Evelyn V. Martinez |
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| Evelyn V. Martinez has been the Executive Director of First 5 LA (Los Angeles County Children and Families First-Proposition 10 Commission) since 2000, an independent Commission established to promote, support and improve the early development of children in Los Angeles County from prenatal to five years of age. As the Executive Director, Evelyn is responsible for overseeing the Commission's comprehensive programmatic, research and grant-making activities, and managing an annual $165 million budget. Her leadership has helped to guide the Commission in allocating approximately $850 million during the last eight years to increase services for children including an allocation of $100 million for universal access to health insurance for children 0 to 5 years of age, another $600 million for early childhood education, $50 million for child abuse prevention, and $25 million to support pregnant women to ensure they have healthy, full-term babies. Other major initiatives funded include child care services, school readiness, home visitation, and family literacy. Evelyn's executive management experience includes service in the private and public sectors. As the initial President of the Board and Executive Director of The Los Angeles Alliance For A Drug Free Community, she was responsible for organizational start up, management and administration of the organization. In her capacity as Director of Project Management at the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority, Evelyn had management, maintenance and fiscal responsibilities for a department of 450 employees operating five regional divisions and maintaining over 8,000 public housing units. At the federal level, she served as a Special Assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., developing policy issues and guidelines related to both departments. She acted as consultant to two think tanks, SRI International and the RAND Corporation, on research projects involving licensed home childcare and bilingual education. At the State level, Evelyn serves as the Vice Chair of the First 5 Association of California which represents the 58 First 5 County Commissions. She also previously held the position of Secretary-Treasurer. Locally, Evelyn's commitment to advocating for children's health issues continues to be unwavering. She is a member of the Children's Health Initiative (CHI) Steering Committee, and also serves as the Chair of the CHI Fundraising Workgroup, responsible for generating revenue to provide health care insurance to children ages six to 18 years. More recently, Evelyn was honored by Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ) for championing reproductive rights of Latinas and families. Her advocacy before legislative committees helped spur new federal and state legislation to safeguard women's reproductive rights. Her professional work, as well as community and political activities, has required Evelyn to develop and maintain relationships with public officials, business leaders and community representatives, and manage those relationships for the successful operation of many public and private entities. Her community services have included active participation on a number of organizational boards. She currently serves as Chair of the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission. A children's and civil rights advocate for more than 30 years, Evelyn holds a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. |
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