Candidate for
Supervisor; County of San Diego; Supervisorial District 3

As a tireless advocate for parental and children's rights, John van Doorn has worked publicly and behind the scenes to challenge the Board of Supervisors to clean up corruption within county agencies that deal with the welfare of our county's children.

John's start in advocacy began with the breakup of his marriage in 1999, a time when his children were stripped out of his life after false allegations were made in court by a county social worker. Mr. van Doorn has since prevailed in a number of Superior and Appellate Court actions and presently has an appeal pending before the California Appellate Court which addresses numerous acts of `abuse of discretion' by a County Court Commissioner. The appeal also takes notice of actions by County Counsel that clearly demonstrate this county's preference to obstruct legally established rights of San Diego citizens.

In addition to his presentations before the Board of Supervisors, Mr. van Doorn has testified on the topic of child abuse prevention and citizen's rights at several California Department of Justice hearings. He also has testified at the State Capital in opposition to Assembly Bill 612 (2007), a bill that, if passed, would have severely compromised our court's power to prevent the emotional battering of children.

John is the father of six children, four sons and two daughters, each of which presently attend public schools in the North County Coastal area. He is a founding member of the San Diego chapter of the Children's Rights Council, a member of NCFM (the nation's oldest men's equal rights organization), a supporter of the Children's Rights for Shared Parenting Initiative (http://www.crispe.org), and a regular blood donor at the San Diego Blood Bank.

Since graduating in 1980 from the Engineering School at UC Irvine, Mr. van Doorn has had a successful career in high-technology, playing a key role in some of San Diego's more successful companies. Most recently, John was affiliated with Gen-Probe Incorporated, where he guided their TIGRIS diagnostics system through late-stage technical improvements and the FDA approval process. Prior to working at Gen-Probe, he was employed as a senior engineer at Cymer Incorporated, where he was a key contributor in bringing Cymer's first commercial product to the marketplace and helping Cymer become one of Wall Street's greatest successes of that time.

In the early 90's, John also worked for a medical startup company in Atlanta, where he was the chief electrical architect of what eventually became known as the Becton-Dickenson Bac-T Alert, a diagnostic device that is still the preferred diagnostic instrument for use in the detection of blood-borne bacterial infections.

Mr. van Doorn is a patron of the local arts community, supportive of both our world-class theatrical companies and our diverse and vibrant local music scene. John also enjoys an active outdoor lifestyle, in particular, jet-skiing, snow skiing, surfing, and sailing. Last, John personally recognizes the importance of spiritual beliefs and worships regularly at a North County church.