Meet Your Leadership

League of Women Voters^®
of Los Angeles

About the LWVLA Board

2011-2012 LWVLA Board of Directors

David Holtzman, President. J. Mira Hashmall, First Vice President/Ed Fund Chair. Elizabeth Ralston, Second Vice President. Sandra Trutt, Third Vice President. Ida Mae Windham, Fourth Vice President/Program Committee. Sydelle Freeman, Secretary. Martha R. Sklar, Treasurer. Dotte Antelman, Director. Rebecca Beatty, Director. Thea Brodkin, Director. Margie Engel, Director. Fran Lapides, Director. Carlos Medina, Director. Cecilia Schlesinger, Director.

David Holtzman, President

David Holtzman earned a law degree through UCLA Law School's Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, a master's degree in public health from the University of Michigan, a certificate in alcohol and drug abuse studies from UC Berkeley's Extension program, and a bachelor's degree in politics from Princeton University. Since moving to L.A., he has practiced consumer rights law, volunteered for electoral reform group, and worked as an environmental consultant. His passions include election reforms, environmental public health (particularly air and noise pollution), civil rights, and transportation policy (he bicycles, rides, drives and parks).

J. Mira Hashmall, First Vice President/Ed Fund Chair

Mira Hashmall is an attorney who practices with a boutique litigation firm in Century City. Mira attended the University of California at Berkeley and obtained her law degree from the University of Southern California. She is a current board member of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles Education Fund, and was part of the committee that planned the Celebrating Leadership Awards Dinner in March 2011.

Elizabeth Ralston, Second Vice President

Pending

Sandra Trutt, Third Vice President

Sandra has been an elementary school teacher and school librarian for over 15 years. She joined the League of Women Voters after her exposure to LWV voter information some years ago. The Easy Voter Guide helped make sense of the propositions on the ballot and she joined to show support for the League's work. She served as the San Fernando Valley Unit Chair and helped increase attendance at monthly meetings. In January 2009, she accepted the post of Membership Chair.

Ida Mae Windham, Fourth Vice President/Program Committee

Ida Mae had a career in the field of education and has a fervent interest in the political process which has always been an important part of her adult life. Employment as a teacher, counselor or administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 30 years has provided her with many opportunities to work with a diverse student and adult population across the city of Los Angeles. Although her personal time for active participation was somewhat restricted, her interest and support of the League of Women Voters is longstanding.
After her retirement, Ida Mae was fortunate to notice in a League newsletter an appeal for interested members to become involved in the League's newly formed Education Committee. She contacted the chairperson, Fran Lapides, and after serving for two years, she was graciously invited by Fran to become co-chair of the committee. "Frosting on the cake" came when she was welcomed by Zhita Rea to work with her on the outstanding Intern Program and also joined Zhita and Fran to help as much as she can with the Running and Winning Program.
Ida Mae so appreciates having the opportunity to continue being involved in the areas that mean so much to her.

Sydelle Freeman, Secretary

Sydelle is a native-born Angeleno, and a product of public schools all the way through UCLA. Following graduation she worked in the Overseas Marine Department of Getty (then Tidewater) Oil Co. and began to learn her love of travel. Sydelle had a son and a daughter, so stopped working to become a happy stay-at-home Mom who desperately needed adult conversation not focused on diapers or baby-sitters!
Her own mother had long been a League member and lifelong supporter. Sydelle tried a unit which met at night. There she found a group of like-minded women, who loved to learn, discuss and advocate for League positions throughout this diverse city. As her children became older she was able to become more active, first as a registrar, a speaker and then as VP in charge of membership.
She also returned to work, at St. John's Health Center as Quality Improvement Coordinator in the children's mental-health outpatient unit and remained there for twenty-five years. This exacting work reduced her volunteer time to attendance at "pros and cons" meetings until retirement. Now she returned "to the fold" attending more unit meetings and giving time most weeks doing data entry at the office. She is looking forward to the next chapter at LWVLA!

Martha R. Sklar, Treasurer

Martha Sklar was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to Detroit, MI when she was eight and a half years old. Martha has a BA and MA in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Mathematics Education. She taught mathematics at high school and community college levels. Later she entered administration and was a dean of Academic Affairs at Los Angeles City College until her retirement seven years ago. Upon joining the League she joined both the LWVLA and the LWV Ed Fund Boards. Currently she is Treasurer of LWVLA and continues to serve on both boards as well as the Membership Committee. She has two sons, Benjamin and Jonathan.

Dotte Antelman, Director

Dotte Antelman was a UCLA graduate and elementary school teacher who has had many experiences with persons in many fields, including positions as President, Vice-President and/or chairman of many volunteer organizations. She owned a retail gift business, Dotte Designs, for over 20 years and is now "mostly retired." She describes herself as "almost a native Los Angeles County Californian, married with two daughters, step sons and grandchildren." She joined LWVLA originally in 1968 as Dotte Traiger and was an active member for 20 years. She became active again 3 years ago and has served on the Membership Committee during this last year.

Rebecca Beatty, Director

Rebecca Beatty recently retired from UCLA after a 30-year career as a senior administrator in finance. Her commitment to increasing citizen engagement in the political process was a motivating factor in joining the League of Women Voters, to contribute her time to work toward that goal. Beatty holds a Bachelors Degree from UCLA and a Masters of Public Administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and is committed to education reform, the environment, and engaging citizens in their own political lives through ongoing education. As a League member, she has served on the Speakers Bureau, disseminating information about the propositions in the 2010 national and 2011 City elections; has conducted several 2011 legislative interviews with elected officials; and now serves as co-chair of the League's initiative to monitor the California redistricting process.

Thea Brodkin, Director

Thea Brodkin is just completing a challenging and inspirational 3-year term as Voter Service Director on the State League Board. She has been an active member of the Los Angeles League since 1974, served on several boards, and was an education consultant as well as Voter Service chair for many years. Before retirement, she worked for the LA County Registrar of Voters. Thea is hoping to provide "institutional memory" as well as long-term experience to the local League Board.

Margie Engel, Director

Margie currently sits on the Board of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles where she is Chair of the Election Integrity Committee. Her interest in election issues led her to join the League where she has been a member for six years. Margie worked for the City of Santa Monica in economic development and for the Los Angeles Community Design Center, a non-profit providing architectural and planning services to low income communities, as Assistant Director of Planning. Margie earned a Masters in Urban Planning at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, UCLA (1979) and an MBA at the Graduate School of Management, UCLA (1981). Margie is married with three grown children.

Fran Lapides, Director

Fran Lapides joined LWVLA in June of 2006. Since then she has found many ways to be involved. She has been a member of the Speakers Bureau, talking about the pros and cons of the ballot measures for the last 5 years, and has co- chaired the Education Study update project. She has worked on the League's Youth Outreach projects, recruiting and working with interns, and has been a leader for Running & Winning since it began four years ago. Fran recently retired after 40 years of teaching. She says, "My motivation for teaching history and government all these years was my passionate belief that for democracy to work you need an educated electorate. I find that League offers me the opportunity to keep myself educated and to help plan programs to keep others engaged and educated."

Carlos Medina, Director

Carlos has lived in Los Angeles for the past 21 years. He has worked as a bookkeeper for local small businesses. For the past year he has been active with the Los Feliz/Silverlake unit of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles. Locally, Carlos is a member of the ACLU, Library Foundation, Los Angeles Zoo and Society of Architecture Historians. In addition, he has served on the Los Angeles Leadership Awards Committee for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Cecilia Schlesinger, Director

Cecilia Schlesinger, retired Los Angeles Times Advertising Manager, joined the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles in 2001. She served previously as Action Chair and as Chair of the Nominating Committee.

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