Bio

By Carmen Ramirez

A Lifetime of Community Service

Raised in the City of Pico Rivera in eastern Los Angeles County, Carmen was one of seven siblings. Ms. Ramirez has lived in Ventura County since 1978 and currently resides in Oxnard. She speaks, reads and writes Spanish fluently and has traveled extensively in Latin America.

As Executive Director of Channel Counties Legal Services From 1975 until 1998, Ms. Ramirez worked in legal aid programs in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. For 16 years she was Executive Director of Channel Counties Legal Services Association, based in Oxnard that served the legal needs of the poor. Her responsibilities included overseeing litigation, financial planning, grant management, fundraising, personnel, board, community, government, and labor management relations. Ms. Ramirez has represented hundreds of clients in cases involving education, housing, consumer rights, employment, and government programs such as Social Security Disability.

Professional Recognition

In June 2005, Carmen was elected to the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California for a three-year term, representing the attorneys of five counties, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. She now serves on the Executive Committee of the Bench Bar Coalition, under the auspices of the California Supreme Court, which promotes the needs of the public and the courts before the California legislature.

In 1998, Ms. Ramirez served as President of the Ventura County Bar Association and remains active in the Volunteer Lawyers Services Program Committee and the Lawyers' Referral and Information Service Committee.

Actively Involved In the Community

Ms. Ramirez is active in many aspects of the Oxnard and broader Ventura County communities, including as the Board President of the bilingual Ventura County theater company, Teatro de Las Américas, a member of the Community Board of St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, a member of the Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF), serving on the Steering Committee of the Ventura County Civic Alliance (a project of the VCCF), a Board member of the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara, Public Interest Clearinghouse, in San Francisco, and the Center for Civic Education, a national program, headquartered in Calabasas, California. In past years, she served as past president of El Concilio Del Condado De Ventura County, the Ventura County Women Lawyers' Association, Ventura County Mexican American Bar Association, and Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo.

Award and Recognitions Ms. Ramirez has been honored by numerous awards, including the Ben E. Nordman Public Service Award of the Ventura County Bar Association, the Ventura Chapter of Rotary's Paul Harris Award, and the El Concilio del Condado de Ventura Community Service Award, the Human Rights Award of the Baha'i of Ventura.

She was named Woman of the Year for the 35th Assembly District in 2003 by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson and in 2009 as Senator Fran Pavley's Woman of the Year for California Senate District 23. This past May 2010, she received the "Exemplary Service in the Promotion of Literacy" by the Ventura County Council of the International Reading Association.

Volunteer Work Carmen's volunteer work includes focuses on environmental justice and sustainable development in Ventura County, the clean up of Halaco, an EPA designated Super fund site, located in Oxnard, and promoting fair and comprehensive immigration reform.

Previous Employment Previously Ms. Ramirez served as the Director of Community Planning for CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for A Sustainable Economy) where she remains a volunteer. Prior to this, she coordinated the Ventura Superior Court's Self-Help Legal Access Center, located in the Colonia area of Oxnard, serving primarily the Spanish-speaking community, 1998 to 2007.