independent Living. After WCIL, Alan worked for the Los Angeles Homecare Workers Union, where he was the Director of Community Organizing. His work on In-Home Supportive Services policy issues was critical to the development of a model IHSS Public Authority in LA County to improve the personal assistance programs for both consumers and workers. After SEIU, Alan was the Senior Executive Analyst at Access Services, Los Angeles County's paratransit agency, where he wrote and got enacted legislation beneficial to California's paratransit agencies.

For over twenty years, as an actor and activist, Alan has worked to bring changes to the way people with disabilities are portrayed in entertainment media. Alan has over 200 television and film credits and was the co-founder of the Hollywood SAG-AFTRA-AEA Inter-Guild Committee of Performers with Disabilities. He served on the Board and was Director of the Hollywood Media Access Office. Alan is an elected member of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board and has served on that city's Social Services Commission. He is an appointee of Governor Gray Davis to the California State Independent Living Council and serves as Vice-Chair. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Southern California. Alan has a BFA from Cal Arts and a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research.