Candidate for
State Senator; District 32

Biography for Cerritos College English Teacher/Professor Sally Morales Havice, Assemblywoman (Ret.)

Sally Morales Havice has lived her entire life in southeast Los Angeles County. She was born in Los Angeles began her elementary school there. After moving from Pico Rivera to Montebello and then Whittier, graduated from then known "South Whittier Elementary." She then attended Whittier High School and graduated from Excelsior High School in Norwalk and earned two A.A. degrees at Cerritos College where she now teaches English. Throughout her career as a college professor, school board member and State Assemblywoman, Sally has always dedicated herself to improving the quality of life of the constituents she represented and helping to provide an education to her students.

After graduating from high school at sixteen, Sally ventured into the workforce and worked her way through business school by working factory jobs. But her passion for formal education continued to push her forward. She continued to follow her childhood dream of becoming a teacher.

She worked her way through Cerritos College while serving as secretary to the Norwalk City Council. At Cerritos College, she was invited to lifetime membership in the Alpha Gamma Sigma honor society and graduated with honors. She then transferred to California State University, Long Beach, where she served as department secretary in the International Student Center and Upward Bound. At CSULB she graduated (cum laude) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics + all while working full-time and raising her three sons. Sally did doctoral studies at the University of California and the University of Hawaii.

In 1989, she ran for and won a seat on the ABC Unified School District Board of Education, where she served until her election in 1996 to the California State Assembly. Havice was overwhelmingly re-elected to the Legislature in 1998 and 2000. After being termed out from the state legislature, she returned to her profession as a teacher at Cerritos College.

School safety, quality of life issues and serving the needs of her constituents were and continue to be the hallmark of Sally's public service, both as a legislator and a school board member. She authored legislation to:

• Establish a statewide grant program to pay for community policing and mentoring on school campuses.
• Enhance child privacy laws;
• Expand access to after-school programs;
• Create the largest urban nature conservancy in California, bringing more parks and green space to the region, while enhancing flood protection for communities along the Los Angeles River and its tributaries, lowering and keeping down the high cost of flood insurance, and protecting the watershed as well as providing funding access for the preservation and restoration of wildlife natural habitat.
• Provide the first funding for Anti-bullying programs in the public schools by authoring landmark legislation for Anti-bullying.
• Provide funding for teacher preparation/exploration programs for high school students expressing interest in teaching.
• Strengthen the provisions of state education law to require a 75 percent full time-part time teacher ratio in the community colleges.
• Improve the business community environment.

Sally consistently received high rankings from various voter interest groups including: Congress of California Seniors (100%), California League of Conservation Voters (92% in 2000), California Children's Legislative Report Card (96% in 2001), and California Labor Federation AFL-CIO (92% in 2000).

Sally Havice has committed her life to education and young people and children. For 30 years Sally has taught English composition and literature as well as speech communication at Cerritos College. At Cerritos College, she has also served as the Interim Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts and as the Community Liaison for the Cultural Performing Arts. She was President of the Cerritos College Faculty Association, a member of the Faculty Senate, and was honored by her colleagues by being elected Outstanding Faculty Senator. Currently, she is the campus representative to the California Community College Association (CCA-CTA), a member of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), and a member of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC).

Sally is the proud mother of three sons -- Edward, a physician; Raul, a police officer; and Joseph, a computer engineer + and a grandmother of 12.

ON CERRITOS COLLEGE CAMPUS:

Currently, Ms. Havice is a full time teacher in the English department. Until the spring of 2012 she was assigned to both the English and Speech departments.

She is a member of the Sabbatical Leave Committee, the Academic Affairs Committee and adviser to the on-campus "Karbarkada" student club.

Sally has served as faculty adviser to a number of on-campus student organizations including the Health Promotion Club; the Student Democratic Club; the Coptic Student Club; the Korean Campus Crusade for Christ; the Korean American Student Association; the Pilipino American Student Alliance, the Indo American Student Club, the Political Science Club, and the Spanish Club (to name a few).

Prior to her election to the ABC School Board and the California State Assembly, Sally was involved in a number of community organizations and activities (some of which she is still a member), which served to promote the college and bring our community college closer to the community we serve.

Such activities included an after school Cultural Performing Arts Program; the Norwalk Juvenile Early Diversion Program; the formation of the Southeast Area Gang Intervention and Prevention Program; the North Artesia Save the Park Organization; the Artesia-Cerritos-Norwalk Sister Schools Committee; the League of United Latin American Citizens; American Association of University Women; California League of Conservation Voters, Co-founder and writer of first successful funding proposal for "SU CASA"--a shelter for battered women and their children, and member of that organization's first Executive Board, JAGRITI (awareness group for Asian Indian Women), and others. Currently, she has continued to work with Youth Help Line whose task is to bring awareness and educate both parents and youth on the dangerous effects of alcohol consumption in youth.