Candidate for
Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 4

Kelly Candaele Bio

Kelly Candaele is a writer, filmmaker and elected official in Los Angeles. For the past ten years Mr. Candaele has written extensively for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Nation magazine and other national publications. He traveled to Ireland three times as a journalist during President Clinton's trips there to push the peace process forward. His journalistic work has focused primarily on the continuing peace process in Northern Ireland and on Los Angeles political developments. In addition to Northern Ireland he has worked as a journalist in Great Britain, Brazil, Sweden, Cuba, Spain and Vietnam. Mr. Candaele has lectured at Hebrew University in Jerusalem about the peace process in Northern Ireland, and has been a lecturer in politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Mr. Candaele has produced and directed a number of documentary films. His documentary film 'A League of Their Own,' about his mother's years as a professional baseball player in the 1940s won an Area Emmy Award when it aired at KCET Television. He wrote the story for the Columbia Pictures feature film about the women's league which stared Tom Hanks and Madonna. He takes no responsibility for Madonna's acting ability. He also produced and wrote an award-winning documentary on the life of assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Mr. Candaele was awarded a writing fellowship at Blue Mountain Center in 1997.

In 1996 Mr. Candaele ran for and was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District. He is one of seven members who oversee the nine-college district that enrolls over 130,000 students a year. He served as President of the Board in 2000 and was reelected to a second four-year term as Trustee in 2002. During his time on the board the district has passed to construction bonds that have raised over two billion dollars to rebuild campuses. Mr. Candaele was one of the leaders of the board resolution that mandated that new buildings would be constructed according to LEEDS environmental sustainability standards. He is currently serving a second term as President of the Board.

Before establishing his own consulting business in politics, labor relations, writing and filmmaking Mr. Candaele was public policy director with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO). During that time, Mr. Candaele was responsible for working with union affiliates throughout Los Angeles County in shaping, advocating for and implementing policy at the local, county and state levels. He coordinated labor membership outreach programs, research and grassroots political campaigns.

He is on the Executive Board of Kids in Sports and is a member of the Pacific Council On International Relations and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Mr. Candaele was on the Executive Board of the Coalition For Clean Air from 1996 to 1999. He was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Chico in 2004.

Mr. Candaele obtained a Masters Degree in Psychology and Counseling from California State University, Chico in 1979 and studied European History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.