Candidate for
Member, Board of Trustees; Long Beach Community College District; District 3

Every day Stella is on the front lines in the fight for good, living wage jobs. Stella believes in establishing pre-apprenticeship programs in low-income and underserved communities. She understands that connecting and educating high school and college-level students to growing careers in sustainable and green industries is an attainable path that will lead to revitalizing our neighborhoods and stop the disintegrating middle class.

Background

Sitting at a desk surrounded by paperwork is not a typical day at the office for Stella Ursua. On any given day you will find her working in our Long Beach communities conducting outreach and education campaigns that involve renewable energy projects, sustainability issues, efficiency guidelines, environmental health and social justice issues. Stella's involvement with direct action organizations like the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & Healthy Communities, and the Los Angeles Alliance for A New Economy, has provided her with the insight and compassion required to be an integral force in engaging, educating and uniting both community members and local education and government officials. Stella Ursua is "hands on."

Growing up in Southern California, Stella inherited a strong work ethic from her parents who were the children of immigrants and farm workers themselves. Being raised in a working class neighborhood left a lasting impression and understanding of the challenges that working class families experience. The simple lessons her parents taught her, work hard, do the job right the first time and always try to improve your station have defined Stella's accomplishments. DIY is in her DNA.

Much of Stella's life has been one of intense community service, from volunteering at AIDS Project LA and Project Angel Food, to gutting out hurricane damaged homes of destitute homeowners in New Orleans. Stella fought to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic during the course of losing many friends to AIDS related conditions. When her activism didn't seem like enough, she participated in the San Francisco to Los Angeles AIDS Ride and raised thousands of dollars for client services in the process. To this day, Stella continues to volunteer and do outreach activities in Long Beach and throughout Southern California. Stella believes that compassion is a virtue, a hand up, not a hand out, is what most people need to find a way out of despair.

Stella spent approximately 20 years in corporate training environments and enjoyed a lucrative career in leading national training efforts for Fortune 500 companies. She designed and launched business process improvement projects and created management and employee development curriculums. Upon that success, she created and launched the first Green Jobs Training and Placement Program for a national veterans organization. A Progressive at heart, she went on to design sustainability, energy efficiency and renewable energy-related workshops for community members, K-12 schools, local and national non-profit and political organizations.