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Josephson Institute Board of Governors

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Former L.A. Mayor and L.A. County School Superintendent Join Board

Posted October 29, 2008

Richard J. Riordan. Currently a partner at the Bingham McCutchen law firm, the well-respected attorney, entrepreneur, and philanthropist was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 1993. He was reelected four years later by an overwhelming margin — more than 60 percent of the voters supported his efforts to improve public safety, create quality jobs, and reform the city’s public schools.

He is a founding member of the nationally acclaimed LEARN school reform effort and a founding board member of L.A.’s BEST (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow), an innovative and nationally recognized after-school program for disadvantaged neighborhoods. In 1981, he created the Riordan Foundation to teach children how to read and write. The organization has distributed more than 21,000 computers to over 2,000 schools in 40 states and purchased nearly 130,000 books for elementary classroom libraries.

Riordan also launched the Recreational Reading Mini-Grant Program that awards grants to teachers to help them create a library inside their classrooms and the Read to Me reading program that encourages parents and caregivers to begin reading to children at an early age. For older students, he co-founded The Riordan Programs at UCLA that enables MBA students to mentor high school and college students and recent college alumni.

Darline P. Robles, Ph.D. Appointed the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools in 2002, Dr. Robles oversees the largest regional education service agency in the country, serving 80 school districts (K-12) and 1.7 million students. During her inaugural year, she confronted immense fiscal challenges caused by the state’s budget crisis but was able to maintain quality services during a time of diminishing resources.

She was previously superintendent of the Montebello Unified School District in Los Angeles County and chief of the Salt Lake City School District, where she closed the achievement gap, significantly reduced the dropout rate, and helped raise much-needed funds for schools with high at-risk populations including a $12 million Annenberg Challenge Grant. Dr. Robles was also instrumental in pushing through a $136 million school bond measure, which passed with an overwhelming 72 percent public approval.

During Dr. Robles’s 30-plus-year education career, she has been a teacher, an elementary and intermediate principal, and bilingual and bicultural education coordinator. She is active in community service and serves on various educational committees and boards.

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