Candidate for
Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of Alameda; Assembly District 18

Pamela Drake moved to Oakland in the 70's where she raised her two children as a single parent after working in non-traditional fields-she was one of the first women BART train operators and an active member of ATU 1555. She later became a teacher and then the chief of staff for an East Oakland council member where she helped spearhead ground breaking legislation to curb crime around liquor stores and to stop red lining in low-income neighborhoods, among others.

Ms. Drake has also owned her own small business in Oakland in the Grand Lake retail district where she also served as the president of her business association. After teaching junior high school earlier in her career, she became an adult education teacher in East Oakland and as such, a delegate to the Central Labor Council of Alameda County. During the fight to keep the adult ed program from closing, she learned to make videos describing the need for these schools and developed a blog on local issues in addition to being published by other online news journals.

Ms. Drake has been the director of the first business improvement district in Oakland since 1999, working to advocate for small business and neighborhood retail with the press and local governments. She has served as the president of one local Democratic club and is now on the board of another. She was elected to represent listeners on the board of a public radio station and was staff to the effort to elect Jean Quan as Oakland's first woman mayor. She continues to serve as a member of Stand with Oakland, a committee which advises the Mayor on many local issues.