Candidate for
Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; Division 4

Valerie Fields was elected to the Los Angeles City Board of Education on June 3, 1997 to serve District 4, which encompasses West Los Angeles and the western portion of the San Fernando Valley. Board Member Fields is Vice President of the Board, is Chair of the Committee of the Whole, serves as Vice-Chair of the boardÕs Curriculum and Instruction Committee and is a member of the Facilities Committee.

Valerie Fields, a former Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school teacher, served in a variety of capacities on Mayor Tom Bradley's Executive Staff during his five terms as Mayor from 1973 to 1993. For more than fifteen years she was his education advisor and liaison to the Los Angeles Unified School and Community College Districts. Ms. Fields serves on the Music Center Education Division Council and has been Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and chair of its Urban Affairs Committee. Fields founded a multi-ethnic womenÕs discussion group under the aegis of the American Jewish Committee, which she co-chaired with Dr. Geraldine Washington, President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP. She is a member of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation Council, and sits on the Steering Committee of the African-American/Jewish Leadership Council. Ms. Fields was a founding member of the non-profit organization, JazzAmerica, which provides free summer master classes in jazz to high school music students. Fields is a member of the Board of Directors of public radio station KLON, the jazz station. She and her husband are members of Leo Baeck Temple.

A graduate of New Jersey State Teachers College at Newark (now Kean University), she taught elementary school in New Jersey and in Los Angeles. Married to retired Superior Court Judge Jerry K. Fields, she is the mother of four and the grandmother of three.