Candidate for
Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 3

Tamar Galatzan believes that every child has the unassailable right to a quality education. A graduate of Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley, UCLA, and Hastings College of the Law at UC Berkeley in 1994, Tamar is a tireless advocate on behalf of civil rights, excellent public schools, social justice, and safe neighborhoods. A dedicated public servant, Tamar derives tremendous satisfaction from both developing and implementing creative solutions to improve our communities.

An 11th-grade history teacher at Birmingham High awakened Tamar's interest in government and world affairs. Tamar majored in political science at UCLA, where she also became actively involved in various causes and organizations, primarily involving women's issues. Tamar's decision to pursue a legal career flowed naturally from her desire to bring about positive change.

As an intern and aide to three members of the California Legislature and a member of Congress, Tamar frequently helped constituents who had been unfairly or needlessly denied vital government services. This experience gave her firsthand knowledge of the always slow and often counterproductive ways of public sector bureaucracies.

From April 1996 through June 2002, Tamar served as Western States Counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. In this capacity, she handled numerous complaints involving discrimination or harassment in the workplace and public schools. She also worked extensively on successful legislation to mandate hate crime and incident reporting in California schools

In June 2002, Tamar became a Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney with the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program assigned to the LAPD Van Nuys division + a position she continues to hold today. She was drawn to the program by its emphasis on identifying, prioritizing, and addressing potential criminal activity. Tamar firmly believes in taking proactive measures to prevent crimes before they occur and has been credited by many civic organizations for resolving community problems that had previously been ignored by city agencies for decades.

Tamar and her husband, Brendan, have two young sons, the eldest starting kindergarten in the LAUSD this fall. She decided to run for the School Board based on her conviction that the education system is failing many of our children. As evidence, she points to a high drop-out rate; mediocre test scores; a bloated bureaucracy pre-occupied with its own narrow interests; and failure to guarantee the safety of every student in the San Fernando Valley.

A proven problem-solver and avowed foe of bureaucratic inertia, Tamar Galatzan is the ideal school board candidate for these times. She combines passion, boundless energy, and eternal optimism in her quest to make ours a better world.