SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, Monica Blanco-Etheridge, 53, of Clovis, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Blanco-Etheridge has been senior associate at the Rios Company since 2013, where she was a government liaison in 2005. She was executive director at the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California from 2012 to 2013 and hub manager and project director at Central California Legal Services from 2006 to 2011.
Blanco-Etheridge was a staff analyst for the City of Madera from 2005 to 2006 and an assistant to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors from 1997 to 2004. Blanco-Etheridge is a board member of the California Workforce Investment Board. She earned a Master of Science degree in criminology from California State University, Fresno. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Blanco-Etheridge is a Democrat.
Dorene D’Adamo, 53, of Turlock, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. D’Adamo is a board member of the California State Water Resources Control Board and served on the California Air Resources Board from 1999 to 2013. She was a senior policy advisor for Congressman Jim Costa in 2013 and for Congressman Dennis Cardoza from 2003 to 2012. D’Adamo was legal counsel for Congressman Gary Condit from 1994 to 2003. She was a visiting instructor at California State University, Stanislaus from 1992 to 1998 and an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Perry and Wildman from 1992 to 1994. D’Adamo was a policy consultant at Dee Dee D’Adamo Consulting from 1991 to 1992 and legislative director for Congressman Gary Condit from 1990 to 1991. D’Adamo was assistant legislative director at the California Youth Authority from 1988 to 1990 and legal counsel at the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety from 1986 to 1988. She was legislative director for the California State Assembly assistant majority leader from 1985 to 1986. D’Adamo earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. D’Adamo is a Democrat.
Genoveva Islas-Hooker, 43, of Tulare, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Islas-Hooker has been program director at the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program since 2006. She was an area field representative for the California Diabetes Program at the California Department of Public Health from 2004 to 2005. Islas-Hooker was an adjunct faculty member at Bakersfield College from 1997 to 2005 and health education supervisor at Kern Health Systems from 1993 to 1999. She earned a Master of Public Health degree from Loma Linda University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Islas-Hooker is a Democrat.
Dorothy Leland, 64, of Merced, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Leland has served as chancellor of the University of California, Merced since 2011. She was president of Georgia College and State University from 2004 to 2011. Leland served in multiple positions at Florida Atlantic University from 1995 to 2004, including professor and vice president of the Boca Raton campus. She served in multiple positions at Purdue University from 1983 to 1995, including co-director of the doctoral program in philosophy and literature and assistant professor. Leland earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy from Purdue University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Leland is registered decline-to-state.
Luisa Medina, 59, of Fresno, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, where she has served since 2007. Medina has been development director at Central California Legal Services Inc. since 1999, where she was an advocate in 1994. She was chief operations officer at the Fresno Private Industry Council from 1995 to 1998 and served as executive director at Centro La Familia from 1979 to 1993. Medina is a member of the City of Fresno Planning Commission, the League of Women Voters of Fresno, the Valley Coalition for the University of California, Merced, Medical School and the Fresno Mayor’s Citizen’s Advisory Panel. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Medina is registered decline-to-state.
Billy Powell, 43, of Modesto, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Powell has been business manager at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 684 since 2007. He was an instructor at IBEW and the National Electrical Contractors Association of Northern California’s Central Valley Joint Apprenticeship Training Center from 2005 to 2007. Powell was a journeyman electrician at Industrial Electrical Company from 1995 to 2005 and an electrician at Brite Electric of Turlock in 1994. Powell served as a fire controlman 2nd class in the U.S. Navy from 1988 to 1993. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Powell is a Democrat.
Mary Renner, 56, of Fresno, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Renner is chief operations officer at the Central Valley Health Network, where she has served since 2009. She was chief of Human Resources at Clinica Sierra Vista from 2004 to 2008 and human resource director at United Health Centers from 2003 to 2004. Renner was executive director at FLG Consulting from 2000 to 2003. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and was president of the Human Resource Association of Central California in 2004. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Renner is a Democrat.
Max Rodriguez, 73, of Madera, has been appointed to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Rodriguez has served on the Madera County Board of Supervisors since 2005. He was an agent at Farmer’s Insurance from 1985 to 2008 and a resaw operator at American Forest Products from 1959 to 1984. Rodriguez is a member of the National Association of Counties Human Services and Education Steering Committee and the California State Association of Counties Health and Welfare Policy Committee. He is a commissioner on the Madera County Transportation Commission and the Madera County Local Agency Formation Commission, chairman of the Madera County Children and Families Commission and president of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Association of California Counties. Rodriguez is a board member of the Madera and Chowchilla Redevelopment Agency Oversight Committee and a member of the Madera County High Speed Rail Task Force. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Rodriguez is a Democrat.
Karen Mark, 42, of Sacramento, has been appointed chief of the Office of AIDS at the California Department of Public Health, where she has been interim chief since 2011 and chief of the Surveillance, Research and Evaluation Branch since 2010. She held multiple positions at the University of Washington from 2003 to 2010, including co-director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, HIV Vaccine Trials Unit, acting instructor at the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and senior fellow. Mark was an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2001 to 2003 and an internal medicine intern and resident at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center from 1998 to 2001. She was a project manager at the Zambia-Emory HIV Research Project in Zambia from 1996 to 1997. Mark is a member of the California HIV/AIDS Research Program Advisory Council, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Antiviral Advisory Committee. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $173,964. Mark is a Democrat.
Alana Mathews, 38, of Elk Grove, has been appointed public advisor at the California Energy Resources and Conservation Development Commission, where she has been senior attorney since 2012. Mathews was an attorney at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office from 2004 to 2012 and an executive fellow at the California Attorney General’s Office from 2003 to 2004. She is a board member of the Sacramento County Bar Association, a member of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, the Sacramento Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force and the Wiley W. Manuel Bar Association. She earned a Master of Law degree in governmental affairs and public policy and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $123,000. Mathews is a Democrat.
Megan Juring, 50, of Carmichael, has been appointed to the California State Independent Living Council. Juring has been a deputy director at the California Department of Rehabilitation since 2011, where she served in various positions from 1988 to 1998, including associate government program analyst. She was an assistant secretary at the California Health and Human Services Agency from 2008 to 2010 and a project director for California State University, Sonoma from 2004 to 2008. Juring was senior policy manager for research and development at the California Workforce Investment Board from 2000 to 2004 and a staff manager at the Employment Development Department, Office of Workforce Investment from 1998 to 2000. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Juring is a Democrat.
