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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
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Full Biography for Michael Winn
Candidate for |
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I am offering to serve because I have skills and qualities that will make a difference in ensuring that the future of this part of the world is environmentally and socially sustainable. On my website, http://www.winnfordelmar.com, I am thorough in stating my case. I hope to serve on the Council one day, and when I do so, you can count on me to be a man of principle with regard to public purpose. I will answer to you, and every voter in that regard. I will not stand in the way of others who have something important to contribute--I will stand behind them. Summary of Biographic History: Long Form Born: November 22, 1939 in Chicago. Elementary school in Camden, New Jersey and Philadelphia, PA. Family moved to the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles when stepfather Warner Winn (a veteran of Pearl Harbor and the Korean "Conflict" transferred to Pacific Fleet in 1952. Middle school in Rivera, CA; graduated from Excelsior Union High School, Norwalk, CA. 1957 Received a Bachelor of Science in the Art of Communications: Radio/Television from California State University at Long Beach in 1964, with an intervening stint in the United States Coast Guard Reserve during which I graduated from Yeoman Training School, US Naval Station, San Diego (and fell in love with nature here). Began career in filmmaking in 1966 with partner Anne Webster (we later married in 1970): writing, directing and producing educational films, first for grade schools, then moved on to documentaries and commercials. Moved to New York, then Toronto in 1968-69, produced documentaries, one in Spanish, about the effects of US policy in Latin America, using Puerto Rico as case study. In 1970, after marriage and birth of daughter, Liberty Marie, moved family to Stockholm to work on a film with the company of Ingmar Bjergman. Granted green card by Danish Parliament, moved to Copenhagen, taught filmmaking and ceramics at Lyngby Teknisk Laerer Anstat, an engineering university near Copenhagen; made films with Dizzy Gillespie and other jazz legends touring in Scandinavia, and a trailer that was shown in movie theaters, for Lego Toys (then located in Jutland, Denmark), introducing Lego to Europe and Africa. Returned from Europe to Berkeley, CA in 1973 (after resignation of Nixon). Worked with D.E.A.F. Media, a not for profit coalition of the hearing impaired, on a campaign to integrate hearing impaired people into the mainstream (learned to listen differently). Recuperating from a life threatening illness, convalesced in high tech yacht racing, served as crew member for 3 years on a C&C designed International Ocean Racing yacht, Resolute, which held a position in top 3 contenders in St. Francis Bay series. After separation from Anne became a divorce in 1978, I moved to Los Angeles to continue film career and worked for Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) in 1979-80, producing media, with participation of Buckminster Fuller, Stephanie Powers, music from the Eagles, to enlist support of 106 local jurisdictions in the Los Angeles region for passage of Southern California's first Air Quality Management Plan, which introduced air pollution controls for automobiles and industry. Worked as a consultant to Santa Monica Rand Corporation software scientists to develop strategies to integrate new software products into mainstream market. Organized a project in 1982 with Xerox Development Corporation and a Los Angeles area commercial developer to build the "smartest building in the world" (according to Urban Land Institute in 1982), located on Olympic Boulevard at Perdue in West Los Angeles. Using then little heard of technologies (Bob Metcalf's Ethernet and Nortel digital telephone systems), provided plug-and-play services similar to those now available with Apple Macintosh products and the Internet. Participants included engineers who had invented and developed laser printing (Xerox Electro-Optical Systems), optical scanning (Kurzweil), Arpanet (predecessor to Internet) and Xerox Parc (first iteration developer of what later became Macintosh system architecture.) Moved to Del Mar in 1983 on completion of the Olympic Plaza smart building project to write a book under contract with McGraw Hill as a reference book for architects and urban planners about the convergence of computer and telecommunications technologies, how these technologies worked, and the potential meaning their use had for building design, architecture and community development. (Architectronics, McGraw Hill 1987) Concluded from research for book that communities in Southern California (like all other parts of the US that have experienced rapid growth since WWII), are the accidental result of development, and that many problems, ranging from traffic congestion to juvenile delinquency we are facing in all of our communities, have their roots in what has been (and still is) typically left out in the development process, driven as it is by the priorities of short term financial gains on one side and local reactionary responses to developers proposals on the other. In 1985 began work with Spin Physics, then a division of Eastman Kodak that developed ultra high speed imaging technologies. Pursuing my interest in community development, I worked as a volunteer with the San Francisco-based Breakthrough Foundation on a project called, The Community Workshop. Served as a volunteer on these projects in San Francisco and Los Angeles, later taking the lead on a San Diego-based effort, associated with Breakthrough to initiate this community-based program for youth who are at risk of gang involvement and criminality in San Diego. As Executive Director of San Diego Youth at Risk Foundation, I obtained support for the project from San Diego Unified School District and San Diego County Probation Department and funding from the California Department of Juvenile Justice. In 1986 helped San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor and the San Diego Junior League launch a project called, San Diego KidsPlace, which succeeded in uniting all the organizations, public and private that serve the needs of children in the San Diego region, ranging from the United Way and San Diego City Schools to the Urban League and San Diego Children's Hospital. Under the auspices of Kidsplace, I created and led a volunteer project that annually surveyed San Diego young people about their views of community, hopes and aspiration. Over three years, Kidsplace involved more than 36,000 thousand children from virtually every San Diego city school, as well as other schools in the county, including Del Mar Hills, in this annual survey of youth that was used to advise elected officials about the way our young people saw their community and how they imagined their future. In 1989 began work with San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Symphony, and together with reknowned Symphony Conductor, Carl Hermanns founded Working Arts, a nonprofit media producer to produce media to help fill the gap in music education left when, for budgetary reasons, music curricula was eliminated from schools in the regiona and around the nation. Working Arts obtained funding from the San Diego Community Foundation and Parker Foundation to produce videos bringing music education into classrooms, and implemented a magnet education center at Kennedy Middle Schoo and helped initiate a program that brought Symphony musicians into classrooms and brought children to performances of the Symphony. In 1991, formed San Diego Community Housing Corporation as a spin-off of Occupational Training Services, Inc., an existing Asian community nonprofit that was funded through the San Diego Consortium and Private Industry Council, the predecessor of San Diego Association of Governments (Sandag) to address San Diego's impending housing crisis. Worked with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to help build San Diego's nonprofit housing industry and to develop housing affordable to low income households. Leading SDCHC as its Director of Development, I helped turn around a blighted neighborhood in part of what is now known as the East Village sector of downtown San Diego, anchoring the effort by the design and development of Hacienda Townhomes,a 52-home, townhome style project at 17th and K Streets. Hacienda was the first and is still providing the only affordable homes downtown with amenities for families with children. Hacienda residents became active in the community, creating an effective community-based policing approach with the participation of San Diego Police Department to substantially reduce crime, drug sales, prostitution, etc. Left SDCHC in 1998 following open heart surgery, after developing 450 affordable homes for families in downtown San Diego, Southeast San Diego and El Cajon. Formed Community Capital Consultants with former housing colleague, Lou Adamo, founder of RANCHO, to implement sustainable development projects, initially with the Machado family, heirs to thousands of acres on the southwestern edge of the Tijuana municipality. In 1999, Community Capital Consultants helped Mariflite Ferries, Inc. obtain state funding for the San Diego-Oceanside High Speed Ferry Demonstration Program. The purpose of the pilot project that built docks in Oceanside and San Diego and began operations in 2003, was to demonstrate the feasibility of offshore transportation (hybrid hydrofoil) to help solve coastal traffic congestion between Santa Barbara and San Diego. Although the project was prematurely interrupted when the state ran into fiscal problems, we demonstrated that, using currently available high-speed ferry technology, an acceptable ride is possible under most weather conditions, and that the concept is more desirable than rail, air or highways as a regional solution because of its low cost, minimal impact on the environment and, with no right-of-way cost or development, the most cost effective answer for coastal transportation needs. Coincidentally, we discovered that the regional populace is for the most part virtually blind to the perspective of our relation to the seacoast, and when exposed to it on the vessel, passengers were routinely "lining the rails" and were enthusiastic in their appreciation of the maritime element and a view of the coast that had been so close to them yet, completely missed. Unlike northern coastal regions, Southern California lacks political will for a marine sanctuary and general comprehension of the ecological and economic relevance of the marine environment. Currently volunteering with the KPBS--SignOn San Diego Envision Project as a member of both the Regional Governance and Livable Cities Taskforces. Professionally, I'm working with the Living Hope Clinic Foundation of Long Beach, California to fund the introduction of newly available treatments for HIV in Stellenbosch, South Africa. |
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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 13, 2004 22:40
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