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For over 20 years, Trish has been serving Alamedans and is currently enjoying her term as an Alameda City Councilmember. Trish’s prior elected service includes serving as Alameda’s first and only Hispanic mayor (2014-2018) and she was twice-elected to Alameda Unified School District Board of Education (2008-2014).
Trish currently also serves as the elected official Co-Chair of the Oakland Airport/Community Noise Management Forum (“The Noise Forum”; www.flyquietoak.com), which was created to address community noise concerns at Oakland International Airport. Trish also serves on the Alameda County Waste Management Authority Board (StopWaste - Home, Work, School|), which helps Alameda County’s businesses, residents, and schools waste less, recycle properly, and use water, energy, and other resources efficiently.
Trish also has served on other City and regional commissions and organizations including Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth and their Families (“ACCYF,” which promotes positive child and youth development partnering over 35 organizations); Alameda County Mayors’ Conference; East Bay Economic Development Alliance; Peralta Colleges Foundation Board (supporting Peralta Community College District student scholarships; www.Peraltafoundation.org); Alameda County Lead Abatement Joint Powers Authority Board; Alameda County Transportation Commission, City Council/East Bay Regional Park District Subcommittee, City Council/Health Care District Subcommittee, and City Council/School Board Subcommittee.
As a strong education supporter and advocate, Trish also served two terms as Alameda PTA Council president (2006-2008) overseeing all AUSD PTAs and representing AUSD PTAs in the Alameda County Peralta District, volunteered for over 15 years on-site at numerous schools throughout AUSD, including those her children did not attend as help was needed (Art, Athletic Boosters, Reading, PTA), and was a substitute teacher (K-12) for over seven years, including English Language Learners and Special Needs students. Trish was also instrumental in City staff creating a free bus program at Island High School, thereby increasing student attendance, and, after lengthy efforts, was successful at advocating for Alameda County to redirect funding to provide a similar free bus program to students most in need at 40 schools across Alameda County. Working closely with AUSD and Peralta Colleges, Trish’s efforts also led to the creation of an annual Career Pathways Youth Job Fair and a healthcare internship and youth development program for high school students, and a nursing training program at College of Alameda.
Trish has worked tirelessly to save and support Alameda Animal Shelter (Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter FAAS (alamedaanimalshelter.org), Jean Sweeney Open Space Park (Jean Sweeney Open Space Park Fund), and the Corica Park Golf Complex (also a City park). As an environmentalist with a worldview, Trish successfully brought The Ocean Cleanup Project (The Ocean Cleanup) to Alameda from the Netherlands. Trish also oversaw the creation of three new Alameda sister-cities (Dumaguete, Philippines, Yeongdong-gun, South Korea, and Verazze, Italy; www.sistercities.org), and represented Alameda internationally leading multiple community delegations to China, the Philippines, and South Korea.
Trish’s volunteer and philanthropic efforts also include Alameda Legacy Home Tour, Alameda Museum, Alameda Naval Air Museum, Alameda Sister City Association, Bohol Circle, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs of Alameda and Oakland, Building Futures, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT; the only elected City official to do so), Friends of the Library, Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter, Island City Opera, Kiwanis, Mastick Senior Center, Meals on Wheels, Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus, Relay for Life, Rhythmix, Rotary and Wild Oyster Project.
Trish was raised in South Gate, California (southeast of downtown Los Angeles), one of five children, attended public schools, and graduated from South Gate High School. She was the first in her family to go straight from high school to a university, graduating from U.C. Berkeley (A.B. Sociology). Then, while working full-time, she attended Santa Ana College and U.C. Irvine earning her Paralegal Certificate, and then Western State College of Law in Fullerton, earning her juris doctorate, and passed the California State Bar the first time. She is an attorney by profession, and has practiced business litigation and family law and offered pro bono legal services including to victims of domestic violence. She met her husband while a college freshman and has been married for 39 years. For over 20 years, her husband and she have resided in Alameda where they raised four daughters, who attended public schools K-12 graduating from Alameda High, Alameda Community Learning Center and Encinal High schools, and then from Harvard College and U.C. Santa Cruz and one is currently serving in the United States Coast Guard; Trish is a proud Coast Guard mom. They also have three granddaughters and one grandson.